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Brap Talk Podcast #53 – The Superleggera Show

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Episode 53 of the Brap Talk motorcycle podcast is out with another weekly episode, for your two-wheeled listening pleasure.

Since we are on the road right now, we thought we would dig up this old episode that for whatever reason just didn’t get out on time when we first recorded it.

It was recorded in July 2020, so you will hear some dated references in the discussion, but we think the content holds up pretty well. Don’t worry, we will be back to present time next week, with plenty to talk about.

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Gone Racing: The Kramer HKR Evo2 S

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For those that haven’t been keeping track on Asphalt & Rubber, the Brap Talk podcast, and on social media, we are spending more than a little bit of time at the track this year, racing with the Oregon Motorcycle Road Racing Association (OMRRA) to chronicle what it means to become an amateur racer.

I have already outlined my reasons for wanting to go racing, but I wanted to spend the next two article mentioning what I am racing with, both in terms of machinery and gear. First up is an introduction to our racing platform, which for this season is a Kramer HRK Evo2 S.

We have already talked about Kramer’s ready-to-race single-cylinder motorcycles, and in fact our race bike for this series is the same bike featured in that article’s story.

Previously a demo bike for Kramer in the Pacific Northwest, this “S” model machine found its home in my garage, and as you can see from the photo above, it has been on quite the journey since.

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Gone Racing – Becoming a New Motorcycle Racer

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I had to hit the archives to find the photo above, because it is a photo from one of my first track days roughly 11 years ago – just before the idea of Asphalt & Rubber started to crossed my mind.

I was just a track day junky back then. Motorcycles were an escape from the endless studies that come with a legal education, and going to school in Pennsylvania meant really only being able to ride on the track, since street riding came with too narrow of a window with the weather for my California-spoiled tastes.

I caught the bug hard though, and through school I probably did a dozen track days a season. I’m not saying some of my massive student loan debt went to fueling my on-track pursuits…but yeah, it did.

In a way, I guess that worked out, as it was a year after graduation that I started doing A&R full-time, and the rest they say is history.

With all that time doing track days though, it is hard to believe that I haven’t done any sort of racing, but there are several reasons for that, and why now is a time I’ve chosen to bite the bullet.

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Gone Racing – The Chronicles of a New Racer

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Over the course of this year, we are going to bring you a number of motorcycle stories that focus on the experience of going motorcycle racing at the amateur level. We call the series “Gone Racing”, and if you have been following us on Instagram or listening to the Brap Talk podcast then you have likely already been privy to some of the preparation for these features.

The concept is pretty simple, yours truly will be competing here in Portland with the Oregon Motorcycle Road Racing Association (OMRRA) – as a true blue novice – using a Kramer HKR EVO2 as a racing and testing platform.

The goal of the series is to give a glimpse into what it is like to go from a track day rider to novice racer, and to use that experience as a springboard to explore various topics, like getting a race license, what gear to use, setting up a bike for racing, preparing as a rider, and so forth.

For our A&R Pro readers, we will also have some stories that take a deep dive on various technical topics, like the number of fuels available to racers (aka the cost-benefit analysis of MR12), how to read your tires (aka the dark art of the black round things), and the real difference between braking components (aka why does the Brembo GP4-RR cost as much a decent track bike?).

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