I wasn’t out gigging last night so I had a decent nights kip ready for the early start and long drive up to Ringwood, I felt good and I was up for it!
Set off in sub zero temperatures and nearly 3 ½ hours later arrived in sub zero temperatures as well! Had a few tricky moments on the way up along the A35 where the van decided to go where it wanted because of the ice on the road, so I had to slow down to 90mph just in case. (sorry I meant 30mph).
Arriving at Somerley Park it was nice to see that someone had found an alternative method of parking as the ‘in chains’ team van had planted itself in a ditch at a 45 degree angle at the side of the road! Looked a bit precarious that.
So, I felt good, had a nice drive up, got signed on early, so I had plenty of time. Just as well because what was about to happen was the shape of things to come!
Went to start the bike as you do, to make sure everything’s ok, and low and behold after kicking her over about 50 times to try and start it, the thing had frozen up! Lets be honest about this, had would you feel getting towed for 3 ½ hours in the open on the back of a trailer in -4 degrees, god knows what the wind chill factor was. I changed a few plugs round, checked the fuel pipe, the connections, the spark and still nothing. The carb had simply frozen and I just had to wait until she thawed out a bit. Luckily it did, and after about an hour I kicked her into life, brrrrrring a ding ding, she fired up, I love 2 smokes!
I quickly took her down to start and went back to get changed where I froze my nuts off getting into my riding gear, brrrr, it was cold.
It was even colder sat there on the bike waiting for the flag to drop to get away, don’t know how long we’d been waiting for the start, but it seemed like an eternity and my toes and fingers were almost numb with the cold (not much fat on me you know).
The flag dropped and off we went, didn’t make too bad a start at all and off we went into the woods. Soon after the start came ‘the hill of blindness’ where due to that thing called the sun (remember that?) shining straight into your eyes, you couldn’t see a thing for love nor money and you just had to point the bike somewhere in what you thought was the right direction and ‘pin it’ and hope for the best!
Further on and in the woods there were bogs, deep ruts, nice rooty sections, some small climbs, whoopy straights and a few fire roads where you could have a blast. Tight in places but overall a decent enough course and with the given conditions a bit of a test but not too severe, quite good really, 5-6 miles in total I reckon.
After about only 10 mins of my first lap things weren’t going at all well and I started to lose places rapidly. My left clutch finger and my right hand brake finger just totally gave up on me and I couldn’t operate either of those due to both of them being completely numb because of the freezing cold! My engine was misfiring because the carb wouldn’t work properly, also due to the cold. I managed to get round to the end of the lap and with no alternative, I had to stop, I just couldn’t carry on, no point if you can’t control the bike.
After about 10-15 mins I’d thawed out and was ready to go back out and give it a go. The heat from the engine had also thawed out the carb and when I kicked her over she sounded sweet again, so off I went. As the temperature started to rise I felt ok and things started to flow, thank god for that!
About an hour in and the course was getting pretty cut up in places and a few bikes were getting stuck in some of the bogs up to their saddle, some abandoned, and some riders simply waiting for help to be towed out! You had to be pretty careful picking your lines otherwise you’d get stuck up to your thighs in black peaty sh*t.
Trying to make for lost time I thought it would be a good idea to get cocky and hit a nice big tree stump, which in turn catapulted me to the ground before I even had time to call myself a ‘twat’. Oh dear, my front mudgaurd was in pieces on the floor and my headlight surround was smashed. I got up and carried on (like you do) only now to find that every conceivable bit of gloop I rode through splat up right in my face! My goggles soon became useless and soon I was out of roll-off film.
Another lap on and I pitted for a quick splash and dash and another pair of goggles which again became useless within 10 mins as my face was getting covered in too much crap.
Another lap on and back to the ‘hill of blindness’ and I managed to ride straight up some ones rear as I just couldn’t see where I was going. The bikes that had made it out of the bogs just basically left a space for some one else to get stuck in, and they did, jesus the marshalls were busy!
Even though I couldn’t go full steam due to the mud guard episode, I was doing alright until I came a cropper on rooty climb and fell off into another rider and then another bloke came up trying to find a gap and fell into both of us! 3 of us all tangled up halfway up a bloody hill, great fun! Got going again only to find that my front brake lever was now bent. What else is gonna happen?
Next lap and I had another annoying little off only to get back on the bike and find that now my gear lever had bent round so that I couldn’t change gear anymore! (theres more to come)
With about 30 mins of the race left and only in 1st gear I thought I could get another lap in easy, and I should have, but I got stuck in a bloody 3ft deep rut probably because I didn’t have the speed to get through stuck in 1st, and it took me and another rider (who was also stuck) over 10 mins to get me out. I then returned the compliment and helped him out of his rut. Good bit of team working that.
So in the end I crawled back to the finish quite relieved and glad it was all over as I just didn’t know what was going to happen next.
Thankfully nothing happened on the way home!
Finishing position: 16/25 (clubman E1)
Bike status: New gear lever, new brake lever, new front mud gaurd, new headlight surround.
