project FZ750 racer

Update for '09

2009-04-10T10:11:00.002+01:00

I have to say A big sorry for the total lack of attention I have given this Blog in recent months.Several reasons; lack of inspiration would be the major reason. After the last meeting of last season, I had some big decisions to make regarding racing and the way things in life were going generally. As we all know, there's a big financial crisis in the world at the moment and after Brands Hatch in September, it hit me. Also I have spent a long time coming to terms with loosing Gyles.
That last meeting was a massive roller coaster of emotions for me. We also lost another rider at that meeting and added to that there was a lot of accidents. It was a generally good weekend for me other than that. We spent 4 days on track taking in a track day as well as the practice day and then 2 days of racing all in glorious weather. We all saluted Gyles in several inventive ways and I know if he was watching, he would have been having a great time.
I find it all hard to write about and to be honest, I don't want to go through it even 6 months later. I will try to put something in these pages at some stage, when, I can't say. When I can deal with it I guess.

So, this season for me is a non-starter. Money is the main reason. I lost the services of my engine tuner who really was the mainstay of any potential assault on the championship for this year.
We had planned a big engine development which was to give us a massive torque increase and a top out of allowed Bhp. Added to that some other chassis and handling tweeks. Things on the drawing board were really exciting and potentially would have put the bike at the very top for a title challange.
Running top six for most of last season we think, was just the start.
I could Aim for next season and may still have a go at it but the big stumbling block there is getting that motor sorted. The loss of my main man is the key to it all. So if anything happens, I think it may just be to have a bit of fun rather that a serious bid to be winning.

If things in the finacial arena of my life improve later this year, I hope to get out on track for at least one meeting before the end of the season.
That's it for now.

Snett again.....yet again!

2008-10-02T19:18:00.010+01:00

That's three visits to the Norfolk Snetterton circuit this season, and lots of riders have complained about it too, including me. I don't mind the place, I could say I even like it, but three times is a bit much. I went to collect points, not take any risks and compromise the next round at the Brands Hatch GP circuit.If you asked me to go there again this season, you would have got a firm answer.

Several miles on the road and it hits me, bugger! I'd forgot my paperwork bag. Entries, tickets, licence, data sheets and the on board camera device, all on my desk at home. And that's after checking my check list at least a half dozen times. A quick call to the club and my licence wasn't a problem. " seen your mug shot enough times this season" . All cool, lots of laughter!

We couldn't have parked up in a more noisy position. I bloody hate generators. The wheeley bin made a welcome noise barrier but there was nothing going to stop the three loudest generators in the paddock that surrounded us.Sleeping with ear plugs in helps but is not ideal. Getting to the circuit late is never a good idea. Securing a good spot is so difficult when you're the last to arrive and just compromises the weekend from the word go. We even lost our usual spot.

I had suffered a case of brain fade during the Saturday morning warm up. After avoiding the damp patches through Corums curve for the past 6 laps, I decided to ride through one of them on the last lap. I know it's not funny but I spent all morning laughing every time I remembered sliding across the track and across the very wet grass on my arse at something like 110 mph. What an idiot! And I got a very wet arse.
I needed to sort my head out before the serious business of racing began.

Meanwhile, there was a smashed bike to fix.

If you read these pages regularly, then you will remember Simon saving the weekend with his mechanics skills at Cadwell earlier in the year. He had come to Snetterton for the weekend to offer his support and try to enjoy the racing..... I kept him busy again.
Also Colin and his wife Niki had come to the track for the weekend, basically because they're addicted and can't stay away! After crashing at Oulton and making a mess of his shoulder, Colin wasn't racing but had offered to help in any way he could. He gets bored easily and he's convinced Niki had payed me to crash to keep him out of her hair.
Dave, being local to the circuit and who I'd met here before, helped Colin and Simon to descend on the bike and begin repairs. I found a Sidecar team that were willing to bend the foot brake lever back through 90 degrees and begged a spare front brake master cylinder and lever from fellow Thunderbiker Andy Burbridge, now back riding after smashing his collar bone at Cadwell. The guys certainly saved the weekend with some improvisation to get the footrest hanger repaired and fitting all the busted parts. Good job we had spare handle bars too.
Well done guys, and thank you.

I had not done much to help except a bit of leg work. If it had been up to me to sort it all out, there would have been no way I would have got out to race that day. All this meant I could concentrate on keeping calm and not wear myself out, conserving energy for the sapping races to come. It makes it obvious how valuable it would be to have a pit crew. Even simple tasks such as tyre pressure checks and tyre warmer changes are energy sapping and when you have guys around to do it, you realise how great it is to not have to do it yourself. Simon enjoyed it a great deal and has agreed to become a permanent part of the team next season. While he loves the spannering, which I struggle with, I can get on with my focus; going as fast as I can on the circuit. I really look forward to working with him!

Myself, Joe and the 400 rider, young Danny Buchan. He's a tallent!

Thunderbikes and the EDIAsia 400cc class were to be mixed as we had been at Oulton Park. I was due to be starting on the second row in I think, 6th place. Because of the noise of those bloody generators, we were really struggling to hear the tannoy announcing each race. We normally get and 1st, 2nd and then a final call to get down to the collecting area. I went to the collecting area late and was sent to the back of the grid, along with getting on for half the Thunderbikes grid. There was apparently only one call.

All tight at the front

I wasn't happy after the race when I had realised what had happened but there's not a lot that can be done once a race has been run.
So the back of the grid was packed with Thunderbikers, all of us, naughty boys for being late. The problem was, were we to be at the back of the whole grid or the Thunderbike grid? Bearing in mind there was supposed to be a row gap between the two classes. It was confusing and dangerous as I wasn't sure what was going to happen when the lights went out. If you remember Oulton when there was a 10 second delay between starts for each class.
I think the whole grid was confused. As the lights went out some of the 400s didn't move until they realised others were. I had to hit the brakes at one point to avoid the confused guy in front. It was a terrible mess up.

One of the better start sequences.

I just had to make the best of a compromised start. There were a lot of bikes out there to get through as both grids started at the same time. It was going to be tough getting to the Thunderbike guys at the front. The race went by in a flash and was so hectic that I really can't remember what happened. I don't have the benefit of on-board camera footage to examine either, as the recorder was sat on my desk at home. I do remember trying to get at Joe Duggan who was in front of a 400 rider. On the last lap I was catching Joe quickly but had to get by the 400. Coming round Corums for the last time behind the 400 I pulled out from behind him in an attempt to get around the out side of him and have a stab at Joe into the chicane. I was so close to the 400 that the track was unsighted and I ran out of tarmac. I ran onto the grass and picked the bike up straight. I ran the grass for a long way and rejoined the start straight managing to hold onto my position in the Thunderbikes order.Out of around 38 riders I managed to get to flag in 11th place but this was 6th in the Thunderbike class. I had to be happy with that. I had got out and scored points against the odds and the result meant a good 3rd row start that afternoon in race 2.

Chasing a recovering Simon Peyto

I usually mention the weather. I guess I'm English for a start, but more relevant is how important it is at a race meeting. If it doesn't rain, it's less work, no wet wheel changes, more comfortable in the paddock and all the riding gear is dry; I hate pulling on wet leathers.
Apparently, the rain had been relentless on Friday practice but today was perfect, no rain at all and that's the way it stayed for the whole weekend. Fantastic.

After all the confusion and commotion of race 1, and that missed call, I had to make sure I was well aware of what races were on track and when I would be due to be called. We normally rely on the tannoy but it is a riders responsibility to be in the collecting area at the right time. I wanted the points this race to help cement a highly possible 5th in the championship. Andy Burbridge was holding the spot at the moment but was suffering with his shoulder and was struggling to finish a race. Before he re-snapped his shoulder at some point over the weekend,and was forced to pull out of the weekend, he managed to brake Gyles' lap record.
I immediately called Gyles to break the news. He then called Andy to abuse him, followed by some congratulations!

Race 2 was a better affair altogether. A good start and some great battling with Joe Duggan on his Ducati and a recovering Simon Peyto, who was still getting up to speed after smashing his hands at Cadwell earlier in the season.

Trying catch Joe and keep Simon Peyto behind. Great fun!

Simon got the better of me on this occasion and I had managed to keep Joe behind. He's getting faster all the time!

Saturday evening was a good evening with good friends and good food, and a drop of wine.
With ear plugs installed, a good nights sleep was in order.

Sunday and a very early rise for me. I think I must have been the first person in the paddock to get up. I enjoyed a coffee and some breakfast with the paddock to myself. It was a beautiful morning with time to get some positive thoughts going through my head ready for the days action.

With a second row grid slot in 6th, next to Joe and Simon, I knew I was in for a good battle. I was not disappointed. It was a great fight with the pair of them. I had made a good start and was up with the leaders but with them charging so hard it was soon obvious they were going to pull away. I kept my head down and swapped places with Joe and Simon several times but managed to gap them both later in the race and enjoy a comfortable cushion from them to the flag. It was classic racing for me and very refreshing from the last meeting here where I had spent most of the weekend just bringing it home with no massive battles for position going on.
I had felt really good in the race with loads of energy and strength. It showed in my lap time and a new personal best of 1:17.342. Nearly a second off the previous meeting. More good solid points too with a 4th place this time. With Andy pulling out. The 5th place in the championship was looking like a real possibility. I just had to keep getting good solid points going into Brands Hatch GP.

Race 2 of the day was equally as good as the first. A carbon copy pretty much. A 4th place finish and again good battling with Joe and Simon with my lap time just a couple of tenths off the mornings time.

I had come away with great points and salvaged a good weekend from possible disaster. Thanks to Dave, Simon and Colin that is!

Meanwhile at the front. Garry Budgen edged closer to the title with 3 wins, while Dan Wright got his first win in the series with two 2nd and a 3rd place, extending the gap to me in the championship. Phil Read scored three 3rds and a 2nd to solidify 3rd in the title.

5th for me is looking good!

Who wins the title goes down to the wire again!
Brands Hatch Grand Prix Circuit is the next and last round of the 2008 season. Round 9

For my buddy

2008-09-22T18:46:00.004+01:00

There is no way to convey the sadness I feel in my heart for my good friend Gyles. He sadly passed away on this day, 22nd September 2008. Even more choking is the fact he leaves his Wife,daughter and his new born son not forgetting Mum,Dad,Brother and whole host of good friends not least his best buddy Chris. I know, they all love him very,very much.
He hung on for almost a week.How that has been for the family, I can only imagine, It was bad enough for me. I dreaded this day, and every time the phone has rung, my heart leapt into my mouth.

Of course such an event makes a man question his reasons and motivation for taking part in such crazy things as racing. After a few conversations with some very long time racers, and my wife, I have decided to race next weekend at Brands Hatch and I will do so in Gyles' honour. His race number is 39. I will be running it on my bike for him.

I know this was a favourite shot of his

I guess I don't need too many fingers to count how many people have touched my life in a positive and significant way. Not to mention how many I could consider a real friend. I feel privileged to know this Guy and to have become good friends. I could write pages on his good qualities. He certainly enhanced my life. Living at totally opposite ends of the country meant that apart from race meetings, we never got to spend time away from the circuit together. I regret that immensely. I guess we made up for it on the phone and through e-mail, my wife calling us a pair of old women, chatting away.

I remember our first meeting at the race licence test day. We were moving in opposite directions in the pit lane on our bikes. We both stopped, looked at each other, shook hands and chatted briefly and promised to look out for each other at our first race meeting. It was then I knew we would be mates. We always pitched up together. It will never be the same again.

Gyles, I love you and will deeply miss you buddy.

Harsh realities of our obsession

2008-09-17T18:33:00.003+01:00

I was going to spend the next couple of evenings writing about the high speed exploits at the last race meeting but alas, I really don't feel up to it.
I have just received some bad news today of my friend Gyles. While on a PB magazine trackday at Cadwell Park, he crashed his Guzzi heavily going into Hall bends and the bike followed him in and hit him. As I write he is in intensive care in an induced coma. I am not too "up" on medical issues but have been told the next 24 hours will be important and pivotal. I am not a religious man, but I feel myself praying for him. My feeling shit, is nothing compared to what his family are going through and as I cannot contact any of them, I can only wish the things I wish for them all here.

You can't leave yet buddy....

First time at Oulton

2008-08-31T12:35:00.014+01:00

Still high from the buzz of Cadwell, we headed to Oulton Park for the first time.The first time for the club and for almost all of the Thunderbikes riders. Who would do better would depend on how quick each guy could learn the circuit in the four Friday practice sessions. That was all the time we were allowed. The Cheshire circuit is only allowed to run on a Sunday for a very limited amount of times per year. We were not one of those, so Friday practice and just the two races on Saturday were all we were going to get. It was worth it though. This circuit is awesome. Cadwell has been the one I have always looked forward to the most, but Oulton has emerged a serious contender for my favourite. It's a lot like Cadwell, but injected with steroids! Blind apexes over blind crests, flat out turns at full lean, the front wheel in the air more than at any other circuit, it's an amazing riders circuit, all action and mental as a box of drunk frogs.

With so many 4th place finishes recently, I was seriously pumped to do better. Dan Wright, for me, was the man I had to beat this weekend and as we were sharing a pit garage, he knew I was really gunning for him. The four practice sessions were to be run during the morning with the afternoon off.

The luxury of a pit garage, no generators buzzing away, running water and the loo was really close by too!You just have to share with a bunch of loonies!

The first practice session and Dan's bike suffered a fuel pump failure. I know how that feels!
He missed the session and was now on his back foot and would have to play catch up. The banter, as you can imagine, was rife in the garage especially as there was 6 Thunderbikes packed in there.

Plenty of laughs in here!

Practice was going well for me. I felt I was reasonably in touch with Garry Budgen and Phil Read and I knew I was running faster than Dan. Things were looking good for a podium. I even managed to get a sneaky look at the unofficial timing sheets from the day. Third fastest confirmed my suspicions although I needed another second or more to be able to stay with Garry and Phil.
In an attempt to maximise my chances, I spent the afternoon prepping the bike with a new set of tyres, new front brake pads, an oil change and a new set of clutch springs. I took my time and managed to get some relaxation time too, to keep in good spirits and state of mind for the following days racing.
I knew I was in with a chance of a great result and was trying to stay calm but my nights sleep was full of mad images of Oulton park's mad crests and turns.....

We were to share the races with the 400 class. There was to be a row gap between Thunderbikes and the 400s and they would start 15 seconds after us but only for race 1. This was good news for me as some of the front 400 riders are extremely fast and faster than any of the Thunderbikes at this circuit. It meant they wouldn't be getting in the way or influencing anything going on at the front of the Thunderbikes race.
Race 2 would be a normal start and fully mixed between the two classes. This would mean that the 400s would be influencing things for us. I was hoping this would actually help me...

Sunday warm up was brief, but enough to scrub in the new rubber, bed in the pads and shake out the sleep from my eyes. I was all over the place. The bike felt dreadful and I was convinced there was something not right. Of course there was nothing wrong with the bike.Back in the pits I had a serious word with my self but to no avail. I had got myself so intent on getting that podium that I had left my head in a bit of a mess. With added delays from accidents in the races before us just adding to the wait, the pressure rose. I just wanted to get out on the track and get it all over with. When finally we got out and started our warm up lap, I was again all over the place and shaking my head.

Now for the serious stuff.

Then finally the start line, front row start in 4th with Dan beside me then Garry with Phil on pole. All the horrible feelings in my gut disappeared as the lights went on, I could see the guys beside me edging forwards, revs high, I stayed calm and got the drop on the lights spot on and headed into turn 1 in the lead. It didn't last long as at the turn into Island bend, Gary came underneath me. Later in the lap Phil Read got by on the brakes into Lodge. I chased but could see the two in front were probably going to pull away and then on lap 2, the red flags came out, and the race was stopped. The whole grid was reformed at the start line but it was to be about 20 minutes before the re-start.

The new race, reduced in distance was a repeat of the first for me except Phil came by on lap 1 and Garry on lap 2.
As the guys began to pull away, I took a sneak over my shoulder to check on Dan. he was a fair distance back and with a little monitoring, I realised that elusive podium was becoming a reality. I kept my head down for the rest of the race, allowing myself a quick check to make sure Dan wasn't going to be a threat. The bike was on song and things were looking good. It felt great to be riding well and maintaining the gap to Dan. I knew it was going to result in My first Podium. At the finish I punched the air hard and with the biggest relief I have ever felt.
I felt an immense feeling of warmth and achievement to have got myself a trophy at last. I had certainly not expected to be winning a pot this season at the beginning of the year.
Phil had got past Garry to take the win. With these two battling for the Championship, race 2 was going to be all important for them both but someone else had other ideas and was about to spoil their party!

More light hearted piss taking..... I really enjoyed the company of the Thunderbikes guys in the pit garages. Bless em!

With an eye on the darkening sky, I enjoyed a really relaxed afternoon while we waited for the second and last race. I was feeling very comfortable and a surreal calm about the coming race. During the afternoon, Garry's pit crew member, Simon, had come into my awning with a look of aggression on his face. I thought I must have upset him somehow.
"what are you doing? You let those guys by. You don't have to do that, You CAN beat them. Don't let them by"
He went on further with my reply being that they are just too fast to keep behind.
This had got me thinking and a bit of a tactical plan developed in my head. If I could get away at the start, Hopefully the faster 400 guys would get in the way of Budgen and Read, enough to help me get away. I think this worked to some degree.

I left my departure for the collecting area really late but timed to perfection. As I arrived the grid was already taking to the track to form up on the grid. Superb! hot tyres and a quick release into the warm up lap is just perfect and I felt great.
I got the hole shot from 3rd on the grid and took off like I'd stolen the bike and was being pursued by the police. I rode on the limit from the lights and wasn't about to let up the pace. In the previous two part race, I was getting passed through the flat out left hander of Island bend and into the heavily banked Shell hairpin. Well, Island is supposed to be flat but talking earlier to Phil and a few others, it was clear that maximum commitment was going to be necessary to get through there faster and not touch the brakes. I managed to find my bollocks! nobody was coming past!
As the laps went by I continued to feel fully committed to every part of the circuit. Clay hill is a big place to be keeping the throttle pinned open as the front claws the air over the blind crest . I just kept the thing pinned everywhere. I really wanted to keep these guys behind and I didn't dare let myself look behind. Phil did manage to get by at the hairpin but over shot it and I stuck it back under him and retained the lead. Seeing the last lap flag was bizarre. I couldn't quite believe I was still leading the race. It was almost too good to be true. Then the inevitable. Phil made a great block pass at the hairpin, parking the Vyrus on the apex, leaving me nowhere to put my bike but to slot in behind and chase. I could see no way of getting by as we hurtled towards the finish. Deer leap leads onto the start straight and as we crested the rise I felt great to be finishing 2nd. Phil is a great guy and I felt like I had done a great job holding him for the whole race, and to get a better result than before had exceeded my goal for the weekend. Bonus for me!
As we went for the line I was expecting the chequered flag and when I couldn't spot it, it left me a little confused for a moment. Then I realised the red flags were out and just round the next turn there was a bike laying in the middle of the track. When I realised it was Colin and his ZXR yet again, and that he was also on the track with medical cars there too, I was worried. The marshals had held us before ushering us up the pit exit back towards the pit and at that moment Phil had poked me saying " you won that!".
In all the confusion and emotion of a good result and the fact a good friend was evidently hurt, it took the whole ride back to the pits and being stopped by Jeremy Hill and Sarah Jordan, before it had sunk in that I had actually won the race!

A nice big grin eh!

For those of you unfamiliar with the rules, if the race is stopped, the result is taken from the lap before. So Colin's misfortune was my good fortune. The least I could do was pack his van and make sure he got home. he was ok apart from a broken rib.
Phil got the lap record and I missed it by 4 tenths of a second almost exactly the same time as Garry. This was very satisfying.
I had actually finished 3rd on the track as there were two 400 guys that got by, one of which I had swapped paint with as we came together side by side. It certainly woke me up and was the biggest bang I've had so far in racing. Of course they were in their own race and were nothing to worry about.
It's really strange seeing my two trophies sat on the shelving at home. Sometimes I have to pinch myself when I remember they are there.

My goals for this season were regular top 10 finishes with a top 6 being a bonus, and a top 10 championship position at the end. As things are at the moment, I am 7th in the standings and have a string of top 6 finishes. I hope for top 6 by the seasons end. I had never imagined I would win!

It would be nice to be needing a bigger cabinet!

Cooking at Cadwell. Part 2

2008-08-24T12:54:00.023+01:00

The prediction of foul weather for Sunday came to nothing and we were greeted with sunshine that would stay with us all day. No need for hurried wheel changing is always a relief.
With the torture of deciding which bike to ride now done with, I felt good about the day ahead and able to concentrate on making the most of things.
I had changed the worn out slicks on the FZ for the newer 2 race old ones from the Guzzi the previous evening and felt confident enough to not take the warm up session. Less hassle, leaving more time to relax and get in the right frame of mind for the racing. I also changed the front brake pads for new ones.
With the Guzzi looking sad sat in the paddock unused, a few Guzzi supporters had turned up to watch and were to be disappointed. I felt for them but this is racing. A racer has to do what suits him best.

Race 1, row 2 start and I was feeling great. The previous day on the Guzzi really had made me go faster.

The now customary getaway off the start line put me into 3rd into turn 1 and I quickly settled into a fast pace. I got the feeling there was someone behind and I was soon to drop to 4th, but I kept the pace up following Phil Read and Garry Budgen closely and consistently in the low to mid 1:41 second range.

I had a close look at the back of the Alto Vyrus for quite some time!

I chased these two hard.

After the race I found I had smashed my best time by well over a second to 1:41.21.

Dan and young Danny start to catch me not long before the red flags come out.

During lap 7, Dan Wright finally got past but as the race was stopped due to a crash, the results are taken from the lap before the red flag and I had myself a 4th place finish. A shame the race didn't run the full 9 laps but I was really happy with the result and the way I had ridden. Consistanly running 1:41 was satisfying. My pace felt faster and I had pushed the FZ harder than ever before. Of course, a 4th meant it would be the first time that I would start from the front row and with the FZ getting away well, I was quietly confident I could stir things up at the front in race 2.

There was what seemed like an age between the first race and our second. Good time to relax, get the bike ready, watch a bit of the other racing and socialise.I even had time for a half hour of kip!

We bagged a nice spot under the trees.

I really enjoyed Sunday afternoon. Stu had turned up to meet me, another Yamaha rider I had got to know through the internet. He had donated some bike parts last winter and I chucked some tickets to the racing his way. I know he really enjoyed himself and it was great to be able to put on a good show for him and Simon, who had brought his wife along too.
Simon had brought his video along too and is to thank for the clips I have uploaded to this post.

The promise of a front row start was fantastic and I took to the grid with my head in a good state. When the start line official points his flag at the lights, and they come on, the world around becomes strange and numbed, almost like you are staring down at yourself from above. Trying to anticipate the turning out of the lights by the human on top of the start light gantry is a fun game. I can sense the bikes along side creeping, with my eyes looking past the lights, I can still see when they go out.

