Combe sydenham- 29th March 2009

Oh dear, after putting my bike in the van and driving up to Bude to meet up with Adam Blake and Steve Jose to go to Combe Sydenham, I opened the van door when I arrived and looked in horror as a load of coolant had deposited itself onto the floor of the transit! (see pic)
It was peeing out faster than a Peter Lorimer shot (for those of you who don’t know who Peter Lorimer is, just google him). I mean, there’s only so much you can do at 7’o’clock on a Sunday morning as regards to working on the bike isn’t there? We all took a look at the offending radiator and basically there was nothing we could do, so regrettably I had to make the decision not to ride but to travel up anyway, watch the race and help a few riders out in the pits as well.

I know exactly where the problem came from with the bike. Yesterday (Saturday) I decided to straighten out the brackets on the rad due to having a few ‘offs’ which had bent them. After doing that and a few other bits and bobs, I put the bike away for the day all ready and prep’d for the race. Obviously the core of the rad been damaged in some way and with me bending things around a bit I managed to create a split somewhere along the line. Never mind, shouldn’t have so many ‘offs’ should I, then I wouldn’t bend anything!
Looks like I’ll need a new rad and I’m also getting some rad braces as well, that should stop um bending!

After getting to Combe sydenham surprisingly in one piece due to the fact that Steve was trying out how fast his ‘sprinter’ can go by ‘flooring’ it, we were greeted by a glorious sunny day, in fact it’s the driest I’ve seen the place in years!

With loads of time on my hands I had quick walk around to see who was about and basically turned myself into a right old ‘Hilda Ogden’ chatting to just about everybody I laid my eyes on due to the fact that I didn’t have to rush about getting ready for a race.
Now for the name dropping, chatted with Robert Ellick, Paul Ford (we chatted about ‘new borns’ and the lack of sleep you get when they arrive), yes Paul, I was there last year with that, know exactly how it feels mate!, Andy Smith, Phil Harris, Debbie Tucker, Jack Twentyman, Rich Tucker, Jason Duggan, Paul Cowshall, Pete Boyles, Matt Hamley, Mark Tucker, Arthur Johnson, probably a few others as well, but can’t remember everyone’s names!

Soon after the riders went up to start Andy Smith came ‘freewheeling’ it back down to the pit area where I was standing, ‘Trev, qick, my chains broke’, oh b*llocks as a blind panic ensued as we tried to get another chain for Andy. Luckily a youth rider who’d raced earlier in the day lent us one and once we fitted it, Andy got to race, albeit some 15mins late.

Enjoyed watching the riders come through as it were ‘being on the other side of the fence’, but there ain’t nothing like riding, and I was a wee bit jealous not being out there, but I suppose at least it did give me a chance to see some of my rivals going round.
A couple of laps in and Racersedge (Paul Cowshall) came crawling back with a rear wheel puncture, we both went running about all over the place to try and get a tube for him, but no luck there, so Paul called it a day and retired.

I helped quite a few riders pit at about half way, Jack (twentyman) being a champ rider was like a man possessed when he came into the pits! All I heard from him was, ‘quick, hurry up’ then it was ‘new goggles, put them on’, that was basically about it as I refuelled him. Mind you I can’t blame him, he was lying 4th at the time and only a couple of mins behind the leader so every second counts when you’re at that level.

Steve Jose came in to re-fuel and wanted a chat! I told him to get his arse in gear and stop talking and to get on with it. Next time I help him I’ll bring a picnic table, sandwiches, flask, and a portable dvd player so he can watch a film or two if he wants!

I didn’t venture too far away from the pit area all day just in case someone needed some help somewhere along the line, and that certainly was the case as I helped riders I didn’t even know sort a few things out. Perhaps I should join the Samaritans!

With a few minutes left on the clock Andy Smith came past the transponder area where I was standing, ‘come on, last lap’ I shouted, but his luck had finally run out as I looked down only to see that his back tyre had disintegrated and was hanging off the rim. Not Andy’s day then, first of all the chain, now his tyre.

Well, I did have a good day and was kept busy for most of it, so enjoyed it. Not as good as riding, but being where the action is and lending a hand is much better than standing there for 3 hours with your hands in your pockets playing ’marbles’!

Plans this month:

4th Practice

12th Surrey constabulary enduro

19th Camel Vale mcc

26th Track n Trail

Chevanage- 22nd March 2009

It was up at the crack of dawn to pick up Jack twenty man for the 3 hour plus drive up to Gloucestershire. And another cracking day weather wise it was as we arrived at the track. This was my first Midwest event, I’ve heard good things about the courses and the running of the events, so i was keen to see what the whole thing was like.

