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Hey everyone, Daniel Corbin here.
 

So much has happened during the last few weeks. My bike has been down, and it took a long time to figure out what was wrong with it. In the mean time I was looking for a 250 two-stroke because after I raced one, which wasn’t even set up for me, I was hooked on the two-stroke once again. I was looking everywhere, trying to find a bike that was in good condition, and, more importantly, in contingency. That’s a huge part of my funding, because I can actually make more on the weekends than I can at my job, providing I do well, of course!
 

After I had been searching for a while I finally heard about a YZ 250 that someone had gotten to race the Pro Lites class, but after the first race he decided that he just couldn’t ride it, and sold it to one of my friends. My friend also tried to race it, but he couldn’t get used to it either, so he decided to sell it. I was fortunate enough to hear about it before he put it up for sale, and I got a hold of him as soon as I found out.
 

He gave me a quick description of it, and I knew right away that it was in good shape and I wanted it. (By the way, I hope this is exciting for you guys to read, or at least interesting, because I am so stoked right now to be able to tell you this). While I was getting the money together, I got a call from one of my friends, who tells me he’s going to buy a bike because his money is burning a hole in his pocket. He then proceeds to tell me that he’s going to buy the very same one I was trying to buy! My Mom happened to be there at the moment, and she took the phone from me and started threatening my friend and warning him not to buy that bike! When I finally got the phone back from her my friend was pretty scared, telling me he didn’t think he was going to buy the bike after all... Hmmm, I wonder what could have changed his mind?!?
 

Once I had reassured him that I wouldn’t be mad at him, and I would try not to let my Mom kill him in the event that he bought the bike, we agreed that it was first to the finish. I don’t think his fears ever left him completely though, because he called two or three days straight asking me to tell him if I changed my mind about the bike. My moto mom is crazier than your moto mom!
 

That Saturday I went to pick up the bike at nine o’clock in the morning, and I couldn’t have waited one more hour. People were calling about the bike, one guy from all the way up in Massachusetts wanted it really bad, and I couldn’t wait to get it myself. It’s a sweet bike. It looks brand new, almost like it hadn’t been ridden. And it is so fast! Its way faster than a stock 450, it’s a closer match to a mod 450. I had so much fun riding it, and even just looking at it!
 

What comes to mind as I’m writing this is that song from Aerosmith; Back in The Saddle. Yeah! That’s right! I’m back in the saddle again! Back on a two-stroke, a Yamaha YZ 250 two-stroke! I know I’ve been on a Kawasaki since I started this blog, but before then I always rode Yamaha’s. I love my KX 250F, but the YZ 250 has to be my favorite bike of all time. It’s killer.

Well, the very next day I went to a local track called Tomahawk and pounded out tons of hard laps, and I think I know the people who rode this bike before me couldn’t get used to it. The front forks were super stiff, and there was no rear shock to speak of. On top of that, the jetting was so far off that at about a 1/3 throttle it would blubber and load up. I adjusted the suspension clickers a bunch and changed the jetting and now it’s ten times better than it was. I can’t wait to race this thing!
 

In closing I have to thank the people who made this all possible for me. Thanks to www.coachseiji.com, Racer X Virtual Trainer, Twigg Cycles , NineoneNine Designs, Fly, Scott USA, PR2 Racing, Jordan’s Flooring, and special thanks to Kevin Klink, Scott Miller, Jayme Jordan, and Chris Jansen.

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Hey everybody, it’s Daniel Corbin again, filling you in on my progress these past two weeks...
It’s been a rough couple of weeks since I wrote my last installment of the Daniel Corbin project. Last time I wrote about my bike having gotten messed up at Lake Whitney. As I’m writing this, that still hasn’t changed. Every time I order a part, it’s always backordered! It took me two weeks to find a seatcover that wasn’t backordered, I ordered plastic before I even left for Whitney, and it finally came off of backorder, though I don’t think they’ve shipped it yet. Most importantly, the sub frame I ordered is supposedly backordered, but get this, it’s backordered until the 18th of March. Yep, that’s right, until just about a month ago.
 
