Lydden Hill - August 1st / 2nd

It must be maybe 18th years since I last ventured all the way down to Lydden Hill in Kent. It a short circuit, only a mile long, but without all the twists and turns of Three Sisters!

After two hours of delays ( M2 shut!) finally arrived Friday night and found myself a space to wedge into next to the Hardy's and little Steve Pollit.

Saturday brought a longish wait at signing on which is where I was whilst the riders meeting was taking place!

Practice found me getting familiar again with the Lydden circuit, which is pretty bumpy in places!

Race 1 saw me line up on the grid..... unaware of the riders meeting announcement that we would be starting on the F1 type lights rather than a flag as previously notified....... so as the red flag moved away I was looking for another flag....... then I saw a red light, followed by another..... and then i went to go.... and another light came on! I had gone a bike length then stopped after the 5 red lights then went off it was time to start! At Mallory theres only 2 lights... so unfortunately I found myself with a time penalty!

The race saw me follwing the very fast Kegra bike of Chris Redman, with John Woods around on the Vespa. Across the line I was 19th overall... might have been a place higher without a penalty!

Race 2 I fitted the onboard camera and carefully watching the lights to avoid a jump start, I had to back out of acceleration as Stuart Day had stalled on the line and he was right in my path! This race saw the first of a few crashes this weekend and PJ binned the group 6 and took a trip to the medical centre, and Tony Obrien crashed the Green Hornet, breaking the headset and ripping the legshields apart. This caused a race restart as the scooter came to rest in a bad position, although Tony was fine and unhurt.


Saturday night featured a superb barbecue courtesy of the VMCC....... fantastic burgers!

Sunday was a very leisurely start as due to a local church there is no track activity until 12.30. I managed to sneak a quick extra 4 lap practice then it was race 1, which was pretty uneventful except that Ed Hocking got rear wheel puncture and managed to park his scooter totally upright buried in the gravel trap! Ed then went onto have a very nasty crash in the sidecar race. It looked a really big one... one of the worst I've seen. Ed was pretty battered and ended up going to hospital with his neck in a collar.


The crash caused a delay in racing as it was sorted out. One thing that was reaaly impressive is that it was 43 secconds from Ed being stationary to having two paramedics attending him.

Race two in the solo's saw another very bad crash on lap 3 with race leader Josh Brown being left unconscious in the track after piling into a newcomer in his first race whilst looking back to see where Charlie Edmonds was! This accident led to another long delay as the other medical team were not back from the hospital with Ed Hocking yet!

So after a somewhat daunting delay and seeing Josh's crash there was another restart, and I ended that race in 17th overall.

So.... 4 races and 4 finishes, and some reasonable points added to my tally to help secure the 7th place in Group 4 of the Championship.

BSSO Scooter Racing on Facebook!

British Scooter Sport Organisation (BSSO) on Facebook

Cadwell Park _ July 5th - A Bad Day At The Office

Cadwell Park is a local circuit to me, so there were quite a few friends coming along to support from my local scooter club - Grantham Day Trippers - as well as Sponsors Lambretta Cottage.

I picked Dave up on the way and we got to Cadwell for 7am nice and early. Set our base up next to John Howe and Darren Glenn..... always good guys to have some banter with! New gazebo went straight up with no problems, and we had a terrific base to work out of!

Scrutineering was no problem, so I added 6 litres of finest AvGas to the tank ( more on that later!) and then it was off to join the queue for noise testing! This is a new thing, and every bike going on track at Cadwell has to be noise tested, to ensure it's below 105db. I was confident that this would not be a problem as I'd been tested only 2 weeks earlier at the track night where I went to test.

The noise testing was always going to be a hassle with so many people to get through it. Of course the race scooter has no kickstart, so it has to be bumped off, and then I took my place in the queue........ this was a queue which seemed to move pretty slowly and I was over 20 minutes till it was my turn! Went through fine, and got my little sticker which is valid for 4 months apparently so no need to be re-tested next time!

