Surprise, surprise!!!!

Well, if i remember rightly the last time i dropped a Blog on you guys was precisely 1 week ago, how's that for progress, usually it's about 3 months between Blogs lol. I have to admit last week was pretty manic, as you know i've been rushing about all over the place trying to get myself healthy as this years championship is rapidly approaching, i got the Eurosport punditry done last sunday then spent 3 days on the run up to the Donington park official BSB test either training or in physio trying to sort my hand out, i was fairly confident on the run up to the test that my ankles would be fine on the bike, sure, they'd ache a bit as even without any physical exercise by the evening they swell up a bit so after riding a BSB bike with the stresses and strains that puts through your body well, i wasn't expecting to feel brand new on the way back home but as i said i knew they'd be ok whilst riding, the hand though, that was a whole different ball game. Unfortunately sunday evening the hand started swelling a bit and got a bit red and angry, Monday the skin broke a bit and Monday afternoon it started leaking a bit, great i thought, an infection, that's all i bloody need!!!! I went to the doctors and got it dressed in some special dressing to draw the infection out and got put on a course of antibiotics then had literally 2 days for that lot to get to work.

If i'm perfectly honest i was absolutely desperate to ride my bike at Donington, as you can probably imagine, my preseason testing had consisted of about 50 odd laps of Almeria in Spain ending upside down in the gravel trap before i even got to try a single one of 2015 components, far from an ideal build up, however i confess that i really wasn't to sure at all how the hand would be, i rode a road bike about a week before just to see how the hand felt and thought hmmm this is gonna be tricky on a Superbike but in the grand scheme of things a week is a long time for healing, my thoughts and feelings weren't helped much during all the media stuff we had to do at Donington, obviously we have to do lots of photos with and on the bike and doing the latter and trying to shift about on the bike whilst stationary i got a few little tweeks that felt like mini electric shocks, i kept them to myself obviously but it didn't exactly fill me with confidence and a big part of me kind of hoped that the weather might take a bit of a turn for the worse as we'd already agreed as a team that if the track was damp, wet or basically anything other than dry i'd sit this test out and wait till round 1.

Something kind of strange happened though, once all my media stuff was finished, unbeknown to me the 2nd Superbike session was on, i walked in to the garage and Paul (Bird) the team owner said, "Shakey, there's 10-15 minutes left, why don't you get your helmet on and do the last 2 or 3 laps to loosen yourself up a bit" now if i'm honest i thought hmmm, not so sure but nonetheless i got my helmet on, a larger pair of gloves on and walked out to my bike in pit lane with my crew chiefs words echoing in my head, "just 2 or 3 steady laps mate, see how your hand is", with that   headed out.

As you'll know if you were at Donington it was bloody freezing and really windy, i got going down Craner curves and thought to myself i daren't cruise or the tyres will get cold and i'll get flicked off the thing so i semi got going, the hand wasn't feeling too bad but as i crossed the start finish line i noticed my lap timer on my bike wasn't working so i had no idea how fast i was going, to be honest i had a steady ride around and immediately noticed i was catching people very quickly but i wasn't pushing at all, just riding and trying to blow the cobwebs out, i ended up getting just three flying laps which was perfect, the hand didn't seem to give me too much grief so that was positive but when i pulled in the box and one of my boys was shaking his head and clapping i thought bless them, they're happy i'm back, however, it wasn't that at all, in those 2-3 steady laps i was meant to do i went P1 lol!!!!

The final session of the day was an hour and a half long, almost immediately despite the real strong winds i went lots faster than i had in the first session, we done a few exits all on the same tyres to get up to speed more and tried a small things setting wise then a bit later on we tried the first of our new 2015 parts, to say that the bike was different is a bit of an understatement but at the same time you never just bolt something on a race bike an automatically go faster, it's always a small compromise of something or another, we chipped away trying to improve and got better and better but by that point the tyres were well and truly passed their best and way over race distance so for the last 15 minutes or so we put a new pair in but stayed with the harder rear rather than firing in a zero like the majority of the field in order to get a lap time in, i did improve though and improved enough to end the session P1, with the new components we need some time to get the best out of the bike but that session was definitely a good starting point!!

After being in leathers and boots pretty much all day due to media and riding the best part of the day was taking my boots off, the ankles were a bit sore but at the same time it would appear they're fine on the bike and that's all that matters, i can't wait now for round 1, blow off some more cobwebs and get back to work, hope to see some of you guys there, take it easy, Shakey #67            

Getting you up to speed..

Hey guys and girls, i thought that whilst i'm sat on a flight i'd spend 20 mins or so bringing you up to speed on everything going on. Now, as you know from my last Blog things pre season wise haven't exactly gone to plan, in fact that's a bit of a b****y understatement, typically though i'm super positive, it's these little set backs that show you just how bad you want something and i can assure you with NO understatement whatsoever that i want more BSB titles so getting fixed and ready for round 1 at Donington park has been TOP TOP priority!!

It's funny really because spending all my time over the last two weeks either in a hyperbaric chamber or having laser and magnetic field therapy gives you lots of time to think and gather yourself, my progress recovery wise is going well, last Monday i got told by my physio that whilst my right ankle was massive, swollen and just about every colour in a rainbow and i wasn't walking so good at all that trying to walk and pushing off the ankle whilst walking would only help disperse the swelling although it'd be bloody sore, well, i had a session with him Monday afternoon and was staying up in Ipswich that night for back to back sessions the following morning so what did i do, go straight to a sports shop in the town, by some gym kit and get straight in the gym, that hour of cardio, 20 mins on the cross trainer, 20 mins on a bike and 20 minutes walking (hobbling) on the running machine on random steep hills program had me gritting my teeth muttering all sorts of swear words because of how much it was hurting but at the same time had me absolutely over the moon and so so happy to be back training that it was almost in a funny old way a bit emotional, sounds daft doesn't it but it's the truth!!

The next morning at the physio's one of the lady physio's in there was like "so what did you get up to last night, anything good?" i said good, i'm so happy, i brought some gym kit and hit the gym because i was told i needed to start to try to walk without such a limp and pushing off my ankle to help with the swelling!! she looked at me and gave me a wry smile and kind of shook her head and wondered off while the laser was doing it's thing lol!!!!! Full gas, it's the only way ;-)

Basically to bring you up to today all i've been doing is hitting the gym and pushing harder and harder, from a pain point of view on the hills fast walking things are getting much better, running's out of the question right now but on the cross trainer for instance i'm getting right back up towards maximum heart rate again so everything's going in the right direction.

I took out the Z1000 i have at home the other day, the one thing i haven't yet mentioned is my hand, that is getting better although perhaps a bit more delicate at the minute than the ankle, riding that bike was mega, it felt great to be back on a bike, but strange too, if i made my outside of my hand grip the bars it was almost like my big and index fingers went straight and vice versa, i plan to do a fair bit more riding on the road before Thursday which is the day of the official BSB test at Donington then the plan is if the track's dry and warm we'll have a go at riding and if it's damp/cold or wet i'll just do all the media stuff there and spend the extra week to 10 days getting stronger and fitter.

I really hope Donington is dry and decent to be honest, my PBM team have worked really hard over the winter with parts for our 2015 bike and i've not yet tried a single part as i crashed in Almeria boxing off our 2014 ideas, i know my team mates Stuart Easton and Hutchy both liked what they tried and said the bike was definitely improved so i can't wait to try it. 

I've been up in Glasgow since yesterday evening to open a new branch of a shop called Ride on, i went on behalf of Shoei and they really looked after me with a real nice hotel, a nice meal with Steve, Shoei's Scottish/Irish and Isle of Man sales guy and as for today at the shop well they were a great bunch and it was a real nice day weather wise, i was assured by a few guys that turned up today was their summer lol!!! there was a great turn out and a real nice bunch of guys and girls that turned up to see me so it was all good!!!

Once this flight lands i'm pretty much straight off to the hotel for Eurosport tomorrow, with the race being in Thailand it means another real early start, i think i've got to be at the studio at 4am so a big gym session tonight and an early night are the order of today, tomorrow afternoon with my family then Monday through to Wednesday full gas training and healing then Thursday (fingers crossed) get back on it!!

Right, that's me, you're all fully back up to speed so lets catch up again real soon, take it easy, Shakey#67 

That DEFINITELY wasn't in the script!!!

Well i think it's pretty fair to say that most of you will have already read about what happened here in Almeria yesterday, the final session of the day, doing a bit of a longer consistent lap time run i had a BIG off throttle highside very similar to the one i had back at Silverstone in 2013, it's funny, well, far from funny but when you have those kind of crashes that you really weren't expecting you always seem to get more hurt than when you perhaps wind it on taking liberties with no traction control and send yourself to the moon, but, anyway i had a crash and unfortunately it was a big one and even more unfortunately i've broken my left hand which resulted in an operation last night to fix it, long and the short of it is one of my knuckles disappeared down into my hand and broke it, good news is though as there's no point in dwelling on it i was operated on and with some screws and plates (a meccano set lol) it's all been put back together so i'm already on the mend.

So then to the bad news, today i had quite a lot of stuff to get through in order to box off our 2014 ideas, i got literally 95% through all of that hence the steady ish lap times then i went and flicked myself so now all my 2015 work is well and truly on the back burner.

Getting back to the operation fortunately it was performed under local anaesthetic so i didn't feel sick once it was completed but on the same token it's nearly bloody 3-30am and i cant sleep at all, i'm wide awake so god knows what medication they gave me hence the reason for sitting here in bed typing this.

