Taff's last racing season

Well those with long memories will remember that I used to do season long threads called 'Taff's racing season 20**' and stopped about three seasons ago!

well now 52 years is upon me and I get knackered very quickly despite visiting the Gym I have decided it is my last one.

last season I won the TBEC championship for over 50's with 6 wins, 2 seconds and 8 from 8 fastest laps! I know, I should have stopped then but my body didn't say that DID IT!!!

this season I knew that my old rival Nick "Nifty" Airey was going to be an over 50 too. Nick and I have lived within 2 miles all our lives and road raced together back in 1981. we came down to the last corner together once side by side and I was on the wrong line.... I'll draw a veil over that one!

but we did many more years of racing together before he mentioned "Enduro?" to me in 1999 and then off we went together again doing Enduro. last season I caught him up on his old gas-gas 200 just but we would still finish 8th and 9th overall in fields of 130+ we've been pretty even!

also with us is old school chum Colin Baxter, same age as Nick and happens to come from Chippenham near Newmarket and therefore frequents the same hostelry as me!

so all three of us are in the TBEC over 50s championship.

I have also raced quite a bit with Banovallum over the years in Lincolnshire (100 miles North) and I decided if the dates fell OK I'd try and do the two championships. theirs is for over 45's and MX machines are allowed in which makes it tough but also that I should just enjoy it and not worry!

I have the advantage that Banovallum have 6 or so rounds and TBEC 10 but you can drop 2. so I'm going to try and do the two.

TBEC round 1 at Rendlesham Forest 10 February 2013
this is a very tight course and you have to elbow around the trees they're that close in places, there's no relief it is incessant. the weather is cold and the track sodden. the FE570e (2009) is hard to work through the woods but we can but give it a try.

first news: Nick Nifty has a brand spanking GG250 2T. absolutely perfect for Rendlesham!
Colin has a new KTM!!! a 350EXC 4T. absolutely perfect for Rendlesham!

WTF!
we set off randomly placed from 12 rows of 10 riders and I leave on my favourite second row (you can request it).
I make steady progress but can't throw the bike around. just make a steady rythem. today it is 3-hours STRAIGHT

I manage 6 x 28 minute laps approximately and have 12 minutes to spare which is not enough time to attempt a 7th lap. I push the bike through the parc ferme and there is Nick all chilled out......... we exchange pleasantries and I mention I passed him easily on lap three to which he replies that it is impossible, he has also done 6 laps and been back 10-minutes!

thank god he did't make up more than enough time to do a 7th lap....but he always was a cautious fellow! Nick and I will therefore earn 6/7ths of the winners 300 points and be equal despite him 'stuffing' me!

Colin's ride sees him well down.

Sunday 17th March
Round 2 TBEC at Luton Hoo
or round 1 Banovallum - Ashby Prerorium (near Horncastle) Lincs

I can't afford to miss any Banovallums so I enter their meeting. I arrive on a bitterly cold day: even the dog doesn't want to leave the car. man is it cold! then there is driving rain and some snow flurries. someone tell me why the phuq I'm here please?

I'd done Rendlesham on an old tyre and then done two weekends of green laning. so an oil change, air filter, new rear maxxis, chain and sprocket set are all fitted along with the compulsory rear brake pads.....

although the wheel was perfectly spoked the last time I'd not tightened them enough and they were loose...no repeat, this time they're really wound up! I also put in my second gearbox oil seal kit.

I also forgot to do the clutch! how could I forget? every friggin time I race I have no clutch! even TQF can't help me.

My main rivals are the House brothers and 162. I speak to the house brothers before hand and one says that he dropped a trailer on his own foot and broke it so he is out, the main rival - his brother - had the Husaberg stolen a Month before. he tried to borrow a bike the day before that hadn't been run for ages and gave up as it just would not run right.

well anyway, I line up with 18 other bikes and get away in about 6th, we're all spinning and slurring left to right, filling in each other's faces with mud! I move up over the next 90-minutes needing all the grip of that new Maxxis 110 rear. I never really rev the 570 out but upon seeing a rival catching me I blast it for a mile down the edge of the field while fighting the bucking machine....no more rival! I then ask myself: why the feck don't you ride like that more often and then pledge to 'give it some' for the rest of the day!

lunch arrives, everything is clarted in thick mud. glad I wore my very unfashionable over trousers in camouflage to match my blue/white top LOL :lol: :lol:

I naturally forget the clutch and anyway: what was I going to do?

