Senior (non-) race day

Feh. This is the 750, in the parc ferme. And this is as far as it got. Weather was rubbish, the 400cc lads came in from the day's first (and only as it turned out) race with lurid tales of big skids over the white lines at places like Guthrie's and the 27th.

We waited a while but the organisers decided to cancel the Senior. It was the only call to make I have to say, the conditions really were vile, but I am so, so frustrated.
















Clacker and Woody, about to set off for the 400cc race.
















Here's Carolynn, also about to start the 400cc race. She was second fastest in practice, you can here see her friend carefully inserting her race brain.

Thursday fettling

I went to Paul's for the last new tyre of this Manx, forgotten how many that is... after that we did a bit of investigation as to whether the 600 spare wheels fit the 750... the rear ones do, the front ones don't. So we're going with an inter front tomorrow, and either a supercorsa or inter rear depending on the weather.

Then me & Henk went down to the park where the VMCC lads were having a concourse... some lovely bikes there!+
















There was also a sprint along the prom. Here's my mate Paul on his Hyabusa.
















Some unidentified headbanger on a home brewed special, based on a Yamaha I think. It was well quick, whatever it is!

Junior race day

Wednesday, Junior race day.

This is the parc ferme, after scrutineering.
















The Irish Ago competed in the Lightweight Classic in the morning - he was the only finisher from our club! Here he is, just after taking the chequered flag.
















How true, my friend, how true!!
















My own race was a bit rubbish actually, on the second lap I got tangled up in a biggish bunch of bikes and we just ended tripping over each other for the last 3 laps. My times were a good couple of mph down on last year, could have done better if I'd been able to make a break from the bunch but I bet all the other guys thought so too!

I got a practice lap in on the 750, Dave Hagen's work on the shock was absolutely spot on! So I'm good to go on that on Friday.

Ready for the off

Junior race day tomorrow, so we're loaded up.

Here's the replacement loading step, hand make by Henk!
















The 600 and the 750, ready to go.

















This is what you need for a day's racing here!

Tuesday fettling

Ohhhhh nooooo! Look who's discovered our beer stash!!
















Clutch plates!! The 750 is now fully back together. Slick did the clutch and tested it on the dyno and Dave Hagen at Evomoto in Ramsey overhauled the shock and gave us LOADS of excellent advice about setting it up. Huge thanks to them and also to Paul Dedman ... this is in fact the second set of plates he ordered which were delivered (on time, note!) by Parcelforce.
















This, by the by, is a Munch Mammoth, an NSU car engine powered monster from Germany. I haven't seen one before, but this was just filling up at our local petrol station! If it's on 2 wheels, you'll likely see one at the Manx Grand Prix.
















We, or rather Henk, also fettled the Aardvan. This is what was left of the loading step!

Monday practice

The Aardvan had a significant birthday today!
















Here's my pal Les taking off from his pit stop!
















Another pal Justin finished 3rd in the Newcomer's A... he's the tall one. WELL DONE!!
















Here's Dave "Clacker" Clarke at Governor's Bridge... I was waiting for the roads to open and managed to snap him passing through.
















I ran the 750 in the practice lap... Slick's mod to the clutch held up, but it's handling like a pig on a pogo stick. I'll speak to His Slickness soon and see what we can do about it.

Sunday fettling

Here's Champ, goggling in awe at the dyno charts for his 600!
















Here's Slick, fixing the clutch on my 750.
















DHL!!!! Aaaaaaargh!! What are they like!! My new clutch plates arrived in their depot at Ballasalla 8pm Friday. They're closed Saturday, Sunday and they're on holiday on Monday. Call themselves a courier company!! I even tracked down 2 different DHL employees to beg for my package but noooo, more than my job's worth to open up on a Sunday, squire, etc etc... useless bunch of toerags!! Guaranteed 24 hour delivery is now 4 days and counting.

Slick's done his best with the old plates and stronger springs and spacers, we'll just have to see how it holds.

Saturday practice

The ladies found that you could get 5 little tops for a tenner in the grandstand shop. Much interesting trying on ensued outside the van; here's Janice.




















My pal Mike Newton arrived, he's marshalling Sector 8.




















Here's Saturday's crew; Alison, Rochelle, Janice and Becca. Phrase of the day; "Behave, or we'll dip you in chocolate and throw you to the pit crew!".
















We only got half a lap in; the session was red flagged at Ramsey due to fog on the mountain. The suspension changes to the 600 worked very well though!

Friday practice

Smashing day, sorta. I spent the morning haunting Paul Dedman's shop, hoping for a set of clutch plates which as it happens were infesting a shelf in a DHL depot in Manchester. DHL translated "Deliver urgently to the IoM" to "Stick em on a shelf till we feel like sending em".

