Sol Power–BrammoBlog.com

Blog 35: And a very fun day for me. A bit sad at the end, but all in all a very nice little trip.

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So Day 3 starts like the other days: Cold, wet and foggy. Every morning I tell myself to go buy some proper gloves (I had only brought my fingerless summer gloves) and every night I forget. Oh well.

So today started out as  “A Good Day for Ducks.”

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Ok, a good day for Canadian Geese…but basically the same thing.

“It gives you wings my feathery ass,” I heard one of them say.

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More early morning Tent Action. Everybody gathering around the Empulse.

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The weather stayed foggy and wet longer on Sunday than any of the other days. This added to the tension. As if there needed to be MORE tension. New rider, new bike, hiccups on both Friday and Saturday; you would think that would be tension enough. Brammo and the Electric Motorcycles were to race at 10:20, but that got scrubbed. Too wet. There was some concern that the race could even get canceled. But, thankfully, that did not happen.

There ended up being two options: 1) Race at 4:20pm after all the other races had finished; or 2) Race at 12:20. We were hoping for the 12:20 time slot as racing at the end of the day would be anticlimactic…most of the crowd would be leaving during the race. Luckily the 12:20 time slot stuck. It seems that the track has a “quiet time” when there are no bikes allowed to race. Something to do with a quiet lunch time? Well it was decided that the Electric Motorcycles are quiet enough to actually have practice time and even race during this “quiet time.” Sweet. Another bonus of electric drive.

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With the delay, the Brammo crew got to spend a little extra time talking to fans before the race.

I was surprised just how much access the fan got to the riders and crew. Paddock Pass for the win.

(A side note. On Saturday I spent about 20 minutes talking to Rebecca, Eric’s fiance. Crazy-nice young woman. So on Sunday when I went over to the Paddock and saw her again I said “Hi” and handed her one of the Brammo brochures of Eric Bostrom. She was, “Oh, sure, I can get Eric to sign that for you.” Me, “Oh everybody gets Eric’s autograph. I was hoping you would sign it.” Sadly, no such luck as she said her handwriting is horrid. Hello, I have the signature of a 3 year old….a 3 year old after drinking 4 Red Bulls.** Maybe next time.)

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Turn 2. Andretti Hairpin.

The sun came out and it ended up being a beautiful day for racing.

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Sitting on the hill by turn 2 with BrammoJenn and BrammoDavid.

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Hill is where we were sitting to view the race. Brammo Tent is the Brammo Tent…duh.

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Just a few bikes. Even more parked on the Paddock side of the track.

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Pre Start. View of hairpin and cars on the hill, bikes on the lot…etc.

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And the race starts…Sorry the images are small…iPhone.

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One warm up lap and the real racing begins.

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Start of race…Barnes, Bostrom and Atlas.

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Ha, I love this as it shows my ADD. Gavin is filming the race a bit. He start to pan over to see the bikes head up the hill…”Oh, birds”… opps, back to racers. Gawd I had the attention span of a gnat on Red Bull**.

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Barnes on the Lightning bike leads at the start, with Eric Bostrom in second. Brammo photo. I was not that close 🙂

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Lean. Brammo Photo.

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At the start Eric is second, Steve Atlas in third. A good start for Team IconBrammo. Brammo photo.

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We got a bit of a scare. Seems that A) the announcers can’t actually see the whole track, so they mostly do their “play by play” from watching the bike transponders signal on a computer screen. B) The bike transponders weren’t working well.  Sooooo, a few times the announcer is “Eric Bostrom is out of the race…nope, sorry, he is in second place.” It was crazy. I like BrammoJenn’s commentary of  “Go ahead and scare the crap out of me.” Exactly.

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SteveO making a run at Barnes. Would it be enough? That Lightning bike is FAST…but part of Brammo’s stratagy was to keep close and catch Barnes at the end. Brammo felt they had the better battery with more energy at the end than the Lightning bikes.

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Steve Atlas pulls ahead of Eric Bostrom. Now Barnes 1st, Atlas 2nd, Bostrom 3rd.

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And that was the finishing order. Barnes, Atlas, Bostrom. Brammo takes 2nd and 3rd. A very good day for Team IconBrammo.

Both bikes finish. Both riders on the Podium. Cue the Champagne.

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I’m not good with play by play, but I can say a few things.

1) Steve Atlas drove his ass off. A great ride by him. Aggressive and strong. Great Job! “Lots of new parts” didn’t keep him from riding fast and hard.

2) Eric Bostrom was riding great and seemed very fast…but his bike visibly slowed down at one point. Some of the Brammo crew thought he was holding back for the end, but I didn’t think so. The bike just lost a bit of speed.

