Daytona Week Day 3: “RV2 Day”

Ever heard of “The McDonalds Effect”? Well it sucks…

Nostra-Timmy

Timmy warned us. He told us RV gets started early but we didn’t take him seriously. Matthes was up until about 1am finishing up his Larry Brooks story and I was up till about 2:30 finishing up the first edit of the Reed video so we were both guilty of lagging a bit on wednesday morning.

I realized I forgot to bring a belt on the trip and as anyone who has hucked their way around a mx track shooting photos or video knows, no matter how tight your drawers are on your waist, by the end of the day, they’ll be falling down and pissing you off. So after a discussion with myself I decided, yup, I was going to do it, I was going to ask Timmy if I could borrow a belt. I couldn’t ask Matthes for obvious reasons. I knew before I even asked that Matthes was going to play “the creepy card” and do his best to talk about how I was already becoming a stalker and soon it would be cutting my hair like Ferry. I embrace it and instead of debating him I take his jabs and confirm and embellish them even more. Timmy was fine with lending me the belt; but on ONE condition. I had to wear a Monster Energy dog tag necklace with his name on it for the trip to RV’s. I assumed this was some inside joke that was going to end with RV seeing it and wanting to fight me or something but I didn’t care, I needed a belt and agreed. Truth be told, I think the necklace complimented my attire nicely; I believe I wore the tag for thursday as well.

The McDonalds Effect

We departed for RV’s stopping again for a Matthes’ Starbucks and my standard cinnamon raison bagel which they were out of so I got a french toast bagel, damn was that good. It was a good drive out there and around lunch when Matthes decided his coffee wasn’t going to cut it so we stopped in at McDonalds for a cheeseburger to go. Big mistake, as Matthes would later no doubt regret it due to if nothing else the constant jabbing RV was giving him about being late due to stopping at MickyDee’s.

We finally arrive at RV’s driveway which seriously resembles Reed’s driveway in many ways, thinking back I honestly can’t recall a difference between the two. Although there were no cows to negotiate on our way up the drive to the parkig area. We pull around a clearing of tree’s and see the tracks, man, that never gets old. Your just moseying along then bam, moto heaven, it’s crazy. I see the water truck going around the mx track giving it a splash because the sun is out. As we approach the parking spot, I see the water truck heading toward us, I quickly realize it’s RV driving it and immediately realize he’s about to give the Crown Vic a bath, which it certainly needed from driving through the mud to get to Reed’s track. Matthes said he didn’t expect it which surprises me, I don’t think RV would have hesitated even if Matthes’ window was down. He had a Dennis the Menace grin as he drove by dousing us.

RV doing work.

We park and walk over to the main building where everyone was hanging around. It immediately had a different feel than Reed’s place. Everyone seemed to have a purpose, I could tell they had already been at it for a while. RV was eating a sandwich, Aldon was on the phone, there were some guys riding including Ben Lamay who still goes fast and RV’s practice mechanic Casey Stewart, who’s a real good dude, was working on RV’s bike readying it for the next riding session. Andy Gustaffson from Thor was there shooting photos and he was a super nice guy. Also, Hedgie from Oakley was there riding and that guy’s got some endurance, rode a lot of laps. Later we would have a duel.

Matthes quickly introduced me to RV who was more interested in that sandwich and not so much some random friend of Matthes’ there to take photos and videos of him. I think RV would have been more conversive with me if I had stumbled on to his property alone than alongside Matthes. You see, these two have a very weird repoire going on with each other. Matthes loves RV because he’s very raw and honest in interviews and the fans love it. At the same time RV is always cracking on Matthes giving him shit in as many ways as he can, I love that. In all honesty, you can see it’s all in fun and RV does it because they are totally comfortable with one another.

We realized RV was only riding one more time and when questioned about it RV began the barrage of “you shouldn’t have stopped at McDonalds” taunts. I got a chuckle from it every time he repeated it, which was probably around 7 times.

Someone had a giant sniper rifle out there and it shot some serious 7″ long shells. No one shot it but I imagine if it was shot, the Armed Forces would somehow be alerted as those bullets would probably show up on radar.

Say hello to my lil friend.

Lay it Down

RV suited back up to ride and I got my tools to shoot and headed out of the building to the Supey track. Aldon walked past me and asked how I was and considering some of the rumors I’ve heard about how Aldon feels about strangers around his program, I took that as a win. The weather was absolutely impeccable for riding and the setting around RV’s track makes a great back drop for shooting photos from just about any vantage point. With the formula of perfect weather, the great scenery and RV ripping, I couldn’t ask for better subject matter to shoot. RV rides with the gnarliest controlled aggression. He scares me, he looks so pissed when riding, or maybe he scared me because when practicing starts he rode past me and flipped-off Matthes with authority.

I wasn’t counting but I would say RV put it in at least 15 laps while I was shooting stills and then I pulled out the video camera when he was practicing starts which would be the end of RV’s riding for the day. Check out this clip of RV flipping-off Matthes after a start, it’s good stuff. It looks like a number one salute but trust me, Matthes and I got a kick out of it instantly.

