Going, Going, Gone!- 27th May 2009

Well it had to happen sooner or later.............................................................................
Today i finally said goodbye to my old TM. That's the bike that started it all for me in the 1st place and it finished 36 enduro's in a row for me!
Good luck to the new buyer and i hope she gives you as much satisfaction as i got from her.

Storridge wood- 25th May 2009

After missing the 1st round of the Xmoor series due to that little mishap with my radiator, I was so looking forward to riding this as you can guarantee that the club always puts on a good event.

After a short drive up to Bude to meet up with Steve Jose and Adam Blake, it was off to Storridge woods. With no map between us and no directions, we needn’t have worried because Adam was better than Google itself as he seem to know the way like the back of his hand as he took us through all sorts of lanes and back roads (which had me and Steve saying to each other, ‘where the f*ck are we?) to deliver us at the course with plenty of time to spare.

After signing on and taking a look at one of the Expert routes, we then had a bit of breakfast and sat on our backsides around the van chatting to riders that passed by waiting for the time to tick by to get changed for the 12’o’clock start.
The weather although overcast, was warm, and as the start time got nearer, we knew it was gonna be a hot one.

After warming our engines on the rather tight start line, it was time for the off, and as the flag dropped I didn’t particularly make a good one, and as we all bunched up around a tight right hander, the inevitable traffic jam occurred. Thankfully it didn’t last too long, but even so by the time I got going I was well down in the field and not happy!
We entered the woods immediately and were faced with some rooted tight tracks which made overtaken difficult especially as everyone was fired up with the adrenaline that goes with the early stages of a race. Some guy on KTM came hurtling passed me over to go over the bars seconds later as he hit a tree stump, I slowed to make sure he was alright as It looked nasty, but thankfully he was, so I carried on.

As we progressed through the woods I could see in the distance most of my riders in my class it what seemed like a procession following each other, and I could see I was well down the field so I instantly tried to make up some places, but it all went ’Pete Tong’ and that decision effectively put me out of the race.
As I tried to overtake a rider in front of me, my front wheel ‘washed’ out on a root and as I went down to the floor my handlebars twisted and stuck straight into my left thigh, OUCH!
At first I’d really thought I’d broken something, it was bloody agony, but after I got up, I managed to pick the bike up and lean it against a lovely friendly tree, which I also leant against to get my breath back. After a bit of rest and now with every other bugger passing me, clubman 4st, over 40’s, sportsman, I decided to try and ride around the rest of the course and make it back to the pits where I could check my leg over.
Saying that, with such a testing course, it wasn’t going to be a piece of cake, but I took it easy and got myself back and parked up.

I had to make some sort of decision now, pull out, carry on, or go and see the medics, but after 10 mins of rest and with a bit of stretching as well as taking a good look at it, I thought to myself that’s it’s gonna take a hell of a lot for me to DNF and today ain’t the day for that! As long as I could stand on the pegs I was willing to give it a go, so I bloody well did. Good job it wasn’t my right leg as I wouldn’t have been able to kick the bike over and start it.

Onto my 2nd lap I went then, albeit a bit slower than the norm, but I was determined to enjoy the event and take it easy and just get a finish, and with no pressure on I’d thought it would be a good idea to try all the expert routes out as well as I wasn’t worried about the time anymore after losing so much of it.
You know when it’s not going to be your day when about half way round your 2nd lap something else happens, and bugger me if it didn’t. I was going along nicely when all of a sudden the bike went ‘clunk’ and stopped dead in it’s tracks. I looked down only to find that the chain had come off and had wrapped itself around the front sprocket (been there done that before), so pushed it up to another one of those friendly trees, leant the bike against it and tried to unravel the thing. After about 5 mins I managed to free it just as a marshal came along so I flagged him down for a push to get the chain back on the sprocket and hey presto, away I went again.

The course itself was a classic, plenty of roots, a couple of rocky and rooty water crossings, off camber trails, some steep expert hills to try out, fire roads, logs to go over and more important, no flat fields! To be honest there wasn’t really anywhere you could take a breather as it was pretty much constant woods where you had to concentrate on riding most of the time, although at some points the trails only had one line and if you caught someone up and they didn’t move over for you, then it was hard work getting by, even at the pace I was going! Overall a superb lap and a long one, 10 miles or thereabouts and not for whimps!

With now more than half the race gone and me only on 2 laps I went into the pits and topped her up and went back out again. The previous laps I’d been doing the expert routes ok but this lap turned out to be a little different as I came off on one and promptly got my bike ridden over by a following rider which put a large dent in the exhaust (this definitely isn’t my day is it?).
On another one of the hard routes I got stuck near the top only to find Rob Ellick (snapped chain) and Paul Ford (tyre came off his rim) standing there, both of them had retired, so I had a quick chat with them and went back down, turned around and made it up next time. That hill was great fun pinning the little gasser all the way up it!

With about 30 mins left on the clock I pitted to rest my leg a bit and had a quick chat with Francis Banfield before setting off on what I knew would be my last lap. All I wanted was to take it easy and get to the finish and with thinking that I made a small mistake on an off camber part of the track and ended up trying to get the bike up a steep bank and back out onto the course. Try as I might I was stuck, so with looking round I realized that the only way to go was down. I rode the bike through the undergrowth downwards towards the fire road that I could see at the bottom, but when I got there I was faced a sheer drop back onto the fire road. No way could I get down that without going over the bars, so I got off the bike and let her drop over the edge! I clambered down, picked the bike back up and luckily for me nothing was broken so i kicked her into life, and off I went again to re-join the course, nice one!

So in the end and after an eventful race I made back to record a finish at the checkerd flag.
The riders I spoke to afterwards all thought it was an excellent event, Jason Duggan, Steve Jay, Andy Smith, Phil Harris, to name but a few. All I told them was my hard luck story, so they all got the violins out for me!
Was hoping to catch up with Pete Boyles afterwards but he’d retired as his TM splayed oil all over the rear disc, he’s not having much luck at the moment is Pete so let’s hope that changes for him.
I’ve mentioned this lad before, Richard Tucker, 18 yrs old and today 3rd in champ class! That lads getting bloody well faster every time I see him. Mind you apparently he learnt everything off his dad Mark (is that right Rich or not?).

A good bit of banter was had by us all in the van on the way home, which included being entertained by Steve ‘the man of a thousand stories’ Jose. I’m telling you now, if ever you’re bored after a race just listen to Steve as he’ll tell you all about what happened and at what particular time it happened, on what part of the course it happened, who it happened with and why it happened! Great stuff and well worth the diesel money on it’s own.
Well I suppose with things going so well lately I was due to have a crap race, let’s hope I don’t have too many of the buggers in the future.

Finishing position: 19/30 (clubman 2st)

Practice- 23rd May 2009

I was going to travel up and do the South Reading event today but decided not to as i've got to much to do at home this weekend!
Not to be outdone and having withdrawel syptoms about not riding my bike, i went for a bit of practice at a local moto x track. With the cracking weather being what it is at the moment, i rode round for just over an hour straight, before packing up and heading home for a Barbecue.

I've managed to get the van fixed after last weekend, so it's all systems go for the Xmoor event on monday.

