Piston Broke Racing Team Principal and Lead Rider Injured in Training Accident

The 2013 race season was temporarily in question as Piston Broke Racing lead rider, James Sheppard, was injured in a preseason training accident.
Sheppard was about to start the return leg of a 5K run when he fell on a slippery section of a running path near the team headquarters in Brandon, Manitoba.  Like most racers, as the run wore on, he tried to keep in mind the state of the rubber he was using.
"My Adidas Supernovas are about a year old, and like a worn set of tires, they were at the end of their service life in regards to grip.  On top of that, it happened at the turnaround point of my run, so I still had 2.5K to go."
Perseverance did pay off, however.  He got a wee bit of sympathy from a cute female runner on the way home, and even more from his wife upon his return.  Despite this setback, Sheppard vows to continue the training regimen.

"The trip to Motorsports Park Hastings is in a couple of weeks, so I want to make sure I have the endurance to maximize track time over the two days.  Besides, I usually crash 1-2 times per year, so if this is 1, then I could be done crashing for the season."

Prepping for the engine build

Inside, of course.  Back in 2006 I rebuilt the Ducati engine here, so this office desk should suit.

According to the manual, I need to measure all of the plain bearing surfaces to see what size bearing I need to buy.  Somehow I need to beg or borrow a vernier caliper that measures in mm, down to 3 decimal places.  Not a common tool from the local hardware store!

I also fabricated some steering stops from some swingarm sliders.

Sexy Crankshaft

Got the engine parts back from Falicon.  The pictures speak for themselves.

Lightened, polished, and balanced crank. 

You can almost see your face in the reflection!

Some holes were drilled into the crank thows to balance things.

Polished and shot-peened rods.

Snowing again!

With just over a month before the first race, it is snowing again today.  Aarg.  I did do some more work in the garage.

 KTM OEM windscreen from the Superduke.

The small "lipped" windscreen.  Apparently does a great job deflecting wind, despite its small size.

Also, in an attempt to ape a Honda MotoGP bike from Nicky Hayden's tenure, I took this... (hint:  look at the number on the rear hugger)

And did this...