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.

Official Practice Day 27th March - Continuing progress

Friday 27th saw me join around 30 other scooter racers for the 'official' VMCC/BSSO practice day at Mallory Park. Following the damaged ignition, and then the broken exhaust that cut short the track day in early March, there were a couple of jobs to do on the scooter before the practice day. I re-soldered the ignition and araldited the key wires to keep everything intact (hopefully), and a huge thanks to Ed Hocking for re-welding and strengthening the broken exhaust... top job mate! The reason for the broken exhaust most likely turned out to be a broken rubber mount that had sheared. When refitting the exhaust system, I moved the mounts slightly as I found they were not quite lining up correctly so the whole thing was under tension. So with the ignition and exhaust re-fitted we were good to go. Thursday night I picked up my mate Dave's, Gilera Runner. Dave is one of the newcomers for 2009 (although he did race group 6 for a short while in the 80's). Daves Runner is fairly mildly tuned, but is going to give him track time and practice in 2009...... maybe a Lambretta for 2010 I wonder? So with the two matching green scooters in the back of the van, Dave and Johnny Gilbert along for the day...... off we went to Mallory. Arriving a little late (following a return to home to pick up a phone!) it was all a bit of a mad rush to get changed, scrutineered and signed in. The Scrutineer John Woods advised Dave to change his fork set up to improve handling, so whilst Dave set about that with the spanners I went to bump my bike into action. Not a dickie bird...... up and down I pushed it.... no life! Oh dear! The day was starting badly. Chalkie White arrived on the scene as if by magic and we immediately set about checking things over. We quickly found the problem..... no spark..... again! The flywheel was removed and the problem was immediately evident! Yet another smashed ignition pickup! Stator plates and ignitions appear to be my achilles heel! Luckily Chalky had brought along a spare (last minute decision!) which was a stroke of luck. We just had to lengthen the wires to fit it, but as it was clear by now that I would not get this completed in time for the first track session, I walked down to trackside to watch the first session and see how Dave was getting on. I immediately saw Dave's bike sitting behind the bales near Edwina's.... I assumed he must have broken it already! Unfortunately I was wrong and he had actually binned it at Edwina's on the first lap!!!!!! So this was the Dave 'I'll just take things easy' that had managed a whole 2 bends before binning it! He was in a lot of pain from his thumb. The bike had suffered some cosmetic damage, and the handlebars were knocked out of line. So there we were..... HG Racing both with the spanners out fixing things. This was not really the best start to the day! By the second scooter track session we were both ready though. As we sat on the dummy grid, drops of rain started to hit my visor, followed by the wind getting up and a hail shower (!) which briefly gave everything a white covering....... 'oh such joy' I thought ......... on dry tyres! It soon cleared though and we were on track! Most of the circuit was wet with spray coming off tyres around Gerard's. I quickly felt comfortable though and immediately started to get a feel for the extra power from the new engine, and was passing a few people in the damp conditions. The hairpin and bus stop end of the circuit were very quickly dry, but Gerard's end took a while longer to dry, and the wind had picked up, so nothing special as far as lap times go. 8 laps were completed trouble free though!





More sessions followed, and my times dropped, and in my second session I was closer to my previous best, but still a second off it. I think the wind on the straight and through the exposed Gerard's was a factor in this though. All too soon it was lunchtime. This gave us time to have a chat with Matthew Gooch who had driven up from Hereford to watch, and Zak and Julie from Lambretta Cottage- one of my 2009 sponsors. The Conneely's were doing a photoshoot for Scootering on the start line...... the two matching race scooters now have a matching Vespa road scooter! Watch out for it! The afternoon saw another 3 track sessions, and I continued trouble free to experiment with lines around Gerard's. I was now getting this slightly better - still way too slow on the entrance and the first section - but my exit was getting better all the time and I was entering the straight on the power much earlier and carrying more speed on the straight to Edwina's. In the last scooter session I felt really comfortable and Matthew showed me the stopwatch..... my quickest ever lap by a second. I was really enjoying it now and was delighted when the announcement went out for an extra session of mixed scooters and bikes for anyone who wanted to go out. Dave had by now retired hurt as his thumb was really painful and he could not brake very effectively. The last session saw me chasing a couple of bikes and gradually reeling them in.

