Taff's racing season 2007

well have i ever started this early before?
no!
i went to a strange meeting today at swaffham, a mere 25 miles from me and as near as i get to racing at home. 'hit the dirt' is normally just a practice track but for the third year they have run a meeting. the first two for a disabled girl (happened in the states) and last year a beaten up rider. this year for the club.

there was a kids 45 minute race, then an over 40 - newcomers race for 90 mins followed by 'us' the clubmen and the experts.

conditions in the woods were just MUD and lots of it, this one was going to kill me! but then i'm always saying that nowadays!

about 15 in my class and i got away first of row two, coupla falls but nobody passed me and then i settled down and started to pull one or two in.

the new frame was again excellent and most noticeable on the tight corners. i need some more rebound and the MV might want a tad more as well, especially at low speeds.

i must have fallen 10 times and with 20 minutes to go i fell twice in 50 yards and could feel my strength ebbing away. i wobbled around to the start and noticed i had 20 minutes left. enough time for three more laps. stick with it!!!

i was by now just living on instinct, that's the instinct to run away from the bike every time i dropped it!

eventually i crossed the line and loaded up not expecting too much but a call came from 'gray' to get my arse down to the caravan pronto and when i got there i got a nice third placed trophy.

so not a bad start but i'm afraid i need to get fitter.

regards

Taffy

just to mention after the wash and brush up: the new air filter system is caked right up but operated to the end. i've no idea how but pleased that it did. not really sure how the mud got where it did but then it did get everywhere! for instance i reckon there was about a quart of mud on the back of the cases. something i've never seen before. the sprocket cover to the tank was a single wall of mud!!!! must have been one of the falls!

also, there was just about one litre of fuel left. so i'd used 8 in 2.5 hours. a bit more than the meeting i did last novemnber year where i got just under 4 hours out of it. i guess the filter being blocked made the bike run rich.

regards

Taffy

second race today and after an exhausting week at work i overslept this morning and only just got there in time to be scrutineered, i was asked to free the throttle off which had been fine till the journey there (tie-down?) so i did this. my race number was 62 and they were leaving the line in their 'fours' for my annual Tunstall 'time-card' season opener!

i've done this race 7 times now and died on the other 6. i mean, waisted, completely unable to walk or even to get off the bike. i think i contemplated the old hari kari a few years ago and last year i was again crawling around on the last lap.

so this lil incident was just another reason why it all had to go wrong. as i set off among numbers 120-130 and 15 minutes late i felt sure that i would be able to roast a few of these low numbers but alas i was overtaken as i had these thoughts by two of them. nice to see one in the hedge 3 minutes later though.... gives a sense of warm comfort donchya know!

got back to the pits and instead of the usual 15 minute waiut for the clock to come round i had just 2 minutes so i just sat at the gate waiting.

at the gate you have two yellow flags back into the paddock by 5 yards. cross these and you have to 'book in' and have your timecard marked with the time on the clock.

as my time came around i moved forward to some old biddy who took an age to sign my card, fold it, and tuck it in the back of my glove.

i went back to her next time aronund and for the 4th and important lap i got the young girl and left my rival with the old biddy. took half a lap for him to catch me just off that!

we have a rule that if you lose time then you stay on that new time so i was 15 minutes late but i couldn't be arsed to worry about it so i (as i've said) lost the paddock time and joined in with 61, 63 and 64.

the forks were stiff and spikey so more work needed there but everything else was great and the second lap went well. i came to the special test but rode over a berm and dropped it. my only fall of the day.

back at the paddock i filled the tank to the brim with 5 litres and so i'd done 90+ racing minutes on one american gallon and a bit. do i keep rubbing it in? is the pope a catholic?

at the end of the second lap, as it happened, i was in the paddock next to 63 on a husky250 2T. we chatted away and as we rode off he said that as long as we were safe it was ok.... 3 miles down the track and there he is, shot over a drop, arm broken in two places.

if that happened to me right now i'd be (as brad pitt would say) "proper phuqed!".

i came in ready for the big one - lap 4 - the last and the one with the least time allowance. just 35 minutes but at least the 2 miles of the ST stage were out of it so 45 down to 35 should be close.

so 35 minutes it was! dead on time. i came in and slide up to the young fillie that had marked my card. she was looking at her nails then me, then the card. as she did all this, the clock went over to 12.59. THEN SHE LOOKED ROUND. "you have to believe me, it said 12.58: honest!".

good girl, bribed her! just got to give her a good portion now...ah it's so hard sometimes!

anyway, i told them i'd started late so i'll be given thousands of points knocking me out of the results but when i do get them i will still be able to tell where i'd have come. let you all know...

regards

Taffy

this my third event of the season was at the manby circuit near louth in lincs. the track was bad to me last march with my ignition failing whilst in october i got a second on the katoom. i collected a nice trophy for that before the meeting started and then put my bike on the second row of the grid. by now life wouldn't be complete without the usual toilet trip, how i can compute that into the programme dead on 9am every sunday i do not know! - but i do!!

from the second row the lad infront kicked and went forst time like muyself but as i drew beside hime he forced me off the course, undaunted i ploughed through the tape wioth the throttle open and launched myself up and over the 6' bank trusting nothing awaited me on the other side.