Out the lights went and I didn't see another bike for almost the whole of that first lap. As I lead the race out across the wide open fields of the first half of the lap, I remember thinking, someone has got to come past soon! It was weird and almost like I was out there on my own. I felt calm but at the same time pumped and was riding hard and on the limit, again, pushing harder than ever. It was a great feeling coming up over the mountain for the first time in the lead and into Hall bends but at the end of Hall and into the hairpin, Lee Hodge, riding the injured Simon Peytos' SV, stuffed it up the inside to take the position.

I chased him hard and reeled him back in along the start straight but was unable to do anything about his level of pace.
It was a short but very sweet experience, leading a race and a couple of laps later I had Garry Budgen and then Dan Wright come past. They were just a little too quick for me to challenge all weekend.No Phil Read? he had suffered a mechanical gremlin and pulled out early on. I backed it down just a little to stay safe and bag that 4th place and some more really good points.

Here's a great series of shots from Jules. Exiting mansfield corner and into the chicane before the approach to the Mountain.

What a race. My best so far and getting better. I hadn't quite managed to beat my best time from the previous race by a small margin but overall consistency had been good again and I had a great result and another fantastic weekend.

Hall Bends

and more Hall Bends

All the good points positions of the last few races have moved me up the table to 8th in the standings. Top ten is great but aiming ever higher has to be done. Top 6 is the goal for the end of the season. Now that would be great!

Oulton Park in Cheshire is next on the list. No Thinderbike rider has ridden there except Phil Read and that was 16 years ago. A complete unknown for all of us and with just 4 X 15 minute practice sessions before the 2 Saturday races, it's going to be an interesting meeting.

Thunderbikes. Some of the other bikes.

2008-08-10T13:58:00.021+01:00

One of the Alto Perfomance teams' guys, Jules, takes pictures for fun and to supply the team no doubt. He is always willing to run off a copy for me at the end of a meeting. I would like to take the time to show off some of his handy work and at the same time show some of the other bikes racing in Thunderbikes. Jules takes some great shots and Cadwell is one of the most picturesque places to be shooting. Unfortunately, I don't have the software to cut the shots down to size and I don't suppose the skill either, so forgive me Jules, if this doesn't do your shots justice. Personally, I still think they're brilliant.

In no particular order...

Joe Duggan, new to the series this year and doing well on his Ducati 748

Rob Chapman on his gorgeous NSR250.

Regular John Hall. If you think you're too old, come at see John wheelie over the mountain at the young age of 61!

Gary Budgen. Missed the championship by 1 point last season.

My co.racer Phil Smith. This is engine number 3 this season. Spent the 2 previous seasons on a Laverda 750 formula.

Paul Martin. Suzuki SV 650. A popular bike for Thunderbikes. Altamura run 2 of these, The other ridden by Craig Ashall.

Mike Parry fields another Ducati 748. A nice looking example.

Simon Peyto, Championship leader sat in Hospital while Lee Hodge plays caretaker aboard The Diablo Suzuki SV 650. A superbly prepared and set up machine.

Peter Whitelegg aboard his Alto prepared Laverda 750 formula. Pete raced for Alto for a while before Read took over last season. Hope to see this out again.

Phil Read JnR aboard the Alto Vyrus. No forks can win! This is a feast for any engineers eyes. What an amazing piece of kit. Some say it's ugly, some say it's lovely.Either way, it's fast and can win.

Dan Wright on a Honda CBR 600 "steelie", very similar to Gary Budgens' and giving Gary a hard time.

Young Danny Buchan.Age just 15 years. Remember that name, you may well hear it a lot in the future. Kawasaki ZXR400. He was excluded from the results at Cadwell because the frame was deemed illegal. Too long a story to go into, but he was flying. He took the lap record. Excluded or not, nobody could take away from him, his outright pace. The championship would look different if he was a regular. What a talent!

Andy Burbridge on another Ducati. Andy is an old hand at racing but is out at the moment with a broken collarbone. He'll be back for sure! Not sure who took this picture.

The Inzane Ducati. Ridden by MotorCycle News reporter Michael Neeves. This bike runs on Bio Ethanol. Who says racing can't be green!

Ok so this picture was taken by me back in June but I couldn't leave out the Kawasaki ZXR 750s of Colin Walkey (blue machine) and Rob Bean. These two were at it hammer and tongs all race until colin fell at the mountain, putting him out of racing for a few meetings. That was scary, don't do it again Colin. Rob is also out at the moment with a busted motor. He'll be back I am sure.

This TDR 250 runs in the Yamaha Past Masters series along with RD250LCs,RD350LCs, TZR250s and RD350 YPVS machines. 2 strokes are eligable for thunderbikes and I am surprised we don't see any in our series. I like this bike a lot. It's really tidy and I had to
stick it on this page.

This is a Racing line image from Brands early in the season. Kev Furnish on his Suzuki GSXR 750. Gary Skellet also runs a GSXR 750 in Sheene colours. He's not had much luck with it though. It keeps breaking.

Here's a couple of moody shots from Jules, Both of Phil Read. They capture some of what racing is about....

There are a lot more machines racing in Thunderbikes.Last season there were somewhere around 80+ different bikes and riders entered in the series.This year we are up to around 50 or more. Some are regular entries, others are only occasional. I don't have images of quite a few of them and what I do have are rubbish. If you are interested to have a look at more stuff, Racing line Photography have some great shots of just about everybody that races with the club on their website archive. The link is on the right of this page.

Enjoy!

Cooking at Cadwell. part 1

2008-08-09T22:04:00.014+01:00

If you follow my blog regularly, then you'll know I love going to Cadwell.
This round was to be a little different though and my mental state as the weekend approached, was a bit shaky. Let me explain.
When we were racing at Croix back in mid June, The owner of Gyles' Moto Guzzi asked me if I would be interested in riding another MGS01 next season. Naturally, I was excited about the prospect and as Gyles was due to not be riding at Cadwell, it was agreed I would test the bike to see how I felt about riding it.

I think there were only ever 50 of the MGS01 made by the factory and they were built as a race bike and do not make a good road bike. I have been told that if you want lights and a number plate, it's another £2,000 please! Amongst Guzzi fans, this bike is the grail, so I am extremely privileged to be riding it, and with a price tag of somewhere in the region of £17,000, an expensive machine it certainly is, as well as rare. The only one racing in the UK.

The FZ has been a long journey for me, from the initial build and the hard slog to getting the bike to run and handle well, to improving my riding and getting the bike into the top 6. That was always the goal for me, to be consistantly running in the top 6. So now I am there, it's hard to go and jump on another bike.

So as Cadwell on the Guzzi approached, I found myself torn between the chance to ride the Guzzi and wanting to continue on my journey with the FZ. It is really difficult to get across how hard a decision it was to choose between the two. The FZ just had to go in the van too, just in case I decided to ride it and also in the event of a nasty with the Guzzi.

So Friday Practice came, and at last a ride on the Guzzi. The first thing you would notice is the weight. At around 220kg its a good 40 or more kg heavier than the FZ. There is however, more power, around 120bhp and something like 96fpt ( foot pound torque ) as opposed to the FZ with 95bhp and around 70fpt.

With the last Cadwell meeting just five weeks ago, the circuit was still fresh in my mind, so at least it should be easier to get my head around the Moto Guzzi, but there was all this weight! It is such a different machine to the Yamaha. I had to almost re learn the corners. The first session, and after several laps the weight began to take it's toll on my body. I remember thinking, how on earth am I going to last 8 laps on this?
I returned to the pits absolutely soaked in sweat and feeling a little down in the mouth. I was determined to give it another go and went a bit quicker in the next session. With just four sessions booked for me, I decided that the last would be for the FZ, just to keep my hand in should I decide to ride the old girl in the races.

The third session on the Guzzi and I was even more convinced I would struggle on race day. I realised I was not fit enough to hustle this brute of a machine as well or as quickly as Gyles.
When time came for the last session of the day, I fired the FZ. What a difference! So light and nimble compared to the big black beast. I felt instantly at home and so much happier. I really wanted to ride the FZ. That last session was fantastic fun and I really found a renewed love of riding the FZ. As they say, you don't know what you've got till it's gone. I was instantly on the limit with the Yamaha and feeling that I could push harder than I ever had before with this bike.
This is not to take anything away from the Moto Guzzi.

What a fantastic bike it is. It is a really planted to the road feeling. It has immense presence both on and off the track, and gives out a "don't you mess with me" look no matter where you look at it from.I'm sure it would scare the pants off anyone with a weak constitution.
So with the Friday sessions over, and race day looming, the dilemma on what to do became larger. I chatted with Gyles on the phone, I chatted with Jeremy Hill and several other people in an attempt to reach the right decision for me. The next morning would be the time to decide.Go with your gut feeling was the general advice.

Saturday at last, race day.
I had to give the Guzzi a chance and see how I got on. 1 minute 40 seconds was a tall order and matching Gyles was going to be near on impossible. Practice times from the previous day were taken from timing my on-board camera laps and the best was a 1:46. Mid pack times and not the top 6 I would have liked. Anyway I had to give it a shot.

Race 1 and I was to start from the second row and with all that big Guzzi torque I figured I could get up there at the start. Having not done a race start on this bike, I was looking forward to finding out how this bike would compare to the FZ. Gyles usually got away well but the FZ is renowned for getting away particularly well.
Well the start wasn't too bad at all. An initial bit of bogging down but as the torque cut it, I found myself heading for a small gap between Read and Budgen and tucked into 3rd into turn 1.

The first lap was ok and the guys in front of me pulled a small gap but as the next couple of laps went on, I began to struggle and the queue behind me began to form up. I was soon down a place, then another and the weight of the bike really began to show.

If a down change in gear is made too early, the front of the bike begins to perform a really strange pogo action and quite severe it is too. At the down hill entry to Mansfield corner, I found out just how bad it can be as I
braked a bit late and banged down the box in a hurried attempt to get stopped in time. The spirit of Zebedi hit the bike and I ended up going straight on and a trip across the grass. By the time I rejoined, most of the field had gone past.

At the same point on the track the next lap round, my foot slipped from the peg and I realised the peg had jumped ship and with it, the gear shift lever dangled helplessly from the bike. So that was it.No gear change and nowhere to put my left foot. I was almost relieved to have to pull in. I was absolutely knackered. The harsh reality of riding this bike hit me and before I had got back to the pit, I had decided that the FZ was going to get out for some fun.

I was feeling a bag of mixed emotions buzzing through me as I got the FZ ready to race that afternoon. A little unhappy that I had not got my head around the Guzzi as well as I had hoped but also pleased at the progress I had made with the bike. Conflicting feelings really but I had been confident I could get closer to Gyles' times than I had. I had run a 1:45 in the race. A full 5 seconds slower than he had run at the last meeting. Fitness would be the key and a lot more time on the bike. Also the suspension needs a lot of work to get it to suit me better. Excuses? yeah I guess they are!

It was not all bad though. I am sure that riding the Guzzi had made me ride the FZ better and quicker too. When I jumped back on the Yamaha for race 2, I felt more fired up and confident than at any point in any past races. I would have to start from the back in 23rd place but as we all lined up for the warm up lap, the two rows in front had each a vacant grid slot on the left hand side of the track. My slot was one in from left. A nice big gap to aim for and three rows ahead sat Phil on his fresh engined FZ. I remember telepathically asking Phil to move over to the right and let me past. At the start, it was like the parting of the Red Sea. The gap in front widened and just as I came up behind Phil, he moved out of the way and gave me a clean shot at more bikes ahead of him. I think I was 10th into the first turn. An absolutely blistering start!
I had Joe Duggan, Paul Martin and Adam Palfreman ahead of me and was determined to get past as soon as possible. I could see the guys in front of them getting away and it seemed like Joe on his Ducati, was holding things up. It took two or three laps to clear these three guys and by the time I had, the bikes in front were long gone. That's when Micheal Neeves started to make things interesting. Riding the Inzane Ducati800ss, Michael was doing a story for Motorcycle News about riding a Bio ethenol powered bike.

Michael Neeves chases hard.

He is a real fast racer and as he came past me I realised who it was. If there is ever incentive to ride on the limit, it's when someone with a reputation comes past. I got back past him and as each lap passed, I could feel the deep rumble of the Ducati vibrating in my chest, I could feel it was Michael and at one point, I took a quick peek to check. As I did, I noticed he was on his own and we had dropped the other guys.I continued to push relentlessly and hard too. Lap after lap and I kept the pace hard. I began to tire towards the final few laps but dug deep and kept up the fight. I managed to keep the Ducati behind to the flag and finished in 7th. I was ecstatic with that result and had enjoyed the racing more than ever. I knew my riding had changed too. I felt so much more confident in the bike and felt I could push more than ever. 1:42.6 had been my best lap here last time and I had dropped that to a 1:42.5 just a shade faster but on extremely worn out rubber. last time out I had been on new rubber and with a new set of tyres waiting for the FZ for the Sunday races I knew there had to be a second to chop off my times. With the prospect of 7th on the grid the next day, and Micheal Neeves not racing anymore, I felt super excited about the chance of a solid top 6 on the Sunday.

The day had been a really good one. I had finally come to a conclusion as to what to do about the Guzzi/Yamaha dilema, I had gone faster on the FZ and I had found another level in my riding. I had also kept up my now traditional Cadwell ritual of not either starting or finishing the first race of the weekend. That's three meetings on the trot now!
I was really pleased to have Simon turn up again. If you remember, he came to the last Cadwell and saved my weekend from disaster. Now I had the chance to get a good result and put on a good show for him as reward for all the help and encouragement he has given. He got some great video footage of some of the racing too. I will share that with you in the the next post.

A solid Snetterton

2008-08-04T21:52:00.012+01:00

I turned up late on Friday test day and managed to get the last session of the day for a shake down. It was worth it to get a feel for the circuit again. The fact I'd gone along on my own was playing on my mind as there was nobody to get me home if I smashed myself up and the two crashes at the last visit here were still fresh in my mind. So I elected to hold back a little, which is kind of going against the grain. One advantage to being on my own was an added amount of space in the van and the awning and just myself to think about made it all a lot easier, that's not to say I begrudge my good mate the other half of all the space. It was kind of strange him not being there.

Anyone for a swim?

The weather was playing havoc with everyone's minds, one minute it was ok then howling with wind and rain. But we were relatively lucky with just the last race of the weekend being wet, or rather half wet. One end of the track demanding slicks, the other, full wets.

Race 1 and my championship position of 8th dictated my grid slot. As we took the start for the warm up lap, two front row slots were empty. Phil Read on the Vyrus and Gyles on the Guzzi were missing having got late to the grid. They would start from the back, giving more room and a better chance of a result. A bit of a wheelie hamper my start a little but with the missing riders, I found myself 3rd going into the first turn and out along the fast revetts straight only to have Dan Wright on his red CBR600 and then Mike Baxter on the nice red Ducati come past and then clear off. A couple of laps later Mike lost the front in Sears corner. At 60+, Mike is a hard racer and took the crash in his stride and was sorted for the next race.

A familiar picture for most of the weekend.

I settled into a nice pace until Gyles came past and then Phil Read although I wasn't going to make it easy for him and repassed along the start straight, but inevitably, he got me straight back. That's the way it stayed. 6th place and some good points. A good start to the weekend.
Peyto took the win from Gary Budgen then Dan the Gyles and then Mr. read JR.

Race 2. Simon Peyto on his SV, leading the championship on pole with the two CBR Hondas of Dan and "the Budge" second and third, then Gyles fourth filled the front row. Then Phil Read outside of me. Looking at my on bike camera at this lot still make my stomach churn.
4th into turn one but it wasn't long before I found myself 6th again, looking at the same guys. Then Phil fell in the same place mike did in race 1, so 5th for me.
I again settled my pace until Mike blocked passed me in the russles chicane to the point we both almost stopped, or so it seemed.

As we blasted along the home straight I dug deeper determined to get my 5th place back.

Surprisingly, I out dragged him along the back straight and then seriously got my head down to get to flag before him. 5th and more good points.
Gyles took the win. Fantastic!

Then Gyles and good friend Big Chris celebrated. I was ready for a decent nights sleep at 10.30, as Chris decided to remove me from my chair and carry me towards the bar, picking up Phil Read along the way. A late night was had by all but it was a good one. My face ached from the laughter as I settled at about 1 am. Bloody northerners corrupting me.

Sunday race 1 and a 5th place grid slot. Another wheelie at the start but still 4th into turn 1. The inevitable again, Dan came past along Revetts. It took a couple more laps for Phil to get past and when he did, I returned the favour, then he got me again and as we headed out along the straight, I missed a gear allowing him to get away, I still managed to pull along side but phil is so much better on the brakes, there was no chance. From there I settled, and came home a lonely 6th. Still happy with that. Top 6 is where I want to be. So far, so good!
Gyles took another win! Good man.

Race 2. A drying track but still too wet for slicks meant everyone was on wets.
A good start and 4th yet again and then along Revetts as I out dragged Piers Hutchins, Gyles out dragged me. Slip stream city!

Dry track, wet tyres.

Lap 2 and Phil came by but as we approached the first turn Gyles and Simon Peyto tangled and both went off. 3rd. Just as I could smell a podium and Dan gets by. This man would continue to deny me a podium in the coming races!
As the guys ahead disappeared into the distance, I kept an eye on maintaining the gap to Piers behind me.I settled for the 4th and reasoned my self with conserving my expensive wets by riding in the wet patches and being as smooth as possible on the dry stuff. Having softened up all the suspension helped and as we all pulled off others tyres were a mess of molten rubber.
The Budge took the win from Read then Wright. This shakes up the championship but Peyto is still looking uncatchable.

Check out www.thunderbikeuk.com for the full points table.

A bit of a formal report I know, but that's really how the weekend went. No big dramas, no massively exciting long battles. Just concentrated on riding safe and not turning up the gas to get things boiling, more of a simmer. It was a valuable weekend and not one to be testing new limits. neither was it perfect. On looking at my camera, I found I was changing down one too many gears at the end of the start straight and subsequently heading into sears, I was in a different gear too, all weekend. I still don't know how I managed to be doing this and it probably explains why I went no faster than I had at Snetterton before.I know I was riding better but not faster. If that makes any sense? One for the note book!

Cadwell next and as I write this, I've already been there! Now that was a complete contrast, In fact the best and one of the most interesting weekends I have had so far.
I will try to get on with writing about it as soon as I can but with Oulton Park in less than 10 days, and having to work away from home in between, it's going to be difficult. I am looking forward to writing about it and I have some fantastic pictures to show you......

A long time coming

2008-07-13T09:07:00.013+01:00

I had been particularly looking forward to going to Cadwell. I had my best result of 9th there last season and had thoroughly enjoyed it, and was most disappointed to have missed the second outing there later that summer. It had been over a year since, and I was determined to make up for missing my second chance at a good result.

Running a 23 year old machine is challenging at the best of times. Just when you think you're on top of all the old crappy bits that break through age, something else comes along to bite you on the arse! Croix in France was like that and I was to have my patience and determination tested again at Cadwell.

Friday practice was a must for me so my self and Phil had made an extra early start to make the 6 hour trip,plus a stop off at Steve Spencers', as well as not missing out on our traditional detour of taking a wrong turn, we actually made the circuit in day light but only to be greeted by a howler of a rain and wind storm. How we ever coped without an awning seems hard to imagine. We had the thing up in minutes and with smug grins upon our faces, albeit soaking wet, we stood in the dry watching the weather wreaking havoc throughout the paddock.

It's hard to predict the weather at Cadwell, so I decided not to bother trying. As it turned out, I had enough to be using my brain power for.
The club has just introduced a half day test fee. Running a whole day not only is more expensive in fees but you burn a set of tyres, more fuel, more oil, more physical energy and the added chance of a spill or more mechanical woes. There is not so much pressure trying to run around like a loony, trying to pack in a whole day. It becomes more relaxed, meaning less margin for error and more time to fix 23 year old bikes that break! So a half day is a great idea.

So yes, the FZ decided to break. The fuel pump, 1999 R6 item, bought from the famous E-*^$, shagged! the resultant trawling the paddock for anyone with such a thing made me glad I had packed a push bike. A fellow Thunderbike rider, with a phone call, promised a spare the next day when he was due to turn up. The offending item got stripped and bodged to get me out for 3 sessions that afternoon.
It was a relief to be able to get my self reacquainted with the track. I felt good about the next days racing. I had dialled in the suspension and added the long awaited steering packers that made the bike feel completely transformed. It now turned so easily and quickly that direction change had become so much less effort and more precise. In fact the bike felt like someone had swapped the old FZ for something else and not told me.

The onboard camera proved invaluable over the weekend and armed with footage from a racing instructor, I felt confident of a good result.

Saturday morning, reasonable weather, at least no rain and the warm up session was going well, until the last lap. I just about made it off the circuit before the thing died. Bugger, what now?!

I chat with fellow Yamaha owners on the internet. Simon had learnt of my Blog through the site I visit and had turned up to watch me ride. As it turned out, he spent most of his time fixing my bike.
At this point, I have to send out massive thanks to him for his help. If it had not been for him, my weekend would have been a non starter.
We had been thinking it was the fuel pump and after stripping the thing and taking the best of two pumps to make one good one, the bike kept cutting out.Then a 400 rider lent a spare pump, but still it would cut out. With the help of some of the Alto bods ( thanks again!) a new battery did the trick. I missed race one, just as I had last year, but race 2 was great!

It's a bit of a mixed bag of emotions, watching the guys you race with heading out on to the track. I tried to contain my frustration of not being out there and settled to watch the race. It was great to watch until the last lap when the two Kawasaki ZXR bikes of Rob and Coiln came over the top of the mountain. Colin caught the back of Rob as they crested the rise and down went Colin. I must say it was absolutely awful seeing a fellow rider lying on the circuit, motionless. As it turns out, he had knocked himself out but was actually reletively, ok. That was crash number 2 for him. The first he managed to get the bike fixed up and get out for the racing.

Race 2 for Thunderbikes and I was starting from the back but with the usual flying start, I made it through to 10th place. I felt I could have done better. A near miss at the hairpin and I had to back off the throttle while the guy behind went straight on, nearly collecting me.
Still, I was happy with 10th and even more pleased to have the bike working and to be looking forward to the next day. I would be starting 9th on the grid and was really fired up for the coming races.

Joe put up a good fight on his 748 Ducati in Saturdays racing. He gets faster every race.

Finally, I was starting from where I should have on Saturday and was hoping for a good start.I nearly jumped the start, but managed to gather myself and get away clean and into 6th. I could see Gary on his Blue CBR600 getting away and after a couple of laps Dan, on his red CBR600 into coppice, then fast charging from the back of the grid,Gyles came past into Park and I was down to 8th. That's where I stayed.

A good first race but lots to gain in the next. 8th on the grid is one row further and after having compromised the last start, I had to get a better one. I had a good think about how I could improve from the last race but was struggling with fatigue and beginning to wonder how I was going to cope physically. I decided to try a change in which gear to be in at a couple of corners and a few other small changes mentally. I was resolved to do better.

As we circulated on the warm up lap,I had so little energy that I decided to sit limp on the bike. It was a revelation for me. I found I was keeping with guys infront without particularly trying. If I could do the same in the race, then maybe I could last the distance physically. It worked!
A good start but backing off at the first turn a little too much. I was 6th and keeping with the guys infront. after two or three laps rain started to stream over my visor. We had been chatting about this in the paddock.

