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*Liam's Wild Ride*

Pure Ballin' Baby! :laughing
 
Around ten we finally started adding some bodywork, and it couldn't have been too soon!

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Bit by bit the bikes started to come together. The paint was *fresh*, and if your weren't careful. . . . well, you get the idea.

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Ahhhhh, just about wrapped up. We worked past 4:30AM that morning, and some guys weren't close to being done so they stayed straight through the night! I wouldn't have minded staying, but my work was done and applying the decals is delicate work, not suited for large groups of guys around a single bike. Of course, we got lost on the way back to the hotel (no landmarks in the desert!) and by the time my head hit the pillow, it was just after 6AM. I know that race mechanics can expect long hours, but to be frank, I wasn't expecting it to be like this from the Qatar Nationals!

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Bright an early on Saturday the support races started. I want to say it was "run whatcha brung"! I was confident that my bike was working fine and in good shape for the race, so I took a moment to run out of the garage and snap this off. Vroom!

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This guy literally blew the doors off the rental car on our way to the track that morning. I forgot to mention, since the desert is long and relatively flat, when we raced in the rentals, it was always at WFO. As soon as we'd pass 120 KPH, the door dingers would start ringing. Ding-Ding-Ding-Ding, and we kept on going! There is nothing so fun as playing spit on the car you're beating at 180 KPH on a two lane desert highway. At least, the Spaniards thought so. I earned my "cool" stripes by getting everyone in my car to moon two of the other mechanics' cars as we were taking the lead, but it got even better once we started off-roading. I think we cracked an oil pan; because it sure did stink. . . . ;)

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Finally, my race came around, and I was on deck to receive the rider on the track. Row four, position one. I tried not to give him any advice, other than to have fun, but he was a little sad because his parents hadn't shown up, and neither had his brother. I let him know that I had his back, ran back to my pit board, and got ready for one of the kookiest starts I've ever seen.

How many wheelies can you count?!?

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MotoLiam said:

How many wheelies can you count?!?
Click to expand...


:laughing i'm really enjoying this latest segment of pics+words so far. :thumbup
 
I spent the race monitoring my rider's times and position and making sure my pit board was visible and the information was correct. We were doing pretty good I thought, and even though the lead guys took off and left everyone else in the dust, my guy was creeping up slowly on a pack of four riders. Eventually there was some dicing going on! The race came to a close and these are the winners up on the podium.

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I had hoped my guy would do well, but alas, he lost the fight with gravity and slid out. I knew something was up when one lap he was there. . . and the next, he wasn't! He came back in an ambulance, a little embarrassed but no worse for wear, and I started preparing my tools while I waited for the truck to bring the bike back to the pits. It's doesn't look that bad in this shot, but he snapped a steering stop off the lower triple tree so I ended up having to change that, too, before I could go home after the race. So much for my plans to go shopping at the mall! I didn't have enough parts to completely repair the bike, but I did the best I could and eventually everyone had to leave the track and go back to the hotel. Zoom! Had a shower and some dinner and then we had almost two hours to figure out how to have some fun in Doha. . . . .

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MotoLiam said:
Anyone have any shipping discounts with FedEX?!? Or does anyone know the fastest, cheapest way to get a bicycle from Norcal to Barcelona?

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Click to expand...

Yo I work for FedEx. Let me know what you need, and I'll see what I can do for ya.

This goes out to all my fellow barfers. If you need something shipped let me know. And I'll try my best to get you a discount.
 
DanZX9R said:

Get your drinking in first for I dont think they let you drink there!
Dan
Click to expand...

It's not so much that they "don't" let you drink there, it's just that it's not encouraged. Muslim culture is strict, and I was very impressed by certain aspects while I was there. In particular, I was amazed at how well spoken they were (in English, no less!) and at their high level of intelligence. I had a misconception before, I underestimated the Arabic peoples; that maybe because there wasn't much to do in the middle of nothing, people wouldn't be very interesting. Boy, was I way off! I think being in an environment like that can cause people to go one of two ways. . . . . one is to meditate and ruminate on things all day long, the other is to go the way of the midwest! There are Thinkers in the Middle East! While it's true that not everyone was well educated, the ones that were were eloquent, passionate, and had a particular kind of grace that I hadn't encountered before.

I got a xeroxed map of the downtown area of Qatar from a Roumanian girl who worked in our hotel and marked off a couple spots. Finally ended up at the Ramada!

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This was a very strange bar that was filled with Filipinos! In fact, many of the hotels and service industry jobs in Qatar (and on their airline) are full of Filipino and Thai people. Yet another bizarre touch to this place. There were these three little Filipina girls up on stage singing and dancing and doing a really good job pulling off songs by Destiny's Child and other hip-hop songs. Whiskey and Tequila. . . and a couple rounds in it was time to go! We jumped in our cars and blasted back to our hotel to catch a shuttle bus we had chartered to get us to the airport in time for our 2AM flight.

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Something was decidedly wrong at the airport, because all flights had been delayed by two hours! Two! That meant a couple hours of sitting around, and sweating while we guarded our belongings in shifts. The Duty Free shop was the only thing keeping people occupied but I managed to squirrel away and have a drink at this place:

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Remember that carton of Malboros? Well, at the Duty Free, everyone in my group picked up another one because they were so ridiculously cheap. We eventually boarded our flight, much to the consternation of the uptight Germans on the way to Munich, and had some celebratory drinks once we were on the move. Arrived in an icey Munich, Germany, and because of our delayed flight in Doha we had to really hustle to make our flight transfer back to BCN! We had some snags at the passport checks, because they just wouldn't take "Tourist" for a straight answer, instead, repeating the same questions over and over. Add to that what I suspected was some racism towards the Spanish, and it just wasn't a very cool scene. We boogied downstairs, missed our turn into the connecting flight aisle, and ended up wandering around the baggage claim. We passed this really cool BMW ad and based on the blurriness of this photo, I think the guy that took it was still partying a little bit :)

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This display belonged at a car show, it was so cool. Large, three dimensional, just slick all the way around.

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Anyway, we were lost and someone in an official looking uniform waved us over to him. I tried to explain we needed to find Terminal G but he escorted us into a room and proceeded to search our bags. I was a little worried because boarding was supposed to be taking place at that exact time, but he wouldn't let us go. Instead, he confiscated our passports and said we were each 200 Sticks over the limit and that because we entered the room through the "green" entrance, instead of the other side of the room, the "red" entrance, we were also going to have to pay fines instead of taxes. I was trying to get it through his head that we weren't even staying in Germany, or trying to leave the airport, or trying to smuggle cigarettes, or whatever, I just wanted to get to my plane. I told him to hand the stuff back and I'd go outside and walk around the room and come back in on the Red side, but noooooo wayy. The guy wouldn't even let us throw the smokes away. He was very "by the book". By now there were about ten customs agents surrounding us and watching from behind glass windows. They were primed and ready to kick some ass over some cigarettes. I detected some perverse satisfaction from them, that hahaha, we had broken the rules and he was going to set us straight. The taxes came to 30 Euros per carton, and another 30 Euros for the fine. It adds up! He cheerfully took our money and then escorted us directly to the Gate we were looking for. I have only one word for the way things went down but it's not suitable for the board. So, Thank You Germany! Now I don't have to visit any wartime museums!

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