Next season is nearly here to the sounds of lucky heather. Christmas shopping, birthdays, holiday packing. All things left to the last minute, well by me at any rate. What's this got to do with racing?" they all cry. A lot, actually.

Experience has shown (a fact that would be confirmed by anyone who has ever been to the roadrace show and used the opportunity to order a new set of made to measure leathers in the mistaken belief that they may arrive before winter comes round again) that, when it comes to preparing for the new road racing season, you want to be thinking at least 6 months before the point that you would normally be thinking about the point that you wish to be sitting on the start line secure in the thought that your motorcycle is not only in the highest state of tune, but you also have a nice snug caravan/motorhome to go back to once you've stepped down from the podium and dispensed with the laurels.

It is with this thought that I now find myself trawling through the motorcycle press and talking with friendly "sorry mate, no discount" parts suppliers to make my goal of winning the Club Championship this year slightly more realistic.

Last year was good, better in fact than I could have hoped for. No crashes, gradual move up the results table at every round and more importantly getting to know a few more fellow racers and starting to get more into the social side. God, I like lager.

Unfortunately, what this has meant is that since recording two thirds and a second in the last race of the year at Snetterton (my least favourite track) and recording around 1.16's ish on a standard bike, I've gone all silly and decided that if I did all the rounds and didn't miss out two like I did last year (I came 6th overall by the way) I may actually stand a chance of winning the championship in 2001. The only problem is that, like all things, nothing stands still, especially the competition who as I speak are probably out buying Aprilia's, SP1's etc..... and then cajoling even more horsepower out of them in cahoots with Stan Stephens and the like.

So I gotta do one of two things, go faster round the corners or get a faster bike. Now I like my TL, it did very well last year and being standard, one suspects could do even better with a bit of twiddling, so I'm frantically twiddling. Nothing too ambitious though coz I don't want to affect the reliability, so at the moment I'm looking at around 5 bhp increase. Oh yeah, and some Muchofstinky wheels which look nice, reduce weight and are reassuringly expensive.

What happened to the faster round the corners then, I hear you say. Well that comes from lots and lots of practice and a bottom that has been surgically sealed, so I'm on the waiting list but knowing the NHS it may arrive about the same time as those M to M leathers you ordered. To be honest, I am fiddling with the handling as well and having me front end fiddled with and me back end replaced

So far without even turning a wheel I have already spent 1,800 Great British Pounds and realistically expect to spend a further £1,000 and I ain't bought any tyres yet, er ... sponsorship anyone ?

On a lighter note my Great Uncle Diddycoy McPikey has bequeathed me his caravan for the use of racing, which unfortunately is very old, in a rather poor state of repair and needs the chassis welding, two new windows and the back ripping out and that's just to get me to the races, let alone living in the bloody thing. If you are sad enough at this point to be remotely interested in what it looks like, this was best summed up by Tara, the young lady in my life: "Do you remember those old films when they had just opened the M1" she says "and you see a Morris Minor towing a very tall but short caravan?" Well, that's what it's like.

Interior luxuries have not even be considered at this point but may be resolved in due course as Tara has expressed an interest in having a go at interior design, so all may not be lost, if you like Leopardskin that is.

Well that's it for now, more later.

And now it's bloody snowing

What's going on ? I'm just getting me juices flowing for next season, I look out of the window and it's snowing. Hard. To think that in 2 months time the flags gonna drop and I'll be smokin' the opposition.

Been an interesting few weeks since my last update, to such an extent that I can now fill in the hieroglyphics that some of you may have thought was a cunning ruse to keep my super tuning mods way from the opposition but, in fact, were a complete lack of knowing what I was going to do as it pretty much depended on what was available at what price and at what gain.

What I can tell you is that I am just about there as far as the engine is concerned. Which means I ain't going to touch it ... ah ha! A thousand pens drop out of frozen fingers .... well internally at any rate. Mods will entirely comprise of K&N filter, Akrapovic full race system and a Dynojet Power Commander Super Galactic Space Ranger Fuel Injection Modification System. In layman's terms it's supposed to allow you to pump more or less fuel through your injectors (of which I have two) to cater for modifications to the engine. But surely, I hear you say, doesn't the injection system do that anyway? Yeah I guess it does, but what the hell.