All day it had been hot with the occasional light shower. We were watching how little dampness there was on the paddock asphalt and how quickly it dryed in the strong wind. It took quite a prolonged period of a light amount of rain to make the surface wet enough to worry about. With this in mind I continued to push. Still I could keep with the bike infront, Gary on his CBR. I got close enough to pass and managed to get by. 6th. I kept pushing.
Final lap and Gary got me back. I chased hard and was right on him all the way to the end of the lap but with two corners to, Andy, in second palce on his Ducati, highsided and was out. The bike and rider were smack in the middle of the track just on the exit of the hairpin, and with no way to see what is on the exit of the corner as you come through there, the red flag came out and stopped the race. Andy had knocked himself out and broken his collar bone.
With a red on the last lap, the result was counted back a lap to when I had been in front of Gary. So a 5th and the best result for me so far.

I had gone 6 seconds faster than I had last year. Which is testament to the work done over the winter and the ongoing improvements to the bike. When it works, it works well and allows me to concentrate on my riding. It is a real relief to not have to be thinking about mechanical problems while riding.

Cadwell was sweet for me. After the initial problems with the bike, the results were there, where I have always known the bike could be... in the top 6. It gives me immense satisfaction to see the time sheets. Thanks to all the guys that have helped get the bike there! and a special thanks to Simon for giving up your time for a racer!

With Snetterton just 5 days away, there was little time to think about Cadwell. All attention was now on getting home and having one of the busiest weeks of the year. All geared to going well at the next round.

Cadwell in brief

2008-06-30T21:52:00.004+01:00

With the next round of racing coming up at race speed at the end of this week, it leaves little time to spare. I have a multitude of jobs to do to the bike, and a whole load of other stuff involved in setting up for a weekend of racing.
In short, Cadwell was fast paced and action packed and one I will not forget. I was hounded by mechanical and electrical problems but managed 3 practice day sessions and 3 out of 4 races. When things worked, they worked well and I achieved some great lap times ( 6 seconds faster than last season ) and a best finishing position of 5th, which is my best ever result.

I have been kindly promised some good Photos from various people and will get those up along with more detail of the whole weekend. I probably won't have time until after the next round and then will have that round to ramble on about. One thing is for sure, if it's half as action packed as Cadwell, then my key board is in for a pounding!

French fancy

2008-06-17T21:13:00.018+01:00

It seems like a life time since the last race meeting. 2 months seems like a life time anyway, and after that long wait, we now get 3 meetings in 4 weeks. Croix is over but in 2 weeks we go to Cadwell and then 1 week later we are back at Snetterton. Blimey!

Of course time is of the essence to get everything sorted between meetings and does not leave me with much spare to get these pages filled. I will do my best though.

Once upon a time, I spent the days and sometimes weeks, before a meeting worrying about the weather, wishing for it to be dry. Not so this time. To start with, I had spent a lot of time making an awning out of a very large discarded sail scavenged from a boat yard. A few lengths of timber and a mass of press-in eyes later and we had a waterproof extension to the van! And secondly, I was really hoping for some wet riding to hone my skills. I was not disappointed with either the awning , the weather or my riding in the wet.

The all new gypsy tent!

Friday was hot paced. Not the riding but the frantic spannering going on in our pit. I had an electrical gremlin that drove me nuts. Luckily there were plenty of electrically savvy people on hand to go over the wiring. I know nothing about the subject. After 6 sessions, it was finally traced to the CDI. Phil was having drama after drama with his FZ too. After Having blown his motor a couple of weeks ago at Silverstone while testing, he had acquired another only for it to leak oil, the water, then oil again and so on for much of the day. He did manage to get it dry by the afternoon.

It took a long time before I finally got my head around this little circuit and it wasn't really until Sunday that it finally clicked. All that activity during Friday practice hadn't allowed me to focus on riding until the late afternoon.I have my on-board camera and Phil Read jr. to thank for finally getting it in my head. Phil took a look at the footage and set me straight on a few lines that I had got wrong. It helped me knock almost a second off my time from the two previous days. Thanks Phil.

The weekend was vastly enhanced by the addition of the awning. It worked like a dream and for less than £100 too!
It rained heavily on sunday but kept every drop out and meant we had acres of room in the van.

We spent Friday evening in comfort inside our new home, stuffing ourselves with all our favourite French foods and just a small beer. What a contrast to being cramped in the van!

Saturday warm up went well and with a grid slot of 11th, I was hoping to do well, but not too confident of a top 10 finish. This circuit is very hard on the body, most riders agreed.and it demands a good handling bike with quick steering. The bike handled ok but it still wants to run wide in and out of bends. Race 1 was ok with some good battling going on, which was fun. I got my usual good start but was soon overtaken.I ended up 12th.

A very similar scenario in race 2 and one better finishing in 11th this time, although I had some really excellent racing with a few guys out there. It was just fantastic fun and I came back with a big grin on my face.

A further big grin came across my face on Saturday evening as I pulled my leathers back on and headed for the collecting area for a ride in the passenger seat of an F1 side car. The club had arranged this prior to the meeting to raise money for charity. What a great Idea too. It was a chance I was not about to miss and had signed up for minutes after I had discovered it was going to happen. I was not disappointed.

Getting some instruction.

It was absolutely awesome. A truly great experience I will never forget. It has given me a new and completely different understanding and, respect for those sidecar guys.

Fast and soooo much grip!

With the sun going down at 11pm in France, we all had a late night on Saturday. With all the Thunderbikers camped close together, there was plenty of partying going on in the holiday atmosphere. With the bike prepped ready for Sunday I enjoyed a nice relaxing evening. Phil had a bit of work to do involving the extraction of his rear shock. Steve Jordan kindly adjusted it to get rid of the excess amount of sag that was causing his FZ to behave like a kangaroo. All was then well and we were all positive of a good day to follow.

The Catch tray had been cut from the Laverda fairing!

That's the thing with racing, all can seem well, the bike is in good shape, riders feeling fit and up for it and the BANG! you motor explodes with the force of a hand grenade on Sunday morning warm up, 3 laps in. Well, that's what happened to Phil's FZ. What a mess! A conrod had gone through the front of the engine cases and the rear, smashed the water pump housing and the generator and took out some of the water piping. The barrels were smashed too. The hole in the rear of the cases was massive!

Nice Crank. Shame we can see it.

So that's 2 engines in 2 track outings for Phil's FZ. He is currently working on his trusty old Laverda for the next meeting. I guess I'm going to have to graft the belly pan back onto the fairing that he had cut off to use on the FZ! Ah well, as long as we can get him back out on track.

Scratching your head won't help this mess John! :-)

My day was rather better. In fact it would have been better than Phil's no matter what had happened bar a disaster of my own.
Once we had Phil's bike back in the paddock, I prepared myself for action.
I was a little disappointed but not surprised to have finished outside the top ten the previous day, and was quietly confident of a better performance today.

This Ducati and I were almost swapping paint all weekend. Great stuff!

With the headaches of Friday practice, I had not got my head around the circuit and after a session examining my on-board camera footage with Phil Read, I realised with his help, I could take a second off my time and put up a better challenge this time out.

Ever get the feeling you're about to be overwhelmed?

The 1st race was going to plan, I was lying 10th when I was overtaken by a rookie wild card while under yellow flags. Once in the Green zone I re-took the position only for the guy to retake me again. I realised there would be a ten second penalty waiting for him so I let him go as there was nobody behind me, and no risk of being overtaken again. After the race, I found he had 14 seconds on me I had to accept an 11th place finish.I guess I had miss calculated how long ten seconds is!.
I had none the less really enjoyed the racing.
Race 2 would be a little different though.

The Sky began to look very threatening. 4 races to go before we were due to be called and it rained enough to make the track wet enough to need to be running full wets, but then the rain stopped and the sun came out. In the distance the cloud was heavy and heading straight at us. We all continued to fit the wets and as it turned out, it was the right thing to do.
As we took the start, the rain stopped and the sun came out again, bloody weather. The track stayed wet all race however. I was relishing this and hoping for a good result. After last seasons hate of the rain, I have learnt to like it. I had decided to push from the start and try to make a break as high up the order as I could. I got a good start and stayed with the pack ahead. Into turn 3 and the bike in front went down, taking another with him. Not good for them ( they were ok ) but a helping hand for me. The pack in front had got away on the first couple of laps but as the race progressed I managed to reel in a CBR600 and Gyles on his Guzzi. It was great racing and very close between the three of us. I spent several laps trying to find a way past the two guys. The CBR didn't seem too much of a problem but the Guzzi is so fast down the straight that there was going to be a real challenge getting along side. Going into turn 2 with just a couple of laps to go and I hit a gearbox full of neutrals and lost the guys ahead. There was no chance to recover, so I decided to play it safe and cruise to the flag.

It was the most enjoyable race of the weekend for me and a best finish of 7th. This has raised me to 12th in the championship. I had been just 1.2 seconds off the guys at the front during this race and felt I could have gone a little faster too. Very encouraging as I felt I had not gone as fast as I could have all weekend in the dry. Even though Phil Read had helped me cut nearly a second off my time, I came away feeling as if I could have done more.
I feel as if I have to give it 110% at the next round at my favourite circuit, Cadwell park. Although I'm told it will be my 2nd favourite once we have been to Oulton park.

It was a great weekend. Great to be back. Now we have 3 race weekends in the space of 4 weeks!

I got some good footage on my on-bike camera and since this circuit is not owned by MSV, I will be able to upload it onto the internet. I hope to be able to so soon. Please bear with me as I have to first convert the files to a compatible format ( gulp!) and find time to do so. Then I will have to edit it to keep it within size limits (gulp!)
I can use my camera on my bike at MSV tracks but I have to sign a disclaimer stating I will not use the files on the net or anywhere else except at home. Croix is the only non MSV circuit we visit all season. It's a 25 grand fine if I disobey! (GULP!)

The atmosphere in the Thunderbikes paddock was fantastic. There were several riders experiencing problems over the weekend. Rookie Colin on his shining Blue ZXR had fuel problems all day Friday, The green ZXR of Robs was also full of woe. Andy's Ducatic was giving him electric trouble and he spent all Saturday evening rewiring the whole bike. Gary let him ride his spare bike in race 1 Sunday before the Duke was fit for race 2. There were all kinds of borrowings and lending going on. It was fantastic to see everyone helping everyone. True friendly spirit going on. I was helped by several people to get to the bottom of my electrical gremlins and everyone was distraught with Phil's catastrophic engine failure. I think it's amazing how everyone was. It makes it an even more wholesome experience to racing in this class. I just wish normal life could be like this. It would be much more of a pleasant way of life if it were.

All Thunderbikers should give themselves a big round of applause!

drought

2008-04-26T11:51:00.004+01:00

The Brands hatch GP round of the BSB ( British superbike ) was hit by snow and abandoned. That was back in March I believe. The race has been re-scheduled to the 10th of May, which was when we were due to race on the circuit. Since all the people that moved into houses next to the track,(a race track that has been where it is, since way before the house owners were probably even born) have given the circuit owners so much grief that events using the bigger Grand Prix circuit, are only allowed to run a limited amount of times per year.So the result is the BSB boys get our slot and we miss the whole event.

Brands Hatch back in March

There is a bit of a bonus in that our scheduled race at the Indy circuit, the last race of the season, will now be run on the GP circuit.

So there is a big break between Snetterton and the next race which is in France on the Croix En Ternois circuit, about an hour south of Calais.
I have never been there before, So I think Friday practice will be a necessary.I don't fancy 5 minutes practice before racing on an unknown track.
I have found some good on-board camera footage on youtube. It's a small circuit with lap times about the same as the Brands Hatch Indy circuit. It looks like it will be a fun little place and interesting to see how I can do from the back of the grid on the first race.

I plan some changes to the way the bike steers and handles between now and then. With some fast changes in direction needed, this is going to be an important thing to get right. The bike is a bit sluggish in this area, and I have yet to experience the effects of the changes we have planned.
Luckily I have some excellent guys on hand to draw advice from. I really want to get this right and carry on improving. There's no time to be standing still.

Return to Snetterton

2008-04-17T18:07:00.004+01:00

The super fast Snetterton was round 2 for Thunderbikes and I was looking forward to testing out my new front end and fully unleashing the power of the new improved motor.
So an early start to get to the circuit for friday practice to allow us to finish building Phils new FZ along the way. As it turned out, we would still be working on it on race day and unfortunately, Phil missed the 1st race while he battled on making the catch tray legal.After next to no sleep for weeks, phil made it out for race 2. It was clear straight away that it needs work on the suspension and chassis.

Friday practice went well. Session 1 and it was clear to me that the front was way too hard. I made good progress that morning, running in 4 sessions with each getting the front nearer to the mark.
Rain and some snow stopped play for the afternoon and although it would have been an advantage to get some running on a wet track in case of rain during racing, I decided there was no benefit to getting the bike set up and I didn't want to wander from the route I was on, thinking about wet riding.Plus the added risk of a crash and the sleep and energy factor.
Jeremy Hill came to lend a welcome hand and cast an eye over what I had been doing and I was glad to find I wasn't far from the mark and heading in the right direction.
I had lost a front sprocket in one session. This happened last year. Food for thought and investigation.

A new big gun and an old.......pistols at dawn?

It was great to see my pit buddy Gyles and his new MGS01 Moto Guzzi out for the weekend. What an awesome looking bike! I was sure he was going to do well over the weekend on the monstrous black beast.

I felt properly prepared for the racing and was secretly upbeat about the prospects of some good results.I had been keeping or passing guys I had not been able to get near at Brands a month ago. Looking at the times from last year in the heat of summer, my new pb was a second faster. The track and air temps were low and things should generally be faster in the heat of the summer.

After an 11th place last time out at Brands, I was pleasantly surprised to find my self gridded 10th for race 1. This time out, I got a good start and was into turn 1 in a decent position.
The bike felt so much better than last year and instead of braking at the 300 metre mark at the end of Revetts straight, I was able to brake at about 150. It was much more stable under brakes and into and through the turns. Exactly what I had been hoping for. A massive improvement and it showed in the results. A new personal best lap time and my highest finish so far of 7th.
Now to go faster!

Corums Curve

A couple of small adjustments to suspension in an attempt to cure a slight chewing of the right hand side of the rear and I was really up for it.

For race 2 I took the finish position from the last race to the grid and was starting 7th and this time finished the race one better with a 6th. I was ecstatic at the results of the day and very much looking forward to doing better in race 3 and 4 the next day.

Saturday evening and we had double cause to celebrate and I allowed myself a beer or two. Gyles had gone from 17th on the grid to an amazing 4th place in race 1 and to top it all, as I was riding back to the paddock I caught a slow Gyles, grabbing his elbow and gesticulating the question " where did you come? ". He simply rose one finger. I quickly forgot my 6th place and screamed in my lid all the way back to the paddock. I could see it was going to be a while before it sank in to his head that he had actually won. Pure delight to see a guy that has become a real good friend, win. Well done you northern git! hehehehe...... That Guzzi is something else! not forgetting some tallent to get it to P1.

After another freezing sleepless night in hotel transit, the weather was looking better than the showery day we had before, although we had escaped the rain. I was really hoping we would again.
I finally clicked riding in the rain at the last round and was actually sad to see the chequered flag but it is a pain in the arse. Changing tyres, getting wet, and all the other mess it causes in our paddock camp so really I'd rather it was dry, and I was not to be let down by the weather today.

sisters?

Day 2 and a good looking day weather wise.
Thunderbikes were to be the first race of the day at 9 o'clock, meaning an early rise and after another cold, restless night, I was wishing we were last race.

Race 1 and a 6th place grid slot. I was hoping to get a strong start. It would be interesting to find out how the big guns ahead of me would get away. If I could do well here, I figured they would help pull me along and away from the guys behind.
It worked well for a while at least. I got a good start and went into the first turn in 3rd place. the two infront were gone out of turn 2 like rockets leaving me behind and as I blasted down the straight, I had pulled Phil Read with me. He got me going into Russles Chicane at the end of the lap.He went in a little hot so I attempted to square the exit of the corner to get on the gas early and get behind him. It was too much gas, too soon on tyres that were not quite hot yet. The rear came round, gripped and sent the front of the bike into a tank slapper that threw me onto my head.... bollocks! According to a spectator, there was no-one behind me.

The bike was reasonably ok and with some hurried repairs and help from quite a few people ( you know who you are. Thanks guys), I was out for race 4 and starting from the back of the grid.
Race 4 and we were held in the collecting area for about 15 minutes while the officials decided wether to call a wet race as rain loomed. By the time the grid was formed, with the vast majority of the guys on slicks, tyres were stone cold. I decided caution was best employed for the first couple of laps especially as I was planning a blast through the pack. I wanted to get a decent result to ensure a good grid position for the next race at the next round.
Things went well and with a retiring Ducati helping me get clear of 7th and 8th place, I found myself chasing 6th place Tony Rand. I was catching him too but probably not fast enough to take the 6th from him. With 2 laps to go, entering the right/left of the chicane, I felt my foot slip from the peg and a split second later I slid out of the race.
A loosened crank end cover has sprayed the left hand side of the bike and tyre with oil.
Minimal damage to the bike and none to rider was a bonus to a disastrous day.

Mean while Gyles had a 2nd place finish and topped off in race 4 with another win and a new lap record, which was truly amazing given the colder conditions. Only the top 4 riders getting lap times in the 1:15s, they really were fast.

I was very happy with progress this weekend. Despite the crashes, a big jump in progress has been made and a lot of positives are taken from the whole weekend, even including the crashes. They have been a good lesson.

Let battle commence !

2008-03-11T21:55:00.012Z

After a night in the van outside Steve's workshop, and plenty of tea to fight off the gloomy morning, Myself and Steve soon had the motor in the frame. Steve concentrated on the new "g-string" wiring loom and I worked on the rest. No repeat of last time we did this in '07 when we had loads of trouble getting the thing to run properly, she fired up easily and ran as sweet as a nut!
I think we spent more time talking than working and I left Steve late afternoon and headed for Brands.

For the bin!

With just myself in the van, there was a lot less setting up to do and I had soon settled down for the night at the bottom of the paddock, hooked up to power, heater on, I slept like a log!
With a wet sky the next morning, the first job was a quick switch to wets, a good check over the bike for any last minute issues before venturing out on a wet track. The first time I had ridden a bike since the last visit here back in September and with the promise of a lighter, more powerful bike, I gingerly ventured out for session 1. I built the speed slowly but could straight away feel the benefit of the winter improvements.

In the top 10.... if only for a short time!

After finishing the session with the bike coming to a halt at the bottom of the hill at Graham Hill bend, it soon became clear the problem was a weak battery which limited the amount of sessions between charges. Three sessions was the limit for the day with the last one being cancelled. The last two were a dry affair and gave me a chance to test the new found speed to it's full. The result being much better drive out of the corners but with no new front end yet, stopping and getting into the turns was still a problem.

It was the same story as last year; get a good start but then go backwards under braking.
In one race a good start was rewarded with 8th place on lap 1 from a 14th spot on the grid.
One race was ruined by a loose rear wheel nut, which could have been a real disaster and was a big lesson! The weekend saw me finish 14th twice, one 13th place and a final wet race position of 11th, which I was really pleased with as I began to get my head around how far the bike can really be pushed in the wet.

I was beginning to enjoy the challenge of a wet track.

A wet race on day 1 was a complete mess with the rain destroying the running of the motor. I suspect that the water is getting in through the intake and the bare intake stacks need encasing inside an empty airbox. I finished in the points in this race to my great surprise.

I've decided not to go into detailed race reporting, taken on advice. It is very time consuming for a start and I'm not sure it's really that interesting. Let me know if you disagree!
If anything particularly interesting or amazing happens though, I will be sure to include it.

So in conclusion, the bike is better, but still needs work. We have lost around 10 to 12 kg out of the motor, wiring, ditching the starter, generator and associated internals, freeing up the crank and increasing drive but with no detectable bhp increase.

Steve has breathed his magic on the bike over the winter. It was a real pleasure to have him around in the paddock. The voice of experience is invaluable and very much appreciated.

Further mods which should be in place for the next meeting include; A different exhaust pipe which should increase power by around 7bhp, including some carb adjustments to suit.
Extra weight loss coming from the new front end, probably about 2 or 3 kg here and the added bonus of a better handling bike and greatly improved braking ability.

We have replaced the standard FZ radiator for a much bigger YZF item, since Brands, which has been modified to fit and should greatly improve cooling. My new temp gauge has arrived and new hosing.

All this messing will make the bike very close to the power to weight limit and very possibly over. If this is the case we will have to add some weight but the advantage here being it can be placed in an area of choice which will affect the weight distribution. where exactly and to what effect is something I will have to learn about.

I was briefly disappointed to not get into the top 10. I am confident that the developments will help make this goal a reality for the rest of the season. There are some very tough racers to contend with this year which will make it even more of a challenge. I look forward to it though and I will do my best.

I will soon be writing about some of the other stuff that was going on in the paddock over the weekend. I met a few new faces and was pleasantly surprised to find I would be sharing the track with a very special FZ from days gone by.

The next meeting at the Snetterton circuit will be interesting. In theory the FZ should go well there as she is fast out of corners and has a good top speed along the fast straights. A much improved bike will be a help.

Gyles and his new MGS01 Moto Guzzi will be making it's, and his, first outing of the season.
I am looking forward to seeing them both!

Club racer documentary

2008-03-10T23:03:00.006Z

Last season, a young chap, by the name of James, sporting a big camera came up to me in the paddock and asked if he could interview me for a film he was making as his student assignment project.

I saw him again this weekend while at Brands. He told me of his test reel that he has posted on his blog site.

here's the link: www.tee2.tk/blog/2007/10/16/club-racer-documentary-test-reel-1/

I think it has a great feel to it and gets across how it feels to be part of the paddock and racing in the club environment.
It takes quite a while to stream through my 3gig connection but please be patient, it's well worth the wait if you ask me!
There are two quick clips of Thunderbikes around the middle of the film, the first is going into the left hander, Graham Hill bend and the second is into the awesome Paddock Hill bend. I can spot myself in both!

James has told me that there will be some more footage posted soon, maybe later this week, so you can either keep an eye on his site or check back here as I will let you know when he posts anything.

I will be updating my blog soon with words and pictures from the adventures of the first meeting of the season from Brands. It was a mixed weekend, I made new friends ( I hope), and it was good fun, but with some hard and valuable lessons along the way. Hard physically and mentally all along but well worth it and great to be on the newly re-worked bike!

Cutting it fine!

2008-03-01T16:19:00.002Z

It's going to be a close one!

I will be travelling to Essex on Wednesday evening ready for an early start on Thursday.
We have decided to fit the engine at Steve Spencer's workshop. It saves an extra journey for a start, gives Steve more time to get the motor prepared, as well as other items such as the wiring loom, cooling system and so on and it's not too far from Brands Hatch, which means, hopefully, I can get to brands in daylight and get set up at the circuit in good time. That's the plan anyway. We couldn't cut it any finer!
All last season, we ended up getting to the circuit very late at night, which I have never liked doing. I don't suppose it will be any different this year but at least there's a chance this time round!
So a nice early start on Friday for the practice day.

I am crossing everything in the hope of good weather for the weekend.
Please,no rain!

0.000015 minutes of fame.....