In the afternoon we start with a shower and progress in places is impossible. races like this put off the newcomers as they just haven't the race craft to get going and we need all the riders we can get!

they pull us in and everyone heads for home real quick! bugger is it cold!

I see the results and happily for me, 162 does nothing in the morning and although fasts=est in the afternoon with 6 to my 5 laps he picks up just two points.

I get 9 for second.

over at the TBEC meeting Nick has some gremlins and gets just 222 points. I'm normally good for between 240 and 270 so let's hope I can utilise his misfortune as well.

Colin has a stunning day and wins the over 50 veterans and second is Jon Foxley the 2011 winner and last years runner up to me!so battle is joined!

In April
14th Banovallum back at Ashby Prerorium
21st Stourport with TBEC

I'll let you know!

regards

Taffy

Hello Nick

this is a video of Stourport at a TBEC from last year when we still had a drought:
[youtube:30a0gj2d]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-7VwlRxX3g[/youtube:30a0gj2d]

it looks like loose sand, off camber, large stone strewn and roots absolutely every yard! you go quick on that and the last thing you'll hear is 'thwack' and wake up in A & E!!!!

however i'll be there for my first attempt. shouldn't be too bad for the Husaberg FE570e.

don't any UK people spoil this but can the anzacs and yanks guess what it is the rider goes past at 8.00 on his left exactly?

regards

Taffy

well I've just finished another two sundays of racing.

on the 14th I did a Banovallum back at Ashby Puerorum. it was meant to be Manby but the new owner's have gone to ground. as we are there next Month I'm sorry to say we'll be sick and tired of the site of it! :twisted:

I got the bike ready for this one by fitting the TE clutch slave but didn't have time to convert the M/C and go to DOT4. it bled easily enough, I also fitted new chain and sprockets and rear pads. this bike goes through rear pads like nobodies business. give me the old rear caliper from the pre-'08s anyday! gearing stayed at 13/52 and I have no base to the lower chain guide as this was 'eaten' away over a year ago!

at the meeting, I saw that one of the House Brothers was on a TM250 and this was the first ride. the other brother on a Husaberg FE550 I can usually get a handle on and he'd got over his broken foot. then there was No4 who'd won the last round and 162 would no doubt have his yam 250 2T MX running OK this time. 3rd maybe?

the track was brutally rough, soft sand chopped up followed by crossing tracks with compacted rubble that jarred spin and wrist alike. I found the bike incredibly heavy, I mean it was likke someone had turned the PAS off! I always make a 'mistake' and this time it was that I'd left my waterpack bottle out of the pack so on a warm day: no liquids!

I got to lunchtime already knackered and I guessed 4/18 and disappointed that House on the Husaberg had left me. the other one on the TM was everywhere - i guess pining for the Husaberg stolen a Month ago!

I set off well in the afternoon in second, catching the group in front one of them panicked and fell in front of me in the woods and I couldn't go anywhere. I was passed by 4-5 riders and got going again.

if you use first gear the 570 - set on soft - spins, wheelies and rips your arms off, in second it hooks up and rips your arms off and you're doing twice the speed. there is no hiding place and my arms - always my strongest part - are failing me in recent times. when i go to the Gym i only do cardio or a little legs and stomach and as a desk walla I'm really starting to pay for it now!