A massive entry had assembled so this was going to be a very competitive race in all the classes, excellent stuff!
Done all the necessary and went down to the start ready for the flag to drop, and today I was entered in the vets class instead of the usual clubman 2t.
As the flag dropped I got a ’corker’, and was lying about 4th into the 1st corner, and that’s where I stayed until about half way round the course when I stupidly had an ’off’ and subsequently lost loads of places!

Anyway, onto the course itself. A quick blast across a few moto x type fields after the start it was, before we headed into the woods. I was pleased at holding onto my place on this open bit of track seeing as I had the bigger bikes breathing down my neck trying to get past me. Into the woods then it was, and nothing too spectacular to report about although the going was a bit tight and you virtually had nowhere to overtake at all. It wasn’t long before we caught up the tail enders of the clubman 4t, but with nowhere to pass, the good start I made became as much use as a ‘chocolate fireguard‘, as the bikes followed each other in Indian file at a leisurely pace! ‘Bloody well hurry up someone, I’m trying to race here’! sprung to my mind, and I just thought to myself, how long is this going to last then?

One slippery steep climb in particular was my downfall on the very 1st lap as I came a cropper on the way up it. I had no choice but to go back down and try again, no problems 2nd time, but because of everyone ‘jamming’ up behind each other in the woods, I’d lost quite a few places. No fault but my own, simple as that.

A few more open fields to blast across, a nice little tricky water crossing, more tight woods with yet hardly any room for overtaking again! And the lap was complete. I reckon on it being about 7 miles at most. A good mixture of everything, but in my opinion. Just too many bikes for the length of the course. 250-260 riders?
I would of thought some of the expert riders found things a little frustrating at times even with their skill and riding ability.
Clubs like Camel vale and Xmoor have half the number of riders in their events and are nearly all woods, they don’t have any such problems with overtaking, and even if you do get stuck behind a rider, rest assured, it’s not for long. Enough said,Point made.

The race for me didn’t really start to happen until the course got a bit less ‘choked’ up, probably after about an hour or so into it. That’s when you started to get a bit more space so you could go through the woods at a good clip with getting held up by the usual ’train’ of riders. I must admit to getting a bit frustrated by it all.
That certainly didn’t help my cause as I made some more mistakes on that steep climb and had to go and do it all again a couple of times, Aaaaaargh!

I was really ‘nailing’ it across some of the fields though, flat out in 6th gear, and checking the old speedo when I got home, that’s the fastest I’ve been on the gasser so far, 112kmh, about 67-68mph? (The bigger bikes must have been touching 80mph surely?) Still, not bad for a 125 across a field, and she would have done more, but i had to shut off for the corners! Can’t wait to put a smaller sprocket on the back and take her up the straight at Weston!

I pitted ok just after the 2 hour mark, and with the track being more clearer, I felt a lot better than I did earlier on. I was now starting to enjoy it a lot more and felt confident and started to pass a lot more riders than I did before.
I went to finish, but to be honest, I could have done another 3 hours! I wasn’t tired at all and I can only put this down to the slow early pace due to the way the race panned out coz usually I’m ‘cream crackerd‘ at the end of it all!

Jack had a cracking result, 2nd in his class (vet expert), but I didn’t do so well and was a tad disappointed with 9th in the vets. Never mind, there’s always next week.
Overall a well run event, good track, but too many riders for the layout of the course. I will be doing some more of the Midwest races throughout the year, so I’ll be looking forward to see what those events are like as well.

Finishing position: 9/44 (vets)

Things aren’t looking too clever for this coming weekend at the moment, got a virus from somewhere and I feel absolutely sh*te.

Castle park- 15th March 2009

(pic by brewbs)

Would you Adam and Eve it? The Castle Park jinx struck me again! I ran out of fuel again (see blog Nov 9th 2008)

Well, what cracking weather we’ve had lately, so it was nice to drive for a couple of hours in bright sunshine up to Castle park. I picked up Adam Blake on the way as he was riding as well.
I’d had a new clutch put in the bike this week, a heavy duty one at that, it had caused a few teething problems when I tested out in the week, but thankfully all sorted now.

Yet again a few lads from our neck of the woods made the trip up and we managed to get all parked up next to each other so we could all have a good bit of banter amongst ourselves. Jack Twentyman, Andrew Smith, Phil Harris, and me and Adam.

So with bright sunshine it was off to get the bike looked over and to sign on. It’s amazing who you meet sometimes when your standing in the queue ain’t it? I got chatting to the guy in front and it turned to be an old competitor who I had many battles with a couple of years ago when I started out doing the ORE series. Mark Schofield it was, haven’t seen him for a couple of years, and when you read on, he turned out to be my saviour, unbelievable! (more of that later).
Also had a quick chat to the next young ’top gun’ waiting to make his name nationally in the enduro world, Rich Tucker, take note everyone!

