Speed !!

            

I’ve been looking on the net for what I would consider a bike that would suit my needs, like I said in my last Blog, I need a complete change of style.  I just can’t make my mind up, I’ve even looked at going for a dirt bike.  A road legal one so I can get from A to B and enjoy myself and when I feel the mood for going a bit daft I can go and do a bit of dirt riding. 

I was looking at a Super Moto or an old Maco 390, something with a bit of attitude, but then I was looking at a Suzuki GSX 1400.  Then coach showed me the Yamaha MT 01, what a beast that is, just like the V Max but a better riding position.  They have the old muscle bike looks and pedigree that I like.  I didn’t realise just how hard it was going to be.

I was talking to coach about my dilemma and he rightly pointed out that it’s no good changing my bike until I take notice of what’s going on in my head.  As per usual I didn’t have a clue what he was talking about.  I think he knows me better than I do.  He asked me to sit down and right down all my RTA’s (Road Traffic Accident) and put alongside them what caused them and a brief description of the incident.

So I did, I wish I hadn’t now, I don’t think I’m a bad rider, in fact I know I’m not.  I’ve always believed that you’re not learning if you’re not pushing the boundaries.  I think when I started riding and the lads I rode with, we all believed the same.  The bikes we rode at the time, in my opinion were the best on the market and aimed at lads just like us.  All my mates had RD 250’s and the odd  X7, one unlucky lad had a Super Dream and we all changed our bikes at the same time.  Normally with each other and most of us ended up on the RD 350 YPVS.  The best bike in the world and I wish I still had mine but I moved on to bigger and faster bikes.  The point I’m trying to make is we all rode hard and fast all the time. 

I’ve lost touch with the lads over the years but it would be interesting to see if they still ride today and if they still give it their all.   I don’t know any other way to ride, it’s what I enjoy.  But looking at my chart below, I need to do something.

                Psychiatric Study,

           Road To Rehabilitation.

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DATE	WEATHER	FAULT	CAUSE	INCIDENT	DISCRIPTION	INJURY
MAY 2011	Damp	Mine	Speed	Manhole cover	Overtook a BMW at speed lost backend on a manhole cover.	Broken left collar bone
APRIL 2001	Dry	Mine	Speed	Chicane	Racing an SP1 last look at speed 140mph to fast for road	Broken back
May 2000	Dry	3rd Party		Hit from Behind	Stopped at traffic lights hit from behind H&R	Nil
June 1991	Wet	Road Conditions		Roundabout	Lost front end in pot hole	Nil
July 1989	Dry	Mine	Speed	Tree	Lost the front end into a corner slid down the road and into a tree	Broken ribs
Aug 1985	Dry	Mine	Showing Off	Wheelie into back car	Cyprus Tour, pulling wheelies on the strip, car in front stopped I didn’t, put my front wheel through his back screen	Minor
July 1984	Dry	Mine	Speed	Roundabout	Practising getting my Knee down, lost the front end	Nil
Aug 1984	Dry	3rd Party		Car, no signal	Car turned right as I passed, I hit a bus stop	Right ankle
1983	Dry	Mine	Speed	T Jct Bedale Ind Est	Racing to the T Jct. I ran out of road to stop	Minor
1983	Dry	Mine	Speed	Catterick Bridge	Racing to Richmond, I hit the bridge at Catterick Race Course	Minor
1983	Dry	3rd Party	Bad luck	Oncoming car	Car hit me, he was on the wrong side of the road	Minor

I past my motor bike test in 1982 on an RD 250 ER with a coffin tank in Yamaha blue.  It was a fantastic bike with a racing seat and straight through racing pies.  You didn’t get lessons in those days and it was the cheapest form of transport.  You learnt from your mistakes, I had no idea what a power band was until it through me into the ditch on my first fast bend.  That was the norm for all of us at the time. 

Between 81-83 I had loads of off’s but only minor crashes, inexperience, youth, learning.  J  Call it what you will, I loved every minute of it and I still do.

I have to admit it doesn’t make for pleasant reading, I need to change something and I don’t think changing my bike is the only change.  The common denominator in 6/11 accidents I have been involved in have been speed.  Coach says I shouldn’t be allowed back on the road, I think he was a bit shocked L  He says I need to learn a trigger word that will make me see sense and behave on the public road.  He said more than that but I can’t put it in print, I’d be banned from Blogger.com

Let’s see how it goes.  I can’t believe I’m a Psychiatric patient !!

"All men die, not all men really live"

Ed.

www.ultimateperformancecentre.com

What to do !!

