Morning boys and girls. This is my REAL first, how you say in computer speak..."post"!!!! The..."posts" last night were all Ian's own work, and I just watched the maestro at work! I was prompted into action to get "posting" by a few comments about "real" members etc...but the straw that broke the camel's back was a comment about Antoine's (girlfriend's????) photographs (I think that's how you spell "Antoine", anyway...you know him....the really top French guyser!!!!) which basically went along the lines that their fave shot was of Rattler, Tony Perrin and "another rider".....THAT WAS BLOOMIN' ME!!!!! I was hopping up and down in true "elephant man" style frothing the words "I am not another rider, I am Any Roberts, #99" Then I had time to think on my tantrum, and realise that it was all my own fault, and I'd better get out there, start "posting", and get my moosh/bike/#99 known!!!!! So...here goes! I'm not entirely new to the message board...in fact I was, up until now just one of probably...ooooh...TENS of people who browse CONTINUOUSLY, but don't have the time/inclination/knowledge to post anything. Crikey, I'm even surprising myself here..I must be gaining confidence by the second...I didn't even put "post" in inverted commas....oh, gawd, I've just done it again! So...I've been an avid reader of the board for a year-or-so, and actually a paid-up member of the DSC pretty-much from "minute-one". Anyway, I was chatting away with our (Chairman???) Ian, who has been a pal of mine for aeons, and he ended up pursuading (nay, tricking) me into entering DD, and so found myself on a dark cold February evening riding my newly purchased 600ss back from Godalming to Pyrford (near Woking, Surrey) where I live. I do chuckle to myself on that subject...the chap selling was a tad proud of the bike, and I still cringe at the thought of the rubbish that flooded out of my gob...about wanting a bike for my girlfriend to have once she passed her test...(which, incidentally, she has not the slightest interest in doing!!) as I was worried the chap would chase me off his land with a pitch-fork if I told him I was going to exclusively thrash his treasured machine round a racetrack!) Well, I did well-and-truly start off with Kevin (Skidlids) well-worn, and highly admirable ethos of running the "budget-racer" machine, but, if you ask Ian, I just can't help myself when it comes to running "spangly" machines, and I've ended up entering one of the (in Domski's words "prettiest"), many would say "tartiest" bikes on the grid. Trouble is...I don't want to / can't do much of the mechanical work myself, and so have ended up parting with quite a proportion of my meagre income to Pro-Team Ducati up in Wimbledon to do the work for me. Trouble is, in my seemingly "knows-no-bounds" ignorance of racing I've ended up with a very twinkly, but extremely slow bike!!!...I mean...it looks the b+#*^>ks, and I am TRULY in love with it...but for god's sake...I havn't even got an alternative rear sprocket!!!!...AND...I'm not sure what I would do with it even if I did!!!!!...AND....I have now pretty much come to the end of the road, budget-wise! I know what I should have done (ain't hindsight a wonderful thing!)...I SHOULD have bought a bloomin' 620 and spent NOTHING on it!...but I do love the old SS shape, and I let my heart do the thinking, but I don't suppose many of us knew just what the DD season would bring, did we? So...here I find myself...pretty-much dreading Snetterton...safe in the knowledge that I'm going to get well-and-truly "creamed". I've only been to the track once (and once is enough) to be taken as a passenger in a Caterham, and even that was pretty dull!! Andy Roberts #99 p.s. I'm running standard gearing, with a 41-tooth rear sprocket at the moment...and JUST have enough budget to "invest" in another one....so what does anyone suggest for Snottyton?....and any suggestions of a 12-tooth jobbie will be treated with absolute derrision!!! |