The doctor has said i need a month to heal up and be right which takes me exactly to the first round but i'm planning on heading back to the UK tomorrow now to jump in a hyperbaric chamber and get the bones lasered etc so i'm hoping that'll increase healing time considerably, i've supposedly got to keep this cast on for 2-3 weeks but i'll see what my guy in the UK says and do absolutely everything i possibly can to be ready for the Donington park test in 3 weeks, fingers, well not on my left hand crossed guys and girls, take it easy, Shakey#67 

That was close!!!!!

I've got to say, i'm feeling pretty full of myself right this minute, i'm sat on a flight out to Spain for the next round of testing for this season, it's funny in a way, it literally feels like i never got the chance to go home, i guess in some ways i didn't because no sooner was i back from the last Almeria test we jumped in the car and headed down to our house in Spain for just under 2 weeks, then we got back to the UK late last Friday, i headed pretty much straight up to a Mac Tools function at Silverstone Saturday evening, back home early hours Sunday, spent the day with the kids on Sunday then today, Monday i'm back on a flight to Spain again, why though am i feeling pretty full of myself, well let's just say this trip nearly got off to a very  bad start, about 8-30am i went online to check in for my flight and whilst the website accepted my advanced passenger info etc it wouldn't let me pick a seat or actually check in, simply saying collect at check in desk, well, moving on, i went to said check in desk only to be told by the lady in orange, sorry sir, that flight's overbooked and because you didn't check in online you can't actually fly today, you'll have to be A, re routed or B get the next flight whenever that is, NOT GOOD!!!! Long story short then, after the same conversation with the customer services guy i managed to get myself on the flight despite him also being adamant i couldn't fly too, at best i could only be a reserve if somebody doesn't show, the long and the short of it was after being told "don't worry there could be up to €250 in compensation" i explained that wouldn't go very far towards the probable €15-20,000 my team would want in compensation after booking tests, paying to send trucks and staff etc, as i said, long story short i'm on the flight, it's all good!!!    

This test is going to be pretty interesting for me, whilst we don't have our "full on" 2015 bike as such there's been a lot of hard work done since the lat tests and going straight back to the track where we tried all of the prototype stuff will give us a definite answer and direction going forward, then, on an even more positive note we get to back to back the new stuff at two more tracks, Cartagena and Guadix, the latter from memory being far more like a BSB type of track even though it's probably been about 8 years or so since i was last there!!!

I'm going to try, i promise to update you guys after all three of the tests so for now i'm gonna kick back and look forward to riding tomorrow, talk to you soon, take it easy, Shakey#67

Lucky boy!!!!!!

I guess it's pretty fair to say I'm a pretty lucky boy right now, I mean as it stands, yesterday and today in the first week of February I've just completed my first two day test of 2015, it's not very often in BSB that you get the chance to get out this early in the year but you see the thing is this, far from resting on our laurels after a great 2014 my PBM team have been working incredibly hard back at base to give me a package with which I'll have the best possible chance of defending my title and the work they've been doing needed testing, you see the results of this test gave the guys the feedback they needed in order to go out and get proper parts made, sure, they could have just had the proper bits made at a fairly big expense and hoped they were good but that's not how they roll, instead we rocked up at Almeria with a loads of ideas and hybrid parts to gain the correct information required before doing the time and money consuming bit of getting them made, hence the reason it was so important to get out early in order to give ourselves the required lead times to have the correct parts fabricated ready for the next set of tests.

I was feeling all a bit hard done by the other week when after booking flights, hotels and track time at Aragon alongside the WSB boys the team decided to cancel 3 days before we were due to leave as believe it or not the forecast was snow and cold, it turned out to be exactly the right call though as a couple of the WSB boys never turned a single lap!!

With Almeria booked we flew out Wednesday evening ready to test Thursday/Friday with a whole load of Moto 2 and 3 boys, this was going to be interesting lol!!!

Thursday the weather wasn't overly kind to us to be honest, pretty strong winds and cold temperatures both ambient and track wise limited the number of laps we did however it was great to get out an blow out the cobwebs and as soon as I got going a bit we started working through some of the stuff we needed to try and with Friday's forecast looking slightly better we completed 40 odd laps and ticked a few boxes.

Friday the weather was better, it was still pretty fresh first thing meaning we once again didn't get on track until around 11-30 but with much less wind things very quickly started coming together, I had a number of parts and settings to work for and having been on the Kawasaki now for a while it was really interesting trying new parts and feeling their effect on the bike, we found some stuff that I really think is going to help us this year and have feedback for various people that means they can fabricate parts accordingly, in the end I got pretty close to my best time from last year too despite the far cooler and far greener for want of a better word track conditions so all in all it was a real good test, the other positive was that Stuart my team mate confirmed my feedback when he got to try a few of the options available too.

The great thing now is we have about 3 weeks before we're back out again and from a performance point of view we should be in an even better position by then plus have the new parts or at least some of them to test so now all I have to do is continue training hard and wait for what I'm sure will seem like an eternity before I can get back out to play again, tell you something, I can't wait!!! Take it easy guys and girls and catch up again real soon, Shakey #67 

Bringing you up to speed!!!

I guess right now it would be daft to sit here on route to Penrith and try to say lets do a bit of a catch up Blog shall we, i mean lets be honest, i haven’t Blogged since round 5 which is far from acceptable and where on earth would i start, round 6 i hear you say.. flippin’ hell i struggle to remember what was going on yesterday let alone 5-6 months ago lol so here’s how we’re gonna play it..

As you all know the outcome of the 2014 British Superbike Championship was pretty good for me, however, whilst at the time history was made with me being the 1st person to ever win 4 BSB titles the fact that Kiyo couldn’t race me in those final three races kinds knocked the edge off of things a little, for me personally as well as for plenty of race fans out there, i found it pretty difficult at the time to deal with, i wanted that head to head showdown with Kiyo more than anyone but upon reflection i never asked the guy to crash did i? For sure he was unlucky and so were the fans to a certain degree but i worked so hard all year long, despite all manners of media and journalism criticising me a little at times for my lean spell wins wise mid season reality is when i wasn’t winning i was third at worst apart from one 5th place and 2 crashes so a total of 10 wins and 23 total podiums of which only 3 i think were 3rd’s was far from terrible!!!!

That’s all in the past now though, 2014’s title was special, to me, you may well say why was?, well the way i see it, straight after Brands hatch i was so so busy media wise, going here there and everywhere that by the time i actually got the chance to sit down and reflect on the whole thing i’d almost made my mind up what i wanted to do for 2015 and from that point in i was only looking forwards, not backwards!!!
Quite a lot happened after the season finished regarding opportunities for next season and there really were some exciting things that had me real close to contemplating a change, however it’s my belief that if you’re not 100% certain in a decision then you shouldn’t make it, that and the fact that the PBM team and i have worked together now for the past 3 seasons and taken 2 titles and a very close 2nd place made it a bit of a no brainer in the end so i’m staying at home for another season and absolutely cannot wait to get back out riding again, i know the team and Birdy are super motivated to get the absolute max out of the bike for next season, with other manufacturer’s coming in with all new bikes we’re certainly going to have to work hard but then that’s exactly what this game’s about, team work, the guys working hard, me training hard, testing cleverly, giving the correct feed back and moving forwards together, i’m really looking forward to it.

One thing that i’ve been on with for way too long now is a new website, i’m not using that as an excuse for not Blogging, what i am saying is that there was supposed to be an all new site early on last season and i kept thinking i’ll Blog when the new site’s live, well, the rest is history and now i’m sat here rather embarrassed that it’s taken so long to get that site going but hey ho, hopefully we’re not far off now.

I don’t know how many of you went to the Motorcycle Live show, i went up on the first saturday but had a pretty manic schedule so i never really got the chance to look at anything, a couple of my personal bikes were up there on display which was pretty cool, one of them seems to be spending more time going from show to show than it does getting ridden lol!!!

As we speak i’m sat on a train up to Penrith, i’m off up to see the team and back home again tomorrow, we met up just before Motorcycle Live so it’ll be interesting to see what plans have been made since then going forward.

I’m really looking forwards to getting away soon, a week in the Czech Republic then straight away again after that too, this year for some reason feels like it’s been about the longest one i’ve ever lived lol, i guess at least it was a good one lol, catch up with you soon guys and girls, Shakey #67  

Brands hatch round 5 2014

To say i was looking forward to getting to Brands hatch for round 5 of the championship is a bit of an understatement, ironically i’d spent a bit of time there on the run up to the event doing an MSV track day on the monday then starting the 241 mile bicycle ride i did with a lap of Brands the tuesday before the event!!

I have to confess to having a bit of a secret about going to the GP circuit for this round, there was a lap time that i’d set myself as a target for the weekend, i never mentioned it to anyone and as i’ve said a million times before i’m not overly fussed about Pole Position’s but the lap time i had in my head, with the new 17” Pirelli tyres i thought would be doable..

I also have a confession, for no unknown reason whatsoever despite the fact we had our better engine in my bike felt like a ZX3 not a ZX10, there was no reason, it just didn’t seem to pull at all, i did 3 or 4 flying laps in the 1.28’s CONSIDERABLY off of my target time and pulled straight back in to the pits to say to the boys what on earth is up with this thing, they checked all the data and couldn’t really see anything and straight away i thought bloody hell this is gonna be a long weekend then!!!

I ended that session in 2nd which was ok but i was far from happy overall with our performance..

