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!

Practice cancelled!

Feh. as subject. This is the view from our front door; there should be a mountain there with a racetrack running up it. Instead, there's a bunch of cloud, fog, rain and generally more water and less visibility than one would like when wazzing a racing motorbike about.

I did a bit of lockwiring on the 750, stuck the numbers on it and then helped out Champ with his bikes. I also picked up another set of tyres at Paul Dedman's, Pirelli Supercorsas for dry conditions. I left him cackling like a drain and planning his next holiday in the Maldives.

There's nothing planned tomorrow, so we'll get Champ's workshop squared away and generally chill out.

Champ is working out of my pal Sarah's garage, it's a good size and close by but there's the detritus of centuries in there -- I think we'll do a few trips to the tip tomorrow!

Signing on

Signing on today went no problem. I had to get 2 transponders checked (one for each bike), my leathers, helmet, boots and gloves examined, 2 licences checked -- an ACU National so show I can race a bike at this level and a TT licence to show I'm barking mad enough to want to ride on the Mountain course. Then loads of forms, for my address, contact details, same for me pit crew, and then we're done.

I caught up with loads of mates around the paddock -- lots in the very long queue! -- and dropped in on the TT Marshall's association, officially the loveliest people in the world.

Then back home, picked up some Rennsport Rain intermediate tyres from Paul Dedman's down the road. Stuck them in the 600, then cooked dinner. My mate Neal Champion who's staying with us and is also racing rolled up just then.

After din we finished off the 600 -- race numbers and bodywork back on. Tomorrow I just have to fuel it and stick the transponder on and then load up the van.

Getting ready

Current state of play with signing on tomorrow (Fri 17th), I'm worryingly ready.

Here's the 600. It's my Suzuki GSXR 600 K2, ex- Slick! Performance. I managed just 6 seconds short of 110 mph (average for one lap) on this last year, so you can guess my plan this year! The bodywork's off for cleaning, apart from that it's good to go.



This is the Cringle Suzuki GSXR 750 K4 that I'll ride in the Senior on Friday 31st. I'd love to say that the team picked me out to ride it 'cos I'm such a talented race god, but in fact I think it has more to do with Kev C dropping my 1000 at Jurby last weekend!

My mate Slick has given it a good service and it's looking REALLY strong on the dyno. The bike has all the toys and I gave it a blast on the dyno myself to get used to the quick shifter (a gadget that cuts the ignition momentarily when you use the gear pedal, so it's gear changes by magic... you just hold the throttle wide open and bang it up through the gears. Wheee!).




Here's a gratuitous tool pron pic of my set of Snap-On spanners, given to me by my mate Eric after he visited the MGP last year. They get carefully polished and put away after every use! Lovely tools, one day I'll win the lottery and have a full kit!

Tap tap... this thing on??

And so it begins. The 2007 Manx Grand Prix will kick off in a couple of day's time. Soon after 6pm on Saturday the 18th, I should be zipping off down Bray Hill on my GSXR600.