SV On The Dyno

Now that Leigh had finally finished building his Suzuki SV650 race bike for this year we needed to get the thing on the dyno to set up the fuelling. After some investigation (to find out the cheapest option, we are from Yorkshire you know) it was decided that a an ECU re-map by Steve Jordan at Steve Jordan Motorcycles was the order of the day. His bikes have won numerous championships with this set up so we were confident of the job he would do. True to form we were not disappointed, on the initial run the bike made 68hp at the rear wheel, not a bad start. Once Steve had worked his magic this had been upped to 71.6hp, this is nigh on perfect as the class has a 72hp limit. Job done. The only down side to the day was getting up at 4:45am to get down to Steve's in good time, but sometimes needs must.

Norman Bradley Is The New Parkinson

As promised we visited the NYRRSC Thundersport night yesterday in Northallerton and a good laugh we had too. You can see on the photo myself, Steve Tomes and our kid, being interviewed by Norman Bradley. Norman certainly does his homework and had plenty of questions to ask on the past, present and the future.
There were many others present but I am sure we were the headliners!!!!!
I had a good chat with Dan Linfoot who is team mate to Neil Hodgson in BSB this year and I really wish him well as he is a top lad.
You can check out the NYRRSC future events at http://www.nyrrsc.net/, get yourselves there as they do some great work to raise funds for local riders. Thanks to Norman, Mike and all at NYRRSC for making us fell so welcome.

ThundersportGB at NYRRSC

The North Yorkshire Road Race Supporters Club are holding a ThundersportGB Evening at the Golden Lion Hotel in Northallerton next Tuesday 16th February, starting at 7:30pm. We will be making our way up there and may even get on stage for a bit of a chat, who knows. Everyone is welcome so if you are at a bit of a loose end why not pop along? You can check out the details at http://www.nyrrsc.net/.

Smiths Super Mono

Now that the frame has been painted the rebuild of the bike has begun. As you can see the 'Sisters' have put a good few hours of work in over the last week to get it to the stage you see here and I think you will agree she is looking very well indeed. The next step is to get the bike down to our friends at Milltek Sport (http://www.millteksport.com/) to get the exhaust made on the 22nd February. Although they are primarily involved in the car market, they have manufactured exhausts for the Smiths bikes for the last few years and their quality and ingenuity is second to none. You will know what i mean when I post some photos on here for your perusal. Watch this space.

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.