I’ve had loads of comments this week about giving up riding.  “fall down 7 times, get up 8”, “don’t be a T**T Moxy”, “don’t do it”, “you can give up once you’re dead”.  All encouraging stuff, thanks lads.

I really don’t know what to do for the best.  I’ve been riding since I was 16 and in that time I’ve only ever had a year off and that was when I broke my back.  The common denominator in all my crashes has been speed.  Maybe I’m not as good as I think I am or maybe I should leave the track speed on the track. 

Thiers something very special about the biking world and I don’t just mean the thousands of great bikes out there.  But the people who ride them, it’s a universal language that spans the globe.  I have friends up and down the country, in Germany and Holland.  It doesn’t matter where you go someone will talk to you about your ride or past experiences.  You don’t even have to be on your machine, just wearing an IOM TT T-shirt is enough to make a perfect stranger buy you a pint.  Hours later and war stories exchanged you’re the best of friends.

I have 3 choices to choose from:

1.       Buy a road bike that will suit my needs, good looking, handles well, but not a racer.

2.       Buy a track bike and fulfil my need for speed.

3.       Hang my helmet up for good.

In my heart I know I’d love another bike but what do I choose, a racer is defiantly out of the question.  I’d like to stay with the big 1000, that’s just a personal thing and a dream I had as a kid, owning a big thousand.  But what bike, I like the Aprilia Tuono, a great looking bike with great add ons as standard.  The new Norton is a great looking bike with all the heritage and soul of the good old days.  I still like the V Max, a big muscle big with great styling.  Or do I get something totally different like the BMW R1200GS ?  One thing is for certain, I won’t be getting a Hog !!

I’ve looked into getting a track bike this past week and there are some great deals.  Anything from £2,500-£10,000.  I was looking more around the £3,000 mark to start me off.  OK there’s no insurance or tax required and the benefits to a track bike are appealing.  No police, clean lines (no manhole covers), everyone is going in the same direction (usually) and best of all no speed limits.  Having said that, track days can be costly, so are tyres if you’re going to rip them up.  I need a trailer or a van and somewhere to keep all this.

Then again I could just call it quits and put my leathers away for good.  I don’t think I’ll be making any plans this year, I need to treat my lovely wife to a well deserved holiday and then the season will be over.  Next year however may well be a different story when the sun is out and my son disappears out of sight on his Aprilia, leaving me on the drive with an aching heart.

But before all of that I need to fix my collar bone and get fit again, as quickly as possible but that’s another blog.  See you all soon.

To all that do ride, good luck and stay safe, remember, keep it rubber side down.

"All men die, not all men really live"

Ed.

www.ultimateperformancecentre.com

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The End

It was decision time, but first some good news.  The insurance company have paid out along with my Gap insurance.  So not all has been lost,  it’s always been the case with extra’s on a bike, you have to declare your upgrades and in some cases the insurance goes up but you never get back the money you have spent on the many go faster or just good looking parts you fit.

I contacted the MCN lawyer and told him of my incident and I was referred to a lawyer in Scotland because the law is different across the border.  After plenty of reports and digging by them it was decided that my case could not be taken on, not on a no win no fee basis anyway.  If I wanted to pursue the case I could but I would be paying the legal fees and I have 3 years in which to act and start proceedings.

I’m not going to bother, if a firm of lawyers aren’t prepared to take the case then what chance do I have.  As my lawyer pointed out, the manhole cover wasn’t broken, raised or sunk and as far as they could tell was in good order.  Apart from being as smooth and shinny as a babies arse, that’s just fine.  Proving I lost grip on the cover and presenting evidence that it did cause my high side against the council is another matter.  I knew from the outset that it was going to be an uphill struggle and might lead nowhere.  So it’s just going to be another one chalked up against the bad road conditions that we pay a fortune to us.  If there was no such thing as road tax I could understand why the roads of Great Britain are in such disrepair.  It’s just highway robbery.  But to the MCN lawyer team, thank you very much for all your hard work on my behalf.

So my next decision is.............do I get another bike ?  Well the answer to that is no.  I’ve thought hard and long about it and I think its one crash too many.  It’s not about the money, I’ve always done my bikes up to the speck I want them so they are a statement of who I am and what I want from my machine.  I just can’t ride a bike slowly, no matter how much I try, I get board at 60 and 70 on the motorway is just a waste of a good road.  Every bend deserves your respect and the best way to show it is by getting down on one knee. 