Common sense applies to all things and this is mine. The Japs ain't daft, they make bikes powerful within emission laws, they also make injection systems that cater for changing atmospheric conditions, temperature etc..... however only within a certain range. You start ripping out the air filter and bunging on race pipes the likelihood is that it'll fall out of its range of adjustment and need a little manual pumping, as we all do, especially after a few beers.

Anyway this DPCSGSRFIMS is pretty trick stuff as you can download new maps from the web and everything. So that's what I'm going to do.

So all I need is a friendly rolling road, or some serious modification to me Granny's mangle, who is dead anyway therefore unlikely to miss it.

When it comes to rolling roads - and here I refer to the flat out in top, stamping on the gear change, bike thrashing about like a fresh young salmon, without actually going anywhere, how much power have I got Dyno variety, rather more than a two week tour round the South of France round the twisties - I must admit I've cut some corners. What you're supposed to do is stick your bike on the Dyno before you do the mods, and then carefully, bit by bit, add stuff until the desired result is achieved. Now I don't see it this way as I already know, having spoken to just about everyone including the US and Australia, that the combination of components that I am applying to my bike will make a significant improvement. For the sake of an extra £50.00 and the hassle of getting the bike down to a Dyno I don't really need to know how much more power I'm gonna get.

Besides I'm stuffed anyway until my suspension comes back from the suspension tuner. This brings me on to the next instalment, which is literally that, instalment and the fitment of my new re-valved re-sprung forks and damper unit, which this time includes a change of springs and linkages. Woooweee!, I hear you say, this guys serious ... and that I am.

It's Still Snowing ...
but only in Scotland

It must be something about the name Robin. First there was Robin Hood, who, as we all know, took from the rich and gave to the poor. Then there was Robin Hart, who took from the 'getting desperate' and supplied them with one fully modified "Race Transporter". Really! I would hardly call a caravan with a big hole in the back a race transporter. Still there it was, advertised in Loot "For Sale, Race Transporter" in the caravan section no less. I suppose that was the clue that led to a 3 million mile drive early one Saturday morning up to Southport, which, for those geographically challenged, is North of Liverpool .. you know, where the Beatles come from. Why so early? OK I admit it, I was excited and couldn't sleep, I'm not embarrassed.

Directions were superb, even to the part where I drove straight past West Coast Salvage, to whom, only 2 days earlier I had paid the princely sum of £10.00 to send down some disks for me Fireblade, bugger! Anyway, me and Robin had a cuppa, bantered for a couple of hours about racing and stuff I handed over some dosh hitched up and I was off.

Further inspection in the luxury of me own driveway proved the caravan to be in good nick, unlike the first one I acquired. My good friend and advisor of all things that should be advised upon Mr. Mitchell came down on Sunday and provided much needed motivation and confirmation of measurement as we fitted the securing points for the TL, (a picture should appear somewhere hereabouts) - my own design I might add. Do you know that out of 12 holes that we drilled that day not one was in the wrong place, isn't that amazing? None of the securing points are in the right place however, but something has to give.

Anyway, this isn't caravan monthly, so enough of the caravan stuff already! Tell us about the bike. Well a trip to the Road Race Show supplied a rather sexy front stand from Harris at an amazing discount, which I must admit surprised me slightly. Mind you that was nothing compared to the wad that Mr. Maddox handed over to Harris for his Akrapovic exhaust system and Ohlins rear damper, Mr. Harris must have thought Christmas had come early.

More importantly, I purchased some superb clip-on bars from my good friend and racing advisor Dave Black of FWR Tyres … er, and clip-ons. Tell me, why do they call 'em clip-ons they do not fucking clip-on, they take a day out of your life whilst you battle with clashing tanks, cables and levers, spurious holes that need to be drilled grips that need to be glued on and steering locks that need to be reduced. Still I got there in the end, even if I did fit one upside down - there you go Keith, I've admitted it, thus taking the burden off your shoulders of keeping my minor oversight a secret.

