Flattrack Practice

All tarted up after some winter-love

Headed out to Rye House yesterday for some Flattrack practice with the new club running the championship this year, Dirt Track Riders Association - DTRA.

Sparkly fresh paintwork - helped out by my mate Steve Mann to get that glitter-bling factor

It was good to see quite a few new faces and bikes out there... also good to see the faces that have been around for the last few years. I was testing out my fresh paint-job and cleaned-out carb. I also played around a bit with cutting tyres.

Oily Rags Rob was out there on his fantastic steam-punk Ducati SS

The weather was very kind... cold early on but warmed with sunshine to a not-seen-since-November 10 degrees. I had a slow start but got up to speed by the second session.
I just went round and round and round. Trying to do a full session non-stop and be as consistent as possible. Experimenting with little things along the way.

 Dimitri Coste and a few friends journeyed over from France

Their très-cool classic flattrackers enjoyed the British sunshine

In the last two sessions there was a blue-groove - I started seeing how far I could push. I landed up sliding off on turn 1... slow-motion low-side - easily done. In the last session I just got a few inches off the groove going into super-fast turn 3. There was no saving that one. I slid out to the fence and hit it hard with me and the bike horizontal. I landed up under the bike, wedged under the fence, with the steel cables trapping me and the bike against the dirt. I needed a few marshals to help lift the fence and drag me and the bike out. Thanks guys!

Good to see some friends again after the winter break

Only damage was a mullered gear-shift lever. Been a while since I've done one of those in. I protected the shiny new pain with my body and it didn't even get a scratch!

Scraped casings, broke gear lever and bruised flesh was the only damage

The last time I rode a bike with a motor in it was the enduro in South Africa five months ago. I have really stuck to my "it's cold and shitty out there and couldn't be bothered to spend two hours cleaning the bike after a ride" training regime. I'm paying for it now - pretty sore and second-hand today.