6th along the rutted army assault course and just as a caution i moved to the left of the three infronbt incase...

i shot past the three as the front man stopped in a rut and they all tailgated. up to 3rd and then another passes me: "well good luck to you!". 2 seconds later and he's off!

catch the two infront and they both fall, ok one found a bank so steep to drop down that i took his hesitation and ran away. second and expected more 'attacks' but none came for an hour until dean clark on the 450 husey go me. he had started a minute after me in the 'four-stroke' class.

i did eventually fall 4-6 times but that early spell kept me in good stead, that and the suspension. wherever i went, the lads infront were fighting but mine tracked true with 6psi in both ends.

one time i fell in a single track at the foot of a slope and i fell another three times trying to get up the slope. there was that much mud that i couldn't rev it to clear the treads without getting flipped round. once i attacked a huge earthen bank and as i lost momentum i swung her left HARD, no different to a spitfire breaking to attack (ok i have a vicid imagination here but bear with me and be kind ok!) rolled down the bank, circled and nailed it the second time!

but i have to thank that rekluse! the times i slithered and the bike just waited for me - brilliant! the times i fell and their it lay running and waitng for me! once i fell and noticed that the front end was twisted so i stopped and did the old: "wheel between the knees" trick but as i walked around the bike with mud congealed throughout my gloves and the bars i didn't notice i was revving it and with that the bike shot off up the next 'jump'. i thought it handled better without me actually!

the suspension was sublime! did i mention that?

so lunch time felt good. all i was disappointed about was the fact that i can't up the pace in the open bits, i seem to have only one pace good or bad. it's pissing me off actually. i don't want to get old!

after lunch i was the first bike parked up so front row was good. i got off in about 6th and worked my way to 4th, however my extremely cautious approach wasn't needed for the drying track and i found myself being overtaken by a few, again i felt it was becasue i'm not fit enough....

then on about the 4th lap i hussled it along in 3rd HARD and the next thing the bike is flipped to the left and i'm looking at a 1.5' foot wide rut that's about 2-3' deep. so i deliberatly steered against it hoping to jump it and ride off the course. what i didn't mention was that there was an identical rut about 1' to the left of that one so i really was phuqed!

down i went helmet first and did a forwards roll. got up and the front mudguard had sheered off which kinda killed my day!

anyway, money is due to get short soon so i think this might (just might) be my last report for a while.

regards

Taffy

first ride for well over two months and at a timecard meeting i like a lot - lt. hadham in herts. had a lift with chris ginn for the first time while big jim was away. so just the two huseys and mark peachey's GG300 was along too.

times for the 7 laps were 60, 60 (with stops to do the ST on each lap) then down to 30, 27, 25, 20 and 15.

i had fitted a new chain and rear tyre plus a front MG due to blitzing the old one at my last ride. so the minimum then!

the course was along the bottom of ditches, the edge of feilds, lots of woodland and a few bogs.

i manafged the first two laps in 25 minutes each and then the first indicator of real times was the next which i did in a comfortable 20. when i came in i had no rear brake and so i topped the fluid up with DOT4 (unfortunately) as no synthetic DOT5 was about. anyway, that cured it for two lpas but it came back again near the end.

the next two laps were 16's so a 15 on the last lap was there but as i came to the line for the penultimate time the notice was out that the race was being reduced due to dust by one lap. anyway the last lap was done in 17 but we had the experts start their last lap with us and they virtually kick you out the way so that they get their card signed first. not only that but the girls tend to let the rider put his card in his glove , move away before you move forwards to have yours marked. that's a minute in anyone's book. i'm pleased to say that despite getting away just 15 seconds ahead of 4 experts - not one caught me! so that's proof to me that i can ride but i get knackered too quickly on most tracks!!!!

no falls, no stalls and the bike started first time from cold on the grid and first time in the paddock to leave every single time! did someone say honda!

i think i'll have to sell it now as the "challenge" has gone out of it!

chris stopped after a lap because he had no clutch. i caught him trying to bleed the line but as i pointed out - it needs reverse bleeding! so i set off quickly and found a katoom with "the gear" (and a syringe!) and we soon had it bled. alas, it was gone again by the time chris had got to the front of the queue nd he retired.

nobody else was there on a husey however.

the bike needs to be mothballed for a bit longer as i have some hefty bills coming up BUT i have a race in 3 weeks against my old freind Nick Nifty (name that film?) who as i've perhaps mentioned is out of retirement and training serrupticiously!!!!

he has a GG200 and we're at a banovallum in lincs. what a battle this will be i hope! 4-years it's been! everything is riding on this!

