rnd 5 of wec, llanidloes, wales.

though id'd stick up the poster for this which is just up the rd from me.

been on the blower trying to wangle a nice easy job on the extreme test so i can get some good photos.

well went out over the week end to help with clearing for the event.
did some work on the extreme test.
One idea that may be used, is to have the riders going up a 30 ft rock face, last couple of feet almost verticle, within 20 yards of the start, with a longer chicken run around to the right.
Sounds bad but when it was being tried out earlier in the week it rode quite easy, apart from landing in a gorse bush at the top, but that would be cleared out for the event.

the second bit of the test which is 100% going to be included is a 100yrd climb up a steep rock slab with very short rutted, run up from a tight left turn. Even the lads i was with, most of whom are championship class riders, have done WEC events and are local, said that it was trick. So halfway up that could be the spot i pick to set up camp with my camera.

locally everyting is going to probably be booked up for the teams.

i would suggest either booking into a campsite or try one of the other towns.
all the towns around here are roughly 14 miles apart (something to do with when they used to drive livestock to market)

i would suggest, in this order, try looking for digs in Newtown, Rhayader, llandrindod wells, builth wells, welshpool, Aberystwyth.

id do it soon as i known the teams are already booking accomodation and that accomodation for all the various officials has been booked as well.

also put llanidloes into google maps then zoom in until it brings up the villages such as caersws, llandinham, trefeglwys and carno the these all have accomodation as well as some of the others.

these are in or near llanidloes;
Lloyds Hotel ***
www.lloydshotel.co.uk
Glansevern Arms
www.glansevernguesthouse.co.uk
Mount Inn
Tel: +44 16 86 41 2247
[email protected]
Red Lion Hotel
Tel: +44 16 86 41 2270
[email protected]

also go to http://www.clive.nildram.co.uk/hafren/accommodation.htm for a longer list. just do it soon!

well looking at the staffing sheet i've got a job on the enduro test.
am definiatly going to get along to the berg team pit probably friday as i can see not havnig the time sat and sunday

http://www.wecwales.com/

have a read

will probably be about friday from 1400 onwards then i got a marshalls briefing at 1700. main aim is to get to the berg pit on friday as i ain't going to have time sat or sunday.

hopefully see you about.

well its thursday, there's a constant heavy drizzel up in the hills on the enduro and extreme tests and sporadic drizzel down on the parc ferm.

went for a walk around, very quite no public and most of the teams had the awnings down as were obviously doing all the hard work prior to the public tomorrow and the racing.

walking down paddock main street was quite a buzz with all these stars whom you only see on tv walking past and many nodding hello. Briefly met stefan merriman, he was having a chat with a lad i needed to speak with, so just exchanged pleasentaries. cervantes, salminen, aro, tarkkala, kanney and knight just some of the riders there.

went down to look at the practice track. OMG!! tv does not do justice to how fast these riders are!

poppd along to the husaberg camp but it all appeared a bit frantic so had a brief chat with the chef, nice chap and the one running about the least at the time, took a few photos and will pop along tomorrow when i imagine things will have calmed down slightly.

anyway heres some random photos;

ufo corse pit


tarkkala


paddock main street


kanney practice


kanney and knight


salonen's No.1


cross test near the paddock. main grass land with a few jumps


bjorne's No.2 bike


aro - insanely fast and stylish around the practice track.

nearest village station is caersws about 8 miles away, newtown is 14 away.

well its friday and its still drizzling. not as many public around as every one would have liked.

went around to husaberg and introduced myself - fryguy, roland says hi - met gustavsson, roland, carlsson and salonen.

didnt get to seen the current race bikes but had a look at the spare mules, listening to roland there are only nine in existance at the moment and these are split to two for each rider and teh rest to the factory for testing etc.

Also met up with a bunch from Midwest racing who seemed tidy as well.

first off a bit of practical advice for non-english speaking persons.


then thomas gustavsson just back from pre-riding the course. liked it and commented the last time he rode in wales was the 6 days in 1983.


then i met Roland, who in short time i met him, seemed both a nice guy and bike mad


then Borjne Carlsson came back from scrutineering.


Also briefly spoke with Salonen and asked him the usual questions of what he thougth of the place and if he hoped it would stop raining.

there where 2 bikes in the pit, 1 was joakims second bike and teh other was a factory mule.
two interesting things where the foam to protect joakims knees


and the pegs on all the bikes had been cut and welded on further forwards


rolands explanation was that the riders where all a bunch of cry babies with girly feet! but then he said they had been playing with the off-set and went too far in the wrong direction so that there was little weight over the front, prior to correcting the off-set they moved the pegs to get more weight forward. When the off-set was sorted the riders still liked the pegs forward so they stayed.

eriksons 480 bmw. just a bigger bore and piston everything else same as 450

this engine is tiny! asked the chap about the clutch failure that put all the bikes out in the one wec round. stated that the clutch springs are plate ones like in a car and at that event they used stiffer than standard springs, the bike didn't like them and lunched the clutch.
Also showed me the little dual socket on the LHS, one socket gives anout 40 bhp, swap it to the second gives it 51bhp!!, no re mapping of efi or anything just swap the plug around.
that isn't the shape of the seat its just come unplugged.

2008 sherco 250, few mods and going blue & black for 2009


2009 ktm


start ramp


coupe of misc photos

guess whos bike?







the fun all starts tomorrow

i'm cold, tired, have 170 photos to go thru and am trying to get my baby running as it quit about 11 am this morning and hasn't started since.

quick summary of today - some of the best riders in the world where reduced to looking very average by the weather.

going to cheat and post up this link to keep you all happy until i can sort myself out.

http://www.mx247.com/home/results/enduro/wec5/wec5.html