So I’m putting my helmet on the shelf (damaged) alongside my battle worn leathers.  Maybe one day when I’ve finished my current job I might dust them off and get a track bike.  I still plan on doing my Sicily trip but this time in a VW T4.  Instead of ripping up the road with Janette on the back screaming and complaining of a sore arse, she can sit beside me with a cup of tea (code for whiskey and coke, diet no ice) and a smile.  It can even piss it down and get very cold.  My God I’m getting old.

So for the time being my two wheel days are over, besides I’m not putting a florescent bib on to go through France.  It want be long before our spineless government bend to the whims of Europe and all bikers will have to wear bibs, no dark visors and no unauthorised mods to your pride and joy.  Go 1 mph over the speed limit and your history.  That’s of course if you can get up any speed on our well maintained roads. 

To all that do ride, good luck and stay safe, remember, keep it rubber side down.

"All men die, not all men really live"

Ed.

www.ultimateperformancecentre.com

Motor Biking: The Death of a GSXR 1000 K9

Motor Biking: The Death of a GSXR 1000 K9: "I woke up to bright sun shine but the ground was sodden, it had rained hard all night. So I took Rossi out for an hour in the hope that it..."

The Death of a GSXR 1000 K9

I woke up to bright sun shine but the ground was sodden, it had rained hard all night.  So I took Rossi out for an hour in the hope that it might dry out a bit.  There hadn’t been much improvement in the road conditions so I got the beast out and gave her a wash and polish.  The sun was quite warm now and the road outside the house was steaming.  The bike was looking good and the carbon shimmered in the sun light, the black looked deep when she had just been polished, all most brand new.

I didn’t get out on the bike until after lunch.  The roads were dry but there were still wet patches under the trees and the roundabouts were wet.  I did my best to avoid the white lines and the diesel spills were easy to see.

I didn’t go far, I took the back road to Hamilton and then the A724 to Kilmarnock.  It’s a good long road with twists and straights and not very busy.  It’s rough in parts and your arse comes of the bike as you try and get behind the screen.  It was hard work trying to stay on the dry line and keep off the white.  I stayed on the same road for the afternoon and made a number of passes up and down the route.

I stopped to fill up and decided to go home, as I approached home I thought I would take the back loop down by the Mosque.  I came over the bridge behind a BMW and as I came round the corner I could see down the street to the next corner.  There was no oncoming traffic and I had plenty of time to make my move and set myself up for the next corner.

I opened the throttle and leaned, my helmet slammed off the tarmac.  It was surreal, I have no recollection of the crash.  The throttle went loose and I can remember the sound of my helmet smashing into the floor.  I vaguely remember seeing my fuel tank coming off and the sound of my carbon smashing to bits.

The ambulance guy was great, he took my leather jacket off without cutting it and he gave me a very large bottle of gas and air.  The pain in my shoulder was unbelievable and my left knee wasn’t much better. 

A copper jumped into the back of the ambulance and asked me a load of questions but I have no idea what they were or how I answered them.  I wasn’t even sure if I had passed the BMW.  At first I thought I had been side swiped, the BM had no indicators on because I checked before I made my move.  There was nothing behind me because once again I had looked.  My mind was racing, “your insurance is out of date” said the cooper.  No way !!  There was no way I was riding without insurance, I couldn’t remember getting my insurance, I must have to get my tax disc.  Could it get any worse ?     

Janette arrived at the ambulance, the block who had pulled me out of the road had gone to get her.  I can’t remember speaking to him but apparently I asked for a phone to ring her but I got no reply.  He was working on his car in the garage when he heard the sound of my carbon tearing it’s self apart as my bike bounced down the road.

After a few hours in A & E and the nurses in the X ray department taking the piss about how they liked men in leather I was told I had broken my left Clavicle (collar Bone) in 3 places.  My knee was OK but it had been through the mill and was going to be uncomfortable for a while.

The Doc made an appointment for me at the fracture clink for the following Tuesday.  I told her I was going on holiday in the morning to Canada.  “Not anymore” was the reply.  The lungs are surrounded by a sack and if it’s damaged the lungs would collapse.  I could get away with a small whole and never know but at 30,000 feet, things might get nasty.

In one foul swoop I had just ruined our holiday that was booked 12 months earlier and destroyed 18 months of hard work building my bike to the speck I wanted.  I was told I could go once I had received my pain killers and anti-inflams.  Janette went outside for a cig while I waited, my head was still spinning with thoughts that I had no insurance.

