Weather, Wrestling, and a Riddler Costume? It’s all here....
Now we’ve finally got the first round of 2008 done there aint no more excuses for not kick starting the old blog again....
It’s been a weird start to the season with mother nature seeing fit to throw some snow at any racetrack we took the bikes to....
That combined with the inconsistent weather at brands & thruxton means I could do with some more track time away from a race meeting to dial in the new suspension.
In fairness we did get a few days in Spain but that was well over a month before brands and although it was brilliant to blow the cobwebs off – it felt like they’d come back when we got to brands.
It wasn’t till we got to thruxton that it really became a problem – for some reason the new forks just didn’t want to play at that type of track – in the wet it was ok but the dryer the track got the harder it was to keep the bike on the tarmac....
Believe me there is nothing more frustrating than riding a race bike that doesn’t want to play – race one just felt like a wrestling match...
In the yellow corner, weighing in at 70kg featherweight racer Tom Tunstall.....
In the blue corner, at 165kg and over 200BHP undefeated heavyweight Honda Fireblade...
There was only going to be one winner and it wasn’t me... each lap felt like pulling teeth – being passed by riders I can normally run rings round and watching them pull away while I was just making the blisters on my hands bigger.
Luckily in between races me and the bike made friends after I made a peace offering of the old suspension!
Race two was a bit more like it and at least at oulton we shouldn’t be too far away to begin with?!?
Off the track I went straight from Thruxton to the NEC in Birmingham where my sponsor Hardinge Machine Tools had a stand at the MACH Engineering show. And I mean literally straight there we were dropping off race bikes just before midnight! I was there for the full 5 days the first of which I was joined by Chris “Stalker” Walker.
ALOT of people in engineering are big into bike and racing and the week flew by as I was in my element talking about bikes and racing with some genuinely great and enthusiastic bike fans. I also managed to get through signing two thousand of posters – fear not the throttle hand held up well!
Since then we’ve being getting everything in order for Oulton this weekend, but I did get chance to see Sean Lock [comedian of the telly] in Leeds. It wasn’t the first time I’d ended up on the front row at this type of thing but fortunately this time I wasn’t dragged up on stage and forced to pretend I had a duck stuck up me [that’s another story]. But he did end up stripping off the reveal a skin tight Riddler costume... sprayed on I tell you.... I guess it was a case of having to be there...
Anyway less typing and more racing required, see you at oulton.....
TT#21
It’s been a weird start to the season with mother nature seeing fit to throw some snow at any racetrack we took the bikes to....
That combined with the inconsistent weather at brands & thruxton means I could do with some more track time away from a race meeting to dial in the new suspension.
In fairness we did get a few days in Spain but that was well over a month before brands and although it was brilliant to blow the cobwebs off – it felt like they’d come back when we got to brands.
It wasn’t till we got to thruxton that it really became a problem – for some reason the new forks just didn’t want to play at that type of track – in the wet it was ok but the dryer the track got the harder it was to keep the bike on the tarmac....
Believe me there is nothing more frustrating than riding a race bike that doesn’t want to play – race one just felt like a wrestling match...
In the yellow corner, weighing in at 70kg featherweight racer Tom Tunstall.....
In the blue corner, at 165kg and over 200BHP undefeated heavyweight Honda Fireblade...
There was only going to be one winner and it wasn’t me... each lap felt like pulling teeth – being passed by riders I can normally run rings round and watching them pull away while I was just making the blisters on my hands bigger.
Luckily in between races me and the bike made friends after I made a peace offering of the old suspension!
Race two was a bit more like it and at least at oulton we shouldn’t be too far away to begin with?!?
Off the track I went straight from Thruxton to the NEC in Birmingham where my sponsor Hardinge Machine Tools had a stand at the MACH Engineering show. And I mean literally straight there we were dropping off race bikes just before midnight! I was there for the full 5 days the first of which I was joined by Chris “Stalker” Walker.
ALOT of people in engineering are big into bike and racing and the week flew by as I was in my element talking about bikes and racing with some genuinely great and enthusiastic bike fans. I also managed to get through signing two thousand of posters – fear not the throttle hand held up well!
Since then we’ve being getting everything in order for Oulton this weekend, but I did get chance to see Sean Lock [comedian of the telly] in Leeds. It wasn’t the first time I’d ended up on the front row at this type of thing but fortunately this time I wasn’t dragged up on stage and forced to pretend I had a duck stuck up me [that’s another story]. But he did end up stripping off the reveal a skin tight Riddler costume... sprayed on I tell you.... I guess it was a case of having to be there...
Anyway less typing and more racing required, see you at oulton.....
TT#21
posted by Tom Tunstall at 4:50 PM
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