Rizoma Razzle Dazzle

Santa popped in again over the last few days and dropped off these goodies from Rizoma. If you have not heard of Rizoma check them out at their website on http://www.rizoma.com/en/, they manufacture some of the most exquisite aftermarket parts for your motorcycle. For UK Dealers check here. http://www.rizoma.com/en/store-dealer-locator.html

The first thing in the parcel was the Rizoma 'Proguard System', this is a brake and clutch lever guard that prevents against any accidental application. This can therefore prevent accidents from happening when your brake or clutch lever are caught on another rider or bike. They are used extensively in the MotoGP paddock and you can see the brake side on Marquez's bike in the photo. No matter what level of racing you are at then these are certainly worth investing in.

The second item sent was the fuel cap, for anyone that loves beautifully machined pieces of metal then this is just the business, fantastically engineered. As I work in the aircraft industry I know when things are well made, and these are up

there with the best.

More pictures will be added when I have fitted these to the ER6/Versys Supertwin project.

Santa 'Sleighs' Silkolene

We have just had the good news that Fuchs Silkolene are going to be supporting us with their products for the third year running. They will be in charge of keeping our moving parts oiled and our dirty parts clean. We would like to give a massive thanks to all the guys at Fuchs Silkolene, their support is greatly appreciated. Check out what they have to offer at their website on http://www.silkolene.com/. During the season our newsletters are also featured on their website.

Club 77

Hi all, in order to allow us to compete for the full season we need to raise some cash to ensure expenses can be covered, from entry fees at circa £250-£300 per round, tyres at £280 per set etc etc.
Now the idea behind Club77 is that we would like to get 77 people pledging £77. This would then allow us to compete in the ThundersportGB Supertwin Championship on our Kawasaki ER6. The bike is nearing completion and therefore we just need to cover the running costs.
All 77 people will have their names on the bike and will receive the newsletters produced after each meeting.
In addition I will have T-Shirts made for each sponsor.
If you feel like this may be of interest to you then please drop me a line at hutch7777@hotmail.co.uk
I am glad I won't be running the No.1 though, otherwise this would be the worst case of fund raising known to man!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks

The Geeks Go On Tour

On a slightly different note, myself and seven of my friends and colleagues took a trip down to the Air Museum at Duxford. Between us we have approximately 3 million years worth of working in the aircraft industry and during the trip everyones true 'geekiness' came out. For me it was the chance to see the Blackbird SR71 (pictured left), probably my favourite aircraft of all time. Anything than can fly at 3.3 mach has to be something special. As we are more use to the British military aircraft I think it was the hangar that housed the American stuff that created the most interest.
So there you go, what do people who work on military aircraft do on their day off? Yes, that's right, go and look at more military aircraft!

Flow Your Head Sir?

Colin at Road and Race Developments has started work on porting and flowing our ER6/Versys cylinder head. There is a lot of work to be done on this part of the bike and this is where there is most potential to see some major power gains. Once done our reprofiled cams will be slotted in and then the rebuild of the engine can commence.
If you have any engine tuning or engine building requirements then give Colin a shout on 07843 557374 or take a peek at what engine tuning is on offer at http://www.roadandracedevelopments.co.uk/page_2474192.html

ER6 / EX650 / Versys Rearsets

As promised, here are some pictures of the finished rearsets. I think you will agree they look spot on. So if you need some for yor ER6, Versys, EX650 or 650R then please get in touch with Pete Thornton at Cadmatic by visitng his website at http://www.cadmatic.co.uk/contact.asp or ring him on 01635 582200 or simply drop him an email on info@cadmatic.co.uk. Pete is a top bloke and if you damage your rearsets at all, he will sell you the parts individually so you don't have the expense of buying a complete set each time.

Daytona for 2012 ?

I feel very privileged to announce that for the 2012 season we will be supported by Daytona Boots. These are simply the best boots that money can buy. If you want to keep your tootsies safe then there is no better place to have them than in a pair of Daytona's finest offering. As you can see they have even been custom made in our colours and this is a service that they can offer to anybody. For further information or to get in touch with Daytona then please visit their website at http://www.daytona.de/ or drop them an email to info@daytona.de

ER6 Rearsets Anyone

Thanks to our friend Pete at Cadmatic Engineering Services (http://www.cadmatic.co.uk/) as he has come up trumps with the finished back plates for the rearset to fit our Kawasaki ER6 Supertwin. These particular ones are to fit the later model frames where the left and right bolt hole patterns are different, on the earlier models the bolt hole patterns are the same. As you can see these look a fantastic bit of kit and I will post some photos as soon as I get them fitted. In the meantime if you need some rearsets for your ER6 or SV650 then please get in touch with Pete on 01635 582200.

