Brands hatch test..

After spending what should’ve been five full days riding the Rapid Solicitors PBM Kawasaki in Spain I was more than a little bit keen to jump back aboard it in the UK and with our first UK test being at Brands hatch it couldn’t have been a better place to start because lets face it I’ve done a lap or two around there in my time!!!!

My first exit on the bike couldn’t possibly have started any better, within 4 laps I was pretty much getting on the pace, I even surprised myself a bit!! That said though due to the new technical regulations which mean a “Superbike” is no longer so “Super” what a decent lap time is or how consistent we can expect to be over race duration remains to be seen…

One thing the team had managed to do since returning to the UK was unleash a little bit more grunt from our engines and improve the way the engine responds to the amount of throttle I twist so I was real happy with that as in Spain this was a pretty big issue, winding on 100% throttle in the middle of a corner with no traction control just to get things going a bit quicker could well spell a one way ticket to the moon!!!!

We spent pretty much all the sessions at Brands working on the new Motec ECU, any ideas of this championship having a control ECU that you can just bolt in and go are miles off, so far pretty much quite literally all we’ve done at pretty much every track we’ve been to is spend the whole time working on the electronics because until you get them somewhere near the way the bike works from a chassis point of view is irrelevant, as soon as you make another change and improve the electronics you automatically knock a chunk off your lap time but then you run in to new chassis problems that you try to fix, once they’re fixed you go faster then run into electronic issues again and it just seems to carry on and on like that at the moment!!!!

I have to admit that after 80 odd laps at Brands hatch I left there not so happy because we seemed to hit a bit of a wall lap time wise, the most frustrating thing was that by the end of the day my lap time on a 32 lap old rear tyre was only a 10^th of a second off of my fastest which in turn was only a 10^th faster than my lap time that I did on my 4^th flying lap so progress in terms of lap time wasn’t made at all but we learnt a lot about the electronics in the process so we could take that information forward with us to Snetterton and hopefully build in a big way.

Putting a positive spin on things as I always like to do we know that we still have a fair bit more work to do but even so we’re there or thereabouts in terms of outright pace but from a tyre management point of view things are almost too good, usually at a small track like Brands a new set of tyres would be worth maybe half a second a lap or so, maybe a tiny bit more but the fact it gave us nothing tells us that something’s obviously still amiss, so with that in mind in two weeks time we’re looking to be in pretty good shape as we have Snetterton and maybe another test before we return to Brands hatch for round 1 so plenty of time to get things dialled in properly… Right enough from Brands, I have to type up Snetterton now, take it easy, Shakey #67

Almeria test

So with our second road trip completed we arrived at the hotel just outside of the circuit at Almeria, yet again a bit of a late night but it didn't really matter as I was real excited about getting out riding the following day.
After getting to the circuit about 9-30 in the morning it was obvious from a track temperature point of view it would be a little while before we would be on track, saying we I mean Keith and I as Rat Boy had decided to skip this day as he was having some issues riding the previous days and had been going more and more downhill with them.
The team took the extra bit of time to prepare some stuff to test including a different swing arm etc and we finally got on track around 11, on one of my first flying laps I went straight on at the end of the back straight and it was obvious that despite the fact we'd already done a heap of work engine braking wise we still had a bigger heap more to do!!! Almeria's funny because towards the end of the long straight there's a little slip road type thing that's always been a great braking marker reference but no matter how much I tried there was no way I could get the bike slowed enough to make the apex of the penultimate turn which I seemed to run into way too hot every lap, that said we made a bit of progress in that area and indeed in other areas especially parts where I had to roll in and out of the throttle to open or close my line a little, as soon as I first experienced the problems Almeria seemed to be the perfect track to test at because it really high lighted the problem due to the amount of time you have to spend right on the side of the tyres in the middle section of the lap.
We actually were a little bit restricted in some ways with what we could actually do with the bike in order to work on the chassis setting but I know that as soon as the team get the bikes back to the UK we know exactly what we need in order to push things forward so that's very comforting, it was always going to be the case I guess, new bike, new rules I guess it was always going to be a bit of suck it and see where we're at then get back to the UK to really get some work done on the actual tracks we're going to be racing on.
Typically Almeria is a circuit that's very hard on tyres both front and rear and one of the things I finally tried again was a different front tyre, I wouldn't use it all last year on the Honda and have to admit to being a little reluctant full stop on the Kawasaki but I'm really pleased I tried it in the end because it definitely helped us to make some clear steps regarding where we need to go with the setting of the bike, sure riding in Spain with good track temperatures one thing and rolling round a freezing Snetterton's something else so we'll have to reevaluate back in the UK but initial thoughts and feelings were very good indeed, another real good thing was how consistent I could be on a longer run, I felt very comfortable riding at and maintaining a pretty fast pace which bodes well under the new rules.
I got to try a new rear linkage towards the end of the day which had both positive and negative effects in different areas so until we've made another step we'll not be retesting that, right towards the end of the day when we'd made a bit of progress I put in a new rear tyre with a used front to have a bit of a stab at a faster lap which I managed but the rear was spinning a fair bit even on the first lap which is unusual, my first lap was my fastest of the day but entering turns 1 and 3 on the 2nd lap the bike chattered sideways into both turns so rather than push again I aborted it, we could've put two new tyres in and then really pushed but I was happy enough with the lap time so we put some used tyres in and done a longer run on them staying at a real good pace throughout the run so all in all it was a really positive test for us and exactly what we needed before returning to the UK where we know we'll have more stuff to try and hope to get things that little bit more dialled in, the great thing is when the flag drops at Brands hatch in about three weeks time we'll find out exactly where we are, are the lap times in testing mean naff all at that point it's time to get down to business and that's exactly what I plan to do!!!! I just want to say a big thanks to all of the team for all the hard work they put in throughout the test, it's great to be back working with them again, lets hope they can steer me to another BSB title!!!!!! Take it easy, Shakey #67