So.......... off to practice session...... and this is where the first problem started. I'd done a test at Cadwell two weeks earlier, and used some carbon ceramic pads for the first time. Although initially they were good, after 3-4 laps they became really inconsistent before grabbing the disc so much the front wheel was skipping and locking at the slightest provocation...... which is not a great experience! So I had opted to fit the standard Nissin pads from my road scooter in for this meeting. Unfortunately they did not work out.... whether its because they had been slightly worn to another disc ... I'm not sure, but after an initial couple of laps where they obviously got heated up, they faded like crazy, and at Mansfield, heavy braking down hill, I had nowhere to go except straight on and up the grass!!!!!!!!!!! A few hundred yards on at the hairpin, and I was almost up the escape road! Oops!!

I had also been experimenting with gearing, and was a little unsure about the gearing I'd selected, but that seemed to work out well, and along the straight I was able to pass a few people and match some of the quicker riders for straight line speed...... problem at that point was stopping at the end of the straight!

Very fortunately, Zak and Ju had arrived from Lambretta Cottage, and had brought me along some new Kyoto pads to try....... so I set about changing them for the races.

We were called for the race pretty early and sat in the holding area for about 10 minutes with the engines running, before being moved down onto a dummy grid on the main straight for a whole race distance - 15 minutes+!

So.... sighting lap..... the new pads felt ok at the front and I was braking a lot to ensure that they were worn in as much as poss in the limited time. This was a good old fashioned flag start, which I anticipated well, and I got a decent start up the hill round Coppice bend and onto Park straight..... the first time down the straight was a bit mad with plenty of jockeying for position into Park Bend. I'd made up a few places initially, but there were some very quick guys behind me on the grid who inevitably came by. The next 4-5 laps were just great...... I was in a 4 way battle with Gaz Birch (again!), John Woods on his new small frame, and Kevin Griffiths on his rapid 230cc TS1. For several laps we passed and re-passed each other, giving the commentator some cause for excitement by all accounts! Gaz was a little quicker up the coppice hill, and had a very slight edge in top speed on the straight, but I had an edge under braking at the end of Park Straight, and also at Mansfield and the all important hairpin.

Exiting Hairpin with John Woods, and in front of Gaz Birch and Kev Griffiths

on one lap, Gaz tried his very hardest to stay in front, but went into the hairpin fully locked up and weaving all over..... which distracted me and I missed my braking point and we both went wide, allowing John Woods to nip under us ....... but i got a superb line and drive out the hairpin, and got him back....... this basically set the tone for 4 laps of dicing!
Missing the braking points!

Then.,...... horror......... going up Coppice, and onto Park straight.... a misfire...... then motor cut out.... restarted....... Arm up I coasted and l stayed out of the way of the guys behind me........ coming down into Mansfield it cut out completely - Game Over.

Sitting dejectedly with the marshalls, I couldn't quite work it out what was wrong.... ignition? Carb? I checked the scooter... nothing obvious.... until I casually checked the fuel.... EMPTY!!!!!!!

How the hell had I used 6 litres in 4 practice laps and 6 racing laps!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then it hit me....... 20 minutes running at the noise test, and 15 mins on the dummy grid! That must have used way more than I would have thought.

So very sadly it was the journey of shame in the recovery van back up to the pits. I was not alone though!!! Steve Wright was also there - broken throttle cable! And John Balcomb with a blown engine.

I was gutted to have blown the best potential finish yet by running out of fuel. Lesson very painfully learned to allow extra for noise tests and dummy grids!

Best put more fuel in!

The long break till race 2 seemed to pass very slowly and I spend too much time in the sun. Lining up for race 2 - plenty of fuel in ! - I had a blinding headache.

I soon forgot about this as the flag dropped. A gap opened to the right in front of me but it was the wrong choice as I then got very boxed in.... the left would have been the way to go! So a few places lower than race 1, I stayed with Tony Rudd's Charlie Edmonds tuned Grp 4 and out braked him at Park to gain a place. Tony came back at me around the gooseneck and we had a right tousle down to Mansfield and the hairpin..... when his engine power got the better of me up the hill exiting...... the next few laps were ok, but i was now experiencing rapidly fading brakes, and despite having the straight line speed, was being caught as was having to brake earlier and earlier each bend.... and there were a few scary moments when the grass loomed!