The boys did some work after studying the rest of the data from the 1st session and we improved marginally for free practice 2 to the tune of half a second a lap but again, power or the feeling of a massive lack of it was doing me no favours whatsoever..

Overnight the boys made some more changes including the engine but the final free practice session was wet to start then semi dried up, i did a few laps but as it got less and less wet i saw little or no point in destroying a pair of wets so i sat in the box and watched the rest of the session as the boys were still nearly 3 seconds a lap off the pace even right at the end of the session.

Obviously the mornings condition’s never gave us the chance to continue to improve the bike so we ended up doing just that throughout the qualifying sessions, i ended Q1 safe enough around a quarter of a second off where we needed to be but i was trying to fix the bike rather than driving myself mad about a lap time, Q2 again we never really had anything and things weren’t looking especially good, i just couldn’t find the feeling i was looking for from the bike and was really struggling still to push harder, we got through to Q3 though so i had to try to make that count regardless!!!!!!

I completely and utterly threw caution to the wind in Q3, i pushed to my absolute max and somehow managed to do enough to take Pole Position,don’t even bother questioning how because i don’t really know myself, i was far from expecting it i can assure you and as for my secret lap time, well, no where near it, to be fair everyone’s including my Pole time had been pretty crap all weekend which was strange, sure the ambient and the track temperature were high but blimey, i fell well over a second short of my target time, very strange…

We made some more changes in overnight ready for morning warm up and got out with a plan of banging in as many laps as possible in the 15 minutes in order to get a feel for what the bike was going to be like but bearing in mind the slightly cooler morning temperatures we went out on the harder rear tyre, after just a few laps though i decided to come in and try the softer option too as i figured covering all bases at this point was critical, we were far from happy really so needed to make the best of whatever was thrown at us, i ended the session 4th and a quarter of a second off so i knew we’d be there or thereabouts we’d just have to wait to see what mother nature had in store for us..

Race one at least ended up being dry, dry but much cooler than the first day which we figured made the harder rear tyre the way forward, i got a good start and lead initially, i could see and hear James Ellison was right on my tail though and figured there was zero point in trying to drop the pack but giving it 100% as i simply wasn’t going to get away, after about 12 laps though a challenge came from elsewhere, Kiyo came passed, initially i thought i must have been sleeping or something because he came past me so fast on the brakes into Paddock that i thought there was no way he’d get it stopped but he did, we ended up having a great battle over the remaining fee laps and i had a good feeling that although he’d passed me i thought i had enough to pass him back before the last turn then it’d be a drag race to the line, i got a great run on him through and out of Stirlings the penultimate corner but he blocked ever so slightly my run on the exit causing me to roll the throttle a millimetre or so, i knew the pass was on but that roll cast a tiny bit of doubt, i got alongside him approaching Clearways but it would’ve been a massive lunge rather than a clean pass due to the roll so i turned tight and drove as hard as i could to the line but Kiyo out dragged me and beat me by a tenth of a second so i was a bit gutted but a 2nd’s 20 points and 3 podium credits so no massive drama really..

We sat down after the race to go through the data to try to formulate a plan for race two after learning what we’d learnt during race one then i left the guys to go for my usual lunch, power nap and chill out before race 2, the weather was closing in thick and fast though so we were desperately hoping it would remain dry, having got the fastest lap in race one i was once again on Pole Position and i can assure you the view up towards turn one was like the scene out of a film set, angry looking big black clouds everywhere, it didn’t look pretty at all!!!

As the lights went out i once again got a great start, it was almost as if we all just wanted to get the race done and were in a real hurry because of it!!, James Ellison came past and lead for a lap or two but his pace was comfortable to follow so i figured i’d give it a few laps there, keep a good close eye on the weather, hope we made at least 2/3rds race distance in the mean time then get back to the front in case the race got stopped but that all went to pieces when James ran real hot into Westfield, he missed the apex by about a metre and i thought this is a good chance to outdrive  him down the hill which i focused on, i noticed way out wide though he was still way out wide then as i was getting the run on him on the inside i thought uh oh, he’s gonna run out of track.. the next thing i know he went down big time but immediately his bike dug in and started bouncing, now at that point it has to be said you make a split second decision because that’s all you've got and if you get lucky you avoid that bouncing bike and if you get unlucky, well cast your minds back to 2006 with Tom Sykes and the late Karl Bomber Harris, i made my choice and it looked initially like it was wrong, in what seemed like slow motion i thought oh nooooooo, this is gonna be massive, James’s bike flicked up, hit my bike and smashed my fingers but unbelievably and through far more luck than judgement i stayed on the bike and continued on my way, shortly after however the race was red flagged, mother nature was determined to play her part wasn’t she!!!!

We had a good shower of rain after the race was stopped, it looked like lots more would be coming too, we had to restart the final start with wet settings, for the first time all weekend i actually hoped to not lead into turn one and have to lead in the properly sketchy conditions but as the lights we out that’s exactly what happened, i lead for a bit then a few guys came past, Kiyo being one of them so i kept pushing and eventually passed him back, Josh Waters came through and looked on rails so i thought i’m not even gonna bother trying to chase you lol, then i got involved in a bit of a battle with Richard Cooper and Keith Farmer, the thing was those two at the time were battling for a podium they’d never had and were knocking each other wide all over the places, i actually rode there thinking blimey you two keep this up and i’ll have an easy second, eventually however, Tommy Bridewell past me and i ended up crossing the finish line in 5th, sure it wasn’t a podium credit finish but i beat my main rivals and stayed upright, exactly what we needed.

Coming away from my home race having not won was a bit of a bitter pill to swallow but at the end of the day i got beaten by a 10th of a second in the first race ad was feeling good for the 2nd race, unfortunately that ended up getting stopped and in the iffy conditions my results over the two races meant i accumulated the most points over the course of the weekend and was awarded with the Monster Energy King of Brands trophy which i’m really chuffed with!!! Another track i love coming up next, the wickedly fast tarmac motocross track that is Thruxton, i can’t wait, hope to see some of you guys there, take it easy, Shakey #67 

Knockhill round 4 2014!!

Well didn't round 4 start well, Knockhill it's fair to say is a fair old way from from Kent but fortunately for me my team boss Birdy booked me a private plane to fly me up from my local airfield, that definitely made the trip a bit easier lol!!

I have to say I was really looking forward to racing north of the border again, last year the track was real good for us with a double win and whilst you can never take anything for granted I was certainly hoping for more of the same this weekend.

The strange thing was that whilst I got straight up to speed and was lapping pretty flipping fast immediately I couldn't seem to get comfortable on the bike, I seemed to be struggling a bit with feeling for the front tyre, I wasn't panicking as we as I said were fast and ended the session 1st or 2nd so I figured we'd look over the data and get things sorted for free practice 2 later that afternoon..

Little did I know this feeling issue I was having was somewhat more terminal than I'd anticipated, we tried some things to fix it and ran in to various other problems but at the same time we were under my lap record pace and lapping so consistently it wasn't even funny, things were, how should I say, looking very well on the outside but feeling not very good at all on the inside..

After a night to pore through all the data we'd gathered throughout the first days practice we went into free practice three hopeful of a cure for my issues however, and trust me this is going to start sounding like a broken record, whilst we fixed some parts we made others worse, for some unknown reason we just couldn't find a setting that would let me push the bike, sure I was giving 100% but it was 100% as hard as the bike wanted to go which I frustratingly felt was only about 80 odd % as hard as I felt I could go if we got things sorted..

Going into qualifying we found ourselves still chasing a set up that would give me the confidence to push as hard as i knew i could, we’d be thinking we’d sussed it then after a couple of laps realise actually we hadn’t, it was bizarre to say the least as like i mentioned before we were going fast, just not happy doing so!!

For the final qualifying i was hopeful of an all out attack, i knew what lap time i thought i’d need to do in order to fight for the front row and to be honest a big part of me was surprised i hadn’t already achieved it but regardless with the feeling i had i knew i’d need to dig deep, as we headed out for the final session mother nature had a bit of a sense of humour failure and decided now would be a good time to throw a bit of rain our way, i pushed on as much as i dare and came round to see a lap time WELL off where i knew i’d need to be, i never actually checked my position but i couldn’t help but think there’s only 10 of us out here, do i need to be firing it at the scenery for the sake of a row or two… after another semi steady lap to try to establish what was going on the rain stopped and it was time to dig, i pushed hard and did a few decent laps but my team mate followed me and done a time to go faster but fortunately i kept pushing and got a better time to end the session front row in P3, that’s absolutely fine by me i thought to myself riding back in to the collecting area!!!!

After going through all the data from qualifying and explaining what i was looking for the boys and i spent quite a while going through the data searching for an answer, the problem was that all the changes we were making were not big at all but were having such big effects on the way the bike was working… It’s definitely a little window that my baby works in that’s for sure!!!

Morning warm up was pretty cool temperature wise, we tried the bike with a different setting again then during the session i came in to try to modify it further, all things considered my rhythm was real strong despite the fact we used old tyres so while things weren't perfect we went with the settings fro race 1.

