Snetterton - A Pit Monkey's View

OK, now I can't sleep. So here's my perspective on the Snetterton meet.
I won't steal thunder, but some Really Good Stuff happened.

Firstly, we hit some "issues" on the first day. Never let Pip look at
your bike. He *finds* stuff... Seriously, the Ginger Nose sniffed out
three potentially very serious (like race-ending) snags after the first
warm up run, giving us plenty of time to sort them out. Especially after
the Special Delivery from Lozzo's Just-in-time Fork Seal Emporium.

Then this morning... I'd noticed yesterday that the rear wheel spindle
had been getting *really* hard to do up, or undo. Sweller and I had just
been joking about the terrible feeling when a thread lets go. Then the
rear wheel spindle thread let go...

I felt physically sick when it happened (with about an hour to go to the
start!). Sweller said my face went white, and I can quite believe it.
It's a reasonably complex QD system, and I honestly thought it was Game
Over. I could have cried. There were all those people standing there,
and I was thinking "but I didn't put that much torque on it! I didn't, I
didn't...". Even so, it looked like "for us, ze var vas over".

Huge respect to Sweller, Pip and Gyp for (a) not calling me a ham-fisted
****, and (b) coming up with a repair strategy in double quick time. Ten
minutes with a hacksaw and angle grinder and we were back in business
and out on time.

The thread was seriously fucked. It was (I'm trying to convince myself)
as well that it went pre-race, rather than in the race. The rattle-gun
would (I'm sure) have fucked it at the three hour wheel change.

That did come back to bite us a little in a later pit-stop, but we got
it sorted and out again in a reasonable time.

Riders rode. Quickly. They're a good team.

Timekeepers kept time. Suze, you're amazing. Hog, you're[1]... ;^)

My little sister was a marshal! How scary is that? She had *flags* and
everything. Surprisingly, no one died.

As I said earlier: Top Weekend. A really great time. Let's do it again!


[1] Actually, you're a bloody nice bloke. But don't worry, we won't tell
anyone.
--
Wicked Uncle Nigel - Manufacturer of the "Champion-105" range of rearsets

WS* GHPOTHUF#24 APOSTLE#14 DLC#1 COFF#20 BOTAFOT#150 HYPO#0(KoTL) IbW#41
ZZR1100, Enfield 500 Curry House Racer "The Basmati Rice Burner",
Honda GL1000K2 (On its hols) Kawasaki ZN1300 Voyager "Oh, Oh, It's so big"

 

Ham-fisted ****.

--
| ___ Salad Dodger
|/ \
_/_____\_ GL1500SEV/CBR1100XXX/KH500A8/TS250C
|_\_____/_| ..73850../..18203.../..3184./.19406
(>|_|_|<) TPPFATUICG#7 DIAABTCOD#9 YTC#4 PM#5
|__|_|__| BOTAFOT #70 BOTAFOF #09 two#11 WG*
\ |^| / IbW#0 & KotIbW# BotTOS#6 GP#4
\|^|/ ANORAK#17 IbB#4
'^' RBR Landmarks: 5 Pts: 90 Miles: 455

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, Salad Dodger

Ahh...

Thanks for that, now I canzzzzzzzzz....

--
Wicked Uncle Nigel - Manufacturer of the "Champion-105" range of rearsets

WS* GHPOTHUF#24 APOSTLE#14 DLC#1 COFF#20 BOTAFOT#150 HYPO#0(KoTL) IbW#41
ZZR1100, Enfield 500 Curry House Racer "The Basmati Rice Burner",
Honda GL1000K2 (On its hols) Kawasaki ZN1300 Voyager "Oh, Oh, It's so big"

 

Fisting I've heard of, but ham?

 

Well done to Curly, Larry and Moe.
--
| ___ Salad Dodger
|/ \
_/_____\_ GL1500SEV/CBR1100XXX/KH500A8/TS250C
|_\_____/_| ..73850../..18203.../..3184./.19406
(>|_|_|<) TPPFATUICG#7 DIAABTCOD#9 YTC#4 PM#5
|__|_|__| BOTAFOT #70 BOTAFOF #09 two#11 WG*
\ |^| / IbW#0 & KotIbW# BotTOS#6 GP#4
\|^|/ ANORAK#17 IbB#4
'^' RBR Landmarks: 5 Pts: 90 Miles: 455

 

Nice one. I look forward to hearing the details.

 

No point. It's not like you'll sleep or anything.

 

*And* she admits to having sensitive nipples

 

No blame attaches at all, it was already a well worn thread in the swinging
arm. Far better that it came to light when it did. The solution didn't seem
to be a problem in-race at all. Just a bugger about the two part slider
jamming the spindle later on, bad design and Spondon have the cheek to
charge a fortune for them.

 

Bloody well done that team of retards!

 

Very well done.

Glass of something appropriate will be raised in your general
direction tonight.

 

Don't beat yourself up over this, Nigel. We wouldn't have run into half
of these problems if "they" had put more thought into what we were there
for.

It's an endurance event FFS, not a sprint! Anyone with half a brain
would know that something like a Kawasaki GT750 would be far more
sensible than that gaudy crotch rocket that we have.

Tyre changes? What's wrong with Roadrunners? And if they wore out after
200 miles we'd be straight down the shop having words with the manager.

But no, they want something that makes them look like Barry Sheene.

With a GT we could also have fitted a proper fairing so that they
wouldn't all come in after an hour like, well, like they've been
strapped to a crotch rocket for an hour.

No, it was a bloody good show. You did excellently on the fuel and
Sweller was both keen and competent with the spanners. Pip put in a
steady performance, nice and serene with brilliant attention to detail.

Not only did Suze feed us (I did eat all the pies) but one again was the
queen of the timing babes; all that tippy-toe and bending over is what
keeps us going. And managing to keep that up despite Hog helping was
quite extraordinary.

And the steering monkeys sweated a lot. Nice one lads.

 

Well done

 

Champ says...

Marvelous stuff.

Shame I couldn't make it but I've had to move fishtanks all weekend.
Anyway I'll definitely be able to make the 24 hour if you need any help.

 

'Hog wrote

Steady-cam *rocks*

 

'Hog composed the following;:

One gets the feeling that that is not what someone would want to hear about
their little sister ...

Any pics ???

 

Great stuff! Well done all round.

Sorry I couldn't make it to this one.

 

Champ composed the following;:

Nice one.

 

Champ wrote

Gif! Gif!

 

ITYM leering and shaking uncontrollably, Oh and FROYC ;o)