Race over and up to the paddock, I stripped the pads out to find about 30% of the pad surface had crumbled as the pads had started to break down...... at least that was the explanation!

So....... despite a fantastic time tousling in race 1 it ended in a gutting non finish, and rubbish second race.......

Cadwell does seem to be a little bit of a jinx circuit for me as my only other non finish was also there last year when I had an ignition failure.....

It was particularly upsetting as so many people, friends, family and sponsors had come along to watch.......... sorry people.

Normal service will hopefully be resumed next race!

Suspension Upgrade - BGM Front Dampers

The last race at Mallory saw me fit a major new upgrade to the scooter. As many will know from reading the blog I have had a struggle with high speed cornering stability and confidence. After much consideration and advice I came to the conclusion that yes..... the front end of the scooter was too stiff.

The previous setup had consisted of Taffspeed internal springs, which are progressive and a good upgrade from standard. The standard set up has a 7mm nylon bush at the top of the springs, I had some bushes machined from stainless steel, in a variety of sizes and the ones I had fitted were 14mm, which were stiffening up the front end massively, effectively pre-loading the suspension.

The end result of this very stiff set up was that the front end was not really absorbing much in the way of bumps at speed, so the front end was wandering around. It was Tony O'Brien who lit the light bulb that made me realise this in a conversation when he asked me if my high speed cornering problem was me or was it the bike? An interesting question..... and it set me thinking!

On a trip up to main sponsors Lambretta Cottage, the brand new BGM front dampers had come into stock, and I sat admiring the engineering for some time! Do you fit them to the scooter or hang them on the wall to look at!

First thing about them that really surprised me was the weight.... they looked really heavy - but they are no heavier than standard dampers! The quality of engineering work is truly brilliant. I reckon they are among the best engineered products I have seen for scooters.

They feature a 16 stage adjustable damping action. This is achieved by simply rotating the knurled section at the bottom. There are 16 very definite clicks and the adjustment can be easily made on the scooter.

The dampers are also cleverly designed to fit into standard Lambretta forks links and damper mountings. Many other alternative dampers need modified mountings , so this ability to fit into standard forks is a great feature, and allows the dampers to be easily fitted or even swapped between scooters easily.

So.................................. how do they perform in action?

I fitted the dampers prior to Mallory Park race meeting. As you may remember - this meeting was wet! ..... very wet! This immediately showed the benefit of the easy adjustment. In the wet weather I decided to slacken off the damping action so set the dampers in position 5 of the 16, and immediately went helling down the straight into Gerards to see how they felt!

The answer................ rock steady, and in the first wet practice I even passed a couple of people around Gerards! The front end felt certainly softer, and more stable.

I left the dampers in this position for the first race - which was also very wet! I think the new setup and damping action was very instrumental in the fact that I was able to pass a few people even around Gerards! My fastest lap time in these very wet conditions was only 4 seconds off my previuous best dry time!

The second race was dry ........ so the dampers were tightened up to position 9. Obviously in the dry you can push harder than the wet, so I tried this setting. I took more than a second off my previous best time, and I honestly think the majority of this was made up in Gerards... the fast sweeping bend that had been my nemesis so far! On the first lap I passed people there and was considerably more confident in my ability to turn into it at high speed.

So.................... are these BGM dampers worth the hefty price tag? Well if you are on a road scooter cruising out to a few runs...... probably not! If you have a tuned scooter and ride 'with spirit'..... yes for sure....... if you are racing..... hell yes!

The dampers are only available from a limited number of specialist dealers. Mine were supplied by Lambretta Cottage See the web site to order

Lambretta Cottage stock BGM products from these new front dampers, and the matching rear damper, to BGM high output stator plates and the brand new BGM carburettors.

You can order easily by phone, give Zak or Julie a call at Cottage......