One more lap and I reckon I would be pretty close to catching them. It felt a great session and the stopwatch showed a further reduction with 6 of the 8 laps being consistently quicker and quicker and those 6 laps were all new personal best laps. The final lap broke the 1.20 mark. I still have a way to go, but the good thing is I was now a full 15 seconds quicker than my first race back last year at Mallory.




So..... that was it for the day. I managed to complete around 50 laps and was really enjoying it. After the initial ignition problems the only tinkering was just before the last session when I needed to carry out a clutch adjustment as it had started to slip a little. It had been a great day for me, and I thoroughly enjoyed it, although I missed my normal pit crew! Now it's a case of looking forward to Easter Monday and race 1 of the 2009 season. There's lots to be excited about, and judging by the test day there's going to be some good close racing all through the field. Ed Hocking will be one to watch now he's graduated from the Tightwad racer to a 30 HP Chalky White motor. Newcomer Michael Bonett on the Kegra group 4 is looking quick, but the big story is looking like being 14 year old rider Josh Brown. Josh is fully sponsored by Scootermatix, the new UK Stage 6 distributor. He certainly looks super quick, and I am certain he will be challenging for top honours pretty quickly.

Thats it for now.............. Good Luck to everyone for the 2009 season.

First Track test !

On Track Pictures Courtesy of Tony O'Brien

Ready To Go!

Friday 6th March and about 8 scooters entered the Focused Events Track Day. There would have been a couple more, but various scooters weren't quite ready!

Stuart Day brought along his Ducati, and also his SRP Racetech road scooter. Jon Uffindel was there on his bike, a couple of scooters from JB tuning, and a new rider with a Kegra prepared Group 4 scooter. Kevin Griffiths on his street class TS1 and Brandon Smith also out for the first time on track. Paul Priestley also brought a couple of scooters to try out.

Stuart Days Ducati and GPTS1 Road Scooter

Kevin's Street Class Scooter, and Brandon's race scooter

Ex Scooter Racer Keith Terry was also there on his R1..... wonder how long till he's back out on a scooter?

A few racers also came along to spectate, Tony O'Brien, Scott Chapman, Jigsy, Ed Hocking, Martin Wing, Ciro Affronti, Chalky White were all in attendance as well, so there was a good number of us.

So............. how did it go? Well.... thankfully it was a test, so a few odd niggles on a new engine are allowed! I was a little late getting there, so it was initially a bit of a rush! Jigsy had arrived with some fuel, so we promptly mixed it and filled the tank in readiness, checked tyre pressures...... went down to the riders briefing, then it was straight on track with the first novice group!

After 3 sighting laps slowly behind a pace bike it was back down the pit lane, ready to go again.... scooter felt great, the engine was pretty smooth in fact I'd probably say smoother than my road scooter! Power delivery is really smooth and it pulled really well out the bends. A good improvement on last years engine! I was certainly grinning down the straight!! Chalky White did a great job on the engine!

Then...... coming out the hairpin....... all stop! Engine cut out..... damn and blast!

So I had to sit on the side lines and wait for the session to end... luckily it's downhill to the pits from there!

Once back in the paddock, as it happened Chalky White and Ciro suddenly appeared just at the right moment! A quick check of the stator plate wiring revealed no feed from the pick up..... so off with the floorboard, cowling and flywheel and the reason was immediately obvious! Two loose wire on the new BGM stator plate! The main red feed and the green earth had both broken their solder. Ciro managed to suddenly find a blow lamp from somewhere or other in the absence of a soldering iron we heated a metal rod with the blow lamp to form a make piece soldering iron! The red wire was quickly re-soldered, but the green proved somewhat more troublesome as it was difficult to get in with the solder. The decision was made to just undo the pickup bolt and earth it to that instead! Problem solved, so all back together and ready to go!

Unfortunately by now we'd missed most of the second session and only got 2 more flying laps in before the session ended. Good news was that with only 4 flying laps done I was already matching my best previous times.

The niggles continued as I went out in the third session! Somehow I'd dislodged the choke cable between sessions and it was trapped half on! So this erm.... well... somewhat compromised performance! I was improving lines though and decided to stop out and ride around things just to get some laps under my belt, albeit 2-3 seconds slower than previous session.

So for session 4 the choke problem was sorted and resolved! OK... let's go properly now then!