Set off in sub zero temperatures and nearly 3 ½ hours later arrived in sub zero temperatures as well! Had a few tricky moments on the way up along the A35 where the van decided to go where it wanted because of the ice on the road, so I had to slow down to 90mph just in case. (sorry I meant 30mph).
Arriving at Somerley Park it was nice to see that someone had found an alternative method of parking as the ‘in chains’ team van had planted itself in a ditch at a 45 degree angle at the side of the road! Looked a bit precarious that.
So, I felt good, had a nice drive up, got signed on early, so I had plenty of time. Just as well because what was about to happen was the shape of things to come!
Went to start the bike as you do, to make sure everything’s ok, and low and behold after kicking her over about 50 times to try and start it, the thing had frozen up! Lets be honest about this, had would you feel getting towed for 3 ½ hours in the open on the back of a trailer in -4 degrees, god knows what the wind chill factor was. I changed a few plugs round, checked the fuel pipe, the connections, the spark and still nothing. The carb had simply frozen and I just had to wait until she thawed out a bit. Luckily it did, and after about an hour I kicked her into life, brrrrrring a ding ding, she fired up, I love 2 smokes!
I quickly took her down to start and went back to get changed where I froze my nuts off getting into my riding gear, brrrr, it was cold.
It was even colder sat there on the bike waiting for the flag to drop to get away, don’t know how long we’d been waiting for the start, but it seemed like an eternity and my toes and fingers were almost numb with the cold (not much fat on me you know).
The flag dropped and off we went, didn’t make too bad a start at all and off we went into the woods. Soon after the start came ‘the hill of blindness’ where due to that thing called the sun (remember that?) shining straight into your eyes, you couldn’t see a thing for love nor money and you just had to point the bike somewhere in what you thought was the right direction and ‘pin it’ and hope for the best!
Further on and in the woods there were bogs, deep ruts, nice rooty sections, some small climbs, whoopy straights and a few fire roads where you could have a blast. Tight in places but overall a decent enough course and with the given conditions a bit of a test but not too severe, quite good really, 5-6 miles in total I reckon.
After about only 10 mins of my first lap things weren’t going at all well and I started to lose places rapidly. My left clutch finger and my right hand brake finger just totally gave up on me and I couldn’t operate either of those due to both of them being completely numb because of the freezing cold! My engine was misfiring because the carb wouldn’t work properly, also due to the cold. I managed to get round to the end of the lap and with no alternative, I had to stop, I just couldn’t carry on, no point if you can’t control the bike.
After about 10-15 mins I’d thawed out and was ready to go back out and give it a go. The heat from the engine had also thawed out the carb and when I kicked her over she sounded sweet again, so off I went. As the temperature started to rise I felt ok and things started to flow, thank god for that!
About an hour in and the course was getting pretty cut up in places and a few bikes were getting stuck in some of the bogs up to their saddle, some abandoned, and some riders simply waiting for help to be towed out! You had to be pretty careful picking your lines otherwise you’d get stuck up to your thighs in black peaty sh*t.
Trying to make for lost time I thought it would be a good idea to get cocky and hit a nice big tree stump, which in turn catapulted me to the ground before I even had time to call myself a ‘twat’. Oh dear, my front mudgaurd was in pieces on the floor and my headlight surround was smashed. I got up and carried on (like you do) only now to find that every conceivable bit of gloop I rode through splat up right in my face! My goggles soon became useless and soon I was out of roll-off film.
Another lap on and I pitted for a quick splash and dash and another pair of goggles which again became useless within 10 mins as my face was getting covered in too much crap.
Another lap on and back to the ‘hill of blindness’ and I managed to ride straight up some ones rear as I just couldn’t see where I was going. The bikes that had made it out of the bogs just basically left a space for some one else to get stuck in, and they did, jesus the marshalls were busy!
Even though I couldn’t go full steam due to the mud guard episode, I was doing alright until I came a cropper on rooty climb and fell off into another rider and then another bloke came up trying to find a gap and fell into both of us! 3 of us all tangled up halfway up a bloody hill, great fun! Got going again only to find that my front brake lever was now bent. What else is gonna happen?
Next lap and I had another annoying little off only to get back on the bike and find that now my gear lever had bent round so that I couldn’t change gear anymore! (theres more to come)
With about 30 mins of the race left and only in 1st gear I thought I could get another lap in easy, and I should have, but I got stuck in a bloody 3ft deep rut probably because I didn’t have the speed to get through stuck in 1st, and it took me and another rider (who was also stuck) over 10 mins to get me out. I then returned the compliment and helped him out of his rut. Good bit of team working that.
So in the end I crawled back to the finish quite relieved and glad it was all over as I just didn’t know what was going to happen next.
Thankfully nothing happened on the way home!
Finishing position: 16/25 (clubman E1)
Bike status: New gear lever, new brake lever, new front mud gaurd, new headlight surround.
Thanks to Brewbs for the photo.