Factory Racing & Motopike

Many thanks to Adam Pike of Factory Racing for supplying us with new clip-ons and various other bits and bobs to go on the Kawasaki ER6 Supertwin. Check out what he has on offer at http://www.factorycomponents.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=55 or http://www.motopike.com/. You can also give him a call on 01509 559127.

Off With Your Head

Hi folks, just a bit of an update on the ER6 Supertwin for you. The cylinder head has now been removed from the bike to allow the cams to be taken out and sent to be reground. Colin at Road and Race Developments (http://www.roadandracedevelopments.co.uk/) is working to get good power out of the engine along with developing many other parts for the ER, so if you are building a Supertwin of Minitwin yourself give him a call on 07843 557374 and he will be able to sort you out. The next job will be to port and flow the head. Once this has been done the motor will be taken out completely, the rods polished along with a few more internal mods prior to reassembly. Whilst the engine is out of the bike the frame will be sent off for powder coating and the swingarm sent for paint stripping to give it that 'works' look. More updates to follow soon!

2012 - What to do ?

Unfortunately we have received some bad news in the last week, which is that 3,000 employees are to be made redundant from BAE Systems. Even worse for us at the Brough site is that they are to end manufacturing here with the loss of 899 jobs. As you will appreciate this came as a bit of a shock when it looked like there were orders in offing for the Hawk Aircraft which is manufactured at Brough. Having been here for 21 years since leaving school, it will be a massive upheaval for me. So it looks like I will have to start the new year on the look out for a new job. If anybody has any ideas or knows of any opportunities please drop me a line at hutch7777@hotmail.co.uk, anything considered!
Back to the racing as you will appreciate it is very difficult for me to commit to anything at this time but again if anyone has an opportunity please drop me a line. As most of you will know I am open to riding any type of bike anywhere!
I will continue to complete our ER6 Supertwin over the next few weeks and if anybody would like to help us run that for the season next year then again please drop me a line.
Thanks
Hutch

Seats Units and more Seat Units

Would you like a seat unit sir? Our friend Graham Jones sorted us out with some seat units for the Kawasaki ER6 Supertwin. These look like the Moto2 bikes rear ends so will really look the business. Once the final touches have been done to the subframe they will be available as a kit with the subframe and seat unit from Colin at Road and Race Developments. A good option if you are thinking of 'Supertwinning' you ER?

