Finally some solid laps......

Well, along with the poor weather there have sadly been a few incidents that have seen Wayne and Emily only getting in one lap in before tonight and that was under yellow flags from just after Ramsey. Today has finally seen some fine weather forecast for the whole of the evening session, of course we were not due to be out tonight except the powers that be, knowing that our race is Monday, have seen sense to get the Classics out where the Manx GP lads will have time to get theirs in. As a side note, I must say that the organisers have finally cracked the crap situation which used to occur during scrutineering where the whole paddock turned up en mass. Calling each group is working a treat and we were through in about 15 minutes. 
So in tonight's practice, it's free reign in the holding area as bikes are called by number group to the road to start. The plan was, in our hour long session, to attempt to get 3 laps in. With Emily brimmed with fuel, the engine was warmed and Wayne did his final checks on the tyre pressures ready for the off. The Marshals were in place and the first bikes were away at 18.20, we got away around 18.27. 

Happy to go

 Time to focus.

Wayne flew though Glencrutchery Road at about his expected time, I say expected as it's just up to Wayne how hard he pushes as he gets to know Emily. Tommy and I pop down to the holding area to get ready with 10 litres of fuel and spare visors and cleaner. Wayne arrives on time and we are in plenty of time to start a third lap. Having seen him off we retire with the paddock trolley to tidy up, sadly just after we finished Wayne coasts up with Emily to the garage. Emily has developed a misfire so instead of pushing on he's dropped back in the return road and met us at the garage, this is something I've had before at Cartagena and a swap of spark plugs cured that. After a few tests the front plug appears to have given up and once replaced all is well. Too late to get out again, but we now have three laps of five under our belt and with fair'ish weather should see the rest away with no problem. We've made a couple of tweeks to the suspension this evening and may change the rear sprocket in the morning.
But to finish it's not all bad news as Wayne and Emily have broken the 100mph lap with a lap of 104.762mph. 
Hopefully in time we'll get some action shots of the duo from the many snappers on the Isle.

We have arrived...

Well after what was quite an early start at 4am on Friday, we arrived in Liverpool with plenty of time to spare having avoided the rush hour through the M5-M6 interchange and the Manchester area. The trip over was pretty much as normal with Steam Racket, you arrive early to be loaded almost last and are then greeted with huge queues at the food hall, thanks guys. We arrive after a slightly choppy crossing and with the paddock in a state of flux we decided to opt for plan F and unpack the bike on Saturday. This turned out to be a good idea as we are now sharing a fixed garage in the A paddock with Ian and Alex Sinclair and their Matchless G50, this has also enabled Wayne to extend our garage at the rear with a 4.5m x 3m gazebo so we have a very nice private area complete with fridge and urn. Quite a luxurious affair really.
Our day has been fairly straight forward, which, looking at some of the other teams still fitting rain lights, race numbers and sorting electrical faults it almost worries me that we should have more to do. So for us it's just been a day of the planned jobs of fitting a new seat pad, adjusting the foot controls and popping a few decals on Emily. 

Sunday is a day of rest, other than adding additional weight with more decals we just need to add fuel. I think we'll just do an engine test in the morning and decant away for a Sunday lunch. 
Harriet has started getting to know her new camera so for today as practice has been cancelled due to poor weather I shall leave you with a selection of pictures from today.

 All tucked in 

 Room for two

 Made to suit

 Assume the position

 Looking good

 Great shot Harriet.

 A brief briefing

 Just tinkering

 I want a motorbike licence

 The stoppers

 Mechanics 101 with Liz

You said it

It's nearly that time already.....

Just days away now from the ferry out of Liverpool and it's all very odd. This time last year, relatively speaking, we were down at Louigi's still sorting out the forks and fitting fairings. A year on and all I'm waiting for are some decals and a product delivery from a new sponsor. Oil filters from John McCann of Moto Merchants are going direct to our digs for this year in Ballagary, thanks John. So nothing that should stop the show now, touch wood.
Last weekend I did the last small jobs that needed to done, this included changing the starter sub loom. This was supplied by Peter at Oronero and now incorporates a relay to mitigate the 11amps that were going through the OEM kill switch, this is normally rated to around 3-5amps and I'd noticed that the connecting wires were becoming warm during the recent test run at Castle Combe. So not quite Corse (copy) now, but hey I don't have the Ducati Corse part!

 Not a lot of room

 Work in progress

Other small jobs included the adding of titanium bolts to the suspension rocker, I'd noticed that the head of the original cap screw was just kissing the crankcase breather hose as it goes into the underseat airbox, I think made the fitting come loose last year, so with less weight and a shallower heads that fixed that. The rain light required for practice only is also now in place, the bracket was made a year ago but in the end was not required but this year it is. There have also been changes to the pit stop regulations, no paddock stand for this year along with no visor for the fueler but new higher rated overalls for the fueler are required. So the overalls for last year are now not correct, I can only assume money grows on trees.
Emily has made a couple of appearances recently, at Calne Bike Day and just last weekend at the Popham Megameet. I must say she certainly did draw a lot of attention and anytime we were near that were plenty of questions to be answered about her and some very complementary comments about her looks. Some of the PR was done by last years pilot Stuart.

Sadly someone appears to have lost interest.

When we get to the Isle of Man on Friday Wayne has a new piece of foam for the seat, just a tad thicker than the show piece in the picture above. I'll go through the bike with him as a final check to make sure I've not missed anything, we can adjust the foot controls and if he's happy to go play roll on Saturday. Just the van to pack now complete with my daughter Harriet who going to join us this year as team photographer for those behind the scenes candid shots, that's of course if Liz and her aren't off horse riding together.

Wish us all luck, and I'll post a link to the live timing for the race if the organisers are using it for the Classic TT for those who'd like to follow the action on line. #59.