Run Ten
“The good life is not, I am convinced, a life for the faint-hearted. It involves the stretching and growing; the courage to be. It means launching yourself fully into the stream of life.” -Carl R. Rogers
We had to make this happen right now. The sun was getting higher and we had been trying for four days. We had to leave today.
At 197 mph I had some wheelspin and wobble, but I recovered by putting more weight on the pegs and it went away. Sixth gear had the rpm down at 10,000. My top speed was at mile 4 – 198.19.
We decided to put a 39 tooth sprocket on instead of a 40 tooth, and leave it in fifth gear. This would effectively give us another half a gear. It was a dance between speed and power. We just needed ½ mph more!
Run 11
Crosswind blowing at 7 mph. Soft salt. I stayed right. I saw 201 on the speedo, then it dropped to 200, and 199, and 198 with wheel spin. Did I make it?
When I went to get my timing slip they said their computer had gone down and to come back later – they didn’t know when. Are you kidding?
Finally we got the timing slip – at mile 4 the top speed was 198.99.
Ughhh.
We decided to stay one more night and try again in the morning. We couldn’t give up so close. Chris wanted to call it a day so we didn’t blow the bike up or break anything, but I wanted to try again – so I did.
196.74 is all I could get. The wind picked way up. We waited at the course for several hours more, but the wind only increased.
We went back to the hotel, and kept thinking…
I am thinking a palindromic number.