And (never start a sentence with And, my English Teacher said - well you can sod off as well) And I've fitted me suspension bits. This was much easier, or should have been if it wasn't for the fact the instructions were faxed over from the Netherlands and were illegible, not because they were written in Nethers but because all of the pictures were just black. Still, it was just a matter of trying it in different positions until satisfaction is obtained, like many things in life. Looks bloody trick though. The original spring for the rear suspension is retained, however the shock has an additional spring on the damper itself, the reason I can only guess at (which I am not going to share with you in case I am wrong and you all laugh at me). The real reason will have to wait until Wayne Lamb, Mr. Suspension, comes back from testing in Spain, at which point hopefully we can do some tweaking. I wonder what he's testing, young virgins maybe?

So in summary we are nearly there. I am off to PDQ next Wednesday to run it up on the Dyno and come up with an optimum program map for the Power Commander fuel injection thingy, then to Mallory for a test day and then, on the 18th March, is the big day. Yep, I get to put the caravan through its paces … hope the bed's comfy.

Well that's another small job out of the way. Yet another exciting looking box arrives at the post room of my office in deepest Slough, this time containing an air filter and air box returned to me by Induction Technology. Induction Technology build air filters for Formula 1 cars, which off course they would say. They probably also build air filters for dumper trucks, cement mixers and assorted agricultural machinery, but when a client call regarding an air filter for a race bike you're going to tell him you build air filters for Formula 1 cars, aren't you. That'll teach you for not giving me a discount.

Anyway, how it works is you send your airbox to them and they, using all sorts of sophisticated air flow monitoring equipment, build an air filter that not only keeps out small children but also ensures maximum air to those hungry cylinders.

So that was the last piece of the jigsaw that meant I could, at last, test out the caravan and take my much loved thunderous machine down to PDQ for final tweaking.

Slight problem was that I was rampless. Grand plans were in place to nick a scaffold plank from a building site to enable the insertion of my machine into the welcoming and beautifully sculptured entrance of my caravan, however after finding out a plank was only £15.00 for a full length anyway I went down to Jewsons, feeling very ill at ease and bought one.

It must be something to do with age, but I seem to become less and less comfortable doing stuff that I know little about. The thing with places like builders merchants and the like, is that you need to be one of them, otherwise you can wander around for days whilst experienced building types whiz around confidently loading up their trolleys for their current project, chatting to everyone like one of the family whilst you wander around looking rather lost and desperately in need some kind person to take you under their wing and if not assist with your purchase, at least give you a cup of tea and ask when you last saw your mother.

Anyway, got the plank, bike all back together, oil changed, water in, battery in, press button and kerdunk, kerdunk, kerdunk, click, click, click, flat battery. Buy new battery, press button and Bingo! - the Sound of Thunder echoes round the garage.

Following day, load big bike into small caravan and off to PDQ just the other side of Slough - see them at www.PDQ1.com

PDQ have been Dynoing bikes for flippin' years. They actually did my YZF in 1994 and Nick Hudson (Mr. Dyno), the man that was doing it in '94, is the man that is doing it today. The objective was to see what power I was now getting after my mods and then see what additional power could be obtained through the PowerCommander. I won't bore you with the details (oh, fine, tell us about your deep seated psychological problems in a Builders Merchants and skip the bits about the bike, great !).

This is the bit where I regret not having the bike Dyno'd before I did the mods. The first run was very impressive, with the Akro pipe and IT filter the power was up to 127 bhp (but from what off course I don't know) the addition of the Powercommander and some fine tweaking by Nick took us to 129.8 bhp, which is pretty good for a standard engine. For those contemplating a filter change interestingly the IT filter was no better than a K&N one that we tried, so I can save you £30.00 if your thinking about a filter change - unless you're riding a dumper truck, of course.

So there we are, the next activity is a practice day which is coming up very shortly and then the race on March 18th at Mallory Park, number 9 is me number, so if you're coming up say hello. And if you're in the same race don't go too fast, racing is dangerous.

