Hurtle Gear Goes Racing - Part 1

It begins.

There comes a time when a guy has talked enough. For decades (yeah really), going racing has looked like a pretty good fun thing. The reasons not to do it have been many. Kids to put through school and a visit to the family court have meant that resources (time and money) for the things I wanted to do have just had to be allocated somewhere else.

After that there’s a whole bunch of disbelief in myself, I think it’s common to lots of us, we never think we’re good enough to do it, or know enough to get started. Then there’s always the chance that we’ll make idiots of ourselves or be so damned bad at it that we’ll have no fun and spoil everyone else’s day.

So while the reasons are all good for a time, at a certain point if you really want it you’ll figure some of that out. The reasons that remain have become excuses and it’s time to sort them out.

Toward the end of 2014, I came to a “now or never” moment. Business had been trickling along at a poofteenth short of profitable for long enough that to keep it going required going back to wages. Sounds like a backward step but it meant that there’s an income to support the growth in stock and have a little left for fun. The young’uns have grown enough so they can get to dancing, soccer, basketball, school by themselves, and enough of them have jobs so that every last cent doesn’t have to be spent there.

So the decision’s been made. 2015 is the year that Hurtle Gear goes racing. I’ve got everything I need except for equipment, skills, experience and knowledge. Time and money might be a little short, but I figure that’ll come together if there’s determination.

The joy of having a motorcycle accessories store when you want to go racing is that you can kid yourself you’re doing it as much to help the business as anything. That’s what I’m doing, and among my plans are that I’ll learn a lot by prepping a race bike for the first time ever. I intend to understand better what are the great parts to have in our inventory.

I also intend to share all that with anyone who wants to know. The real reason to do this is to have some fun. Anyone who wonders what some know nothing old guy needs to do to go racing successfully can watch. If you think this might all turn out badly, check back with this blog from time to time. I’ll be sharing my decisions and how I got to them, the processes of bringing a bike home and getting it ready, and the parts I put on it as well as some I’d like to put on there but don’t, and why it didn’t happen.

Catch you soon.

DR

* Hurtle Gear is Dave and Graeme. Decisions are generally made by the two of us, and the blog will generally say “we did this, we decided that”. That’s just the way it is. Motorcycle Racing is dangerous, costly, and potentially unwise. So the way all this goes shouldn’t have to be anyone else’s mistake but Dave’s. Hurtle goes racing posts will say “I decided this”, because the stuff that goes on here is my fault and I am wearing it. Pretty soon I plan that this’ll show me to be a visionary and someone who knows how to have fun. Time will tell.

** This post was written months ago. Things have moved on and there are plenty more posts to share, just not plenty more time to write them. I'll be writing them in an order so you get a sense of the journey, but some stuff is just so much fun it'll arrive out of order because I want to tell you about it.