slowpoke
1st April 2010, 12:11
Well, after unsuccessfully trying to rehabilitate my bike at Manfeild after my big Ruapuna crash I drove home and slung her in the shed with a (borrowed!) Michael Bolton CD playing on loop for a coupla weeks. If that doesn’t teach her to behave nothing will….
When I could no longer stand the mechanical mewling and whining from the shed I opened the door to find it curled up under the bench, rocking, and looking most apologetic. So with the Stockholm Syndrome in mind I showed it a bit of love and fitted up the fuel filter I had ordered to hopefully cure her surging, hesitating as it she was at Manfeild. I also restored the suspension settings to something a bit more familiar after the clickers had been reset to stock (crap!) WP settings when the front springs were changed following my crash, so hopefully she wouldn’t have such a nervy “tippy” feel. (just in case you were wondering: bugger all pre-load and lotsa damping does not make for a nice ride)
So, it was time for a first date to test the bonds of our new “relationship”. It was early days so just something casual, and as I live on a country road there may….or may not.…have been a 6km wander down to the main road that had me thinking she wasn’t a complete bitch after all. Once again a sniff of throttle had her eagerly lifting her skirts and giggling like a schoolgirl and the sight of a corner didn’t have your arse trying to suck the foam off the seat. So a second date was arranged, with a few tentative runs up the local Cliffhanger hillclimb the next weekend. In between other folks crashes, and waiting around we chatted, she cooed and sighed nicely as I stroked some of her sensitive areas, and overall I thought she had some definite potential, albeit on a stroll up a bumpy country road at only modest pace. Ya can’t rush these things eh?
Then I read that the entries were a bit light for the Hampton Down’s round and after some soul and wallet searching (we’ve just started building a house) I thought about heading up to make up the numbers, finally deciding to fire in an entry on the Tuesday before. The only way to restore confidence in us was to get a bit more physical and actually put the hard word on her. Target: qualify within the 115%, stretch target: within 110%, at a track I’d been to once before 5 months earlier, on a bike which thanks to screwing up I’d only raced once before and didn’t trust as far as I could throw it (which is 32.2m, judging from Ruapuna).
Seriously, to say my confidence wasn’t high is an understatement but after busting my balls to supposedly do most of the Nat’s and screwing up royally at the first hurdle I needed to get something out of the season. But, with a house build starting, crashing in a big way again was not an option if I wanted to keep racing this year.
So I cruised up and did the short test afternoon, progressing from a wobbly 99 year old nana to a 65 year old recent retiree nana. Next day was official practice/qualifying and Stroudy invited me over to pit with him, Choppa, and the MotoGB display, forming a lil’ Suzuki/Nationwide Accessories city at the end of the pits. Cool, he’s such a laid back bloke, and his mechanic’s Ian and Keiran so helpful and friendly that ya can’t help but have fun.
I’d only used an old set of SC2’s that had done at least 60laps by the time qualifying came around and I swapped ‘em for a mint set of Choppa-loved SC1’s. I realized I was actually enjoying it again in qualifying, starting to push on a lil’ bit when the red light’s played up after about 4 laps. We pulled in, but when we went out again the bike was running all fluffy and gutless. I pulled in, reset the ignition and mode switches thinking I might have bumped something but another lap was just the same. So I parked it, hoping it was just temperature related from sitting on the dummy grid…..and I left that Michael Bolton CD playing for it overnight for good measure.
Next morning and the scrub would be the test, sure enough she ran strong again, so it was all on for race day: let the nerves really begin! The nerves weren’t helped by upsetting someones corporate seating plan which had Stroudy trying to reorganize his pit area for me but I decided to head back to my rightful place in the cheap seats to stop the hassle. Thanks to my abbreviated qualifying I was last on the grid, which suited me fine as I thought I could comfortably go quicker and hopefully have a play with Dave McArthur and Ken Christison (great effort by those guys after missing the Friday). Then the call came in about the oil on the track, and after finally seeing/feeling it any confidence I had pretty much evaporated. Yup, same for everybody but all of a sudden what was starting to be fun again…..wasn’t. Result, a nervous stall on the grid and a return to riding like a nana, especially after seeing Choppa and Rhys spearing off. I started thinking I might have a go at catching Ken, but in staying out of the way of the fast fuckers I lost too much time and was quite happy when the checkered flag finally dropped on a thoroughly unenjoyable race. I was surprised to see my fastest (least slow would be a better term) lap was on lap 14 ‘cos I was pretty much just waiting for the flag at that stage.