-Woke up
-Made Tea
-Met Matt Long and Andy Wignall, a couple of mates who, instead of doing the KRC Endurance Series this year, had decided to do the rent a racer thing on LC's. Anyone who reads the M/C press would have seen the Rent A Winner adverts.
-It snowed
-It snowed some more
-Practice time arrived, in the snow.
-Went round, got wet, got cold, got back, built a snowman.
-Had tea, actually we had so much tea by the end of it we were sick of tea.
-Scott Desborough and Adrian Beard (appropriately both were wearing their snowboarding jackets) turned up to offer moral support, drink tea and sit in my caravan, generally getting on the way and getting all excited, according to Tara, during the racing, which was nice.
-1st race, row F. For those not familiar with the grid formations it goes: A, B, C, D, E, F, G with A being the front and G being the back, I hope no one is surprised by this.
30 Riders on grid. At this point I shall stop my monosyllabic style for some background and badly disguised excuses.

When I was a kid, like most kids I used to make plastic models, and the more I made the better I got, the longer they took to make until I didn't have time anymore to make plastic models. The reason I am drivelling on about this, is that there is a danger of my verbosity running away with me to an extent where I just don't get around to writing me stories about the weekends events. So I am going to try to brief it up a bit, I doubt however this will be successful.

Actually I've just come in from a little light tinkering on the bike and am now sitting rather awkwardly on my chair (due to heroic race injuries) in an attempt to document the highs and lows from the latest SOT race
which was on the Easter Bank Holiday at Cadwell Park.

Tell you what, lets try bullet points :-

There you go that was easy now lets get on with the racing.

Practice
Practice on the Saturday presented the first opportunity to try out my lightweight Marchisini wheels. I was not completely surprised to find that the switch from the standard wheels to the Marchisini's did unsettle the bike a bit in the corners. Now this has happened before, not on the TL though, and was resolved rather bizarrely by relaxing a bit more on the bike and riding faster and Bingo! it worked. I recall at Oulton Park when I was doing the KRC Endurance series both Scott (Fast Scott) Ingram and myself complained of the same thing on a rather trick Fireblade we was riding, once we upped the pace a bit it was fine, it's all about commitment I s'pose.

Anyway, what did crop up, once I was on the pace, was that the bike with it's increase in power and lighter wheels was now under-geared on the back straight, always a good sign that you're faster than last year. So a little re-gearing was in order, which resulted in me being a tooth smaller on the rear running the lighter wheels than I was running the intermediates or the wets. In hindsight, not changing both was a mistake and next time I'll stick all me wheels on the same gearing thus avoiding continually having to adjust the chain every time the sun came out, went in, rained etc......

One subject I haven't gone into great detail on recently, being the cautious type, was changes to the suspension set-up. Front end problems, especially at Cadwell, led me to enter into intensive negotiations with Wayne Lamb at White Power (www.wp-suspension.com) who helped out by re-springing and re-damping the front end and supplying WP's latest race damper for the rear end. Initial set-up problems at a snowy Mallory were quickly resolved by re-shimming the compression damping and practice at Cadwell proved both the front and rear-end to be well up to the task of sticking in some quick lap times. The front-end in particular was a noticeable improvement on last year with the pattering under heavy braking having now completely disappeared.

To finish first (or second) first you have to finish !!!!!!!!! See you at Cadwell" - Ian Dixon (no.5) Kevin leads Ian before the highside ...

Race 1
Trophy Race, no Championship points just a Trophy, hopefully saying 1st. At the risk of Brenda sending me an abusive email I believe that grid positions for the Trophy Race are pretty much pulled out the hat, which is why I ended up 20th on the grid (5th row). Dry weather meant most of the quick guys were on slicks with a smattering of inters and me on my trusty Metzler Rennsports. If you recall, these were the tyres I moved onto from the 207's last year and immediately moved up 3 places. That nice man Paul at SMD tyres supplies these - 08000 194035 next day if you want any - along with my Dunlop 364's, which I chose as the intermediate option.

It was pretty clear that starting from 20th on the grid I had to be pretty quick out the trap if I was going to hold onto the leading pack. Red Flag ambled off the start line, red light went out and I was 3rd by the time we hit the back straight, that'll do. I held 3rd for about 3 laps before I started getting passed. If I recall, Guy Etherington made it past my elbows first and then a very desperate and completely out of shape Ian Dixon just about got through by nipping through the short-cut just at the bottom of the mountain. The end result was, I must admit, a slightly disappointing 6th. Peter Baker again showed his dominant form by achieving the fastest lap 1:36.20 and winning the race.

