The prologue...

And so the race is done the van is packed the Ben-my-Chree awaits. Lessons have been learnt for sure, the main one being try and get a test in somewhere. That was not to be as the planned time line just evaporated, so we started the two weeks with a bike that had only turned a wheel under power on the dyno. Over the two weeks we have made one adjustment front and rear on the suspension, so that's not bad after a rear set up at home and a tweek after Louigi saved the day with 20mm off the preload spacer. A slight adjustment to the steering damper and brake lever travel are just about the only other settings we have had to make, above the clutch and alternator issues that were suspect from the start. All in all a very good result for an untried recipe.

My thanks in no particular order go to 

Louigi Moto: to Christian for building an engine that Stuart says will pull from anywhere and of course Richard for the engine recipe and the parts to pull it all together. He even brought parts by plane.
Oronero: Peter for supplying the carbon parts and the new wiring loom that was just plug and play.
Reality Motor Works: to Nick Anderson for some most excellent powder coating.
Rob Scheuer aka Slob: for gifting me the rearsets.
Willow Services aka Grumpy: to James White for supplying a set of tyres.
Stewart aka Capo: for also supplying a set of tyres and technical support.
Avanti Race Parts: Antony Espindola for chipping in with a handy box of race comsumables.
Burton Engineering: Guy Burton for sorting us out with a smart set of the newly required fireproof attire for the pit stop, we looked smart too.
Chris Allanson aka Shuffy: for designing the Celeres Racing Logo. 
Along with financial support from Stewart and Jill Calkin "Calky", Martin Biggs, Charlotte Ponting and Gordon Hardie.
Keith Fothergill: for letting me use his spare set of clutch plates.
Jeff aka Utopia: for making a new front wheel spacer and posted in 24 hours.
Steve Wright: for helping out with loads of tea, rolls and pit crewing.
My wife Liz for letting me complete the build in the conservatory and pit crewing as well.
Finally to Stuart, for 14 years after an off at Black Dub nearly cost him his life, he entrusted me to build a bike to take him around the mountain course once again.

I thank you all.

As Liz has just said "It's difficult to put into words, the whole achievement and emotion of what we have all done." I hope that all of you that have been involved have at least felt a piece of the emotion that we had here on the Isle.
Having conquered Everest perhaps next year we can shoot for the moon, if you fancy coming along for the ride we'll be happy to have you on board. 

Mission accomplished.....

OK so the lead title sort of gives away the end of the tale, but hey we all know how the Mousetrap ends, don't we? So if you've read Stuart's blog at http://www.blackdub.co.uk/ you do know but here's the tale from inside pit wall to tell. With the race shortened to three laps we had a choice of fuel strategy, to fill at the end of lap one or splash and dash after lap two. Stuart fancied the splash and dash, so no flying lap but if the race was stopped after two laps for an incident we would be ahead of the game. So scrutineering was passed without comment, the bike was fuelled and tyre pressures checked, simply add tyre warmers, bike cover and wait. 

Fairly easy for us but I'd say Stuart was certainly feeling the nerves as he kept going off to look for the thing. With Emily in her allotted space in Parc Ferme I'm just thinking is there anything else to check so in my head I'm trying to go from front to back and visualise each nut and bolt, not too hard really as a race bike there's not much to her. The announcement is made for the entries in the Formula 1 and 2 race to line up on the road ahead of the start, we wait as long as we can to keep heat in the tyres as we don't have a fancy portable generator.

It's not too long before we're on the move and start to line up in numerical order, that makes it nice and easy for the starter and spectators on the first lap anyway. It turns out that 3 of the 4 Ducatis in the race are starting line astern.

With a final thumbs up from Stuart he promptly stalls the bike but she restarts fine.

There's no going back now and Stuart gets the tap on the shoulder and almost the last ridge can be climbed. 

We put what we can away and having already filled the fuel dispenser with the required amount of fuel we wait by the pit wall and watch the arrows that the scouts move to indicate which section the rider has passed, Glen Helen, Ramsey and Bungalow, well they do sometimes as some seem to never move and others are seen to go backwards. Stuart was shown at Ramsey as his light comes on to show he's at Cronk ny Mona, oh well, I ask Steve to get his fuelling gear on in case we have an unexpected stop. We watch, we wait, and Stuart flies through looking good, but then he says he always does. Fine, just wait another 23 minutes and he'll be back we hope, others pit on the first lap and we look for tips. To be honest any way is good as long as it works. The pit box is tiny for the three of us with a box of essential spares and a paddock stand. Times passes and once again the light above 56 comes on. We get ready, I turn on the ball valve for the fuel and Steve gets his fire proof gear on, Liz once again sticks a spare visor in her top should Stuart require one. Now we haven't actually physically practised the stop, Steve's only had a quick go on the rig to assess fuel flow, Liz has practised the visor change sometimes it goes well, sometimes not, Arai helmets are a sod. I see Stuart arrive at the pit entrance and step out to guide him in, now it all goes in a bit of a blur. The paddock stand locates and Liz shouts "YES" to indicate her bobbin is engaged, I flip the bike on the stand and Stuart cuts the engine. I pop the key in the fuel cap, open, and leave Steve to the fuel. I spot the scrutineer give a thumbs up to his colleague so he's spotted nothing awry so I crack on with cleaning the screen as Liz has a chat with Stuart and gives him a drink. Stuart's declined the new visor but does have time to mention "It's lovely out there". I've cleaned and Steve's done so I close the cap and flip Stuart back on two wheels. She starts, he's off. Now it's taken longer to type and read than time it actually took to do, so I'd say it went bloody well and we're all feeling quite pleased and relieved. One more lap please Stuart and Emily.

