Competitive streak?!?...

The way my average day pans out means I’ll walk through the workshop maybe 10+ times. Since the crash at brands it’s just been bits of bent & broken bike making each trip a bit distressing!

I’m not sure if all racers are the same but I kinda get attached to my race bikes, especially the good ones [but if a bikes not competitive we end up hardly even speaking!?!]. At this point I want to make clear this “relationship” isn’t in anyway filthy - like you might see on a channel five documentary...

Anyway... All the team including myself have been working very hard, repairing, bending parts straight, chasing new parts, and trying to raise support to get us back on track at Oulton.

When I’ve not been working hard – I’ve been focussing the frustration into training hard and by the end of last week I was starting to feel it.
On Sunday I decided to ease off a little, and go for a steady cycle. Nothing too hard, more a stretch of the legs. This was going fine and I’d been out for about 40 minutes until I saw a group of cyclists up ahead.
It wasn’t a conscious decision to chase after them, but I guess it was the competitive side in me [especially on 2-wheels] – an occupational hazard if you like.

Once I caught them I saw more ahead and went after them. This pattern repeated itself until I asked one of the cyclists what they were part of. It turned out to be a 400rider strong “sportive”, undeterred I ploughed on...
The alarm bells really should have started ringing when we left Yorkshire and went into Lancashire!

With only two half litre bottles of water for company the adrenaline eventually wore off and with another ascent of the Pennines to get home my legs were about as strong as fag ash when I eventually climbed off my bike - what was going to be a 20 mile cruise turned out to be a 60 odd mile sprint!

If the team budget could ever stretch to a therapist I think he/she work have their work cut out with plenty of hours on the Chaise lounge required!!

TT#21

Noggin Floggin...

Photo courtesy of londonbikers.com

As you’ll probably be aware Brands didn’t quite go to script!!

The headache I got from the crash is wearing off and it’s only down to the fact that Arai make the world’s best helmets [in my opinion!!] that I didn’t get knocked out – this usually cues jokes about nothing inside to damage etc but thankfully the internet can’t take the Mick... yet.

Like a fallen rider at the Grand National the bike saw fit to make a run for freedom – or at least complete the lap [probably chasing a good lap time, the sign of a committed bike eh?]. However as the start/finish straight at brands is like a banking it wasn’t going to work out and it headed south.

You don’t have to be a physicist to work out that when a race bike picks a fight with a concrete pit wall there’s only going to be one winner, and unfortunately this time form book stayed true.

I may be a “bit” biased but the punishment didn’t fit the crime and to not do either race probably stung more than the bruises, as we’d gone so strong in qualifying....

Anyway... It’s going to be a long 3 weeks till Oulton...
Ta ta, TT#21

The rollercoaster continues...

Photo Courtesty of londonbikers.com

Having gathered engine bits from all over the country and started the engine rebuild at early a clock, they morning fog at Brands looked to be working in our favour with the delays giving the guys enough time to swap the engine before the first session of the day.
However with minutes to go before the session started the engine was fired up, and still having a problem was unusable – meaning out of the 6 free practice sessions we had done less than 2 full sessions & qualifying was next...

Another engine swap later & I got my head down in the 1st phase – I kinda surprised myself by getting up to 14th then sat the rest of the session out to save the engine hoping it would enough to get us through to the 2nd phase – which it was.

Being the first time into phase two, only having one tyre, and again watching the engine mileage I did only one stint – at the end of it I was again in 14th only 0.2 off the top ten!!
I knew it would slip and although I tried to get out again we ended up joint 17th = 18th and P2 in the cup.

Not bad all things considered... Let see what tomorrow brings...
TT#21

Bit of a short one tonight....

Photo courtesy of londonbikers.com

The team did a blinder overnight and we got out on a patchy track this morning – it wasn’t ideal conditions to feel the different swing arm but everything’s a bonus at the moment.



We ended up sitting out session two as it wasn’t raining but kinda spitting – and as we’re doing a bit of damage limitation at the moment we saved the bike, hopefully without giving us a disadvantage as the track time wasn’t ideal.



In the meantime a whole bunch of people have been doing a mega job travelling the country to get engine parts to try and get the weekend back on track...



You know who you are guys and I owe you more than a few beers...



Watch this space folks – the adventure continues

What a day!?!...

Good to finally get the season kicked off but it’s been a funny old day.
It started really well...

In the first practice session I got dialled in fairly quickly [had a bit of a tantrum getting the onboard lap timer set-up/working] and ended up lapping consistently faster than last year & feeling like I wasn’t putting on the line to do it. P2 in the cup by a couple of tenths, and 16th overall. So all good.

Unfortunately after about four laps of the second session I had a mechanical problem with the bike which cut out – and even worse poor old Ian Lowry ran into the back of me whilst I was still doing just over 100mph!!

Once I got back to the pits I went to check he was ok – He was still in the medical centre- apparently he’s on crutches and I feel for the guy [and his mechanics as his bike ended up in 2 pieces. But there was nothing I could do.

Needless to say we missed the rest of the second session and all of the third session having a broken engine and a bent swing arm!

And now....? We’re trying to get things together for official practice tomorrow – a late night for the team me thinks.

Fingers crossed eh?
TT#21