Shane - Superlite (#43)

24th August 2014 at 12:01pm was the last time I had been on my race bike. That day ended with a trip to the A&E Department with a broken right clavicle. It's been a long wait to get back to normal but recently I'd been cleared by the surgeon to get back to everything I usually do, including getting back on my bike. The first possible race day was going to be Round 4 of the AMCC, 7 months and 19 days since I'd last ridden.

There were a couple of track days leading up to 11th April, including the Big Bike Day Out, but I wasn't going to be able to get to them. So my first time back on the bike was going to be an actual race day.

I was confident it wasn't going to be a mistake, but it was going to be extremely hard physically. Also, I'd changed lots of stuff on the bike, primarily the ride height adjuster, rear sets, handle bars and a whole lot of other stuff. The rear tyre was still a 190; originally I was going to change the ride height to suit after racing on it for one race but, because of the crash, that hadn't happened so I'd had to estimate how much to adjust it. Changing the ride height changes the front/rear weight distribution so I'd had to change the preload, etc. Those plus all of the other little changes I'd made meant there was plenty of doubt that things were right.

I'd put Friday afternoon aside to finish sorting out whatever I needed to with the bike but other than figuring out where everything had ended up there wasn't much to do. I wasn't even going to give the bike a wash as it was raining and as soon as the bike is on the trailer it gets covered in crap. So I had a leisurely time trying to figure out how I'd always packed the car and, despite not doing that for months, I didn't forget anything.

Getting to the track, all of the space around the back of the sheds is taken so I move the car around to pit lane and start unpacking. Once all of the gear is where it's meant to be we go over things. Turns out I had forgotten something, the sheets for recording the suspension settings and tyre pressures.

Warming the bike up, the gear shift lights are flashing full time so I try to remember the sequence for resetting them but make a mess of it and give up. We decide to just tape over them and I'll go without for the day.

I want to make sure other things are ok and start it up. When I check that the gear indicator is working the back wheel starts to spin while the tyre warmer is still on it and rips the wiring out of the tyre warmer!! It's knackered and there's no hope of fixing it there so I'm going to have to find another one. Scott Findley, right next to me in the shed, has a spare but it's for the ZXR400 rear and is too short for the 190 on my bike. Within a couple of minutes I've located a spare tyre warmer, kindly leant to me by our MNZ Road Race Commissioner Greg Percival.

For Qualifying I'm out in the middle of the pack and for the first lap others are coming past me at regular intervals as I get used to being on the bike and try to relax. The bike feels alright. The lightness of the steering worries me a bit because if it's too light it means the back end is too far up in the air and weight won't transfer rearwards when accelerating, leading to the back end letting go. Seeing as I'm just there to get used to things again I'm not going to be getting on the throttle early enough for it to be dangerous, but it still worries me.

I'm feeling a bit lost and out of place, trying to figure out what's different with the bike and what's just me being out of touch. The tyres are feeling soft, under inflated and bouncy. The foot pegs feel different because they're new rearsets so moving my feet around is different. The height seems alright but I'm not sure if they're too far forward, rearward or alright. Surprisingly, the gear lever seems to be better than I remember it was with the other rear sets. As for the rear brake, I don't care.

After a couple of laps with slicks on a very patchy wet/dry and cold track I start to pick up the pace a bit but there's yellow flags heading up the hill from turn 4 and I come over the brow of the hill to see Nigel Lennox and Gavin Veltmeyer both down. Out onto the straight and the red flags are out so I head straight into the pits. We're meant to go straight to the dummy grid when a session is red flagged so that's where I head. A short while after shutting it down the chick on the pit exit waves for us to head back to the sheds so I head around the back and we get it back on the stands.

A few minutes later we're called up again and sent out for the last few minutes of the session so I need to get my arse into gear and get a half decent time.

I'm picking up the pace a bit but the front brake lever seems to be drooping, the end is lower than the master cylinder. Every time I reach for it I get all 3 fingers that I use onto it, but the middle and ring fingers are both right on the tips of the fingers. It just doesn't feel right. At the same time I'm trying to figure out where my brake marker for turn 2 is, but it looks like it's not there anymore, although it takes me the entire session to confirm that. Now I need to find a new braking marker.

The session ends after only a couple of full laps but that suits me fine. Having it split is easier for me because of the lack of time on a bike but it messes up the others a little. Both Neil Slater and Scott Findley get a talking to because they missed seeing the chequered flag and went around for an extra lap at full noise.

A little later I wander over to see what sort of times I did and Colleen grabs me saying that none of my Club licences are valid. I know the VMCC and Auckland ones aren't but I'd paid the Hamilton MCC one a few weeks earlier so I talked to the Steve Parker. He told me to find Shayne Lawery who had the book of membership cards with him. After tracking him down and getting it sorted out I later found my Club membership card in my wallet, I'd never taken it out of there and put it in my log book so now I have two.