All Done at Donington

Donington Park BSB 9-11 September
It was nice to see Donington Park back on the British Superbike calendar after the circuit had been resurrected post the failed attempt to run the Formula 1 Grand Prix a couple of years ago. The track itself is still one of the best in the country and is absolutely thrilling to ride. I must have done 20,000 miles instructing around this circuit over a period of 7-8 years from when the Ron Haslam Race School use to be based there. So it is fair to say I know my way around the place.
This was also to be the last round of the Harley Davidson XR1200 series so it would be our last chance to race the beast this year and as I was starting to get the hang of these things we were a little optimistic. I say a little optimistic as you never want to get too carried away with these things as they can have a tendency to bite you on the bum!
Free Practice
We kept the bike the same as it had been at Cadwell with rear ride height raised as we figured it would help the bike hold the constantly changing turns of the Donington circuit. Surprisingly and in contradiction to the weather forecast, the sun was shining and the temperature was up around the 25 degrees mark. As we were due out on circuit at 5pm, Rob commented “what a lovely day for a ride round on a Harley”. I am not sure if he quite understood that I was meant to be going as fast as I could to get a good time in or if he thought I was just going for a cruise down Daytona Beach!
Out on the track and the bike felt good from the off, handling was good and predictable, the bike had good speed, so I stayed out on track until a few spots of rain danced off my visor. I pulled into pit lane as I was unsure as to what rain might fall. As soon as I had done this the shower had gone, I think my visor must have caught the only 3 spots of rain that fell. Still the session ended and we found ourselves 7th quickest but confident there was more to come.
Qualifying
Our qualifying session was held at 9:30am on Saturday morning so we had an early start to get the bike ready. With the bike fuelled up and the tyre warmers on, we waited for our session. Out on track and after a couple of laps I found myself circulating behind James Webb and Dijon Compton (first and third in the championship). I held the gap to these guys pretty constant up to over halfway through the session until they eventually pitted to make adjustments. As I had kept these guys in check for most of the session I was confident we had posted a good time and sure enough Rob held out the pit board to indicate we were currently in 5th place with a time of 1m 45s. This is also how the session ended, I was a little disappointed to miss qualifying on the front row again by only one place but still it showed we had good pace for the races.
Race 1 – Saturday
For those of you that were paying attention in our last newsletter you will remember that our race from Cadwell Park was rescheduled to take place at Donington, hence the reason we had two races to compete in. The grid positions for the re-run Cadwell race were to be taken from the Cadwell grid and as luck would have it and so as not to confuse me, being a mere simpleton, I was placed 5th on the grid, again just on the second row. As the lights went out I didn’t make the greatest of starts and got boxed in going into Redgate corner for the first time. I emerged in 8th or 9th place so knew I now had my work cut out. I passed a rider into the old hairpin then as we entered Macleans there was a lot of jostling for position and three bikes ran wide, I held the tight line and managed to pass all three of them as we entered Coppice corner. Down the back straight for the first time and Dijon Compton pulled off to the side of the track promoting me up into 4th place. I was now only about one second back from Alex Gault who was in 3rd place as we crossed the start and finish line for the first time. Only 9 more laps to go! I put my head down to try and chase Gault but Dave Wood made several attempts to pass me but each time he ran wide and I re-took the position. Rob McNealy was sat right behind the two of us as well, ready to pounce on any mistakes we made. About halfway through the race a few spots of rain appeared on our visors. Gault looked liked he backed off a little for the rain but I kept the throttle pinned and closed the gap back down to one second. Unfortunately I ran out of laps and the chequered flag came out and we crossed the line to take 4th place. Still this was our best result of the year and in a field of some quality riders, as a bonus we had also taken a second off our qualifying time to reduce our best lap to 1m44s.
Saturday night the guys and gals from Harley Davidson had organised a BBQ and a few drinks, this was a really good event as through the season the series has developed a real family atmosphere, so thanks to them for feeding and watering us!
Race 2 - Sunday
Our race on the Sunday was scheduled slap bang in the middle of the two British Superbike races so that would ensure we had a good crowd to play to. I lined up on the grid in my ‘usual’ 5th place and waited for the lights to go out. My start this time was a little better than Saturday’s race but still not great. At least this time I wasn’t as far back and settled in to 7th position. I managed to pass Wood and Compton to start the second lap in 5th place. On the second lap I managed to equal my best lap time from the Saturdays race and Torquil Paterson in 4th place was in my sights so things were looking good. It was on the 3rd lap that I started to get twinges in my right forearm. Now for anybody that has raced motorbikes in any form will know what this meant, it was a racers worst nightmare, ‘arm-pump’! Now for those of you that don’t know this basically means that you lose all grip in your hand from the muscles in your forearm pumping up. The reason your arms are reduced to this pathetic state is because of this.. When under extreme pressure, the blood circulating away from your arms cannot leave as quickly as the much-needed, oxygen-rich blood is coming into them, which creates a build up of lactic acid. Pressure builds up in the forearms compressing the muscles and nerves which in turn loose their ability to function properly. So, there you go! What this actually meant to me was that I was struggling to pull the brakes as hard as usual and it also made turning the bike quite difficult. I have not suffered with any form of arm-pump for years so I don’t know why it chose to raise its ugly head now. Being the little soldier that I am though, I battled on and was still confident of taking 5th place. That was unitl my adversaries from the previous day, Dave Wood and Rob McNealy appeared back on the scene. The next 6 laps were very entertaining to be part of and I am told made for good viewing on Eurosport. But alas I was unable to hold these guys off and I took the chequered flag in 7th place. Not a bad result but I am confident it would have been 5th place or better if my ageing body hadn’t failed me! I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed the racing and for this reason I hope the series runs again next year, plus we were just starting to get the hang of it!

Congratulations go to James Webb for being crowned the Harley Davidson XR1200 2012 Champion and commiserations to Peter Ward who only just lost out on the championship by 2 points after a long hard season.
We are currently unsure as to what next season may bring but you can keep up with the news as I will be updating our blog on a regular basis as we continue the build of our ‘Kawasaki Versys Supertwin’ race bike and with any additional news that we may have for the 2012 season.

Lastly, a big thanks to Warr’s London for the loan of the bike during the year and to Harley Davidson for organising a great championship. Thanks also go to all our sponsors that enable us to be out there competing, thank you.

