Muntjac BEC February 27th

Saturday
The day started off with a phone call at 6am (I’d just bloody well woke up) from John Hinkley, ‘where are ya?, you on the road yet then?’ ‘We’re on our way’. After I’d explained that I wasn’t leaving till 8am it was best I gave him a bell back later!

So four of us were traveling up for the Muntjac, Me, Adam Blake, ‘mad’ Jack Twentyman, and his boy Paddy who was coming along to watch all the action. As per usual I was late getting to meet up with everyone by about an hour, but it needn’t have mattered because they weren’t ready either! By about 10’ish we were on our way and all set for the long journey to Norfolk with all of us squeezed into Jack’s van! After a quick stop at the local tyre changing place to get a new tyre for the van, it was back on the road. With everyone getting a bit peckish it was decided to go to the nearest Macdonalds just outside of Bristol and get fuelled up with food. It was at this point that ‘mad’ Jack had noticed that his catalytic converter was hanging off his van, so he decided to get underneath and rip the thing off with his bare hands, that guy is a legend!

So after emptying our pockets with a few shillings and laden down with big macs, cheeseburgers, chips, coke, coffee and all the other things that are good for you, it was back in the van to ’eat on the go’ in order to save a bit of time. Drama then ensued as Jack had found out that his boy Paddy had ordered him the wrong meal! Jack wanted chips with his and he didn’t have any, a big mac meal is what he should have had, but all he got was a big mac minus the chips. A row soon brewed up and then Jack nicked Paddy’s chips and ate half of them before begrudgingly giving what was left in the carton back to his boy to finish. Me and Adam sat motionless and quiet until the raging storm between father and son had petered out, and after a few short minutes (when we all had finished our nosh) it was all back to normal again.

After 6 hours or more and quite a few hundred miles of tarmac we arrived at the Muntjac and got parked up. It was then straight off to walk the special test and which with the amount of rain the place had had in recent weeks, had turned at least half of it into a sludgy muddy watery track. Oh dear, things were gonna be a bit slippery tomorrow then!

An hour later and with the sun going down, we arrived back at the van and ready to go and find a nice little eating house for some grub. Jack wanted to go and walk the test again but we were none too keen on the idea, but it didn’t stop him, and just like last year off he went while we stayed in the van with the heater on! He came back an hour later in the darkness just as the rain started to fool, legend!

It was then a stop at the local boozer called The Ram for a few pints. It was of course packed with riders and their entourages which included a few well known faces amongst the crowd, namely David Knight and Paul Edmomson. Now of course Paul Edmonson won a world enduro title on a 125 Gas Gas, but Blakey told me that he reckoned it had a TM engine in it, of course I had to find out, so I asked the man himself and low and behold Blakey was right, the Gasser he won the title on had a TM engine in it! Um…………….now there’s a thought?

Next it was off to the Travelodge to find our digs for the night before venturing out again to the local ’weatherspoony’ type pub chain eating house for a stomach filling meal washed down with a few more pints before then retiring for the night. Long day!

Sunday
After the short drive of about 10 mins from the local Travelodge we arrived at the muntjac and met up with John and Tom Hinkley who were also riding. There was at least clear skies overhead and it wasn’t p*ssing down with rain, although a bit on the chilly side it was looking good for the sun to shine a little bit later on. As I signed on and got the bike checked the atmosphere as always at this event was spot on and extremely was organized, but then again, it is the BEC!

After a bit of grub from the catering van, it was back off to get changed and take the gear down to the pits and wait for the off. I did do this event 2 years ago and I knew from then that the last lap becomes an absolute killer trying to keep on time, in fact that year and last year, no one in the clubman class has managed to do it! That my friends, says it all, this is tough!

So at 9.26 am I fired the little Gasser up into life and off I went. A slack time on the first couple of laps was what we had and that included a special test on each lap. The 1st time schedule was 22 miles in 74 mins, so a just a fast bit of trail riding was all that was needed without taking any risks. Within 10 mins of woods it was time to do the 1st test of the day, and boy was it slippery! I struggled a bit with the tight one line moto x sections before it crossed the fire road and opened up a bit where I moved a little bit better, before then crossing back again to finish on the tight slippery section once more. A decent test mind and probably about 3 miles in length with one ‘flat out’ fire road mixed in the middle of it that gave me a chance to get the strimmer in 6th gear!

What can I say about the rest of the track? Woods, woods and er……..woods! Nothing too demanding, but very rarely was there time for any kind of rest, and even with a couple of fire roads dotted in for good measure, they weren’t exactly flat as there always seemed to be bumps or whoops on them. What was surprising was that there was hardly any stumps or roots that are always associated with a course of this nature, but nevertheless with some really tight sections through the trees, a couple of log hops and the infamous mile long whoop section than ran right beside the train track, it kept you busy.

At the end of the first lap I made it back with 5 mins to spare, and the good thing was, I didn’t use up much energy at all, so no problem. After a bit of a rest and a top with fuel, it was back out to do my 2nd lap, 22 miles in 70 mins, so up the pace a little bit without risking anything on the going and ’bobs your uncle’, should be ok. Onto the 2nd test then and I certainly felt I could go better with this one so I gave it a good go. I went a lot better on the moto x section and went even better when I crossed the fire road and out into the open bit. Disaster struck though when I was just coming out of a corner, and when in 3rd gear pinning the thing for all it’s worth, I lost it and high sided ending up past where the bike was laying eating dirt. B*llocks I thought, I quickly checked the bike for damage before carrying on and finishing the test not happy with myself after losing a bit of time on it. Must admit though, lucky to get away with that one and it was a good job that the track was wide on that section as I wouldn’t have fancied ploughing into the trees.

Just before the time check right near the end of that lap, I got pulled over by the ACU officials and was noise tested! Fair play to them and I reckon it should be done more often, but for a 125? (catch them 4 bangers that’s what I say) Err….yes I did pass it, so I was quickly on my merry way again. I made it back with a few minutes to spare, so a quick rest and a top up with fuel, then it was back out again onto the 3rd lap where things now got interesting.

No special test here but this is where it all gets serious, 19 miles in 54 mins, so basically from the last lap the time was 16 mins shorter in which you had to do a lap. Admittedly it was 3 miles in length shorter, but now it became hard work. I pushed on this one still keeping in mind that the last lap was the one where it could all go ‘Pete Tong’ regarding the schedule. I arrived 7 mins overtime and really happy with that, because I knew if I could keep going and finish maybe 15 to 20 mins overtime at the end, I’d be in for a good result.

Sods bloody law then it was too, because as I went straight to the time check to get my card marked, the whole lot of Championship riders were waiting to go. For the next 10 to 15 mins and in the tight woods, it was all stop start as I kept pulling over to let them pass. This really threw all my momentum straight out of the window, and with 19 miles to cover in 47 mins, I began to wither. As the lap went on my lack of bike fitness was beginning to tell, I really did struggle, so much in fact that as my energy levels went down I was reduced to literally ‘hanging on’ whilst going no faster than a trail ride. Mistakes started to creep in, and whilst I was still determined to do as best as I could, on one occasion I ‘threw’ the bike at an oncoming tree that got in my way as I lost control simply because I was getting knackered, no damage done there, so I got back up and carried on. All I could think about that kept me going was the thought of munching into a full tray of flapjack that was in my pit box back at the finish! I finally made it to the end 31 mins overtime and not a happy bunny.

The last time I had to physically lay down and rest after an event was back in 2006 at the Dunmere enduro, and that was my 2nd event, well I was so ‘cream crackered’ at the end of today, I had to do just that, very tough but glad I finished. Everybody else in the ‘Camel vale’ camp was done for, John and Tom Hinkley, Adam as well, we all lost time and were completely exhausted. Big respect to Adam who was in the experts, he did a lap more and only lost 26 mins, and for the first time in years I have to say that I physically wouldn’t have been able to do another lap, not often I say that. ‘mad’ Jack had a DNF on his 2nd lap so for once he got off lightly which was just as well because he was the one who was driving home. Speaking of which we had to pull over after about an hour into the journey home to let me out of the van just before I went into the mode of yelling and screaming like a pregnant woman about to give birth due to an attack of leg cramps! Don’t ever suffer with those, so it just goes to show that I give it my all (and more) today.

Around 10 pm we arrived back in Cornwall and all ready for a decent meal (yum yum I had cottage pie waiting for me) and a good nights kip. With hindsight now I’m quite pleased about the whole event really, I was off a year with injury and this is only my 5th race back, and to get a result of just over half way in the E1 class in the BEC ain’t bad at all seeing as I’m still lacking a huge amount of bike fitness to compete at this level. Bearing in mind as well out of the whole field (over 200 riders), only one rider stayed on time in their own class, a certain Mr David Knight!
Onwards and upwards then and I’ll see some of you at the ‘Brass monkeys’ event in a couple of weeks time.