West Harting Down- 17th May 2009

What a weekend it turned out to be! Talk about ups and downs!

So it was off up to West Sussex to enter a timecard event held by Croydon mcc, a round of the SEEC championship. Phil Harris entered it as well, so I picked him up along the way and we made our way to my sisters place near Newbury for an overnight stay so we didn’t have too far to travel in the morning for the race.

We arrived early Saturday evening and promptly went down the local pub called the Fox inn, where we set about having a decent bit of ‘nosh’ after the journey up. We got talking to a couple of locals (like you do), Rachael & Rick who had a sense of humor that was right up out street as it were, and we basically had a great time with them and laughed our nuts off until it was time to leave the place and head back to our lodgings for the night.
When we got back there I thought my sister and her husband were in bed, so we crept about quietly and decided to hit the sack. Bloody nora, sods law, I’d just got off to sleep when the front door went, it was my sister and hubby that had just arrived home and I‘d locked them out, I thought they were a kip! I finally managed to get to bed at 1am.

Morning came, and we were greeted by glorious bright sunshine, nice one! Apparently Phil didn’t hear the commotion last night and was dead to the world, so he got a good nights kip. We set off in good spirits and were looking forward to the day ahead, but as we got closer to Sussex, the sky darkened and we when we actually got to the venue, we were greeted by torrential rain. Now then, to be honest, it’s a bit shit getting your stuff ready and pushing the bike to scrutineering and signing on, but I love racing in the stuff because it makes even the simplest of tracks became tricky and slippery, so what I lack in bike skills, I make up for in fitness (that’s the plan anyway).

After getting stuck in the mud getting into the place, it took us about 15 mins to finally get the van up to the start area so we could park up. I reckon we tried at least 20 times to get up a small incline in the van before I had the bright idea to let the tyre pressures down on the front. That worked a treat and we finally made it.

On to the start then, and with the rain subsiding, me and Phil who were both on the same allotted time, set off into the woods. We were both entered in the clubman class, 2st & 4st and all sized machines, so I was looking forward to seeing how my little 125 would get on against the bigger bikes in the conditions.
I followed him for the first couple of miles which were all woodland type trails, then overtook him just before the special test where I waited for him. Not wanting to do the test 1st time around (you had choice when you wanted to do your 2 tests) I just said to him, ‘follow me and we’ll do the 1st one next lap’. From this point onwards, I didn’t see him again! More of that later.
The course was excellent, in fact, I’ll say it again, excellent. All woods and a few fire roads to have a blast on so you could open her up a bit. Not one flat field in sight, hooray!, thank god for that.

Due to the rain that had fallen the night before and in the morning, the hills were a bit slippery as was parts of the wooded trails and fitness was going to come into play as the race wore on, without a doubt. One ‘rooty’ hill in particular had about 7 or 8 marshals stood on it to help the riders up to the top, as it was extremely tricky indeed and hard going, but the little ‘gasser’ made it up there every time with lots of throttle and some slipping of the clutch. Boy oh boy, do I love 125’s!
The course had a bit of everything apart from a stinky black bog. There was rooty climbs and downhills, logs to go over, fast trails, fire road tracks, muddy sections and a decent fast special test. Overall i reckon the course was about 9-10 miles in length.

At the end of the 1st lap (they gave us 50 mins to do it) I made 10 mins, so i had a bit of a wait until I was due out on the next one, but Phil was nowhere insight, so I guess something had happened to him, but I couldn’t wait any longer as my time had elapsed and I was back out.
No problems on my 2nd lap and with 45 mins to do it in, I made time again and when I got back i put some fuel in. I did my 1st ‘special test’ this time and it went well.
Lap 3 and with 40 mins to do it in, I did my 2nd special test which went well and still made it back with a bit of time to spare albeit only a couple of mins. Still no sign of Phil!
Onto lap 4 then and this was the one that was going to sort everybody out as we only had 27 mins to complete it in. With the course getting rutted and cut up and the rain starting to fall again we were told that the event would be cut short by a lap because of the conditions. I made it back to the time check 8 mins over.
So on I went then to start my 5th and final lap, and with a relaxed 40 mins to complete it, I didn’t need to push to hard. It was at this point that I actually saw Phil as I went through the time check who explained to me that his throttle cable had snapped soon after I waited for him on the 1st lap, so in fact he’d only been riding for about 10 mins or so.
It was on this lap that I managed to have a few little ‘offs’, I wasn’t tired at all, but simply trying to maintain my pace, but with the course getting more difficult, it caught me out a few times. One little ‘off’ (like a 10 mph job) into a tree is all it takes to break something on your bike and that’s exactly what happened, oh well, looks like another new headlight surround and mudgaurd again for me!!!
Apart from that, I was pleased to finish with quite a bit of energy left, so I would have gone on for another lap no problem, shame the clerk of the course cut the event short! Apparently a lot of riders had pulled out because they found it too hard?

So it was back to the van to meet up with Phil so he could tell me about his hard luck story and we left for the 4 hour drive home.
Whilst getting out of the place the rutted muddy tracks that people had driven over in the rain needed a ’run up’ in order to get through them and make it up the small hill out of the place, we made it no problem but coming down the other side my van ’grounded’ itself at the front, and with a big ‘clunk’ sound where she’d scraped along the deck, we thought it would be best to stop and check things. It was at this point that the oil light came on the dashboard and as I looked down outside the window, all I could see was a puddle of oil!!! Oh b*llocks, my sumps been trashed (see pic). With that we got out and inspected the damage and sure enough, a whole full of engine oil had deposited itself onto the floor and there was no way we were going to make it back home.

Luckily Phil had the full monty RAC cover, so after getting a lift up the road in order to get a phone signal on the mobile, he asked them to send a low loader to put the van on so we could get home. As riders passed by us on their way home, some stopped to ask if they could help and a few of them gave us some food and drink to keep us going until help arrived. It’s pleasing to know that one someone gets in the sh*t, a lot of people that have been at the event are willing to lend a hand even though they just want get home after a hard days riding. A big thanks to everybody who stopped and a lot can be said for the camaraderie of enduro riders.
About 1 ½ hours later the RAC turned up but with a plain transit van! How the hell is that going to tow us home then? Apparently not said the technician, he’d just come to look at it and report the problem. Great, so we’ve told you we want a low loader and told you what’s up and you just send someone out to look at it we told the RAC. Not impressed!
The guy was only there 5 minutes and off he went. So now we had to wait again for a tow truck and now that everyone had left the event and gone home, we were definitely on our own in the middle of nowhere in West Sussex.

Another 1 ½ hours had past before another breakdown truck arrived and still it wasn’t a low loader!!! What’s going on now then? All we were doing was getting towed back to Chichester where we were to pick up a hired car to get us home and the van would be brought back the next day. Fair enough, but we had to pay our own way home and fill the car up with petrol and we couldn’t claim it back. Phil wasn’t happy and he’d every right not to be, he’d payed for the premium service which means the RAC will get you home for nothing and you’re expected to end up paying.
Thankfully and after about another 4 -5 phone calls it all got sorted and the RAC at last saw some sense and would send out a low loader to put the van on so we could get home. I hadn’t eating for 11 hours and so we got the recovery truck to tow us to the local burger king so we could have a right old feast! Another 1 ½ hours past by before we finally got going on a low loader to be taken down to Wincanton for yet another 30 minute wait and then to be transferred to yet another low loader who was going to take us home.
Phil (the lightweight) kipped for most of the way, I dunno, these youngsters, can’t seem to keep the pace up can they? And he had a decent nights sleep the night before! Luckily for me both the drivers were good lads, one being a football fan, and the other one a bit of a biker, so a good bit of conversation went on to pass the time away.

