Monster Mono

The Smith Sisters have been hard at work are now well on their way to getting the bike ready for the first Supermono round at Pembrey. As they are now getting on a bit the Smiths have invested in a hydraulic work bench to ease their aching bones! You can see the bike has been completely stripped back to the bare frame and it is to be sent away to be painted, then the full rebuild can begin. Lyndon Poskitt is currently building the engine and there could be some surprises here. It may be a larger cc and it may have a close ratio gearbox. I say it may as we have a few things to try on the motor and at this point we don't want to give too much away but we are hopeful the results will be good and a a couple more bhp to the bike. The most we have previously seen from the Honda 450 engine was 62hp at the rear wheel so fingers crossed we can get a bit more than this. One of the things you have to love of the bike is the carbon wheels and all the attention to detail. The dry brake couplings will be swapped over to the products of our sponsor Goodridge as soon as we get get them ordered.

Well Oil Be Damned

It is with great pleasure that I can tell you that Fuchs Silkolene will be looking after all our moving parts this season. They are the top name in this area and have one of the most comprehensive ranges of high performance motorcycle and motorsport lubricants, so we are very happy to have them on board. To see all the products they make take a look at www.silkolene.com

Hutchinstein's Monster Is Born - Well Nearly

As you can see from the picture Leigh has finally managed to get himself out of the house and into the shed to start building his Suzuki SV650 ready for the coming season. I am a little worried though as he has been left to his own devices on the bike for the last couple of days so myself and Rob will give it a checking over before he is allowed out on it, only joking Leigh, we will check it twice !! You can see in the second picture that the new Nitron shock is now fitted and extremely nice it looks too!

I can also report that contrary to popular belief and what was previously rarer than a siting of Bigfoot, Leigh has been seen in the gym on more than one occasion this week. That is nearly front page news !!

Keeping My Rubber Warm

We have another new sponsor on board in the shape of Holroyd Tyrewarmers, check out their website at www.holroydtyrewarmers.co.uk. Have a look at their 'our riders' list and you will see us on there. It is their job to ensure our tyres are up to temperature before heading out on to the track and by looking at the quality of the product they have sent, I am sure they will do the job required exceptionally well.
If you are at the circuits and are in desperate need of some warmers pop along and see us as Birdy will be carrying some stock of these with him. I think you will also be pleasantly surprised at the price.

ThundersportGB Presentation Evening

It was a cold and dark December evening as we headed down to Mallory Park for the annual Thundersport presentation evening. We all gathered in a tent, sorry marquee, enjoyed a great night with a few beers flowing, a spot of grub. The photo's to the left show both myself and Leigh collecting our trophies from the former Grand Prix star Jeremy McWilliams. In Leigh's photo I think he is trying to crush poor Jeremy's hand. He was seen later using his other hand to lift his pint !
One of the funniest parts of the night was when Dave Stewart (head honcho of Thundersport) got Leigh mixed up with our friend Chris Boland (shown in the bottom picture) and all of a sudden Leigh had changed jobs and was now married to Chris' wife Jackie. It was a shock to us all I can tell you. Although I can confirm that this situation was rectified by the time the evenings sleeping arrangements came around.

Attention Ladies:- as you can see Leigh doesn't scrub up too bad, so if he has attracted your attention and you are a willing candidate could please forward your CV and recent photo and take him off our bloody hands!

Autosport International Show

We took a trip down to the Autosport International Show at the Birmingham NEC yesterday, and for anyone that is interested in pieces of metal and bits of carbon fibre and stuff it really is the place to be. I am not saying we are sad or anal or anything like that, OK I guess I am. My mate Andy Green who works at BAE Systems with me came along and we met up with the Smith Sisters there, after several hours of the Smiths, Greenie was noted as saying "they certainly do have a lot of enthusiasm don't they", this roughly translated means, "do they ever stop talking", now for anyone who knows them will understand this exactly, for those that don't, your time will come ! Only joking gents ?
I have to say though this really is one interesting show. The highlight of which was hidden on a small stand in Hall 9, the company EOS, Electrical Optical Systems Ltd. Now these guys manufacture machines than can do the most amazing things with metal and plastics, they can work down to 1 micron and utilising laser technology can produce virtually anything you want. It was funny to watch people's faces when they would come up to the stand, pick up the selection of items on display and see how surprised they were by the products. This really is future technology today. We were all well impressed. Have a look at www.eos.info for more information and to see what I mean. It looks like we may be working with them in the near future to produce some of the trickest gear you will see on a motorcycle in the country. More news to follow.
We had a wander over to the Goodridge guys who have been kind enough to support us this year, this was the funny part of the day when after being grilled by Gary on the technicalities of their dry brake couplings we heard a loud thud as the poor man hit the floor !! Only joking, we saved him a few seconds before this happened, much to the amusement of Goodridge Gill (as she will now be known).
Zircotec (see www.zircotec.com) who are specialists in ceramic coatings and Milltec (see www.millteksport.com) who manufacture exhaust systems were both present at the show and have been supporters of the Smiths for a period of time now so it was good to catch up with these guys and for me to meet some of them and put faces to names. The guys from Zircotec did ask if they could have some more examples of crashed exhausts pipes that have their coating on, now all I can say is guys, hopefully not. But if there are any they are heading your way !
Just to finish off all I will say is that if anyone has an interest in this are then the show is definitely worth a visit, so get it in your diaries for next year.

Full Race Coverage Online

Talk about everything happening at once, following on from the news that MotorsTV are to double their amount of coverage of the ThundersportGB races, comes the news that a new website http://www.bikesportuk.tv/ will launched soon. This is the blurb from their website, it is currently under construction but will be fully launched in the near future. "BikeSportUK.tv is undergoing a major production and conceptual overhaul at the moment and will soon be exploding into the online motorsport community with exclusive footage of club racing events that you will be able to watch right here or download to watch in your home cinema entertainment systems.We will have full coverage of every heat of the spectacular Thundersport GB series. Each race will be presented as an individual programme featuring a full commentary, interviews etc. You will be able to view the screened highlights or if you wish; EVERY lap of every race! We know you are going to love this new motorsport experience and we encourage you to interact with us in it's ongoing development." Sounds good to me !!!!

A 'TV' Star Is Born

We have just heard some great news, ThundersportGB is to raise its presence on MotorsTV by airing four hours of racing coverage per round for the 2010 season. This will afford much improved race coverage, along with more pit lane and podium interviews therefore giving us a chance to promote our sponsors in the best possible manner. The shows will be delivered in the shape of one 2 hour program per event Plus two 1 hour programs with repeats shown at various times. All the shows will be available to download online from the ThundersportGB website so everyone will have a chance to see them. This really is good news.

Keeping Control Of Our Fluids

I am sure you will all agree that from time to time we all have a bit of fluid leakage, both us and the bikes, but well hopefully this won't happen to us this year as Goodridge Fluid Transfer Systems have agreed to support us with their comprehensive array of fluid transfer products. We are proud to be associated with such a world renowned company that has been supplying the motorsport industry for over 35 years. We have a few ideas of what we need and fitting to the bikes. We will keep you up to speed as we progress and develop the bikes. In the meantime you can check out all the products that Goodridge have to offer by checking out their website on http://www.goodridge.net/.