Knowing how many years i’ve been racing now i can’t believe i made such a rookie mistake during the start of race one, talking to myself waiting for the lights i was like “come on Shakester, we need this start” but looking up i could’ve sworn the was a problem with the lights, they were taking ages to come on, i panicked a little and looked at the starter Anabelle then noticed a set of lights on her hut just over Josh’s shoulder, as i clocked the lights they went out and i totally blew the start then got a bit ruffed up in the first few corners dropping me down to 5th or 6th, i was so angry with myself as i knew i’d need to be right at the sharp end to have a chance to fight, it took me quite a few laps to get through to 2nd and once i did i pushed hard to try to bridge the gap that Kiyo had already built at the front but all i could do was match him but he was 2 seconds up the track and the harder i tried the more problems i was having with the front of the bike, so many times i felt like i was going down but stayed on, eventually i took a 2nd which is far from a bad result but i was annoyed with myself for letting the win go away, one consolidation was that i had the fastest lap in race 2 so i’d start from Pole position for race 2…

We once again sat and had a long chat after the race about how to make the bike better as i knew there was no point in going with what we had again, the boys came up with a plan and before we knew it we were lining up for race 2, i wouldn’t be making a mistake this time off the start, that’s for sure lol!!!!

As the lights went out i got a great start and lead from the word go, let me tell you 30 laps around any track is almost enough to make you dizzy but when it’s 30 laps around a track as technically demanding as Knockhill it’s even worse.. the place just grinds you down as there’s literally not a seconds rest around there, nonetheless i kept my head down and pushed as hard as i could the whole race and despite a pass from Kiyo whom i managed to re pass a lap or so later it was 30 long laps leading but the right result at the end, i.e. a win so i was chuffed to bits with that, i think we learnt a lot as a team that weekend, we struggled a lot more than our results showed so to come away with a 2nd and a win was unreal, i was that happy i even brought Michael Rutter and Stuart Higgs a beer in the airport that evening lol!!!

Anyway, now it was onwards and upwards, well downwards depending on how you look at it to my home track, brands hatch, i can’t wait!!!

Snetterton round 3 2014

So then here we are back racing again, finally!!!, crikey it seems like a bloody long time ago since Oulton park doesn’t it??, so then, bringing you up to speed, as much as i would have rather carried on racing after the great start to this season i’ve actually really enjoyed the time off, we went over to Czech Republic for a week and also had a couple of weeks over in Spain where i managed to get plenty of cycling in so now we’re back, arrived here at Snetterton and feeling fresh, fit and raring to go!!!!

The weather it has to be said was absolutely perfect for the first free practice session, lovely and warm and not a lot of wind, we had a tiny problem with the bike initially but after just one flying lap i went P1 before pulling straight in to resolve the issue, as the session went on we got faster and faster and at one point i had a clear 1 second advantage, we tried a couple of things with the bike towards the end of the session but they never really worked so we just used the 1 set of tyres but still finished nearly 4 10ths up on the rest so it was a good start!!!   

For the afternoon session we had a bit of a plan to work through, there was the other rear tyre option that we had to get some laps on as well as a few little chassis changes that we wanted to test too, i got straight out and had a bit of traffic and a few guys looking for sneaky tows which meant i actually did 3 or 4 laps before getting going but still when i finally got some clear track i managed a pretty decent lap time, i stuck at it and reeled off a number of laps to check the rear tyre but it became apparent that we still needed to work on our corner entry as with the rear i was testing the feeling was exactly the same as the other, after maybe 10 laps or so i came in to try to find a cure for my problems, at this point i was just under 1 second clear of the rest of the pack, i knew time was counting down and that soon pretty much all the others would be fitting new tyres and going for lap times but it was really important for me to test the changes we’d made with the same tyres so that we didn’t get a false indication, the good news was though that when i went back out the guys had certainly made a good step with the bike, it wasn’t completely fixed but it was a good chunk better and i really enjoyed riding the bike for the first time all weekend, in fact the changes were that good that with over race distance on the tyres i went just 0.1 second a lap slower than my best from the session so hopefully that’d bode well for the races on sunday!!!!

Saturday morning we had one more free practice session which again went well, we were trying to be sure that whatever the conditions track temperature wise we had a bike that we knew we had a good rhythm on, it’s funny in a way because we always get two different types of rear tyre an SC0 and an SC1, 0 being the softer of the two, basically the 1 works well when the track’s cooler and works well up to  a certain track temperature then there’s a cross over point where the 1’s getting to it’s upper limit and the 0 to it’s lower limit then obviously the warmer the track gets generally the better the 0 works but that said the characteristics of the two tyres are different so the way you set the bike for them can differ too!!

Going into qualifying, whilst i was confident of a good lap time i wasn’t sure what the pace would be, i started Qualifying practice 1 on the 1 rear tyre and set a lap time more than good enough to go through to QP2, then in QP2 i used a 0 rear to see the difference, again, i went through to QP3 and with a new pair of tyres i went for it and pulled off a pretty decent lap to go Pole position, to be honest and you may think i’m lying i never care for Pole position’s, what’s the point? races are over 16-30 odd laps depending on the circuit so what’s the point in only being fast for 1 lap lol!!! When my lap time popped up on my dash i was absolutely chuffed to bits and to be honest if that time had of only got me 2nd or 3rd i’d be happy with it, the fact it put me half a second clear of the rest, well, that was just a nice little bonus!!!!!

For morning warm up we had some new brake disc and pads to bed in and after a couple of steady laps to start off with i got going pretty good on a pair of used tyres, we knew we had decent race pace so it was now pretty much just a case of sitting back and waiting to see what the track temperature would do and choose a rear tyre accordingly.

So with track temperature kinda falling right in the middle of the crossover point i spoke about earlier but the weather not looking too much like the sun was about to beat down on us in the imminent future we decided to go with the harder of the two rear ryes, as the lights went out i got a great start and lead immediately but very shortly after a course car came out due to a couple off accidents, I tried as hard as it's possible to keep some heat in the tyres as I knew when the car went in I had to try to make an escape and try to catch the boys napping, I got a good run when the car went in and pushed on a bit initially for a few laps which got me a bit of a gap but then in the interest of not rooting my rear tyre I backed it right off and tried really hard not to use any tyre at all, the only trouble was that my pace dropped just a couple of tenths or so too much in doing so and soon the boys were back on me, I figured at this point there was no point in panicking and trying to up my pace as potentially I'd risk having nothing left for the last couple of laps so I kept things pretty chilled until a couple of laps or so from the end when I got my head down hard again and got a small gap to take the win, I was made up with it even though I figured race two would be harder this was at least one out of the way, it also gave me the perfect chance to dedicate it to two great guys that we lost recently, Karl Harris and Simon Andrews, that one was for you boys!!

After a few small changes it seemed like no time at all before we were lining up on the grid again, my crew chief said to me "look, you've got this, you know the pace you can do, keep it under or around that and I reckon you'll build a buffer and be able to manage it"... Hmmm I thought, ok, let's give it a go!!

As the lights went out I got another decent start, slotted in and settled down, go to the front then started to push to my pace, once again my pace built me a small buffer but things were pretty tight at the front, I once again used my secret weapon which was the big TV monitor on the exit of the final turn to suss out how close the guys were to me and how hard to push accordingly and it seemed to be working a treat, my plan was to once again have a big dig for the final four or five laps to try to break the bunch and with about 3 to go it started to build then the next lap it was at like 3 seconds or something, blimey I thought, I didn't think I was going that fast!! Anyway the final couple of laps past and I crossed the line to take win number two, I was absolutely chuffed to bits to do the double, it was exactly what we needed and a great job by the whole team to get us there..

We knew that it was or is should I say way too early to be counting our chickens and any questions right now about Showdowns or championships seems miles and miles away but we were definitely on the right track, for now I just want to concentrate as hard as possible on racking up podium credits, ask me my aim at any race meeting and it'll be the same, obvious as it may sound it's to win but more importantly it's to rack up as many podium credits as possible because let's face it, it doesn't matter should we make it through to the showdown if we go there with a 200 point lead in the championship it means nothing if I have a 10 point podium credit lead as that's all we'll carry through, with that in mind it's head down bum up and maximum effort to keep them credits coming, let's hope we can rack up a good few more when we go north of the border in a couple of weekends time!!!!

Take it easy till then guys and girls, Shakey #67

Oulton park round 2 2014!!

So then, following on from my well overdue first round Blog last week i decided it’s high time i got cracking with this one to bring you fully up to speed with all the going’s on from Oulton park. Being a bank holiday round i was getting a bit jittery on the friday waiting to travel up, i’d gone up to Oulton and back the previous week and had a 7 hour journey up and a pretty savage trip back too so i wasn’t looking forward to another long day in the car, typically me i’d arranged all sorts of bits and pieces that i’d either not got round to or simply forgot about so my mate Wag and i ended up leaving about 3 hours behind schedule, in fact at the time we finally left i was meant to be meeting my friend and sponsor in Milton Keynes to collect my new bicycle!!!

i think actually a quick shout has to go to Sean from Mavic for sorting said new bike for me, as you probably know i’m a bit of a fan of cycling when it comes to my training and Sean and Mavic sorted me out a properly amazing deal on a new Pinarello Dogma, the same bike Sir Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome won the Tour dr France on, i wish it could make me pedal like those boys but unfortunately it won’t, that said i’ll now look flipping cool even if i’m dolloping along getting overtaken by milk floats lol!!!!

Anyway, finally we arrived at Toddington services to meet Sean and collect the bike and after all the excitement of seeing it and having a quick blast around the service area car park it was back on the road again for Wag and i.

Eventually, unfortunately a good few hours later we finally arrived at Oulton park!!

I have to say that all the way there i was thinking about how tough the weekend was going to be, sure we’d been fast in all testing etc but and we won the first two races of the season but we were heading deep into yamaha land, that bike is so so strong there and i knew i was going to be right up against it trying to beat Josh there, i also knew Josh was super pumped and very hopeful of results similar if not better than previous riders, this was going to be far from a walk in the “Park” if you pardon the pun!!!!!

