When life kicks you in the nuts - and won't stop

I have never wanted to pack in this racing lark more. In fact the way that I feel right now, I'm not sure I've ever wanted to pack in this life lark more! Let's stick to the racing side of things though eh!

Finally the engine made it to Phil Seton, with great thanks to Mark at Dynapro. Then Phil did his magic on the engine and charged me accordingly - wow, an engine with nothing wrong with it costs a ridiculous amount of money!! Then the stress begins...

I spent an age trying to find a cheapish courier to get my engine back up the country and eventually found someone who would do it for £53. It was due to be delivered on Friday, giving me one full weekend with Scott to get the bike sorted. That was, until Scott told me that he had plans for the weekend - how dare he ;-) Then Friday came and went and the engine didn't turn up.. stress was starting to increase

So on Saturday, I had to drive up to Cramlington to pick the engine up - but at least they did it free of charge. Monday morning came and time to get the bike in the van, ready to take it to Scotts. That's when I realised some low-life scum had tried to screwdriver the lock on the van and ended up smashing the window to nick my cassette player fascia - what the bloody hell use is that to them?

Scott got me a window replacement for £20 and we got that fitted sharpish. The engine went in, the rad back on, the exhaust on... right then, lets fill her up with oil and get her running... oh bugger - no oil!!

So I took it back home assuming that all would be fine. The next day I filled her up with oil, fitted the batteries, put in some petrol and kept my fingers crossed as I fired her up.

Bliss - the soothing sound of a burbling 4-stroke

A minute passed - the engine idled nicely... I smiled

I stopped smiling... quickly

Oil was pouring off the front of the engine. I reached over and hit the kill switch and looked at the 5 minute old, fresh golden oil, pouring onto the garage floor....... shit!

Many phone calls later and an attempt with crappy tools to find out where the oil is coming from and quickly a decision is made that I need to go back up to Scotts the following day - that's today - to get it sorted.

So at lunchtime I headed out to buy more oil. I reach the shop and I'm greeted with a sign "back in 30 minutes". I wait.... for 45 minutes, with virtually not one of them passing without uttering a swear word. Eventually I head to Kawasaki motorcycles as they do Putoline oil as well.

They've run out!

Which brings me to 3pm on the Wednesday before the first race of the season and life could be better.

If all this seems trivial, it's because in the scheme of things it is, but unfortunately its backed up with many things that are not trivial and as a result I'm almost void of motivation. Something needs to change for the better and quick, if I am to continue with the ongoing hassle of racing.

I'll let you know how that turns out.

Winter blues

It seems like an age since I was tearing up Cadwell Park and drinking the victoy champagne and since that gorgeous October day, I've pretty much done bot all with the bike.

Scott helped me (aka he did it on his own) take the engine out and Mark from DynoPro offered to get it down to Phil Seton to check it over. However 3 weeks went by before Mark and I were able to meet up and as I understand it, the engine still hasn't quite got to Phil yet. I've been told not to stress about it, so I'm placing all my trust in Phil and trying to be chilled about the fact that I now have 3 weeks before my first race of 2007!!!

Before then, I need to buy some new clutch plates and an NCR engine cover. I also want to put new fork oil in the forks... oh, and repair the fibre glass bodywork and fit the chain adjusters. Oh god - I' can feel myself starting to stress again!

Jan 20th was the Auto66 annual Gala. It was a really good night (the hotel was average, the food was okay and the drinks were over-priced). It was great to see everybody again and have a good chat over a few beers. Nice to pick up the 3rd place award after a long hard 2006





Things did go downhill when the strippers arrived though - especially since one of them was male - what the bleedin 'ell was Mr Hillerby thinking? The school disco was also really crap! How can DJ's still get away with playing 70's and 80's MegaMixes? We still danced until 2am though which meant some of us were a little worse for wear the following day...



Very attractive :-)

The exercise regime was going pretty well, until this week. Its amazing how easy it is to slip out of it and start doing nothing again. Gotta get fit so that I can concentrate on the racing rather than the breathing!

So that just leaves me to say - watch this space to hear whether the bike does make it back together for the 4th March - fingers crossed.