Sitting on the start grid, the lights start to come up so I lift the revs a bit, lift them a bit more, start to feel for the grab point on the clutch but, of course, the clutch is one of the many things I adjusted on the bike so there's a different amount of lever travel and it feels different. The lights go out and I ease the clutch lever out further and further, it eventually starts to grab and I'm off!!

Despite the problem with the different clutch feel I got an alright start. I ease into turn 1 behind the pack and start to settle into things. Michael Cross comes past me but that's fine, I'm not too concerned.

Through the first lap Michael doesn't pull away from me and I'm starting to feel more comfortable so I think about getting past him. Second lap he still hasn't pulled away so I decide to catch him. Third lap I'm making little gains but into turn 2 I miscount my gears and end up a gear too high. I get a bit flustered by that and into turn 5 I over-compensate, going down to first so the bike suddenly slows and the back end waves around. By the time I wobble around turn 5 Michael has put quite a gap on me and I decide chasing is a step too far right now so I try to get it together and get back into the rhythm of things.

End of the race and I'm glad I stayed upright and wasn't last. Turns out my pace wasn't too bad, my times getting progressively faster with my fastest being just 2.5 seconds behind my PB. That's pleasantly surprising.

I take a look at the position of the front brake lever because I was actually grabbing the fairing when I reached for it. Looking at it I find that not only is the lever drooping but I'm obviously holding the throttle in the wrong place, I should have my hand further out toward the end of the bar for more leverage. That plus adjusting the lever will stop me touching the fairing at all.

The 5 minute hooter for race 2 goes and I realize I've had plenty to drink but haven't been to the loo yet so hurriedly head to the men's. I get back in time for the 2 minute hooter but it means I'm behind in my usual race prep routine so we quickly get things sorted and I exit pit lane just in time at the back of the pack.

On the grid I'm still not used to the feel of the clutch but I get a better start, although Michael Cross beside me gets an even better start, so I'm right there with the pack into turn 1. The pack go wide to avoid the pole sitter who is fast off the line but slow through the first turn. I change line a couple of times to avoid possible collisions and line up to drive up the inside of Michael. He manages to stay just in front of me and I'm not game enough to try taking him under brakes into turn 2 with the pack taking up all the empty space so I fall in behind. He moves to go around the outside of Vaughan Simmonds through turn 2 so I follow him but Vaughan stays in front. Those two get into quite a tussle for the next lap and a half with me trailing along behind them. Eventually they settle down and both of them ease away from me as I'm still being very conservative everywhere, so conservative I don't even need 6th gear on the start/finish straight.

I'm still not happy with the front brake lever so I adjust it some more. We also up the tyre pressures as the front seems to be 1.5psi down on what it should be while the rear always needs to be lifted as the track heats up during the day.

Having remembered to go to take a leak early I'm in my usual routine when the 2 minute hooter goes. However, the pit lane is opened early and everyone is gone by the time I'm out of the shed so I hurry around the warm up lap when I notice my gear indicator has stopped working. Not only don't I have any shift lights I don't know what gear I'm in either. Getting to the grid last I find my spot has been stolen. The guy who swiped it sees me behind him and goes to move back but Angela, the grid marshal, is already walking off the track so I wave him away and just get ready to start from dead last.

Once again I'm not used to the feel of the clutch and this time I get a very average start, trailing behind everyone into turn 1. As I'm not taking chances I don't try to force a pass on Nick Brown and have to wait until the straight to pass him but by this time everyone else has cleared off. I push a little bit to try and catch up but the gap is too big and I'm too out of practice to make it up. Any other day I could've pulled it back in a lap or two but I'm still using very conservative braking markers and corner speed and the rear tyre pressure is still too low for the track temperature so it's getting really torn up. The 190 doesn't like running the same pressure as the 200 so it was getting some pretty nasty hot tearing and moving around a lot. So I spend the entire race looking at the guys in front edging away just a little bit each lap. At the finish I'm grumpy cos that race was messed up before I left the shed.

Parking up I grab the tyre warmer and a cold Export Citrus Grapefruit (the Waeco cooler is the absolute best thing I've bought to take to the track) and head around to return Greg's tyre warmer to him and say thanks. On my way back I stop in at the control box and have a moan about people gridding up in the wrong place.

Like everything else, packing up is something we're out of practice with and it all takes twice as long as normal.

All in all a very eventful day. But I'm just glad to be back on the bike again and glad that the changes I made to the suspension were pretty much on the money.

Thanks to

• Cherie for helping out at the track
• Craig @ Grey Street Motors
• Stefan @ DL Consulting
• Tony, Diane, Boaz and Eve for looking after my bike
• The marshalls, AMCC and then ambulance crew for making it all possible