House gradually leaves me and I start to make mistakes as I tire. I also have no clutch which means i really struggle. overall result is 4th as I suspected and the first round winner does it again. 162 second and house third. it is back to Ashby again!!!!! in a Month!

but I decide I need to fit some 22mm offset clamps on before I die and because I can't touch the bike all week I fit a set the following saturday afternoon - my only chance! mistakenly, I remove a washer from under the bottom bearing.... more later! this is just about all I have time for as Martin Burke arrives to collect me. Martin is an Irish road navvie and talks like one! he has a Gold tooth, the look of murder in his eyes and I don't ever argue with him!

his 650 Husaberg is continually letting him down but between you and me: his preparation is bollocks! he has a a set of my special engine plates fitted but because he first swopped them in mud he now can't tell me how good they are! and he always has other (problems) things on his mind!

we set off for a TBEC at Stourport some 180 miles away and I pitch the tent. it is a beautiful course and very topogriphal. I walk the first half mile and get ready for the event. I leave the line second and weaving up and down the side of the hill the bloke infront stalls and I have to cut inside putting me against the side of the slope, this makes my run at the hill too acute as I'm under the slope trying to turn up it. I can't lean to the left as I have just got around mattie, then I see the 3' rut..... and using my locater - and leaning off the bike as much as possible - I still go in the phuqer!

2 minutes later I extricate the bike and carry on. the steering is solid - damn! I knew I should have left that 2mm washer in. I overtake many riders and then lose all the ground as one turns left on a hillside and clobbers me. I lose hope as it is all going wrong and think of pulling in. then I get into a rythem and things and then things suddenly aren't so bad! the clutch only goes away just once - not so bad!

I can hold the youngsters and MX machines quite well but I'm completely mullered by them in two places
drive up 1 in 3 hills (of which there are many!) when I can't open the throttle or i'll loop it and anyway, I'm sitting too far back...
an also the whooped out straights: I have to roll them and they just smash them.

I then scrap with a rider I easily beat all last year. and it is good fun. he ridicules me later for falling at the same corner two laps on the trot! lunch is had and besides an oil leak from the slave it all looks good.

in the afternoon I get away near the back due to needing the loo! part of getting older....

I ride really quiet well and the steering has loosened until it is normal. it is way lighter now with these clamps on!

result:

I need to go to 12/52 to avoid first and have a better selection of gears
soften the rear preload as it checked out at 66mm and don't ask me how (I changed shock and took the preload from one to the other)
DOT4 the clutch
lower - flatten the bars with no riders for a test
sidestand trying to fall off
seat is again too soft and I can feel the frame

go to the Gym: work on the "upper body"!

regards

Taffy

whato Cliff

yes we did chat, and enjoyable it was too!

I'll have to see about Ironstone.... I've sponsored a Sidecar Cross round on the same day.

regards

Taffy

Banovallum Club
Ashby Puerorum, Horncastle, Lincs
Sunday 12th May 2013

back to Ashby - three times in three months!

since the previous weekends green laning in Wales had - again - no chance to work on the bike but did so from Noon on the Saturday.
we stripped the back end and checked all connections before fitting a new battery and the new starter relay I had. new numbers fitted and that was it. in Wales I'd adjusted the rear brake level up, gone to NO BAR RISERS, and strengthened the rear spring to get the sags right.

the rear tyre was now over half worn and after 10-months use the front Maxxis is also useless!

but my biggest trouble was the headrace bearings etc. having fitted the 2000-2008 yokes with the 22mm offset I'd left off a washer that was required and the headraces were impossible to tighten without them going solid.

with the bike making a corner in 5 straight turns I would then tighten the headrace crown nut and the steering would go solid! lack of time allowed me to correct this 3-hour job.

well anyway, there were some 15 in my class and at the dropping of the union jack I left the line second and then in 50M was leading, the star - No$ got beside me three times on the first lap and made a real hash of it before he got me on the 'chop' of a farmer's field.