2008-02-29T13:09:00.002Z

I was pointed at this FZ tribute video on Youtube. It made me smile......

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=OOmwtps1CdQ&feature=related

Mostly, I've been painting things.

2008-02-24T16:37:00.002Z

Not a huge amount happening at the moment. Mostly, I've been painting things. That's about it really. Trying to track down a radiator from a YFZ 750, which is bigger and therefore will cool things a bit better. The water from the system was a bit brown in colour, indicating overheating, which is obviously not good. I have sourced a temperature gauge to keep an eye on things. With more power from the motor, this is more important this season.

Still waiting for the call to go and collect the engine. I am hoping next weekend will be time. That gives me about 4 days to get the motor in and everything else in place after that.So it will be one hell of a busy week for me.
Also waiting on a set of yokes so I can fit the new Rsv front end.If that doesn't happen then I will run the YZF front end for now.

The only other jobs to do this coming week are to fit the new slave clutch cylinder, which I hope will arrive later next week, and to get the brakes bled with new fluid.That's about it I think, asides from getting the van ready to go and all the other crap we have to drag along to a race weekend.

Unfortunately, Phil's build isn't going too well. He needs his engine before he can do anything serious, which means there is no way there will be enough time to get it ready for the first round so Snetterton will most likely be the first outing for his FZ. We should be picking up both motors at the same time.
I don't think Phil is too keen on pulling the Laverda out from the back of the garage for round 1. But who knows, it may happen!

Two's company!

2008-01-16T19:36:00.000Z

The FZ motor has some company on Steve's work bench. Not only is my motor getting major works, but so is the new motor of my friend and co racer Phil. He has spent the last 2 seasons racing his Laverda 750 formula v-twin.
It is a lovely handling bike but unless you spend an absolute fortune on it, it is doomed to circulate somewhere near the back. As proven by the Alto Laverda team who have spent a real fortune on their bike. It did win last season and is a real marvel of engineering and dedication. It looks beautiful too!

Phil attempted to get the bike to perform better earlier in the season and spent a lot of time, effort and money re-working the engine only for it to self destruct in quite a spectacular manner. The inside of the motor looked like a scrap yard!

The Laverda has been really good to Phil over the years! Now she gets a well deserved rest....for a while anyway!

Phil hasn't been so good to the Laverda though! This was a big off at Dijon, France in 2005!

So he was left with a dilema. Spend shed loads more money on it or buy something that will make more financial sense as well as giving the owner a lot less hassle and be more competitive.
Phil is a die-hard v-twin fan but has managed to quell his lust for Italian exotica and run a Japanese four cylinder. So while the Laverda gets pushed to the back of the garage, along side the v-twin RSV Aprilia, Phil has very sensibly, in my opinion, got his hands on .....can you guess?.......... a rather messy Yamaha FZ 750!

And it does make sense. Cheap racing, relatively!

So over the course of the coming season I am going to try to keep up with the two of us and post what happens with Phil's FZ as well. I say try because I find it a lot of work to keep the blog going and get on with day to day life. I do enjoy it and the e-mails I get from folks saying how much they enjoy it makes it worthwhile taking the time to write. It also leaves a good record and is fun to get nostalgic over on occasions as my self and Phil did the other evening as we went over some of the early goings on last year. Anyway, back to the bikes....

Phil's brother Dave, had the FZ I am using laying around in his garden looking sorry for sometime. He donated the machine and came a couple of times to watch last year and really enjoyed himself. Then he came home from a stint away with another FZ in the back of his van and gave it to Phil. So the fun for Phil begins.

This FZ was really sad looking and it was decided that a total strip was in order. It actually looked like it had been dragged out of a river!

Ooooo....nasty!

Phil took to motor to uncle Steve for a total overhaul and to have the works done to it. So everything that mine is having, so is Phil's.
He has sourced a complete R6 front end, a new rear shock, and a FZR 400 swing arm. I think the body work is old 90's race kit and the frame has been blasted and primed. New adjustable yokes that will be made by Phil will replace the standard R6 items retaining the FZ steering stem.

Brings back memories!

Things are well on the way to turning the old Fat rusty girl into Project FZ750 racer MK2!
Time to get back to beavering in the shed.....

Plans for '08

2008-01-15T21:36:00.000Z

The bike is sat in my back room at the moment looking sad with the engine at uncle Steve's for some tlc. It's nice and warm and dry in here and my pc is right to hand too! The Mrs. gets to see me this winter. Don't think she's too bothered either way really, I think she liked the peace and quiet last year!

There is a list of jobs to do but nowhere near the amount as at the same time last year...thank goodness!

Steve has big plans for the motor.
With the weight of the bike as it was at the last race of 189kg and the power being 94 bhp, we can gain a significant increase in the power to weight ratio allowed in the series.
If the power remained as is, we would be allowed a minimum weight of 170.5 kg. Alternatively, if the weight remained the same, we would be allowed a maximum power output of 104.2 bhp.
This leaves us with a host of choices. This is what we are planning to do.

The FZ motor runs a starter motor and generator. These are getting removed. Weight will decrease significantly here. The crank shaft will be lightened and ballanced. Again, weight will be reduced here. The other benefit of decreasing the weight of the crank will be that the motor will"spin up" a lot faster and smoother meaning the bike will accelerate a lot faster. Added to this, the removal of the starter and generator will also massively decrease friction in the motor allowing it to Spin up and rev much quicker and freely. This basically, according to the rules, is a free power increase, undetectable on the dyno. It doesn't show up as horse power.
This alone because of the weight loss, will probably get us near the limit but added to the above will be some gas flowing and porting work, worth a few more bhp. Steve has also mentioned adding titanium con rods and much lighter pistons. Again less weight in the moving parts of the motor adding to the freedom of spin up. They are also a lot stronger to help take the extra power.The bike will fly out of corners and off down the straights much sooner and gears will be changed earlier.

The wiring loom is going to loose a lot of unnecessary wires and weight. The battery will be replaced for one half the weight.

That's about it in the power and weight loss area. It will make a massive difference in performance. This is all very well but a bit of a waste of time if the chassis can't handle the increase.
The front end suspension is the next area to be looked at.
Ideally a complete front end replacement is the way to go using the 1999 to 2002 Yamaha R6 equipment. These have been tried and tested and are superbly suited to the FZ.The only problem here is funds, so Phil has agreed to loan me the front end from his Aprilia RSV 1000.We are yet to determine the difference in weight compared to the YZF equipment currently fitted. The next hurdle would be to make a set of yokes to take the RSV forks and wheel. Again Phil comes to the rescue and has agreed to make some. I think he enjoys the challenge! Another benefit with this equipment is the lighter front wheel, which reduces gyroscopic effect and helps the bike to change direction and turn into corners faster. Also if we can get the correct geometry in the set up of the front forks, we should eliminate the sluggish and slow turning that the bike suffers from.Steve has assured me that this is possible. It is spot on using the R6 forks. Making the yokes so they can be adjusted is the answer here. Phil says it is possible to achieve.
I used to own the machine and know from experience how good the handling of the RSV is. Not only that but the brakes are absolutely, astoundingly good. We hope this will do the trick!
If we can get the bike to behave as it should at the front, then things will be looking very good for an improvement in results next season.

Other jobs on the list include some paint here and there to clean things up a bit, replacing the old, leaky clutch slave cylinder. A bit of general maintenance and servicing such as cleaning out and re greasing all bearings, the chain, the rear shock and linkages, swing arm bearings, cables etc. etc. Nothing too heavy or taxing. This is all under way but the real work will start when the motor gets back and we head to Brands Hatch on March 7th. I can't wait!
So all in all, it's very promising and exciting.

I will update as things develop, although I have a feeling that not too much will be going on until February swings into gear.
In the mean time I will be ( if I can find the time!) posting some pictures and info on other people and their FZ projects. Not only have I made a lot of new friends through the racing but also through this blog! Quite a few guys have mailed me in the last year, via this blog, to either ask questions or tell me about their project FZ's. I am always happy to hear from them and will do my best to get any fellow FZ riders a ticket to enter the circuits and to watch us race and hopefully meet in person in the paddock. We usually have a spare ticket or two! You are always most welcome, and there's always tea on the go in our race trucks!

Big Thanks for '07

2008-01-15T21:25:00.000Z

Racing maybe a solo sport out on the track, but no way could I have done it without the help and support of a whole host of people.This is the moment to give them all a mention and say how much I appreciate it.

Firstly Steve, for banging on at me to get a bike when I had stopped the nonsense for a few years. Also for taking up his shed for most of the year to build and store the race bike.

Phil, who has given of himself and his time in the workshop, making stuff and getting me out of the shit plus a massive long list of other stuff he has contributed in a most generous way. It's great to have him around.

Phil's brother Dave, who gave us the bike in the first place. Glad you enjoyed the racing and hope to see you more next season.

My Mrs. for not seeing me for three months solid last winter during the build and for supporting me to accomplish my dream.

Mr. Steve Spencer, without whom the whole project would have been a nightmare and rather amateurish . His huge amount of knowledge of the Yamaha FZ motorcycle, racing and tuning the things, he has passed on to us without holding back.It has been a blessing to have met him. He is a really rare breed.

Jeremy Hill. He has given his time to come and see me over every race weekend and on the phone to offer advice and help to get me going in the right direction. A very passionate and generous guy. He really has been an inspiration.

Jeremy's wife Tina. She has also been full of advice and help in the fitness arena and also helped me understand what makes a racer.

During the licence day at Mallory Park, I met Gyles. He's an all round great guy and I feel fortunate to have met him, competed against him and shared all sorts of stuff in the paddock while camped out together, including cutlery!

Gyles right hand man and top guy, especially when he is drunk and telling stories, Chris. He had no hesitation in offering his services whether it be acting as a human bike lift or starter motor or whatever.You're a star!

The whole Alto Laverda crew. A pleasure to be camped out next to and always willing to help in all kinds of ways.
Ben and Aaron have been very generous with their experience and all the guys in their crew have been really great! Thanks to all of you.

Steve and Sarah Jordan have always been quick to help when asked and always delivered. Good luck to Sarah who is quitting Thunderbikes for another series. It was Fantastic when she won at Cadwell Park!

I'd like to thank my sponsors, but I don't have any! bugger!

Last of the summer gasoline part 2

2008-01-14T18:59:00.000Z

We had an eventful evening, chatting with new found friends and fellow racers, both in the bar at the circuit and back at our paddock camp on Saturday evening.A most memorable night.
The excitement of the next days racing was building, and I resolved to savour the day in the knowledge that this was going to be my last fix until next March.

And savour it I did!

The next morning, I maxed the suspension settings at the front in an effort to get the front to stand up as much as possible and keep the Exhaust system off the ground. I had to get it to brake later which this would hopefully help achieve.

We had a very short morning warm up of just 2 or 3 laps in the dry Brands sunshine. It was looking like it was going to be a day of good weather. The last thing I wanted was for it to rain.
As soon as I took off down the track on my first lap, I knew the bike was going to be better and on the brakes for the first time into Druids bend was instantly better. With the short session, I was going to have to wait for the racing to get a good feel for what I could get away with.
We didn't have to wait too long as Thunderbikes were the second race of the day.

Druids bend on the 1st lap is a high light of racing for me and quite a spectacle for those watching.

I Was to start from yesterdays finishing position of 15th place out of 28 riders.
The usual sensations in mind and body before setting off from the paddock had set in early today and it seemed like eternity before our race was called. The bike sat on it's stands with the engine being run up to temperature and tyres in their warmers and I sat feeling like I was going to need to run to the nearest drain and puke. It was taking for ever for the call to come. Once finally off the stands and riding up to the collecting area, the nerves dissipated a little. It's not until the lights go out for the warm up lap that it becomes more bearable.The warm up lap is a good release and I always tend to give the bike a good hard push for that one lap. It's nice to get the tyres and myself up to optimum temperature before the start procedure.

Great Photos! Thanks to David Stoddart for sending them.

The bike felt good on that first lap but as we lined up for the start, I could feel the nerves in my stomach running wild. As the flag marshal pointed at the lights and walked from the track, the noise from all the bikes around makes the ground and my chest shake, but as my focus became more concentrated, I became unaware of the noise and the feeling in my stomach. It's the last thing in the world to pass through my mind at this stage. All my mind it focused on is the lights and then which side of the guy in front I am going to go.
The friendly banter and rivalry of the paddock naturally make the focus on the guys you know the best as the ones you want to beat. In my case this is Phil and Gyles, being as we all camp together. Phil has remained at the back end of the field due to the under performance of his Laverda. (This is in no way a slur on his abilities as he is a very good rider and racer. he deserves a better performing machine!)

Phil on the Laverda.You have to admire the guys commitment to riding a bike that has no chance of scoring points all season. He just loves V-twins and racing.Just wait till you see what he'll be riding next season......I'm in for a battle for sure! can't wait!

So this leaves Gyles, who due to his 10th place the day before was 5 places ahead of me on the grid.With the bike feeling better, I was really hoping to be able to get somewhere near him in this race, get a better finishing position and therefore get a better shot at him in the next race. That was my plan anyway!

The start was nothing special for me but not too bad either. I aimed for Gyles and tried to reel him in as I knew my bike was faster off the start and by the end of the 1st lap I was in 12th and could see Gyles just a couple of places ahead. I have to admit that the race was a bit of a blur. I was super concentrated and aware that the bike was behaving a hell of a lot better than the day before. It was still miles from ideal! The next couple of laps saw two bikes come past me, both Suzuki SV machines and then a Ducati 748 which managed to throw it's rider into the gravel a lap later!

What a mix of machines!

My determination to catch Gyles coupled with knowing this was the last days racing of the year, made me really dig in deep and push as hard as I dare. At one stage, exiting the last turn onto the start straight, I had tapped on the power too early and too hard and Ended with soiled pants as the back came round so hard it had the front forks hitting their limit and the handlebars going from lock to lock, hard. As soon as the bike had composed it's self, I was back on the gas and didn't look back....I had a big black Guzzler to catch after all!
By lap 5, Gyles was in front. I think it was more a case of him getting passed by other guys than of me catching him, but I had caught up with him. A couple more bikes got in the mix with the two of us and somehow Gyles has escaped again. I was still pushing as hard as I could. For 4 laps I chased The two guys in front, Gyles was being hassled big time by another SV but as hard as I tried, all I could do was maintain the gap between us. Finally Gyles got passed and I spent the rest of the race looking at the back of the big, wide Moto Guzzi. I couldn't get him and finished the race right on his tail, well.... 1 second behind.
Tim had finished right behind me again. I bet he was cursing!
Gyles was looking at a 1st place in the rookie championship!

Druids is still fantastic on your own!

I had also hit my target lap time of a 53 second lap, 53.822 to be exact. I would have liked it to have been a bit quicker but still, it was a big improvement on the day before and just a 10th of a second slower than Gyles.

I was absolutely buzzing and feeling on top of the world. I found out later that I had finished 13th. I was happy with that considering the competition.
As we all peeled off the track and into the back of the pit garages, I could see all the guys in front being directed into the weight bridge and then the dyno. Excellent. I'd been looking for a free dyno run all season and at the final race I was to get one!
The whole process of weighing and Dyno running twenty-something bikes took a while. It was hot and I was tired and with no stand, half an hour or more of holding 189KG of bike gets a bit boring and made me very stiff. Once over and done I was informed of a final dyno reading of 94 BHP. A little more than I had expected.

The 2nd race of the day was to be the last of the year and the excitement was high and the atmosphere in the paddock was electric!The race was a bit of an anti climax. I let my emotions get the better of me. My self preservation had kicked in and I was knackered having spent my limited fitness and energy on the first race! I just wanted to get round and finish in the points and get home in one piece.
The start was not impressive, but I got into my stride after that and made a couple of places in the first few laps. It was not to last and as Gyles disappeared into the distance, I seemed to go backwards for the first half of the race. I seemed to settle down for the second half of the race. This was reflected in my lap times which were very consistent and within half a second of each other for the whole race. I spent the last 6 0f 11 laps behind the same guy, the only thing was he was getting further away as the race went on and with a brief peek over my shoulder I could see someone gaining on me. It turned out to be Steve Joy on his Ducati 748 with Tim close behind him and they were catching me. I decided not to push and just hope to stay in front of them. The plan nearly didn't work as on the last lap at the end of Cooper straight I hit a false neutral and ended up drifting through the turn with no drive. I knew that if I were to kick the bike back into gear that it would most probably cause me to leave the track, either on my arse or not, I decided to wait until I had the bike somewhere near upright. Steve came past and with just one long right hand turn leading onto the straight I thought I had messed it all up. I got it into gear again and as Steve ran slightly wide, I managed to get up the inside of him as we approached the apex and got on the gas earlier than him and out dragged him to the line...a real nail biter for me if I had had a hand free there would have been no nails left!

Again Tim was behind, but not far. The three of us all within a second of each other.

As I rode back to the paddock, all kinds of feelings and emotions pumped around my system. I was buzzing. I pulled up to our camp and pulled a big burnout as a celebration!

That was it...All over. Well not quite....
We had the Thunderbikes Rookie Championship Presentation to attend.
The usual banter was somewhat elevated in our pit area. We were all a bit excited to be receiving a trophy. Gyles had won with Tim second and myself third. I was really chuffed. This was an un-official prize organised by Ben Shaunessy, our series organiser and the guys that had come 1st, 2nd and 3rd in the real championship had given up part of their prize money to fund the trophies for us rookies.

Back row...The Real Champions, 1st (just!) Martin Cooper (middle) 2nd Gary Budgen and 3rd Phil Read JR. Then Myself, Gyles and Tim "chunky" Churchill.

The race services, A&R racing, had donated some gift vouchers to spend in their shop, and also agreed for us to use their transporter steps as a podium. We had only learnt about this recently and it was really a bit of a surprise as we had expected none of this, we just imagined it to be, well, fictional, and for fun. So to actually receive a trophy was fantastic. As Ben had put it, it was a reward and acknowledgement of the hard graft the rookies had put in to their, or our, first season. Gyles and myself were really quite emotional about it. I think we were both close to tears!

Ben handed out the silverware.

It has been the best experience of my life. Finally living a dream, one that I never thought would ever come true. It goes to prove that you can do anything in life if you have the determination to make it happen. That is what I have done, to actually make it happen.
I had done a lot better than I had hoped. I never expected to compete in 7 rounds. Out of 10, I had hoped for half at a push.I have to admit it has been a real struggle to get through it finacially and will take some time to recover, but to hell with it! you can't take it with you and I really dread the thought of sitting in my chair at 70 years old wishing I had done it.
Now I'd like a bigger one!

Now I can sit there and remember what it was like to open the throttle as the lights went out at all the circuits I had watched my childhood heroes race at.
Now I have just simply got to do it again!

Well chuffed!

Thunderbikes 2008 dates released

2008-01-12T10:45:00.000Z

Here is the complete calender for the 2008 season......

Brands Indy - 8-9 March
Snetterton - 12-13 April
Brands GP - 10-11 May
Croix en Ternois - 14-15 June...... yes, we are off to France!
Cadwell - 28-29 June
Snetterton - 5-6 July
Cadwell - 2-3 August
Oulton Park - 15-16 August (double points)
Snetterton - 13-14 September
Brands Indy - 27-28 September

no Silverstone, no Donnington = very sad face.We do however, get to go to Oulton Park which is an amazing circuit. I am sure that the schedule for that weekend will be:
Friday practice, then just racing on the Saturday with only the 2 races that day but each race scoring double points.
The miserable old bastards that live around the circuit don't like us having fun as we spoil their quiet Sunday afternoons.

SOLUTION FOR YOU = DON'T MOVE TO A HOUSE NEAR A RACE TRACK YOU STUPID OLD BASTARDS! ....... God it makes my blood boil!

These brainless killjoys are rife, almost every circuit in the country is subject to people who live nearby complaining about the noise. Now race tracks have been around in the uk for decades so the majority of these IDIOTS must have moved in near the tracks.
I despair! it really doesn't take much to work it out does it?

sorry about my cussing. I just can't help it. the words I'd like to use are a little too strong for these pages, as is what I'd like to do to the idiots.

Phew! I've got a headache now......

Last of the summer gasoline

2008-01-01T17:59:00.000Z

Although there was due to be another race weekend at Lydden Hill, Brands Hatch was to be my last for this season. I don't much care for Lydden, the track is good fun but the paddock is the worst by miles of all I have been to in the uk. 99% of the paddock is on a really steep hill which is not conducive to having a good nights sleep. Brands was to be the last points scoring race so was effectively the last meeting anyway and the battle for the very hotly fought Thunderbikes champion was going down to the wire.

We decided not to do the Friday practice, which was a bit of a shame. Would have been nice to have had more time to set the bike up better than it was. The set up would have to be different from the last race, and with a lot more stress on the front end than at Snetterton and the lack of a good performing front suspension, this race would be tough and any short coming would really show here at Brands.
Steve Spencer had come down for the Saturdays racing and after each race we tweaked the front. It did get better and I went faster but from Steve's view point, he could see where I was loosing time. On the brakes was the diagnosis, and rather a lot according to Steve. Probably loosing up to 2 seconds a lap on the brakes. I was braking as late and hard, but as smooth, as I possibly could and was really struggling to hang on to the guys in front all weekend. Given a decent front, I KNOW I could go a lot faster.

Note; the pipes almost on the deck and the front forks heavily compressed

First practice on Saturday was a wet affair. Thunderbikes were out 2nd and at around 9.30. I was hoping in 2 hours time, by the time we were out for our 1st race, that the track would be dry.
As the 125cc Aprilia superteen race went out on track for their 1st race, the track was looking like it could be totally dry by the time we got out. I had anticipated this, as had everyone else , and the slicks were in place on the bike and would be suitably warmed in time.

I was feeling really up for it and as planned (if you can plan these things) I made a great start shooting from 14th on the grid to 7th by the end of the first lap. Then the front end started to show, with the suspension bottoming out badly and the pipe just millimetres from the track under heavy breaking. The Surtees corner is fast and relys on the front through there. There was no good feeling through the corner here and I was loosing time here as well as under braking.
I just slipped down through the order lap after lap. on the last couple of laps I could feel a bike closing in and on the last lap in the last corner, Gyles came along side on the Guzzler. It was very tight for the line and as we hurtled down the straight side by side, I knew he was going to do me.
There was less than 1 tenth of a second between us.

Gyles behind me! but not for long!

It was a hard race, I had rode hard and gone backwards but I had gone from a 56.8 second lap to a 55.3. A good improvement but I was hoping and reasonably confident of getting into the 53 area. Most importantly, I had thoroughly enjoyed it.
Gyles got the 13th spot and 3 points, I was 14th with 2 points, Piers Hutchins stole the last points paying position just a few tenths behind me and Tim right behind in 16th scoring no points.
Things were hotting up.
given another lap and I am sure I would have been the one with nil points. Just as well I was getting lightening starts and would have to continue to do so, to stay in the points this weekend.
I set about the front suspension, and turned everything up a couple of clicks to get the front to stay up under brakes. The next race would be telling!

The Championship at the front was hotting up with Gary Budgen on his steel framed CBR600 Honda and Martin Cooper on his SV Suzuki.Martin won the race, but was given a 10 second penalty for a yellow flag infringement. That knocked him down to 4th.