Sad Day at Cadwell

Cadwell Park BSB 27-29 August
Bank Holiday weekends at Cadwell Park are always well attended and from the amount of spectators filling the grass banks this weekend was to be no exception. Over 50,000 people attended on race day with more than half of them around for the practice days as well. It is when you have numbers like this that it makes you realise you are part of something special, it is a good feeling to have!
It was nice to be back at a circuit that I know well as the last few meetings have been at circuits that I have not raced on for a number of years so it felt as if we had been on the back foot a little. But at Cadwell there would be no such excuses as I have done many laps around here over the previous years and were therefore confident we could put on a good show.
Free Practice
It was good to be back out on the Cadwell circuit and I immediately felt at home. We quickly put in some reasonable lap times to find ourselves in 7th position. I was amazed that even on the big Harley's we were still managing to 'get some air' over the mountain, it does make it fun!
Qualifying
We made some changes to the bike for qualifying which mainly centred on raising the rear of the bike in an attempt to get the XR1200 to hold a line around the corners rather than running wide. This had the desired effect as it was immediately easier to ride. About hafway through the session we were in P3 and I was hopeful of a front row start but towards the end of the session I was pipped by two more people and therefire finished the session in 5th place. Still 5th on the grid was not a bad place to start, middle of the second row due to there only being 3 per row at Cadwell as opposed to the usual 4.
Warm Up
We were pretty happy with our set up on the bike and therefore we just went out to get myself up to speed ready for the afternoon’s race. I followed Torquil Paterson around for the duration of the session and set a lap time not too far away from our qualifying time so it looked liked we would be in good shape come the start of the race.
Race
At 3pm we headed down to the holding area awaiting our turn to be let out onto the track ready for our race. As time ticked by we began to realise something was amiss and after approximately fifteen minutes we were sent back to the Harley Davidson marquee to await further instructions. After what seemed like an age the news came through that young Ben Gautrey had been killed in the Superstock 600 race and proceedings would be halted for an indefinite period of time. As you will appreciate this was shocking news and I had come to know Ben quite well as we had raced together a lot during 2010 in the Thundersport Championship. He was a very likeable lad who was very dedicated to his chosen sport but at only 18 years of age he still had a lot of living to do. This goes to remind us that motorsport is and can be very dangerous, but that is probably why it gives us the ultimate buzz that it does. RIP Ben, god speed.

Ben doing what he loved.

Our race was eventually cancelled and this will now be held at Donington on the 10th/11th September where we will now have a double-header.

For further info check out the series website at http://xr1200trophy.harley-davidson.co.uk/

The next meeting is at Donington Park on the 10th-11th September, so if you can make it, please come along and offer your support, if not you can catch the races live on Eurosport or check the live timing at TSL Timing (http://www.tsl-timing.com/?loc=major&season=2011&series=BSB&event=races)

Lastly a big thanks to all our sponsors that enable us to be out there competing.