I held onto second and thought that that would be it BUT a No64 got me and slowly pulled away. so third for the morning. I was having so many incidents though with the steering and going up slopes had virtually no control as the front wheel would weave like I had a puncture!

during lunch I tightened the headrace nut another full turn (as you do....)

after lunch I shot off for the 1.5 houtr afternoon in 5th and then pulled through to 3rd behind 64. 4 had disappeared. I began to realise I could keep with him and then decided to attack.

however, there was a nasty area in the woods where the track was so chopped that you had to stand in the single rut at 5mph as the jarring was too much! next time around, still right behind 64, I could feel that this was as much as I could do! if I got by him, could I keep it going? was I weakening....?

well I rode through this little woods section and slightly got the line wrong, I lent back so I din't smash my shoulder into the right-hand true and pulled a wheelie up to the right. I closed the throttle with the bike's front wheel way to the right and me falling to the left. as I clomped the ground downhill of the bike it pinged up on top of me.

the bike laid on its bars, tank and my left leg was still around the other side of the bike somewhere up near the footrest. the right leg was straight but under the seat and had all the back half of the bike's weight on it.

the engine was screaming away because my hand was still holding the throttle but my hand was pinned under the bars!

if the bike fell towards me now I'd be in trouble because I was looking back and staring at the chain going around - fast!!!

luckily the bike was very stable perfectly upside down. instead of 5 seconds to stop - the bike went on for 20-30 seconds so it seemed to me. I managed to get one leg out and kept kicking the bike but I couldn't get it tall fall away from me.

eventually it did, all I had was the one free leg and eventually it fell and now I could feel the hot exhaust - now I really moved quickly! anyway, I stood there for about 2-minutes trying to just get composed. my left knee had been badly twisted.

I set off again and had a quite uneventful last hour as I built up my ryethm again.

I guess third and third for third overall in class and second place in the championship is now looking good.

no race this week with TBEC (sorry Cliff!) as I've sponsored a sidecarX meeting and I'm taking that in. that means I';; have missed the only two TBEC rounds I'm allowed to and will marshall the Butts Quarry round as well next Month. then I must do 5 meetings from 5 with no bad results to do well in that club.

regards

Taffy

spud1968 said:

No probs.

I tried out the new mapping switch yesterday, results: mild - stock (noticeable change); stock - wild (couldn't notice it). The Rekluse EXP has now got the softer springs (silver) in the Rekluse part of the clutch to engage/lock at lower rpm. I was finding yesterday it would slip for quite some time when I wanted it to lock and drive me forward more aggressively. My new Scotts steering damper should be with me by Friday I can feel my excitement cant wait for it to turn up :bounce3: . Have you ridden a 350 Berg? - Its unbelievable how much throttle abuse its getting and to think its putting out the same bhp as my former Husky 449!.... Check this out! TBEC have been grading the land at Ironstone and we have a new jump being built!!! :bounce3: Your gonna miss a good ride. My boring knee injury is not 100% sorted i'm aiming for a top 30 finish overall fingers crossed

Click to expand...

I'm dying to ride a 350 and also it needs tuning which is my forte!

I also found the differences between stock and wild to be small but it is CLEANER! so would you say it is worth doing? can I recommend it to customers?

as for the rekluse well my experience is that tungsten balls = faster lock and take up. the initial point of take up was the gap in the plates. the belleville springs that we had would delay the start. there is an excellent thread here somewhere where I put every single post on setting it up. but 7 years is a long time and it must be a lot easier now.

have a good weekend!

regards

Taffy

spud1968 said:

No probs.

I tried out the new mapping switch yesterday, results: mild - stock (noticeable change); stock - wild (couldn't notice it). The Rekluse EXP has now got the softer springs (silver) in the Rekluse part of the clutch to engage/lock at lower rpm. I was finding yesterday it would slip for quite some time when I wanted it to lock and drive me forward more aggressively. My new Scotts steering damper should be with me by Friday I can feel my excitement cant wait for it to turn up :bounce3: . Have you ridden a 350 Berg? - Its unbelievable how much throttle abuse its getting and to think its putting out the same bhp as my former Husky 449!.... Check this out! TBEC have been grading the land at Ironstone and we have a new jump being built!!! :bounce3: Your gonna miss a good ride. My boring knee injury is not 100% sorted i'm aiming for a top 30 finish overall fingers crossed

Click to expand...