Having tested at the track as i mentioned earlier we were already semi up to speed on the saturday morning free practice session, we had a few ideas after looking at the data of the direction we’d need to work in and made a few appropriate changes throughout the session.

To be fair my bike was working really really well, throughout practice sessions my crew chief Johnny and Chris my K Tech suspension man chipped away and chipped away and the bike just got better and better, free practice three came to an end with me having a run out on a new rear tyre and going 0.6 clear of the entire field and managing my first 1.34 second lap, i was pretty chuffed with that considering it wasn’t a perfect lap and i got a bit of traffic too, let’s see what qualifying brings then…

We started Q1 with a new front and a new rear tyre and the plan was to use the new set in Q1 and Q2 then go new front new rear for the final session, with that in mind i did an out lap and one flyer to initially go P1, the time wasn’t that fast but i knew it’d be more than enough to get through to Q2 so i sat out the rest of the session.

Q2 i went out on the same tyres as i said before and managed to get back into the 34’s again, a 34.9, Josh had done a 34.9 in Q 1 then a 34.8 in Q2 so i knew it was going to be tight in Q3, i dug in and put in a pretty good lap, it wasn’t perfect but pretty good and when i saw 1.34.5 come up on my dash i was chuffed to bits, i actually thought if you go faster than that you can have the bloody pole lol!!! As it turned out i’d done enough to take Pole by .3 of a second so my first royal London watch was on route ;-)

We had a plan for morning warm up regarding race tyres, i felt we’d definitely done our homework on the harder (safer) option but there was a possibility we could make the softer tyre work for the race, especially if the temperature got up a bit more, our plan however was scuppered by overnight rain and far cooler track temp so unless the temperature really picked up we knew exactly what our tyre choice was going to be..

Race 1 then, as i’ve said, i wasn’t really expecting to be starting from Pole but was happy to nonetheless, i got a decent ish start and lead initially but pretty much straight away the course car came out, obviously being at the front you never know the reason until you come back around to where the incident happened and i have to say on that first pass at the top of cascades we went through what vaguely resembled a motocross track and i looked at Josh as if to say this race needs stopping, we peel in to the top of cascades touching the rev limiter in 4th gear so probably approaching 130-140mph and i didn’t really want to be the first guy to find out if they’d cleaned all the mud and dust etc sufficiently!!!

fortunately however atet another couple of laps behind the course car the track was looking pretty good, as the course car pulled off i got on the gas and away we went, i was pretty cautious the first few times across the top of where the mud had been but nevertheless started to build up a bit of a lead, at one point the lead got up to 1.5 seconds and with about 4 or 5 laps to go i concentrated on staying consistent, the gap started coming down and i thought hmm, i know who that’ll be but rather than panicking and trying to pull away again i stayed calm and maintained my rhythm, for the last few turns i rode a little bit more defensively then exiting the final turn i drove hard to the finish line to hold off Josh to take the first race of the day.

The only thing that was going to affect us for race two was going to be track temperature but with that not changing dramatically we just made a little change to the rear of the bike and were good to go for race two, Josh had lapped slightly faster than me in the first race so for this one i would start from second but i was cool with that so it was a case of sit and wait for the lights to go out and… go go go!! 

Once again i got a decent ish start, and slotted straight in to 3rd, i made a move on James Ellison into the fast left hander Island bend as Josh was in the lead and i didn’t want him sneaking away, that move worked and a lap or two later i tried the exact same move on Josh, he never gave way though and held his line but ran slightly wide so i passed him into Shell oils hairpin, on the way i the i heard a horrible scraping noise and honestly thought i’d clipped him or he’d just caught my bike on the way in and he’d gone down, it was weird because i never for some reason got fully on it on the exit of the turn and i was trying out of the corner of my eye to see if there were yellow flags across the track on the entry to Shell showing a rider down, then bugger me as i peeled into the Fulstons chicane Josh came back past me and caught me well off guard, there i was thinking oh no, i’m sure my move was clean, it wasn’t my fault blah blah blah and the next thing i knew he was overtaking me!!!

To cut a long story short i followed him from there on in for the whole race, there were plenty of places i was faster but a particular section that he was able to pull a bit on me, i sat there for the last few laps planning my attack, i knew i’d have to pass him real early in the lap or he'd be in with a good shout of passing me back but i just couldn’t get enough of a run early enough in the lap to make a pass, on the last lap i had a proper go, Josh was under pressure and making a few little mistakes but trying hard to capitalise i made a mistake myself, i set myself up for a big run to the line as Josh had gone in tight but the Yamaha had the legs off that turn and Josh pipped me by exactly the same amount as i’d beaten him in the first race, 1 10th of a second.

Now i have to admit i’m never happy to finish second but i’ve taken a great deal of positivity from the Oulton park weekend, my bike was great, my Pole time was real fast, i won the first race, our times in race two were super fast and consistent and finally we ran Yamaha who’ve dominated there recently so so close and almost had another double, for me that was a massive weekend, believe it or not i’m actually gutted we’ve got such a big break now as i’m really enjoying the season so far!! 

That said we have a couple of nice breaks planned now, we’re off to Czech republic for a week to see the in laws which should be great, usually Petra and i nip off to Prague for a day or so while the grandparents have the kids so i’m really looking forwards to that, i’m also hoping to get a load of training done to ensure we come back for Snetterton in tip top condition, i can’t wait to get going again, hopefully see some of you at Snetterton, take it easy, Shakey #67  

I know, I know, I know... Pre season and Brands hatch round 1!!

Ok hands up I've gone and got myself in a bit of a pickle here, it's been that long since I've done a Blog that I actually don't know where to start and not only that 2 rounds in to the new season and I've almost forgotten Brands already, I'm gonna do my best he recollect what's been going on in my world over the past few months so hang tight, here we go!!!

I guess that going over now what happened in testing over in Spain seems pretty pointless, as you may or may not recall i tested way back in the end of november last year and got to use the new 17 inch wheels, at a track as tight and twisty as Cartagena that .5 of an inch difference was massive and i remember way back then thinking these wheels really suit my bike and looking forwards to getting back out in the new year, now, fast forward a few months, a good few gym sessions with the personal trainer i’ve entrusted to get me in the best possible shape for this season, fast forwards even more to a whole load of cycling as well as the personal training and end up at a trip to Italy to see my clothing supplier Alpinestars, why i hear you ask, well, after spending the whole winter on a special diet and training full gas i’d dropped a bit of weight, when i say a bit i dropped approximately 4-5 kilos!!!!, What’s that got to do with Alpinestars, well, i last went over to Italy in 2005, my second season in Moto GP so i figured it was high time i went for a remeasure and get this, i’m leaner and fitter now than i was 9 years ago and adjustments had to be made to my suit to make it smaller to fit me better as last years suit o me looked like a shell suit lol!!!!!

Onwards and upwards then and off to Almeria for the official BSB preseason tests, i really enjoy the circuit and was really looking forwards to getting going, we had John McGuiness come over with us to hang out which was cool, he’s such a funny guy and all three evenings were spent laughing our heads off at all the stories of the past, it was almost like the test was a massive team bonding exercise, not that we need to be any tighter because i have a great team anyway but it was work hard all day and relax hard all evening so we had a great time, not only that i went bloody fast, like really fast on the bike too and was consistently fast not just the odd lap here and there on brand new tyres!!! 

Straight after Almeria came the first UK test of the year up at Donington park, a semi damp first session meant i never bothered going out but once the track dried up we got some good work done and again we were fast, it was the first test up against all of our competitors and we managed to come out on top which was cool although it was consistency we were looking for not outright lap times so it was a win win situation!!!

Onwards then to the next test, a two day affair at Snetterton, again a test that was semi hampered by the weather, it was really cold so track temperature were really low and the wind on the first day was bad news, the second day though was far better and we managed to once again go real fast, i even managed to beat my own lap record held from the last year of full F.I.M Superbike spec back in 2011 with a 1.47.9, i was pretty chuffed with that i tell you!!!!

Right then, now we’re making progress so let’s move onwards again to round 1!!

Brands hatch, what can i say that i haven’t said before about the place, i love the long circuit but i’m not a fan at all of the short circuit, to me any track we can get around in 45 seconds isn’t big enough, the fact we have 2 30 lap races there, well, that say it all, back markers are always a trauma but hey, it’s still Brands hatch, and ultimately when we’re on the GP circuit it’s one of the coolest tracks on earth, well, to me anyway lol!!!

Practice in the dry had been going well, to be honest with the lap being so short it only takes a few laps before you're up to speed, that combined with the fact that the first round was a four day affair meant that by the time we got to qualifying most of us were going dizzy, well, that’s what you must’ve thought after the absolute crash fest that qualifying became, i know and understand that the organisers have to have a qualifying session and of course there was all kinds of eruptions and press releases after but i still FIRMLY stand my ground that 13 of the top 15 qualifying riders didn’t crash just because we were al trying hard, that is absolute nonsense and after the event is something that Johnathon Palmer has invited me up to the circuit to help to try to resolve, there’s something about the Indy section of the track that makes it almost impossible to stay on your bike, i crashed twice for absolutely no reason, Josh Brookes 3 times and like i said 13 of the top 15 qualifiers all crashed in the same session, that’s got to say something, right???…

Race day then, we knew with the settings that we had for the dry that we would be competitive, myself and Josh seemed to be the two most consistent guys in the dry throughout practice so with Josh starting from Pole and me down in 13th on the 5th row surely an uphill battle would ensue.