Play to view RV waving hi to Matthes.

We went back into the shop where Matthes again asked RV if he would ride again for some more video and RV belittled him with more McDonalds references. Awesome. We stood around for a bit, Matthes was talking to Andy(Thor) and some other people while I was mostly watching Lamay and Hedgie circulate the mx track. RV was talking to his Dad, saying good bye to his fiance and later Aldon as they were leaving. We then we reconvened in the shop where Matthes asked RV for a quick podcast. RV wanted to get out of there but agreed to do it. Matthes was getting his interviewing device ready, better known as “the breathalizer” and RV gave him some more shit about not having/using an iPhone for the interviews, I agreed with RV on this point.

After the podcast RV was definitely ready to get out of there but Hedgie proposed a $100 bet to Matthes involving 3 shots each at a water bottle, Matthes declined but I was all about it and volunteered. Hedgie asked if I had a hunny on me, I assured him I did and we prepared for the face off. Here’s the thing, I missed the part about the gun we were to shoot being the .50cal Dirty Harry pistol, I hadn’t seen it, I thought we were going to be shooting that big sonofabitch sniper rifle. I asked if it would break my shoulder, they must’ve thought I was semi retarded asking if a hand gun would break my shoulder. Anyhow, I then saw the .50 cal and realized the deal. I was still a bit nervous cause I knew that thing would have some kick but I have a SIG P226 9mm (yes I’m from the Detroit area) that Im a pretty good shot with so I was feeling pretty good about collecting a hunny from Hedgie.

Picture perfect form.

We grabbed some ear protection and headed out the back of the shop. 3 shots each, we were about 90 feet from the water bottle. I was a little nervous loading it because I’m not real familiar with revolvers let alone revolver with shells that big. I loaded, took aim and shot one was a touch high. RV had reappeared at this point to watch the duel, everyone who was still out there was checking it out, of course if a gun is being shot people are likely to watch. Shot two was a waste, that gun has a hair trigger and I swear I was just setting aim and barely had contacted the trigger and that bitch fired. Shit, just wasted a shot. Better make shot 3 count. I took aim, squeezed her off and the bottle moved, to my disappointment the bullet was close enough to jostle the bottle but it wasn’t penetrated so I was SOL. Next it was Hedgie’s turn. He took his three shots and missed, so at least I was closer even though the bet was a bust. RV’s Dad was gonna try to retrieve one of the casings from the dirt mound but he scoped it out and said the casing was about 2 feet into the pile! That gun did have some serious kick but I was happy with my results from the contest.

That’s a Wrap

After the duel everybody was pretty much leaving, RV and his Dad got in RV’s truck which is a bad mother effer for sure. Maybe we should have made a $100 bet for RV to go all Damon Bradshaw Monster Truck over the Crown Vic? Insurance anyone?

The wheels say “BMF”, which no doubt stands for Bad Mother F@*#er.

Maybe RV should have “Bradshawed” our Crowny because then Matthes wouldn’t have been speeding and gotten a ticket 5 minutes after we left the compound. Hindsight.

I’m not sure if it convey’s well through what I’ve written or not but there seemed to be more structure at RV’s place than Reedy’s, I wouldn’t say one is better than the other because obviously they both work for each of them but there was definitely a tangible difference even after only a few minutes which proved true throughout the stay.

A Swizzle is Born

I figured it bear’s explanation so here it is, how Swizcore became Swizzle. During our drive back from RV’s Timmy texted Matthes with a video editing question for me. You see Timmy has this awesome thought process where things come to him not in a chronological order but more of a haphazard brainstorm method and when these thoughts come to him, he needs to get to the bottom of them immediately. So anyway, he texted his inquiry and when he attempted to spell “Swizcore” his phone autocorrected to “Swizzle”. He ran it and so it was written. Swizzle it is. When Tim Ferry appoints you a nickname, you run that shit. I don’t care if I have used swizcore for over 8 years, or that it was chosen based on my love of the ’80’s DC hardcore band Swiz. Swizcore. Swizzle. Red Dog.

Back at Timmy’s

We got back to Timmy’s pretty early since you know, as Timmy told us, RV gets started early; and Timmy had Matthes change a tire on one of Evans cycles while I swapped out a works dog bone and knuckle on his 450 for a stock setup. If you’re at all familiar with changing pit bike tires, you know the smaller tires are a real bitch compared to the big ones and that theory was proven yet again by Matthes. I man handled that linkage swap in about 8 minutes flat with the help of Steve elevating the rear tire for bolt alignment, thanks buddy. To be honest I was pretty shocked and honored that Timmy allowed me to work on his bike. I know how capable I am(after-all I performed a 350ci swap into a brand new S-10 on weekends home from college when I was 18) but he had no idea of my mechanical skills.

Evie made some crazy good chicken tacos for dinner that night, I ate about 5 of them and followed it up with a kind of chicken taco salad supreme(without lettuce of course, I don’t touch that stuff).

Of course that night during American Idol, well during a commercial I mean, Red asked, “hey Swizzle, you torqued those bolts right?”. “Yeah, Red, got em.”

More pic’s of RV below.