It was only the second time he had ridden the bike, so he and Brammo will improve. It was still a very strong ride. I talked to Eric a bit after the race. He took the blame, which is crazy, and told me that he was coming up over the hill and saw Barnes ahead and thought he could grab back a second all at one time and just pushed the bike too much and felt her “glitch”. There is a patience to motorcycle driving and he felt he had tried too hard. But that is part of the sport and also part of the learning. He will be a great rider for Brammo.

3) The Lightning bike is fast, and Barnes is an amazing rider. But the gap is closing. SteveO came in second by less than 3 seconds. Eric, without the glitch, would have been right there too. Fun times ahead.

4) The racing is eerily quiet. Especially after hearing those crazy MotoGP bikes.

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Paddock Photos. Congrats Steve Atlas. And Team IconBrammo.

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Paddock Photo. Congrats to Team IconBrammo’s newest rider, Eric Bostrom.

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I didn’t get to the Paddock for the above photos…so mine is a bit more lonely.

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Eric Bostrom post race.

SUPER nice guy. I met him on Friday and asked if I could get a photo of him and the bike. He was busy, but told me he would get back to me in a bit. But then he went one way, I went another. On Saturday he came up to me and said, “Gavin, sorry I never got around to taking that photo for you.” I couldn’t believe he remembered my name, let alone remembered about a silly photo op. We didn’t do it Saturday either, but we did get to it on Sunday. Thanks Eric. 🙂 Still sorry about blinding you on Saturday.

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So the racing was done for Brammo and the Electric Motorcycles. Congrats to all the teams, all the riders. After that it was back to the Marketing Tent. But even that was a bit slow as the finals of the MotoGP was coming up and EVERYBODY was watching that. I spent some time at the Paddock, some time watching LOUD motorcycles and some time in Marketing. But it all seems like everything and everybody was now relaxing.

Shelina did come over to the Marketing Tent to try out the new Empulse TTX. And she always draws a crowd. So that was a nice addition to the end of the last day.

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Adrian and Shelina. Shelina smiling is a given…Adrian, not so much 🙂

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Glasses and Shirt match the TTX livery. Nice job.

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End of last day. All races done. Everybody leaving and still Shelina and the TTX bring a crowd.

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Shelina running the gears for the crowd.

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Brian bring the Empulse TTX back into the tent and spinning the wheel on the astrocarpet.

I was trying to get some video of the Empulse in motion as I did have one person come up to me and have a longish conversion about the bike. He mentioned that he still hasn’t seen the Empulse being driven and until then….well he had/has doubts….and we will leave it at that. Sadly I couldn’t get my phone on fast enough. Next time I will direct him to the Hell for Leather review or let him know where James is doing Demo rides. I will just say, “Good luck and I hope for much success to you. The market needs both Brammo and Zero to succeed.”

I did also talk to a Zero employee for a bit. He agreed. If the market is so small that only one company can survive, well that doesn’t bode well for even that one company in the long term. And he liked the Empulse. 🙂

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So then it was the end of the last day. Truck loaded, tent empty. Time for the Goodbyes.

Adrian had two comments at the end that I remember.

1) “So Gavin, is there anything promised that wasn’t delivered?” Interesting, possibly loaded, question. Hmmm, let’s see…did Brammo promise me a Plus at SECA? Nope. An Empulse at SECA? Nope. So I replied, “No. Thanks, I had a great time.” Admittedly I was hoping for a surprise…but was also pretty sure I was waiting a bit longer to upgrade the Legacy Enertia loaner bike.

2) Adrian, “Well Ok. Thanks so much for all the work you did. I thought you would spend the whole weekend in the Hospitality Suite, so it was nice that you worked so hard.” Me, “Wait….that was an option???”

Truthfully I wouldn’t have had nearly as much fun if I spent the whole time in the Hospitality Suite. That said, I would have spent more than 4 minutes there…which is how long I was there over the whole 3 days.

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Adrian, Adam, David, Sarah and Me.

Special thanks to my 17 Mile Drive and Marketing tent buddies. BrammoDavid, BrammoJenn, Adam, Adrian, Sarah and James. Thanks for putting up with me. And thanks for letting me hang out and play Brammo Employee for a few days. Fun, Hard and Interesting. Kinda like Physics or…well Physics is the only thing that is Fun, Hard and Interesting.

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Till Next Time…

Gavin

For more info on Brammo, please visit: www.brammo.com
For more images, photos, discussions and all around Brammo goodness: visit, lurk and maybe join: www.brammoforum.com

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**Damn marketing…I don’t even like Red Bull and now I’ve mentioned them half a dozen times.