1. 22 Peter Baker
2. 27 Gary Reid
3. 5 Ian Dixon
4. 6 Guy Etherington
5. 38 Richard Wallace
6. 9 Kevin Jones

Why was I 6th ? Bit rusty probably, despite the ½ day practice the day before. The only racing I had done before that was the Snowmobile racing 4 weeks previously at Mallory. Still, Championship race this afternoon.

Championship Race
"Its raining its pouring changing wheels is boring" But well worth the effort when most of the competition are on wets, the track is drying and you're sitting on the start line with a set of 364's wrapped around your rim. The run up to the race was, 'er lets say indecisive, with me running to and from the track trying to decide what to do. The final decision led to a crash course in wheel changing for Tara, and me just about getting out in time to make the warm up lap.

The lights went out and we were off, not a great start this time as I span it up off the line as the start/finish straight was still quite wet. This was not a major problem though as the 8 lap race unfolded the track dried and I moved up the field eventually finishing a class second behind, yes you guessed it, Peter Baker, who unfortunately for me was also running intermediates. Still, 20 points in the bag ain't bad.

So that was Sunday. Tara and I went off to join my sister Karen and Brian at the local hostelry for some light refreshment and then back to the caravan for some erection activity with the table/bed.

Monday's activities will follow soon …..

I was at Cadwell Park for the Easter Bike Races, and I witnessed Kevin Jones racing in the Sound of Thunder series on his TL1000S, and what a sight to see it was.

First off though, I'd never been to Cadwell Park, but had heard much about it and seen it on telly of course, but that was about it. After walking round what I could of it, it looked narrow, (to say the least) but it did look like a good road rider's circuit. I certainly wouldn't mind doing a track day there, it looks challenging, but flowing, maybe something for later this year perhaps?

Anyway, back to SoT. Practise was on Saturday with races on Sunday and Monday, I was there to witness Saturday practise which was uninteresting to me, as I didn't know of anyone else but Kev, but I was there to watch Sunday's events unfold too and they were much more interesting.

There was no qualifying, as Kev said, "They pick your number out of a hat and stick you on the grid in that order, but not to worry, I'm getting better at doing good starts". Optimistic then? Well, I guess you'd need to be when your number is picked and you end up on the 5th row for Christ's sake!!

Anyway, I got to the circuit to witness a crash in race 4, the rider getting nerfed wide whilst on the brakes big time for the left/right kink before the Mountain. Down he went in a cloud of sparks, then mud and grass. Red flag out then. SoT was race 6, but the weather looked threatening. Luckily it stayed dry. The lights went green and off they went, all weaving and wobbling up to the first left, which is a sweeping uphill bend, which looks great. Kev was up to 7th!! So he is good at starting then! Or jumping them? One or the other. Next time round he was 3rd and held this for the first two laps, then a few of the guys behind were getting up to speed and catching him up. The race was 6 laps in distance, but Kev was pipped at the post by 200ths of a second for 5th, so he was 6th. Not bad going though, Kev seemed reasonably happy with that one, so that was a Trophy race over, but no Trophy won. Not through lack of effort though.

I have a theory on this race 6. Kev chooses not to race slicks, but just sticky race compound cut slick/road tyres. Now, in hind sight, looking at the way the others caught Kev after a couple of laps, I'd say they were on slicks? If this is the case, "Kev, get some slicks, or always be caught like that".

The next race was a championship round and was race 13. Unlucky for some … an omen perhaps?

The threat of rain had materialised into …. rain, what else? And it tipped it down through the lunch break and into the next race also. Not good. That's all right, Kev had a spare set of wheels with wets already on, so the decision to use them was easily made. Three races from Kev's next outing, the rain stopped and the wind blew. Cadwell Park is set in a valley and also on a hill, so one part of the track would be wet and the other dry. A racer's nightmare, one or the other fine, but both is not good. I went off on a recce to see what was going on with the track. I watched a couple of the races preceding Kev's, knowing full well he'd fitted his wets. The bikes I was watching were producing no spray apart from on the start/finish straight, a line was appearing, but you couldn't call it a dry line. The thoughts going through my head were, intermediates, but I wasn't racing and I couldn't get back to Kev before he went to the holding area for his race.