Finishing position: 19/35 (Clubman E1)

Weatherby fort- 13th February 2011

Rain! It was raining when I got up, it was raining when I drove up to meet Adam (Blake), it rained on the journey up there (about 2 ½ hours), and it was still raining when we got there! Needless to say that the area round by the signing on and pits was um……….a bit of a quagmire! It was hard enough walking around the place let alone having to ride in it a bit later, but I love the mud, and the harder the better as far as I’m concenered as it’s a great leveler on the old fitness side of things. A few riders I know traveled up to do this Track n Trail event, ‘mad’ Jack Twentyman, Rich Tucker, Jed Treleaven, also saw Jason Duggan who I hadn’t seen for ages. I got bloody froze just waiting in the queue for the signing on as the wind and rain was blowing across the fields at a decent rate of knots, and me and Adam both decided then and there that there was no way we were gonna to do a sighting lap, sod that! Couldn’t see the point in getting plastered with water and mud then waiting 30 minutes or so for everyone to come back in the freezing cold before the race starts.

So after very nearly getting ‘ripped off’ buying numbers from the trade van, it was off to get changed where unfortunately (sort of) me and Blakey were still getting changed as the sighting lap went off. As we watched every bugger come back plastered (told you!) with mud, I went off to have a word with Jed and get the run down on the course as he’d done the sighting lap. ’All fields, with about 5 minutes worth of woods’ he said, f*cking great I thought, wet slippery muddy undulating fields on a 125, not the sort of thing I wanted to hear, maybe all woods with 5 mins of fields yeah, that’ll be ideal!

So to the start then, erm…I didn’t get a good one and was near the back as I had a job finding traction just going into the 1st corner as the bigger bikes just powered away in front of me. From this moment I suppose you could say that it was your typical Track n trail course, loads of undulating fields with a bit of woods here and there, and if it was dry, it would basically been a 7-8 mile motocross track tailor made for the throttle jockeys. Good job then that the conditions turned it upside down and more in the way of a battle of stamina than speed. Field upon field descended on me and I struggled every time I opened the throttle to find any kind of grip whatsoever to try and keep up with the bigger bikes, especially the 4 bangers who just seemed to find grip everywhere. The track was just becoming a muddy slippery bog all the way round. as each lap went by, and with about 200 riders starting, it just kept getting churned up more and more. Ever seen that footage of the Glastonbury music festival on TV where the people were knee deep in mud a few years back? Not too dissimilar to that!

The event at Hellvana I did a few weeks back was tough because of the course, this was a different kind of tough event today because of the conditions, and I must admit that I really did struggle with the little strimmer today even going up some of the slippery grassy hills absolutely nailing the thing full throttle in 3rd or 4th slipping the clutch trying to find some bloody grip! The small bit of woods that did appear were getting really rutted and riders were starting to get stuck as the ruts were becoming deeper and deeper as the race went on.

I made my pit stop at half way and changed my gloves and goggles, and even then riders were starting to flag having a rest in the pits before going out again. On my next lap and after seeing a rider in front of me get stuck in the wooded section in front of me, I decided to choose a different line and go round him only to plant myself nearly saddle high in a deep sandy hell hole of a rut, and try as I might I couldn’t get out of the bloody thing, lucky for me 2 lads were nearby to give us a yank out so only wasted a minute there. The worse was yet to come though as a bit later on whilst going up a off camber hill, I managed to hit the deck by doing a lovely pirouette on the bike, 10 out 10 for style I think that one! Sods law then that the bike was laying the ’wrong way’ facing side wards down the hill, and boy did I struggle to pick the thing up as it seemed that I’d got half of Dorset county’s mud attached to it. By this time I was getting really tired and it took me 4 or 5 attempts just to get the bike upright and get back on it as the 125 seemed to weigh like picking up a dead cow and trying to put it back on it’s feet again. As the course worsened the track markers in some of the fields became non existent and riders were just starting to pick any line anywhere and just riding across a field cutting out huge parts of the track and basically cutting the corners to avoid ploughing through the mud, and with no one to stop them doing it things on the last lap became a bit of a farce.

So it was another finish under my belt and seeing as I struggled from the first corner in, I’m quite pleased with the result to be honest and even though todays event just showed me how much in the way of bike fitness I’m lacking, I still ploughed on (literally) and got through it whilst others took a rest or pulled out.

Bit of surprise when I got back to the van as Adam was already sat in it ready to go home! He’d been caught in the eye by a branch and couldn’t see properly so I had drive his van home. A quick stop at the local Macdonalds on the way where funnily enough I bumped into Micheal Brooks who’d just finished the race as well, then it was off back to a not so rainy Cornwall.

Fishing position: 9/20 (Vets expert)

Practice- 6th February 2011

While i'm certainly making up for lost time! This is my 6th Sunday in a row that i've been out on the bike, and there ain't gonna be no let up at the moment either because i'm planning on racing the for next 3 weeks on the trot as well!!

Today we had a good little turnout down the local MX track as there was me, 'mad' Jack, Ali Gilbert, Adam Blake, young Paddy Twentyman and Adams mate who's name i don't even know!

Conditions weren't too bad today although them old ruts on the corners seem to be getting a bit deeper as the weeks go by. Today i also had a couple of laps on Paddy's new RM 125, and i've got to say i was hooked on the little strimmer, a cracking little bike. Although it was in standard MX trim and with the suspension being a little bit hard for me, i thought the engine was a little gem, really crisp and you could really give it some coming out of the corners when dropping the clutch and keeping 'on the pipe'.

Me and Ali had a great little battle for 20 mins, both of us flat out aboard our strimmers, and i'm just not saying this (and Ali will tell you) that there is no difference at all in power between the Gasser and the ginger katosh 125's. On the open parts of the track we where both pinning them for all they had, and weather i was in front of him or he was in front of me, we both stayed the same distance apart, no power advantage whatsoever (sorry to break that news you KTM fans). The only thing that spoilt our race was when Blakey came past us cruising on his 250!

A good afternoon, and i'm so glad to be riding the bike again, every weeks a bonus!

Dorset Police H&H- 30th January 2011

Hey hey, racing two weeks in a row, just like the old days! It was a bloody early start, got up at 4.30am, drove up to meet Steve Jose at 6am, then a near 3 hour drive up Dorset. We were about an hour away from the event when the phone rung, it was ’mad’ Jack Twentyman who’d only just left because of a drama the night before. To cut a long story short, he decided to play about with his shock settings on his bike at 10 o’clock the previous night! The rear shock froze solid so he had to quickly get his other bike ready and finished that at half past one in the morning. Lucky you Jack for having the luxury of 2 bikes me old son!

Quite a few lads had traveled up to do this one, along with me and Steve was Andy Smith, Rich Tucker, Gary ‘nothing gets in my way Mcoy, ‘mad’ Jack (when he finally arrived), and Michael Brooks. Nice paddock area it was too, hard standing concrete all around and not a bit of mud in sight! Quite a chilly morning though and my immediate thoughts were ‘please hands, don’t bloody well freeze up again like last week’. After the usual general chitter chatter and p*ss taking amongst each other, it was off to get ready and then head off the riders briefing and then to the start.

The flag dropped and this week (unlike last) the Gasser fired up 1st kick and away I went, not a bad start, but I was a bit slow getting to the first corner and got crowded out a bit, so I was about halfway just as we made our way just a short distance into the woods. The course was very tight in places and in quite a lot areas it was only the one line which made it difficult for overtaking, some times there seemed to be like procession of 4 -5 riders all following each other for long periods and all going at the same speed, and unless you risked going off line and maybe hitting something in the undergrowth (which sometimes you had too) then you had to rely on riders making mistakes so you could pass them. When things started to settle down after a few laps the course then really come into it’s own and really started to flow with some lovely tree lined trails, a nice little deep sand section, a few fire roads that were long and very fast (bloody nora I hit 6th gear on those, not often I do that!), and a couple of log crossings to add a bit of spice. Nothing really major at all to slow you down and unlike last weeks event, today’s track was bone dry and there was grip to be found everywhere, around 7 miles in length I reckon and about 16-17 mins a lap (unless you’re a red plate, they were doing it in 14 mins!)

For the first hour or so I was basically trying to catch a group of 3 riders who were all in the class as me that were just up ahead maybe a couple of hundred yards away, but frustrating it was as the gap just stayed the same lap after lap because the course was getting faster and faster and sometimes even scary as you were going at quite a speed through the trees, and of course, everybody else was going that much faster now as well. The couple of laps just before I pitted (one of which was my fastest) I pushed really hard and managed to overtake all 3, but I knew I had to quick in the pits to stay out in front of them again and not get caught up in a ‘procession’ again. As I came into the pit area I forgot where I’d put my refueling can, what a t*sspot I am! I found it in the end, but I’d wasted a good minute trying to find the bloody thing.

Not happy with the pit stop, and my blood now boiling, I pushed on as hard as I could only for a stick to go straight into my back sprocket and get jammed in the back wheel which stopped me and the bike dead in our tracks. It was another minute before I could get the thing out and carry on, more time wasted. The last hour was gonna be a real test for me as I haven’t finished racing a hare and hounds event for over a year now so my stamina was going to come into question here, but I still was going well and on my very last lap I passed another rider in the same class as me, in fact I’d been bloody chasing that guy for the entire race so I well chuffed I managed to get in front of him.

Back at the van at the end Kevin Pippard popped his head round and told us that he’d managed to finish the race with punctures in both front and back tyres, ‘sods law’ that as I was speaking to Kev before hand about tyre pressures, I bet he wished he hadn’t spoke to me now. Andy Smith was on his way to hospital after injuring his shoulder, whilst Phil ‘smiler’ Harris who came to watch was seeking advice about some nasty goings on to do with his rear end!
A very pleasing day for me and my comeback has started, lets hope that elbow holds out then!