POSTNOTE: FINISHED 22/72 WITH JUST 60 FINISHERS.

regards

Taffy

first ride again for 2.5 months and a timecard event at tunstall near ipswich. i arrived in good time for me and had time to spare! since the last ride i had fitted one new pad on the rear and kept the modified one in which is getting rather low. the fork seals had leaked a good deal on the way home from the meeting debacle of a fortnight previously. i had arrived to find even more oil from both legs on the trailer floor. so the 'fork oil level' thing was going to be out the window!

i was given 60, 55, 50, 35, 28 and 24 minutes to do all my laps and even the first lap was done in 23 so i knew that i should be able to do all the laps on time and it would come down to the special test times.

at the start the bike sprang to life on the third kick and the track darting across really, really deep soft sand in the fields , enter the woods and some nice switchback and flick sections which the husey took in it's stride, there were whoops but they weren't too bad.

on one particular section it became apparent that the forks couldn't keep up going across some chop and the head waggled wildly! and on two slow but viscious humps the forks bottomed with a twang.

on the second and third lap we did the special tests but this time they made nearly the whole lap an ST.

so 50 yards out the gate and we stop at the caravan to be let off every 15 seconds on our STs. i'd like to think i did well but only 'did' one of the other three riders. the other two disappeared everytime! one of them though was on a suzuki 250F and he was stalling everywhere. turns out the kawa/suzi 250F is well known for overheating.....

no falls and the ol' fella had a lonely but enjoyable day!

the penultimate lap was withdrawn (the 28) and so we went from 35 to 24 minutes for the last lap. the reason this time? dust? impending rain? a monsoon?

no, a christianing in the nearby chapel./ get that!

haven't done any tests and quite frankly won't i don't think till things settle down on the work/house front.

regards

Taffy

went up to killer kenton today!

i was riding in a two-man'er and colin was my partner with his GG200. the course was virtually identical to previous years with lots of very fast straights that tax the engine.

also in the paddock were big jim and chris out on their '03 501 and '04 450 respectively. upo arrival they said that they expected KK to strike again!

col lead off and did just three laps before handing to me. i did 4 in my 30 minutes but gave col the timecard 2 minutes late. so he now only had 28 ninutes to do three laps again and sure enough he was at the gate ready for the clock to tick over.

i went out to try and do the 4 again and try and get down to 7.30 laps so as to do it in exactly 30 minutes. the track was brutally bumpy on the farmers fields and we soon opend all the same old same old ruts that we've opened many times before.

on my last lap i felt something running down my leg!!!! it was my seat! it had become unscrewed and fallen off so i pulled over and leaving the bike idling and in gear i went and got the seat and refitted it. i got going again but alas i was JUST into the 32nd minute when i got back to the parc ferme for lunch.

on asking where the isleham (pronounced izleham) mafia were i was told that chris's bike made a rattly noise entering a lap in his second session and they suspect cam bearings even though they were done exactly a year ago when the crank had snapped in half!

so chris was set to share big jim's bike in the afternoon.

mine had been running fine, this was it's second meeting with weepy forks and they were bottoming out off small table tops etc.

in the afternoon col was pushed into doing 4 in 32 and i did 3. in those three though i had a rare fall as i flew into blind left hander only to find the front wheel slide away on fresh grass!

despite the pinched up seat 'dzus' it came loose again but i saved it this time and refitted it. thread is now just about gone!

back to the pits after just three laps i hand the card to colin and spot that big jim is walking the husey across the field. upon enquiring we think that the SEM has gone as jim has had a full two seasons out of it! anyway, sparks name was mentioned! jim had a catastrophe too last year but without looking up the 2006 report i can't remember what it was.

anyway, col does 3 and delivers the card to me one last time. i'm 3 minutes late this time so just a comfortable 3 laps with time spare at the end.

alas after 1/2 a mile the throttle locks closed all bar a couple of mm! something has stopped the slide opening! maybe it's a broken slide which the early carbs were known for!

so i rode back to the pits on idel and grabbed col's GG200 and did a couple of laps on that. not as good as mine i'm pleased to say but it did do the job!

BTW that's both riders out and the same last year. i was out as well (but it is carb related).

NOT A GOOD DAY!

that should be my season over as i need to save up and don't have the time either. this bike needs a lot of money spending on it but here is a list:
forks serviced with new seals and shimming
gearbox mainshaft
gearbox shims and washers etc from DL
new cam and follower bearings
prepare second head including DL springs, caps and collets!
new piston and rings and if bad enough the bore will need re-nikasiling

regards

Taffy