We got dropped off at Phil’s place and then he gave me a lift home and I walked through the door at 4am.
I’m not going to forget that weekend in a hurry then am I?

Finishing position: 9/45 (clubman)

Best wishes

This time it goes to Jack Twentyman who had a crash at Kings Hill (see blog 26th April).
After a couple of weeks and still in pain due to the accident, Jack finally went to the hospital to get checked out, and things turned out to be a lot more serious than he first thought.

The x rays had showed that he has broke a couple of vertebrae in his back and will be out of racing for sometime due to the nature of the injury. I spoke to Jack earlier in the week and in his own words he told me that he was lucky and it could have been at lot more serious as he had landed on his head after going over the bars.

As i write this he's been admitted to hospital and waiting for a CT scan and to see the specialist who will then decide on what treatment there will be.

All the best mate and hope to see you soon.

Pratice- 13th May 2009

Went out for a bit of practice tonight for an hour or so with Nick Tremlett and Adam Blake around a local moto x track. Me and Nick had a good little battle together but couldn't get anywhere near Blakey as he was absolutely flying.
Good thing about going along with a few lads is that you can swap bikes, and tonight i went on a YZ 125, not as crisp in power as the gasser, but i reckon it had a little bit more top end than mine.

Nice to have a ride around mid week, must do it more often!

Chevenage- 10th May 2009

A cracking beautiful sunny day greeted me as I made the drive up to Chevanage for a round of the Midwest series.

Now then, I did a previous race at this place not so long ago and wasn’t really impressed with it due to the sheer numbers of riders involved on the course, and today was much the same judging by the look of the size of the entry. But you pays your money and you takes your chance and having a ride out is better than not having one.
I didn’t start off too well when I realized I’d left my ORPA license at home, and even though I got Marie to text me my license number to me, Midwest were having none of it, so I had to pay for a day license, £5!! Even though they’ve already seen it when I entered the 1st race with them.
Another club Track n Trail take one look at your license only once to make sure you’ve got one and then you don’t have to show it again for the rest of the year. And even if you did need a day license with them, it ain’t a fiver. Ok, all clubs work differently and it was stated on the final instructions that you had to show your license, so it’s my fault I forgot the thing in the first place!
I’m starting to think about this whole Midwest series already and it’s only the 2nd race into it, they are the dearest club I’ve joined, one of the dearest races to enter, and probably the dearest if you need a ORPA day license, um……………………….

Onto the start itself and I managed to have a very quick chat with Pete Boyles who was riding a TM 250 this time out before we got going. When the flag dropped I hurtled it into the first corner, and with 40 or more bikes in my class I reckon I was in the top 10 as we meandered out way round a hilly field set out in moto x style before we entered the woods. The course this time was being run in reverse with some changes made to it, a good idea that I thought.

As with the 1st round and with so many bikes entered we soon caught up the back of the clubman 4st and with the woods being so tight, the inevitable queue of bikes began to appear in front of you which held you up a bit as there was no where to pass and with it being the 1st lap every ones pumped full of adrenaline so you ain’t going to get anyone to let you through are ya?
All the same, the woods were are a treat to ride through, nothing too technical, a few roots here and there, some nice off cambers and a couple of short steep hills thrown in for good measure, one of which was the hard route option, but I cleared it each time (apart from the last lap, more later) so no problems there.

In between each wooded section came of course fields, and more fields! Basically I was pinning the little ‘gasser’ for all it’s worth across these as there was no way I’d be able to compete with the bigger bikes on pure speed alone if I wanted to get by anyone. I knew though that as the race wore on and with people slowing up, it would be much easier to get by and out brake them on the fast open sections. I’m not a great lover of fields, it just seems to be ’who can hold the throttle open the longest’, I don’t mind a couple thrown so you can have a blast, but Chevenage seems to have more than it’s fair share of them!
About ¾ of the way round was that little water crossing which as every lap went by, got more difficult to get through as big ruts were forming on the other side of it as some machines had ‘dug’ themselves in when getting stuck. I really didn’t have any problems with it, but I passed a few riders who were finding things a little bit difficult and digging themselves in a big hole.
With the conditions today being so dry, the 6-7 mile lap was fast and it just depended on how quick you could pass riders in the woods as there wasn’t anything technical to hold anyone up, so it was sods law if you got caught up behind a gaggle of bikes or not, some laps you were lucky, some laps you weren’t!!

For the first hour I exchanged a few places with some riders in my class, but I figured I was about where I started in the beginning and wasn’t really making any ground up on anyone, so at that stage a top 10 finish was all I could hope for.
Things began to ‘thin’ out a bit on the course later on and it was joy to ride properly through the woods without the traffic problems. I pitted just after 2 hours and yet again was cutting it fine as I had to stick her on reserve in order to make it back to the pits, PHEW! Relief or what, as I made it back just before she run bone dry. Seems to me I’m cutting this re-fueling lark at bit close every time. Time for me I think to get told off and write some lines like you did at school (do kids still do that I wonder)? I must re-fuel earlier, 100 times!

Back out I went then and rode round without a hiccup until the last lap board was shown as we passed through lap scoring. It was on this lap that I got caught up in a pile up on the hard route going up a hill. I’d done it all the race without any problems and bloody well ‘sod’s’ law 2 bikes came down in front of me as we were going up it. My bike got pinned against a tree and I couldn’t move it, even after all the heaving and the pinning of the throttle, she just wouldn’t budge. Luckily for me a young lad who was a spectator came to my rescue, and we managed to get the bike out and turn it around so I could go back down and carry on again, albeit via the easy route as the hard one was now clogged up. While I had been stuck I noticed 1 or if not 2 of the riders in my class went past me, that pissed me off no end and I tried to close the gap on them for the remainder of the lap, but the checkered flag came to soon, and now I can see I lost a couple of places losing the 2-3 minutes due to that bloody pile up. Just goes to show how the racing can be so tight some times even in a 3 hour race, especially with a big entry.

Not a bad days racing, and it makes a change to drive home in some decent weather as the shine was still shining.

Finishing position: 5/42 (vets)

Training- 2nd May 2009

With me not being able to race this weekend due to work commitments, i put on the running shoes and went out for a run in order to keep my fitness and stamina levels up.
I covered the half marathon distance of 13 miles (brings back memories does that!) so it was a good test of endurance. Nice day with beautiful sunshine so took it easy. although i must admit to being a bit 'cream crackered' for the last few miles.

Kings hill- 26th April 2009

Yellow top and helmet? Thought I was due for a bit of change!