I got a decent enough start but i was very keen not to rush and make a mistake trying to make up places, i took no big risks picking my way through the field then going up into Druids i saw Josh had gone down, shortly after i was up into 2nd with Stalker about 2 seconds clear, once through all the traffic i found a real nice rhythm and started reeling Stalker in, i still had about 20 laps to go so figured driving myself mad to catch him quick may have used too much tyres yet the pace i was going i was trying to go easy on them, eventually i got right on Stalkers back wheel and pretty much instantly the red flags came out, at that point i wasn’t sure if it was two thirds race distance so i didn’t know if it was a result or not..

After the race we stopped it was announced there’d be a re start over 12 or 16 laps, i can’t remember which, i’d be starting P2 rather than on the 5th row so it was gonna make life a lot easier, however knowing Stalker and James Ellison would probably run the softer tyre i knew the pace might be stronger so i had to get my head down, i got a good start, got myself into the lead then chipped away to eventually win the 1st race of the year by just under 2 seconds!!

Race 2 came around pretty quick, 30 hard laps were in front of us and with Josh starting 10th and me up the front i knew i’d need to try to get going asap, again i got a decent enough start, eventually i took the lead then reeled of 29 laps and managed to take the double at round one, for sure Josh was closing me down but like i said we held it together to take the double so i was absolutely delighted, the extra bonus was it was my team boss Paul Bird’s birthday on the friday before so it made a nice birthday present for him lol!!!! So then after the perfect start to the season it was now onwards and upwards yet again, this time to Yamaha’s stomping ground, Oulton park… 

Happy Christmas!!!!

Well guys and girls, time for a super quick check in with you all, really and truly it was simply to say that i’d like to wish you all a very happy Christmas, i hope you had a great day, got all the presents you wanted, i know i did!!!! No peace for the wicked this end though, straight back into training tomorrow, got to do something to work off the Christmas dinner Petra cooked us today, i tell you something if Carling did Christmas dinners lol…

Anyway, as i said, hope you all had a great day and lets look forward to a great 2014, talk to you all soon, enjoy the rest of your breaks, Shakey #67 

Signed, sealed, now to deliver!!!!

I'm so so happy to be typing this Blog, I'm actually starting it sat on a plane on route to the Czech Republic as this is about the first chance I've had to sit down for five minutes as I've had a bit of a hectic few days lately but more about that in a minute!!

Things work wise have been all a bit up in the air lately, I've known what I wanted to do for a long long time and fortunately for me I'm in a very fortunate position where my boss Paul Bird simply said I want you to stay riding for me but we'll work out the details once the MotoGP side of things is boxed off, you may remember a while back I said that I might have some news straight after Valencia, well, that was what it was all about, as it turns out it's taken this long for the PBM and I'm guessing Aprilia job to sort itself out but as I said I knew all along Paul had my back so it was all cool as far as I was concerned, there were the usual calls from other teams wanting me for BSB but my first priority and loyalty was to Paul and PBM so those jobs steadily got taken by others.

We'd known for a while that as a team we needed to get out to Spain to test before Christmas, in fact it was something that the team were fairly adamant about, for 2014 BSB is switching to 17 inch wheels to follow WSB and we knew that the wheels had quite an effect of the bikes handling so it was important to get out to try them and get a feel for what they did to my bike.

It's funny you know having a couple of months or whatever it's been since the last race at Brands off how initially you feel a tiny bit rusty, Cartagena isn't the type of track that you get a chance to ease yourself into either, you get about a 4 or 5 second rest up the start finish straight but the rest of the lap is either on the side of the tyre or changing direction so it's pretty physical and relentless, it'd be a great track on a 600 or something but a super bike takes a bit of wrestling around there!!! We spent a few laps getting comfortable around the track again and getting up to speed again which to be honest happened pretty damn quick then after a few exits we fired in the new 17 inch wheels and got to work on getting the bike working good with them, in some respects they were real good but in others I was surprised how similar they were to the outgoing 16.5's, I'm not going to say too much about the differences but I think I can safely say that lap records should be getting broken again next season, especially if my time by the end of the test compared to my time there after 3 days of riding earlier in the year is anything to go by and when I tell you that we lost about 45 minutes of running on the final day due to a technical problem thus not giving me the chance to go for a proper all out lap time I think things will be real good!!

After the test I only got a day or so at home before packing our bags ready to head to Czech Republic to go to see the in laws, this was supposed to be a real relaxing trip with Petra and I even planning a sneaky day and night together in Prague as we enjoyed it there so much last year, however the minute we got to the in laws Petra's sisters boyfriend said casually oh, I've entered a running race on Saturday, it's 10km's and should be pretty good, knowing I hadn't run since early March I said can anyone enter, secretly hoping he'd say no it's a club thing but he said yes for sure so before we'd even got settled in we'd been entered....

Yesterday, we woke up, kept hearing it'll be fine blah blah blah, got in the car with him and a friend, drove to the race and about 2 km from the entrance we started dropping down a big hill, unbeknown to us this was part of the course, as we approached it seemed the closer we got to the parking and starting area the steeper this hill was getting, knowing I'd not run in such a long time I was like Martin, is this some sort of joke, he was like, actually no, I was expecting it to be quite like this, anyway, to cut a long story short, we started went up and up and up, levelled off, dropped down a slight slope then I looked up in front of me and saw the leaders running up a massive flight of steps up into a big church that stood perched on top of a hill, I thought you're shitting me, first run back and this is happening, what made it worse was the fact that I knew we had to do 2 laps, it was hard enough getting up it first time round, god knows what lap 2 was going to be like!!!!

Eventually the 2nd lap passed and heading down towards the finish line I passed a group I'd been chasing for a fair while, not that it meant anything but I was chuffed, then with about 100 odd meters to go I started hearing big thudding footsteps behind me, I thought no, don't be thinking about passing me back, this one guy came past me and as we turned the last turn with about 50 meters to go we both got faster and faster, I gave it absolutely everything and literally just pipped him to the line, I thought you cheeky b word, fancy trying to pip me that close to the finish, mind you I did practically throw up crossing the line, I can honestly say hand on heart I tried lol!!!

I waited for a bit then saw Petra coming towards e end of her race, she did the 10km course too and ended up having a sprint finish with some guy who she too pipped, she actually finished 3rd in her class so I was well proud of her because when I say that was a tough race I really mean it!!

Today we're off to Prague, Petra and i stayed there for 3 days last year and loved it so we're going again, lunchtime we have a coach, we'll get to Prague around 3 then I've booked us a real nice hotel right in the middle of the city near Wenceslas square tonight then a full day of kicking back tomorrow, I'm really looking forward to it!!!

Right I'm gonna check out now, talk to you guys soon, take it easy, Shakey #67

 "

Quick catch up!!!

Thought I'd take this opportunity to fire you guys a quick Blog, admittedly there's not a great deal to report right now but I guess a quick catch up anyway won't do any harm!!

Since the season finale back at brands things have been fairly quiet in my little world! we had a trip to Spain for half term which was supposed to be a week off just chilling but ended up turning into a cycling mission, it was nice though in the time that I wasn't on the push bike to really just relax, enjoy my family and enjoy life in general, the fact that the last day in October was 28 degrees and we spent a couple of hours catching rays by the pool helped too lol!!!

I've been hoping to make an announcement for a bit now regarding my plans for 2014, there was a chance I'd be able to do so straight after the final MOTO GP round at Valencia but there's been a few delays, it's not a drama though, I'm fairly certain that everything needed is in place and it's only a matter of time before I can say.

Myself and a good mate of mine brought ourselves some enduro bikes recently and managed to get out on them at a place called Enduroland the other weekend, it's funny you know, we both brought the trickest enduro bikes out there, myself a 300 2 stroke and Wag a 450 4 stroke, both 6 day limited edition ones so they look properly cool, I spent 20 odd minutes running mine in on the road the night before, then we rocked up Sunday morning, unloaded these pristine brand new bikes, rode for about an hour and a half over the course of about 3 hours then loaded back into the van two bikes that looked absolutely nothing like they did when we arrived!! I had such a fun day, it was my first time back on an off road bike in about 2 years and for pretty much the whole week after I was a bit stiff and sore, I'm not sure what hurt the most though, my body form all the silly little crashes I had or my stomach from all the giggling and laughing I was doing riding watching my pals slipping, sliding and falling about all over the place, it truly was a great day and I'm pleased I brought the bike, I even went to the trouble of jet washing it afterwards to see if it was still my bike under all the mud and crap lol, it's at my local dealer now though getting a full fettle up so it should be brand new by the time I collect it from there, I can't wait to get back out on it!!

Talking of the week after that day it was an interesting one for me, I went to see two different personal trainers as I'm right on the case for 2014, I know that if I just do what I normally do I'll start the season in good shape but I want to start next year in the best shape ever so it was important to enlist some help!!, Monday morning after the enduro riding I went over to Tunbridge wells for a bit of a fitness test with one of the guys, feeling like I'd been run over by a truck I guess the results were never going to be outstanding but I was pretty happy in all fairness with the way I performed, knowing myself that I've done next to nothing since Assen because of crashes etc I guess this was the worst I was ever likely to be some improvements should come fairly quickly!!

At the end of the week I went up to Kensington to see an other guy and did a work out with him too and that's the route I'm going to follow from here on in so hopefully well definitely we'll be seeing some big gains from the word go, funnily enough I'm sat on the train to Victoria now typing this on route to another torture session lol!!!!