01302 350404

Mallory Park - June 7th - Water Water Everywhere

After a week of watching weather forecasts..... the expected rain certainly materialised! In the run up I discovered a couple of weather forecast websites that were very useful, Net Weather & Met Check Leaving for Mallory about 6.30 am.... the rain started! It seemed to follow me there, all the way from Grantham!

So arriving at Mallory....... heavy rain....... we went up to scrutineering and fortunately it was undercover. I passed scrutineering with no problems, then waited until the heavy rain storm passed. I was pleased I had put on wet tyres the previous night.... saved messing around changing them in the wet!

So..... wet weather..... my first proper wet day ...... rain has never really bothered me too much, and 'back in the day' I would always finish a few places higher in the wet, so even these extremely wet conditions were not really bothering me...... in fact I was actually relishing the thought of getting on track.

I had changed the front end of the scooter since the last race. The forks had been stripped and rebuilt, to make them softer, as I had come to the conclusion I had made them too stiff. So now they were softened up, but with the addition of the brand new BGM front dampers.

A few other riders, Stuart Day, Gaz Birch, Gary Biddle also had the mega new BGM dampers fitted. With the advantage of a little data from Stuart Day who had done a midweek test at Mallory, I set the dampers for what I thought would be a good set up for the wet conditions, then it was onto the track in heavy rain!

I was immediately lapping reasonably quickly, and not many people were passing me... in fact quite the reverse! The scooter felt so much better at the end of the straight and going into Gerards. The new set up was certainly working.... in fact all of a sudden I was actually passing a few people around Gerards, which was certainly new territory for me!

A few laps into practice I found myself bearing down on Stuart Day of all people, and under braking into Edwinas I was alongside him, then suddenly passed him exiting Edwinas! I'm not sure who was the most surprised.... me or him! Stuart came for a chat later, and said he saw something green and thought I was Tony O'Brien (bizarre! I'm much taller than Tony! ).... he confirmed he was actually trying, but was struggling to be confident in the conditions. A lap later Steve Conneely was the next victim...... although he told me he was on the wrong Sava wet tyre compound ( I did ask if that was the best excuse he could come up with ! lol )

So......... I was buzzing after a great practice and couldn't wait for race 1. We lined up in rain..... not quite as heavy at the start as it had been.... but still very wet.
I lined up 15th, alongside John Howe, to continue our battle from Three Sisters! I was all hyped up and raring to go. I knew this was my best chance yet to get a good finish.

Unfortunately I was a little too eager..... I lined up watching the lights..... I went to antipate...... and went too early.... I was underway... STOP..... the lights are still red.... apply brakes..... then go again...... momentum lost! I lost a couple of places off the line, then made them up round Gerards..... into Edwinas for the first lap I was was hoping I was going to blast through and outbrake a couple of people but I was a bit too far back.... I was bizarrely enjoying the conditions, which actually started to worsen during the race.

I had a few 'moments' during the race, and one particularly big one around Gerards.... which was a little heart stopping! But overall I was feeling really comfortable and had a good tousle with fellow Replay Scooters rider Gaz Birch, managing to hold him off until lap 5, when he managed to squeeze by.


All to soon the race was over and I was 18th across the line, with Gaz just in front of me, and John Howe just in front of Gaz.... less than two seconds covered us across the line. Fastest lap was 1.24.65 less than 5 seconds off my quickest dry lap!

We had been an early race in the day's sequence, so we could have a nice leisurely sunday lunch in the cafe ...... which was really enjoyable.... if a little filling! probably the best luch I've had at a race meeting! No pudding though.... after all I was racing!

After lunch (unfortunately) conditions started to improve and the sun came out, drying the track quite quickly, so it was a tyre change to Dunlop dry tyres! Tyre pressures adjusted ..... how great to have pit crew..... and we're ready to go for race 2!

So...... race 2... I was determined not to mess up the start like the first race, and I concentrated and got an absolute flyer off the line, and coming into Edwinas I was up to 10th place! From Edwinas up to the hairpin the fast charging Mikey Bonett on the super quick Kegra group 4 scooter came by, but this was new territory for me being in the top half of the pack!

