New Rubber

Today I’ve been doing some final preparation for the trip to Portimao, Portugal. A couple of weeks ago I bought a set of three Maxxis Sports Tyres (2 rear, 1 front) – a special deal from FWR in South London. I booked this afternoon off to remove the wheels and take them to Moores Motorcycles for fitting & balancing.

Removal is a little fiddly but helped by the combination of Abba stand and car jack under the sump, I had both wheels off and Tyres fitted by mid afternoon. A handy rehearsal for the track day too as I may need new Tyres by the third morning.

Had time to charge and fit the new battery, fit the rear spindle protectors and make a note of where I need to cut a hole in the fairing to accomodate the R&G crash bungs. Popped out to Halfords but they didn’t have a circle cutter to make the necessary 60mm hole but picked up some chain wax and a box from Staples which I can use to store any tools and parts I need to take with me.

Locked myself out of the house in the process but not the garage / garden, so had time to relax with a cold beer by the pond and to top it all we decided to meet at the Green Dragon for some Thai food 🙂

Job done… deserves a beer 🙂

Brecon Spring 2010

This weekend we had planned to have Lucy & Bo come and stay (soon…!) but Anne & Mike’s Farmhouse near Brecon was available so it seemed to make sense to gather there instead. In the end we were also joined by Kev, Di and the kids, and Di’s brother Jason who happened to be visiting. Ursie also came over in the afternoon with Dani and Annette, and Jaime. It was lovely to have some time to hang out together and we were very lucky with the weather on Saturday – I even got a little sunburnt!!

I’d not seen Jason since Kev & Di’s wedding in Sydney, so it was great to catch up and talk bikes and family and stuff. Top bloke 🙂 Good to meet Ursie’s boyfriend Jaime too, who was very easy to get on with and seemed at ease with the chaos around him!

Rakstina

Raks and Kristina met us at the Valiant Trooper on Thursday for dinner. Was great to see them both – Kristina had a job interview the following day and they were in the process of finding a flat to rent for the next few months. Current favourite is the ‘love shack’ – a large wooden shed (?) in the garden of a house in Woodford, East London.

Food was good and it was good to catch up. Ate too much though…!!

It’s Alive…!

This afternoon I was at last able to ride the Tornado track-bike – it’s first outing since returning from the guys at Harry Nash, Chiswick.

There’s a guy who runs a Wheelie School (teaching people how to ‘wheelie’ a motorbike) up at Bovingdon Airfield several days a week. I called Paul last week to see if I could bring the track-bike up one afternoon just to give it a quick run out before I book the three-day event at Portimao.

I just wanted to make sure it would run up through the gears cleanly, brake in a straight line and that the rather homemade gear-lever would actually be usable.

Thankfully all was well – the engine is more vibey than the standard bike because the balancer shaft has been removed. The pegs are higher and the bars are lower but that’s what you want on track. And the brakes felt very sharp – which can only be the effect of lighter wheels as the brakes themselves are standard.

All good!!! So tomorrow I can book the big event and get on with the last few bits of preparation. Portimao here we come…!

Arsenal 4 – 0 Fulham

On Sunday I was lucky enough to go the Emirates Stadium for the final match of the season, courtesy of Smeeta’s boss Sammy. His brother has a corporate membership and when there are unused seats he makes them available to Sammy, and Smeeta promptly volunteered me (thank you lovely!!)

We met at a nearby pub for a pint and then on to the stadium for a four-course meal before the game – how very corporate!! It felt decidedly strange to be in such a clean, airy, bright space with glass two storeys high, apparently to watch a game of football…!!

The game itself was a sparkling end-of-season display by the gunners, who won 4-0 in the May sunshine, perhaps with Fulham minds fixed on their upcoming Europe League Final against Hamburg three days later. The atmosphere was great and the ground almost full to it’s 60,000 capacity.

After the match we returned to our table for desert and a couple more drinks whilst the crowds drifted away, eventually heading off about 7pm. Top day – and my first visit to the new home of Arsenal FC.

KTM Off-road day

A few months back Alien suggested booking a day of dirt biking with Ady Smith’s KTM Off-road school. And so the morning after Election Night I was up at 6:15 to drive to East Sussex for a 9:30 start. Lovely sunny morning, M25 was busy but made good progress and got down to the Lewes area about 8:30.

After gearing up in body armour, heavy boots and brightly coloured dirt-bike top and trousers we had a briefing on the day’s activity and then some tips on riding the variety of bikes available: everything from 125 2-stroke to a 530 4-stroke.

Being new to dirt-bikes I set off on the 125 2-stroke, which was surprisingly lively but nice and light. Dirt-bikes just seem weird compared to road-bikes: the riding position, the steering, the fact that you’re bouncing around continually and sliding on loose surfaces. We started doing some circuits of a simple grass-track with a couple of tight corners and a small jump, but at first it just felt completely unmanageable… It was interesting to say the least!!

We would ride for 15-20 minutes and then stop and Ady would explain a new technique or demonstrate a particular manoeuvre, which we would then attempt to adopt on the next few laps. It all felt very clumsy to me and I didn’t feel like I was learning anything for a while, but just before lunch we set off on a larger trail just to ride and try and put everything we’d learnt into action, and all of a sudden it started to make sense: I felt smoother and more in control and just started to really enjoy riding the thing.

We were all buzzing at lunch and discussing the morning’s events whilst scoffing food: calories and fluids being much needed by then!

Ady had recommended trying a few different bikes so I swapped to the 250 2-stroke for the afternoon, which turned out to be a bit of a handful as I got more tired… the power came on really quickly and a couple of times in the tight woodland section I found myself heading for the trees with the bike still accelerating. This kindof shook me up and I tried to take it a bit easier. Eventually I swapped to a four stroke (the 530) which was less extreme but very heavy and not the bike to be riding once you’re exhausted… I think I should have just stuck to the 125 and gotten well used to riding that…!! A great experience though – if I had more room in the garage I’d be tempted to buy a dirt-bike 😉

Afterwards we gathered at Alien & Charlotte’s place in Portslade for a barbeque and Smeeta joined us straight from work. Food and drink sure tasted good after a long day in the saddle 🙂