This time Kev was on the 2nd row. .As they lined up, the track was visibly drying. This race was 8 laps in distance, would a set of wets hold up for that many laps? I doubt it very much, I was wishing I'd been able to get my track info back to Kev, but now it was all in the hands of the Gods, "Please rain" It didn't. The lights went green and off they shot, Kev's rear wheel spinning in the puddles, not a good start this time then? Into the first bend holding station, coming back round after lap 1 and Kev's up to 5th! Bloody hell, those wets are working well, but they're bound to go off ...? Next time round he's catching 4th place man (sorry, I didn't get their names). After the next couple of laps Kevin is up to 4th and the bike is looking surprisingly steady on those wets .. shows what I know about tyres then doesn't it? Wets obviously work in the dry/damp. With two laps to go he's up to 3rd!! This is too good to be true, he's flying round and also pulling in 2nd place man, but was there time left? No pressure from behind, Kev had blitzed the lot of 'em. With Kevin now having taken 2nd place, the gap with a lap to go had dropped even further. Could he catch 1st place man to top the podium? It didn't look likely from where I was standing and try as he might, 2nd was where he ended the race, but it was a cracker. After the race I was informed that Kev had panicked at the last moment before the race was called and put his intermediates in instead of wets, a decision that was invaluable to his Championship challenge, which is not going to be easy, read on……..

Unfortunately I was not in attendance for Monday's races, as the KRJ fan club had to return south, but it had been an interesting weekend. The most interesting fact, after walking through the paddock, was the amount of exotic equipment being raced in the SoT series. One chap has two, yes two, 996 SPS Dukes at his disposal and there are several SP1's which look to be tricked up. The guy that won both races is riding a rather sorted looking Aprilia RSV with Ohlins kit hanging from both ends and trick wheels. It doesn't end there either, some of these guys have the support to boot and after spending a couple of days in the Paddock I can see how much kit and support is needed to sustain any sort of challenge. Out of the whole field of riders in SoT, I would say there are about 7 or 8 that form the top group, all of them very good riders, (Kev being one of these without a doubt) and it appears to be here that the difference can be made by what kit you ride. Look at the chap that won, he's a good rider on a bloody good bike. Kevin's TL is good, but it's still a TL at the end of the day. But who am I to criticise? I'm not out there doing it.

Tet

PS Oooh dear, seems on Monday KRJ had a bit of a highside incident at the hairpin when challenging for a top finish in the championship race. So hurty bits now, plus slightly bent bike. I blame that rear shock ....

Well I didn't really know how to say it ....

... so in true blokey fashion I avoided the issue and didn't do a write up for a while, but it's no good, I can't hide it any longer; I fell off! There you are, I've said it. 1½ years I've been whizzing round tracks and I went and bloody fell off. The worst thing was that it was me own fault, quite literally hung by my own petard.

If you recall, I had already had two second places at Cadwell the day earlier due to some lucky guess work on the tyre front. This time it looked like rain, so out came the intermediate tyres again. I sat on the line peering at those around me, most were on slicks, but then it wasn't raining yet.

Red, Green we're off! Reasonable start hanging onto around 6th place, 8 laps to go and all the time in the world and there was definitely moisture in the air, all I had to do was hang on to the leading bunch and as the rain fell I should win, I'm gonna win, I'm gonna win, my time has come, all I have to do is get past this ….. whooha ! As I came out of the hairpin the revs rose alarmingly, the back came round and off I went - up, across and down bit like I was trying to save a goal. I landed on my side like I was laying down seductively on a chaise longue. I jumped up and dived into the bushes as 30 odd bikes sped by, probably slightly bemused as to what the fuck I was up too, much like I was to be honest. Luckily the highside threw me to the inside of the circuit and out of harm's way. So that was my championship race over..... Tara was livid....rule one, never ever say it was your own fault... you get hit again.

