Steve is dying for it to stop raining, so he can go out and test his new paint job.He's convinced it'll add a couple of mph to the top speed!
Phil and I are not so sure.
We'll see........
His new pipes sound bloody gorgeous though!
6 days to go! The butterfly feelings and pounding heart moments are becoming more frequent as is that weird gut wrenching feeling of ....Oh fu*k! as time draws ever closer to my first official race.
In an attempt to cure all the problems we had at Mallory Park, we have been busy and had more really late nights in the work shop. hopefully, they are all cured... new dynacoils, Taylor leads and caps and a '99 R6 fuel pump seem to have done the trick in the running of the engine although a carb balance is needed yet to put the finishing touch on the motor.... for now!
The clutch drag is almost cured after loads of messing about. Still a bastard to get into neutral! A new master cylinder seems to have 99% done the trick but I think I need to swap the dodgy slave cylinder for a better condition item we have kicking about the workshop. I am confident that will do the job. Another evening buggering about bleeding the darn thing!
The belly pan is in a kind chap's capable hands and hopefully if he has time he'll save me from having to mess about with it. I know he'll do a much better job than I will! That should sort the thing decking out at the slightest angle of lean.
The only other thing I need to do is give the bike a bit of a clean and finally get around to painting the seat unit and generally make her look a bit prettier.
I've also been fitting out the van with new sleeping benches and a few other refinements to have a more comfortable race weekend. Fitted a couple of windows, borrowed a 12v fridge, fitted a decent stereo at last! and sorted out a nice big leisure battery to handle all the extra gadgets. I'm sick of bumping the van after flattening the battery constantly!
So we are nearly ready! Phil has almost sorted his Laverda after many a hilarious tale of all the bizarre things that befell him during his build, like, one hand dragging the motor across the bench while the other reached for that critical tool he forgot to place within arms reach and the cam chain that fell into the motor followed by the tool he was trying to fish out the chain with!
I'm glad I wasn't there! poor bloke! I told him to call me if he needed a hand!
Paddock hill bend...... it haunts my dreams some nights!