There was to be a prize giving at the end of the weekend for the Thunderbikes trophy. There was also to be a prize giving for the top three rookies, which meant we were in for some mid grid battling, with Tim currently running in top rookie spot, Gyles close behind and myself a fair way behind in 3rd. Gyles could take the top trophy if he finished ahead of Tim all weekend and of course if I got ahead of Tim and behind Gyles, that would make Gyles's task a whole lot easier. With Tim missing his much loved slipper clutch and my bike as fit and healthy as it's ever been, things were looking good for Gyles and the big black Guzzler.

Not looking so good was Gyles's shaving fund! he he he!

I was to start race 2 from the position I had finished the last race, and from 14th on the grid I got a reasonable start but found myself having to shut the throttle twice going into the first turn.There was such a melee of riders all vying for position, it got quite confusing and I didn't really know where I was or what was going on.Once finally back on the gas and down the hill, I just concentrated on getting into Druids safely and getting out the other side. By the end of lap 1, I was in 12th place. I could see Gyles giving Adam Palfreman a hard time hassling him for 10th spot. I resolved to try to hang on to the back of Gyles and hope he would tow me along.
It wasn't long before Gyles dispatched Adam, but no matter how I tried, I just couldn't get into the turns as late and therefore out the other side as fast as the guys in front. It was a couple of laps later until another rider came past me, predictably on the brakes, then on lap 5 another came past. I dug deeper and pushed a little harder but had in reality gone a tiny bit slower. I did manage to hang on for the rest of the race and maintain my position which turned out to be 15th place with Tim just behind and probably likely to overtake any time soon. Saved again by a better start than the guys around me on the start grid.
Gyles was 5 seconds ahead and in an excellent 10th place and an all important points haul, with time again, failing to score. I bet he was cursing me!
I got my lap time down a bit more to a 55.14. only a couple of tenths. More clicks on the suspension for tomorrow...a lot more!

The bike looks sooo much better with out that orange bib!

The days racing had been hard and frustrating, but it was racing and I had loved every second of it. With the last race day of the year ahead, I savoured that day and evening and the excellent friends I had made around me. There was a real sense of excitement in the air around the paddock that evening. We cooked our usual paddock fare and had a few small glasses of beer or wine. Not too much though, with racing still to be done the next day the last thing I needed was a hangover. I guess nor did anyone else and no matter how much encouragement I gave, I couldn't get my fellow competitors to drink too much. Chris made up for all of us though and managed to get totally off his trolley and drank enough for all of us!

It was nice to spend a little time in the bar with all the people I have met throughout my first year of racing. The banter between us all is so much fun and in such good spirit. The paddock at Bemsee is pretty much an asshole free zone, unlike the rest of the planet! In my experience anyway...

left to right... Chris, Gyles and Phil Read .JR All talking bollocks....ok ...I was too! Right pic: Ex-Bemsee champion Jeremy Hill on the right has been helping Garry Budgen win all season. Also given me loads of help.

For Alan....who pesters me a lot

2008-01-01T11:52:00.000Z

This should make Alan happy.He keeps on at me..."when you gonna update yer Blog?"
I don't really have an excuse other than I didn't feel like writing,but since my last post.....yes Alan, over a month ago, I've been busy with the bike which has been re-housed in my back room....lovely and warm and arms length from my pc, the loo and the kettle. The Mrs. doesn't mind, she knows racing is a big part of my life and she knows I'd be a miserable, moaning pain in the arse if she gave me any shit about it.... good girl!

Before I write about what's been happening with the bike and before I disclose some exciting news about....nah! you'll have to wait,... I should write about the last race meeting back in September at Brands Hatch. It really was fantastic for me and a weekend I will never forget. I'll start a new page.....

More hot Snetterton battling...

2007-11-22T17:59:00.000Z

I know all too well it's been a long while since my last entry. I've been getting constant reminders from people, asking me to get my arse into gear! I guess it's about time too.

It's been so long, my brain is going to get taxed now, trying to remember what the hell happened.

The second day at Snetterton was almost as good as the first. We woke to another sunny day, and with the sprocket sorted, and disaster averted, all was looking well.
I was feeling good and really up for trying for a better result and going a bit quicker today.

The usual sick feeling coupled with rising adrenalin was present as we lined up for the start of race 1. I remember feeling a little out of step at the start and it soon showed as I got a pretty crap start with the bike bogging down off the line and Adam and Ian going past on lap 1.The first corner was mayhem. I was blocked a couple of times through the double apex turn and really felt quite unsettled for the rest of the lap.

On lap 2 at the end of revvets straight, as I hit the brakes, I found myself in a false neutral and heading straight on and onto the grass. Four guys got past. It took what seemed like the rest of the race to get some kind of rythmn back, enough to set off after the guys infront. I just couldn't seem to make any ground on them. I was running 16th at this point with no hope of points except Tim Churchill, who was suffering from a lack of slipper clutch, made a mistake at sears corner and gifted me 15th and a single point.
It was a pretty dismal race really. My lap times reflected this with a best time of 1:20.44 although on the up side, this was still as quick as I was going the last time we visited the circuit.
I headed back to the paddock determined to gather myself for a better result for the last race of the weekend.

The pack heading into turn one on lap 1.

Getting off the line in race 2 was a great deal better as the old FZ was back to her usual self with a belting start from 15th on the grid. The first corner was good this time, and I saw off a couple of serious challenges from whom I'm not certain and I can only describe them as a blur of colour.I'm not sure but I think I was in 9th place on lap one but It wasn't long before the two Ducatis of Ian leah and Mike Baxter came past. The next lap and it was Gyles turn to get by me and from there on It was back to the norm, a good view of Gyles and Ian fighting like mad with each other and swapping places.All I could do try to hang on as close as possible, I could get close but not get past. I decided to spectate and concentrate on keeping Adam behind. Gyles and Ian had gapped me by a couple of seconds by the latter part of the race and Adam was all over me like a rash. We were all on it hard. I had a couple of big moments through the latter apex of the first turn with the back letting go more than I would have liked. Things were on the limit for sure!
I was having the time of my life out there and so were the other guys. Adam was having fun I guess, trying everything to get past and finally, on the last lap at the last turn out on to the home straight, he got along side and then infront. I don't know how, but I managed to out drag him to the line and finished in another 11th and less than a tenth of a second ahead of Adam. What an awesome race! I was absolutely buzzing. I felt like I had never ridden so hard and the lap times supported the feeling... 1:18.992 just inside the 18's and I was chuffed as nuts!

Once I had got back to the paddock and before I could lift my helmet, I could feel the adrenalin from Gyles, myself, Phil and all the guys around just spilling out over the floor. It really was a fantastic feeling.

I was already pumped for the next round at brands Hatch in just two weeks and the way I was feeling, I thought the adrenalin rush would last until we got to the circuit.

I was impressed with Gyles and the Guzzler, he really was on it and just seemed to be getting faster and faster every time he got on the bike, but as a self confession from him to not looking forward to or knowing well enough, the next track, I was secretly hoping to get him next time out........

Pin back that throttle!

2007-10-10T21:47:00.001+01:00

After missing the round at Cadwell, I was determined to make it to Snetterton, and I'm really glad I went.
The weather was great, and the whole weekend was fantastic.

After the last visit to the circuit, pushing the bike to it's limits and occasionally, beyond, I was struggling to understand how to go faster this time out.
Phil had fitted new front brake pads and re-packed the exhaust can, to get the thing within the noise limits, just before his trip to Cadwell. This made a big difference. I found during first practice that the motor revved out along the big Snetterton straight, a lot better than last time and I could brake a lot later too. Added to this some set-up help From Jeremy Hill and the result was much better racing and a whole second a lap faster than last time.

There was a worry that the weather was going to be crap, but it couldn't have turned out better. Hot! just the way I like it.
The usual Saturday morning routine of up early to get the bike through it's race M.O.T and get signed on before prepping the bike ready for the first practice and race. Thunderbike were to be 3rd session out on track, so no time to mess about.
It had been 2 months since I last rode but i got straight on the pace, well, my fastest pace anyway.
I was to start from 16th on the grid for the first race, and was confident of a good leap away from the start. I was not to be disappointed and found my self 7th by the end of lap 1. I was waiting for the usual swarm of bikes to come past and was surprised to let just 2 come past on lap 2. I could hear someone behind and after a couple of bad exits from Richies corner, I was caught and passed by Gyles on his BIG BAD ! MotoGuzzi and new guy Ian Leah on his nice Ducati 748. From there on, I had the perfect view of the battle going on between these 2 guys. One that would continue all weekend.

This was the picture for much of the weekend. Ian, Gyles and myself.

Gyles was keeping up his traditional Snetterton stomp and was flying but Ian was getting the better of him down the straights only to then hold Gyles up and myself, through the corners. The two of them swapped and re swapped places with me pinned to their tails for the rest of the race, and with Adam Palfreman on his Suzuki SV,pinned to my tail. Ian managed to get in front at the flag and finish 9th. Gyles was 10th, myself 11th and Adam 12th. There was just a second and one tenth between the 4 of us at the finish.
A lap time of 1:19.359 was over half a second faster and a new personal best.

The racing was to heat up, as was the weather and the lap times!
Race 2 and a 11th place grid slot was next up and I was hoping to get infront of these guys at the start this time and stay there.
My start was bad and I found myself having to slip the clutch like crazy to stop from bogging down as I watched the big black Guzzi get into turn 1 infront. I knew there was not a lot of chance of getting past and especially as Mike Baxter came howling past onto the back straight. He was flying from a 16th place starting position and soon took Gyles. Try as I might, I could not get close enough to Gyles and as my regular neighbour in the paddock, it was like trying to catch and pass your team mate!
I could feel someone getting close and could hear the boom of a couple of v-twins close behind.I just kept my head down and rode as hard as I could to keep them behind. The big booming sound over my howling four cylinder scream got louder as we went through the 1st turn, Richies but then quieter as we headed down the straight out of turn 2. I was having trouble getting through the bumpy second apex of turn 1 and on the gas along the short straight to turn 2, but getting out of 2 and along the straight well enough to drop the guys behind. I remember it happening lap after lap for what seemed like an age, and thinking, they're gonna get me in a minute!. On lap 5 , Adam came past but I managed to get him back on the next lap and keep him there for the rest of the race.

As Gyles pulls away, Adam reels me in for a close inspection of my arse for 8 laps!

This time it was Gyles in 10th, the myself 11th, Adam 12th and Ian close behind. Less than half a second between me, Adam and Ian. Gyles meanwhile, had latched onto the back of Mike Baxter's beautiful 748 with what must have been a grappling hook, and disappeared off into the distance some 9 seconds ahead. I had gone 3 tenths slower this race but it felt like 5 seconds faster. That's the pressure of having booming v-twins right up yer chuffter!
It was a great race for me, as was the first race and a whole lot better finishing position than I had hoped or imagined. Fantastic. Now all I needed was to work out how to get out of Richies faster. Time to look for Jeremy, but not before I had worked out how to fix the front sprocket nut that now, was laying in the belly pan on the slowing down lap. As it turned out, all the thread had been completely stripped away to a polished finish! It's a wonder how the front sprocket stayed on.

The great thing about Yamaha machines is the interchangability of parts from one model to another. Once back in the paddock, we were all wondering how a sprocket nut for a 22 year old bike in a paddock full of modern machinery, was going to materialise. After a bit of asking around I was pointed in the direction of Sam Bishop who runs big modern R1 and R6 yamahas.
Would you believe that a 2006 R6 uses the same front sprocket as a 1985 FZ. Thank the gods of speed for Yamaha! And thanks to Phil for doing the work to fit it all back together.
Jeremy had stopped in for a look at my back tyre. There was quite a bit of chewed up rubber on the right hand side. A couple of clicks on the rear shock were decided upon to help the rubber and to hopefully help through Richies corner. I had the tyre turned so the lovely looking left hand side of the tyre was now on the right, which should give up more grip as it was looking almost new with there only being two short left hand turns at Snetterton.
I had had an absolutely fantastic day of racing, with the throttle pinned all day and feeling physically great too, and with the nut problem sorted and a good chat with Jeremy, the next day was looking good! I was really looking forward to more of the same!

Bye bye wally....Snett was great!

2007-09-23T15:25:00.000+01:00

Snetterton was a scorcher, and so was the racing. I came home from the racing, absolutley high as you can get after some great battles on track and some good points finishes. I enjoyed every minute of it. Faster times than the last visit, thanks to a slightly improved bike and help from Jeremy Hill with setup resulted in a whole second faster.An excellent weekend!

Next up is Brands Hatch for our last championship meeting of the year. There is a non championship meeting at Lydden Hill sometime in October, but I doubt that we will go. I don't much like the place, the paddock is a nightmare for camping as 99% of it is on a very steep hill.The circuit is a fun little track but is very bumpy in places. I think I will save my money for bike development.

I have been very busy this past week and have had little time to write, but I will endevour to get a decent report from Snetterton done before I leave for Brands on Thursday evening.Friday is test day and I fully intend to take part. I hope for good weather and I hope to get the bike set up sorted during testing. I aim for a good 2 seconds faster than the last time at Brands and I see no reason why not. The last visit I was plagued with running troubles and never really got in the groove.

Snetterton saw the loss of my wally bib, the bright orange vest worn by a novice rider has to be worn for the first 10 races. Out of the 2 races per day, only one finish is required and allowed for a signature on the novice licence. So from every weekend only 2 signatures are allowed.Also, the finishes have to be at at least 3 different circuits. As it turns out, I could have got rid of it at the end of the last visit to Snetterton but I had got the rules of all this wrong in my head.... nevermind... so it's a big goodbye to my novice licence and bib, hello clubman's licence... WOOHOO!

Right.. I have now got to go and sort out my freshly stripped sump plug thread... again!....bugger!

To hell with it !

2007-09-12T22:17:00.000+01:00

It's been a while since I last posted, to be honest, I have had neither the time nor much enthusiasm for writing. I think not going to Cadwell really pissed me off and made me not want to think about racing too much. I had decided that funds would not permit me to race until the last championship round at Brands at the end of September. It really bugs me that I cannot do a full season or be in a financial position to do the whole thing a lot better than I actually can. There will probably never be enough money to go racing with. There will always be something to throw at the bike or some way of improving to go faster , some extra goodies to help be better set up for a race weekend. Of course, more money would be nice.
Unfortunately, it's often a struggle to afford to even get to a race meeting, but sometimes longing and lusting just gets the better of me. I'm bloody going to Snetterton. I can't wait till Brands. And I'm going to do what ever it takes to get to Brands too. I know I should be saving the money to spend on the bike over the winter, to make her go faster but I may be dead by then!

Non starter @ Cadwell

2007-08-12T22:32:00.000+01:00

It was with great sadness that I had to cancel my entry for the Cadwell meeting, especially as it is my favourite circuit. The week leading up to the meeting has been torture and now it has passed I find myself wondering what may have been.
A couple of weeks ago,I had contacted the editors of Classic Racer and Classic Mechanics magazines and invited them to Cadwell to have a look at our series. Myself and Ben Shaughnessy of The Alto Performance team and also the head of our series, are both keen to promote the awareness of the series and in an effort to do so , I decided to try the magazines to help with exposure. I hear they did turn up at Cadwell but have yet to hear what they thought or what they had to say. I was really sad to have not been able to go along and meet them. I will be calling Ben in the morning!

So without me, Phil took the van, loaded with his Laverda and also with the FZ as a backup in case the Lav played up. He took the FZ for just one outing on the Friday practice day.
I was keen to hear how he got on with the beast and made a phone call on Friday evening.
With the exhaust can re-packed in an attempt to get the sound down to pass the noise test, I was eager to find out how the bike revved in the top range, if it was better without the added baffle that I had run at Snetterton. The outcome was a bit vague so I will have to wait and find out for myself I guess.
It was interesting to hear how the bike behaved in the handling. Phil reported the same issues in the mountain as I had last time I rode at Cadwell with everything decking out and the front end wanting to take you for a trip through the gravel....interesting. The rest of the lap was just as I had felt too. Phil was generally impressed with the bike and stated that it has loads of potential.
It needs Steve Spencer to breathe his magic on the engine and a new front end!

The circumstances leading to me not going to the meeting have receded but not gone away completely yet, but I am hopeful of getting out for at least one meeting before the end of the season. Next up is another trip to Snetterton and two weeks after that is Brands Hatch.
I think it will be Brands for me, giving me more time to recover myself and be ready. The bike is ready to go having just been run once this weekend, so I just have myself to get ready.

Once I have spoke to Ben, I will post my findings here.

Steve went to watch this weekend and has promised to take loads of photos, so I hope to have some eye candy to post in the next few days.... watch this space!

Faster, faster,faster!....intoxicating!

2007-07-12T23:11:00.000+01:00

I convinced myself that Snetterton was going to be a disaster. The weather was going to be shit, the bike was going to run like shit and probably break and I had even been wincing at the possibility that I may even fall off.
Well I couldn't have been more wrong.
I guess an attitude like that comes from usually getting dealt a bum hand in life and also helps to really enjoy things when they do finally go right. A big bonus when you expect to step in a pile of crap.
Snetterton was a resounding success!

Myself and Phil decided to go for the Friday practice. Seven sessions out on track with about 40 minutes between each providing enough time to get my head under the tank and try to get the bikes' fuelling right and learn the track after 4 years away from the place.
Phil wanted to finish getting his bike built after many nights in his workshop till way past 2 in the morning. He spent the morning getting the bike finished and managed to get out in the afternoon to finish bedding in his newly built motor.

I had taken along a selection of main jets and was prepared to spend the whole day devoted to getting it right. The time between sessions proved just enough to get re-fuelled and throw in an ever decreasing jet size until early afternoon I had it as good as I could get it. The bike revved cleanly now, once running on the main jets at the top of the rev range. The mid range was still sluggish and a couple of changes to needle height soon had the thing blasting out of corners while revving in the mid-range, very nicely indeed. Job done!
I had also got my head around the circuit and was feeling really confident of a good two days of racing.

It was such a relief to get the bike sorted. Now I was able to concentrate on my riding and put into practice all the stuff I had learnt from Jeremy at Brands a couple of weeks ago. I was looking forward to seeing him again over the weekend and getting some more feedback from him. I was also able to get some diet and nutrition advice from his good lady, Tina. She is setup at most meetings to help people in this area and promote her Herbalife products business.
I have been using these products for a few months now and have found a huge benefit from them, not just on the race track but in every day life also.
So with some good advice on getting my body to perform from Tina and mental and practical advice from Jeremy, I was feeling really up for the racing and looking forward to progressing my skills.

I'm not too fat according to Mrs.Hill!..... well maybe just a little!

The Thunderbikes grid was the biggest so far this year, with 30 bikes taking the start. It was good to see some new machines on the grid, adding to the varied mix that has become Thunderbikes and attracting an ever increasing number of people becoming interested in the series.
I have been getting quite a few e-mails from people interested in what's going on and finding out about our series.
My self and a few fellow Thunderbikes riders were featured in the August issue of Performance Bikes Magazine. I am getting used to people saying " aren't you that guy that's in PB mag?"
It's great to see the series becoming more and more popular.
It's inspiring people to get the old piles of rust out of the back of their sheds and dust 'em off and race 'em!

It has become the norm, for Myself, Phil, Gyles and Chris to camp out together at the circuits this year with the Alto Laverda team joining us too. We all get on great and have a real laugh together.I really enjoy our time in the paddock. So it's a magnified shame when things within our little circle of bikes go wrong, and it always seems like its one or the other of us!
It was a shame to see the Alto Laverda team suffer a suspected blown engine in 1st practice, Saturday morning. Brothers, Ben and Aaron, of Alto, decided to pack up the bike and make the 4 hour or more, round trip home to sort the motor and get back to the circuit as quick as they could to continue to compete. You have to admire their commitment and determination to race. It seems nothing will stop Ben from getting that bike over the finish line 1st before the end of the season.

Ben at the back, (not where he likes to be) Aaron and Phill astride the Alto Laverda.

Phill Read jnr. the Alto team rider,stayed at the track while the boys ran home, leaving him time to chill and take in some racing. I know from experience that it's kind of nice to not race as it enables you to see things in a different light. No pressure, time to chill. It was great having Phill around in our camp, having a laugh, and chatting with us all and happy to give advice too! great guy!

Gyles' Guzzi seems to be cursed at Snetterton. Although for the practice day the bike runs fine, come race day the bike starts to play up.The thing game him a load of trouble at our last visit here and decided to repeat it's trick at this visit keeping him busy under the tank between races. Last time here, he suffered 3 non finishes. This weekend, he finished all the races and finished really strong with a 10th place, a 12th place and two 11th places...good points for him. He was flying!

For race 1, I was placed 16th for the start grid and hoping to keep my record of good starts. I was not disappointed and got the usual flyer and moving well up the order and passing the start line at the end of lap 1 in 9th place. I rode as hard as possible and was going really well with only Steve Joy getting past on his Ducati 748 when on lap 5, I ran into the sears corner with the bike jumping out of gear forcing me to run very wide. By the time I had sorted the gears out and pointed it down the straight, 5 guys had got by me. Damn!.

entering Russles chicane after the super fast Corums

I couldn't get the gap back to the guys who had passed me and on the final lap I was passed at the end of the Revvets straight by Phil Polden on his Cagiva 650 raptor.
There was just 6 seconds between myself and all those guys at the end of the race which forced me to wonder what might have been if I hadn't have run wide on lap 5. Certainly better points than the single one I got for my final position of 15th. My fastest lap was 1m20.609. My target was to drop below 1m20 by the end of the weekend.

It was a similar story for race 2. The same great start and I was again 9th by the end of lap 1 from 15th at the start.By the end of lap 2, I had dropped back to 14th with a terrible lap full of missed gears. The gear box just kept slipping into neutral, worrying!
A couple of the new riders to Thunderbikes, and fast riders at that!, had spent the first race improving their start positions for the next grid and were quite out of place starting from the back. This added to my troubles . I had been passed earlier in the race by Will Jobbins, aboard his Suzuki GSXR837 which had been smoking heavily, evidently the engine was leaking oil all over the exhausts, causing the smoke. It was also spraying the back of the bike and his rear tyre. As I reeled him back in, it was spraying me too! As we came out of the left hand flick of the final corner, I was right on his back wheel as he lost the rear and slid out of the race. It was quite a close miss for me as I had to get out of the throttle momentarily, to avoid him. I heard in the paddock after the race that he was ok but he was not to race again this weekend. Bad luck Will. Glad he was ok!

Just a sore hand for Will after this spill!

Throughout the race I had a close fight with Dan Willmott on his 400 and Adam Palfreman on his Sv. Myself and Adam had passed each other a couple of time with Adam finally finishing ahead of me and a final corner attack from Tim "chunky" Churchill saw him take another place from me. Nice move from Tim! Although I had gone faster in race 2, with a fastest lap of 1m20.435,I couldn't match my first race finish position and came in 18th.
I was very happy though, with the outcome of the day and was hopeful that the next day would be as good.The bike had run and performed really well, and I had experienced some enthralling racing. I could feel my race craft improving all the time.