Aargh! Still, major kudos to Paul who spent a big chunk of his morning chasing them on the phone. Should have em tomorrow.

So to the paddock with the 600. We were second session out so I got a chance to snap a couple of mates in the classics and lighweights...

I got 2 good laps in, the first was pretty slow as there was a ton of traffic to get through but the second was better at 106ish.

Here's Steve Gibb (25). Obviously the way to go reeeally quick on a Drixton Honda 350 is to wave your foot around and not look where you're going!!
















Here's Young Woody, giving it looads off the start!
















Some of tonight's crew, Becca (l) and Janice (r) with the Andreas club race secretary Sarah in the middle. Note that Janice has her race week plumage on already, being freshly pink-haired by Cargo's team!

Another one bites the dust..

Feh. Another practice scrubbed... the classic lads got out and got one lap in but a sea mist blew in and clagged in the west of the island. So their practice was red flagged and after a delay it was announced that it was scrubbed for the rest of the evening.

Today's crew, Becca, Kayleigh and Mick
















Sea mist, on the way in!!
















The Irish Ago sets off for one lap; the classic lads got the only lap of the evening.

Bike update...

600: as I hoped, it was just an electrical connection; part of the earth to the battery. All fixed!

750: the clutch plates are mullered. Next step is to phone round and see who can get a set over here the quickest. The bike's up at Slick's in bits.

Van's all packed, I'll just run the 600 tonight.

That's racing, as they say...

The day started like this. Spot on weather, everybody happy. Then the postie brought several exciting parcels; a new stopwatch and a package containing some "Stomp" tank grips (to make ot easier to hang on to the tank with me knees) but failing to contain the bit I *really* need; a new screen. The old one got clobbered by a lump of rock at the Jurby South event.
















Here's me van. As painted by the lovely Gary Partridge at Happy Dog Race Paints. He is truly one of life's better surprises, is Gary, he's just back from passengering for Dave Molyneaux at the World Sidecar championships in Croatia.
















Here's today's crew, with some hangers-on! Tracey, Champ (riding a storm, 7th quickest today), Suzanne, Mike, Janice and The Irish Ago, Kev Murphy who's having loads of fun on a classic Ducati.

















So how, I hear you all cry, did you get on in practice Keef mate? Shite, actually! I went out on the 750, and the clutch gave up the ghost at the Ramsey hairpin. I got the bike back to the grandstand, pulled in and jumped on me 600. After an entertaining first couple of miles -- I had to remember, no quick shifter so dip the throttle on gearchanges and there's 30 bhp missing so no, the engine ain't broke, it's just a bit slower! -- I settled back into it and was going well until the 32nd... phut, no electrics. Still, John and Mike the marshalls at the 32nd are top company and make a mean cup of tea! The view was great too.

Alas some low cloud swept in and the second part of practice, the classics, were cancelled. I was really looking forward to seeing them!

I'll have a look at the 600 tomorrow, it's likely just a connector come loose with the shaking around they get round here. I'll drop the 750 at Slick and he can sort out the clutch.

Out on the 750

Took the 750 out last night and had an interesting time... it's faaaaast, but set up for a bigger lad than me! I'll take it out again tonight, knock a tad off the damping and it's on fresh tyres which will help. It also spat a bit of water out of the expansion tank... a bit of a concern but I've changed the cooling water and run it up good and hot and it's not leaking anywhere i can see. We've also gone longer (to 42t from 43t) on the gearing as it was revving out a bit.

Soz no photos today, forgot me camera, doh!!

So; 104 mph last night, let's see if I can get me head down a bit this evening!

Practice starts!

Finally, we're off! Practice started tonight in prett much spot on conditions. I went out on the 600, as seen below in the scrutineering queue.



















This is the queue from the top of the hill! It takes ages but it's important to get the bike checked thoroughly.
















This is tonight's helpers; L to R Mick, Janice and Andy. I'm due a severe beating from Mick's lass cos he's mad keen to go racing now! Andy caused some comment thanks to his unusual attire.















I got 2 steady laps in. The 600 went and handled great; I want to tweak the suspension a little but apart from that I'll not change much. I'll post the machine settings which will be of great interest to one or two of you and may also help the insomniacs.

Haven't seen times yet, I'll post 'em when I get 'em.

Sunday

Nowt much on today except we wandered over to the paddock for the technical briefing.. a pep talk from the technical officials to help us have our bikes properly prepared for the technical inspections at scrutineering. I also dropped by Dennis Trollope's van and bought a couple of sprockets to complete my collection - 44 and 45 teeth.
















Back at the garage I fitted the 45t sprocket, checked the bike over again and cleaned it again, all ably assisted by Trotsky the cat.
















And see? I told you there was a mountain up there! The weather's improving, fingers crossed for tomorrow!