Another pretty cool thing that's happened recently was getting to meet HRH Prince William up at the NEC show, it ended up being a bit of a mission to get it sorted with the organisers of the show claiming they couldn't help at all but then somehow managing to get Bradley Smith an arranged meeting but hey, what goes around and all that, fortunately for me the guys at Ducati UK are good people and the boss there managed to swing it for me, made the introduction and away we went, the Prince I can tell you is a very cool guy, we chatted a bit about Ducati's, riding in general and touched on racing then he wondered off for his look around the stand so that was an absolute honour and I'd like to say a big thanks to Tim Macabee from Ducati for sorting it for me!!

Next week we're off to the Czech Repuplic for just under a week which will be really nice, I love going there because it's so relaxing for me, don't get me wrong I'll be doing a bit of running to keep on top of things but 90% of the time it's kick back and relax! I'm hoping that Petra and I can disappear up to Prague for a day and a night too, I love at city and really enjoyed the three days we had there last year.

Whilst we're over there our dog's off to boot camp, not literally, I took her the other day over to a guy in Tunbridge wells who does residential training for dogs, she's having a two week stay there and basically should come back a far more balanced, calm and obedient dog, at least that's the theory lol, not only that it works well time wise with us going away.

Right, not much further to go now so I'm going to sign off, I'll be catching up with you guys as soon as I can make an announcement which hopefully will be soon, take care guys and girls, Shakey #67 

FINALLY,the Brands Hatch finale!!!

I'm not going to lie, I started typing this Blog during the brands hatch weekend! I got all the way though to qualifying maybe whilst I was there keeping it up to date so I wouldn't have so much left to do once the season finished but then the races happened and I just couldn't bring myself to finish it until now...

What a difference 12 months makes.. That may sound like a bit of a strange way to start a Blog but it's exactly, and I mean exactly what I thought as I turned in to the main entrance at Brands hatch on Thursday afternoon.

Now that difference, it wasn't that I entered through the paddock entrance the year before it was the massive difference to my approach this year compared to last, no, I didn't brake late, hand brake turn into the track lol before you start thinking what on earth is he on about!!

Basically the difference is, 12 months ago, I'd left Silverstone, had a small points lead but almost drove myself cuckoo thinking so so much about everything to do with BSB, sleepless nights, I had a few, constant day dreams, they never stopped, time in the gym was spent wondering or hoping should I say that none of my competitors were training as hard, I wanted it and I wanted it bad but almost too bad as it completely engulfed my life, I was snappy, on edge and not at all happy, pressure which some people talk about in these situations was so heavy that when the saying he looks like he's got the weight of the world on his shoulders, I felt like I had the whole bloody galaxy on mine!!!

This year after Silverstone I left there in a good place, don't get me wrong I left on crutches which was far from ideal but I left there happy, really happy and let's be honest 1 point lead or 10 it didn't really matter, it was always going to be way too close to call so leaving Silverstone I left BSB full stop behind and got on with my life, I spent a lot of time going to physio, a lot of time with my family and a lot of time keeping a very watchful eye on our new puppy who obviously required lots and lots of attention, my body wasn't in a good place in terms of pain from the Assen and  Silverstone crashes but my head, that was cool, getting back to the entrance to Brands hatch now and what that 10 days did for me was make me almost talk to myself or think out loud as I drove into the entrance  "right then, that was a nice break, I guess this is where the Showdown starts" I said or thought at least with a smile on my face and I felt remarkably fresh and happy as I waited for the barrier to go up to let me in!!

From there on in the afternoon turned into a bit of a blur, tv, radio and photos etc saw the afternoon disappear in a flash, roll on Friday!!

Typically, and I mean typically Friday morning conditions were crap, I don't know if mother natures had some sort of BSB vendetta going on but it feels like just about every single first session we've had this year has start either wet or damp, like most with conditions being neither here nor there I sat out most of the session and literally did 2 or 3 laps at then end just to bed in a set of brake pads, talk about productive...not!!!!

For the afternoon session things finally started to dry up, conditions were ok, still a couple of tiny bits that were damp but the track was generally dry, my bike was working good, we obviously had our data from the brands hatch round in August but at the same time things have moved on a little since then too, we made a few little changes to the setting we started on throughout the session and towards the end threw a new pair of tyres at the job and despite a scrappy lap I did a time only 0.3 off of my qualifying time in August and was the only rider in the 1.25's 4 10th's clear of the rest, needless to say there was still a bit of work to be done but it was certainly a good start to what we hoped would be a dry weekend...

Unfortunately Mother Nature decided once again that it would be a good time to intervene, Saturday morning conditions were crap again, we went out and did some laps in order to have a direction by the time qualifying came around, the session went ok but I couldn't help but wish that things would dry out for qualifying..

Throughout qualifying it seemed the track was constantly changing and a combination of bright sun in places onto soaking wet tarmac made things even more tricky, we constantly throughout all three sessions had to change the bike to suit and eventually had a decent enough setting that enabled me to qualify on the front row of the grid in P2 which I was pretty happy about to say the least!! 

Being a triple header weekend it seemed like no time whatsoever before we were ling up on the grid for race one, the conditions were horrible, it seemed that the one thing that nobody from the organisers, the fans, the teams or riders wanted was going to happen, there was a very strong chance that the championship after all the great racing we'd had could potentially be decided by a correct tyre choice.

As the lights went out I got a good start and lead into turn one, immediately I lost a place to Josh, I thought this was going to suit us better sitting in behind him and I just thought you crack on, to basically cut a long story short I ended up third, basically when the track was wet the bike was good but as conditions started drying up as the race went on the bike kind of went away from me, sitting in the post race press conference it was interesting listening to Josh and Alex, it seems Josh was in a similar situation to me, when the track was real wet his bike was great as was mine but as the track dried out a bit we both started to struggle, Alex however was the opposite, he sat behind me for the majority of the race initially struggling but as the track dried out his bike setting started working better, with a few laps to go he passed me and at that point in time there wasn't anything left in the locker to fight him with.... 

For morning warm up the next day we made some pretty big changes to the bike, fortunately it was proper wet unlike the day before so it was a good chance to find a proper wet setting, I ended that session P1 by nearly a second so whilst I was hoping it was going to be dry I guess full wet wouldn't be so bad either!

Typically the weather messed about, nearly drying up, the sun even making the odd appearance then it would pour hard for a few minutes and ruin everything again.

I started race 2 from 3rd place so still on the front row and again got another good start, conditions this time were, how can I say, a bit more sketchy, to the point that I actually went out on the sighting lap on intermediate tyres because I figured that if the rain held off towards the end of the race they'd come into their own, the only trouble was on the sighting lap the track was still pretty wet in places and intermediate tyres are basically slick ie dry tyres with a few cuts in them so you can probably imagine what that did grip wise lol, I sat on the grid to the last possible minute trying to make a tyre decision, if the rain held off maybe inters would work but if it rained again which looked fairly likely you'd be snookered, oh well, not like this race was important!!! In the end I semi gambled and went wet front intermediate rear, let's suck it and see....

Mother Nature or mother F****r as I was aptly naming her at the time was once again playing her part in between races, why on earth she couldn't just take a day off and leave the sunshine with us I'll never know!!

Once again I got a good start and lead into turn one, I was pretty steady on the way in and got passed fairly quickly by Josh, the 1st laps were awful, I mean awful, it was pretty much all I could do to stay on the bike, I got a sign on my pit board saying Lowes out and couldn't believe it, I was going backwards pretty rapidly and every section of the track was a battle, I felt like a cross between a blind man, a man with no feeling in his arms and hands and a complete circuit rookie riding around, I'd already dropped to 8th when half way around Druids the rear of the bike came round on me and this time there was no way of saving it and down I went, do you know what though at that point whilst I was obviously very annoyed I wasn't bothered, all I could think and I mean all I could think was please god let the last race be dry, let us battle head to head, I want to win this thing and sketchy conditions or a correct tyre choice shouldn't determine the outcome of what's been either way a fantastic season of racing....

So then, the final race of the year, rules definitely worked against me BIG TIME, Alex who crashed on the opening lap and never even set a lap time was 8th on the grid but with me being so useless in the 2nd race I was starting on the 7th row, they might just as well have put me back in Swanley lol, ironically Nori was back there too, the two of us sandwiched Jenny Tinmouth on the grid!!!

My prayers weren't answered at all weather wise. Again, the track was pretty wet, again a change of setting to try to get the best of both worlds from the bike, a bike that would hopefully be good if it stayed properly wet but wouldn't fall to pieces if it went damp rather than full wet, this was it baby, let's do this!!

Sitting there at the back of the grid I never had the slightest element of doubt, in fact if anything I was super positive, I wanted this 4th title and sure it wasn't going to be easy from where I was on the grid but hey if BSB was meant to be easy then you'd be able to collect tokens and post of for the title, I knew I had to just keep my nose clean for the 1st lap then make up as much time as possible as soon as possible, I had to beat Alex and Alex had to beat me, whoever did, well, you do the maths!! The lights went out and we were away, I got a good initial launch and was steady up into and through Paddock, I'd made quite a few places already but there was quite a lot of spray, I took no notice whatsoever of the riders I was passing, through the spray I just kept looking for that Blue number 22, rider after rider I kept passing and eventually I could see him in a bunch, lap after lap I got closer, my pace was real good and I was feeling confident, eventually I passed him and I thought to myself right concentrate, concentrate like you never concentrated before, come on, let's do this, a few laps later for the first time in the whole race I looked at my pit board and it said P2, it dawned on me then that the difference in points between 2nd and 3rd would make me champion, I never even knew we were that far up the order, I was thinking there would be another group further up the track, despite lapping faster and faster I wasn't breaking Alex, my pitboard just kept reading +0 Lowes, I had there horrible thoughts about Saturdays race where he sat behind then pulled the pin at the end, I knew though that I was doing all I could and concentrated on not making any mistakes, with a couple of laps to go Alex came past, at that point a question from a journalist after Saturdays race "if that was the last race on Sunday to determine the championship could you or would you have tried to go with Alex?" My answer, "what do you think in a very disgruntled tone, do you think I'd give it way!!!???"