On it! Through Corums

Over night, I changed the engine oil and decided to up, the grade of fork oil to a heavier 15 weight in an attempt to settle the front and help get through the very long and fast, Corums curve. The front of the bike felt like it was trying to run wide and I figured trying to cure this would add some speed and a better feeling through this part of the circuit. It's also not a a good place to be loosing the front as it is so fast and has a bit of a reputation for spitting bikes into the air as they take to the run off.
Once all the work to the bike was done, and Ben and Aaron returned with a rebuilt motor (amazing!), we all walked up to the top of the paddock where a bar-b-q was being hosted by a load of Thunderbikes riders. time for a good chin wag and a bottle of beer...just the one though!

The weather had been really kind to us so far this weekend and Sunday turned out to be no exception. The temperature was hot!
Gyles' Guzzi continued to misbehave, and with moments to go before the first race, phil spent a few short minutes fiddling with it and miraculously managed to fix the bike and get it running ok. We all stood back amazed for a moment. Not even Phil could explain what he had done to sort the thing!

I took to the grid with the usual crazy feeling in my stomach, something that always seems to get me until the lights go out. I got my usual good start but going into the 1st turn I found myself having to get out of the throttle with a huge traffic jamb and nowhere to go and getting stuck on the apex while what seemed like the whole grid ran past around the outside. I'm sure I had my nose chopped by someone, ah well, that's racing I guess!
Crossing the start at the end of lap 1, I was placed 14th and with Just Steve Joy, Adam and Dan getting by throughout the rest of the race, it was reasonably quiet out there. With a bit of a look behind down the long straight, I could see that it was to be a case of get my head down and ride as hard as I could to keep a distant pack behind. With 8 seconds covering the 7 guys in front (including me) by the end, I was reasonably happy.I just missed the points with a 16th place.
Again I had gone faster, just missing the 1m19's mark. The bike was noticeably better through Corums but the compromise was that the bike was having a harder time exiting the double apex right handed first turn, with the front chattering over the bumps out of the corner, making hard acceleration, hard work to hold on. I coped with it though.
fastest lap for me; 1m20.073.

With the heat of the day, shit sleep ( as always before racing!), a late arrival on Thursday night (thanks to an hour road block detour.. bugger!) and some hard racing, I was really feeling tired by the last race.
Another good start but another hold up in turn one for me and I was back to 19th by the end of lap 1.By this stage of the weekend, the grids tend to become relative to every ones speed, and we are all less mixed up. I managed to get past Paul Martin #76 and Daniel King #9 in this race.

Other than that it was again just a head down ride hard, but not too hard, race. I wanted to go home in one piece. It's too easy to go mad at the end of a weekend. Just like a lot of track day off's happen at the end of the day when people are tired and just want to go that little bit faster. I decided to take it smooth. I remember the front feeling vague. I had picked up a wrong front tyre when I left home and ended up having to run a really worn front all weekend. It was probably ok, but a lot of stuff in racing is all in the head. Just because I was wary of the fact I knew the tyre had done a lot of track time and was getting old, probably affected the way i rode and interpreted the feeling of the front. If some one had told me it was new, I probably would have ridden faster!
I managed a 17th place for this race and went fractionally faster and got my target sub 1m19...just! ... 1m19.937

So with another excellent weekend in the bag, this racing lark just gets more and more under my skin. It's highly addictive, especially when all goes so well..... and actually, even when it doesn't it's still intoxicating. I just wish I could win the lottery so I can do it every weekend..... dream on eh!

Back to Cadwell park next. My favourite and that of a majority of the riders I should imagine.
This may be my last race this year, due to financial restraints. I hope not, but it's a distinct possibility.

Positivity. A great day at Brands Hatch!

2007-06-19T22:05:00.000+01:00

It has been fantastic to get back out on track, and exceptionally great weather for the whole day made it even better.

Having arrived the previous evening and spending the night in our exclusive choice of pit garage, all set up early, we had time to relax and ease into the day. I do like to get to the track as early as possible and give time to prepare mentally and be sure all the kit and machines are ready to go leaving plenty of time to get all the signing on and noise test etc done in good time.

Jeremy Hill arrived nice and early and was on hand to run through what ever I wanted to look at during the day. We decided to check my lines for the first session and in particular, the parts of the Indy circuit that we run on in Thunderbikes.It was my first time on the full GP circuit so it was good to have him run through that part of the circuit with me. I got a handle on it quite early and with just a few tweeks to how I was riding it, I found it no problem and really enjoyed riding it after spending years watching all my heros there.

I was not that confident that the bike was going to run right and had the spare set of carbs ready to swap back to the settings I had at Cadwell, just in case. Sure enough, after 8000 rpm and above , the bike wouldn't pull well at all. I therefore spent the first session, nursing the bike round and just concentrated on being smooth and taking the correct lines.
Once back in the garage, I set about the carbs but with not enough time to get out for the next session, I was forced to take Steve's FZR 400. This turned out to be great fun and I was very quickly finding the limit of the machine. It's a great handling bike and is fantastic at carrying high corner speed as it is small and light but lacks any serious power. Still immense fun!
I soon had the carbs fitted and the bike fired into life and reved well into the high rev range. This was encouraging for the next session.

Relief! finally... the bike reved well and was 98% better. Now I was able to concentrate on learning from Jeremy and working on my riding.

We continued to work on different aspects of my riding throughout the rest of the day and the feed back from Jeremy was positive. I was glad to hear his opinion of my style, which he described as smooth and a pleasure to watch and having good potential.
All the advise he had for me made perfect sense. It is good to have someone confirm that I am heading in the right direction with my riding both in a physical way and mentally too. we worked on some great energy saving things such as different use of holding gears for longer.Also some body position and movement tips, aimed at not upsetting the bike by making my riding smoother and with less effort with the result of going faster, for longer and with less energy sapping effort both on myself and the machine.
It was a very positive day and has helped me a great deal. I came away with plenty to think about and to work on.

I now look forward to the fastest circuit in the country, Snetterton at the end of the first week in July.
With more improvement needed to come from the carbs and no sign of a new set on the horizon, I may just head back to the dyno and see if things can be improved upon. If niether happens, then I will just have to suck it and see next time out!

Big thanks to Jeremy Hill for his time and effort.It is always a pleasure, a privilege and very much appreciated and welcome.
Also a big thanks to Jez's mate Richard for the baffles that helped bring down my noise test failing exhaust from 110db to 105db. It still failed until further tampering got it down to below the 101db limit... PHEW!

Carb-o-shite

2007-06-16T21:45:00.000+01:00

The bike is back from the dyno shop and running better than it was. It's not perfect and never will be, as Adie, the guy who runs Motohedz bike shop and dynapro dyno, has found both sets of carbs are excessively worn and recommends a new set.
He has toiled for hours with the thing and will probably be dreaming of stripping FZ carbs for the next few nights.
I really have to give a big thanks to him for his efforts. He has given me an extra special level of service.
Also, thanks for the oil! He has given me some new high performance rock oil to try out at the next meeting so I can come back to him with my findings. It is supposed to give a 5% increase in power so I will be running my regular oil for one session and then will change to the rock oil in the next session and see if I can detect a difference. It will be interesting to see the results.

Well, I hope the bike behaves for the trip to Brands. I will be setting up the spare set of carbs as a back up option, should I have any trouble with the current set. I know where I am with the spare set. They give excellent performance high up but are a complete nightmare down low making all the slow stuff a real problem....no good on the start line!

With only tomorrow (Sunday) to get ready for the off, I have quite a bit to do. At least there is no added pressure of a race weekend and just being away for one day makes things a lot simpler.
I'm really looking forward to riding the full GP circuit and finally getting out for a good blast.
It feels like months since the last ride!

Dyno-might ! ?

2007-06-14T18:32:00.000+01:00

After being away from home for over a week now, the FZ will hopefully be coming home from the dyno shop in the next couple of days. Early signs are promising although no news on a final bhp figure.
It seems we were miles away on jet size and have dropped from 142.5 down to low 20's or even late teens, which really surprised me. I will be very relieved to see the beast finally sorted on the fueling and happy to get her home in time to do some work over the weekend, before we leave for Brands.
Time will tell...as they say!

I need my drugs!

2007-05-28T23:01:00.001+01:00

It seems like months since I last turned a wheel on track rather than 2 weeks. I am starting to get serious withdrawal. as I said before, we decided to give Pembrey a miss.My next fix is approaching though, when we head to Brands Hatch on the 19th of June to a trackday around the full GP circuit. I can't wait! Just over 3 weeks to go!
I got a ride on Steve's new FZR400 the other evening! It was a great little thing to ride, so nimble and light compared to the FZ750. I was really impressed...great fun! It did remind me of why I stopped riding on public roads though. I just can't help myself sometimes and as I get older, the more it doesn't feel comfortable out there. I'd much rather fall off on the race track.

Phil has returned home from Steve spencer's with his new motor and has no skin left on his palms from lapping in the valves. Bet he's glad it's just a twin cylinder!
I've been doing a few bits on the FZ, nothing too involved.
Water proofing the coils, sorting out a better front number board and getting the rev counter, idiot lights and temperature gauge mounted on a decent dash.
Phil has sorted out a replacement front wheel spacer so we don't have to keep robbing the standard speedo drive item out of his road YZF every time we want to go racing.the only other job that needs doing is to source some new dogbones for the rear suspension.

Ah!... I almost forgot... I'm booked into the new local dyno on next Tuesday to get the carbs set up properly. I will also get a bhp reading and then will go off to the nearest m.o.t station and try and blag a free weigh-in. I can then see how far off the power to weight ratio the bike is. Looking forward to that!

I'll keep any progress posted up as and when!

Do I look like a bloody duck?!

2007-05-18T22:58:00.000+01:00

I was doubtful of getting a race at Brands because of the entry mess up. I was also doubtful the bike would have enough ground clearance particularly at the bottom of paddock hill where there is high compression as you enter the big dip. I had ordered a new ride height adjuster to help jack up the rear of the bike, but there was only a couple of millimetres gained by this.... bugger, there was no way I would run the bike if it was going to start decking out.
Steve has just bought himself a Yamaha FZR400sp. While messing about in the work shop earlier in the week, he had noted that the shock linkages ( or dog bones as they are sometimes called) were slightly shorter than on my bike. " you could always use those if your ride height adjuster doesn't turn up" he said.
As it turned out, they saved the day. The shorter items would jack the rear of the bike no problem.
With not much time to get the ferry on Friday, the ride height adjuster had turned up in the post rather late in the day and after a half hour of stripping the bike in the back of the van, I realised the thing was not going to do the job. I dashed over to Steve's and stripped the dogbones out of his FZR and legged it to the ferry, meeting Phil along the way. We fitted them to my bike in the paddock, in the rain, that evening ready for the next mornings practice.

I was rather relieved to find a half decent day on Saturday morning. I was not looking forward to the forecast rain for the weekend having never really ridden properly in the rain on full wets before.
I went out in the practice session to find the bike wouldn't rev past 8000 rpm. We had swapped the carbs back to my items earlier in the week to try to cure the bad running low down. This had worked but now it was rough as hell up in the high rev range. As it turned out , I didn't get out in the first race so with time until the next race, we swapped them back, preferring a rough low end. At least the thing would go when asked.

I was released out for race 2! woohoo!
A back of the grid start. 38th! I got the now usual, great start but it was to be short lived as the red flag came out before the end of lap 1.

The next start was great too but with so many bikes on the grid the 1st corner was a nightmare. I had to hit the brakes twice, really hard, to avoid a collision. Once through turn 1, I was on the gas hard down paddock hill with the back tyre protesting big time, spinning and slipping heavily. I really don't remember too much about the race other than it was mad! so many bikes to get by. I was held up everywhere and with a reduced race distance because of the 1st lap red flag. By the last lap flag, I could see one of my own class ahead. It had taken me the whole race to get through all the 400 bikes and get to see a Thunderbiker. Again, on that last lap I was held up, stopping me from getting to the Thunderbike, who I was visibly catching fast. I didn't manage to catch him but came in 23rd over all and 14th in my class... not bad and 2 more points.I was rather happy with that considering.

The next day was wet. Jeremy Hill had stopped by to see me and advised against using the wet tyres I had and to go get some new ones. He very kindly, sponsored some of the cost of the new items, and i have to say a very BIG THANKS to him for that.
I have not really ridden in the wet before on wet tyres. Last wet race was back at Lydden hill when I went out on supercorsas, which at the time was the wrong choice. I wasn't looking forward to it and very carefully bimbled round on the new wets in practice. coming into the paddock complaining " do I look like a bloody duck?!" and feeling not very confident. Phil relishes the wet and assured me it was all in the mind and that there was nothing to worry about. I resolved to get over the mental block I had and drummed it into my brain to go out and go for it!

Race 1 arrived and still raining I was gridded 14th. The start was good as usual, and I got the jump on a few guys and as I went through turns 1 and 2, I was amazed at the level of grip, leaning right over as if it were dry. That was it! I knew then that there was no problem and that it was just me. I carried on gunning it until out along the start straight the bike started to cough and splutter. I could hear the thing arcing and realised the wet was getting to the electrics. Then I just went backwards. I was swallowed by almost everyone. I finnished last of the Thunderbikes and no points.

Being camped out next to the Laverda guys was great. Not only had their help been invaluable, but their awning being up next to our, help shelter us from those nasty elements!....Cheers guys, it really was a pleasure!

Between races, Phil and the Alto Laverda guys helped me to work out what was going on with the bike and we spent the whole time messing about with it trying to figure out what the problem was. It was a good education for me, working with people who know what the hell they are doing and I learnt an immense amount in that couple of hours.

I really have to thank them all for their help. It was fantastic and I really enjoyed the time we spent.
The same thing happened though in race 2, so I just decided to use the track time to get into riding on the wet tyres and concentrate on being smooth. I enjoyed it and really got into the swing of it and can now safely say that I would not be troubled again by wet riding.
It was amazing!

I finished 14th again and with only 15 Thunderbikes on the grid this time, all i had to do was finish to get at least 1 point. As it turned out, one bike had dropped out and I was gifted an extra place and came away with another 2 points. So with 4 points and 3 races, I was reasonably happy with the weekend. It could have been better but also a lot worse!
The best thing was learning to cope in the wet and equally the amount in general that I had learnt over the weekend was great.

It was a bit strange to not have Phil out riding along side me. Equally, Gyles and his Guzzi were absent, strange not being camped out with us and no big Chris either. I really look forward to us all being there together at Snetterton in early July.
Myself and Phil have decided not to go to the next round at Pembrey, in Wales. Phil has a new motor, which he would rather run in at a track day than at a race meeting. Sensible I reckon!
Also, the frequency of he meetings so far this season are starting to take their toll on finances for all of us I think. Every two weeks it just too much.For the rest of the season, the events are much more spaced out... Phew!
We have booked a track day at Brands Hatch for the 19th of June, which puts us about half way between the last round and Snetterton. Phil gets to run in his motor and I get to spent some time with my mentor, Jeremy Hill, on track for some tuition. There are a few spots on the circuit that I am having trouble getting my head around. I am hoping Jeremy will help me with these and many other issues with my riding. Basically, I would like him to take a good look at my style and see where we can improve it.
We will be running around on the full Brands GP circuit, which is something I, and Phil have always wanted to do. I am really looking forward to it!

Meanwhile, back in the shed, I am fitting a temperature gauge, sorting out the carbs, protecting the coils from the wet, making some sort of box to stop the wet getting into the carbs and generally messing about. I will write the results and on-going progress over the next couple of weeks. I'm sure we'll find other stuff to mess about with too!..

A near miss!

2007-05-15T00:12:00.000+01:00

I nearly didn't go to Brands....
When Bemsee, the Racing club, have to submit all their paperwork to the ACU and their insurers, they had next to no entry forms from the Thunderbike racers. I submitted mine just after the Cadwell races but they did not reach the club before the deadline.All of a sudden, everyone submitted their entries at the last minute, by which time, Bemsee had decided to combine both the clubman and rookie 400 classes, in with the Thunderbikes class, to get a full grid. This meant that a few guys, the last to submit their entries, got put on the reserve list and were therefore not guaranteed to get out and race. I was one of them.

In the light of this and the awful weather forecast, I was in two minds about going at all.
I decided to gamble and make the effort.
I did manage to get 3 out of the 4 available races and both practice sessions too. The gamble paid off!

I will now be submitting all my entry forms for the rest of the season, to be certain of not getting put on the reserve list in future. It's not nice being unsure of getting out to race.

It was quite an eventful weekend for me with all kinds of mechanical woes and my first time out on full wets too, which was a great experience.
As it is quite late at night as I write, I am going to cut short my post for now and write more later when I am more awake.
For now I will post a few pictures that Jules, one of the Alto performance Laverda team pit crew, kindly gave me at the weekend that he snapped at the last meeting at Cadwell Park.
Thanks Jules, and I hope I have spelt your name correctly!
Some great shots, modestly put down as "not too bad " by the photographer!

Right in the mix.... excellent!

what a great shot! Over the mountain can be spectacular.

Some of the variety of machines that make Thunderbikes so interesting.

I had a fantastic battle with these guys!

Into the bottom of the Mountain.

I recently realised, that if you click on the photos they will enlarge! d'oh...

Some real racing at last!

2007-05-01T22:33:00.000+01:00

Cadwell Park has to be my favourite of all the circuits I have been to so far.
The setting is superb and well worth the long drive we have to endure to get there.

The awesome 1st turn, Coppice corner. Not for the feint hearted!

We left home at 6.30am and got to Steve Spencer's place for about 10am to find a nice clean engine sitting on the bench ready to go in the frame. All went well until we fired it up at about 12 noon, to find it running really rough low down in the rev range and struggling to not cut out. Higher revs seemed ok. We spent the rest of the day until 6pm trying to get the thing sorted and with some improvement, and all of us starting to get tired, we decided to take our chances and make a run for the circuit.
I really have to hand it to Steve for his efforts. It was a long day and most perplexing for him as he was convinced all should have been sweet.

We finally arrived at Cadwell at about 10pm and met Chris who had been waiting for us to give him a bed for the night. Gyles and his Guzzi were to arrive the next morning after he had spent the day trying desperately to get his bike fixed ready for the weekend. All with the Italian giant for was to be ok Gyles for the weekend.

So, Saturday morning I got up really early to get myself and the bike sorted and ready for first practice at 9am. Thunderbikes were to be the first out on track for this weekend, leaving no time to mess about in the morning but plenty of time in the afternoon once we were finished racing. I managed to get myself and the FZ organised well, and in good time for both scrutinising and signing on, leaving me ample time to get myself fed and watered and psyched for first practice at 9am.
It was a bit chilly and misty this morning but not enough to dent my confidence in putting the new motor and its host chassis, through its paces. Having been to Cadwell for a couple of trackdays last year, I was already familiar with the circuit, so could go at it early. I made full advantage of practice and quickly got the hang of the track layout and was feeling confident for the coming races.
The only bug was the bad tick over and likely hood of the bike cutting out, and with no starter motor, the thought of stalling on the line was worrying.

Sure enough, it did stall on the line at the start of the first race. I quickly raised my hand and began to push start the thing myself before any officials could get to me. She fired in a very short few metres and as I started to push backwards to my grid slot, I was confused to find a lady official insisting I pulled to the side of the track. I tried to argue I had time to take the start but she was having none of it, pointing to my bike I realised the reason was the overflow pipe from the cooling expansion bottle was flapping about. I was absolutely furious, Max Biagi? you ain't seen nothing! I can, in hindsight, see why she "blacked" me but at the time she was the devil himself.
I spent the race by the start line in the biggest sulky paddy I've had since I was a little kid. One official came over and asked if there was a problem.
"I'm just having a kiddie tantrum mate" I said.
"well you know it could have been something more serious wrong with your bike" the guy said, as I complained that it was a trivial thing that could have been sorted with a quick tug to remove the offending article.
Well it's all part of racing and the general learning curve of it all I guess. A hard lesson but one well learnt!

The next race of the day almost completely made up for it.I got a brilliant start and had my first real race of the season.Instead of going backwards from my good start, I went forwards through the field getting by quite a few riders on the first 2 or 3 laps and spent the rest of the race trying to work out how to get past Gyles and the big guzzler who was slowing me down quite a bit. He was still learning the circuit and I knew it so had that fact as an advantage.I eventually managed to get by and finished the race in 13th from the back of the grid where I had started in 23rd.

Hunting down the Guzzler!

What a great result for me.The bike ran strong,revving right out and being far more powerful than it was before.Steve has done a great job to give the level of power it has for just a standard engine. The handling was better too. The newly re-worked forks now have a little more adjustment and I was able, over the course of the weekend, to dial out the low speed problems I had at Lydden and progressively got faster as the weekend went on.

Sunday I woke from an excellent nights sleep to a very murky morning.After a short foggy practice, the damp air that shrouded Cadwell Park held us in the Holding area, waiting for our race, for what seemed like hours while we waited for the marshalls to decide if it was safe to race. Each marshall post needs to be able to see the next for safety, and once this was established, we were cleared to race. This was to be another storming race for me. Another good start for me from my 13th place, I was up to 8th by the end of the first lap. I had no idea at the time, where in the order I was. I was soon passed by Steve Joy on his Ducati 748. I found I could stay reasonably close to him and spent the next 4 laps looking for a way to pass when suddenly, his hand went up, and he pulled out.

On the next lap I was passed again, this time by Craig Ashall, who I just couldn't hold off and was running a good half a second a lap faster than me. That's where I stayed.. in 9th.
When I returned to the paddock and realised I had finished 9th, I was thrilled. I had not expected to see the top 10 this early in the year, if at all this season.

Starting from 9th for the last race of the weekend was awesome. I was totally unsure of what was to come, would I get swallowed up at the start or be able to hold my position and if so, for how long?.... I resolved to just go with the flow and see what happened and do my best.
I was feeling rather fatigued after the 1st race of the day in which I had ridden really hard and as well as I felt I could.

By the the mountain on the first lap I was told I was in 7th, but this was not to last as by the start line to begin lap 2, I had dropped to 11th. Then I fell to 12th which I managed to maintain for a few laps until the last couple of laps. I was getting very tired and messed up by out braking myself into the silly chicane and let a couple of guys get by. I held my position and managed to finish in 14th.
I was disappointed with my fitness, but I was very happy with myself for 3 races and 3 points finishes.I was also happy with the bike for the weekend as I had not had a lot of hope of things going as well as they had. I had anticipated all kinds of trouble from the bike.

Still, the engine has a real bad problem at low revs while at a standstill. I suspect sticky carb slides to be the problem as the revs take a while to settle after blipping the throttle. There's also a flat spot at around 8 or 9000 revs, the transition from needles to mains so we reckon on upping the jet size a little to cure this.

Another problem is turn in and ground clearance. Although better now, it still needs more.The rear ride height is at it's max, so some shorter linkages in the rear shock and/or a longer ride height adjuster are needed to raise the ride height and then in turn, this should help the bike to steer quicker and turn in to the corners better.It will also stop the grounding out of the exhaust and catchtray that has been happening,even though we are now running Steve Spencer items, which are a vast improvement.
There is still loads of development to come from the bike, both in handling and the suspension, the engine with more power to come and also from my self, both performance wise and through fitness. By lap 5 of the 7 lap races at Cadwell, I was getting tired and after the first race of Sunday, I couldn't get myself off the bike, I was so sapped of strength.

