I spent the greater part of the day on Sunday working on the bodywork.  I sanded and sanded and sanded, and then sanded some more.  It was a shame to strip off all the old stripes I had painted on before, but in order to make the bike look clean again, it was necessary.  I'll do some more sanding and some bondo work this weekend, and hopefully get a primer coat on.  The goal would be to paint the orange next weekend, and throw the black and clear coats on the following weekend -- leaving me two weeks before my first track outing.  We'll see how it goes!

I ordered the Marchesinis yesterday from a company on the east coast called Hard Racing.  A few weeks back they told me they had a couple sets in stock and it would take only a couple days from when I placed ...

I called the US distributor for Marvic again.  Still no pricing.  I intend to pull the trigger and order up the Marchesini rims next week.  As much as I'd like to be the only kid on my block with the Marvics, I really value being prepared for the season early and just showing up to race.

In better news, Nichols Manufacturing in Milpitas got my flywheel installed and fixed the leak in my water pump.  Flywheel first: the stock flywheel weighs 4lbs 15 1/8 oz.  The Nichols flywheel weighs 9 7/8 oz.  That's a weight savings of 4 lbs ...

I called the US distributor for Marvic and there is no update on the availability of the rims.  I'm getting antsy waiting for the Marvics.  They should be really special, but I may pull the trigger on the Marchesinis so that I can start the season off with all the equipment I intend to run.  I have a pretty strong hunch that the new handling characteristics will require some time to get used to, and I want to allow as much time to adjust as possible.  I'll have 5 open practice days prior to my first race this year (compared to "0" last year!), and I think that would allow enough time.

In other news...  my physical training i ...