Branding The Iron at Brands

Hello one and all. As you will now be aware we have encountered some high speed wobbles at previous meetings on the XR1200 and in an effort to resolve this we ordered some new swingarm bushes from Vance & Hines in the United States of America. The original bushes are made from a thin metal plate bonded to rubber; the new bushes are manufactured from solid nylon. The idea behind this is that we would be removing some of the flex between the frame and the swingarm and this would hopefully cure the issues we were seeing as we believed this flexing was the root cause of the problem. It was not a difficult job to change these over and as you have to take a good number of parts off the bike it is a good opportunity to give the bike a really good clean, so she was looking ‘spic n’ span’ for the weekend ahead. Another rider aid we fitted was a remote brake adjuster supplied by the guys at TWM Special Components in San Marino, very good quality gear at a good price, have a look at their website http://www.twm-sc.com/ . This little gizmo allows me to adjust the lever span on the front brakes whilst on the move during a race, very handy when you are trying to stop 250kg of Harley. So with the new bushes fitted, new oil, filter, spark plugs and brake adjuster we were ready for Brands Hatch. And for this weekend I would have my trusty mechanic back in the shape of Rob, my stepfather, who has been helping since we started way back in the ‘year of our lord’ 1993. A quick thanks to Rob as he had to change a hospital appointment that was booked for the Friday to be able to come.
You will all be pleased to know that we had no issues getting into the circuit this weekend so no ranting and raving from me this time!
Free Practice - Friday
Brands Hatch was set to be a rather strange meeting as the Friday qualifying and race were to be run over the 1.2 mile Indy circuit with the Saturday session and Sunday race to be run over the 2.4 mile GP Circuit. Now whilst I have ridden the Indy circuit several times over the years it has been around 10 years since I last rode the GP circuit so I was a little concerned about relearning the track in one 20 minutes session prior to the Sunday race. Anyway more of that later as I have plenty of other issues to tell you about first.
We took to the Indy Circuit early on Friday morning for our free practice session, I was quite confident about our chances as I have had a number of successes over recent years at Brands Hatch on the Indy track. I circulated for most of the session with Torquil Paterson who has been on the podium this year, so I thought he would be a good gauge speed wise. About 15 minutes into the session the rear tyre was starting to slide around and this was getting progressively worse. My idea was to pit around this time anyway to adjust the rear shocks but as I stopped in the pit lane we noticed that oil had sprayed all over the back of the bike. Not wanting to risk anything we retired to the Harley tent to investigate further. Once there we soon found the cause of the oil leak and this was no more than the oil filler working its way loose. That was a relief so we cleaned the bike up; secured the filler with some additional lock wiring and we were ready for our qualifying session. On a positive side the bike appeared to be behaving itself in the handling stakes so it looked as if the bushes that had been fitted were working as we had hoped.
Qualifying
Out into qualifying and I had a good feel for the bike now that we didn’t have any oil on the rear tyre. As I have had a limited amount of dry track time this year I decided I would stay out for the full session and just enjoy riding the bike and pushing for a lap time. I saw Rob put out a lap of 52.9s on my pit board which I was pretty pleased with but my Achilles heel appeared to be the left hander of Graham Hill bend and I knew we were losing a little time here. Still we managed to qualify only 0.7s off pole position but were in 7th position on the grid. The unfortunate thing was I couldn’t interrogate our sector times as the transponder that is carried on the bike and send a signal to the timing beacons had somehow come adrift and made a bid for freedom. We were very lucky in that the marshal’s had seen it come off at the bottom of Paddock Hill and returned it to us an hour or so later. That was a bit lucky as they are around £250 to purchase.
Race 1
On to the grid we went for our first race of the weekend, as the lights went out I released the clutch. My initial thoughts were, ‘this should be a good start’ that was until the front wheel got higher and higher until I was looking at the beautiful blue sky. As the front wheel came back down with a bang I realised I had made a complete hash or that start as nearly all the grid piled past. I entered the first corner of Paddock Hill bend virtually dead last! Oh dear I was going to have my work cut out here. Trying to make up too much ground too quickly I locked the front wheel on the brakes entering Clearways but managed to recover and not loose too much time. By lap two I was not as comfortable on the bike as I normally am and it was then I noticed the seat foam had come adrift. Not only that but it was now stuck to my leg. This resulted in what must have looked very strange as every time I got to a straight I was shaking my leg to try and get rid of the sticky backed foam. I think it did eventually come off by about lap 3, but the residual glue that was left on the seat made it very hard to hang off the bike for the corners, still at least it made it entertaining. Over the nest few laps I managed to barge my way past 10 or so riders and into 6th place. Unfortunately 5th place was around 5 seconds in front of me but I still had 10 laps to close him down. I got embroiled in a tussle with Doug Cowie for a few laps which whilst it was fun did slow my progress towards 5th place. I managed to get within 1 second of 5th when the chequered flag came out, so had to settle for 6th place. It was a pity I made such a mess of the start as 5th place would have been achievable if not further. The main thing was though that we did have a lot of fun out there and you can’t ask for more than that!
Free Practice – Saturday
Free practice on Saturday was my chance to get back out on the Brands Hatch GP circuit, as I have said previously it is a good number of years since I had ridden around here but I have to say it is one of the best tracks in the UK. It combines the best parts of the shorter Indy circuit with some proper old school corners than twist through the woodland. It really is a ball to ride and I was thoroughly enjoying myself. I stayed out for the full 20 minute session as this would be the best way to get myself reacquainted with the track. I have to admit my times didn’t set the world on fire but I was confident that come the race on Sunday we would be ok.
Race 2
We had a very long wait for our race on Sunday as we were scheduled to be the last of the day. There had been a few stoppages and therefore we didn’t make it on to the track until nearly 6pm. Not wanting to make the same mistake as in Fridays race I dialled in a few less revs for the start and as the lights changed I got a …………………average start! As the race settled down I tried to hang on to the leaders but with lack of track knowledge at this point I knew this would be an unattainable task. I did end up in a 4 way scrap for 6th place and we changed position nearly every corner. Doug Cowie eventually succumbed to the pressure and crashed out at Druids corner. I was very lucky to avoid him but lost two places in the process. I quickly made my way back into 6th place and got my head down setting my fastest lap of the race on the last lap showing that we were still learning our way around the circuit. Again another race I thoroughly enjoyed so I left the circuit happy with our weekends rides.
On our drive home from the circuit we received a call to say we had been awarded ‘man of the meeting’ for our efforts in the two races. It’s a good feeling knowing that there are people taking notice of what we are doing!

For further info check out the series website at http://xr1200trophy.harley-davidson.co.uk/

The next meeting is at Cadwell Park in Lincolnshire on the 27th-29th August, so if you can make it, please come along and offer your support, if not you can catch the races live on Eurosport or check the live timing at TSL Timing (http://www.tsl-timing.com/?loc=major&season=2011&series=BSB&event=races)

Lastly a big thanks to all our sponsors that enable us to be out there competing.

Keeping Cool

Well its been a while since we have given you an update on the ER6 GP2 bike and for this I apologise but things have been a tad busy recently. The latest news is that Simon Lane from HEL Performance (http://helperformance.com/) have sent us this oil cooler and sandwich plate take off to see if we can make a reasonable effort of fitting it to the ER6. When ER6 engines are tuned they are known to run a little hot so rather than fitting a larger radiator and making spares more difficult we have decided that an oil cooler is the best option. We should be able to give you a close up of the fitting in the next couple of weeks.

Rain, Rain, Go Away..........................

