Print Book Giveaway
I hope you are all doing well and getting out and enjoying the fall weather. I know it has been awhile since my last post and I'll get to that in a sec. For those short on time I want to quickly introduce a giveaway we've set up that you can participate in.
In honor of Halloween I've set up a contest on Facebook where I'll give away a signed print book to some lucky person. To enter the giveaway all you need to do is:
1. Share the post with a fellow motor head.
2. Leave a comment below and tell us what bike you have or want
That's all there is to it. I'll select a winner on November 1st. You can follow this link to get to the contest: Facebook Contest
For those of you not on Facebook, I'll also accept entries if you send me an email. Just introduce yourself, tell me what bike you're riding, and if you've got any cool projects coming up. You can reach me at: [email protected]
The Past Month
The last month and a half has been full of obligations and change for me. At the center of all that was my decision to take a new job as a powertrain engineer for Deltahawk. Deltahawk is a startup company that is working on producing a V4 two-stroke diesel aircraft engine. I'm a huge aviation fan and ran into them this year at Oshkosh. I was presented an opportunity I couldn't resist so I jumped on board and am now spending my weekdays working with them.
With the new job came the joys of relocation, so I've packed up and moved to Racine, WI. If anyone lives in the Southeastern WI area and has recommendations or can offer up a place to ride - I'd love to hear about it. So far I've found Bong Rec Area, Rocky Glen OHV, Aztalan, and a couple others. The problem is most are quite a trek. I got spoiled in Northwestern, WI where trails and private land were close by!
With the start of a new job on the horizon, I decided I needed to take one last trip before someone else started monitoring my vacation time. I went out to the Blackhills in South Dakota in early September and had an amazing time riding dirt and street bikes for four days. The weather was great, there were no mechanical problems, and I managed to come back in one piece! The rocky riding and elevation changes involved were awesome to experience and I would highly recommend anyone looking for a destination to ride bikes to consider the Black Hills. The street riding was equally impressive with plenty of turns and mostly empty roads. Just watch out for the buffalo chips, you don't want to have to explain to someone you low sided because you hit a piece of poo (NOT speaking from experience here).
I hope you are all doing well and getting out and enjoying the fall weather. I know it has been awhile since my last post and I'll get to that in a sec. For those short on time I want to quickly introduce a giveaway we've set up that you can participate in.
In honor of Halloween I've set up a contest on Facebook where I'll give away a signed print book to some lucky person. To enter the giveaway all you need to do is:
1. Share the post with a fellow motor head.
2. Leave a comment below and tell us what bike you have or want
That's all there is to it. I'll select a winner on November 1st. You can follow this link to get to the contest: Facebook Contest
For those of you not on Facebook, I'll also accept entries if you send me an email. Just introduce yourself, tell me what bike you're riding, and if you've got any cool projects coming up. You can reach me at: [email protected]
The Past Month
The last month and a half has been full of obligations and change for me. At the center of all that was my decision to take a new job as a powertrain engineer for Deltahawk. Deltahawk is a startup company that is working on producing a V4 two-stroke diesel aircraft engine. I'm a huge aviation fan and ran into them this year at Oshkosh. I was presented an opportunity I couldn't resist so I jumped on board and am now spending my weekdays working with them.
With the new job came the joys of relocation, so I've packed up and moved to Racine, WI. If anyone lives in the Southeastern WI area and has recommendations or can offer up a place to ride - I'd love to hear about it. So far I've found Bong Rec Area, Rocky Glen OHV, Aztalan, and a couple others. The problem is most are quite a trek. I got spoiled in Northwestern, WI where trails and private land were close by!
With the start of a new job on the horizon, I decided I needed to take one last trip before someone else started monitoring my vacation time. I went out to the Blackhills in South Dakota in early September and had an amazing time riding dirt and street bikes for four days. The weather was great, there were no mechanical problems, and I managed to come back in one piece! The rocky riding and elevation changes involved were awesome to experience and I would highly recommend anyone looking for a destination to ride bikes to consider the Black Hills. The street riding was equally impressive with plenty of turns and mostly empty roads. Just watch out for the buffalo chips, you don't want to have to explain to someone you low sided because you hit a piece of poo (NOT speaking from experience here).
Along with the new job, trip, and relocation, the Four Stroke Dirt Bike Engine Building Handbook was finally released as a print book on September 10th. All I can say is that bringing the book to market in print form was very challenging and that I'm thankful for the warm response. When you sink so much time and money into a project, there are always some reservations as to what the end result will be. Will the book sell? Will I be stuck forever with a bunch of paper weights? Fortunately the response has been great and I've received a lot of emails thanking me for putting the book together. ThumperTalk has even reviewed it and given it their blessing. You can read their review by clicking here.
For those of you who have bought a book, thank you very much. I appreciate your support and hope that you are enjoying it. If you're on the fence about getting the book, check out the TT review and take a closer look at what the book has to offer. I truly believe it will be a helpful tool when it comes time to perform your next rebuild.
What's Next?
Even though I've been short on time, I've been thinking a lot about the future and I'm very excited to see what happens next. I just ordered new ice tires for this season and will be setting up a different bike this year (YZ250). There will be a lot of work going into getting the bike set up correctly. My hope is to take you from start to finish on what I do when I set up a bike for ice riding and how I work through the development process. I'll be the first to say this is an area of my skill-set which I'm still refining, but I'm getting more comfortable making mistakes publicly and think it would be a good learning exercise for everyone involved. Even though I'll be focusing on an ice bike, by the end of the series of write-ups you should come away with some good pointers on how to set up a bike for any application.
As always I appreciate comments and would enjoy hearing your thoughts on what's in the pipeline. Also, be sure to enter the contest for the signed print book by heading to Facebook or sending me an email.
For those of you who have bought a book, thank you very much. I appreciate your support and hope that you are enjoying it. If you're on the fence about getting the book, check out the TT review and take a closer look at what the book has to offer. I truly believe it will be a helpful tool when it comes time to perform your next rebuild.
What's Next?
Even though I've been short on time, I've been thinking a lot about the future and I'm very excited to see what happens next. I just ordered new ice tires for this season and will be setting up a different bike this year (YZ250). There will be a lot of work going into getting the bike set up correctly. My hope is to take you from start to finish on what I do when I set up a bike for ice riding and how I work through the development process. I'll be the first to say this is an area of my skill-set which I'm still refining, but I'm getting more comfortable making mistakes publicly and think it would be a good learning exercise for everyone involved. Even though I'll be focusing on an ice bike, by the end of the series of write-ups you should come away with some good pointers on how to set up a bike for any application.
As always I appreciate comments and would enjoy hearing your thoughts on what's in the pipeline. Also, be sure to enter the contest for the signed print book by heading to Facebook or sending me an email.