Finishing position 4/16 (Clubman ‘A’)

Hellvana - 23rd January 2011

‘Welcome to hell’, that’s what the sign said that greeted everybody as they drove up the gravel road that led to the venue! I’ve heard a few stories about Hellvana and seen a few pics, and although this year the organisers had cut out a few of the bogs, the word around the signing on area was that the course was still ’a bit of a test’ shall we say!
When I left home in the morning it was quite mild, but I reckon the temperature must have dropped about 10 degrees as soon as you entered the Hellvana woods, funny that, I thought HELL was supposed to be hot!

With this being the 1st round of the SW enduro champs, it was a right local gathering of allsorts, so wasn’t I short of a conversation or two and the odd bit of piss taking here and there. I took a walk from the start line up the woods to see a bit of what the course was going to be like beforehand. After about 100 yds of treading through a boggy stump ridden rut, I decided to turn back and go get changed, ‘blinkin hell’ I thought, this is going to be tough if the rest of the course is like that! Fearing the worse and knowing it was going to be a bit of a slog, I went straight back to the bike and let the back tyre down to 4 to 5 psi so it would give us more grip.

So then, first race of a new season and I entered the Vets expert class, so I needed a good start, but all the hole shots that I got in 2009 seemed light years when my strimmer didn’t start first kick when the flag dropped, bloody hell what’s going on here then? She always starts 1st kick! After about 4 kicks she fired up, but too late and I was last away. Things didn’t go too bad for the first 5 mins but soon after my hands started to get cold, and they got colder, and colder, and about another 5 mins after, I had to physically stop and warm them up. My fingers had gone completely numb and I just couldn’t hold on to the bars and one by one riders were passing me at a rate of knots and before I knew it, nearly the whole flamin field had gone by! I reckon it was a good 10 mins before I could get going again, didn’t really have much problem with them after that. I knew that 1st lap took me ages because as I went through lap scoring Mark Tucker and Adam Blake were standing there taking the piss and shouting ‘were the f*ck you been’? pointing at their watches!!

Now I don’t mind tough races (and I‘ve done a few), especially when the conditions dictate it, but I’m telling you, this was a ‘good un’. The woods were tight with roots and stumps littered everywhere, but oh my god, the number of boggy, peaty, rutted ’rabbit runs’ that seemed to go forever, just sapped your strength as the race went on. I mean not just one like you usually find on a course, but loads of the buggers, some filled with icy cold water as well. There was no getting away from the mud anywhere apart from a few short fire roads where you could open the bike up a bit, but that was short lived as you just went straight back into the deep gloop again! I reckon the course was a good 7-8 miles long and most of it was quite testing, especially with a trials tyre on the back (as always in the SW rounds) Must admit it took me a while to find my feet as it were, but after a while I was going ok, I hadn’t come off and felt good and made my pit stop about halfway through. Just after the 2 hour mark things went a bit ‘Pete Tong’ as I caught my brake pedal on a stump which stopped me dead in my tracks resulting in my lever being bent out of shape which caused my back brake to jam solid. Luckily for me The Hull lads, Kev, James and Dan were close by watching a bit of the action in amongst the woods and came to my rescue! After a bit of juggling and some nice footwork from Kev (obviously he used to take the penaltys and free kicks for his local football team judging by the way he booted my lever back) I got going again.

The next lap I went out on I started to overtake a couple of people in my class as they were beginning to flag a bit under the conditions (more so than me!) but about halfway round disaster struck, and after finding another line around a rider that had got stuck in a rut, as I passed him my chain got de-railed after my chain block banged against a hidden stump which caused it to come off and wrap round my front sprocket 4 times. Bloody typical that ain’t it? I tried in vain to unravel it but it wasn’t gonna budge, race over, oh b*llocks. I then dragged the bike out of the rut I was stuck in, lent it up against a tree and went walkabout looking for a way out of the woods to the nearest fire road. Luckily for me it was only about 100 yds away, so I heaved the bike threw the dense woodland and pushed the thing back along one of the fire roads (after asking some spectators directions!) to the van, knackered!!!

After I got changed and still with about 15 mins to go there were riders waiting around the pits and waiting for the clock to tick over to 3hrs and the flag to come out rather than put themselves through another lap of torture! They all could have got another lap in easily but were absolutely shattered (bunch of pussies if you ask me, Steve Jay & Andrew Smith included!!) so couldn’t muster up the energy or the mental strength to do anymore.

Judging by what I saw at the end of it and who I spoke too, the course had certainly taken it’s toll on a few bikes and bodies, and when I drove past ‘mad’ Jack Twentyman’s van and stopped to see how he got on, the guy was so physically worn out he could hardly speak, in fact all he said to me was ‘I’ll ring you in the week’, that was it, 6 words, no more!!!!
Personally I thought the course was brilliant, I love it when it’s tough and it’s excellent riding round courses like that because that’s when you really learn how to handle a bike properly, especially when the fatigue factor kicks in. Like all Camel Vale events it was another ‘good un’ with not a flat field in sight, good stuff.

Hellvana - 23rd January 2011

First race of the season and i DNF'd, arrghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

To be updated.

Practice- 16th January 2011

If last week was muddy at the MX track, this week it was um…………….muddy, muddy and muddy!!!! Oh, and just for record, it was my birthday today and I couldn’t think of a better way to spend it other than riding round on a motorbike and getting plastered with wet sloppy mud (much to the annoyance of the girlfriend).

Anyway, quite a decent little turnout today with ‘mad’ Jack Twentyman and his son Paddy, and Ali Gilbert, all of us were mad enough to have a bit of practice in the gloop regardless. Just as we arrived all the other bikes were leaving so we had the track to ourselves. Jack was trying out his new Gas Gas 300 and Paddy was also having a go on his new Rm 125. After a few laps of getting used to the conditions ‘mad’ Jack was indeed ‘mad’, as his kick start snapped off on his new gasser! Not really the sort of thing you’d expect from a brand new bike is it? And jack wasn’t expecting it either and was to left to bump starting the thing in the middle of a wet field whist cursing the name ‘gas gas’ under his breath (done that a few times myself!). After coming off about 20 times in the first 10 minutes, Paddy was getting to master the conditions and only came off now and then (roughly about 15 times every 10 mins, so quite an improvement) aboard his not so now shiny brand new banana colored bike.

Shortly into the session the Krankies turned up, messers Blake & Jose (Jose being the short plump annoying one that doesn’t shut up and who kept shouting fan’dabi’dozi) to see what was going on. Shortly after this and after a bit of a chat, I thought it would be a good idea to lose control of my strimmer and plant it head first into a tree just yards from where they were standing, much to the delight of the Krankies who took the p*ss somewhat shall we say?

It was quite hard work out there today because of the conditions, but Jack was riding like a man possessed and just kept going and going and going, jesus that bloke’s fitness put us all to shame, he didn’t bloody stop! When he did, it was for a quick cuppa and off he went again, even doing a lap on my 125 for a bit of fun and muttering the words ‘how the f*ck do you ride that’? when he came back on it. Ali Gilbert was the bravest man out there going round with a bloody trials tyre on the back, went well he did too seeing as he had little or next to no grip on his ‘ginger’ bike.

So a good day was had by all and my elbow behaved itself especially for my birthday!

Practice 9th January- 2011

I've got a lot of catching up to do in order to get 'bike fit' as it were, so a trip to the local MX track was the order of the day.

I think 3 words summed up the state of the track, Mud, Ruts, Water!!! In fact i was the only bugger there as conditions we a bit tricky so that probably put a few riders off. Good training it was though and i felt a bit knackered afterwards to be honest, that just goes to show that i've a fair way to go yet before i'll be able to do anything for a decent length of time without my stamina running out.

It's been a long time since i had to haul my bike out of a deep sloppy mud infested rut, but that's exactly what i had to do on one lap because my flamin chain got de-railed and come off, brought back memories did that!

Dan hull popped up with a few mates to see what was going on so had a quick chat with him before having another blast round the place and then calling it a day.

I'll be on the bike again next week, don't know where yet but after you been out for a year with injury even riding round and round the back garden feels good!

Christmas pudding trial- 2nd January 2011

Matt Tilley, Steve Jose, Ali Gilbert, Yours truly

So I had this phone call a few weeks ago, ‘do you fancy doing a trial?’, ‘what on an enduro bike’ I replied, ‘yeah no problem, we can enter the trail bike class’, ’I’ll give it go then’, And so the story begins……………………………….............................

So it was a short trip up to Bude to meet up with Steve (Jose) who’d help organize the whole thing and who said it would be ok for a few of us with enduro bikes to enter the thing. Upon pulling into the car park which was about the size of my back garden, I managed to get my van squeezed in and park up amongst the general look of the riders thinking ‘who the bloody hell is that then’? as they were all milling about talking to each other around their trials bikes. I then went off to get signed on, £10, that’s right £10!!!!!! Ten bloody quid for a days event, not bad eh? Then it was back to the van to get out the ‘strimmer’ in full view of the other riders, must admit to feeling a little bit out of place there amongst the ‘feet up brigade’. Good news though as this didn’t last long as Matt Tilley was also there parked up riding his ‘ginger’ EXC 250, so after a brief chat and a quick change, it was on the bike and with the usual ’bring a ding ding’ sound after she fired up ringing in my ears, it was off to the riders briefing.