During the last race, on the last lap, Phil was taken out by another rider as they entered the fast first turn at Coppice. As I came past I could see he was hurt.
It was very worrying, waiting for ages for him to be let out of the medical centre. Thankfully, apart from being badly bruised in many places, he was ok, no broken bones or long term worries. The bike was a bit of a mess and once home, Phil found out that apart from a few bolt on bits that are no problem to replace and a smashed up fairing, that the gear box had been damaged. This is to put him out of the next race at Brands Hatch while we wait for his other engine to come back from the tuner....... BUGGER! to say the least.

Coppice is bloody fast!....

It was a massive relief to find he was ok but it really sucks that the next race will be a miss for him.

There was also an accident in the paddock, in the Guzzi camp. Young Chris. chief pit crew and general muscle man, couldn't hold his drink or his bike and ended up looking a bit silly!
He made us all piss our pants though!

I know ..... looks very suspicious eh?

Makes you wonder what they get up to in East Anglia!

Top bloke is Chris!
He can certainly get through some beer, and some food! but he comes in very handy when things need lifting. Who needs paddock stands when this guy is around!
I must say a big thanks to Chris for bump starting me all weekend. Cheers big guy!!

Gyles and his Guzzi came away with 4 finishes and 5 points, a relief I am sure after 3 non finishes at Snetterton.
Phil came off worse, just missing out on points and the big crash mentioned earlier.

I feel luckiest for a change, especially after arriving at Cadwell with no confidence in the bike even making it to the start. So with 12 points on the card (points at last! hoorah!) and 3 excellent races, in terms of excitement for me, I had a great weekend.
Can't wait to come back to Cadwell in August!

If I can get all the jobs done in time for Brands, I will be hopeful of some similar results next time out. Maybe a bit optimistic, but I feel I need to aim high and keep pushing to go forward.
A real shame to not have Phil there with me on track. Here's looking forward to his new engine!

Watching from the side lines

2007-04-19T19:58:00.000+01:00

Snetterton, round 3,

It seemed like I had travelled back in time, to last year! when I spent the whole year watching,apart from the occasional trackday.
Watching from the side lines isn't so bad....... oh hell!, who am I trying to kid? It sucks!
I'd rather be out there, in the mix.
Actually, I really enjoyed myself. It was just the uncertainty of when I would be riding next. With my engines in pieces, everything is a maybe. Anyway, I'll get to that later....

On the way to Snetterton, we dropped off Phil's engine components at Steve Spencer's and had a good chat about what we were exactly going to do to the FZ motor. Then, off we went to get to the circuit before dark.
We got there to find Gyles and Chris had bagged the spot we had recommended from last year's experience. A good vantage point to be able to see the exit of Corums and the whole of Russle's chicane and onto the start straight...excellent.

Without going into loads of detail, Gyles's Guzzler had nothing but problems, but when it did go ok, he was absolutly flying! It seems Snetterton's fast straights suited the Guzzi well.
I know he had a great time and managed to bag some good points too!
The guys from Alto Performance came to the rescue of the guzzler.
It finished 1 out of the 4 races and went home with more problems than it arrived with. :-(

Gyles chases down John Hall on his aprilia "dirt bike"

Phil chases Dave Shannon on his FZR 750. We may not see Dave on the FZR anymore. He's decided to take his 400 out for the rest of the season. I think he is selling FZR, so we may at least see it in the hands of some one else. I hope so!

Phil enjoyed himself very much and managed some points as well to open his account.
Seems I've got some catching up to do.
Well I may just be able to do just that!......

After talking myself into, and then out of, riding my RSV in the Forza Extreme class at the next round at Cadwell, I decided to give Steve Spencer a call to see what the chances of getting one of the motors sorted, in what ever state of tune, to get me out in time for the next race.
I had spent the journey home from Snetterton, trying to work out some way of racing and not having to miss any more track action. Steve agreed to have a look and call me later in the week with the diagnosis.
Wednesday came.I was expecting a call but my patience got the better of me and I decided to call him........ good news! He had found a good block, some new rings, skimming of the head as it was warped, some new valve seals and a good clean up and valve seat grinding. He has found me a pipe to borrow, and some velocity stacks. A session in the dyno room and tweeking of the carbs should see her in good shape. Anything has to be a vast improvment on what I had before.

So an early departure up to Steve's, where upon his insistance, we will put the motor in at his workshop, rather that at the track as I had suggested. Good idea I guess. His experience is not to be sniffed at and I would take his advice over anything I could come up with.

Phil at Cadwell last summer, entering Hall Bends.....

and climbing up the Mountain.

So I have Cadwell Park to look forward to!
I really didn't want to miss this round. Cadwell is an amazing circuit set in excellent surroundings. A real circuit!

KIDNAPPED.......!
One titanium fork, one titanim spoon or knife....I can't remember which, plus two plastic tubs and a pack of bacon!
I was planning on melting down the titanium stuff but gas is so expensive these days. Shame, they would have made some nice light weight fittings for my bike. Phil talked me into giving them back..... Gyles and Chris are such nice guys, I guess they deserve them returned!
See you at Cadwell guys, I'll cook something nice, and I'll use our own cutlery....promise.
We did eat the bacon though, It would have gone off anyway!....nice.

Depressing, but exciting!

2007-04-09T08:06:00.000+01:00

After 22 years of running about on public roads, it seems my number 1 engine can't put up with the race track, which is hardly surprising. I'm amazed it lasted as long as it has. My number 2 engine has also had enough! They both filled the dyno room with so much smoke, that Steve had to evacuate the place!...... sorry Steve!

The two engines have spent the last week in the dyno workshop being worked on to extract more power and get them running right. That was not to be and after performing poorly on the dyno, were then taken apart for further inspection. Steve has updated me on the sorry state of them both.

Number one has a blown head gasket, warped head, very badly seating valves, terrible scoring in a couple of the bores, one is particularly bad, and the exhaust pipe is seriously stifling the motor.
all pretty bad stuff!
Number 2 has also a blown head gasket. the rest of the motor has yet to be stripped.

It always was the plan to have one motor seriously tuned, just not quite this early in the year.
Oh well, there's no time like the present I guess!

Obviously I will miss the next round at Snetterton and more than likely the following race or two. I am rather gutted, but at the same time relieved. Neither engine would have survived another race and I would have hated to have ruined someone's weekend by possibly dumping fluid all over the race track or had one seize on me. It also means that soon, I will have a nice new motor, pumping out maximum allowed bhp and hopefully allowing me to move up the grid a few places.

So to the tuning work.
Steve has given me several options on tuning and we have reached a decision.
Rebore, new ballanced pistons and rods, new bearings, lightened crank, porting work, gas flowing , skimmed head and a multitude of other tweeks.
We have decided to loose the starter and also the generator and run total loss electrics. This, among other bits, will shed a good 6 kilos off the weight of the motor.
By the time Steve has worked his magic, we should have 106bhp at the rear wheel and shed a load more weight bringing the old bus up to, or very close to, the Thunderbikes power to weight ratio limit.

The really great thing about it is, it will give me a chance to work on other stuff. Not having to think too much about the motor now, I can concentrate on the brakes and suspension. The raised power will certainly show up both these areas and we'll see what happens.If I can get these sorted, I can then really concentrate on ME and my riding, which is what I'd rather be doing. I will hopefully be picking up my newly reworked forks from Steve Jordan when we get to Snetterton, to add to the improving package.
Now we should be getting somewhere! all I have to do now is be patient and keep earning those ££££!

Work resumes

2007-03-29T21:45:00.000+01:00

Play time is over and work resumes as the engine gets removed, ready to go to the bench dyno.
Hopefully it will come home from the FZs good friend Steve Spencer running better, with a fatter torque curve.Not sure exactly what Steve will do to the motor until I get to his place and have a chat. Some mid range power increase would be great as would a little more top end for those long straights at the next meetings venue, Snetterton in Norfolk. I am sure there is loads of scope to just simply make it run better as I am not entirely convinced it is running that well.

I will also be dropping off the spare motor so Steve can give it the once over and see if it's worth tuning it into a proper little race engine. Time will tell, as they say.

In the mean time I will be away from home for a week which means nothing will get done.
When I return, hopefully with a more sorted motor, I will have plenty to get on with and I imagine it will be another mad rush and long evenings, getting ready to get to Snetterton sometime on the Friday evening.
I want to play with ride height and the rear shock, to complement the work that is being done to the front end forks.
A good clean up and other small mods are due too.
We are not doing the testing day, Thursday, as we decided to save funds for the following meeting at Cadwell.

I love this racing lark!

2007-03-28T21:51:00.000+01:00

Round 2, Lydden Hill, Bemsee's home circuit.
A good weekend all in all, apart from sleeping on a hill and a bit of cold and wet on Saturday.

The bike ran fine, running well on all 4 and with no clutch slip. I however, was not running on all 4.
I really don't like the cold and wet.

Phil's Laverda decided to spring a water hose leak, 2 minutes before first practice and after trying to sort it, unsuccessfully, he missed the first race too.
The first race for me was still a case of getting to know where I was going and sorting out the correct lines. Still suffering with a horrible front end, especially in the slow turns, my storming fast start was wasted as just about everyone came past. I managed to finish 16th out of 18 finishers.

As race 2 approached, the weather went from cold and damp, to colder and wet and with not much time to decide on which tyres to run, my gamble to stick with inters proved wrong. 10 minutes before the start the rain got heavier and it became clear that wets would be the correct choice.
Phil had his bike sorted and was allowed to take the start.
Again, I got a very good start but quickly went backwards and skidded around praying for the chequered flag to come out and coming in last... not nice.

Camping on a hill is no fun, neither is being on grass!

I felt quite down about the whole day, feeling not very confident in either myself or the bike. I have a lot to learn about riding in the cold and wet!

After a nice warm evening in the back of our more comfortable van, after leveling up the bunk, and a better nights sleep than on Friday, I woke to a much better looking sky. The hotter the better for me! Heat gives me confidence.
The warm up was short, just a few laps and over in no time, but I managed to hook on to the back of one of the fast guys and learn some better lines.

Race 3 was much better. yet another blinding start, jumping up the order but not for long as loads of guys came past early on. About halfway through the race, I decided to take a peek over my shoulder to see whether I was being caught and if I was going to be last again. There was Phil behind me, and as each lap passed, I could feel him getting closer. On the second to last turn, the hairpin at the top of the hill, I felt the pressure, messed up the corner enabling him to get past. I finished second to last this time.
I managed to knock 2 seconds off the previous days time which I was happy about, but I was not happy with a few things I had done.

After a good chat with Jeremy Hill, my mentor for this season, I felt better.Some advice on certain lines and other bits and pieces were a good help and some adjustment to the forks for the second race of the day.

As race 4 got closer, very pissed off with myself, I had to turn negative into positive.
I tucked myself away in the van for a while to psych myself. I used a bit of visualisation and got myself determined to really go for it and not make the mistakes I had made previously.
I decided that I am to never look behind ever again. I knew after the last race that this is a bad thing, and that I need to 110% concentrate on what I am doing instead of playing silly games with the guys behind. Jeremy confirmed this with me.
I had, up until then, been letting the bike worry me. That had to stop too. If the bike is going to go bang or something falls off, then tough, don't worry about it. Just me and the road in front is all.
Leaving my warmers on until the last moment and not looking at anything, I made my way to the grid very well sorted in my head. If the belly pan decked out, then so be it (it had been putting me off all weekend as I still haven't got this sorted quite right yet). If I fell in the process, then so be it... bollocks to it! I had to get on top of the bike and push the thing more than I had at all so far this season.

So the lights went out and I stormed through 2 rows and about 10 places into the pack. This time I made it much further into the race before they all got me back.
The bike felt better, I felt better and although I went backwards in the finishing order again, I was happier with my performance and another 3/4 of a second off my lap time, and I wasn't last this time.

There are a few mods in the pipeline for the next race meeting at Snetterton. These include:
A change of gearing to cope with the long straights and high speed corners.
Getting the ground clearance right, including rear ride height and belly pan mods.
The front suspension is at Steve Jordan's suspension shop being sorted and a trip to the dyno to get the motor running better.

I really feel focused on improving in as many areas as I can in the coming races. This is once in a lifetime for me, so I plan to make the most of it.
Even with moments of doubt and getting a little down.... I love this racing lark!

Running on all 4 ?

2007-03-22T23:45:00.000Z

I am 90% certain the bike is running on all 4, after finding another discrepancy in the carbs and spending shit loads of time trying to get to the bottom of the problem.I forgot what it's like to spend an evening at home with my girlfriend....oh yes, I almost forgot I had one!
The new brass bolt, screws into a sleeve which locates in the carb body on a slot and pin and the needle sits into this. I found this to be seated incorrectly which would explain why pot #4 only gets hot at high throttle and would also explain why the bolt was busted, a previous owner must have messed it up when trying to screw the thing in. This is a relief as I was racking my brain trying to work out what the hell I had done to bust this component.

So with all this now correctly seated, it seems to be running ok. I only say 90% as there is always that niggle of doubt in the back of my mind and that things never go that sweetly...we'll see come Saturday morning warm up!
The van is loaded and ready to go straight after work tomorrow. Just one more day of boring work....the day before race weekend always drags so slowly.
The weather forecast is a bit dodgy and I get the feeling we'll have plenty of wheel changing practice!
Well, with the clutch sorted and the thing running ok...hopefully, I am hoping to have a reasonably decent bike to ride. It will be nice to be able to concentrate on riding instead of worrying about the bike.

Race day here we come... bring it on!

Don't ask me...I've no idea what he was doing .........maybe he was cleaning up?........surely not!

Send me to the nut house!....maybe?

2007-03-18T14:23:00.000Z

We are hoping that we have found the reason for all the mis-firing and trouble with cylinder number 4. While checking and adjusting the float height in pot 4's carb, we found the screw at the bottom of the needle jet was loose. On further inspection we found it was completely snaped and came away easily. I shall be ordering a new one first thing Monday morning! I really hope this cures the problem, although we found the float height was way too low, probably not getting enough gas into that carb would of course, not help the problem.

I have been getting covered in fiberglass resin again!
I have cut away the sections on the belly pan where it has been decking on the track and re-glassed these areas scalloped inwards.
Also cutting away the top edges so it sits closer to the frame and further away from the track as the bike leans over.
The exhaust was also burning a hole in the bottom so I have cut out and made a dip in the base to cure this problem.
There's not much left of the original item left now!

I have installed the new plates, which look in much better condition than the original, and robbed the pressure plate and springs from the spare engine. The springs are much longer now, look much newer and have a much more resistant feel to them. It is noticeable on the lever now too. The pressure plate looked in much better condition that the original as well.
If these mods don't cure the clutch slip then I will take myself off to the nearest nut house for a well earned rest!

I still have the forks to mess with.Once the carbs are sorted, I plan to check the fork oil level and possibly increase this in an effort to attain a bit more damping. Hopefully this will improve the handling and get me through the next race weekend, prior to sending the forks off to Steve Jordan Motorcycles to have the forks completely re-worked.

Not too much else to do other than some new oil, a bit of lock wiring and a general clean and polish, oh and a few more mods to the van.

A couple more images from Brands.... Phil, # 61, as you can see from the scrapes, he suffers from the fairing decking out! He does get that Laverda leant over incredibly far sometimes!

Rockin' !

2007-03-17T10:14:00.000Z

Sunday was equally as good as Saturday. The weather was dry and clear although a bit windy.
the racing starts later on a Sunday, which means a lay in bed....very welcome!
We were not due on track for our race until after lunch apart from a short warm up session late morning. Well very short for me as I ran out of fuel on lap 2. Best to get these mistakes out of the way before the racing.... what a dork!

I got a great start in both the races but, again, found myself slipping backwards down the order, suffering badly with clutch slip. The engine seemed to behave this time though.

Handling of the suspension wasn't too bad but we found that the forks need to be completely re-worked. All adjustment being at one end of the available "clicks". Another job for Steve Jordan!
The rear seems fine and the tyres performing excellently apart from a couple of rear slides coming onto the start straight. Just me I guess, trying to get the power down too early.That is something the sorted suspension should cure.I am having to wait too long to apply the power out of the corners while I wait for the bike to settle.With no testing before Lydden Hill for us (due to having to work), and the forks not due to be worked on until after the race weekend, I am going to have to race with the setup the way it is until the next round at Snetterton.

I had the help of Jeremy Hill over the weekend. he is an ex-champion and had retired from racing to concentrate on helping new racers, such as myself. We talked about setting up the bike as well as a multitude of different things. He really was a great help and I very much look forward to his help throughout the coming races.

Thanks Jez!

I managed to shave over a half second off of my Saturday times, finally recording a 58.290 time.A long way to go to the front guys, who are running times in the low 52 second area.
It will be very interesting to see the difference in my times, next time we go to Brands Hatch.

The first race of the day was interesting. Following Gyles on his Moto guzzi, I could smell burning fiberglass and soon realised it was coming from the bottom of his bike. He, as I, was having trouble with the catch tray grounding out early and severely limiting angle of lean. This was soon to become an even bigger problem for Gyles as the bike decked out, loosing grip, and sliding him off into the gravel. He was thankfully ok and back at the paddock he and Chris, set about fixing the relatively light damage, ready for the next race.He made it onto the grid for the last race.

Here he comes!....bugger!

The second and last race for us was a belter! I got away from the back but made several mistakes, missing gears and recovering from a rather nasty slide allowed Phil, who I had passed at the start, to catch me. Coming along the start straight, I knew some one was behind and close as I could see their long shadow in the low afternoon sun. I resolved to try to keep this mystery guy behind, riding defensive lines. I decided to have a peek over my shoulder and found to my delight that it was Phil. There's something special about racing a close friend. We spent a good 5 or 6 laps close together and by the last lap I knew that Phil was going to try something. Sure enough on the entry to Druids hairpin, I let the bike run wide by mistake and Phil ducked underneath me and got in front. There was little chance to regain the position as he was running a second a lap faster than me all weekend, but what a great end to the weekend!

Monday was so depressing. I guess all the adrenalin from the weekend was gone and I was on a big comedown. This racing lark surely is a big drug.

Thanks to Steve Spencer for sending me a new clutch and springs. That should sort the problem.With plenty of mods for the bike happening this weekend, we should be in reasonable shape for Lydden Hill.

This was one of the best looking bikes I saw at Brands over the weekend.

Addictive stuff

2007-03-17T09:21:00.000Z

Addictive stuff this racing business. I can't wait for the next round at Lydden hill!
I thought that the weird feelings in my stomach would get less, now that I have raced....wrong, they are still there.
We were gifted some great weather for March, but rather cold nights in the van.Nice and warm for the racing though.
The first race grid of the year is set by the championship finishing positions from the previous season.Phil was to start from 8th and I was to start from 23rd.I really didn't have any expectations of where I would be by the end of the race and no idea of how the FZ would compare to the machinery around me.I just figured on finishing.I knew from the practice race starts we did at Mallory last month, that the FZ was good away from the start line, so I was hopeful of a good start. I was right. I wasn't too nervous on the line and felt well focused.I got a great start and blasted past quite a few guys, clipping some one's handle bars with mine as I shot through.

Phil # 61 and Tim "chunky" Churchill trying to find a way past!

The clutch slipping was a big problem and the engine was running badly and stuttering quite a lot.I soon found myself getting swamped by guys coming past as I lost drive out of most corners, especially the straights.
The race was over so fast it seemed like we had done only a couple of laps. A lot of it was a blur, but what a feeling of exultation for quite some time after.
I found from our timing sheets after the race that I had finished 21st. I was happy with that. I phoned my girl friend to say I was ok and she gave me my times from Mylaps.com website.I had been running consistent times, which was pleasing.

The second race for Thunderbikes of the day came as the last race of the day and again I got a killer start finding myself way up the pack.Halfway around the first lap, going into Surtees, a rider lost the front and hit the deck right in front of me. I picked my bike up to avoid him and had to take to the grass, loosing positions as I rejoined and coming out last. I managed to get myself back up to 20th and finished half a second behind Phil, getting back to the paddock with an even bigger feeling of joy inside. Great to get through the day in one piece!.

It was a long way back onto the circuit!

Saturday evening was a great fun.We had camped out with fellow Thunderbike racer Gyles Fairclough and his friend Chris.These guys had driven down from Scotland with the Moto Guzzi and a shed load of beer. We had some good food and some great laughs with tales of swollen bollocks and past biking stories.

Gyles's Thunderbike...what a beast!

Great people

2007-03-13T20:36:00.000Z

One if the most wonderful things about this whole project has been the enthusiasm of other people.When complete strangers come and express their respect and enjoyment of seeing a 22 year old bike in the paddock, it gives me an overwhelming sense of satisfaction. Racing a shitter instead of a cheque book bike is a great challange and it's excellent to get the feedback that we have got from loads of people.

thankyou all.

A great 1st race weekend!

2007-03-11T23:25:00.000Z

What a fantastic weekend!
After a much more comfortable night in our newly modified van, and with the luxury of power and a heater, Friday practice at Brands started wet. I have never ridden on wet tyres before, so it was valuable experience. I was amazed at the amount of grip available and more amazed to be over taken by several guys around the outside of me with their knees on the deck!
The day got progressively better weather wise and dried out nicely. Phil's Laverda ran nicely but not so good was the FZ. The clutch was still slipping badly and the motor was intermittently running on 3 cylinders for much of the day. I found that giving the thing loads of hard abuse seemed to get all 4 kicking in and by the latter part of the day all seemed ok. Another problem was ground clearance, with the belly pan and back brake lever hitting the deck quite badly. I raised the lever quite a bit which helped as it felt too low anyway but the belly pan would have to wait for workshop attention back at home. By the end of the weekend it had worn a big hole. More getting covered in fiberglass resin then!
The front forks are going to need attention at some point soon, funds permitting. I may just have put up with it for the next race but they will need to be re-sprung and re-valved to give more adjustment as they are at their maximum level. The rear felt good though which is a big relief.

The most urgent thing to sort will be the clutch. The bike was loosing big time along the straight and especially up the steep hill into Druid's bend and pretty much anywhere involving hard loading under acceleration.
So after a very busy and exhausting day of testing, the nerves started to build, and having spent much of the day sorting things and worrying more about the bike than what was happening with my riding and learning where I was going, I wasn't too confident about the coming races.
I shouldn't have worried so much. The racing proved to be a massive high for me and a great relief to be finally doing it after all our long hours and hard work over the winter. Phil and I had a great time on the track and a great battle in the final race on Sunday. we met some great guys over the weekend and had some fantastic laughs.
I will have to write more over the next few days as there is so much to say and some good photos in the post. It's now rather late so I'm off to bed with some great memories of my first weekend of racing.

Bleeding hel(l) !

2007-03-07T00:04:00.000Z

Myself and Steve have spent the last 2 evenings trying to get the clutch sorted. We've gone from YZF slave and brembo master cylinder back to the original FZ items and finally got there late tonight.
I know I should have listened to Steve in the first place and gone with the Fz stuff as he said the ratio needed to push the right amount of fluid would be all wrong with the YZF/brembo items.... he was right of course.
Along the way, we had gone through 3 different slave cylinders, various leaky nipples and two brembo masters, all to no avail. The only thing that was any good out of it all was the new hel clutch line, although about 29 feet too long!
When we finally decided to get the old FZ item from out of the bin ( luckily we didn't leave it for the bin men!) we couldn't believe the state of the fluid, it was mud! and I'm not joking. The slave looked so rusty that we thought there would be no hope, but with a bloody good clean up and a thorough flushing through we were absolutely and thoroughly relieved when the bike went into neutral and had some decent feel. Thank all our lucky stars for that one!