I have to thank Brad at the parts desk at Twigg’s, he’s been calling these companies and e-mailing them, trying to get my parts for me. I know it’s been a real pain in the butt, and he’s been doing a good job. I’m starting to get a little concerned because a qualifier is coming up this weekend and I need those parts before then. I can ride with a bent sub frame, but I don’t want to go to the race with crappy plastic. I’m serious about representing my sponsors, and I’d almost rather not race then go to the race with a bike that doesn’t look 100%.
 
Aside from getting those parts I’ve racked up quite a few more parts that I’ve had to order. Fortunately none of them have been backordered so far. The worst thing about these parts that need to be replaced is they’ve been screwing up my training efforts. The countershaft seal went bad, and when I went to our shed to get my bike out to ride, I saw a puddle of oil underneath the bike. I wasn’t even going to ride, but my parents told me to anyway. It turned out to be all right, it was just leaking a little bit, but I missed a moto that day because of it. The next day of the week that I was scheduled to do motos, which was Thursday, I started my first moto, but on the last lap I got a hole busted into my magneto cover. When I stopped, I noticed that there was oil on the cover. I was pretty mad. I don’t know how something got that close to my bike. I must really be dragging my foot pegs in the corners.
 
My Mom really got me good the next day when she picked me up from work. Before I tell you how I have to tell you why. I was mad Thursday night, talking about how the part was probably going to be two hundred bucks or something ridiculous like that. So, when she picked me up Friday evening, she said that she had ordered it and it was coming in on Tuesday, and that it was three hundred bucks! I wasn’t going to have any of that. I told her that I was just going to sent it right back, I wasn’t going to let anyone rip me off like that!
 
She let me go on like that for a minute of two, then, as I’m still going on about it she finally said that it was only sixty dollars... Oh... Wow, she got me good that time! I really believed her too because the OEM parts are really expensive. Well, anyway, that still didn’t solve the problem of how I was going to ride tomorrow. I got home late that day, so that kind of messed up my workout plans, and I had to go out again because we didn’t have any JB Weld or anything else to plug the hole in my magneto cover so I could ride the next day. So that day’s workouts were already messed up, but I did get my bike fixed.
 
The next day I was planning on going to a race, but the friend I was supposed to go with decided not to go the morning of the race because it was raining a little. Riding day number three out the window. I ended up working on my truck that day, taking out the transmission instead of riding. Wow, I think I have a normal life! I’m going to have to work on that! I can’t complain about getting my truck fixed though, when I do I’ll be able to go where I want when I want to. No more relying on Dave to take me where I need to go! Hahaha! (That’s right Dave, I’m talking to you).
 
Well, that rounds out another crazy week (and not in a good way) in the life of Daniel Corbin. Stay tuned for the next episode. At this rate I’ll probably be homeless and...  Sorry, just kidding. Thanks to all of my great sponsors, www.coachseiji.com, Racer X VT, Twigg Cycles, Nineonenine Designs, Fly, Scott USA, Jordan’s Flooring, and everyone else who has and is helping me to live my dream. See you at the qualifiers!   

As always, I would also Coach Seiji , Racer X Virtual Trainer , Twigg Cycles , NineoneNine Designs, Fly, SPFC, and Jordans Flooring.

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Hey everybody, I just got back from Lake Whitney a couple of days ago. Here’s a run down of the week...

Whitney was full of surprises for me from the moment we left my house until the very last day we were there. I was really cutting it close getting packed to head down there as I didn’t even start to pack up until the day before we left. I don’t know what I would have done if I hadn’t gotten Friday off of work. I had been so busy with my work and training that I didn’t have even a spare minute to try to pack any of my stuff. After we had left on Saturday morning I finally realized that if I hadn’t gotten Friday off, I would never had enough time to pack up and get there on time.