Even so I was looking forward to race 2, and putting in a decent effort…..until I went to adjust the steering damper on the starting grid (things were getting real twitchy coming over the hill) and realized the bolt had fallen out of the pinch clamp: no damping whatsoever. But another call for dropped oil had us pulled onto the dummy grid, where Ian (Stroudy’s mechanic) dashed off to find a bolt for the clamp, which he did but couldn’t access the clamp to fit it. Oh well, suck it and see.
I was kinda hangin’ on to the back of Dave and Ken, faster in some areas, slower in others, but a nasty slap over the hill and the bars flicking badly as the front end tucked a lil’ on the way through the hairpin had me backing off…..yes, even slower than normal. Mindful that all the concrete on the front “straight” over the hill will make any incident end up in the middle of the track, I decided to park it after a few laps. Frustrating but at least me and her were going home in much the same state as we arrived, and it was good to actually run out and see a fair bit of the Superbike race and see how it should be done. Watchingg Craig fighting off the affections of Jimmy Smith to secure 3rd in the championship was inspirational after seeing the state of him the day before: talk about mongrel don’t give up attitude.
Oh and for the record, I used one new tyre all weekend, a front, and that was really only a feel good thing for race day, so don’t let anyone tell ya it has to cost a fortune to race at the Nat’s. I didn’t quite make my 110% stretch target but without the oil/damper problems it would have been fairly comfortable. Nah, not quick by most folks standards but after feeling like a born-again race virgin I would have been happy with that, but not to be.
Thanks to Stroudy, Ian, Keiran, Dennis, Robert, Shaun, Quasi, Scracha, Toast (thanks for the clamp bro!), Kerry, Dave, Ken and anyone else who helped out or stopped in for a chat/laugh over the weekend, you’re all good buggers and it was great to catch up with ya.
Thanks also to Motomart, Pirelli and EBC Brakes for making it do-able in the first place.
When I could no longer stand the mechanical mewling and whining from the shed I opened the door to find it curled up under the bench, rocking, and looking most apologetic. So with the Stockholm Syndrome in mind I showed it a bit of love and fitted up the fuel filter I had ordered to hopefully cure her surging, hesitating as it she was at Manfeild. I also restored the suspension settings to something a bit more familiar after the clickers had been reset to stock (crap!) WP settings when the front springs were changed following my crash, so hopefully she wouldn’t have such a nervy “tippy” feel. (just in case you were wondering: bugger all pre-load and lotsa damping does not make for a nice ride)
So, it was time for a first date to test the bonds of our new “relationship”. It was early days so just something casual, and as I live on a country road there may….or may not.…have been a 6km wander down to the main road that had me thinking she wasn’t a complete bitch after all. Once again a sniff of throttle had her eagerly lifting her skirts and giggling like a schoolgirl and the sight of a corner didn’t have your arse trying to suck the foam off the seat. So a second date was arranged, with a few tentative runs up the local Cliffhanger hillclimb the next weekend. In between other folks crashes, and waiting around we chatted, she cooed and sighed nicely as I stroked some of her sensitive areas, and overall I thought she had some definite potential, albeit on a stroll up a bumpy country road at only modest pace. Ya can’t rush these things eh?
Then I read that the entries were a bit light for the Hampton Down’s round and after some soul and wallet searching (we’ve just started building a house) I thought about heading up to make up the numbers, finally deciding to fire in an entry on the Tuesday before. The only way to restore confidence in us was to get a bit more physical and actually put the hard word on her. Target: qualify within the 115%, stretch target: within 110%, at a track I’d been to once before 5 months earlier, on a bike which thanks to screwing up I’d only raced once before and didn’t trust as far as I could throw it (which is 32.2m, judging from Ruapuna).