7th May 01 - Donington and I'm back on the pace

The damage to the bike from the Cadwell crash was fairly light, bit of newspaper and some flour glue, new handlebar courtesy of Dave Black at FWR and a lever from my motocross spares kit saw me appear (well not appear, I drove there with my caravan obviously, otherwise racing wouldn't be half as much fun if you couldn't drive for 4 mind-numbing hours to get to the circuit) at Donington for the second of a two day Superclub event that took in Mallory and Donington Park. Now I don't like Mallory and as I had never intended to compete in all the Superclub rounds didn't see much point in doing a circuit I didn't like.

I like Donington though, Redgate, the corner I always think I am going to run out of road on, and Craner Curves - fast sweeping corners that I always know I can go faster round if only I had the bottle. If I recall, it was just before Donington that I went for a heavier weight spring on the rear. I had been troubled for some time as I felt I was running out of travel on the rear shock and was actually bottoming out. In an attempt to see if this was the case I built a primitive 'suspension travel indicator' out of an old coat hanger and some cable ties which I attached to the bottom shock mounting and then inserted through a hole I had drilled in the mudguard. Then by clever use of cable ties I could see how much travel I was using by seeing how far down the rod, that I had fashioned out of the coat hanger, the cable tie went. I sense you are confused. Anyway the end result was that I was bottoming out the shock, but then you probably would anyway, as somewhere on the circuit you're bound to hit a bump at the same time the suspension is compressed so a bit of a waste of time really. But I found it both technically challenging and psychologically comforting, so I was happy.

Both races went extremely well, especially considering I was significantly down on power compared to some of the competition. Both races were won convincingly by Warren Scott, who really is in a class of his own. I managed to hold off the attentions of Julian Stocks' Ducati Corsa in both races and ended up recording a 9th and a 7th mainly due to some flying starts. The most exciting bit was in race two when coming into Craner I sensed someone was pretty close. I glanced down to see a shadow on the ground but as I had the inside line knew there was no room to get through. This was proven by an impact on the back of my bike that threw the back-end sideways at at least 320 mph. Luckily I stayed on, even more luckily so did the guy on the Ducati who was now bouncing across the infield, still upright in a cloud of dust.

After the race I waited as the bikes came back in to see who had come come out of the sun and attempted to ambush me. It was red, it was a Ducati and they all looked at the ground; maybe it was a conspiracy.

It wasn't until I got back to the pits that the extent of the damage and some indication as to the size of the impact came to light. A big black tyremark ran down the left hand silencer and a crease in the titanium endcan as big as your wrist … that would have been a big one if we'd gone down.

Out of interest and as I love to blow me own trumpet a bit, mainly coz no other bugger will:-

Race 1 - Grid position 6 Finished 9th

Race 2 - Grid position 35 Finished 7th (I'm not telling you how but thanks Scotty for the advice)

Anyway all happy, all safe, so home we go with Cadwell to look forward to the following weekend.

Back to Cadwell for a light Clubbing

I can't recall if I have already told you of this dear reader but it now appears I am competing in both the Superclub and the Club events.

As the name implies one is sort of a step-up from the other, as my results sort of show, originally it was my intention only to enter the club events but I sort of got carried away and decided that as I had the bike anyway I would do both. If you recall, originally it was my intention to win the club championship, hey ho, still can't say I haven't tried.

So we're back to Cadwell scene of my big, well big'ish get off.

To be honest I can't recall much about the weekend, which may be a good sign. The bike was as reliable as ever, the handling? Well handling is a very interesting subject. Apart from the installation of the White Power Damper at the rear and Wayne at White Power re-shimming and springing the forks at the front I haven't really had the bike set up professionally, as in on the track, Wayne did increase the damping at the rear at the beginning of the season to account for a stronger spring but other than that all the tweaking and twiddled is my own work and as far as I am concerned it is handling pretty well.

If the bike slides it slides smoothly and usually comes back, (well it didn't once and I fell off, but that was my own stupid fault) it is a little reluctant to turn into corners but considering the
geometry is that of a road bike that is unsurprising and would be improved by increasing ride height and dropping forks no doubt at the expense of stability. So all in all it is a pretty good package and it's kicking out 130bhp.

The weekend went something like this. Arrived, went to bar, went to bed, got up, practised, raced, had lunch, raced, went to bar, went to bed, woke up at 3am went for wee, fell back into caravan, woke, raced had lunch, raced, came home.