Cartagena, permission to land!!!

Having had a supposed couple of days on the bike tuned into what really ended being about 50 odd laps at Aragon I was keen to get to Cartagena to get some testing done alongside some of the other teams, armed with what we'd been told were lap times that we'd be needing to do and the current BSB champion and Nori Haga to use for reference, for sure the completely different nature of Cartagena which is far more similar to a BSB track compared to where we'd been was going to throw us a few curve balls but it'd be interesting nonetheless.
My first exit was made on some used tyres from the day before in Aragon and literally within about 4 or 5 laps we were into an ideal ball park lap time which was good but immediately it was obvious we had lots of work to do on the engine braking side of things as well as working on throttle connection, for the first time we made some slightly bigger changes to the bike chassis wise and then I headed back out onto the track with some new tyres and had a bit of a go at things, for me the changes we'd made weren't perhaps working as well as we'd hoped so we stuck a few laps in just for some data and for my reference then pitted to make some more changes, after some more changes I headed back out and did another 5 or 6 laps but in that time I knew we had more work to do so when I caught up to my Superstock team mate Keith Farmer I though right I'll follow him for a lap or so then lead him around for a lap to show him what I think he should be doing, the first part went entirely to plan, for me I could see some stuff that I could show him and help him with immediately so going into the final turn I ran up the inside of him, indicated to him to tuck in behind me then the next thing I knew I was looking down at him from about ten ft up in the air thinking what the f**k just happened there, then..... Bang, down I came practically with snow on me slammed straight into the floor, dazed, confused and concerned about my foot that I'd recently broken and having taken a big bang to my left knee I laid there for a bit gathering myself still trying to work out in my head how I'd got flicked so hard when I'd done absolutely nothing wrong, I got taken off to the medical centre to be examined and other than a big graze and a swollen left knee, a sore foot and a couple of toes that are probably going to be nail less in the very near future I was relatively ok.
Due to the fact we hadn't started unit lunch time anyway I decided to sit out the rest of the day, fortunately the bike was extremely lucky breaking a gear lever and a handlebar as well as scratching a fairing panel, Johnny my crew chief downloaded the data from the bike and believe it or not I was off the throttle when I got flicked so my only mistake was maybe being on a tighter line than normal, to finish off an incredibly unlucky crash that both needn't and shouldn't have happened!!!
As you can maybe imagine I was a little bit sore the following day but more than ready to get back on and get cracking again, I got back on track first thing in the morning and despite feeling a bit uncomfortable and struggling a bit to back shift whilst hanging off the right hand side of the bike I didn't feel too bad, I got straight onto or just under my pace from the previous day so it was back down to work again!!
Cartagena showed us we needed a great deal more work to do on engine braking and from a gearing point of view there was nothing we could do to help the bike to settle a bit, one thing we were seeing though was that we seemed to be making tyres last very well which is encouraging. Whilst circulating on a shorter run I noticed Rat Boy had ran on into the last turn, he was there for at least two or three laps, I never even realised he'd fallen down in the gravel but concentrating on my own thing I managed to have another tiny slip off which was a bit of a bummer, i lost the front going down into the penultimate hairpin, it was a really gentle little slide off and once again just a handlebar and a footpeg so from that side we were lucky, obviously i was a bit gutted to tip off again but really i consider that my first crash and its always nice in a funny kind of way to get that out of the way!!! We managed to get through a fair bit of work throughout the day and whilst I left it way too late to have a proper go at a lap time that wasn't really what we were there for, it's great being fastest but we were more than in the ball park so I was cool with that, time for another road trip, this time slightly further south to Almeria, a track I hadn't been to since 2008 so I was really looking forward to getting out there, Tommy and Nori were testing there too so again another real good point of reference!! Right, that's Cartagena done, take it easy, Shakey #67

Aragon test!!

