Since my last post I’ve not really had chance to shit, shower or shave. Last weekend I was working as usual on Saturday, then on the night me and my mate Mave went to the Wirral 100 awards night in Liverpool. I had to do a bit of a speech, told a few naughty stories and had a few shandys. A good night, but I didn’t feel too clever at four ‘o’ clock Sunday morning when we had to be up with the bats to drive up to Innerleithen in Scotland. Yes, a bit more D/H mountain biking. A good days riding was had by all, even though the uplift to get us to the top of the hill wasn’t really working till after dinner, so we had a good few hours of pushing back up to the top to get another run, rather than the usual of sitting in a cushty bus and getting lift up.
That weekend made a good change though – Mave didn’t crash once, but I reckon i was off at least four times. A few big uns as well. Oh well, I’ve got my new Dainese bicycle helmet nicely bedded in now, and like the old saying goes “If you’re not crashing, you’re not trying”.
Hydrex Honda have let me know all of my testing dates now, so I need keep myself in one peice for the first couple of weeks in March. We are going to do a few different tracks in Spain to get everything dialed in for this season. There is a new 600 Honda to get to the bottom off, but from my first inspections it looks an identical bike to the 08 bike besides the bellypan and ABS brake system (which won’t be used on our race bikes). It’s got to be one of the best handling bikes made, so if we get her running right we shound be on the money.
As for the superbike, we’re going to do three or four BSB meetings on her: Brands, the first Oulton, Cadwell, and maybe the last Oulton – but development-wise, it’s not a million miles away because its the same bike as last year, except for a different crank. So with real attention to detail on the preparation we should be on the pig’s back.
Away from two wheels, me and my dad went on a tour of RAF Waddington the other day. I’d like to give a big thanks to everyone there for showing us all around the Nimrod and AWACS planes. It was proper mint. I even got to sit in the cockpit of the AWACS, look right inside her engines and get a good look at that big dish on top of her. That big disk you see on the top of an AWACS weighs 7 ton you know? Very, very interesting.
And then, to round off a good week, I did a day’s photo shoot for one of favourite magazine, Dirt mountain bike. The bloke who came to do it, Grant, was a proper bloke, even managed a couple of beers before going home. How cool is that?