First flying lap was straight under my previous best , and lap time continued to tumble down for 7 laps! I was really pleased with how the bike felt, and I didn't actually feel I was pushing overly hard, just concentrating mainly on trying to build my speed up gradually round Gerard's which is my nemesis as I have not been feeling at all confident through fast sweeping bends and as Gerard's feels about 4 miles long it can be described as nothing other than a fast sweeping bend! So it was really pleasing to end that session with the stopwatch showing a full 3 seconds quicker than last year. There's still another 7 seconds to find to be competitive to where I'd like to be...... but we're getting there slowly! It's all going in the right direction.

The next track session saw me stuck in some traffic for the first few laps as I had gone straight out with the main pack and despite a few guys being on some powerful sports bikes, they were braking pretty early for Edwina's and the hairpin, in fact so much so that I actually overtook 3 bikes in one go up the inside at the hairpin, which certainly made me smile in my helmet. One of the riders (on an R6) obviously must have been upset as when he inevitably re-took me... which took him until after the start line.... he was only inches away from me and chopped right in front of me...... perhaps he didn't like being outbraked by a little Lambretta!

Once in clear air the lap time dropped down again to match my new best before the exhaust tone changed and it was most definitely blowing! It was now very loud so sadly it was game over for the day! Returning to the pits and examining the exhaust proved this beyond doubt as the exhaust was split adjacent to the manifold about 3/4 of the way around it with a 2-3 mm gap opened up! Sticky offered to weld it back up as his workshop is only 20 minutes away... but it seemed a mad rush to possibly only just be able to make it back for one last session, so it was trackside now to watch a few sessions from around the track!

The offending split exhaust!

So overall.............. a good day and it was pleasing to have made good progress on getting the times down, I feel sure I had at least a couple of seconds to come as I was not pushing mega hard.

It was good also to have these little niggles on a test day rather than at the first race, so it certainly proves that test or track days are well worth doing!

The Focused Events Team had a great, well organised format, and the scooters fitted in well with the novice bike class. The day was £69 for 6 20 minute sessions, so it's like half a seasons racing track time in one day! Well worth it!

A few small jobs to do on the scooter, and Ed Hocking has the offending exhaust to re-weld! So I'll keep the blog updated with this and a couple of other small improvements I plan before the next outing which will be at the official BSSO / VMCC practice day on 27th March back at Mallory! Can't wait!

JB's Group 4 bike after being chucked into the mud at Edwina's

March Update

Well.... The race season is getting closer! It's 6 weeks now until we will be sitting on the grid at Mallory Park for the first race of the season. The winter has seen many of the racers rebuilding bikes so it will be interesting to see what everyone turns up with at the first race! I think there may be a couple of surprises in the pipeline.

So..... whats new?....... well not much I'm afraid, so this blog is more of a look forward than anything.

The first race this year is Easter Monday at Mallory Park. Easter is falling a little later this year than last so hopefully the snow that was on the ground last year will not be repeated!

March 6th there's a Focused Events track day and they have allowed scooters to take part (full race scooters with ACU licenced riders). Stuart Day has done a few track days with them, but this will be the first time that they will have had 10 or so scooters! We will be on track with their riders (mainly modern sports bikes) so it will be .... interesting! We will be circulating in 20 minute sessions, with fingers crossed 6 sessions over the day, so quite a few laps!

Full report to follow!

Then on March 27th is the official pre-season practice day also at Mallory Park. This one is run by VMCC, and we will run in 10 minute sessions this time, possibly also on track with the VMCC race bikes too, depending upon how many scooters are entered (i.e. we may have our own sessions).

Sometimes scooters take different (faster) lines so depending upon numbers we may run seperately, although it is only practice, so no-one should be going too lairy (!)

So if all goes well, then those two test days will give me lots of laps of Mallory. Which is just as well as I would really like to find 10 seconds from somewhere! I reckon the majority is sitting in Gerards which is my nemesis bend! There's also a bit sitting in the bus stop - I didn't really get that clean at all last year, but I'm hoping that the extra power from the new engine will help things along too of course!

On the BSSO front, I've been working with Eden who did the Scooterotica forum (www.scooterotica.com ) and we have now got a new BSSO FastScooter forum.... you can visit it at www.fastscooter.org
Downside to the new forum is that we have to start again with all the posts, but we now have full control of it and lots of new features too!

Next update in a weeks time after the first Mallory test!