Joined Nov 2001
17K Posts | 774+
Ely, England
did my first race today with a machine that is now in it's seventh racing season.
it was a 2-man 2 + 2 hours at hawkedon in suffolk. i led off and decided to take it real easy as i'm not very fit presently but i hung on to a 250exc for the full 5 laps i fitted in and pitting on exactly 30 minutes - perfect! he was #20 and i was #17. we had let a YZ250 (#19) get away and he looked ragged and so it was no suprise that he was in a heap a mile later.
i had been careful not to overrev it but as you can expect i eventually forgot about the new dual valve springs and red lined the bike many a time! i'm sure the bike had a little more bang at very low revs but it wasn't easy to say.
NO VALVE BOUNCE AT ALL!
colin, my partner managed 4 in 28-minutes on his GG300 before i shot off again and got with #20 on the katoom. alas on the third lap i heard a rattle and pulled over with the engine running to look down to see a hole where the camchain tensioner blade bolt used to be!
the rattle was the blade bouncing up and up again against gravity. so i stalled it and walked it back to the paddock. because i walked back to the paddock and got there 2 minutes before the scheduled time i took the forfeit as the result wasn't going to matter now and matey then did a further 5 and then we had lunch.
no way was i going to repaitr it there and then even if i had most of the stuff. i want an easier life now! so we agreed to share colin's GG300 and i headed off first in the afternoon. his suspension is what lets it down - it's a hammerdrill!
sometimes i thought i'd lost some teeth but it was definately the day i discovered i have man breasts!!!
anyway, i again took it easy off the line with 19 and 20 moving off ahead of #18 on a CRF450R. sure enough the YZ and EXC got tangled in the woods and we zipped by them with a smug look! i sat comfortably behind the honda 450 till halfway around the second lap when i moved by and i never did see #19 and #20 again! 5 in 30 minutes again!
cole got his 4 in again and i went out for my last stint. exiting the first corner a gear too high who should come up inside me but #20 on the 250EXC and i knew we would be glued together for 5 more great laps - which they were! when the top riders got between us the gap would grow but in general we were the same speed.
on the third lap i caught him in the woods with a stalled engine! i laughed and he said 'bloody snashin vashin!" or something like that! bugger me if just 100 yards later i didn't do the same and he flew by shouting "ha! ha! it can happen to anyone you know!!!" on the last of my 5 i decided to try and took 50 yards out of him and stuffed a wheel on him with just 5 corners to go from which i got a "you person with no father!" - or something like that!
colin went out and did just 3 before he ran out of fuel. so even though he could have donme another he called it a day but with a smile. i think we'd had a good day.
so i gave him my fuel and we slugged some 'spitfire' a full-bodied beer from bishops neame and called it a day!
regards
Taffy
it was a 2-man 2 + 2 hours at hawkedon in suffolk. i led off and decided to take it real easy as i'm not very fit presently but i hung on to a 250exc for the full 5 laps i fitted in and pitting on exactly 30 minutes - perfect! he was #20 and i was #17. we had let a YZ250 (#19) get away and he looked ragged and so it was no suprise that he was in a heap a mile later.
i had been careful not to overrev it but as you can expect i eventually forgot about the new dual valve springs and red lined the bike many a time! i'm sure the bike had a little more bang at very low revs but it wasn't easy to say.
NO VALVE BOUNCE AT ALL!
colin, my partner managed 4 in 28-minutes on his GG300 before i shot off again and got with #20 on the katoom. alas on the third lap i heard a rattle and pulled over with the engine running to look down to see a hole where the camchain tensioner blade bolt used to be!
the rattle was the blade bouncing up and up again against gravity. so i stalled it and walked it back to the paddock. because i walked back to the paddock and got there 2 minutes before the scheduled time i took the forfeit as the result wasn't going to matter now and matey then did a further 5 and then we had lunch.
no way was i going to repaitr it there and then even if i had most of the stuff. i want an easier life now! so we agreed to share colin's GG300 and i headed off first in the afternoon. his suspension is what lets it down - it's a hammerdrill!
sometimes i thought i'd lost some teeth but it was definately the day i discovered i have man breasts!!!
anyway, i again took it easy off the line with 19 and 20 moving off ahead of #18 on a CRF450R. sure enough the YZ and EXC got tangled in the woods and we zipped by them with a smug look! i sat comfortably behind the honda 450 till halfway around the second lap when i moved by and i never did see #19 and #20 again! 5 in 30 minutes again!
cole got his 4 in again and i went out for my last stint. exiting the first corner a gear too high who should come up inside me but #20 on the 250EXC and i knew we would be glued together for 5 more great laps - which they were! when the top riders got between us the gap would grow but in general we were the same speed.
on the third lap i caught him in the woods with a stalled engine! i laughed and he said 'bloody snashin vashin!" or something like that! bugger me if just 100 yards later i didn't do the same and he flew by shouting "ha! ha! it can happen to anyone you know!!!" on the last of my 5 i decided to try and took 50 yards out of him and stuffed a wheel on him with just 5 corners to go from which i got a "you person with no father!" - or something like that!
colin went out and did just 3 before he ran out of fuel. so even though he could have donme another he called it a day but with a smile. i think we'd had a good day.
so i gave him my fuel and we slugged some 'spitfire' a full-bodied beer from bishops neame and called it a day!
regards
Taffy
