Ely - 29th August

After popping into work during my holiday I was offered some time in-lieu.. so had Friday afternoon off, and made a random choice to head West (ish). A gentle winding route, down the B1108 to Watton, turning right up the B1077 through Saham Toney towards Swaffham. Turning right at the end of the B1077 then left into beachamwell Road, and left along Cley Road through Cockley Cley, Gooderstone, Oxborough to Stoke Ferry where I turned right onto the A134. At the roundabout after a mile I turned left towards Wissington and, eventually Southery. Meeting the A10, Ely was signposted, so an easy ride down to Ely.

First stop - the riverside. It wasn't the first place I went to Ely, but I do believe that the centre of Ely can give Hampton Court Maze a run for its money.

A slow walk along the embankment led me to a nice coffee shop. This is the view from the patio

Having parked near the quay, I had to go get an ice-cream, too. You may notice that that's my bike .. the ice-cream had been eaten by the time I'd got my camrea out!

I rode up into the city and eventually found this parking space. It was hot and I was wearing leathers so I decided not to walk anywhere but take photos of wha I could see from here.

I feel a children's programme moment coming on.. "Through the arched window" ..

And a little way along was the leaning cathedral of Ely

After which I had a gentle ride to the White Swan in Great Yarmouth. I had to stop in Mildenhall to scrounge an allen key from a garage to tighten up my right mirror. Then, even on the bike, the traffic was horrendous with long queues of stationary traffic - and solid white lines so I had to sit in the queues for some distance. Grrr.

Why can't cats ride motorbikes

I think this may be the answer ...



Having scrubbed in the tyres really nicely at Cadwell, ready for posing (yes, I know it's vanity but, hey!), the rear tyre gets a puncture, so I replace the tyre. :-(


The piece of metal that did the damage. Curled between the rubber and the tyre casing. I didn't want to risk having the tread shred.




S'pose i'll have to scrub the new one in... :-)

Cadwell

RiDe magazine / Motorsportvision track day.

100 mile ride there, 113 track-miles (I did six sessions) 100 mile ride back. Rain forecast, but stayed dry once out of the drizzle leading up to Kings Lynn.

I left home at 5.30am, refuelled at Thickthorn services - two miles from home - and arrived at Cadwell Park at 7.20 after a nice, easy ride up, having refuelled again at Horncastle.

Register, bike noise check, briefing. Registration threw up a little surprise when I found that they'd merged the intermediates with the fast group. Eeek.

Three sighting laps on a damp track, dry lines available, and a dry track for the rest of the day. Adjusted tyre pressures down by 3 PSi (the first time I've done this. Not sure how much of a difference it made).

Entry into the Mountain - I was starting to enjoy this part of the track once i realised just how fast you can enter it. I've tended to think of it as really slow but the camber is in your favour and it's really not that tight.


Which sets you up for the Mountain. I'm quite gentle with the throttle until i'm over the "bump" near the crest, and I tend to push my weight forward to get decent drive without too much wheely. This is about the amount of wheely I get 50% of the time - the rest, no wheely.


The first left-hander into Hall bends - you can't quite see the crest of the Mountain at te left of the photo.


The same spot, looking in the direction of the track.




I think this is Barn, although it could be the Hairpin - which would surprise me as I practically get off and walk the bike around that.


Again, not too many clues about where this is. I think it's the first part of Charlies.

One thing I noticed was the square patch of different colour tarmac has disappeared as you ride around Chris Curve. It took several laps to sort out my line towards the Gooseneck without it.



All in all, a good day.

Photos courtesy of http://www.britishsportphotography.co.uk/

Back tyre. I'm sure it looked more shredded than that.

Front tyre

Southwold after work

Several of us at work were to go for a ride after work. It was a bit overcast with a good chance of rain so the others decided not to go. I needed a ride, so went to Southwold. Some piccies...

WSB - Nurburgring

Thursday June 12th... Finish work at 1.30pm and meet up with Peter for a long weekend in Germany: World Superbikes at the Nurburgring. An easy ride down to Dover, stopping en-route at Birchanger (next to Stansted Airport) services off the M11 for a coffee.

We arrived with plenty of time to spare before loading onto the ferry. The people looking after us on the dockside were very helpful - letting us know what was happening, and when we'd be loaded. Well done Norfolk Line (or the port authority, whoever they worked for).

Onto the ferry and here are a few pictures as we sailed away with the sun setting behind us.

The hotel at Ho-he Acht. Well, not actually at Ho-he Acht, but just down the road, as Ho-he Acht is actually the highest point in the Eifel mountains. We found it by a circuitous route, having taken a turning too early as we passed the Nurburgring Racetrack and ended up in Adenau where no-one seems to have heard of this hotel.