1st Race

Warren Scott won - Again
Kevin Jones 6th

2nd Race

Peter Baker won - Again
Kevin Jones 6th

3rd Race
Warren Scott won - Again
Kevin Jones 5th

4th Race
Kevin Jones 6th

Anyway I am sure we all had a lovely time and Zak made lots of new friends.

8th September - If it's gonna get hairy you'll need a Comb

Castle Combe to be exact, and that's where I was with my fellow practitioner in the Sound of Thunder, Mr Dean Waine. 'Twas practice day and a chance to relearn my way round having not ridden here for over 5 years and then I was on a YZF 750 during the time when track days were all the rage.

Unfortunately, due to the sort of tossers that buy a house near a race circuit and then complain about the noise in an attempt to raise the price of their property, the day was for whispering pipes only, which meant Akrapovich off, Power Commander disconnected and stealth mode around the paddock.

The first session was hilarious, so funny I nearly fell off. I couldn't take the hilarity of it all and came in early, closely followed by Dean. Both of us stood there scratching our heads, the bike that I had ridden all year with minimal suspension tweaking had suddenly turned into "buckaroo", the only thing missing was small boys placing plastic shovels and pick axes on my side panniers.

Castle Combe is not a flat circuit. It is not the bumps that cause the problem, as such, it is the dips that cause a sort of wallow that the bike struggles to cope with. However, all was not lost and after fiddling with this and that and changing my line around the circuit (to be honest that was the key to it all) by the end of the day I'd managed to get some reasonable lap times in around the 1.20's, which unfortunately was not good enough in comparison to the other SOT riders who were also out there.

Race Day

Castle Combe was actually the last Superclub event and as such I needed to score some serious points to make any improvement to the 8th place that I was currently languishing in, I would have to win or at least come second. Warren Scott had already wrapped up the championship and with Dave Mabbutt and Russell Joyner on the grid I was going to struggle. Andrew Brown on the Aprilia I had beaten a couple of times. However, I felt to be honest he had the edge. Chris White on the Buell started the season slowly and I had managed to beat him early on, but the bike was still being developed, hence at least 3 mechanics surrounding it at any given time. It was now much faster, or he was riding faster, he could do stand up wheelies and everything. Julian Stock had gone well in practice earlier in the week but had tipped off during morning practice on race day, so that may slow him a little.

After a wet morning the day cheered up considerably, the sun came out and warm breeze blew across the circuit. Castle Combe is a lovely circuit actually, well kept, clean and all the sorts of things that please girls. Tara mentioned that it was probably the nicest circuit we had been to. What this actually meant was that she hadn't pinned the manager up against the wall and threatened to stick his head down the toilet 'coz the showers were filthy. But anyway, I digress.

The first race was very encouraging. Not a great start but some serious scything quickly took me to 6th place behind Julian Stock, closely followed by some back marker action which allowed me to nip past him and pursue Chris White and Andrew Brown who were battling it out for 3rd and 4th. Unfortunately, although I was catching them, 7 laps did not allow enough time to do anything about it and a 5th place and 11 points were in the bag.

The second race was much the same really, managed to get past Julian again, and after Chris and Andrew, but in my enthusiasm to get to the front some optimistic move going between two back markers coming into the chicane meant I had to pick up and go straight through. I re-entered, having not enjoyed any benefit from my actions, and managed hold onto 5th place, again.

The end result in the Championship was ...........8th place.... hey ho!

Anyway that was the Superclub which, if you recall, I wasn't even competing in so 132 points wasn't bad - and I missed two rounds, so , say I had done Mallory and came 7th that would have been another 16 points, oh ! I still would only have got 6th place then, well how about if I came 6th ..... and then again if I had ....................... THE END.

Times
The lovely Becky did some stop watching for me and recorded the following:-
Fastest - 1.14.81
Consistent - 1.16.00 ish

Not quite the end though, 4 rounds of Club still to go and I am lying joint 5th in that.

The season is nearly over - the Superclub championship is now decided with 2 rounds left in the Club:

Final Superclub Championship Positions - Top 10

Club Championship Positions - Top 10

Information from New Era Club - for full results check their website