Thursday, May 28

Breakfast at 8:30 is waffles with strawberries and whipped cream and a boiled egg. Ham was thrown in for protein. Very tasty!

We got my bike to the shop for new tires. Brian talked to one of the owners, who suggested mixing brands. I wasn’t keen on that idea – everything I’ve ever heard warns against doing that. So I talked to the shop manager, who looked at my tires and told me “You don’t ride like a girl”, meaning that I ride fairly aggressively and use up the sides of my tires. A high compliment. He suggested a set of Avon Storm tires, so that’s what they put on for me. We also got a new battery for B, which helped with the overheating problem. We installed the battery all by ourselves! Since the tire fitting was not a scheduled appointment (they take great care to fit travelers into their schedule) Ron let us borrow his pickup truck so we could go get the track and run some errands while they worked on my bike.

We had to go to the race track to get a tire that we had arranged to have shipped there because we knew that my rear tire would expire sometime around our arrival in Salt Lake City. Our intent was to have the tire installed by a vendor at the track, however, upon further investigation during the trip we determined that the tire was not lasting as long as we hoped… these were Continental Sportec M3’s for those who care. For a big, major race track with a huge international race starting the next day, they were very friendly and accommodating. We got to go up to the Media center to meet with Jen (Brian’s contact at the track), who had allowed us to have the tire shipped to her. We took our time and just sort of inhaled the atmosphere. We were in a very restricted area and we were loving it.

We got the tire and headed back to the city. We stopped at a post office and mailed it to my sister.

While at the track we signed up for a parade lap on Saturday – a chance to ride slowly round the track, just to see what it’s like. When we took the super bike school a couple of years ago, it was at this track, but we only used the west side. Besides, it’s just fun to experience the track the racers race on!

“Bike Bash” is the event that starts the racing festivities. It was held at the arena where the Utah Jazz play and featured stunt rider Christian Pfeiffer and some free-style moto-cross riders. B got his helmet autographed by Jake Zemke, a favorite racer. B’s helmet is a Zemke replica! We also saw Max Biaggi, Nori Haga, Jamie Hacking, Troy Corser and others.

All the fun stuff was outside, with some band we’d never heard of playing inside (Hoobastank). When we left, we rode around the Morman Tabernacle, just to see it. Then we got some laundry done, and the grocery shopping accomplished, and called it a day!