Got back to van and had a friendly bit of ’competitive chat’ with Andy Smith, who had the bit between his teeth today because he didn’t like me beating him last time out at the SCEC race a few weeks back. Although to be honest, I did send him an e-mail to remind him of it, so we were all set for a good battle today!
Then we all went down to the start to do the sighting lap. I’m not very keen on them myself, but everyone to their own.

So onto the start itself and I didn’t make a bad one, in the top 10 as we tore across an open field and onto the moto x section before entering the woods. This 1st section gave everyone a bit of breathing space to sort themselves out, albeit being fast, but there was plenty of room with some nice jumps thrown in for good measure. Andy got just in front of me and I hung on to his back wheel trying not to let him get away but with the adrenaline at a high, a rider tried to overtake me and overcooked it and went down straight in front of me. I hit him and nearly came off, but managed to stay on and with that I took a quick look back to see if he was alright, hit a rut and off I came! Oh bugger, I lost sight of Andy and by the time I got re-started I must have lost at least 10 places!

The woods themselves were not as badly rutted as the last race that was held here, but still tricky in some places and even with the recent dry spell of weather we’ve been having, some of the trails were still wet and slimy. Not very technical, but enough to give you a test if you got it wrong!
We went in and out of the woods a couple of times across some moto x type tracks which joined parts of the course together, one having that massive ‘big dipper’ where you just pinned back the throttle, hammered it downwards and rode back up the other side, great stuff, and flat out.
The whole course being about 7-8 miles I reckon, so a good lap.

After the 1st lap shenanigans I settled in nicely and felt good, not too much to report and I had only had a little ‘off’ due to over balancing in a slimy rut.
I think it was about after an hour into the race when I came round to the lap scoring that I saw Adam standing there, helmet off, so obviously he’d had a problem and couldn’t carry on.
Around the 2 hour mark I pitted and Adam was there to give us a hand, so I had a quick stop, and back out I went.
I still felt good, so was really enjoying it and everything was going well.

The last couple of laps and with me going the same pace and not letting up, I passed rider after rider as quite a few had slowed down a bit. I started my last lap 10 mins before time, and still feeling good, pushed even harder hoping to make a place or two. I managed to get passed 2 other riders in my class and pulled away from them until the Castle park ‘jinx’ struck me again.
With just about ½ mile from the finish, I ran out of fuel! Dear oh dear, I couldn’t believe it, and with me stopping every bike in sight in order to ‘blag’ some fuel off of someone, those 2 riders that I’d just overtaken, got passed me again as I stood there stranded. Turns out that indeed I did lose 2 places as they were on the same lap as me and finished just in front of me due to my unexpected stop. Pee’s you off a bit that, chasing someone for 3 hours, passing them, and then getting overtaken again near the finish coz you ain’t put enough fuel in!
A YZ stopped for me and helped us out, I thought I recognized him, and I couldn’t believe it was Mark Schofield, hadn’t seen the guy for 2 years, met him at signing on, and now he’s came to my rescue, spooky or what?
With no one about with any kind of vessel to put petrol in, I thought quickly and emptied my camelbak out, Mark took his fuel pipe off, and we put some in there.
She fired up, and off I went again to finish the race.
I know what you’re thinking, why don’t I put more fuel in? Well to be honest, I’ve now got the ‘gasser’ pretty much spot on when it comes to how much I need, and today was no exception, I just didn’t compensate for the sighting lap which in the end cost me. So in theory, I did have enough. Aaaargh!, those bloody sighting laps!

Nice to finally meet up with Pete Boyles as well. I met him in the pits at the end. Pete's been following the blog from the earley days so it was nice to put a face to the name as it were. Mind you, we're going to be at each others throats this week as we're both riding the Midwest race in the same class!

When I got back to where our vans were parked, we weren’t very happy campers at all. Adam’s front sprocket had rounded off after only 3 or 4 laps, so he had a DNF.
Jack Twentyman was lying on the floor in agony ‘chundering up’ all over the place after having a big ‘off’ in 4th gear (champ rider in 4th gear, that’s got to be fast) and I was a bit annoyed about the fuel episode.
We all concerned about Jack though, and it was a good 20 mins before he even moved! We did offer to take him to the ambulance, but Jack is as tough as old boots and after a while he’d recovered enough to make the drive home.

Overall an enjoyable day and it was nice to have some decent weather for a change instead of me freezing my nuts off all the time!