The early sucess was brought to a halt as Clippo, came past me, followed a lap later by Dan Lewis and John Balcomb. But I was pleased to have made them work for it

On lap 4 battle re-commenced with Gaz Birch, and he snuck by. He could pull away a little into Gerards, and round it, then I could reel him in at Edwinas and up to the hairpin..... first lap after he passed me I was quite pleased as he didn't actually pull away. This was the start of a four lap battle where we traded quickest laps between us. All four laps were new personal bests for me.... all well into 1 min 19's. The laps followed the pattern, he pulled away a little along the main straight and round Gerards, then I reeled him in round the rest of the circuit and particularly under braking into Edwinas and the hairpin. I actually closed in on him especially on the last lap, where I outbraked him into the hairpin... but unfortunately went slightly wide and he got me back between the hairpin and the bus stop as I could not get my power down early enough.


Across the line there was just over 0.5 of a second between us and we were both grinning!

I was pretty pleased to leave Mallory after my best two results yet from a full grid, and the promise of a good mid pack grid position at Cadwell Park. The improvements to the front end of the scooter, and especially the addition of the new BGM dampers has made a good difference to the handling and my confidence in the front end.

Three Sisters - May 9/10th

Well...... Three Sisters...... I've probably done more laps there than anywhere else! Just not in the last 14 years! I decided to drive up Friday night.
Scooterotica's Dan Claire had saved some space for myself and John Howe in an already crowded paddock. So it was unload the scooter...... a quick beer then settle down in the back of the van for the night!

Saturday morning brought cloudy sky - but currently dry! So..... out for practice...... I immediately felt really at home, and was quickly feeling good and even passing a few people! At the end of the session I had forgotten just how physically demanding Three Sisters is! You are always doing something, theres no time to relax and effectively the start straight is the only place you get to go in a (brief) straight line! Coming off the hill ( Cowards Summit) i felt confident and passed a few people under braking there.

Race 1
Was to be from 15th on the grid. The grid was very messy as we were not lined up on a dummy grid as usually happens, and our grid had been drawn up 4 abreast, but on the track we were 3 abreast so it was all a bit confusing with people being out of place and getting penalities. I had a wild start pulling an accidental wheelie which lost me some time, but I was well into the main pack and spent the first lap dicing with Tony Rudd and Dan Lewis and Doug Turner which was a first for me! the race soon settled and I had Mark Clipstone and Tim Simpson breathing down on me! I ended the race in 15th place with 5 peiple behind me! My best result so far..... I was happy to be back at Three Sisters!


Race 2
This one was a difficult one to call tyres for as it had rained eralier and the track was part dry, part damp. The grid seemed split between wet and dry tyres. I had opted for dry!
A reasonable start again, but not quite as good as race 1. Coming off the hill I managed to dive up the inside - I was especially confdent here. Again in early laps I was in a tousle with a few people I never normally get anywhere near!
I was feeling good on the dry tyres, even through the right left flick in the centre that was very wet and the threepenny bit which still had some standing water in a couple of places. John Howe was on dry tyres and was particularly unhappy through that section, where I briefly passed him! ( Which became the subject of banter ALL night!)
Towards the end Doug Turner and I had a real tussle and indeed across the line I was only 0.16 secs in front of him, after being a little un-nerved by a big front end slide through the threepenny bit!
Ended this one in 13th place, helped by a couple of fallers - Stuart Day binned it chasing Charlie hard, and unlucky newcomer Dan Clare came off at the Threepennny bit resulting in a broken ankle! This time I had four people behind me ( would have been 6 if Dan had stopped and and Kim Deeney finished!) Good points scored!