Seriously, to say my confidence wasn’t high is an understatement but after busting my balls to supposedly do most of the Nat’s and screwing up royally at the first hurdle I needed to get something out of the season. But, with a house build starting, crashing in a big way again was not an option if I wanted to keep racing this year.
So I cruised up and did the short test afternoon, progressing from a wobbly 99 year old nana to a 65 year old recent retiree nana. Next day was official practice/qualifying and Stroudy invited me over to pit with him, Choppa, and the MotoGB display, forming a lil’ Suzuki/Nationwide Accessories city at the end of the pits. Cool, he’s such a laid back bloke, and his mechanic’s Ian and Keiran so helpful and friendly that ya can’t help but have fun.
I’d only used an old set of SC2’s that had done at least 60laps by the time qualifying came around and I swapped ‘em for a mint set of Choppa-loved SC1’s. I realized I was actually enjoying it again in qualifying, starting to push on a lil’ bit when the red light’s played up after about 4 laps. We pulled in, but when we went out again the bike was running all fluffy and gutless. I pulled in, reset the ignition and mode switches thinking I might have bumped something but another lap was just the same. So I parked it, hoping it was just temperature related from sitting on the dummy grid…..and I left that Michael Bolton CD playing for it overnight for good measure.
Next morning and the scrub would be the test, sure enough she ran strong again, so it was all on for race day: let the nerves really begin! The nerves weren’t helped by upsetting someones corporate seating plan which had Stroudy trying to reorganize his pit area for me but I decided to head back to my rightful place in the cheap seats to stop the hassle. Thanks to my abbreviated qualifying I was last on the grid, which suited me fine as I thought I could comfortably go quicker and hopefully have a play with Dave McArthur and Ken Christison (great effort by those guys after missing the Friday). Then the call came in about the oil on the track, and after finally seeing/feeling it any confidence I had pretty much evaporated. Yup, same for everybody but all of a sudden what was starting to be fun again…..wasn’t. Result, a nervous stall on the grid and a return to riding like a nana, especially after seeing Choppa and Rhys spearing off. I started thinking I might have a go at catching Ken, but in staying out of the way of the fast fuckers I lost too much time and was quite happy when the checkered flag finally dropped on a thoroughly unenjoyable race. I was surprised to see my fastest (least slow would be a better term) lap was on lap 14 ‘cos I was pretty much just waiting for the flag at that stage.
Even so I was looking forward to race 2, and putting in a decent effort…..until I went to adjust the steering damper on the starting grid (things were getting real twitchy coming over the hill) and realized the bolt had fallen out of the pinch clamp: no damping whatsoever. But another call for dropped oil had us pulled onto the dummy grid, where Ian (Stroudy’s mechanic) dashed off to find a bolt for the clamp, which he did but couldn’t access the clamp to fit it. Oh well, suck it and see.
I was kinda hangin’ on to the back of Dave and Ken, faster in some areas, slower in others, but a nasty slap over the hill and the bars flicking badly as the front end tucked a lil’ on the way through the hairpin had me backing off…..yes, even slower than normal. Mindful that all the concrete on the front “straight” over the hill will make any incident end up in the middle of the track, I decided to park it after a few laps. Frustrating but at least me and her were going home in much the same state as we arrived, and it was good to actually run out and see a fair bit of the Superbike race and see how it should be done. Watchingg Craig fighting off the affections of Jimmy Smith to secure 3rd in the championship was inspirational after seeing the state of him the day before: talk about mongrel don’t give up attitude.
Oh and for the record, I used one new tyre all weekend, a front, and that was really only a feel good thing for race day, so don’t let anyone tell ya it has to cost a fortune to race at the Nat’s. I didn’t quite make my 110% stretch target but without the oil/damper problems it would have been fairly comfortable. Nah, not quick by most folks standards but after feeling like a born-again race virgin I would have been happy with that, but not to be.
Thanks to Stroudy, Ian, Keiran, Dennis, Robert, Shaun, Quasi, Scracha, Toast (thanks for the clamp bro!), Kerry, Dave, Ken and anyone else who helped out or stopped in for a chat/laugh over the weekend, you’re all good buggers and it was great to catch up with ya.
Thanks also to Motomart, Pirelli and EBC Brakes for making it do-able in the first place.