The arrow on the board moves, that's Ramsey done, just the mountain to go.

Right on cue Stuart crosses the finishing line and speed trap at 139mph.

Personally I don't feel as emotional as when they both finished their first practice lap. Once we'd overcome the gremlins I couldn't really see anything else to go wrong with Emily. We all rush back to Parc Ferme to congratulate Stuart, it really has been a lovely day. After 14 years since he last rode a bike on a closed road on the Island Stuart has completed the race and a finish is what we'd hoped for but a week ago that seemed way off. I'm pleased for Stuart and hope that next year we can come back and do it all again, this time we have a bike that already works and some data to work with. I think it's ice cream time.

Rain, mist and wind stop play....

As predicted the weather this morning was poor to say the least. After arriving at the paddock we were soon told that the day was canned, it's good that the Clerk of the Course called it early to avoid the quite usual day of one hour postponements. So Emily had a day off in the garage with the rest of the Louigi Moto stable for a bit of PR work. It's been great to catch up with quite a few of you that have read the blog today and your kind words are much appreciated.

So Tuesday is now race day and another night of fitful sleep awaits, I'd hoped to be down the pub tonight celebrating a finish but that can wait for another day. The race has also been shortened to three laps due to time constraints on the closed roads. A little prep work first thing for Emily then her debut at the Classic TT awaits.

Whilst nosing around I did spot one interesting bike and there are many, but if you ever go out of an evening to a bike meet do you look around and look for the one bike you would ride home instead of yours and fail? Well I may have found one.

Yes please.

So Emily can play....

We got some great news this morning that we have qualified for the Classic TT Formula 1 on Monday, although the weather looks poor. With that news I've spent the day just going over stuff, changing the oil and fixing the tachometer.  The tachometer is a bit of a sod, it took about 45 minutes of careful cutting with a razor blade to tease the old bezel off. I could then replace the needle that had fallen off, we stuck the bezel on later after a test to check its position. I've also changed two of the cotton reel rubber mounts to harder ones to lessen the movement of the clock nacelle. The belly pan has another two layers of fibreglass on the inside, it wasn't quite worn through but with the repair in place we hope to not get pulled for a hole during the race. Another slight adjustment to the clip ons to give Stuart more lock for getting through the Nook as he keeps scaring the marshals there. A quarter of a turn on the chain adjusters, a clean and new lock wiring applied we needed to add the new race numbers we've been allocated, 56.

Listening on Manx radio to hear live commentary on proceedings.

Practice is over....

What a week of mixed emotions, the lows at 18 miles and the absolute joy of seeing Emily Rayner-Evans complete a lap with Stuart on board. At that point the other pit crews in Parc Ferme watching from the wall with me must have thought I'd lost my marbles as I leapt around like a daft thing. Well I don't care I was just so happy for everybody who has been involved that we'd finally cracked it. Stuart had an analogy for what I had done it sort of goes, so you've decided to take up hill walking and decide that Everest would be a good place to start, that's what running a bike at the TT is like. 

So how did we get there? After finding the loose wire on the fuel pump I still wasn't convinced that that was the fault from Wednesday but all we could do was set out on Friday night and just hope that it was. As I said above yes the first lap came and went and Stuart was running at just over 91mph average for the lap, that's his first full lap in fourteen years so really pleased with that and for Stu. The second lap was just over 86mph and having heard from Steve Moody that Glen Helen was carnage with bikes and riders all over the place I guessed that this was the reason for the drop in pace, but no. We now think we know what stopped Stu on Wednesday, the rubber mounted clock assembly does move around and quite a lot it would seem. On the second lap the bike cut out as before and Stu pulled up into an old garage forecourt near Rhencullen, I had asked him that if Emily should stop again just check the switches are in the correct position. Well the main switch was off it had been hit by the clutch reservoir and killed the motor, a quick flick and he was off again. It did the same a couple more times and so Stu battled through to a second lap finish. Later that evening the toggle switch became a Manx cat version and was made shorter with the aid of my Dremel.