Unfortunately, my whole family couldn’t go; my Dad had to stay home to work, and my brothers and sisters had to stay as well to help him. So my Mom, baby sister, and I left on Saturday morning at about 6 o’clock. It took about twenty-two hours to get from our house to the track, but fortunately the trip was relatively smooth. I was wondering what the scenery would be like in Texas the whole way there, because every state we went through was different. I was surprised to see that it was almost exactly like back here in Maryland, except for some mean looking ground cacti that seem to be their version of thistles or dandelions or something.

We did get a little glimpse of the more desert like part of Texas just a couple of hundred feet before we went through the gates of WB Ranch Sunday evening. All of the sudden, the road turned to dirt and there where low shrubs on both sides of the road. The ground was bare, hard, and clayish looking, except for those little cacti dotting it. I thought, alright, now we’re in Texas. It was only a glimpse though, because as soon as we drove onto the ranch the landscape changed to grasslands with trees and shrubs. There was a wrought iron sign on the side of the road telling us to go slow and watch out for exotic animals.

The first animal we saw was a regular old doe, and we were laughing that this might be one of those “exotic” animals the sign just told us about. We have deer all over the place back home, there are tons of them even on just our piece of property. Come to find out they do have exotic animals. There are some African red deer on the ranch as well as zebras, antelope, gazelles, and maybe a few others.

The weather was also a little bit of a surprise. When we got there on Sunday, it was about 80 degrees and sunny. I was sweating like a pig because I was used to temperatures in the mid to upper thirties. Monday was practice day, and the temperature had dropped to the mid 60’s because clouds had rolled in. Little did I know that that was the last time that I would see the sun until I got home on Monday.

Never before have I ridden on such a loamy track. I felt like crap in my first practice because it seemed like I wasn’t going anywhere; the track was just eating up all of my bike’s horsepower. They really dig that track up; there must be at least a foot and a half of loam. It feels like riding in silky smooth mud that doesn’t stick to your bike. The soil is mostly clay, but it seems to have sand in it also, because it drains water quickly, and also stays pretty loose. My second practice was much better, but I still wasn’t up to speed because I was really fighting my suspension. That’s a sponsorship that I’m really going to go after now that I’m back home.

I wanted to ask Malcolm (Stewart) why he pulled in behind me in that practice and would pass me, and then slow down and let me by again, and then pass me again. He must have done that three of four times in that practice, which I thought was strange, because I’m no big name or his competition or anything. If I wasn’t fighting my suspension so much, I might have had a little more for him. I could hardly pick the rut that I wanted because the bike was in the air half of the time! Soft didn’t even describe what my suspension was, and I was getting the tar beat out of me. When I got back to my pit, I felt like I had been hit by a car, and I was really frustrated because I didn’t think that I would be able to stiffen it up enough. I cranked the clickers almost all of the way in, and it actually worked surprisingly well.

My first moto, 250 A Pro-sport, was the very last moto on Tuesday, and the track was as rough as it was going to be. I got a sixth place start from the out side and as soon as my tire hit the dirt off of the concrete pad, I almost stopped breathing and had a death grip on my handlebars. Right away I noticed and started forcing myself to breath, but I didn’t notice my death grip, and halfway through the moto my arms were dead so that I could hardly hold onto the bike. I did the best I could, and finished the moto in eighth. My terrible form didn’t help either; I was leaning back most of the time instead of over the bars.

I was thinking that Seiji would tell me that I rode like a turd, but he really surprised me by saying that I rode really well. I guess he didn’t think that I’d do very well because I’m riding a stock bike in a really stacked class. That meant a lot to me to hear him tell me that I rode well, and it gave me some extra confidence. My biggest goal for the week was to prove myself to him. To prove that I am worth working with, and that I’m not crazy to think that I can accomplish my goals.

