Racing is the activity that we all enjoy so much, but I've always felt is was odd that this activity was connected to a activity that we all hate so much...getting our stuff to and from the races.
How many times have you been up to one o'clock in the morning, not putting that ultra hot motor together, not driving to a national in some obscure god forsaken place, but trying to pack your '83 chevette & three rail trailer with all your stuff. I personally think that getting two race bikes, one pit bike, two tool boxes, camping gear, leathers, helmets, food, enough beer for the weekend (that's what the trailer is for) and your racing buddy all loaded in a compact up is fun. The best part is when you discover that the trailer lights don't work and the multimeter is in the tool box, under a big pile of stuff in the back seat. Forty five minutes later you discover that your buddy has the wiring to his harness on his car screwed up, and the trailer, which was fine, now has had its polarity reversed.
Being stuck at home with a bad trailer is not considered to be a misfortune for most racers. After all, each of us experienced the blinding white hot moment when we realize that twisted pile of...of...of…stuffffffff, on the side of the road is what left of our fine race equipment. These types of occurrences are truly tragic and usually start out harmlessly enough. For example say you only have six tie downs and two motorcycles. No problem, two for the handle bars, and one on the back wheel for each in case you slam on the brakes. I'll never forget seeing that black cat run to a stop in the middle of the intersection at the bottom of the hill and thinking to myself, "gee that kitty is going to get clobbered....wait a minute that cat looks like the gas tank to the RD60..." There are few feelings worse than looking in the rear view mirror and only seeing one bike where there should be two.
How about the flaming axle trick. Racers will spend time & dollars to relieve their race bikes the burden of the smallest amount of drag. Cranks, tranny bearings, starter clutches, alternators, beefy O-ring chains, even wheel bearing will receive all manner of modification or removal to exorcise the demon of friction. How many racers check the wheel bearing on their trailers? Not many. When they do check them how many racers over tighten the axle nut on re-assembly? Quite a few (after all it looks just like a steering head bearing). How many racers pull over when the bearing has experienced total structural failure, spindle glowing red hot, smoking with the seals on burning? More than you would think.
Do you have a neighbor who has a nice trailer boat? Have they ever had a problem with their trailer? Ever wonder why these guys only get flat tires, and never blow a wheel bearing? The answer is in a JC Whitney catalog for about $10. Marine "Bearing Buddies" were originally designed to keep salt water out of the bearing when launching and recovering a trailer boat. Unlike that puny dust caps on your land lubber trailer, this units have Zerk fitting in a spring load plate that maintains about five PSI of pressure forcing grease into the bearing. You take a grease gun and fill the sucker up once a year. Any moisture that gets into the bearing when the trailer is under water will be forced out, usually however none gets in. The best part is you never have to take the assembly apart to change the table spoon of grease in the spindle. Just whack it with the grease gun. I've never met a person who had a bearing failure when using bearing buddies, ever.
Lets say you have gas can that doesn't quite seal shut It usually sloshes fuel out the filler & breather caps. Obviously you put it on the trailer so you don't stink up the inside of your car with the fuel that gets spilled. Adjusting the radio, being careful not to spill your beverage, you take your last drag off your Lucky and flick it out the window. Its surprising just how much heat a fire on your trailer gives off at 70 mph, I'm told you can actually feel it. The big question is do you stop, or speed up...
Ever seen the 80 mph trailer snake dance coming done the hill on the PA pike? You know, your butt tired from Nelson or Mid Ohio, your probably didn't load the trailer with enough tongue weight. Upon coming out of the tunnels and staring down hill your rig goes into this snake dance that makes your eye balls the size of half dollars. Getting on the brakes makes it worse, getting on the gas makes it worse, doing nothing makes it worse, and you're plum out of clean underwear.
I like trying to sleep when I know the guy who is driving is tired. You just start to fade into sleep when...jerk...the rig gets slammed to the right and left as the driver makes what feels like a full lock correction because he was changing a CD and didn't see where he was going. Perhaps 99% of the time this is because he is trying not to spill his coffee, but once in a while he might actually "micro sleep" and go into the grass. Every time he makes swerve you slam awake and prepare for impact.
Ever been the guy who gets stuck driving when your really tired because you couldn't fall asleep before? You know you would like to talk to someone, but they are all sleeping. Try pulling over to the left until the wheels are just hitting the bumps off the side of the road, then jerk the wheel to bring the rig back into the lane. When the guy next to you wakes up and asks it your OK say "Sure, I'm fine, I just started to fall asleep there for a moment, go back to sleep, you need the rest to drive in the morning." Two minutes later the two you will be talking about racing.
My personal favorite is when you have gotten so packed that you can't actually see the trailer from the driver's seat. Now you have no idea what is going on back there, and if you are on a smooth straight road you probably wouldn't detect a trailer uncoupling for quite some time. I cases like this you need the Team Charm bumper sticker that reads "HONK IF I DON'T HAVE A TRAILER WITH A MOTORCYCLE ON IT."