I'm dying to ride a 350 and also it needs tuning which is my forte!

as for the rekluse well my experience is that tungsten balls = faster lock and take up. the initial point of take up was the gap in the plates. the belleville springs that we had would delay the start. there is an excellent thread here somewhere where I put every single post on setting it up. but 7 years is a long time and it must be a lot easier now.

have a good weekend!

regards

Taffy

spud1968 said:

Results are up looks like I got 16th overall 3rd in class. Not to bad when my main goal was to not put my left leg down, which I didn't for 4 hours. My left hand is also in very good shape now that I've got the Rekluse fitted. I need to change the rear tyre (s12 140) its to soft for the fast track. I wont be riding at Butts Quarry i'm on call, so next ride with be Washbrook. O yeah, its looking like I just beat your mate Nick :mrgreen:

The Rekluse was easy enough for a DIYer to fit, but I don't now about the pressure spring thingy? If you wanna ride my 350, a few mates are talking about hiring Ironstone in early July for a private ride, we would camp overnight. The Rekluse clutch can be fully dismantled at the track side in minutes without draining the engine oil - let me know and if you wanna ask Nick I don't see that being a problem?

Click to expand...

http://www.tbec.co.uk/results/ironstone-190513/

looks like until that really dodgy last lap you did you had done the previous lap a whole second quicker than him!

I'm green laning on the 6/7th July which is a great shame as I'd love to have spun the wheels on yours!

good ride by yourself, plenty of Husabergs out there.

really pleased with Lewis Ede (97) a superb effort from a novice...

I'm marshalling Butts Quarry and then I must do every round.

regards

Taffy

back racing and was at the hopelessly flat Washbrook Farm near me at Chatteris in Cambs on Saturday. the temperature was over 30 degrees celcius which is bloody hot here in the UK!!!

since my last ride we sorted the 22mm offset clamps by fitting the 2009 headrace bearing kit with the thicker base washer and seal all-in-one. this worked a treat and the steering worked well. what a nightmare I've been through this past 3 Months being unable to find the time to work on my own bike!

the forks were stripped for the first time in a year and the front 4 shims on both MVs were a mess. they hadn't been done since before poland last year so they were well overdue!

I altered one mid valve shim on the basis of my report 14-months ago in my suspension 'bible'.

I fitted two new tyres. also I turned the light switch upside down and put it underneath. that left the flat bottom on top, I then sliced off the shoulder of the grip and was then able to ride for the day with my broken thumb over the bar.

I was first of some 12-15 on my row away and settled quickly. the track was 90% a series of u-turns in long wild grass and grip was low until you broke through to the soil. you then had the soil brake up immediately and then a lap later the stutter bumps were awful!

I had to break sitting as my standing isn't that hot this year and it is hard to be sensitive with the rear brake. I had one simple fall over using this and then I came around and remembered after about 1.50 to look at the clock. trouble was I didn't know how long I'd been doing a lap in? I had 13 minutes left so I said "what the hell! push on!!!" and did another lap. unfortunately I'd been doing 22-minute laps so i came back 9+ minutes late and lost every point!

the bike was handling the best it has ever gone! the best full stop. the suspension was good and the steering was sublime!

my set up was
front: forks showing just the caps
22mm offset clamps

rear
95mm sag but with the X bushing at the lowest position.

In three years riding it I have never been able to hold a tight corner but this thing was using the grassy inside shoulder even with the throttle open (and on a 570....)

I was very drained and the good news was that the afternoon was to be 1.5 hours and not another 2 hours - yipee!

I was very slow, the stutter bumps just made me give up the will to live....too much beer! too much good living!

anyway, I should have come in with 4 x 22 laps making a nice 90 minute run but I conspired to do it in 91.09 seconds.

my rival Nick Nifty did 5 clean in the morning and 4 clean in the afternoon. I'm thinking I get 266 to his 270 points.

we'll see...

http://www.tbec.co.uk/results/washbrook-130713/

would I use 24mm offsets if I still had the bike (it was stolen that night)? on what 22s did after 20s I'd say an emphatic "yes!".

[youtube:cqsh7gka]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97bMN_TdhpE[/youtube:cqsh7gka]

here is a video of the track in last years mudfest - totally the opposite of Saturday this year!

regards

Taffy