28/04/05

Almost the end of the month again. Incredible how fast time disappears. Well I was discharged from physio this morning, so while in one sense it's good news, in another it's a little disconcerting to think that I don't have that support network anymore. I have full movement back in both my shoulder and my foot, however to say that either is pain-free would be untrue. Time and continued exercise should help that.  I enjoyed my sessions at Leatherhead hospital and am very grateful to the staff for helping me get to where I am now, which is a long way from the first weeks following the cast and sling coming off.

I am conscious that I need to start getting a move on for my fund-raising for my Race for Life, I have gotten a little carried away with my BSB enthusiasm just lately.

24/04/05

It's late. Just got back from Mallory Park, 3rd round of the BSB. Today was pretty close to carnage on the track. Too many bad crashes for my taste, I don't go to watch people crash; I go to watch people race against each other and enjoy it. You can't tell me that the riders enjoy earning places by seeing their competitors crash out. I fully accept that there are going to be offs and spills as a result of taking too many risks or misjudging corners, but for me, to watch four riders be stretchered off by ambulance is not my idea of fun. The track obviously needs to look at its configuration, all the crashes happened in localised areas. Whether it was down to configuration alone, poor cleanup after early crashes or rider error I certainly don't know, however I do believe it must be extremely hard to race well after seeing your competitors seriously hurt, or in the case of one young man having run into the body of one of your competitors.

I was not impressed at all by Mallory Park itself. Basic facilities were the worst I have seen at a race circuit with no running water in the toilet blocks. Crowd control was abysmal. We were situated at Edwina's corner where spectators ignored the safety barriers and camped themselves just above the trackside. Mallory Park's attitude seemed to be to turn their backs to it - literally. I'm not so sure their insurers would be so quick to ignore what is not only spectator safety but rider and track safety too. After one crash, a spectator, whilst possibly known to the rider, helped a rider bump start his bike so he could race on. As much as I'd like to see every rider restart their machines and never have to retire following an off, there are people trackside to do these things; spectators, like children, do things without thinking of how they might endanger themselves, or others. During one stoppage, impatient spectators bored of waiting for the walk through from Edwina's corner to the paddock to be opened, simply hopped the barrier and strolled across the track. On the upside the bike parking was good with solid tarmac as opposed to the usual field.

All in all, whilst I enjoyed the racing, too many serious crashes did slightly tarnish the day for me.

We stayed over in Leicester on Saturday at a Abinger Guest House about 10 mins from the circuit. A stroll around the city center showed a strange mix of prosperity and poverty. The ratio of eateries to drinking dens seemed to be unbalanced so it took us some time to find fodder. The Guest house was just what we needed and I would certainly recommend them.

I will add more later to the Mallory report and get the pics up, I just had to add a few bits now whilst I could still remember them.

17/04/05

Zed developed a starting problem on Friday, and although we bump-started it he wouldn't restart later without a bump as well. Rather than risk failure with the electrics I decided to take a trip to my old friends down at Chasbikes. Bumped into the lad who rebuilt my CB500 and chatting to him discovered it's still tearing up London, with his missus riding it. I had persuaded Mikey to bring the Geep as well so had the fork seals done and the intermittent starting problem looked at. Starter wouldn't misbehave but the solenoid got a good clean and needed it. Staff were quick to point out that the front brake definitely needs sorting...  it's on my list - honest! Zed turned out to have shot his solenoid so as a Kwak part couldn't be found a Suzuki part was made to work. Two working bikes... woohoo! 

13/04/05

Still working myself to death, however my ghost has just about had time to update my BSB page with the details of the Thruxton round. I have loads more to add, all about the team, and about the people I met from the team over the weekend. More to follow very soon.

08/04/05

Feel like I'm working myself to death. Weather has been very on/off this week. Took the Geep today, however really have to sort the fork seals, starting to get a bit of fork oil seeping out - don't want it to get worse.

Off to Thruxton this weekend however, so will have to wait. Got VIP Passes courtesy of MSS Discovery Racing. Going to meet some of my Vivaldi team as well hopefully.

Anyway, more about that after the fact. For now, pizza awaits...

03/04/05

Ta Daaaah!!!!! I once again have the sexiest machine on two wheels (in my very humble opinion!) Pics to be posted shortly. We took a trip down to Dennis's place in Cirencester on Friday to collect all my lovely shiny bits. Dennis had done another fantastic job. We felt a bit odd on the way back and it was only later I realised that traveling all that way with a little car crammed full of just painted parts was probably having an effect!

Started to put it all together Friday afternoon, but soon got tired and put it away, especially as I was having trouble remembering which order some of the panels fit together in (Haynes on this occasion was useless, pictures said one thing and the text contradicted it!) Started again Saturday and all went well until I noticed that the reason my trim would not fit neatly was that my clutch cable was routed outside my radiator, tried to reroute it and noticed it was actually quite badly split..... so can add fitting a new clutch cable to my list of maintenance things I've mastered. (Haynes also let me down here - notes on clutch cable routing simply told you to attach new to old to pull through... ensuring correct routing - assuming of course the old one is correctly routed in the first place!!!)

Went for a little spin, but it wasn't a good day for me, corners were my enemy, perhaps my subconscious was simply obsessed with my shiny new bike and keeping it that way!

Man he's sexy...! Zed's not dead baby! 

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