With my arm in a sling I left A & E and as I walked out of the door I saw the whole family waiting for me.  Chris had finished work early to come and see me (any excuse to get of work) and Andrew and Rachel had come up from Ayr, they picked Cameron up on their way past.  I asked Chris if we could go via the crash site so I could get a look at my machine and see if there were any reasons for what had happened.  The bike had gone and all the debris had been cleared up.  In fact you wouldn’t have known there had been a smash, there wasn’t a mark on the road, not from my tyres or the bike hitting the tarmac.  I walked up the point where I started my move on the BM and there it was, a bloody great man whole cover.  I had been down that road I don’t know how many times and I had never hit that before.  The only explanation I could find was that I had high sided myself on the man whole cover.  A nice cold, damp, piece of metal that acts like black ice.

I informed all the relevant insurance groups that I had been down the road on my arse, bike, underwriters and the travel insurance people.  Now it was just a matter of time, my insurance was in date, by the way, I had put the wrong cert in my jacket.

A few days later I got the news from the underwriters that the bike was a right off.  They would send my tax disc back and I had to inform DVLA that the bike was a loss.

My Black & Carbon GSXR 1000 K9 was dead  !!

www.ultimateperformancecentre.com

Motor Biking: Dunlop's

Motor Biking: Dunlop's: "My leave has gone in a blink of an eye, it’s not been the best of leaves I must admit. The weather was bad for the most of it but first th..."

Dunlop's

My leave has gone in a blink of an eye, it’s not been the best of leaves I must admit.  The weather was bad for the most of it but first things first.

I got home and the first thing I had to do was go and pick up Cameron’s new bike.  It’s a stunning looking machine and just needs a bit of TLC to bring it up to scratch.  We got it home on the back of a trailer and for a change the weather was good.

We took the fairing off to give the bike a really good check over and a very needed clean.  For the most part the bike is in great condition, it needs a new 2 stroke oil tank and that’s on order.  We replaced the spark plug for the correct one and Cameron ordered new stickers for the bike.  The old white stickers are off and new red ones are on, the lion heads look great and the Aprilia racing stickers are a nice touch.  Over all it’s been a great purchase and as long as he takes his time and learns his road craft it will be the start of many miles covered on two wheels.

My second task was to take my pride and joy for a new set of tyres.  In the end I went for a set of Dunlop Sport Smarts.  Not the cheapest tyre on the market but I was hoping they would perform as well as the write ups have lead me to believe.    I was up early and yes it was wet and still raining, so I took the dog (Rossi) for a walk in the hope the sun would come out if I gave it time.  By the time I had got my leathers on and warmed up the bike the rain had stopped.  The roads were drying out quickly and the sun was quit warm, I arrived at Suzuki in Glasgow and I had an hour to wait while the tyres were changed.

The Sports Smart is a good looking tyre and I couldn’t wait to hit the road.  I turned right onto the M8 and headed for Lock Lomond.  The roads are good around the Loch and heading out to Fort William.  By the time I had got home the tyres were scrubbed in and I was off the edge on both sides.

I was really impressed at the speed in which the tyres warmed up.   I took it steady as I entered each corner and dropped in a bit more each time.  It didn’t take long and I felt really at home with my new rubber.  This was my first time on Dunlop’s and so far so good.  The bike feels really planted, there’s very little movement when exiting the corners and the front feels firm and steady under heavy breaking into the corners.

It started to rain again on my way home and I didn’t feel the need to slow down.  I took the back road home and was able to push quit hard into and out of the corners even though the roads were wet.  I pulled up outside the house and the first thing I did was check out my new tyres.  Not a fanny line in sight and still very warm despite the wet roads. 

After hosing her down to get the grit and grime off, I put my baby away for the day and just hoped the weather was going to be better tomorrow.  I needed to go into Glasgow for some gear and to confirm my track day had been booked and to have a look around the Ducati garage.  I also wanted to make sure my test ride on the new Diavel was still going ahead.

I should have put money on it, it couldn’t have been any wetter, I went back to bed to give it another hour and then I took Rossi out.  It’s May !!  Why is it so wet ?  I wasn’t going to change my plans and off I went.  As I got closer to Glasgow the rain stopped and it wasn’t too bad.   I really liked my new tyres and as I added mileage the better they seemed to get.  My confidence was climbing with each bend and I was getting harder on the gas out of each corner. 

Business done in Glasgow I set out to Loch Long, a real fabulous ride.  It was trying to rain, the roads were wet but I was still getting the power down confidently.  The front tyre was very responsive and the feedback was inspiring.  The front wheel was lifting coming out of some of the bends and that was a first for me on wet roads.

I only had one more day to get a ride in before we went on holiday, the weather forecast was looking good and I might just be able to get some dry miles in.  Time will tell.

www.ultimateperformancecentre.com