Sunday brought Race 3.
This was a bit rubbish! We had been standing around all morning and our race was about to be called when we stopped for lunch, so it was nearly 2.00 before we got on track....... I think I was asleep! The only interest had been the wet / dry / wet /dry conditions leading to most people spending most of the morning putting tyres on and off! During this I discovered a stripped thread in the rear hub, so after a little running around, I was fortunate enough to borrow one from Mark Clipstione, and with a little help from Carl Neath it was fitted and ready to go.... at the last minute we plumped for dry tyres on the rapidly drying track. early in the race after the bad start I was battling with Tim Simpson which was good fun until his engine let go! Ove rthe race distance I had managed to lose about 15 seconds on where I'd been on the Saturday..... which led to Mark Clipstone being right on my tail over the line for the last lap. Coming through the Threepenny bit for the last time I drifted wide and this allowed Mark to go underneath me! Damn..... place lost 0.22 secs behind across teh line .... gutted and a little unhappy with myself! But it had been a good race with mark, and he had lent me his spare hub after all! End Result 15th

Race 4
Had a better start than teh first race with a few people behind me including John Howe on his rapid Group 6 bike. John was struggling a bit with confidence on new tyres ( I did tell him but just wouldn't listen!). I followed Tony Rudd and Dan Lewis again for the first few laps, then thing settled into a pattern again, with John Howe behind me, but plainly determined to get past me after the previous nights banter. with two laps to go he came by me along the start straight. I was quicker than him at the left hand hairpin, and through teh right / left flick, and the entrance to the threepenny bit..... so the gap between us increased and decreased as the lap went on..... into the last lap i really closed in at the left hand hairpin, and again through the left right flick where I was right on his back wheel. i almost dived up the inside into the threepenny bit but was not quite close enough. Johns line through the bend was perfect and his group 6 bike had incredible grunt out the bend - so he just had the power to get to the line first - the gap across the line 0.7 secs.... so three races were under a second gap at the line! End Result - 16th place!

So.... Three Sisters after 14 years...... loved it! 3 good races, and a few tousles here and there....... furthe rprogress, so certainly lots of positives!

There will be a few jobs to do on the scooter before the next race at Mallory in June. The muffler needs a little attention, and i need to find a new rear hub. The piston and ring will also need a thorough check.

The results in the championship are now calculated and amazingly I'm in 6th place in Group 4! This show the importance of finishing races!

Next we are onto Mallory!

## Pictures courtesy of Tim Simpson ##  http://www.pure-photography.org/ ##

Mallory Park - Round 1

Easter Monday saw the firts round of the 2009 BSSO championship at Mallory Park.

I was very much looking forward to it, after making some positive progress in teh two test sessions at my most local circuit.

Being local I could get there on the morning quite easily. Upon arrival I drove around the paddock a little and found a spot next to the SRP base, and also next to VMCC rider Keith Prime who is also from Grantham.

So..... hopefully the igniton problems I had experienced in pre-season testing would be behind me...... I set out for the practice session.... scooters were running in our own group. I immediately felt comfortable as I should do after two full tests there! i was really pleased that within 4 laps I had matched my best times from testing.... which was a good sign.

Our first race was not until lunch time, so after much standing about it was finally out to the grid for my last race wearing the dreaded orange bib! I was starting from 2/3 of the way down the grid, so I was hoping to hold my nerve round my nemesis bend Gerards and try and hang on to the pack!..... I got a reasonable start and was quite pleased with the first couple of laps hanging onto a few people. Phil Bevis binned it at Edwinas on Lap 1 which provided some excitement, followed by Stuart Day and the flying Tony Obrien having acoming together at the same spot later!

The second race was really late in the day - not starting until after 5.00! This is one of teh downsides as all this hanging around is tiring and you get a bit 'off the boil'.

The second race was similar to the first except I actually passed a couple of people around Gerards on the first lap! So things are looking up. Although lap times were slightly down on the first race, Gerards was actually feeling faster!

At the end of the day I had two starts and two finishes. There seemed to be that first day of term feeling about it with a few tumbles and crashed. Unluckliy for him Bert Conneely was the worst injury as he came off exiting teh hairpin. A broken shoulder and collarbone will see him out for most of 2009 .... but i'm sure he'll be back at the end of the season to play!

A big thanks to 2009 sponsors Lambretta Cottage and of course Replay Scooters for providing such a great engine.