It was an early start as I set off to pick up Phil (Harris) along the way for our 3 ½ hour journey up to Salisbury to do the TnT event.
The weather wasn’t looking too kind down this way as I drove through torrential rain on the A38 and then some of the way on the A303, but thankfully it cleared and the sun came out.

(pics by Brewbs & Debbie Tucker)

Phil decided to have a kip in the van along the way, and when he woke up, I thought I’d do the same and try and grab a bit of shut eye so I wasn’t too ‘cream crackerd’ before racing, so he took over driving. I ‘d only been a kip for about 10 mins when bloody nora the mobile rang and woke me up! Typical that, just when you don’t want your girlfriend to ring ya, she bloody well does. I wish I wouldn’t have left that soppy ‘see you later’ note for her now on the side as she was returning the compliment, (good job she knew I didn’t mean it)!!!
Anyway, couldn’t get back to sleep after that, so me and Phil started chatting like pair of old women totally oblivious to where we were actually going. It was when we went past Stonehenge that I suddenly thought, where the f**k are we, what we doing here? Like a pair of headless chickens we’d gone miles out of our way, so we had to turn back and take another route, in the end we finally arrived at Kings hill, it had taken us over 4 hours. All we could do was laugh about it, good job we had plenty of time in hand otherwise I think the air would have turned blue with some colorful language!

After a bacon roll which Phil had kindly donated to me, it was off to sign on and get the bike checked. I bumped into Richard Batstone who I’d haven’t seen for a while, good to see him back racing after a lay off. Also had a chat with Paul Ford, Rob Ellick, Mark, Rich, Debbie Tucker and Jason Duggan. Got back to the van and met up with Jack (twentyman) who’d also traveled up from our neck of the woods with his boy Paddy.

After missing out on the sighting lap it was down to the start to wait for the flag to drop. A full entry, so every class had some decent racing to fight amongst themselves to get a result.
Off we went when, not a bad start and in the top 10 as we meandered our way round a flat field laid out in moto x fashion to sort everybody out before entering the woods. There were 3 hard routes to have a go at if you fancied saving a bit of time, so instead of usually avoiding them, I’d thought I’d have a go at all 3. The 1st was an extremely short sharp hill, in fact it was so steep there was no way that you could even walk up the bloody thing! I give it go, but as I got near to the top, the bike flipped out on me and I was sent tumbling back down again with the bike stuck half way down in some bushes. Oh dear (well, words to that effect) I thought, 1st lap and I’m gonna lose time already! It took me a good few minutes to drag the bike back down out of the bushes and get going again, and I could see that most of the clubman were going past.
After another short stint of easy woods and a couple of tracks that went round the outside of a few fields, then it was onto another hard route option which was a muddy water crossing. Speaking to Mark Tucker earlier who’d done the sighting lap, he told me to go to the right or left of it as there was a big hole in the middle, so what do I do? Like a prat I didn’t think and promptly got stuck in a big muddy hole because I ended up going in the middle of it! I pinned it and hoped for the best, but the back wheel just dug in deeper and deeper. I was just at the stage when you think to yourself that you’ve got to get off and try and heave the bike out when I gave it one last go, bingo! The little gasser shunted it’s way out and up the slimy muddy bank I went and onto safety, relief or what!
Of course it was more time wasted and this was only the 1st lap, not good.

The 3rd hard route wasn’t a problem, just a steep hill and not as bad as the first one, so I had no trouble on that one at all.
Part of the course involved traveling along a small river, I reckon a couple hundred yards long, not once, but twice on the same lap, good job there wasn’t much rain before hand as me thinks that it could have caused some problems. As it was, it wasn’t too deep and you only got your feet wet.
Some of the tracks that we went around the outside of the fields were very stony and following another rider sometimes became a nightmare as small rocks were just being thrown up in your face all the time as you were trying to find a line to overtake. Due to this and with poor vision, I once overcooked it on a long fast straight and promptly shot through the track tape ending up in the middle of a field, whoops!
A cracking part of the course I thought was 3 log jumps one after the other, get those wrong and you were over the bars no problem. A small flat moto x style section finished off the lap. The wooded sections weren’t a problem at all, just nice flowing trails really and I reckon the whole thing being 5-6 miles in length and quite a fast lap I thought.

So after an eventful 1st lap (and now looking through the lap data) and with my ’off’ and getting stuck as well, I was down to 20th. I knew things to could only get better and they did as I got into a rhythm and started to ride well again. I did the hard routes (apart from that 1st extreme hill) on every lap and sailed through them no with problems.
I pitted after about 2 hours, good job I did as the tank was nearly bone dry (thank god I didn’t run out of fuel again), changed my goggles, then back out I went.
No real drama to report although I just missed out on a coming together with another rider as we both played ‘chicken’ trying to out brake each other at the end of a fast straight going into a corner.
Got held up a few times behind riders in the woods, but that’s understandable as sometimes there was just nowhere to pull in and let you pass, and with it being a full entry, you’re simply not going to get a clear track for 3 hours or more are you? Still, nowhere near as bad at the Midwest mcc races!
I went onto finish but annoyingly missed out on another lap by 2 mins, just goes to show, a few mins of wasted time early on in the race has a knock on effect.

At the end of the race when I got back to the van I found Phil’s bike already in the back with all his gear packed away and he was nowhere in sight. I just thought he might have gone for another burger or was watching the racing somwhere, but with 10 mins or more gone by and with no sign of him, I though it’ll best to give him a ring. I had an answerphone message from him to say that he’d retired from mechanical failure and also that Jack Twentyman had been involved in a big ‘off’ on one of those log jumps and he was driving him to hospital!
In the end Jack being as ‘tough as old boots’ just wanted to get home so it was best that Phil drove him back just in case, so I was left with a 3 ½ hour drive all on my Todd.
Turns out that Jack’s ok and is just a bit bruised and sore.

Overall I’m pleased to have got a decent enough finish seeing as I was so far down after the 1st lap.

Finishing position: 8/30 (clubman 2st)

Plans for May:

10th Midwest mcc

17th Croydon mcc

23rd South reading mcc

25th Exmoor enduro club

Best wishes

Best wishes to Paul Fordy who had a high speed accident last Sunday during the Hustyns event.
Paul got knocked unconcious and also broke his collarbone and is about to go into hospital to have it pinned.
We wish him all the best and hope he gets back racing again soon.

Hustyns- 19th April 2009

(pic by Debbie Tucker)

I was really looking forward to this, it’s just 10 mins up the road, we had cracking weather, it was a timecard event and I seem to be riding quite well at the moment.

Funnily enough all of us that had been traveling to the SCEC and TnT events lately managed to arrive at the same time and park up next to each other. Adam Blake, Steve Jose, Jack twenty man, Andy (daddy) Smith, and Phil Harris, so a good bit of banter was had by all of us. I think Steve took the brunt of it as he can’t seem to find a way to plant the front end of his bike properly into the corners, funny that, I’d thought he’d be good at planting things seeing as he’s a landscape gardener! (poor joke that I know).
Being over 2 early hours early before the race started, I had plenty of time to chat to everyone I laid my eyes on. Debbie tucker (armed with her new camera), Arthur Jonhson, Jed Treleaven, Ben Tyrell, Francis Banfield, Ritchie Tucker, Trevor Pengelley, Paddy, Tim Williams, plus numerous others at different times for which there was so many I just can’t remember everybodys name!

