Dirty Girl's 2009 Motorcycling Summer
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The Riding Season: Summer 2009
So many things to do, so little summer... desire is long and life is short.
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May
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International Female Ride Day 2009
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Friday May 1, 2009
Women Riders Everywhere have a day to JUST RIDE!
Visit Motoress for more information: www.motoress.com/readarticle.asp?articleid=311&c=femalerideday
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June
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Mad Bastard Scooter Rally
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Dirty Girls On Hondas
June 12, 13, 14 2009
The Dirty Girls On Hondas Scooter Team debuts in the Mad Bastard Scooter Rally, competing in the challenging 'Straight Jacket' class on 50cc Honda Scooters! Aliki, Barb and Andrea will ride a very long way slowly, a fitting way for a motorhead to celebrate one of the longest days of the Canadian summer.
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The Dirty Girls are truly Mad Bastards!
We finished the 749 km route in 22 hours and 22 minutes, safely under the 24 hour allotted time. We successfully navigated the entire route, the mystery loop, bonus loop and all the clue stops too. Barb and Aliki, navigating for the team, did a perfect job. The key to getting around the route is successfully navigating the rally instructions, not an easy feat, but Barb and Aliki navigated our team around flawlessly.
See the rally results online: http://cmgonline.com/content/view/1621/230/
Scooter Rally Updates Online all summer: The DirtyGirls on Hondas team all placed in the top 15 out of 75 scooters entered! We'll have an update from team riders online each month this summer.
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Thanks to rally organizer CMG Online, and Rally Master Rob Harris for organizing a very well run event, a wonderful ride route. Many events are well organized and fun, but only Rob could inspire all the silly, wacky fun and adventure along the way.
Thanks to rally sponsor Kymco Canada; their support for this event has helped it grow and the Kymco people really understand this joyful and adventurous aspect of the scootering world.
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Thanks, from the Dirty Girls on Hondas
Thanks very much to Honda Canada for the use of their scooters - the sturdy little Ruckus and the jewel like Jazz both performed admirably; 749 km's pinned wide open right to the throttle stop was rough treatment for the little scoots, but they ran perfectly around the clock. Both scoots were fabulous fun and very fuel efficient too.
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Women Ride Out Against Rape 2009
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WROAR V
Sunday June 14, 2009
WROAR V - the 5th annual 'Women Ride Out Against Rape' www.wroar.com, an event I'm proud to help organize and support.
WROAR is a women's motorcycle ride proudly supporing the Toronto Rape Crisis Centre / Multicultural Women Against Rape www.trccmwar.ca
This year the WROAR Ride will have a poker run format, something new and entertaining to keep our riders returning
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WROAR V was a great success!
The money is still coming in, but we've raised nearly $9,000.00 for the Toronto Rape Crisis Centre / Multicultural Women Against Rape.
The weather was fantastic, our new Morningside Park venue is beautiful, green and shaded with lots of trees and a nice safe parking lot for riders to park their bikes.
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Nadine, my co-chair on the WROAR Ride organizing committee this year, and myself... perched on the announcement rock while trying not to look too embarrassed as Deb thanks us. Our committee worked really hard this year, and accomplished a great deal - we got to more motorcycles shows and events than ever, developed a new ride format and route, and established a new venue for our event too. Great work team!
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Aliki and I, after finishing the Mad Bastard Scooter rally early Sunday morning arrived back in Toronto just in time to help with the set up at the WROAR Ride. We've been involved with WROAR since the beginning, and couldn't miss this year, even for the scooter rally. Our committee had the parking lot mostly organized when we arrived, and we just helped with some last minute set up arrangements and tents.
Once the ride opened to the public, Aliki was organizing the Konker and Lambretta demo rides, and I got to talk to our sponsors, supporters and riders while we all enjoyed a Sunday morning coffee before the poker run.
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WROAR Riders departing for the poker run.
WROAR Photos on this page are courtesy of Rob MacLennan - www.morallyambiguous.net
For more information on the WROAR Ride, and photos from the 2009 event, please visit www.wroar.com
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Dirty Girl's 2009 Racing Season
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North Bay Runway Romp
September 12, 13 2009
The final racing round of the VRRA's season, the Runway Romp in North Bay is one of my favourite venues for vintage motorcycle racing. The first hint of autumn colours makes the drive up beautiful, and racers are enthusiastically welcomed at North Bay; it's a lovely way to finish off another great season of racing! If you missed the races this year you missed some great vintage motorcycle racing in a period correct airport setting!
Read more: track map and photos of the racetrack at North Bay
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Mosport Vintage Festival
August 14, 15, 16 2009
The NS 250 F Honda ran like a champion at Mosport this year, but unfortunately the endurance race was cancelled after just a few laps and two red flags. The rest of the racing weekend ran more smoothly, although Laura's bike needed a fair bit of work trying to solve the overheating problem plauging the CBR all season. One way or another it's always busy in the pits!
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Quinte TT 2009
The ZXR 250 wasn't ready in time for the Quinte TT at Shannonville (yes, I'm still cleaning parts) in June, but I was lucky enough to be invited to ride on my friend Laura's CBR250 for the endurance race on Friday, as part of 'Team Iron Ovaries'.
Lead by team captain Laura, with Mel (our team rookie) and myself, we made up the all-women-riders team, assisted by our popular and much envied two-Tim-two-mechanic crew.
Taken just after the two hour race, this photo of Team Iron Ovaries captures just how thrilled and excited we are about racing.
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Resources for Racers
ICE Form - a PDF blank form racers can download and use to document emergency contact information useful if something goes wrong at the track. Remember in kindergarten, when you were supposed to use the buddy system for safety? Most of life's best lessons are learned in kindergarten, and this is one of them.
Ontario Race tracks - information and maps of some of Ontario's race tracks and the various configurations used for trackdays and racing.
Motorcycle Tire Information - 5 questions you should be able to answer about your tires and why.
The modern motorcycle helmet and it's development - links to more helmet information
Mouthguards for motorcycle racing - dental protection and concussion prevention information.
Flag procedures and rules in Canadian motorcycle road racing.
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Vintage Motorcycle Road Racing
For the 2010 racing season I'll be preparing a new vintage race bike, a 1989 Kawasaki ZXR 250. I'm going green!
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Read more about the Kawasaki ZXR 250 - visit the ZXR 250 page
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Preparing a motorcycling for racing...
I'm now preparing my ZXR 250 for vintage racing in the P4F3 class in the VRRA. I bought this bike in entirely stock OEM street condition, with the exception of non-stock paint on a few parts.
The first step in the conversion to racebike, is to take it all apart, assess the condition of all critical parts and replace whatever is worn or damaged, then clean, lube and reassemble the bike, then drill and safety-wire everything. The process will, I'm sure, be more involved then that, but that's the basic plan.
Read more about the ZXR 250 race preparations and stay tuned for updates as the project continues over the 2009/2010 winter.
October 2009 ZXR 250 Update:
The carburetors are all together now, lovingly cleaned and furnished with precious new o-rings. Read about the ZXR250 Carburetor rebuild project.
Sponsor DirtyGirl Motor Racing in 2009... read more
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VRRA 2009 Racing Season:
- Quinte TT at Shannonville - June 5, 6, 7 2009
- Quebec GP at Ste. Croix - July 11, 12 2009
- Mosport Vintage Festival - August 14, 15, 16 2009
- North Bay Runway Romp - September 12, 13 2009
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For more information on the
Vintage Road Racing Association
please visit www.vrra.ca
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