Now I must admit, I’ve never even been to see a trials event, let alone ride one, so this was a whole new ball game and I was feeling a bit apprehensive I must admit, but I needn’t have worried because their were 5 of us all on enduro bikes competing today, 3 ‘ginger’ KTM’s, my Gasser, and a Yammy WRF. The plan was to all ride round together so we could all take the piss out of each other and have a good laugh when we mucked a section and scored a ‘5’, and also have a bit of banter whilst going round as well.

The course in the woods gave us 8 sections a lap, and we’d be doing 4 laps each, so plenty of time to get into it and find your feet as it were. All of us were doing the novice route, but I’m telling you, that was bloody hard enough on our bikes, especially with the turning circle that an enduro bike has compared to a trials bike! The climbs were ok, but we all struggled a bit with the tight sections, however, Matt Tilley was a superstar and ‘cleaned’ one section that none of us had managed to do all day! What cheesed me off was I had a ‘5’ twice on the same section, not through putting my feet down, but bloody well stalling the bike and stopping dead in exactly the same place two laps running, what a turkey!

So with us all having a ‘dab’ or two (that’s putting your feet down, not taking a class A drug by wetting your finger and dipping it into the powder) and a few ‘fives’ dotted about here and there throughout the event, after it was all over it was back to the finish to get a free hot cup of steaming soup and a bread roll. Hold on a minute, I thought this was a Christmas pudding trial? Where’s the Christmas pudding then? In fact the only thing that resembled a christmas pudding was the shape of Steve Jose’s physique!!!! After being fed and watered it was off for a bit of fun on the bikes round the woods doing a few climbs and having a bit of a laugh where Ali Gilbert on his ’ginger’ 125 showed us skills by launching himself sky wards at the top of a steep climb, although this cannot be said of Mr Jose who was riding his big 450 4 banger who showed us all how not to do it coming a cropper half way up much to the delight of us all which was greeted by a huge amount of laughter and cheers.

To be honest I thought it was a cracking day out and I’d definitely do it again, it’s not too serious and it’s bloody good practice. Thanks to Holsworthy Mcc for a good event and for letting us compete on our bikes.

End of the year thoughts 2010

This is where I normally look back on what’s gone on in the year regarding my racing, but as you know it’s been almost a complete washout due to the injury. With the 2 races I did do towards the end of year, I was of course pleased to get back on the bike after being out for so long.

Without the racing I still kept myself busy going along to a lot of events and helping out a lot, not only in the pits with the refueling and taking the gear backwards and forwards, but also on the course helping stranded riders and of course putting out the ‘pit board’ to let the boys know what position their in etc etc. Must say I have had a good laugh doing that as when it gets towards the end of the race some of the messages I’ve written on the board has had everybody laughing! Even the riders who’ve read it! I do remember writing on the pit board at Nancemellon ‘’Twist the throttle more’’ and showing it to Francis Banfield as he went by only for him to shout ‘’F*ck off’’ and stick his 2 fingers up at me!! (all taken in good jest of course) I did the same thing at Woolborough Barton to Andy Smith, he laughed so much as he rode by that he nearly ended up planting himself head first into a tree!

There has been plenty of memories that stick in my mind this year, here’s a few:

Jack Twentyman getting out of the van and walking along a dual carriageway while we were stuck in a jam on the way to the Muntjac enduro in Suffolk. Jack thought he could get to the end of the queue of traffic and cadge a lift to the Muntjac and get there quicker by walking. 1 hour later when I finally got going driving Jack’s van, I got to the end of it all and saw Jack, he’d been trying to ‘thumb’ a lift with someone for the last hour and got nowhere! He wasn’t happy I can tell ya.

Adam Blake (who was driving) on the way to the Twin Oaks event, following an ambulance through all the traffic that pulled over to the side of the road to let it pass. This left some very irate drivers fuming as we passed them whilst tucking in right behind it with it’s blue lights flashing. One car driver in particular was ‘obsessed’ with getting us back and getting in front of us again which he did. Not to be outdone Adam then overtook him back! This just fuelled the fire that was raging inside this blokes car and he tried to get us back again for about the next 10 miles! ‘Blakey’ wasn’t having none of it and managed to hold him off until we both went our separate ways at a roundabout.

Christian Soanes at Hustyns eating a home cooked pre race pasta dish that resembled a bowl of ‘mashed up cold corrugated cardboard’, it looked and smelt so bad I took a picture of it and stuck it on the blog!

Jack Twentyman again, this time not content with walking the special test once at the Muntjac just before dusk, he went out and did it again in the dark and the pissing rain, he didn’t even have a torch with him!

After having a cortisone injection I decided to do a bit of marshaling at the ‘Brass monkeys’ enduro. After helping a beginner get back to the pits by following him to make sure he was alright because he was struggling a lot, about a mile from the end of the lap he came off right in front of me which in turn caused me to tear my tendon in my elbow again to stop myself hitting the deck. Nightmare!

A few Camel Vale members looking like death whilst doing the 24 hr race at the ’Dawn to Dusk’ in Wales. Arthur Johnson could hardly put his leg over the bike towards the end but still went on to complete it. I did here him mutter the words in true Steve Redgrave fashion ’’I never want to go near this place again’’, yeah is that right? We’ll see what happens next year Arthur!

The look on Steve Jose’s face when Steve Jay (who was in the same 2 man team) was miles behind and late getting back to the pits in order to make the ‘change over’. Not surprising really as Mr Jay had suffered a puncture in the front and the back tyre on the same 12 mile lap and literally had to crawl back to the pits. Inside Steve Jose’s helmet was a raging inferno as minute by minute went by with no sign of the other Steve, it got to the stage where I nearly called the fire brigade in readiness to help put out the volcano that was about to explode inside his helmet. He wasn’t happy!!

Dawn to Dusk again, Steve Jay, Richard Jay and Scott Johnson suffering an incredible 12 punctures between them, or was it 13? Amazing that was, just watching the guys coming back lap after lap with yet another flat.

The burger van at I think it was at the Idless woods race packing up and leaving just as the race had finished. Excuse me, hello, are you from this planet? There’s about a 100 hungry riders here that may just want something to eat.

‘Mad’ Jack again. Went up to an ORE event with Adam Blake and Jack. ‘Mad’ Jack was walking around like a 90 yr old with a bad case of piles (well that’s what I imagine they look like) after over exerting himself into a near state of total exhaustion after he finished the race. Not only being able to hardly put one foot in front of the other, we had to stop on the hard shoulder of the motorway on the way home in order for him to test his gagging reflex and throw up!

The huge ’thud’ on the ground measuring 6.2 on the richtor scale when Steve Jose had a huge ’off’ right in front of me at the ‘Grogley Christmas cracker‘ event.
The earth moved and this made my bike go into an uncontrollable wobble until I managed to correct it and come to a stop. Not only that, the tremor from Steve’s weight hitting the ground was felt by the HMS Nautical submarine that was conducting it’s sea trials way out in the Atlantic ocean.

And so to next year……………………….

The situation as it stands is that the elbow is not completely cured and to be honest I don’t know either if it will be without the operation that it needs. I have explained earlier this year about the pitfalls of going under the knife, and if I want to continue racing then that simply isn’t an option. It is a lot better than it was, but I never know what’s going to happen when I wake up in the morning, sometimes I still get pain in it and it hurts to move it, sometimes I don’t. The couple of races I have done have been ok and it’s only afterwards that the bloody thing kills me! The problem I have is it if I were to overstretch the tendon again I think it could be curtains, unless I can find a miracle cure, and believe me, I’ve tried almost everything to try and heal the bloody thing.

It’s been really hard just watching all the racing this year, and although I’ve seen some great action and had a good laugh as well as making many new friends, it’s simply not the same as riding a motorbike. In 2009 I done a hell of a lot of riding and reached a reasonable standard, so I know it’s going to be a hard road back to move on and do better than that, but I’m no quitter and I’ve had some injuries in other sports along the way which have kept me out for long periods and I’ve always managed to get back to where I was and be better. So on that note, I’ll see you all in 2011 where I’ll be hoping to do a full season.

Happy new year to you all………………………………............

TMX news Xmas edition

The christmas edition of the TMX news came as a bit of a suprise to me as in the Enduro section (page 53) there's a pic of yours truly from the recent 'Grogley' race.

Grogley christmas cracker- 12th December 2010

(pic Sue Pitman)

Photo's of this event can be found here:

www.photoboxgallery.com/suesbikesnaps

A nice local event and just 10 mins up the road from me which is always handy, especially in the winter months! Today’s race was an entirely different kettle of fish for me as I was riding in fancy dress and hoping to raise a bit of money for the Cornwall Air ambulance. Even in my short space of time racing motorbikes I’ve seen the air ambulance being called into action a few times to help injured riders, so I thought that would be a worthy cause to ride for.

Well what a cracking sight it was as I drove up the hill in the van to arrive at the parking area in the darkened sky at around 7am. The Camel Vale club had Christmas lights hanging from the trees, a stereo sounding out festive corals and a decorated Christmas tree thrown in for good measure! Just as the sun came up, then one by one everyone started to arrive and with me holding my bucket, I went off and visited every riders van or trailer and asked for a donation for the charity. Everybody I visited was only too pleased to throw in some loose change and with me having a chat with every bugger as well, it took me bloody ages and I didn’t have much time in the end in order to get changed and get to the start. Even the bloke from the burger van who was serving stopped me as I walked past and threw in some money! Tony Dinham almost pulled my arm off and couldn’t wait to throw some money in the bucket as he told me he’d used the air ambulance 3 times when he was riding at the top level of racing after crashing and getting injured a few years back!