Done all the necessary and just about as the sun was about to shine it’s way through the trees, we set off as per usual for a timecard event in groups of 4.
The course this year was a different layout to that of previous years and I thought a little shorter, maybe 8 miles in length?
As usual being a Camel Vale event, an excellent enduro course was on offering. Wooded trails, plenty of roots, off cambers, hills, water crossings, etc, etc.The special test was a long one, excellent as well with a flat out fire road, a slippery climb, some real tight stuff, loads of roots, wooded trails, in fact compared to last weeks test is was really hard work to keep ‘on it’ for the duration as this one took me just over 8 mins to complete compared with that one at Bagshot which was 1min 45 seconds!!!

With the times being a bit slacker this year most riders stayed on time so we all knew that the results were going to be all about the special test times. I kept reminding myself to stay on the bike when on the test and try to ride smoothly and not get carried away. The 1st one went well, the second one was faster even though I caught up one of the riders in front of me and came off trying to overtake him. My 3rd and final test was faster still, I felt I’d rode well in all 3 tests, so was happy with that.

With quite a bit of time to spare on each lap there was no need to take any risks, so I concentrated on just getting round and trying not to brake anything! There was an extremely long fire road on a part of the course of about a mile or so long where you could have literally nailed it in top gear (as a few riders did), but I didn’t bother as there was no need too.
I stayed on time for all 6 laps and felt really fresh at the end of it all. I suppose in a way that I would have liked it to pee down with rain for a whole week before so the going would have been a bit tougher! But hey, lets not moan about the sunshine eh?

Phil had to retire (the softie) because he’d come off and hurt his leg, or that’s what he told us anyway, and Christmas came early for me and Steve because ‘Blakey’ bought us a cheeseburger at the end as well.
So a good day was had by all and I had my best result since coming up into the ranks of the clubman.

Finishing position: 2/16 (clubman E1)

Bagshot- 12th April 2009

( pic by Rabie)


So it was a few days away to visit my family and friends up in Reading, and I couldn’t think of a better way to spend a Sunday whilst I was up there, other than do an enduro that was just down the road in Bagshot!

My mate Ade who lives up that way and who I’ve known for years came along for a day out with us and to give us a hand and generally reminisce about the old days when we used to hang about together and get up to all sorts!

An overcast day, but not too chilly and conditions just about right for this timecard event held by Surrey constabulary. For some strange reason and with the event being held on private land, the organizers were checking the lights on the bikes and to make sure that they were in working order. I failed the bike check, my back light wasn’t working so I had a choice, get a 60 second penalty or get it sorted! Luckily for me it was just a loose connection so no problem there.

The event itself would be in stages, reason being that you had to do mutli laps in order to complete 1 stage and so on. All together there would be 6 stages ranging from 2 laps, 3 laps, and an incredible final lap of just 1 lap that given the time we had to do it in, you’d have thought that someone like ‘Knighter’ had set the time for it!
We also had 2 special tests mixed in for good measure as well.

On to the start then and as usual with a timecard, we set in groups of 4. First off a lovely fire road to get your bike warmed up a bit with huge puddles to negotiate to before we entered the woods themselves. The trials were excellent and in great condition, absolutely perfect riding terrain and even the couple of steep hills we went up didn’t cause any problems as there was plenty of grip to be found. Some of the woods were tight in places (as you’d expect) and about half way there was the inevitable ‘bit of a bog’, and even on the 1st lap I came across riders that had got stuck in it with the back wheel firmly planted in the stuff and going nowhere (they later cut this bit of the course out). A few more fire roads linked yet more woods with some tight hilly nadgery bits before we went back through a flat wooded section to complete the lap. I’d say about 7ish miles in length.

An excellent course and right up my street, not a flat field in sight, so not just a case of pinning back the throttle to see how fast you can go across a bit of grass. My only concern was that parts of the track in the woods weren’t marked up very well (later on to be my downfall) as sometimes when you got to the end of a trail and there would be other tracks branching off left or right with no arrows anywhere.
Things were going ok until stage 2 when I did a loop in the woods for about 10 mins and ended up back behind some riders that I’d already overtaken some 10 mins earlier! Because of the lack of arrows I’d mistakenly done the same bit twice and I was bloody well livid to say the least. When I finally got back to the pits, I ended up being 15 mins down on time. I was gutted as I was going really well and had high hopes of a decent finish. I spoke to a few other riders whilst I was waiting to go back out and I wasn’t the only one who’d lost time time because of the lack of marking and in fact, someone else had lost 9 mins because of it too. I did mention it to the marshals at the time check and things seem to improve on that section of the course and indeed others as the race went on, maybe it wasn’t just me that complained.

The next lap I did my 1st special test and promptly came off on the ever so tight little test section due to me being well pissed off about what had happened earlier and trying much too hard to make up for lost time.
With me being 15 mins behind now on time I got my head together and stayed on time on every stage until the last one which was virtually impossible to keep to. I think everyone lost a bit on that stage as well. I had a better 2nd test as I’d calmed down at bit by the time that came round again and I was going so well that at one point I had 20 mins to spare on one of the stages until I went back out again!

A but gutted really as the results show that I would have finished 4th if it were not for the lack of course markings. I mean lets be honest about it, I did the Muntjac a few months back with a 22 mile lap and I didn’t get lost on that did I? Enough said. (or am I going blind in my old age)

Big thanks to Ade for helping us out, he was there waiting to give us a hand in the pits after every lap and also had to listen to me shouting expletives when things went all ‘Pete Tong’.

Finishing position: 14/42 (clubman)

Working party- 5th April 2009

Yes it was back out again this morning after yesterdays practice, but this time no bikes involved!
With the SW champs coming up soon, clerk of the course Mike Roose had assembeld his army, and we were ready to do battle!
So fully equipped with our armoury, we set about clearing the track in readiness for the event in a couple of weeks time.
A good turn out today, and nice to have a chat to a few riders who i haven't seen for a while.

Practice- 4th April 2009

Want your rear tyre ripped to shreds? No problem, just contact Steve Jose, he’ll do it for ya! (see pic)

So with the Wadebridge moto x track open for practice and just 2 minutes up the road, it was a day out for a blast around the place with Adam Blake and Steve Jose.
With me still having the old TM, I took that as well as the gasser, just to see how she went and to give her a quick blow out.

With 3 of us all there together and 4 bikes, TM 125, Gasser 125, KTM 125, Gasser 250, we all had a bloody good swap around to see how the others rode. Steve managed to kill Adam’s back tyre completely when he got on his bike and then decided it would be a good idea to rip it to pieces and ride around with the mouse hanging out!
Not to fear as luckily I’d bought a spare tyre with me, so10 mins later it was all hunky dory and a certain ‘Blakey’ was happy again.

I was nicely surprised after having a go on Adam’s ‘Katosh’ 125 xc. Quite smooth power for crosser and set up really nice as well. Not really that far away from my gasser, both very similar after trying out one after the other, and with it being a 125, I knew exactly where I was with it.