Oulton Park BSB 16-17 July
Looking forward to the weekend but unfortunately we didn’t get off to the best start. We set off for Oulton Park at around 4:30pm on Friday and arrived at the circuit around 7pm. The ‘jobsworth’ on the gate then informed us that we were too late to be allowed into the paddock to set up and would have to park up in the car park until the morning. This is obviously not ideal as we wanted to get the caravan set up and do some work on the bike prior to our practice early on Saturday morning. So I made a team decision to totally ignore him and carried on to the paddock! It amazes me how the organisers assume that people don’t have day jobs and think we can get to the circuit anytime that they decree. We are restricted a little on what times we can set off for the meeting, it may be unfortunate that we can’t get to the circuit in a reasonable time but I really do think the organisers should give a bit of slack on these occasions. Any way that is my rant over with, just needed to get that off my chest!
Firstly a big thanks to Ian at Harley and the rest of the guys who had managed to do a sterling job of getting the bike repaired, Leigh and I only had a bit of fettling to do on the Friday night to get us ready for Free Practice on Saturday.

Free Practice
Saturday morning came and as predicted the weather was very poor and had been raining from around 5am so the track was well and truly wet. We fitted the wets to the bike, check the tyre pressures and headed out for Free Practice. As it was my first time back on a bike since the crash at Knockhill I was probably taking it a little cautious although the track did seem to be very slippery in these conditions, especially when compared to Knockhill and Thruxton which both had really good grip in the wet. I got myself settled back into the swing of things and finished the session in 9th place, not too bad but not really setting the world on fire.

Qualifying
Amazingly the track had tried by the time it came around for our qualifying session. So with dry tyres fitted and the suspension settings changed off we went. Again I was probably a bit over cautious at not wanting to damage the bike again after our last outing and didn’t really feel as if I was pushing on too well. I finished the session in 9th place, a bit disappointed to be on the 3rd row of the grid but I knew we still had a lot more in the bag come race day. At least I had the company of the Mrs for the evening as she had driven up from her Rollerderby activates in Wakefield. Unfortunately for Leigh this meant we got the double bed in the caravan and he was relegated to the slightly smaller single. As the single is not the largest bed in the world and Leigh is not the smallest bloke, it was amusing watching him trying to make himself fit! Still, at least he wasn’t on the bunk!

Race
As there are noise restrictions in place at Oulton Park due to the neighbouring church, nothing happens on a Sunday until 12 o’clock! This is not all bad as it means we got a lay in for a change. We were awoken though to the pitter patter of rain on the caravan roof and knew we were in for another day of inclement weather. Amazingly the weather forecast for the weekend had actually been right; although this time we didn’t want it to be. There were two races prior to ours, the British Superbike race and the National Superstock race, the former had a number of crashes and had a lot of laps run under the safety car whilst the latter was red flagged after only four laps and declared a result. This was not looking too good. Due to these issues and with time being of a premium due to the TV coverage the decision was taken to reduce the number of laps our race was to be run over from 10 laps to 5 laps. With the weather as bad as it was this was not a bad thing.
We lined up on the grip and waited for the lights. I made a reasonable start a fed into 8th place as we rounded the first corner. The water spray from the bikes in front was amazing and it made it very difficult to actually see where I was going. The first eight bikes were nose to tail as completed the first lap but as we came up to Lodge corner on the second lap James Webb crashed out taking Rob McNealy with him, and the rest of us having to take avoiding action. This was lucky as a whole load more of us could have gone down as well. I now found myself in 5th place and sat on the back of the leading group. I was quite comfortable at this pace and made a pass on Gary Byrne to take 4th. I was looking to line up Torquil Paterson for 3rd when Gary made a pass back on me again onto Lodge corner. Starting the last lap Leigh put out +8 seconds on my pitboard and this meant I had a big gap to the guy behind me. I then took the decision that ‘discretion was the better part of valour’ and brought the bike home in 5th place but ready to do battle again another day. Not a bad result for the weekend and if we hadn’t suffered the crash at Knockhill I would have probably stuck my neck out a bit more but may be that is an age thing? I was happy enough with the result though and the fact we were in the battle for podium positions. Again though our speed through the traps was very good, as we were 2nd fastest through two of the speed traps and quickest through the other. This showed we were a) getting good drive off the corners and b) getting a good slipstream from the bikes in front of us. Either way we know our bike is not lacking in the speed department. It is just up to me to get it around the corners once we eliminate the lessening handling issues. We do have some parts on there way from the US of A which we are hopeful will cure these woes for our next outing.