Alex did up the pace but so did I, so much in fact that the pair of us lapped over a second a lap faster than eventual winner Josh Brooke's, I was on Alex and was far from done, on the last couple of laps we WERE both on the ABSOLUTE LIMIT, Alex was making tiny mistakes and so was I, I had a plan for the last lap, I knew where I could be strong but going up into Druids I got in a tiny bit hot and for a fraction of a second I lost the front and went slightly wide meaning I couldn't get back on the gas, my plan was still to have a to out  the back of the track, I pushed really hard, in fact a little too hard into Surtees to make up some of the time I'd lost at Druids and again went a tiny bit wide, eventually Alex had enough to hold it together over the line and that was it, my dream 4th title gone.

I stopped with him at the bottom of Paddock hill to congratulate him and the 1st thing he said was Sorry!!! I laughed with him and said fair play mate, hats off, you did it today and I'm proud of you, I rode back to the pits gutted, absolutely gutted, if given this whole year my absolute all and a sketchy final day saw all that hard work go out of the window, I couldn't care less if I was 2nd or 10th, I f I haven't won I simply don't care. 

My team were great in park ferme, I apologised and told them I truly couldn't have done more and my crew chief replied, mate, we couldn't have asked for more, great job.

I'd like to now thank everyone that's been involved this year, naming you all will put another 20 minutes on this already month or so overdue blog but you all know who you are! I'm actually going  to sign off now! I'll fire up another Blog real soon, I promise, it's no excuse for this one being so late but it actually broke me finally typing this, I'm sat in a Costa thinking I can't believe I've finally finished this Blog, I've had little stabs at it ever since the season finished but every time I did I couldn't bring myself to type the bit about losing the title, here, finally it is, thanks everyone for taking the time to read it and despite scoring the most points again this year sorry to all my fans for not bringing home the prize, I can promise you hand on heart I tried!!!!

Take it easy guys and girls, talk to you soon Shakey #67 

Silverstone!!!

Believe it or not I couldn't wait for Silverstone to come around, it's strange though because whilst I was so so keen to get there as soon as humanly possible to get back on track I was also trying to slow down going as much as possible too as physio and getting back into training after the crash took a little bit more than I'd expected, don't get me wrong, I drove up feeling almost new but living day to day and racing a superbike are quite different lol!!!

On the Thursday before the event the organisers treated Alex, James and myself to another play in the Nissan GTR's around the track and I have to say it was something I was looking forward to, bearing in mind that the track was wet I could not believe how hard you could drive the things, the grip was unreal and the whole thing while it only last about 15 minutes or so was good fun!!

Things got off to a bit of an iffy start on Friday morning, I was laying in bed sparko when I kind of wore a bit to what sounded like someone sand blasting the motorhome roof, as I came around more I realised it was raining HARD, all I could think was can we not have just one completely dry race weekend this year!!

Fridays first session was of course wet, a few guys went out initially but we sat the session out until the last 20 minutes as the lap times weren't great anyway, I ended up doing just 5 pr 6 laps for two reasons mainly, 1st I had a brand new bike because the other was written off at Assen and 2nd If I didn't ride and Sunday we got rain there'd be no more wet practice as the morning session was wet, the bike felt fine as a bike but our wet setting wasn't very good so I just did the laps and got a feel for the track knowing what we'd need to change but not doing it with 5 minutes or so to go in the session.

Fortunately the afternoon session whilst not perfect was pretty much dry, that gave us a chance to get some dry laps in, lap times weren't especially spectacular but with a few damp patches here and there and the fact it was only Friday afternoon I didn't want to be firing the bike at the scenery when the rest of the weekend was forecast dry!!

Saturday morning however, well thats a whole new story, the track was dry but pretty cool temperature wise, I waited a few minutes before heading out and as soon as the boys improved on their lap times from the previous day I headed out, my bike immediately felt much better than the day before, so much better in fact that my first flying lap was something like 1.5 or 2 seconds a lap faster!!, that fast in fact that when my lap time popped up on my dash I almost had to do a double take!!,my next lap was a bit off but then I was straight back into good lap times, I was +1.5 seconds per lap on everyone else and consistent too, but then, then it all went wrong, I approached the complex on another real good lap got through the left, perfect, accelerate out, perfect,close the throttle into Luffield then peel in, the next thing I know I'm in a whole world of pain laying in the gravel trap, basically as I chopped the throttle and flicked the bike in the rear of the bike decided to try to overtake the front then gripped flicking me HIGH over the high side and into the gravel, t not what you need!!!

Somehow straight after the crash I found myself instantly in the medical centre but from there on in the world seemed to hit the fast forward button, initially I didn't feel terrible, don't get me wrong I was hurt but seemed to have things under control but then, then I tried to stand up and put weight on my right leg, that's when it hit me, maybe like one of those taser gun things, a shock of lightning up through my groin and into my spine, it completely done me the 1st time it hit, the most intense sharp short pain ever, sat normally I couldn't really feel it, but my foot down again and BANG, there it was, this wasn't cool!!

Eventually after x rays etc on my pelvis and spine the medics after me pleading agreed to let me qualify, that fast forward thing I mentioned saw the pleading happen about 30 minutes before qualifying!!

My first qualifying lap was something else, I've never felt so useless on a bike, so sore, so tight, so painful just to move, fortunately though Q1 and 2 went ok, then I just had to bite the screen for the final effort and managed to produce a lap fast enough to qualify P2, I think it's fair to say that was a pretty good effort!!!

After savage amounts of physio, a half hour session on my turbo trainer and a hot bath in one of the team guys hotel room I got my head down for the night but the morning wasn't good, straight back to physio before morning warm up, just two or three laps in the warm up session then another load of physio and before I knew it I was sat on the grid ready for the start of race 1..

I managed a good start of P2 and lead through the Sthil power award, Alex as I fully expected passed me going into Stowe at the end of the back straight which for me was perfect, I know he has real good pace around that place so if I concentrated hard and tried to forget about how much I was hurting then I hoped I'd be able to go with him and maybe get dragged away from the rest of the guys, there was a point about half way maybe through the race where I started loosing a bit of concentration and making the odd mistake, I was starting to struggle on the bike, moving around and being mobile enough to catch slides or move my body into whatever positions necessary was getting hard, I couldn't help but think I CANNOT give up on this, this is a championship on the line here, fortunately for me whilst Alex was setting a bloody good pace I was able to go with him, that did eventually drag us both away from the rest and as soon as I saw his bike starting to move and slide about a bit I thought I'm gonna be there or thereabouts for this race, all of a sudden it was like a dose of painkiller in me!! That last lap was mega, Alex and I passed each other a couple of times then on the run to the line I got alongside him, we went through the final turn side by side, 5th gear pinned but I knew when not if my rear tyre spun I'd clip him so I had to roll slightly in order to not potentially take us both out and with that I lost to him by a 10th of a second, a result, a race, a finish that given the circumstances I was over the moon with, having watched him for a lot of laps I knew where we needed to improve my bike too so it was, podium, debrief, dinner, physio, power nap, race two! 

Having somehow got the fastest lap in race one I started the 2nd race from Pole position, I got another great start, lead for a lap or 2, got passed by Alex, then back into the lead, then passed by Alex, then back to the lead, it seemed to me that my bike was slightly better due to the settings changes and after a few initial laps of discomfort I seemed to settle in real good, this time we made more of a race of things and I was really enjoying myself, my bike was working great it was just that Alex's strong points seemed to be my weak points and vice versa so when he pulled on me he pulled big then I had to work real hard to get back on him, I lead a bit towards the end of the race and knew it was going to be tough, having made a mistake on the last lap of the first race I really wanted the 2nd one to be better but both of us were on the limit, both having moments everywhere and before I knew it we were back I to Luffield and heading towards the final corner with Alex leading and protecting his line, I thought I'm gonna have to pull something pretty special to win it from here, then Alex dived into the final turn fairly tight to block me so I hung out, hit a late apex pinned to the throttle stop in 5th gear, spun a bit, lifted the bike and managed to JUST pip Alex to the line by 0.0012 of a second but the funny thing was as I Pulled the move I was so excited, so happy that I almost knew it'd got it, I celebrated immediately because to be honest it was such a big move that even if I hadn't won I was over the moon with my effort!!

Sure enough on the slowdown lap I saw I had the win, and saw the margin, I was ecstatic, as I rode back along the Brooklands straight I stopped to thank all the medics and physio staff that had done so so much for me since Saturday morning then as I got to Luffield the crowd erupted, I was so so happy and if you were amongst them then please accept my gratitude for all your support over the weekend.

I really gave it my all to try to keep this thing going, Brands is gonna be tough but if I have as much fun riding as the two showdown rounds we've had so far then you guys are in for a big treat if you're coming to the finale!!

For now though it's gonna be some full on physio sessions to try to get myself back in the best shape possible before brands hatch, hopefully see you there! take it easy guys and girls! Shakey #67