Between the hedges

All week someone has popped in and out of the hedge after Westwood to show pitboard signals to various riders. After racing today, Wed Jr race day, we bumped into each other. He is a friendly Irishman who has been coming to the Isle of Man for 38 years! He had a good day today with wins and places. Talk turned to past disasters. In particular Wayne Hamilton who crashed fatally on entering the 13th milestone a couple of years back on lap 3 of the Junior having won the Newcomers. Eye witness conclusions are that he became disorientated. This corroborates another account I heard that he did not shut off for the corner. Today's report was that he heard 2 bikes approach, his and Hamiltons. Then he heard his bike sounding normal with downshifts but Hamiltons engine note screamed up and down and he knew straightaway that it was not right. Upon viewing the scene and talking to others it appears that Hamilton realised his mistake, sat up and braked but all too late. Skid marks from tyres were narrow denoting upright braking. The art of the bend is to miss the 1st apex and make the 2nd which never happened.

Also this years Karl Harris TT disaster. Harris had a poor practice at 109 mph. This started him in the 90s amongst slower opposition. He had made up 20 places at 119 mph when he collided with a rider, who was possibly touring. The other rider was lucky to survive as he landed neck down on barbed wire fencing.

As my man said - this is a great sport but a cruel one.

Ali Foster with her Mum, Dad and stray Westmoreland doggie someone just found

Spent a lovely couple of hours this morning in the company of Ali Foster and her family. Here we are all watching The Raunds Ukelele Orchestra as we all play ! Also here is a very friendly doggie found wandering the pits which Mum is about to take out to see if she can find the owner. A great little story is that the bike was Ali's Mum's bike which she gave to Ali when she stopped riding. She is delighted to see it being raced and the whole family are so proud of what Ali has achieved. We all had a group hug and wished Ali a safe, steady ride and a finishers medal. She would be thrilled with that. What a lovely family, great people.

Ali Foster's Kawasaki ER6 Supertwin carrying Laura's name

Ali Foster

Ali Foster and her Mum

It was her Mum's road bike! 

With Ali Foster at Manx GP 14

No racing today due to heavy rain so visited nominated Newcomer rider Ali Foster.

Dining out in style with Ethel - Peel Manx GP

Ethel fuel pipe fixed

And so, at the cost of 2 Pounds for 2 Jubilee clips Ethel is fixed. Taking no prisoners I used, well away from the fuel outlets, gasket sealant on the spigots. Ran her up and all OK. Now setting off for 1415 ferry.

Ethel fuel pipe fixed

And so, at the cost of 2 Pounds for 2 Jubilee clips Ethel is fixed. Taking no prisoners I used, well away from the fuel outlets, gasket sealant on the spigots. Ran her up and all OK. Now setting off for 1415 ferry.

Ethel fuel pipe fixed

And so, at the cost of 2 Pounds for 2 Jubilee clips Ethel is fixed. Taking no prisoners I used, well away from the fuel outlets, gasket sealant on the spigots. Ran her up and all OK. Now setting off for 1415 ferry.

Ethel fuel pipe fixed

And so, at the cost of 2 Pounds for 2 Jubilee clips Ethel is fixed. Taking no prisoners I used, well away from the fuel outlets, gasket sealant on the spigots. Ran her up and all OK. Now setting off for 1415 ferry.

Ethel fuel pipe fixed

And so, at the cost of 2 Pounds for 2 Jubilee clips Ethel is fixed. Taking no prisoners I used, well away from the fuel outlets, gasket sealant on the spigots. Ran her up and all OK. Now setting off for 1415 ferry.

No ferry tonight then

Just as setting off for the 0215 ferry a fuel pipe split. I have various diameter new pipes but no matching pipe clips. So for want of these we are going nowhere tonight. So tomorrow should be a quick fix but then the lottery of getting on another ferry so close to Classic TT race weekend. 

Ethel for the Island!

Ethel passed MOT today so added tax and we are good to go. Slight worry is battery not retaining charge. It is an Odyssey 7 year battery said to remain charged no matter what. Ethel has not turned a wheel since not going to Assen in 2012 but has been on charge throughout. Have ideas of raping Streetfighter of battery and taking as back up. Ethel now with original screen and without muffs. Notice wind buffeting at 80mph plus but looks nice.

Claudet will be on his way to the Isle of Man on Thursday with his band of French mates, Mike is also on his way on his 88 GSX Suzuki. We plan to form Team Lostaspanner for VMCC timed laps of old course.

My nominated sponsored Newcomer Ali Foster #56 was out tonight in practice with my late daughter Laura Jones named on her bike. The sponsor pack includes VIP tickets but with the VMCC rally, Marshalling, meeting her team, plus evening events dunno how I'm going to fit it all in! 

Donington Park Classic Festival 9 August 14

This was an event that was intended to be one thing but turned out to be quite another. Plan A was for this to be the grand entry of Siegfried at a major show. Broken cylinder bolt put paid to that. Also the trailer was to be used to bring track ZX6R for parades. Also an overnight stay was planned. As there was no point trailering the untaxed and non MOTD track bike on its own both these ideas were scrapped. Checking over the Streetfighter for a solo day trip the chain had a tight spot. Loads of freeze and chain spray and slackening off later all seemed well. Also fitted dinky new 60mm speedo with handy trip meter. Off we went only for reset knob on said speedo to vibrate loose and vanish on the M1. Bit sunny so lowered sun visor in Schuberth C3 helmet only for this to hang loose at a silly angle. Mmmm. Day not looking good. At Donington something amazing happened. The bloke at the gate actually knew there was an event on and even provided directions. Now that's a first. Turned up in Hall 14 to find deserted VJMC stand. Remember I missed the parade here at World Superbike round as they were all up before dawn and had closed entries when I arrived at 1000. Eventually someone showed up saying that Andy and Dougie are late risers.  They weren't last time. Jobsworth mentality then set in. Andy turned up saying nothing to do with me. Lady produced form for evening parade which was duly submitted. Still no Doug. Finally someone said - Oh he's not on this stand he's over there on that one. Found said Doug, turned in pre prepared form to be told - have you signed on? Went to another desk and complied. Right. Now for scrutineering. Tracked down Andy, another one, who promptly failed the bike for a slack chain! Begged set of spanners and tightened it up. Relocated Andy, passed. Duly taped anything glass. Got scrutineering sticker. Got evening sticker. Jesus, is there anything else - I'm not racing. Parade called and we sat on bikes for an hour due to racing delays. But, nothing daunted, pimply jobsworth plastered bits of torn off gaffa tape on mirrors. Unimpressed by all this.

Streetfighter speedo

The groovy digital dash on the Streetfighter has never been the same since we got caught in a cloudburst. The speedo has not worked for ages and I was getting tired of how busy it all is. It has to go. Here is a neat 60mm mini mph speedo, cable drive, with trip meter. This later is the most important item as before fuel stops were guesswork. Should now be able to set it so at 150 miles, Ethel style, it's time to fill up.

Idea is to nick the drive from the donor purple ZX6R and see if it works.

Ethel dead headlight

Here is Ethel all stripped down for the attention of super sparks Pete Mouncer. All attempts to work out what is up have baffled me so over to the experts.

Siegfried goes BANG again

Siegfried popped, banged and stopped the other night. Glad I bought the trailer so picked him up the next day. This time the cylinder head bolt has sheared, the exhaust side on the right. No idea why as all fitted exactly as per original manual. Will see if I can get it welded and will set tappets to larger clearance.