My next moto was the 250 A class on Wednesday, with pretty much the exact same lineup as the Pro-sport class. It was a mud moto as it had rained all of Tuesday, but the track crew did a great job and it wasn’t that bad. On the gate I noticed that my sub-frame was loose, and being my own mechanic I have no one else to blame! My Mom held my bike and the gate for me, and I ran back to my pit, grabbed a hex key wrench, and raced back... It was the wrong one, and as I sat there on my bike wondering what to do, the gate dropped and everybody but me tore off for the first turn. At that point I was thinking, ‘I should just quit and go back to my pit’. I looked back at my Mom and she was screaming “go! go! go!” so I put the bike in gear and took off! By that time everyone was already in the second corner. I rode hard and stayed off of the ground, unlike a lot of other riders, and amazingly got up to tenth, where I finished.

Shortly after my moto it started raining again, and the temperatures were in the upper thirty’s. The locals where going nuts, complaining about how cold it was, and I saw a couple of them bundled up enough to go on an artic expedition! I was staying in a tent up until that day, and my Mom was sleeping in the car with my sister. The tent started leaking when the wind really started blowing, and I was planning on cramming in the vehicle with them to save myself from the cold wet tent.

We were so lucky to have pitted next to the track owners, Allen and Jamie, and their son, Alex. Alex is a really cool kid, and the whole week he was taking me around an introducing me to a bunch of industry people. That night they had gone over to eat at the neighboring ranch, which is called Buffalo Ridge Ranch. They were talking to the ranch owners and our situation came up. All of their cabins on the ranch were already booked, but they decided to let us stay in a bunkhouse that they use for summer camps.

So I didn’t end up having to squeeze into the vehicle with my Mom, and we slept in a warm dry bed for the first time since we left home. I really have to thank Larry and Carrie, the ranch owners for their hospitality. I can’t say thank you enough. We ate dinner at the ranch Friday night, but unfortunately they didn’t have the 48 oz steak that I really wanted. I did try fried pickles though, and they were really good. I also had a real quesadilla and it’s nothing like the Taco Bell version.

Saturday morning I did a short, easy run just to keep my metabolism fired-up since I wasn’t riding, and as I was running along the ranch driveway, which is about a mile and a half long, I started wondering if lions were included in the list of exotic animals. I’d hate to have to kill a beautiful lion with my bare hands! Lol! I seriously doubt that they did, but hey, who knows?

Sunday was the most important day of the week, everything was hinging on the second set of motos. I was coming in with two top ten finishes, and I always seem to do better as the week goes on. I had a terrible day. In my first moto of the day, the second moto of 250 A Pro-sport, I got a bad start, rode really well, and battled my way up from mid twentieth to twelfth. The last lap I was thinking, ‘alright Daniel, just stay up and ride smart, and you’ll be just fine’. No sooner than I thought it, my front wheel washed out coming into a corner, and a group of riders that I had just put behind me got me back.

I ended up finishing the moto in seventeenth. I was so bummed. If I had finished in twelfth, I would have most certainly gotten a top ten overall. I ended up thirteenth overall. Remembering that I could still finish top ten in my other class, I tried to keep my spirits up. The second moto of 250 A was even worse. I didn’t even finish the first lap. Coming back down off of St. Whitney, my front wheel tucked and sent me over the bars. It happened so quick that I don’t really know what happened. When I got up my handle bars had been twisted down to my gas tank. I tried to pull them back up, but I couldn’t, so I had to pull off the track. The crash must have been a hard one, because it bent my sub-frame, twisted my bars all of the way down, smashed my radiator in a bit, and bent the radiator brace mount.

So that was the note that I left Lake Whitney on. I was really wishing that I could go to Oak Hill to redeem myself, but I had to get back home to work. I had a great time though, and I have to thank the people who made it possible, www.coachseiji.com (Coach Seiji), Racer X Virtual Trainer, Twigg Cycles, Nineonenine Designs, Fly, Scott USA, SPFC, and Jordan’s Flooring. I also want to thank the McWilliams, Larry and Carrie, Andy, and everyone else that helped me out so much. And a huge thanks to Vurbmoto for naming me their rder of the day. Thanks guys, that is quite an honor! Until next time...