For further info check out the series website at http://xr1200trophy.harley-davidson.co.uk/

The next meeting is at Brands Hatch in Kent on the 5th-7th August, so if you can make it, please come along and offer your support, if not you can catch the races live on Eurosport or check the live timing at TSL Timing (http://www.tsl-timing.com/?loc=major&season=2011&series=BSB&event=races)

Taking The Knocks at Knockhill

Knockhill BSB 18-19 June
Our next meeting came and this time it was a chance to travel to Scotland and the race circuit of Knockhill. For this meeting I had my brother Leigh along to give a helping hand and he was keen to see what the Scottish circuit was like. We took a leisurely ride up on the Friday as we were not out on the bike until Saturday. Once we arrived at the circuit the bike was unloaded into the Harley Davidson awning and our caravan set up for the weekend. This truly is the glitz and glamour of bike racing as we had upgraded from the back of the van accommodation we had at Thruxton!

Free Practice
As with Thruxton it was 10 years since I last raced at Knockhill so was keen to get some laps in around the circuit to learn which way it went after such a long break. Unfortunately for us and is quite of the case with Knockhill the weather as rather inclement and we headed out on to the track in torrential rain. After a few laps of ‘wobbling’ around I soon reacquainted myself with the turns and undulations of the track. The Warr’s XR1200 was handling very well, a lot different from the issues we had at Thruxton and I gained in confidence with each passing lap. He grip from the Dunlops wet tyres was fantastic and this helped us to get faster and faster. We finished the session in 7th place only one second off the fastest time but confident we could go quicker come qualifying.

Qualifying
2:10pm and out we went for our qualifying session. The track was still wet but it was not raining quite as hard so the conditions were a little better than they had been for free practice. I got my head down straight away and after only a few laps was pushing the bike quite hard. I came across the line to see P3 on my pitboard so I knew things were going pretty well. I kept plugging away but then the red flags came out which brought a halt to the session, this was not good timing as I was just starting to go for the last push. Some oil had been spilt on the track so we had to wait for this to be cleaned up. We did go out for the last five minutes once the cleanup had been done but because of the slippery surface it was difficult to know how fast to go. So we had to settle for the time we had done which meant we qualified in 5th position but only half a second off pole. We were all pretty happy with this as we only just missed being on the front row by 1/10th of a second. Looking at the data from the session showed we were also getting good drive out of the turns as we were 2nd and 4th quickest through the speed traps, things were looking good for the races on Sunday.

Warm Up
Sunday morning came and after a good day on the Saturday I was looking forward to getting out on the bike as I was really enjoying riding the Harley around the twists and turns of the Knockhill circuit. The track was damp but starting to dry a little so we opted to keep the wet tyres on for this session. The idea was just to have a steady ride around and get ourselves into gear ready for the races. Well, that was the idea, until whilst starting my second lap I hit the brakes for the first corner which immediately locked the front wheel, I quickly released the brake which brought the bike back into line and I grabbed another handful of brake. But by now I was running out of tarmac so released the brakes again as I took to the mud! This is where our problems got somewhat worse. As it had been raining a lot the mud was very soft and as soon as the bike hit this it dug in and flipped me off the bike. The Harley then decided it wanted to join the Scottish gymnastic team a performed a double back flip with half twist. I ran back to the bike to ensure the engine was turned off and realised it sustained quite a lot of damage. It did take three marshals to get the bike picked up, and they have now been doing weight training to get ready for the next round for the championship. It was a bit of a strange crash as in nineteen years of racing I have only locked the front wheel in a straight line once before so was not something I was expecting to happen. In my defence your honour, a lot of people had taken a tumble there over the course of the weekend so I was not on my own.

Race
As the bike was beyond repair from the morning ‘Warm Up’ crash we were unable to compete in the races. As this was a double header with two races this was a real blow and we left Knockhill severely disappointed as to what could have been.

Unfortunately this has now ruined our championship aspirations so from this point on we will just have to go out and get the best results we can.

For further info check out the series website at http://xr1200trophy.harley-davidson.co.uk/

The next meeting is at Snetterton in Norfolk on the 2nd/3rd July, due to not being able to get the bike repaired in time it looks as if we will have to miss this meeting but we should be back in action at Oulton Park on the 16th/17th July. So if you can make it, please come along and offer your support, if not you can catch the races live on Eurosport or check the live timing at TSL Timing (http://www.tsl-timing.com/?loc=major&season=2011&series=BSB&event=races)

Lastly a big thanks to all our sponsors that enable us to be out there competing.

Thrusting Harley at Thruxton

We arrived at Thruxton on Friday afternoon and proceeded to the communal awning that is set up by Harley Davidson for all the competitors to house their bikes and gear in. The placed looked great and is set up in a very professional manner as you would expect from such a prestige company. We unloaded the van, set up our area in the awning and settled down with a cup of tea. We didn’t have the luxury of the caravan this weekend as my brother Leigh was racing at the ThundersportGB meeting at Cadwell Park so myself and Rob had to make do with the next best thing to a caravan, ‘back o’van’. We did have separate camp beds though so all was good; this truly is living life at the high end! We did have the pleasure of the Smith Sisters, Mick and Gary coming to help us for the weekend and you could hear the paddock rejoicing! They have worked on a lot of bikes and their help was greatly appreciated.