It really was a great atmosphere with just about every local rider in attendance and far too many to mention. Hannes Tanzer came by the van with box of Stella’s and gave us a couple of bottles (didn’t drink um before racing I might add!), and those riders who didn’t have any change for the bucket when I saw them came back after a visit to the burger van and lopped some money in. So, with a quick change into the outfit, it was off to the start where Mike Roose was waiting there to give a riders briefing. As always with this event something a little different was in store as we all had to line up (without our bikes) wait for the hooter to sound, run and jump over a couple of fallen trees, then go under some trees and run round a corner before we could fire up our bikes and go!

By the time I started I was probably about mid pack (not easy running to the bike with a father xmas outfit on I must say) and even though I was supposed to be riding for a bit of fun, I got into the mode of racing which didn’t do me favours as I soon found out. After about 10 mins I came off on a tree root and dumped the bike on the floor, I thought to myself ‘what the bloody hell you doing? You’re supposed to be doing this for charity and having a bit of fun and not trying to prove anything’, so I got back on and took my own advice and slowed down a bit without risking anything. Shame Steve Jose didn’t listen to my advice because shortly after he came flying by me (literally) only to catapult into the air after hitting a tree stump and landing about 30 ft away from where he took off with an almighty THUD. This happened right in front of and to be honest I thought something serious had happened, it didn’t look too good. I quickly got off and for once Steve was speechless! (that makes a pleasant change) The only thing that could be heard was a slight groan with the words ‘f*ucking hell that hurt! I directed all the riders past so no bugger ran into him while Steve crawled to one side of the track and propped himself up against a tree. Luckily after about 10 mins or so he was able to make his way back to the pits albeit a little sore and take a breather. He later re joined the race and managed to finish.

The course itself was a cracker, quite rooty and soft in places with some lovely flowing woodland tracks and lovely hills, one of which tested you a bit as it was as slimy as hell and very steep which we had to ride down. On the first couple of laps there was a bit of traffic jam on this one as nearly all the riders were tip toeing their way down there very cautiously. A few long fire roads to open the bikes up a bit were included as well as the famous ‘whoop’ section which was like riding a rocking horse over a road of ten pin bowling balls, extremely bumpy and an ideal part of the course to give yourself a 'tank slapper' if you were unfortunate enough to cop one!

Every lap I did I was cheered on by a few spectators as I was making my way round the course in the Father Christmas outfit, I even stopped a few times and had a chat with some of them and had a good laugh. Unfortunately at about half way through the race my fancy dress began to show signs of doing an enduro, especially the trousers, and soon after the material on one of the legs got caught in the chain and within a flash my trousers were ripped off of me and proceeded to tangle round the back wheel. Oh well, never mind the whole costume was only a tenner from eBay! As for the beard I was wearing, what a nightmare to wear that is, bloody hell that thing seriously makes you hot No wonder you don’t see many enduro riders with massive amounts of ‘moss’ growing on their faces!!

For the last couple of laps I rode round with Phil ‘smiler’ Harris until the flag came out for the finish. Today I set out to do a race and raise some money for a worthy cause and in fancy dress. Glad to say that everything turned out exactly the way I planned it, a cracking day!

Many thanks to all who donated on Sunday, a total of £100.77 was raised. Further details of the monies collected today and also with sponsorship forms that have been completed, will be on the blog within the next couple of weeks when I shall be visiting the Cornwall Air ambulance in person and presenting them with the funds that have been raised.

All set for Grogley!

This coming weekend (12th Dec) i've entered the 'Grogley xmas cracker, always a top pre christmas event with a great festive atmosphere to it coupled with a decent course. Just for a change i've decided to ride for charity in aid of the Cornwall Air Ambulance, a very worthwhile cause indeed and over my years of racing i've seen a few riders that have needed the services of it so it'll be great to try and help them out in some way.

With the race being a non championship event and only one class in the ironman (champ,expert,clubman, o 40's, etc, mixed in together) there's not much pressure to do well so i'm just gonna take my 'strimmer' out for a blast and have a good time and a bit of fun as i'm doing the thing in fancy dress!

Bovington- 28th November 2010

The current freezing weather conditions all across the UK didn’t deter the most hardened of riders traveling up the SCEC event in Dorset. Although I wanted to do an event this month, it hasn’t turned out to be, but with a very good champ class lined up for this race, I decided to go up and give Adam (Blake) a helping hand and watch a top class hare & hounds at the same time.

Remnance to that of a Siberian winter (that’s what it felt like) greeted us as we arrived and got parked up. I thought I recognized the race hardened big green wagon we pulled up next to and sure enough it was Michaels Brooks. Hadn’t seen him for a while so had a good old natter before checking out a bit of the course with Adam to see which bits were frozen! To be honest the track looked excellent and half the course was basically in a huge sand bowl with undulating terrain, not too dissimilar to an old school scrambling track and with a water crossing for good measure. The rest of the course that went through the woods I couldn’t get too as it was riders only due to security reasons and it being off limits to anyone on foot. With this being MOD land I didn’t want to get ‘court marshaled’ so I stayed round the sand bowl area, good enough anyway because it had some great vantage points.

Gary ‘nothing gets in my way’ Mcoy came over for a chat and told us all about his Erzberg entry for next year and how he got in ‘through the back door‘, Phil Studley also made the trip up and I also bumped into Rob Thorn , Pete Lawry and the Scott’s. So with me wearing a thick jacket, 3 jumpers, 2 pairs of trousers, 2 pairs of socks, gloves, scarf and a hat, feeling like the ‘Michelin man’ I went off to watch all the action.

One rider left on the line because his 4 banger wouldn’t fire up decided to push it and try and bump it down the 1st hill just after the start, he still didn’t have any luck and after kicking the thing until exhaustion I decided to help him push it back up the hill and back on the flat so he could go back to the pits and get it sorted. Tell you what……. humping a KX450f up a sandy hill certainly warms you up!

So with the racing thick and fast due to a full entry and about 12/13 mins a lap for the top riders, it was a good race to watch. Just over the half way mark I went and help Adam to pit and even at this stage I had to do his fuel cap up because he just couldn’t feel his hands due to the cold! I had the same bloody problem with my feet! While I was I there I had a good chat with the guy from ‘In Chains’ who are a TM main dealer, um………………still tempted by the sky blue bikes I am!

For the last hour the field noticeably began to thin out with a few retirements being the order of the day because of the cold. Adam began to struggle and lost a bit of time on every lap and with about 10 mins of the race left, and after having a crash due to not being able to grip properly with frozen hands, decided enough was enough and called it a day.
A good day out with some top racing and well worth the frost bite on my toes!

Camel Vale mcc presentation evening.

No pictures, aaaaaargh! i forgot my camera!

A good night was had by all and i even managed to pick up something on the night in the only race i did this year!

Adam Blake arrived wearing shorts!

Steve Jose (after only just fitting his head through the door) revealed after a few drinks that he buys 10 pairs of underpants for 2 quid! Don't really know how that conversation came about but it's a good job we didn't ask to see him wearing them!

Mike Roose was the compare for the evening and did a credible job whilst 'breaking his new teeth in' over the microphone.

Mark and Rich Tucker couldn't get out of the village where they live because of being snowed in so never made it.

Francis Banfield wore a t-shirt that fitted!

And i did a gig at the end and done something useful for a change and showed everyone just how easy it is to play the guitar!

Not much doing- 18th November 2010

Haven't been up to much at all lately, so nothing to report. I was hoping to get out on the bike at some point over the last few weeks but my elbow wouldn't let me have any of it and started to play up again. Some days are good, some are not, but at least i do have 'good days' now with it which is better than what it has been. It's still all a bit hit and miss at the moment but i am still hoping to do a race this month, see what happens eh?

Check out the link on the right hand side titled 'How to ride a 125', awesome piece of riding for all you 'strimmer' fans out there. Demonstrates exactley how to keep the thing 'on the pipe' all the time and being commited round the track!

Dunmere enduro- 17th October 2010

A nice local event just 10 minutes up the road and an ideal situation to test the elbow out on a decent course in a timecard enduro. I knew quite a lot of the woods as I regularly run and walk my dog round the place, and on the Friday before the race I ran around about 7 to 8 miles of the track just get a feel of it! I also went back on the Saturday morning to help the working party get the course ready.

It was a funny old feeling as I packed my stuff in the van on Sunday morning to head off up the road as it’s been 11 months since I last rode competitively, so I had to check everything 4 times to make sure I hadn’t forgot anything! The bike was ready to go with lots of new parts replaced on it and I couldn’t wait to fire her up and let her see a bit of the forest!

A clear sky but slightly chilly start to the morning was had as I got parked up in front of Andy Smith (who happened to be full of germs and was under the weather) just about 50 yds or so from the pit/signing on area. I saved a space behind the van for Batman and Robin (A Blake and S Jose) to pull into and waited for them to arrive, and waited, and waited, and waited, only to find out that the clowns had already arrived and had parked the other side of the pit area to where I was! err………could have flamin well told me, still it wasn’t wasted as Mark and Rich Tucker pulled up into it.