I’m trying to find words to explain Steve’s Gas Gas EC 250! Lets just say it’s got more ‘grunt’ than a german porn star. The thing pulls out of any corner in what seemed like any gear! I was stupidly going round some slow parts of the track in 4th, opening it up, and she just pulled right from the bottom all the way up and didn’t miss a beat before it took off. Bloody nora, surely that thing could climb a mountain couldn’t it? And this is a 2 stroke I’m talking about here!
I should be riding one of these at my age, but funnily enough, I still love the 125’s, you have to work much harder, keep on the revs and be commited most of time to get the best out of um, so for the time being and just like my old man used to say, ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’.

When Steve got on my little ‘gasser’ I had a job getting it back off him, He wanted one!
It got to stage where I thought he was going to run out of fuel he did so many laps on it.
A good day was had by all, and it made welcome change to try other bikes without the added pressure of racing.

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)

Muntjac enduro- 22nd February 2009

A trip up to my sisters place at Reading for a overnight stay on the Saturday night was the schedule, before heading off early Sunday morning for the drive to Suffolk and the Muntjac enduro.

In the name of ‘brotherly love’, Christine (big sis) decided that she wanted to come along and give us a hand and see what the British champs are all about. I know what your thinking, what a ’tart’ I am having to bring along my sister along to hold my hand, but hold your horses, this is no ordinary ’run of the mill’ family member. This lady owns a brand new CBR Honda 500 RR! She’s a biker, even it is one of the ‘knee down tarmac huggers’, which means that we’re always at each others throats about dirt biking versus road riding. And I suspect she’s gone faster on a motorbike than 99% of you who read this blog, how does 140mph sound? Apparently she told me that she shut off when she reached that speed because the wind got a bit ’blustery’.

Anyway, moving on, left at 4.30 am on Sunday morning, had a good journey up and arrived at Thetford forest where the champs were being held. Well, that’s not exactly the case really, you see, on my way up I stopped at Morrisons to get fuel and bought 5 bars of snickers for a quid (£1 to you and me), full size bars they were too as they were on special offer, so I couldn’t resist it. So I put them in my racksack and put that on the floor of the transit on the passenger side. Without me knowing, my dozy sister put the heater in the van on full blast and set the controls to fan the hot air downwards to warm up her feet. Of course my rucksack was on the floor of the van as well wasn’t it? Yes, with 5 bars of Snickers in there. So, when we arrived at the Muntjac, I fancied a bar of chocolate and went to pick up my bag which was red hot. The chocolate bars had completely gone to ‘mush’ after being stuck under the heater for about 2 hours. When I opened one of them, It looked like something that had come out of your rear after having a curry the night before. Although fair play to her, she did offer me some of her Dairy milk bar, but I told her to stick it!
Moving on, the weather was on our side, a nice day, no wind, overcast and quite mild, ideal conditions. There was ample parking and we were only parked yards away from the whole ’shebang’, not much walking to do at all, makes change does that. I got signed on and collected my time card eager to see what kind of time schedule us clubman were to stick too.
Bloody nora entered my head (or words to that effect)

1st lap, 22 miles, 73 mins
2nd lap, 22 miles, 71 mins
3rd lap, 19 miles, 51 mins
4th lap, 19 miles, 45 mins

How on earth am I going to do that lot and stay on time? Still I thought, this is the British championships and it ain’t for the faint hearted, so why should they make things easy? just get out there and stop sniffling about it. So I did!

Onto the start then, everybody was there, it was like a ’who’s who’ in the enduro world as the champ and expert riders went away first. I believe it or not was to be the 1st clubman away, so that meant that I had all the rest of the clubman (E1,E2,E3) and all of the vets behind me starting at 1 minute intervals, so I expected half on them to catch me up and pass me every lap, after all, there’s some bloody good riders in amongst that lot with a lot more experience than me.

So there I was, dosed up on painkillers from the ‘doc’ for my shoulder (which seem to work only when they want too) and full of anticipation sitting patiently for the clock to tick over to 9.23am, so I could fire the bike up and ride my 1st BEC. My time arrived and I kicked her over, nothing, again I kicked her, nothing, kept kicking her over, nothing, nothing, nothing! Oh b*llocks, flooded it! I quickly wheeled her off the line in embarrassment and took a look down at the engine (doesn’t everyone?). I kept on kicking and thought about changing the plug when, brrring-a-ding-ding, you beauty, and I was on my way, albeit 2 mins late.

Now then, I can’t possibly describe 22 miles of track because I haven’t got a photographic memory, but I will say that there was no rest bite, and it seemed ‘endless’.
Lots and lots of tight, twisting, single track forest trails, sometimes the trees were inches from either side of the handlebars. Nothing too technical at all which surprised me, but you were always on the go and even the fire roads were bumpy, so you couldn’t even relax at all on those and take a rest. With the times being extremely tough and ultra tight to ‘clean’, you really were pushing and pushing on every single mile that you rode along trying to make it back and not lose time. One section was very demanding, it was about 3-4 miles from the end of the lap and consisted of whoop after whoop after whoop after whoop, at least a mile in length, right parallel to a railway line. In this particular section you really had to judge your pace just right and try and float over them, otherwise you’d be bucking and rearing and fighting the bike and either ending up on your arse or over the bars. Basically I just hung on for dear life!

The special test on my 1st lap didn’t go well at all. I was trying much too hard with all the adrenaline pumping around inside me and made a right ‘hash’ of it in some places as I was slipping and sliding all over the place trying to go quick. The test itself was basically a motocross track with trees around it, simple as that. I reckon it was about 2 ½ - 3 miles long.

I came in on my 1st lap with 1 min to spare and was pleased to see Trevor Pengelly there to help me. He’d travelled up with Jack Twenty man (3rd in vets) who was also riding (we all live near each other down in Cornwall), so he decided to come over and get me out back on the course ASAP as he knew I tight on time.

Lap 2 went ok, apart from that special test again, I did go faster this time, but I just felt it wasn’t the best I could have rode it. The rest of the lap went good, no offs and I just kept trying to keep my pace up because I knew this lap I had to be faster by 2 mins to keep on time. I arrived back at the pits to re-fuel with 1 min to go, so far so good and I was on time!

Now then, the 3rd lap, and this one was 3 miles shorter but was supposed to be 20 mins faster! I knew this lap would sort a lot of people out due to the length of the lap and the time given to us to complete it. It was on this lap along that mile long ‘whoopy’ section that the champ riders passed me (they had to do 120 miles of riding!), Knight, Bolter, Edmonson, Wakely, to name but a few, and my god I’ve never seen anything like it. They were just following each other in Indian file at such a terrific speed that it made me look like I was standing still. It was absolutely awesome watching them pass me on such a tricky section of the course with such speed and bike control, I’ll remember that for a long time to come. They were going so fast I had a job to see their numbers on the side of their bikes!
I came at the end of this lap about 8-10 mins down on time.

So onto the last lap I went and only another 19 miles to go! This lap was supposed to be faster still and we only had 45 mins in which to do it in. I tried, I really did try, but by now a bit of fatigue had started to creep in and I started to make a few small mistakes. At about halfway I smacked into a tree and bloody well crushed my 1st finger, ouch! 5 mins later and as I was accelerating out of a corner another tree jumped straight out in front of me and I hit it full on, which in turn snapped my front mudguard clean off (that mudguards fairly new as well!). So now I had to ride a bike that resembled an American ‘flat tracker’, not the first time I’ve done it, and probably won’t be the last.
I went on to finish about 22-24 mins overtime.