Not to late a night found a fuel hose chaffing on the rear rocker so a small fix applied and a belly pan that will make Del Whittaker smile when he gets to repaint it.

Good job Stuart, although he did say that he had a brown trouser moment at the bottom of Baggarrow to get the scrapes.

Saturday morning comes and Stuart's beauty sleep is ruined by an early start to be at scrutineering for 8.00am, again we sail through but the weather is not great. The start to practice is delayed and we need three more laps to stand any chance of qualifying. The almost unpredictable Manx weather clears and with the session lasting till 11.20 we have time for three laps, one down two to go and it starts to rain in Douglas, bugger as the session is cut short. We need that third lap to stand any chance of racing on Monday. Paul Baleta says to ask the Clark of the Course if we could tag on to a later practice and get that last lap in, we do and get the thumbs up to go out. A check over of Emily and again attend to the fuel hose, which should now be good, we are ready to go out. Stuart sets off and  a while later we hear of an engine blow and bad oil contamination so the red flags are out. My first worry is if Stu is involved and that he is OK, second is will the lap he is on count. I wait in the pit lane for him to return, as always it seems like an age but he does come past and I send him into Parc Ferme to park so we can check if his lap is valid. Off to the race office to see the secretary who is happy that Stu's lap will stand and it's his best so far at over 93mph. We can pack up for the day and await our fate, we'll find out Sunday if we are in. To finish today here's a shot by Keith "the clutch" Fothergill of Stuart and Emily at the Gooseneck.

Friday awaits...

After Wednesday's elation and well, not disappointment as Emily had got 18 miles, so in comparison to the first two nights we're moving in the right direction, but frustration that something new had her stop for Stuart. Worst of all she restarted and was ridden home without missing a beat, even down the lane to the farm. From a visual and physical inspection every connection appeared to be connected and locked with either the clip that Ducati intended or a tie wrap that I had already added. All the earth leads are secure and seem but fine with a resistance check. Having recently worked on a friends 888 that had arrived with the fuel pump loose inside the tank I thought that maybe there was a problem in the tank with either the pump or the last two wires I hadn't checked yet. Stuart siphoned off the fuel and we now know we should be fine for two laps, should we ever get that far. Feeling inside the fuel pump is where it should be but gently pulling on the feed wires the negative connection comes away far too easily. Is this it? Is this the single connection that stopped Emily? Inside I'd like to say yes, but I just don't know.  It's a potential fault for sure but is this the one, time and the TT course will tell.

That aside the tachometer has died,  it had been vague for a few days and finally decided that it didn't want to play any more. Richard Llewellin will hopefully not forget to pop a spare in his hand luggage today. The cleaning of flies and the filling of scrapes in the belly pan would be a nice daily routine to get into, and even after 18 miles is one we can. Stuart managed to take the trailing edge nearly all the way through, so Del's paintwork is not looking quite so pristine any more. Stuart's feedback is positive although Emily is harder than he expected to muscle around the lower sections of the circuit compared to the flowing mountain. We have raised to rear slightly to make steering easier without, hopefully, compromising stability. 

Right, I'm off to re dress the lady and check the belly pan repair. Please wish us luck for later, I've also unlocked the comment section below so you shouldn't need a Google account to add your thoughts and ideas, please do.

Little by little.....

Well that was a day and a half, so we knew we had a a couple of major problems the clutch and the charging. To cure one we had to get the right spacer to go behind the inner basket, nothing on the island so the "Ze SS" earned the Iron Cross for action the field and gave up the required parts.

In the mean time I've fitted the road alternator I brought along as a spare, at test we had a healthy 14.5v just over tick over so hopefully that was that issue cleared.

A test run up the lane went well so we followed Stuart over the mountain for a final test, I say followed he was out of sight in seconds! Clutch seems good then.

The now usual chaos ensued a scrutineering, you'd have thought that they would have an idea on how to run this event by now, sadly not. Not enough power for tyre warmers, pit lanes empty with ours overflowing, a bit of a fiasco and not professional at all. Still we are here again and for once feeling like we may get somewhere with nothing really worrying me, can't say the same for Stuart though.

So once again we're ready for the off and Stuart skips away with a Suzuki and shows him the way to Bray Hill.

I get news via friends that Stuart is past Glen Helen and then through Kirk Michael, sadly my phone rings and Stuart is there letting me know all is well but seems to lost electrical power at the 18th milepost. When we get down to pick him up Emily starts and is ridden home under her own power with no remedial work required. One those faults that would be easier to diagnose if she didn't start at all.

So a day of find the intermittent fault is on the agenda, fingers crossed.