With this being the last round of the South West champs it was good entry of local riders and nice to have many of them wishing me all the best as I milling about round the pit area waiting for the start. At 10am the first group of riders were away, I was off at 10.21 and about 10 mins beforehand when I went to get my bike I couldn’t bloody find it, it was gone, much to the amusement of Rod Mclean who’d bloody well hidden it the git! Had a good laugh over that with a few others who were also ‘in’ on the prank. I knew a couple of the riders who were on the same minute as me, Colin George and Nick Moore, so that was handy because if we got to the time check early we could have a bit of a natter!

My aim today was to get round in one piece, try to stay on time and nurse that elbow until the end in order to get a finish, I’d be happy with that.
So when the clocked ticked over to 10.21 I fired the little strimmer into life and off I went, well, all about 10 yds before she died on me! My fault as I didn’t let her warm up properly, too eager to get going, no worries though as she started again and I let the bike warm up this time before I moved on. The lap had 2 time checks on it, one just over ½ way round and the other at the end, with the special test being right at the end of the lap incorporated within the 11-12 mile course. I was scheduled to do 5 laps with 3 special tests.

What a superb course this was, and in my opinion the best Dunmere yet! The woods had something for everyone with some decent climbs and downhills, roots galore, tight nadgery trails, a small bog section, and some fire roads where you could open the bike up a bit and not a single flat field in sight. The special test was awesome and well thought out with a bit of tight stuff (including a log crossing) coupled with some very fast trials through the trees before ending with a few twists and turns at the end. The test itself was about 3 miles long.

My first lap went ok and made both checks in time, so far so good and it didn’t take me that long to get back into the swing of things albeit a little bit rusty.
Lap 2 and gaining confidence the more I got into it and with the elbow feeling ok, I had a stupid little off after overshooting a turn, when I got back up I realized that I’d just broke my new plastics and bent my new radiator, oh b*llocks! I made it back on both checks in time at the end of the lap so I was still going ok. Whilst in the pits I saw Adam (Blake) who’d DNF’d early on due to a broken rear brake caliper.
Laps 3 & 4 went well and I made it through all the checks on time and with the elbow feeling ok, I was confident that I’d be finishing my first race in 11 months.

With the last and final lap ahead, I knew I had to push a little bit in order to keep to time as we were given 8 minutes less to get to the 1st check. I did get a bit ‘raggerty’ due to not having been on the bike too much, but I made it with a couple mins to spare and then went on to complete the lap with no time penaltys.
A big relief and pleased as punched I’d finished without dropping any time.

As for the 3 special tests? Well I had complete nightmare on the 1st one! I dropped it after over shooting a corner when the front wheel washed out. Then a bit further on I got stuck behind a rider who’d got stuck on the log crossing so I had to wait for him to clear it. The 2nd test went ok, then on the 3rd one I got stuck behind a rider who wouldn’t move over to side and let me through! Bit of a shame that because I felt this was the fastest one at the time. He moved out of the way in the end after I’d shouted for the 5th time, maybe it was just a macho thing and he wanted to race me, there was plenty of chances for him to pull over but he didn’t bother, why I don’t know? Maybe he didn’t like the thought of a little screaming 125 overtaking him? Perhaps this guy wasn’t at the riders meeting when clerk of the course Mike Roose said ‘ if a rider catches you up on the test it obviously means they’re faster than you, so please don’t hold them up, move over and let them pass’. Never mind, perhaps he didn’t have his hearing aid in.

Overall an excellent day for me and it was great to ride at an event again. I enjoyed the course and although my pace isn’t what I want it to be (although that’s to be expected) I was over the moon to get round and finish, and I’m bloody well delighted.
Where does it leave me now? Well my arm does hurt from it afterwards, and I’ll give it some more rest before I decide to enter another event. If things go ok I’ll probably be looking at a race next month, don’t want to do too much to soon. In the meantime I’ll still be out and about watching some races.

Finishing position: 4/15 (o 40’s)

Practice- 10th October 2010

So it was off to the local mx track to put in a decent bit of 'bike' time to see if the elbow would stand up to any abuse! A lovely sunny day it was too although parts of the track were as gloopy as hell due to it being on the moorland where it has a job to dry out if there's any rain.

Funny thing really as i was a bit apprehensive seeing as it's been quite a while being off the bike and i knew that i had to give it some because i didn't really want to go round at a snails pace with next week looming. Within about 10 mins back on the little 'strimmer' i was going really well and did a full hour at a decent old pace before coming in to rest up. The elbow was fine going round but felt a bit stiff when i stopped riding, so far so good.

I then went out and did another 30 mins, i was going so well i thought to myself 'this is easy' but then the obvious happen and just before going through the water crossing where the approach is a little bit stoney, the back skipped out to the left then the right and i went down on my arse in a flash. Luckily no damage done to me or bike so i just carried on to finish the session.

So as i write this on Monday i'd be a liar to say that it's all hunky dory because it ain't and it's still giving me some pain albeit not as bad as it was! I suppose on a scale on 1 to 10 being pain free (1 being the lowest) it's probably on 6, before it was on 1 or 2!

I've decided to give the Dunmere enduro a go next week and see what happens.

Making a comeback?

Well after about 11 months since my last race i could finally be racing again! Ok, the arm isn't 100%, but it sure feels a lot better than what it has been and i'm going to go out in the next week and get some practice in. If that goes ok then i'll be back for the Dunmere enduro on the 17th October.
Fingers crossed then!

Woolborough Barton- 19th September 2010

(pic Sue Pitman)

www.photoboxgallery.com/suesbikesnaps

Happy memories for me last year at this event when I recorded a win in a round of the SW champs, not this year though eh? I was however really looking forward to watching all the action and I wasn’t to be disappointed.

I took a ride up there with Adam Blake (who was still out through injury) and Steve Jose who basically only had to finish to secure the E2 title in the clubman category. An overcast but nevertheless warm conditions greeted us as we arrived after about 1 ½ hours drive. We actually got there really early, but there was already quite a lot of riders about so with plenty of time to kill a lot of chatting and general piss taking was the order of the day before everyone had to get ready. Francis Banfield came up and showed us that his T shirt that he was wearing today wasn’t made for a sumo wrestler and it was the correct size (that was after he called me an explicit word for mentioning it on the blog a while back), John Pitman was riding a decent bike at last and had ditched his big 4 banger to have a blast round on a 125! Barry Weeks was hoping his ’Trago Mills’ chain wouldn’t snap this week, Mike Roose was still looking like a ’Gurning’ champion due to a recent visit to the dentist, he also couldn’t ride due to getting injured the day before, and Dan Hull was also out due to knee ligament damage after coming off a kids bike at about 10 mph! The usual suspects were all present and what you’d expect at a SW round, and one by one all stopped by for a bit of a natter. The E1 category which obviously I pay close attention too was still up for grabs, but John Hinkley only needed a good result today and the title would be his. I really wanted John to win it, we’re about the same age and it’s not been easy for him after riding a bigger bike for a while and then coming down in size and riding a ‘strimmer’, but he’s done well on it this year so good luck to him.

I didn’t see the start as I went on walkabout with Blakey down into the woods and waited at the top of a long fast uphill section to see the riders come by. A few close calls were had because half way up this fast section there was an ugly looking tree stump that nearly caught a few riders out and this threw them off line missing the on coming trees by inches, luckily after a couple of laps everyone knew where the bloody thing was so most avoided it after that. It certainly was good racing to watch with some good vantage points to have a look from and especially watching Chris Dustow giving everybody in the entire field a master class on how to ride a motorbike, absolutely superb.

After about an hour I was on pit board duties for Steve and was constantly was going backwards and forwards between two parts of the course to update him on his position, but by the time he’d pitted he had a bit of a lead which increased as the race went on, so no panic and I just told him ‘don’t let anyone overtake you’! During the last hour I decided to have a bit of a laugh with a few of the lads as they were riding round with my usual trick of writing something on the pit board and showing it to them as they went by. ‘Go faster’ and ‘twist the throttle more’ were wrote on the board, Andy Smith laughed so much as he went by that he nearly had an ‘off’ and just missed a bunch of trees by a few inches, Steve Jay also laughed his nuts off as he went by but Francis Banfield simply muttered the words ‘F*ck off’! not the 1st time he’s said that to me when I’ve wrote something down for him, but it was all taken light heartedly (I think).

And so to the end of it all where controversy reared it’s ugly head! No names mentioned here but I went back to where the results were posted up to try and help a rider sort out his position. Something somewhere didn’t add up and I can tell you after watching the race for the full 3 hours or more and knowing where the first 5 were in each group, I couldn’t make it out either! As I looked further down the list a few more were in the wrong order as well, um………..not good, in fact one of the riders in question had won his class and had him down as a DNF! It’s happened to me once or twice before so I know how it feels, not good.

So after the obligatory Cheese burger at the catering van and listening to the woeful tale of John Pitman not finishing on his ‘strimmer’ because it had packed up on him, it was off back home and to hear more stories in the van from Mr ‘jackanory’ Jose!

'Blinkin hell' !

That's exactly what i thought when i just took a quick look at some stats from my blog. Since i started this thing a few years back I've had just over 9,000 hits on it!