So with not much time left this evening, the body work was fitted back on and we had a bit of a tidy up and a good mopping up of the 50 gallons of brake fluid we spilt everywhere.
Tomorrow is the last evening we have to pack the van ready to get a ferry as soon as we can all get out of work. I still have a list a mile long of things I need to get organised before the off. I really don't know how I'm going to get it all fitted in to one evening. Tea breaks at work will have to be used I think! and a bit of sweet talking the mrs. to give me a hand! At least with the bike 99.9% done i can concentrate on all the other stuff!

With the likelihood of shite loads of rain this weekend, I hope we can get to a power outlet in the paddock and try to stay as warm and dry as much as possible. I'm almost glad I'm really busy, it may just stop those crazy feelings getting me every 5 minutes.
Well I am really looking forward to it all now, just not enjoying the hectic last minute scramble.
I'm sure it will all be fine.

6 days and counting....the minutes!

2007-03-03T23:30:00.000Z

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!

Race meeting dates 2007

2007-02-23T19:06:00.000Z

I guess i forgot to mention the whole reason for going to Mallory Park... to get my ACU race licence, which is hopefully in the post! Woohoo!!
It may also help to mention all the race meeting dates for this year, which I will hopefully be attending all of as long as I can fund it all.

10th & 11th March Brands Hatch
24th & 25th March Lydden Hill
14th & 15th April Snetterton
28th & 29th April Cadwell Park
12th & 13th May Brands Hatch
26th & 27th May Pembrey
7th & 8th July Snetterton
11th & 12th August Cadwell Park
15th & 16th September Snetterton
29th & 30th September Brands Hatch

My Aprillia RSV Mille 1000 is now for sale to help fund racing.

I have 99% sold the XJR, sadly. Now up for sale is the above bit of kit which is awesome to ride and proudly got me 29th fastest out of 200 at Dijon racedays in 05 and a top 10 finnish in the race. Please buy it! so I can continue in Thunderbikes!................

oops! I forgot my dirt bike!

A missile in the making!

2007-02-22T23:53:00.000Z

I would really liked to have had more time to write about everything that was going on, leading up to Mallory park, but alas, time was very short in supply.
we spent most of the last week, frantically working on the bike, quite often till 2 in the morning.
With the bike 99.9% finnished, we set off on the 6.30 am ferry in order to make 3 stops along the way. The first, to visit an amazing guy, Steve Spencer, who knows more about the FZ than anyone is ever likely to know. We spent 2 and a half hours talking to him and learnt more in that time than we would have on our own in several seasons of racing....absolutely incredible!! I can't express enough about the value of some of the stuff he revealed. much too much to be able to tell here.
He has raced and won on these bikes for years.
The next stop was to pick up a spare motor, the one I accidentally bought on the net a few weeks ago!
Then on to Alto performance to pick up a few bits for Phil's Laverda and then finally on to Mallory to spend a cold, damp night in the back of the van.I must have woke every hour that night, on each occasion, quickly realising it wasn't quite time to get up yet!
Finally the day got underway and proved to be rather hectic with just 15 minutes between being in the classroom and then out on track immediately after that, all day long. What an excellent day. I was pleasantly surprised to be approached several times by people who had been following our progress throughout the winter via this blog and I received much positive feedback about it too which made the day even more satisfying.She was so fast, Phil couldn't get the camera to keep up!

The bike. Well that was the best surprise of all. Apart from the fact we had nothing but running trouble all day, when she did run, she was surprisingly fast and even more surprisingly good in the handling and braking area. She has bags of potential to be a serious bit of kit as promised by Steve, the Fz guru we met on our first stop on the way to the track the previous day.
So on back home with a very overwhelming feeling of positivity for the coming season and confidence we can get her to run before the next race weekend.
There is loads to do. On the list for the bike are; new coils and leads, new fuel pump, new fuel filter, the clutch needs sorting as it dragged and slipped all day, the belly pan decks out really early so that needs hacking about, a coat of paint on the tail unit and a serious go at sorting out the wiring loom which it a real pain in the arse! We hope to get a few bits from Steve (FzSteve!) to help improve on what we have. (aside from all his encouragement, approval in what we have done so far and invaluable knowledge which has in fact, seriously saved our ass!) Really looking forward to seeing him at Brands Hatch on the 10th march.

After Brands, we will look at the new motor which Steve has assured us he can extract as much power as we want and about another 20 kilos at least which can be lost.A real missile in the making!

I spent more time at the side of the track than on it!

nice spot for a chat!

All in all a very fruitful day. The staff at Bemsee were fantastic, Phil was an absolute diamond without whom there is no way I would have spent any time on the track at all, as he got her going while I was in the classroom. I met loads of really great people and a few guys who will be racing in the Thunderbikes races this year and I also gained a mentor in my instructor, Jeremy hill ( www.jhill-racing.com ) who has promised to help me in the coming year, and I know he means it!
Not forgetting a real high light of the trip, Steve Spencer, one of the most passionate guys I have met in along time. I've never seen anyone get so excited by the sight of engine internals before...what a guy!! pure inspiration!

Motion

2007-02-19T18:19:00.000Z

At last my browser is behaving, so here's a few pictures from the mallory CTC course.
more words later when I've finnished clearing up all the mess from the weekend.

Bloody pooters

2007-02-19T12:27:00.000Z

My pc has gone down and I am desperately trying to get it sorted. In the meantime, I have very limited time on a work pc...so briefly..

A successful weekend and one ACU licence in the post, I am now gonna have to work my ass off to get to as many races as i can this season.
The bike had many teething troubles but none-the-less a very useful weekend even with more time spent at the side of the track than on it.
The bike felt great and very promising. Lots to do, to be ready for brands in 3 weeks but all achievable.

No more time, but as soon as I can, I will post loads of pictures and I have lots to tell you.
Bye for now

Coming together nicely

2007-02-11T01:05:00.000Z

The FZ is coming together nicely now and we're really confident of making it to Mallory next weekend.

All my paperwork and enrty forms turned up today, leaving me with butterflies and a pounding heart...then i opened the bill for all the parts I have been buying over the past month... needless to say I was rather shocked... lucky I am busy with work to pay for it all!!

Tomorrow, or rather today as it's nearly 1.30am, should be the big day! we're hoping to get the motor fired up!

Most of the bike is complete but there is still quite a few things left to do, but even so we are hoping we should have a few days in hand in which I can get the paint work done and finnish fabricating the catch tray and side panels. I've also to sort the van, which is a right old mess at the moment.

One other thing is to strip out the drive on my wife's scooter, bloody thing. Never having had one apart before, I am going to have to wing it. I could really do without it this week and I'd rather be messing with the FZ.

A couple of people have said I should post a pic of me, so reluctantly, here you go.... :-(

Rushing about alot

2007-02-06T23:20:00.000Z

What a busy weekend!

We made stacks of progress over the weekend although we still have enough to do to keep us on our toes.

One big headache has been discovering the exhaust system bangs on the bottom shock linkage and the slip-on can hangs in mid air, half a mile away from where it should be.The bike is going into a local engineering firm tomorrow to have the problem sorted. I'm sure it will be ok.

There has been all kinds of little headaches but our combined resolve has over come them all, and most sorted with bits and pieces just lying about the place. It's been good fun trying to be creative.

I would love to have the time to write about each individual job we have done, but I just don't have the time at the moment. If any FZ fans out there have anything in particular they would like us to reveal, I would be glad to answer, Just leave a comment!

I have been busy rushing about alot, buying and ordering loads of last minute stuff.

I'm really looking forward to seeing my nice new HEL brake and clutch lines on my doorstep in the next couple of days.

We are looking at getting the motor fired up this weekend coming, hopefully without too many dramas! and with most bits either on order or bought this week, we are confident all will be ready for mallory Park in less than 2 weeks!

I bet we will still be messing about with her when we roll up at the track.

Because of time getting short, we are concentrating on getting the thing running with everything bolted on and skipping things like cosmetics and using older fittings that are a bit scabby.Once the Mallory test day is over, We'll have 3 weeks to tweek and paint things and replace the scabby bits. She'll be nice and shinny soon!

up beat

2007-02-02T19:36:00.000Z

The nice new ohlins is in position, but not without drama and a little bit of blood.
All in all though, it looks good and it looks right. Bearing in mind I don't know what I'm talking about! I am feeling up-beat and a bit more confident the bike will be ready for the 18th feb.

Now I gotta go and get on with it!
more photos and words when I'm not in the workshop over the coming weekend!

patience.

2007-01-30T22:52:00.000Z

After spending Saturday morning with Darren, welding in the shock mount and sorting out a sub frame, we realised the hose from the gas bottle was in the wrong place.The hose where it joins to the shock was at the wrong angle. Not wanting to risk loosening the connection and loosing pressure, we halted proceedings until the following Thursday while I consulted Steve Jordan to make certain, as none of us were, that we could do the job ourselves.

So in the meantime, the FZ has been piled in the corner while I get on with sorting the XJR ready to be sold. She looks the business now! and is ready to go. I shall miss the old bus and am rather emotional about letting her go.

The FZ should keep my mind off the XJR.

While the XJR has been taking up all the room in the shed, the FZ has been scrutinised and we have decided the refine the design of the shock mounts and the sub frame, so maybe having the hose hold things up has been a blessing in disguise.

With almost all components in my possession now, I am hoping to get things together swiftly.Whether that is the case or not will have to be seen.

Ooops!

2007-01-25T17:49:00.001Z

I accidently bought a spare engine! My finger just slipped and i clicked the "commit to bid" button...ooops! I guess now I'll have to accidently buy a set of files and get Phil to point me in the right direction.
I'd really like to get the maximum power allowed by the series regulations, so now we have something to play with between races!

Steve....do you think your Mrs will mind if I move into your workshop?

lovely job

2007-01-25T17:49:00.000Z

A very good sight to see the shock in my hands.

Myself, Phil, Steve and Darren all met up last night to size up the shock and work out what else was needed. So Steve made tea, I got in the way a lot and Phil and Darren did all the work, lovely! Looking like the unit will do the job nicely although i get a feeling it will need a different spring but that's not a problem.So with smiles all round and hope in the air that this isn't all just a waste of time, we agreed Saturday was best to do the job.

Nice one Boys!!

Thanks to Steve and Sarah Jordan for getting the shock so quickly for us.

I wonder how long it'll look that shiny for!

Square eyes !

2007-01-23T18:19:00.000Z

My eyes are going square through staring at the pages of e-bay, the postman is doing overtime and I must have contributed more in co2 output through all these deliveries, than a whole life time of track activities.

It is kind of nice spending loads of dosh on bike parts with the knowledge I'm gonna be finally racing, but, I'd rather be playing in the shed at the moment....maybe I'll be eating my words soon when I'm working every hour to get the bike ready in time!

Jordans m/c have made my week with a phone call telling me, the shock should be here later this week.Darren Nash of Nash fabrications, here on the Isle of Wight, is going to be on hand to sort the subframe out and the mounting of the shock. There a few small jobs for Darren while he is at it, but once he has done his bit it will open the flood gates for us to get the bike ready in time for Mallory on the 18th of feb.

The seriously long line of deliveries has started and i get the feeling I'm going to be running to the collection yard on a daily basis for the next 2 weeks! Phew!

At least we'll have plenty of boxes etc. to use for our FZ unwanted parts sell off.

Meanwhile I have set about sorting out our Transit van. It's nearing the later portion of it's life so there are loads of jobs to get done.Besides the mechanical side of things which I'd rather pay someone else to do, I am building a new interior and buying a big awning in an attempt to be a bit more organised and comfortable in the evenings.I watched Phil suffer from a few bad nights sleep in the back of the big old bus last season and I'm sure he doesn't want a repeat of all that. I know I don't!

While my van is off the road having all the brakes done (not by me....big grin!), I am using my Yamaha XJR1300 to get to work...glad it's not raining at the moment.

Once the van is done, the XJBUS, as she is affectionately known by us all, is up FOR SALE.

It's with great reluctance, but I can't have all the cake i guess, and I really dislike riding on public roads since i started riding on the track. Here's a pic of her last summer. She needs a darn good clean at the moment and a new set of pads (which are still in their boxes!) and then she'll be sweet again.

Hurry up postman!!

2007-01-19T23:58:00.000Z

I have not posted for some time, due to nothing much happening.

We are waiting for the rear shock to turn up.

Steve and Sarah Jordan, of Jordan motorcycles,have sorted a shock for us that is a brand new Ohlins unit, with the remote gas bottle we require, fully adjustable and with a built in ride height adjuster which should help us get the shock where it needs to be.

Anyway.... I have been test fitting the tank, fairing, seat unit and belly pan and furiously buying various bits and pieces. Ive spent more time on ebay than in the workshop.

The seat unit is new and is from an OWO1 and the belly pan is new and from an FZR1000.
I found a spare rear wheel and disc, which completes the spare set for wets, so another set of wheels to paint!

I really hope that shock turns up soon. Less than a month left before the CTC tset day at Mallory.

I think I'll be using my RSV for that!

The new additions to the bodywork fit a treat.

Not so sure on the look of the bellypan but it has to stay to act as a catch tray in the event of an oil or water leak.

We agree here that the seat unit is in keeping.

Time is getting short.....i feel a rush coming on.......hurry up postman!!

Im still worrying

2007-01-07T11:04:00.001Z

Our friendly fabricator turned up yesterday on his lovely new gsxr600,..nice bike Darren!, to take a look at the lardy old girl.
"No problem mucker. We'll just do....bla blah"
Excellent!
The top shock mount needs relocating to where, hopefully, it needs to be.
We know there is a big issue in getting it in the right place, I'm finding it rather worrying but Phil seems to be un-fazed by it and thinks it'll be ok, so I'll stop worrying then.....ahh...Im still worrying.

We think we can use differant length dogbones on the linkage to help get the shock performing it's stroke correctly and also a built in ride height adjuster on the shock would be a great help.

I have be talking to Jordan Motorcycles, near Leatherhead, about sorting the right shock for the job, and I'm hoping we'll have one soon.We are keen to use jordans as they are at all the Thunderbike races, with their race service.

Steve has been scouring e-bay for a decent seat unit and has come up with a nice ow01 unit that looks like it will be suited to the FZ looks and keep her looking like a Yamaha. It's a bit pricey, but we need to get it quick, so Darren can get on with the subframe.The same goes for the shock.
So by the time the subframe and shock are sorted, the valve clearances should be done.
I'm sure i can find time to give the motor a coat of paint to tidy her up and then it should be time to get it back in the frame.
I am due at Mallory park on February the 18th, to do the CTC course (competence to compete),
so time is getting short. I can see the RSV coming out of the shed for that, which should be ok for the course, but, it's only 3 weeks later, and the Thunderbikes first race.......not too confident we'll make it at the moment!
Ok, I'll stop being negative.... smile..

Daylight robbery!

2007-01-07T11:04:00.000Z

spent the evening painting the wheels and weighing various stuff that has been taken off the bike.....A 22kg loss so far. I can't see too many more areas that we can loose weight so i sat myself on the scales....80 kg....what a fat git! I'm sure when i finally lay my hands on a new push bike I could loose a couple of kilos.

Phil was busy messing with the shims. After a hunt all over the Island motorbike shops, and no luck in finding any new shims, Phil "doctored" the shims himself. We could have ordered some from the local Yam dealer for the sum of £5.60p each!!!!!..... daylight robbery if you ask me!

what ever happened to the old days when you could exchange shims and they were about £1 each!?..

I will find out how Phil got on last night later today when we meet up with our fabricator.

Steve doing what we built the workshop for........ watching bike racing in peace!

The generator gets it!

2007-01-06T00:16:00.000Z

Great!..... things are moving forward at last!

Phil has taken on the job of doing the valve clearance, and has found all the clearances, too tight.
So we are tracking down some shims.
In the quest for less weight continues and the generator gets it!
While Phil attacked the cams etc, I took on the enormous task of removing the monster.... 3 bolts later,..hard work.... i need a beer!.... the thing was on the floor.
I suspect Phil is thinking "bugger, more bloody work".
He says he can make a cover. I think I'll be buying the beers next season!
Haven't weighed it yet but it's got to be 4 kilos. Less engine resistance should give a small increase on bhp.
Meanwhile, Steve is busy getting various FZ parts ready to sell on the big bay, when he's not dribbling over his new high level cans for his raptor!
Oh and the state the workshop is in already..err, we won't go there, let's just say
we aim to get the neighbouring shed sorted for some more space this weekend.
Almost ready to paint the 3 wheels we have this weekend. Yamaha gold, i feel, is in keeping with the Yamaha racing tradition . It would be nice to keep the colours as an FZ, rather than a christmas tree for at least the first race.
The subframe, and the top shock mount will get an inspection this weekend by Darren,
who i have managed to persuade to help us out.He's a great fabricator and rather busy at the moment so thanks to him for giving us his time.

Parting shot... Stevie misbehaving,...as usual!

Slow motion

2006-12-29T21:22:00.000Z

Things are a bit slow at the moment, as would be expected at this time of year. i've been scratching about in the workshop while Phil is taking care of several bits and pieces and sorting his Laverda. All i can do for now is clean and polish, mess about and tinker with things.

One job i decided to look at was the height and mounting of the tank. Packing up the front mounts have moved the tank back meaning we have to loose the heavily over weight rear mount assembly.... good!
We intend to try the YZF carbs and air box. The carbs seem like they will do the job but the YZF airbox is slightly taller. Hopefully raising the tank will help. We are going to look at ways of getting more air in the intake.

Coming up with a rear shock is the next major hurdle....finding the money is anyway!
as soon as that happens, we should be able to apply a bit more throttle to the project.
Hopefully this weekend will be productive!.... I'm keen to get moving!

dietry fibre

2006-12-18T17:51:00.005Z

I just had to photo these lc's..... should have been us 20 years ago.

The fat old FZ really was alarmingly fat in road trim with loads of scope for weight loss.

looking at various data sources for the FZ, threw up varying results so i have decided to go for the most sensible looking one. 222kg wet sounds about right and feels about right compared to similar machines I am familiar with.

So this gives us an approximate starting point.... Thunderbikes rules ( www.thunderbikeuk.com )are formulated to give close racing, which certainly worked last season!.... one of the rules states a power to weight ratio limit of 1bhp per 1.814kg.

We estimate we can shed at least 20 kg, this will allow max bhp to be around 110.

Again, data sources are varied with the majority stating around 100. We think it's more likely to be a fair bit less, maybe as much as 80bhp, so there's plenty of room to shed as much weight as we can.

As far as the engine goes, we think that short of doing the valve clearances and filter, plugs and leads, we would be better off leaving any internal work for now and trying to gain bhp through pipes, airbox mods and we may try the YZF carbs. Early inspection indicates they will do the job.we would idealy aquire a second motor and work on that later in the year. Starting with the motor we have for now means less early expense and time. The money would be far better spent on a rear shock and any other suspension upgrades. Getting this beast to handle is going to be priority.

This place is gonna be busy, and Phil has the Laverda to sort yet!!

shocking trouble!

2006-12-18T17:51:00.004Z

The front end is on with a longer steering stem, cut, sleaved and welded. The lock stops have been modified as they missed each other completely. The fork internals will be a case of wait and see but we think they may just do the job, at least for now.We are confident the front geometry is ok at this stage.

The rear thew up a few head scratchers. The swingarm goes in with a little messing with differant shims and spindles worked out by Phil.

The swing arm top rails were banging on the subframe, so this will be removed and a lighter alloy used.

The next problem is the shock. In order to keep the correct alighnment of the swingarm and shock, we have worked out that we will need to weld a new top shock mount and trim out around the hole in the swingarm where the shock routes. there's not a lot of room for a bottle so we will likely need a remote bottle.

Wheel alighnment and chain run both look good.....so not too shocking......untill it's time to fork out for a new shock.

THE SUB FRAME GETS IT!

I have been itching to cut it off!

Stuff in general is getting a polish and some paint here and there while we wait for santa to f*** off and then things will get going soon after that

dinosaurs

2006-12-18T17:51:00.001Z

As you can see, the FZ is a bit ancient. How you may ask is this thing gonna compete with modern stuff? answer..... i don't care too much, it's more about actually having a battle with someone, anyone, just to be racing is enough and i'm getting too old to be able to take it all too seriously. The biggest challange for me is to get there in the first place. finacially more than anything.

So we take a crap old FZ and turn it into a racer. We started the bike a couple of weeks ago so i shall write to catch up and then post as things happen, or not.... i will introduce you to my friends and long time co loonies Phil and Steve, without whome i wouldn't be doing this.......they forced me to do it ! honest they did! That's Phil with the hat below, Steve on the right.

updating the story so far

2006-12-18T09:51:00.001Z

Steve has been a good friend of mine for years.we have shared interests; lc's and 2 stroke yams, pink floyd, guitars, live music among other things.After riding together for years, and having a 4 year break from bikes, Steve helped bring out my longing for another bike and ultimately getting on track and having some fun. So when i finally decided to make an attempt to go racing, Steve quickly donated the use of his nice new workshop to build the bike.......the only condition was i had to build it for him first! :-)...... i was only too glad and as you can see from his grin, so was Steve.nice hat by the way!!....didn't it rain at Lydden hill !

Phil has been a friend of Steve's since they were kids and i have got to know him since i met steve in my late teens. Phil having already donated the FZ to the cause, then decided we could use anything from a spare YZF750 he has.... fantastic! the complete front and rear end minus the shock.... a good start.

Phil is the engineer among us and works for a very accomadating boss who donates the use of his extensive business premises. There's not much that can't be done by these guys so I am in good company to get the bike sorted.The need to strip right back and paint the frame was decided and with time on my hands while Phil messed about getting his head around fitting the YZF front and rear end, and with budget in mind, the old tin of hammerite came out of hibernation.

So with just a bear frame, freshly painted, and the front and rear end being in rehab for a while, attention was turned to things that would end up back on the bike.

Starting at the front, on went the clock and fairing mount from the YZF and the original FZ part weighing an alarming amount more. Only a temporary fitting for now, to get an idea for mounting clocks and fairing.The FZ clocks were severely over weight, being encased in cast and so were stripped completely. The bin saw the speedo and the temp/fuel gauge thrown in and the four idiot lights reduced to two to retain the oil and neutral lights. This has been test fitted against the rev counter which looses its cast casing. Must have saved a kilo just here!

lust

2006-12-18T09:51:00.000Z

having tasted some private bike racing abroad with www.racedays.net and many other trackdays, on these two machines, the time has come to go racing for real in the uk. It's been a long time coming for me, since i was a small boy i guess.
So the forthcoming posts will record the metamorphosis of the tatty old Yamaha FZ750 that my good friend Phil has donated to my cause, and along side that, the path of my first year of British Club Racing. ... hopefully.
Bemsee is the club and Thunderbikes the series that i hope to compete in. i had better get on with applying for my licence etc....