Free Practice
It was 10 years since I last raced at Thruxton and that was on a Yamaha TZ250 GP bike, so a little different from the XR1200 we would be on. As this was the case I was keen to get out in free practice and re-learn the circuit and understand how the bike handled around the fastest circuit in the UK. I left pit lane alongside Jeremy McWilliams, (ex MotoGP rider and Warr’s Championship winning rider from last year!) only to notice his front mudguard was rubbing on his front tyre creating a lot of white smoke. I pulled alongside Jezza and pointed at his bike, he must have noticed as he returned to the pits on the very next lap. Unfortunately for me the marshals must have thought the smoke was coming from my bike as they displayed the black flag with an orange circle on along with my race number which means, leave the circuit immediately. I pulled of the track and alongside the marshal’s post, I knew exactly what the problem was, they had mine and Jezza’s bike mixed up. After what seemed like an age they finally got authorisation from race control to let me proceed with the session. Not the best way to start the weekend, but I got my head down and finished the session in 8th place but not entirely happy with the handling of the bike.

Qualifying
For the qualifying session we made some minor adjustments to the suspension to make the bike ride the bumpy Thruxton circuit a little better but even after only a handful of laps I knew it hadn’t improved the bike at all. As qualifying is only a 20 minute session there isn’t enough time to come into the pits and make any comprehensive adjustments so I decided to stay out for the full session, do the best I could and make sure I had learnt the circuit as much as possible. The bike was proving to be a real handful around the fast bumpy corners of ‘village and church’ and this was losing us the majority of our time and did give me more than the occasional heart in mouth moment, which necessitated a change of underpants once back at the van. We still managed to place ourselves 7th on the grid but felt it could have been much better without the issues we were having.

Warm Up
For the Monday morning ‘Warm Up’ session we decided to try something different with the rear shocks and fitted stiffer springs in an effort to cure our handling woes. The session was dry so it gave us a good chance to try the different setting. After only a handful of laps I knew this was not an improvement and so it was back to the drawing board for the race.
I did try a practice start at the end of the ‘warm up’ as I had not done a racing start on this bike before. Anyway my approach was as with any other bike, lots of revs and slip the clutch. The moment I did this on the Harley the front wheel was pointing towards the sky and I realised this was probably not the best way to launched the bike off the line! My second attempt was a lot more successful so I was happy for the race start.

Race
Mid morning and the heavens opened and down came the rain. This was set in for the day so we knew it was to be a wet race. We changed the suspension back to how it was the previous day as although we knew it was not great it was still the lesser of two evils. The wet tyres were fitted into the bike and we headed off to the grid ready for the race. This would be the first time the Harley Davidson XR1200’s had been raced on full wet tyres in the UK so we were all a little apprehensive. We all collected on the grid after 2 warm up laps and waited for the lights to go out. I thought I had made a reasonable start but then seemed to get a little boxed in around the first couple of corners and lost a few places in the process. I settled down and started to pick off a few riders over the next couple of laps and once clear of these I settled into 5th place with 3rd and 4th only a stones throw in front of us. At this point I thought brilliant, a great chance to get a podium in our first race on the bike. But over the next few laps our handling problems were still evident and if you managed to see the footage on Eurosport you will know that I certainly had my work cut out to hold onto the bike. I therefore knew that I wouldn’t be able to catch the guys in front and tried to safeguard the position I was in. After a good tussle with Wardy he just managed to pip me to the line and we came home in 6th place, not too shabby but a little frustrating as without our problems we could have been higher up.
As Jezza was a guest rider he wasn’t eligible to score points so we now sit 5th in the championship table after the first round. For further info check out the series website at http://xr1200trophy.harley-davidson.co.uk/

The next meeting is at Knockhill in Scotland on the 18th/19th June, so if you can make it, please come along and offer your support, if not you can catch the races live on Eurosport or check the live timing at TSL Timing (http://www.tsl-timing.com/?loc=major&season=2011&series=BSB&event=races)

Lastly a big thanks to all our sponsors that enable us to be out there competing.

Snetterton Test

Thanks to Jamie Morris of www.tracksideimage.com for these cracking pictures of out first test on the Warr's Harley at Snetterton. Always makes for a good shot looking at the camera man !

Leigh Is Wheelie Good

I went with our kid, Leigh yesterday to the Wheelie School at York. He had a fun day and learnt quite a bit of stuff about mono-wheeling in a safe manner. The school was run by Ashley Mark and he runs it a good relaxed way so the 'students' get the most out of it that they can. Have a look at his website at www.stuntxtreme.com for more info.