Interesting to see that not one clubman in the whole of E1,E2,E3, actually stayed on time, so that just goes to show how tight the times were.

Was it worth all the expense and the 760 mile round trip? You bet it was, and I can’t wait to do another one!

A nice gesture too from Thor motorcycles who supplied me with a huge box of spares for the event just in case i needed anything. Next time i'll ask them to throw a front mudguard in as well!

Finishing position: 27/37 (clubman E1)

Bike status: new mudgaurd

Old injuries never die- 18th February 2009

And even if they do, they come back to haunt you!

I injured my right shoulder about a year and half ago when i had a tasty 'off'' when racing. It took a while to mend, but it did get better, and up until now it's been fine.
A couple of weeks ago while out practising, i fell on the same shoulder and jarred it, and thought nothing of it. It did give me a bit of pain before last weeks race, but nothing to worry about, so i again, i thought nothing of it.

After racing on sunday i felt the shoulder had got worse, and sunday evening was a 'bit of job' trying to get some kip. This week hasn't been good and at times it's been really painful and theres no way in the world that i'd be able to race with it. I can't even go running to keep up the fitness, because if i swing the shoulder at all, it kills me. In fact, several times this week i haven't even been able to lift a saucepan out of the cupboard. Mind you, thats not a bad thing because that means the girlfriend has to do all the cooking!

With the BEC round coming up this sunday and with 80-90 miles of riding to do, i had to go and see the doctor and basically do a 'cry for help'.
I explained about the British champs race coming up and could you please give me the strongest pain killers you've got to get me through it!
Luckily the doctor was as good as gold (must have been an off road fan) and prescribed me 2 different lots of tablets to take. With the paracetamol as well i'm taking, i'm on 9 to 10 tablets a day at the moment. Lets hope i don't addicted to them all!

The worrying thing is that with so much racing coming up for me, it's not going to get any rest and the 'doc' has advised me that i might have to have a steroid (cortisone) injection into the shoulder joint to heal it properly.

Looks like i'm going to have to take 'one race at a time' at the moment and hope for the best.

Hethfelton forest- 15th February 2009

With the Midwest series race being cancelled, I managed to get a late entry into the Dorset police mcc enduro.

(pic by brewbs)

Adam Blake was also riding there in the expert class, so I picked him up about 7ish, and traveled up to Dorset.
The day was overcast, dry and quite mild, perfect conditions for a race. Got signed on, done all the usual and made our way to the start and waited for the off.

A nice big wide open field was the start area, so plenty of room for everyone to sort themselves out before entering the woods.
The flag dropped and off we went, I was about mid pack as we went into the woods. What was about to happen was my 1st ‘schoolboy error’ and I was left cursing myself with a vast amount of expletives under my breath! After only a couple of minutes riding through the tight, single track wooded trails, my front brake began to ‘die’ on me. I kept pumping the lever hoping the pressure would come back but it didn’t, so I had to stop and check what the hell was going on. I’d just fitted some new handgaurds and silly me, I forgot to tighten the bracket back up on the brake lever/master cylinder, so the thing was hanging off and flapping about! So, I made my merry way albeit with just a back brake back to the pits, got a spanner and tightened it up again. Safe to say, most of my class had passed me now as it was only the 1st lap.

What happened next was a Victor Meldrew ‘I don’t believe it’ moment. Fired up after that little escapade and eager to make up lost ground, I darted out of the pits and went to swipe my transponder on the electronic lap scoring box only to find out that I wasn’t even wearing it. At first I thought that it had come off my wrist, but after doing a quick think, I realized that I’d left it back in the van! If I swore a lot at myself after the brake lever incident, then times that by ten, I was fuming! (can’t write on here what I called myself).
I asked the lap scorers to just take my number as I came through every lap, but obviously they couldn’t as everyone’s data lap by lap had to be done electronically, fair enough I didn’t argue, so I parked the bike up and went back to van to get it. I finally managed to start my 2nd lap already 13-14 mins down on the clubman class, plum bloody last.

The course itself was very tight in places with virtually no overtaking room at all. A lot of single track forest trails, a small sandy section, a couple of small climbs, a nice little bog, a few fire roads to have a blast, and several logs to clamber over in different places, which made for a bit of variety. Quite a fast course I thought, with nothing too technical to slow you down, apart from getting stuck behind someone!
One of the log sections that was on the course resembled a sort of small equestrian obstacle, I think it was 2 or 3 logs stacked on top of each other, which for me provided great fun trying to get over it! With a small crowd awaiting for riders like me to have a go and fail dismally, I didn’t disappoint and finally managed to clamber over it at the 3rd attempt (oh I wish I was an expert rider), needless to say I took the easy option after that and went round it every lap!

With what had happened earlier on, I really didn’t have a clue where I was but I kept on plugging away, but I knew with it being easy going and fast, I’d have my job cut out to make up for the lost time.
Things were going well though and I felt that I went at a good pace and with no ‘offs’ to report I felt I was doing ok.
I pitted just after the 2 hour mark and picked up the pace (my fastest laps were the 2 out of the last 3) and finished the race strong, but a pit ‘peed’ off with myself after the earlier shenanigans.

Me and Adam (he finished 7th in the experts) went back to at the end to see the results and met up with Mark and Richard Tucker and had a quick chat before heading home.
Well, that was the plan, but Jack Twentyman who rode in the champ class today and was from our neck of the woods, rung me and we decided to meet up for a pint on the way back at some pub off the A30. It was nice to hear some stories from Jack about past events that he’d done. He’s been riding at the top level for quite a while and even now being the other side of 40, he’s still out there giving it some! Great stuff.

Today they had me down as finishing 5th on 9 laps, but I’d actually only done 8. I think the confusion happened because they scanned my transponder twice to make sure it was working when I got back from picking it up from the van after I told the lap scorers what had happened!

Finishing position: 14/26 (clubman 2st)

Next week, the 1st round of the BEC in Norfolk!

Stolen bike

Someone i know had their bike nicked recently by some theiving scumbags.
Here's the details, keep your eyes open everybody because there can't be that many Husky 125's about.


Husky WR125 Frame No ZCG2H00AA5V003447 engine No 2HA501305 Stolen from Bradley Stoke Bristol On night of 11/12th Feb 2005 WR in Yellow/blue with a 2C pipe. Missing upper RH rad cover and bits on rad to bolt it to and has a weld repaired lh crankcase where the chain snapped. Bastards cut through the brake pipes on my car to move it from the garage door and must have cut through the rh side of the subframe as the lock is still in place.This follows an attempted break in on Saturday where they broke the garage window - I'm told (now) that it's a way to see if alarms are working - wish I new that before.Any info please tel Pete Boyles on 07803 147603 or Avon and Somerset Police. Cheers.

Out in the snow!- 8th February 2009

I was due to ride the Track n trail event today and travel up there with Adam Blake, who was also going to ride, but as everyone knows with the country in a state of ‘lets see who can build the best snowman’, they were forced to cancel, bloody weather again!

