Ask Ping
Hello Ping,
I’m coming back from a shoulder injury. I haven’t been riding for the last 3 months and I’m kind of scared to get back on my bike. This isn’t your normal get-back-from-injury because I have to move from my 85 (which I rode before my injury) onto a 250F (which I am meant to be riding now). I am literally too big for my 85. So, Ping, what is the best way to start riding again on a bigger bike? What is the correct mental mind-set to be in when I start riding again? By the way, has your nickname “Ping” convinced you to ride two-strokes more often than four-strokes?
P.S.- THE McGRIDDLE SHOULD BE BANNED FROM ALL McDONALDS ALL OVER THE WORLD!!! (CAPSLOCK is necessary) Who the hell thought of a pancake breakfast burger!?!
Kyle Laing, Singapore (halfway round the world from you guys)
P.S.S. (brackets are AWESOME (CAPSLOCK is necessary and awesome) )
Dear Kyle,
They have motocross bikes in Singapore? The only bikes I’ve ever seen from that part of the world are the little scooters that they use to get groceries and beat city traffic. Maybe you got clipped by a car coming home from the market with a basket of strange foods and piled your shoulder into a live chicken kiosk. Either way, don’t worry so much about it. It sounds like you are stressing out about moving up to a bigger bike but I think you will find that they are actually easier to ride. The bigger wheels and tires gobble up nasty terrain much easier than mini bike wheels. Practically applied for you, that means you can charge through pot-holes, run over pedestrians and loose animals, and terrorize the urine-stained streets of Singapore with greater stability than ever before.
Look, just take it easy the first few times you get back on the bike and you’ll be fine. My guess is you’ll be loving the bigger bike in no time. Regarding my nickname, Ping, I don’t think it matters what people call me… I’ll always be a fan of two-strokes.
Even if my name was Cam Thumper McGee I would still love the bark of a new two-stroker.
P.S.- The McGriddle Sandwich is heaven on a plate. Who thought of it? The smartest man in the world, that’s who.
P.S.S.- Brackets aren’t that awesome. Besides, you are using parenthesis, not brackets, in your letter. And again, regarding Caps Lock… Not that awesome and totally unnecessary.
PING
Dear Ping,
I was reading Racerhead a few weeks back and checked out the link about the shootout at the Soboba Indian Reservation. I was hoping I was going to be wrong in my assumption of what the article was about and I would see a comparison of bikes, but that wasn't the "shootout" they were writing about. At least now I know what the Whoop Monster looks like without his hat! By the way, do they check him at the gate at Millville for that rifle??
Dear ?,
It was deceptive reporting, indeed. I tuned in as well to find out what the Soboba Indians thought of the 2008 motocross offerings. I guess by the time I got to the web page some mild gunfire had broken out between the SWAT team and a few local miscreants and the dirt bike shootout I assumed was going to be happening was cancelled or something. They never reported on it, anyway. All I read for the next several weeks was about a guard that took some shotgun shrapnel and a couple other folks that were gunned down after firing some shots at the police. There was nothing about EFI, Kashima coatings, steering dampeners, electric starters or titanium shock springs; just gun play.
On a positive note I did see that sweet shot of the Whoop Monster toting what looks to be a sniper rifle. He looks a lot more serious when he isn’t rattling a cow bell next to Spring Creek, doesn’t he?
PING
Ping,
What is going on over at Honda? They had two DNF’s at the opening round! I don’t think I have seen two factory Hondas DNF a race in the same season before. Think someone will be losing their job?
LP
Tucson, AZ
Dear LP, photo: Simon Cudby
Fired? No, my friend, that isn’t how they roll at Honda. After two transmission failures at Glen Helen last weekend, the Honda engineer that green-lighted those tranny’s will have to do the honorable thing and fall on his sword. He has disgraced himself, his family and his employer. We are so politically correct here in the US of A that even a strongly-worded letter to a slacking employee can have litigious implications. Other countries around the world haven’t gotten so bogged down in their own dookie though. Our polar opposite, for instance, is Thailand, where you can legally be executed for taking a hit on sixteen in Blackjack. I don’t care if the dealer is showing a two and a three… they just pull out a scimitar and lop off your head. Japan is somewhere in the middle but I wouldn’t want to be the guy responsible for the transmission department at HRC this week.
PING
Got a question for Ping? Email him at Ping@racerxill.com.