Out and about - 5th September 2010

(pic by sue pitman)

It was off to watch the British round of the motocross sidecar clubman series at a local track just 20 mins away. Bit of an overcast day but at least the rain kept away apart from the odd drizzle. Don't often get the old chairs down here so i jumped at the chance to go and have a 'butchers' at them. I love the sidecars and basically got brought up with them when i was a kid back home in my old town of Reading. There was so much racing going on around that area in them days, and unquestionably the south east was a hive for sidecar crews which produced many british champions, whoops! i've 'gone into one' feeling all nostalgic, lets move on..........

The support racing had some go solo action going on as well with some twinshocks dotted about and a few local enduro riders trying their hand at a bit of motocross. Hannes Tanzer, John Robinson, Rose Disney, John Pitman, Barry Weeks to name a few all had a bash. In fact the last time i saw Barry Weeks race his chain snapped, and low and behold exactley the same thing happened when he tried to pull away on the start line in race one! Come on Barry buy a decent chain will ya, them Trago Mills specials ain't doing you much good are they?

Some quite good little battles going on out there on the track i could see and enjoyed watching it all. I stayed until the end and had a good day out and went home still thinking to myself (like i have for many years) that i really should get a sidecar and give that a go!

Dawn to dusk 2010

So it was off to the middle of a Welsh quarry somewhere in err………….Wales! To watch a few of the boys attempt to snatch some kind of glory in the 24 and 12hr races in the Dawn to Dusk. I traveled up there with Steve Jose in his caravan (similar to the one pictured) that he obtained from his neighbour for the pricely sum of £50! Yes that’s not a misprint, I said FIFTY quid! Even though it had no windows, a cardboard floor, a gas leak and one flat tyre that was thread bare, not to mention no tow hitch so we had to tie the thing to his van, it wasn’t half bad and it gave us somewhere to kip for a few nights. No, seriously it was an absolute gem, everything worked and a right old bargain for the money.

Things didn’t start off too well coz I late getting to the Jose household, but I soon made it up by getting out the cocktail sausage rolls which we both devoured within 5 minutes of the journey starting! A quick stop a couple of hours later for some ‘Harry Ramsden’s’ fish & chips, then it was off over the severn bridge and into Wales. A few more hours later of us bickering like a pair of old women and we managed to miss the junction to turn off to get to the place. Whoops! We finally made it and parked up next to Mike Roose and Arthur Johnson who were both doing the ‘carry on caravaning’ thing as well. A few beers later and some more friendly faces turned up, Jed Treleaven, Richard Williams and Matt Hamley, who were also riding the event. After some more beers and general chat it was time to turn in for the night.

Saturday morning came around and mike got out his BBQ, I did the ‘Gordon Ramsey’ bit (including all the F words) and was the chef as I cooked up some culinary delights (sausages and burgers) which went down rather well and were scoffed up in a flash. Steve Jose had a front brake problem after trying out his bike in readiness for the race, it was found his front disk has a few ridges worn into it, so Mike got out his angle grinder and fixed it. Next it was to the signing on tent where I managed to get Adam (Blake) his T shirt because he was injured and couldn’t come but had already paid for the event, and I must admit he did say that I could ride his bike and take his slot, I was tempted, but soon changed my mind on that one. Around lunch time Rich and Steve Jay arrived along with Scott Johnson, so a few more Camel Vale mcc members joined the party! Arthur tried to get some kip before his marathon 24hr race began but couldn’t calling everyone ‘noisey bastards’! A group of youngsters camped up next to us had about 10 bikes on a big trailer and one by one they all rode about on them for a bit in the camping area apart from one poor soul with a old CR 125. His mates must have p*ssing themselves, he tried everything under the sun to try and get the thing going including kicking it until exhaustion, after about 3 hours it fired into life, yippee! So with a few hours left until the start of the 24 hr race most people were relaxing and waiting around and taking a few bits down to the pit area in readiness for the start of it all.

The 24hr race had Arthur (Johnson) doing the solo iron man and Jed (Treleaven) partnering Richard (Williams) in the 2 man team. Also on show was a couple of more Camel Vale members Martin Cheeseman and Brad Williams who were also doing the 24hr 2 man event. After watching the start on the windy hillside where I met Pete Boyles who was riding in the 12hr event the next day with his son, it was back off to the pits where we had 2 gazebo’s constructed one in front of the other, this was our ‘camp’ for the next 24 hours with a numerous assortment of food, fuel, tools, chairs, lights, amongst other things in order to help the riders get through the event and also to protect us from the Welsh elements!

Some riders were on a 1 lap strategy and some a 2 lap one before coming in for re-fuelling. A few hours in and everybody was doing ok, the lads who were racing the 12hr tomorrow went off to get some kip, I stayed along with Mike to help out the riders doing the marathon event, cleaning the bikes, re-fuelling and general maintenance stuff, anything really so they could just came in to the pits and sit down and take a break without having to do much. Amazing who you meet at these events, next to us was Tony Hobbs who I’ve had a few battles with last year in the Midwest series that I rode in, first time I’ve actually met the bloke, I knew his name and he new mine, bitter rivals last year! We had a jolly good old chat and I wished all the best as he was riding in the 24hr race as well with is mate. Around 2.30am and with 7 ½ hours gone, I went off to grab a few hours kip, and it was just about now that the race had started to take it’s toll on a few.

After some 3 hours I was up, made a cup of tea and headed off to the pits to see how everybody was doing. The youngsters Jed and Richard were decidedly looking worse for wear as was Arthur, it had been a long night, but nevertheless were going ok, not long to go lads just another 12 hrs! 7am came around and the start of the 12hr race were rivalry was abound with the jay brothers up against each other, Steve teaming up with Steve Jose, and Rich teaming up with Scott Johnson in the 2 man event. After the 1st lap the 2 teams were neck and neck as they both came into the pits together, next lap Scott suffered a puncture so lost time, next lap Steve Jay got a puncture, a couple of laps later Rich Jay got a puncture, (there’s more) Scott another puncture, Steve jay had 2 punctures in one lap, both his front and back tyre punctured in the same lap must to the annoyance of Steve Jose who was sat there waiting for him to arrive in the pits in order to change the transponders over. This wait meant that Rich and Scott had took the lead again, Jose’s face was a picture and steam was seen coming out from under his helmet! Scott got another puncture! Steve Jay got another puncture, incredible, I counted 9 punctures in all as the Welsh slate quarry had taken it’s toll on the tyres. Jose had no problems though as he was on mousses although Arthur Johnson was on tubes and never had a problem in the whole 24 hrs? weird eh? Mike was kept busy as he changed the whole bloody lot and put new tubes in every time and his work certainly put ‘Quik fit’ and ‘ATS’ to shame. I was still in the thick of things cleaning and re-fuelling the bikes of the 2 man teams and Matt Hamley who was also doing the 12hr race on his own.

Drama and mayhem ensued in the afternoon! With the wind whipping up some force and there being no place to hide in the middle of a quarry, a few gazebo’s went flying including a huge one that some Germans had all there BMW enduro bikes under. Not only that, the computer tent that had all the lap top screens giving you up to date lap scoring on each of the 6,12 and 24 hrs races, went walkabout as well!!! This included all the screens and all the wires that accompanied the system along with the tent, laying in a heap on the floor about 20ft away from where they should have been. Luckily nothing was broken and the organizes set up the whole thing again in the big marquee which was to hold the presentations a bit later on.

With just 3-4 hours left before the whole race ended Jed and Richard had had enough and went off for a nap, Arthur was out on his feet and was basically only just summoning up enough energy to do one lap at a time, sometimes we even had to help him get on his bike! The 2 man teams of Steve/Steve and Rich/Scott were doing well and one stage 2nd and 3rd out of about 30 teams, but for some reason slipped back a bit at the finish. So with not long to go Jed and Richard came back to do another couple of laps and then stick the bike in the holding pen just before the finish along with Arthur, these boys were simply now dead on their feet and had no energy left, and to be honest it would simply had been too dangerous to race a bike when you can’t even see straight let alone hold on to the bars and twist the throttle. The other Camel Vale 2 man team of Cheeseman/Williams were way in front of the 24hr expert race and didn’t look like being caught which in the end proofed right.

With about 15 mins to go I went down to the finish area to jeer up Steve Jose and Rich Jay who I knew would come round and get another lap in before time was called in which both of them managed to do. So with a sizeable crowd waiting for the 1st placed 24hr iron man to finish (that’s how they end the event) along he came, a certain James Giddings on a 125!!!!! I’d been speaking to part of his pit crew, a guy named Rob (who helped me out last year at a BEC event in Wales) a few times during the race so I knew how well he was going, and boy was he going! 24 hrs on his own and he beat everyone including the 2 and 3 man teams without hardly any rest at all. Now that’s how to ride a 125!

So with the flag waved for the finish, the rest of the riders who were ’cream crackerd’ came out of the holding pen in which Jed Treleaven managed to get the holeshot! And poor Arthur had to push his bike up the hill to get a finish when it suddenly cried enough and refused to start again. I then went back up to the pits to wait for the other riders to come in who were still out there on their last lap.
After everybody had a rest and a brush up it was off to the presentations to see who’d won and who didn’t. Fair play to the ‘evergreen’ Arthur Johnson who got 3rd in the 24hr iron man, I asked him if he was going to do it all again next year and apart from the 2nd word being ‘off’ he muttered ‘don’t ever let me go near this place again’, yeah alright, we’ll see you next year then mate, we know you love it.