So, Adam suggested that with got off our arses and got the bikes out and went to do some green laning on the roads, tracks and trails around Bodmin moor.
After a short 20 minute drive I met up with Adam, then I followed him in for about another 10 minutes through some icy, snow covered lanes ending up in what seemed to be ’the middle of nowhere’ before we stopped and unloaded the vans and got ready for some riding.
A couple of riders on trials bikes were there as we turned up, nice to know we’re not the only ones that were mad enough to ride in the conditions!

The snow covered peaks of the moor and surrounding area looked like a image from a catalogue advertising skiing holidays, but nevertheless I was looking forward to the challenge of riding in the white stuff.
Off we set then, and it wasn’t long before we came across an icy covered silty bog on one of the trails which I managed to plant myself in! I over balanced and put my right arm right through the ice and up to the elbow to stop myself falling in and then promptly stood on my right leg to stand up which also went through the ice and past my knee, sh*t it was cold! After only 10 mins my right side was plastered in freezing cold silt and instantly my right hand started to go numb, great start!

Next it was onto some seriously steep hills and climbs that were both rutted and slippery. Adam being the expert class rider that he is, showed me how it’s done, easy I thought, not a chance in hell as I came off time and time again. Once I finally mastered one, it was onto another where I done exactly the same thing, came off, got back on, and had another go until I made it to the top, then moved on to another, great fun and good training!
Sometimes I’d just ‘throw’ the bike up to the top if I knew I wasn’t going to make the last few yards, then go back down and have another go, that way at least the bike was there waiting for you so you could just kick her over and be on your way again without dragging the thing all the way back down the hill!

Adam did a classic (I was I had my camera on me), right near the top of a really steep climb he ‘flipped it’ and went on his arse with the bike landing upside down and coming to rest on it’s handlebars and saddle with both wheels pointing towards the sky. Just goes to show, even the experts have fun as well!

After a couple of hours of ‘throwing’ myself around on the snow covered ground, and getting freezing cold and wet, we both decided to make our way back to the vans on yet more slippery roads and trails and call it a day.

Warren heath- 1st February 2009

I’ve now got the luxury of a good old transit van to cart my bike around in. I can now actually stand up inside the van to get changed and don’t have to tow my bike in freezing conditions and pouring rain, beats the smaller van I use for gigging hands down, nice!

So, new transit (even though it’s actually years old so to speak), the bike and all the gear in the back, and of course not forgetting that all important plank of wood that everyone else seems to use to wheel the bike into the back of the van, and I set off for my journey on the Saturday for an overnight stay at my Sisters place in Newbury. Reason being, it’s only about a 45 minute drive to the event from there, much better than getting up at an hour when the bats are still flying about and then driving for 3 ½ hours!

Sunday dawned and it was off to Warren heath to enter a timecard event run by Whitley mcc. I was just looking on the net a couple of weeks ago and I fancied doing this one, and with nothing down my way, I was up for going further a field, something which I’m going to do a bit more of this year.

Freezing conditions greeted us with a cold Siberian type wind rattling itself across the large parking area, ‘tin ribs’ me got froze just signing on and pushing my bike to the start, whets new?
6 laps was the order of the day with 2 special tests thrown in for good measure. Laps 1,3 5 were big loops of about 8-9 miles and laps 2,4,6 were smaller loops of about 5 miles, good idea that I thought and it certainly utilized most of the forest that we rode on.

Onto the start itself and at 10.21 and in a group of 4, we set off on the 1st lap. Well, not exactly, because I kicked my bike over about 20 times and nothing happened! What the f*ck is going on here then as I was left on the start line with everyone looking (rather embarrassing when you got a family member watching). I quickly wheeled the bike out of the time check and onto the side of the track. After checking a few things and about 10 kicks later, she fired no up problem, and off I went. (god knows what happened there).

Out into the forest we went and it wasn’t long before we hit the 1st of a few bogs, no problem there, the little ‘gasser’ sailed straight through it. More forest trails followed, but with the cold conditions we were riding in, not for the first time, my hands started to go numb and before I knew it, I had to stop for 5 minutes to get warmed up. I didn’t know the course at all and after stupidly getting stuck on a small hill, I was wondering weather I would make the 1st lap on time.
Some of the forest trails were tight, in fact they were so tight that all you had in front of you was a 6 inch wide tyre track to follow while your hands were brushing against the small pine/fur trees that were either side of you! The track continued to meander up and down through the woods with a few nice little bogs thrown in, some of which just got deeper and deeper as the race went on and getting through them became quite a challenge. If you picked the wrong line, you got stuck in a load of black ’snot’, simple as that.

A few nice deep muddy puddles and ruts (that seem to go forever), a couple of fire roads and that was basically the big loop. Too long to describe bit by bit!

I made it back to the check with plenty of time in hand.
On the start of my 2nd lap I did my 1st special test and I really went well, I was well pleased. I was riding with full of confidence and the bike was going like a ‘good un’.
The smaller loop that I was now on only had a 30 minute time allocation, but with only really a couple of rutted gloopy sections, there wasn’t anything to worry about and I made it back easily with time to spare.

I stuck a bit of fuel in and went out on my third lap, the big loop again. This time the bogs had got churned up some more and I got stuck in a seemingly bottomless boggy rut. Didn’t waste much time there, I quickly hauled the back wheel out, then the front, and I was on my way within a minute or two. I made it back by the end of that lap with time to spare as well. Things were looking good!

Onto my 4th lap and another special test. I rode even better round the test this time (7 secs better than the first one) even though I did scare myself a few times whilst doing it, and then went on to complete another lap well inside the time.

I was well pleased as I started my 5th lap on how things were going, I felt good and I hadn’t lost any time on the checks and both the special tests had gone well. With about 10-15 mins to go whilst riding through a 100 yard long boggy bit, my back wheel suddenly sunk and I ground to a halt. No problem I thought, so I just hauled the back wheel out, picked up the front and kicked her over. I let out the clutch and she stalled. I fired her up again and give her loads more revs, let out the clutch, and she stalled instantly. Strange I thought, why ain’t I moving? I took a look down thinking something had got caught up in my back wheel. I couldn’t believe it as I saw that my chain had ‘thrown’ itself and was jammed between my front sprocket and my gear lever, 3 links stacked on top of each other and all ‘munched up‘, stuck solid! (see pic).

I tried in vain to pull it and free it, but after about 10 mins of huff and puff I knew that my race had been run, it just wouldn’t budge, gutted!
So there I was, in the middle of some forest and going nowhere. I heaved the bike up to a tree and parked it there, took off my helmet and walked back through the bog and waited on a fire road for some marshals to hopefully come along. Luckily for me and 5 mins later, two traveling marshals came to my rescue. They couldn’t free the chain either, so we hitched up a rope, and I got towed back to the van (thanks guys). I handed in my card, got packed up and headed home.

This was my first DNF since September 2006. Not a bad record eh?
Looking back at the results I would have came 2nd in E1 today.

Never mind, that’s racing!

Finishing position: DNF
Bike status: new chain, new sprockets.