The hotel is the Berghotel and I can recommend it as a good budget offering.

This is the view from the front of the hotel

Juan Manuel Fangio - well, a statue of him


A great plaque on the wall, in the shape of the Nordschleiffe, with the names of many famous racers.
#

And finally ... I just had to add a sticker (or two) to the bike

Classic bike track day at Cadwell

A couple of weeks ago I spotted that there was to a a "Classic Bike track day" at Cadwell, and decided that, if I didn't have anything else to do, it would be a pleasant way to spend a day.

The ride up was uneventful, I took my time and, particularly in Lincolnshire where they're clearly taking a firm view against bikes with a view to speeding (full page advert in RiDE magazine and signage indicating that they're using "Stealth" against bikes (I assume they mean sneaky cameras, although they may have an AWAC radar aircraft for I know)). There was one mobile police camera on the A17 - I spotted it while making a series of overtakes; strictly IAM, of course, @ 60mph.

Having arrived at Cadwell, instead of heading straight for te carpark, I turned right at the entrance and rode anti-clockwise around the perimeter track, in the opposite direction to the track riders. Stopping at Chris Curve, then Park, then a long haul on the bumpy track up to Charlies. There were bikes of the fities right through to the late eighties, each in their own group. Velocettes, BSA's, Tritons, all the way up to a couple of RC30's. Some were obvious classic racers, some you'd see on a normal track-day, and a few road bikes that I would never expect to see on track (how about a CX500!).

Entry to Park Bend


An old BSA heading down Park straight


This guy was a bit quick: and smooth.



En-masse around Charlies 2. The track was drying and the angle of lean they got on some of the older bikes was impressing


Some bikes from the day.


This poor little Velocette. I don't know what capacity it was, but the guy was thrashing the nuts off it.






And this BSA ... check out the exhaust and the state of the tyres




I don't recall seeingt this on the track, but it was good to see one close-up


Again, I don't recall this on track. possibly because of its condition (didn't stop other riders on equally good machinery, mind!)

This is a Sanglas. No - never heard of it before. Apparently made in Spain. It's a single cylinder bike and I thought it really quite nice.

.

Back in motion

Bike in for MOT @ Smiffy's Superbikes in Acle. Passed (of course it did), one note to keep an eye on the rear brake pads as they're 2/3rds through, so no worries, there. Ashley checked the battery, sure enough it was knackered. The good news is that the regulator/rectifier's ok. Phew.

In to Norwich, P&P in Roundtree Way to buy a replacement battery: A moment's concern when it appeared that they may not have a suitable battery, but a search through the catalogues revealed that there was a suitable alternative. Phew II.

Now I can't wait to get out and use the bike instead of spending money on it! Next week: Classic racing at Cadwell!

That flat feeling

The VFR is known as a reliable bike with only one major weakness. The Regulator Rectifier. This result in a flat battery or for the battery to boil, depending on what's actually wrong with the RR. Replacement RR's are, allegedly, more reliable than the original fitment on the 1998 bike (there's a definitive article on the Bikers oracle VFR website) and, having had my original replaced a couple of years' ago, I thought I should be ok for a while, yet. So, yesterday morning, I pulled the bike out of the garage and hit the starter. The starter barely turned the bike over. It was fine when I put the bike in the garage a couple of weeks ago. Is this a symptom of the dreaded RR problem? The battery has been flat on a couple of occasions recently - I assumed it was because i'd left the heated grips on or it was causing some sort of drain on the battery but I've removed the fuse so it can't be that. Looks like the battery's given up the host. My multimeter isn't accurate enough to indicate whether the RR's bust, although the reading looks about right (just under 15volts - or amps, I forget which - charge). So, tomorrow, into the workshop for MOT and battery / RR check. The MOT should be no problem as the bike's only done a couple of hundred miles since the major work earlier in the year. I'm just glad this happened now, and not en-route to Germany in three weeks time (more on that later).

Cadders Hill - Lyng - Motocross

My first time watching Motocross since I was a boy, and it was called "Scrambling" in those days. A lovely way to spend a day, especially since the weather was so kind.



To give an idea, this is a long, tight left bend which seemed to have a preferred line that the rider in front is taking. However, as the following rider, and subsequent picture shows, it wasn't the only line.





And following this ...

They have to ride off the edge of the earth (well, that's what it looks like from where I was standing).

It was all go - and, yes, I really was that close to the action.

Close racing. And some spills, though surprisingly few.