A good nights kip was had and then after a quick stop for brekky at the local Macdonalds it was off home. The 50 quid caravan of Steve’s did us proud, the windows didn’t fall out and the roof stayed on and the 3 dead rats that had been in the cupboard that he’d found when he bought it didn’t really smell that much at all…………………………..

Doctors today- 19th August 2010

So today was a big day for me with yet another chat with the doctor whom I saw 2 weeks ago when he told me to come back and think about the options he gave me. Basically I could have a ‘lateral release’ which free’s the offending tendon with surgery by cutting the damaged piece away, or have another cortisone injection and wait. Now I was tempted with the surgery, this relieves the pain, but my grip would never be the same on that arm and he made no bones about it when he said that I wouldn’t be able to ride competitively again. So it’s a no brainer really and I had no choice but to have another injection. Now then good stuff you might think? But………….trouble is with cortisone is that it is a very high dose of steroid which reduces inflammation, the bad part is it also masks pain and gives you a ‘false sense of security’ in a way. Last time I had one I thought I was superman and started picking and lifting things up to test my arm because I didn’t feel any pain which in turn means you’re still damaging the tendons underneath, so this time I think I might take it a bit easier and see what happens. I done a hell of a lot of research about the injury and spoke to people who’ve had the injections with results being about 50/50 on weather it works or not. Of course the operation has a huge percentage of success, but that’s no bloody good to me is it?

It all means that I still want be riding for another while yet and that’s a huge disappointment to me as I really wanted to do the ‘Dawn to dusk’ event again this year as I feel it owes me something as I was going so well last year until I had to pull out through getting injured. The last couple of months I’ve really put the training in hoping I could do the race, running 4-5 days a week up to 10 miles in 25 degree heat as well as exercising 5 nights a week doing some ‘core’ work. Never mind, always next year eh?

Next week is the ‘Dawn to dusk’ and I’ll be traveling with the lads from down here in Cornwall up to Wales to the event. There’s quite a few doing it so I’ll be there helping them all out and giving um a bit of support. Looking forward to that, a good weekend away and a good laugh

'On yer bike'- 15th August 2010

Yes I certainly did as well. With it being a glorious day I quickly got the bike together and threw on some old plastics, stuck the reg plate on, put a bit of petrol in her, chucked it in the back of the van and drove up to the moors for a bit of green laning. A case of ‘Gently as she goes’ was the order of the day but I did succumb to opening the little ‘strimmer’ up a few times just to feel what I’ve been missing all these months! Even though I only did about 30 mins, It felt great just to be back on the bike albeit against the old doctors orders. Racing the bike is an entirely different matter and this week I’m off to the doc’s again for a serious chat about an operation or another injection to see which is the best way to go.

Lurley- 8th August 2010

I had high hopes of actually doing this one, an ASW organised Enduro cross, 2 races of 1 hour each with a break between the 2 races. I was going to test out the arm for the 1st race in order to see if it would cope with the riggers of racing and maybe do the 2nd race as well if everything went ok, but it wasn’t to be, oh b*llocks! So I was left yet again on the sidelines watching, never mind though, it was excellent stuff!

I traveled up to this one with Adam (Blake), got there nice and early, and with loads of time on our hands we decided to go and take a look around the track. A nice warm overcast day and the track was bone dry, very open and much similar to an old school motocross course, rolling fields, a few hills and a couple of jumps. After looking at the start of the kids race it was back to van to see if we could actually see anybody we new! Um………..what’s going on here? Hardly knew anyone! Apart from Barry weeks, John Pitman and his wife Sue who was taking some photo’s for her webpage (see links on the right hand side of the page) and Ben Scotts dad (sorry mate, seen you around at all the races but don‘t know your first name), we didn’t bloody well see anybody else that we knew.

On to the racing then and it was all extremely fast stuff with the motocross boys having their day and filling up the first 4 to 5 places in the expert class (no champ class), but that was to expected as the course had nothing really in the way of any tight nadgery stuff or obstacles to slow them down and the laps being a mere 5-6 minutes to complete. I was stood on the hillside with just about everybody else to watch the action so basically you could see half the track and follow the action all the way. Adam did well and was 1st of the ‘enduro’ riders home in the 1st race.

So there we are sat down having a natter before race 2 commenced and the phone rings……………’where abouts are you then? I’m on my way’, it was Steve (Jose) who’d been away for the weekend with his other half and her mum and dad and were traveling back when he had the cunning idea to make a detour and get them to drop him off so he watch the 2nd race and then get a lift home with us! And sure enough half hour later he pulled up, got out of the motor, said ’see ya then’ to the family, and off they went on their merry way.

So to race 2 then and me and Steve managed to find a nice hill out on the course that had some nice deep powdery dirt laying on to of it, probably about a foot deep in some places so nothing really seeing as everything was as ‘dry as a bone‘, but we knew it would catch some riders out and sure enough it did. We had a real laugh with a few other people watching some riders going up it, but wasn’t all fun and games as we did help a few out that got stuck in the deep stuff. I was stood gesturing most of the time to the 125 riders telling them to ‘pin it’ so they could make it up the hill ok without getting bogged down in the dirt, needless to say most of them ignored me! Aaaarrgh, wish I was bloody well out there riding! Would loved that bit of the course, I do love ‘pinning’ the old strimmers (if my memory serves me right).

After the 2nd race had finished and with Adam having an even better result with a 4th place, it was off to the burger van to get fed but not before I got on Blakey’s 250 and had a quick spin on it! We then had quite a wait until the results got posted up before heading home. Another good day out today and nice to watch a bit of Enduro cross.

Idless woods- 25th July 2010

It was off to the next series of the south West championships not far home nr Truro, only about 30 mins away. I managed to cadge a lift from Morcambe and Wise (a certain Mr Blake and Mr Jose), and in return I was of course on pit board duties again for them. We got there quite early as we new that parking was at a premium due to narrow fire road that led up to the start/pit area, and you could only park to one side of the road. Absolutely cracker of a day weather wise it was too, nice warm sunshine, hooray, summers here!

As this was a local event and us parked up near the start, it wasn’t long before what it seemed like every bloody rider stopped and had a chat with us all as they walked past on their way up. Mark and Rich Tucker were the 1st to arrive, followed by a whole host of local talent (or not!) in the shape of Phil ’smiler’ Harris, Andy (converted to a 4 banger) Smith, Francis (my T shirts too big) Banfield, Steve Jay, Jon Hinkley, James (I wear pop socks) Hull along with brother Dan, Paul Ford, Rob (love song man) Ellick, Rich (Dragons den inventor) Batstone, Ollie Hicks, Arthur (evergreen) Johnson, Jed Treleaven, Paul Fordy, Rod Mclean, Phew! the list is endless! But hold on, where’s ‘mad’ Jack Twentyman? Suddenly my phone rung, and sure enough it was ‘mad’ Jack running a bit late as usual, so he asked us if we could move up the vans so we could make a space for him where we were so he didn’t have to walk too far to the start! So we did, and sure enough with just about half an hour or so to go before race time, up turns Jack and parks behind us (this was to cause a ‘you’ve been framed’ moment a bit later on).

So with me yet again being a general ’dogs body’ carrying this and that for a few riders to the pits, it was off to watch it all happen down at the bottom of the start straight to see who got the holeshot. Phil (harris) wasn’t riding today so I was stood there with him along with John Pitman (who also wasn’t riding) and Mark Tucker. So after watching all the classes start, it was off to explore the woods to see if I can find some decent sections of ’where it all happens’ in order to catch exhilarating action! With the conditions being warm and dry, and it being a fast course, I couldn’t really find anywhere without going miles away (coz I was needed back at the pits to help with re-fueling) that produced some tasty pieces of action.

The racing at the front of the pack was top notch, some good champ riders there today, and the top 3 were all within a few bike lengths of each other for at least the first hour, good stuff to watch it was. After helping out a few riders on their pit stop, it was time for me to stay round the start area and resume my pit board duties for messrs Blake and Jose until the race finished. In the meantime a few riders had some problems, Steve Jay stopped in the pits for a while not feeling too good, Andy Smith stopped for running repairs a bit later on, James Hull DNF’d with yet another puncture, and I poured Mark Tucker another cup of coffee from my flask!!!

Now what the fooking hell is going on here then? The catering van is leaving! What’s that all about? Probably the busiest period they’re likely to get when all the riders are ‘Hank Marvin’ and need food at the end of proceedings, and they pee off and leave! Now come on play the game, I know we’ve been a bit peed off in the past when the vans ran out of chips at the end and all that’s left is bread rolls, but to actually leave the bloody place the minute the race finished is errrrrrr……..well, lets say politely, not good! Still never mind, it was all decided to stop at Macdonalds on the way home in order that Steve Jose could satisfy his hunger and keep his weight up.

But wait, drama ensued just as we were leaving as ‘mad’ Jacks van got stuck down a drainage hole whilst trying to leave the place. After showing everybody how to get stuck ‘good and proper’ by digging yourself an even bigger hole by revving the nuts out of your vans engine in front of us all, Jack rather embarrassingly had to admit DEFEAT, (not something in his vocabulary), and go and get help in order to get towed out which he did.

A good day out today, enjoyed it………………….