Fishing position: 8/27 (clubman 2st)
Bike status: new clutch

A weekend off! - 8th March 2009

It's been a very busy last 6-7 weeks with me out on the bike every weekend either racing or practicing, so today i had a day off from it all.
Feels weird to get up on a Sunday and not think 'bike'. To be honest, my shoulder seriously needs a rest, so not racing today won't do it anyharm.

I've started to add some links on the right handside of the page that might come in useful, so feel free to click away.

Plans for the next few weeks are:
15th Track'n'trail
22nd Midwest mcc
29th Xmoor enduro club

See you there!

Inside Park- 1st March 2009

If you closely at the photo you can just see me in the distance to the right of 147's camelbak in the red kit/white helmet still on the bloody start line! What happened? Read on.
(pic by brewbs)


So fresh from finishing the BEC last week it was out again on the bike and a trip up to Dorset for an SCEC event. I had no doubt in my mind that it wasn’t going to be a 22 mile lap at this event!

Up before the crack of dawn for an early meet near Liskeard with Andrew Smith and Phil. We all traveled up together in my van and got to Inside Park with plenty of time to spare, in fact, well over 2 hours, could have had an extra hour in bed!

The good thing was, there was a strong group of riders all from Cornwall who made the trip up there and 3 of our vans were all parked next to each other, so we all had a good chat. Jack Twenty man, Tim Lewis, Dave ‘Butch’, as well as my motley crew, and also Steve Jose who was marshaling for the day.

Upon signing on I got to met ‘Brookster’ one of the guys off of the adrenaline trip forum. Nice chap, good rider as well! Also Had a quick chat with Jed and Arthur who’d also traveled up from my neck of the woods. Bloody hell, the place was crawling with us, there was also a couple of champ riders from Cornwall entered, perhaps we should have hired a coach, put the bikes in the back and had a party on the way on the way home!

Onto the start then, very very cramped indeed on the clubman start, hardly not enough room to line up and I was sort of behind the 2 bikes either side of me, so no chance of making a good one. In fact, I couldn’t even see the flag where I was because the starter was slightly out of view round the corner! So I was sat there looking at my watch on my bars thinking I’ve got another 20 secs or so to go before the flags drops, when all of a sudden, everyone kicks their bikes into action. And we’re off! Oh b*llocks, I ain’t even put my goggles on yet. I just instantly kicked her over and off I went. The first couple of hundred metres or so was a bit of a moto x track before we entered a single track wooded section that would have been tight enough to ride a pushbike through, let alone a motorbike. This instantly caused the inevitable hold ups and with the start I had, I could do nothing but queue up and wait in order to carry on. So frustrating that when everyone’s pumped full of adrenaline on their 1st lap and you get a part of the track within a minute of the race starting that causes traffic jams.

When you got through that first tight section the course then went into the forest proper and with track conditions being extremely dry, it made for a very fast race today. Nothing really worth noting about the track, just miles of forest trails, the usual really, nothing technical at all, and not many roots either. I reckon about 7 miles in length, very easy to ride and enjoyable. Just before the end of the lap you did get the chance to try your luck by going over a huge fallen tree or taking the easy root and going round it. It didn’t cause me any problems, so over it I went.

Due to getting held up a bit on my start ,I came round at the end of lap one in about 15th (looking at the lap times), so about mid pack, but with no adverse track or weather conditions to hold anybody up, it was going to be a bit of a job catching riders up and passing them.
After last weeks race and with my confidence up, I was going really well, I felt really good and the ‘gasser’ was singing all the way round the course, happy days!

About 1 ½ hours into the race my clutch started to play up and the lever wouldn’t release itself properly from the master cylinder, so when I used it, I had to wait a minute or two in order for the pressure to came back and the lever to right itself before I could use it again! Not good, and everytime I came round to the lap scoring to stop and swipe my transponder, the bike just stalled and i had to put it in neutral, fire her up again and wait for my clutch to come back before I could set off again! Right pain in the arse that was, so I tried not use the clutch too much before I reached lap scoring!

I pitted just after the 2 hour mark still going well (albeit with a dodgy clutch) and kept the pace up hoping to catch some riders in my class.
By the time my last lap came I was on a roll and I felt I was really going for it (my last lap was my fastest) and I managed to catch and pass a few riders in my class which just goes to show, ’it ain’t over till the fat lady sings’. I felt really good about that, after all, I’d been chasing them for 3 hours or more! Finished up 7th in the end.

A good day, no ’offs’, mishaps or damage, that makes a bloody change, and for the first time I beat Andy Smith who came up with me. He’s not gonna be happy about that I can tell you.

Turns out now that when I hit a tree at the Muntjac last week I’d damaged the clutch master cylinder somehow, so time to get that fixed me thinks.

Finishing position: 7/27 (clubman E1)