Thoguht i'd have my own 'spanner report' from Pembrey this weekend.
I was pit-crew for my mate Paul's RSV MilleR for the weekend with New Era Superclub.
Weather was spectacular for Friday and Sat, spent most of the time Friday evening cleaning and prepping the bike, getting it through Scrutineering and drinking beer.... Excellent stuff. Bike cruised sweetly through scrut, i was really pleased and happy that by tthe time we took it there it was almost a different bike to the one we pulled off the trailer 2 hours before....
You could actually see the P4 calipers were GOLD not black
Every nut and bolt had been tightened and checked.... and amazingly, the swingarm was actually metal !!!! not made of GOOOO !!!!!
So Sat morn.... chatting to Wilf from MotoRapido and having a look over his beast... lovely piece of kit is that 853R.... impressed... although surprised about running standard late type calipers... ("never an issue with brake fade" was the reply from the guy himself... although that will come back tohaunt him in 48 hours time)
Paul goes out for Qually and sticks in a lap time of 1.07.53 which to be honest i think is pretty decent... first laps at 'race' type pace and he's getting it together and doing the right sort of things.... We spend the next few hours analysing where was right and where was wrong.... Old hairpin was a point of contention for me with his riding as it seemed to be his total weakest point....
So we're off to race... bike is once again checked before he goes out.... and it's away.... Start struggled once again for Paul, he's really not getting this STM slipper off the line very well and the guy seems to have crappy luck being boxed in on lap 1.... Excellent battles all through the field, watching Plane on the Mille and Barnett on the KTM battling for the win was superb... Paul had cracking little battles all throughout the race to finish in 17th.... he came in looking all of the 47 years he is
High 1.06 laptimes so he's improved by 0.5.... top stuff.
To be honest, races 2/3/4 over the next 2 days were almost exactly the same... Apart from race 4 which he nailed the start, got up to 13th on lap 1.... and the red flagged the ******... was gutted for him... on the re-start, he missed it totally and came into turn 1 in last.... then had once again to try and pick his way through the field....
Happily race 4 got him a trophy for 2nd place novice.... so we went home with it sitting proudly on top of the dash...
My most interesting event of the weekend was cooking BBQ..... well we were having issues... so i had the brainwave of using a bit of fuel... (can anyone see where this is going yet ?).... well it all went a bit horribly wrong... the fuel jug went on fire.... i had it too close to my head..... managed to singe a few eyebrows and melt my eye-lashes !!!!!! LOL... i was covering myself in water... Although while i was dousing myself... the fuel container had set the grass on fire !!!!!! Lots of running round and beating the floor.. i eventually sorted it....
No long term damage though.
I must give a big shout to Wilf and say thanks... my mate at Ride in Bike Tyres had braking issues and needed a new MAster Cylinder, Wilf went straight into his spares kit and pulled out a brand new Brembo Radial MC.... nice one fella.... (saldy, mark had to BUY it, as he lobbed it in race 2... oops.) ((but i then spent about 2 hours repairing his bike to get it out... he got a 7th and 8th in Pro Bike Open later on
))