For some reason it feels like its been a bloody long time since I last wrote a Blog for you guys, maybe it feels like that to me for a couple of reasons, 1 because it probably is and 2 because all I seem to have been doing just lately is be flat out training in order to be fully fit for the start of my test schedule.
Going back a little in some ways I guess I can count the accident we had back in January as a bit of a blessing because after it happened and set me back big time training wise I decided to join a gym in order to try to fast track myself back to a decent level of fitness and as its turned out that seems to have gone exactly to plan, I've been waking for the last three or four weeks at 5-45am four times a week, heading straight to the gym for 6-30, doing a warm up, some cardio work, some strength work, some core work then finishing that lot off with a session in the pool, that little lot gets me back home by just after 9am then it's an hour or so with the kids, breakfast, then off out cycling for two or three hours, it's been pretty intense I tell ya!!!!!!
Right enough about training, we recently got our testing schedule fully sorted and it's an equally intense affair starting with 2 days at Motorland Aragon for the CRT test alongside James Ellison on the PBM bike, Du Puniet etc followed directly by 2 days at Cartagena then straight onto a possible 2 days in Almeria, looks like its a good job I did make such an effort training wise, 6 days back to back on the bike after 5 months off, #Fullon!!!!!!
I have to admit I wasn't exactly feeling the fact that I was going to get to ride my new bike at a track i'd never seen before but that said sometimes it gives you the facility to just chip away with no preconceptions as to what's good or what's bad so turning up there to ride only to find hurricane Katrina was in town was a bit of a disaster, it's funny though because had I have taken a photo outside of the pit box it looked like the most beautiful sunny blue skied day but reality was it was bloody freezing, there was no track temperature whatsoever and the wind, well, that was just out of order, changes to the bike were completely unnecessary because it was the wind that decided if you made an apex and whether or not you managed to stay on track on the exit, needless to say we didn't get much running done at all, we started a tiny bit of work on the new electronics package which would appear is going to take a bit of work to refine properly on track but that was about all we were able to get done, fortunately the weather forecast for the following day was better with nowhere near as much wind and going by the fact I absolutely loved the track already I couldn't wait to get back there the following morning!!!!!
The following day it took what seemed forever for the track temperature to come up a bit, again a photo of the outside would've had you thinking that it was at least 30 degrees outside but trust me it wasn't, the track temperature finally got into double figures about 11 ish so we headed out for a look, without the wind the track was completely different and so so much fun, my first flying lap was 2 seconds quicker than I'd been the previous day so that'll give you an indication as to how bad the wind was!!!!!
We managed to work through a fair number of issues electronic's wise and to be honest that was fairly critical because until the engine was responding properly engine braking, overrun and connection wise there wasn't a lot of point doing too much chassis wise, that said from a chassis point of view whilst things weren't perfect we started right in the ballpark so electronics was where we needed to make the biggest steps..
We worked and worked throughout the day and funnily enough having spoken with James Ellison about what kind of lap times he was expecting or hoping to achieve on the Moto GP bike relatively speaking we were going pretty good, however as the day wore on I started getting faster and faster and faster and ended up with a lap time that we were extremely happy about, that's not pre season testing bullshit times either, that's real, don't get me wrong getting all excited about a lap time at a circuit that frankly has not a great deal of reference to anything in the UK might seem a little silly but we were FAST!!!!
It seems obvious to us as a team what's needed to improve the bike and I'm definitely starting to gel with the Kawasaki, a lot of people have asked how it compares to the Fireblade I rode last year and to be perfectly honest it's a very unfair comparison because now the bikes are less tuned so maybe 20-25 horsepower down and they have no electronic aids so the style of riding has to change a little, one thing I will say is that the team definitely know their stuff with the bike and for a first test I consider it a complete and utter success, I left Aragon in a very happy state of mind and really looked forward to getting out on track at Cartagena the next day even though it involved a 300 odd mile road trip in the hire car with Rat boy and Keith, that said the road that leaves Aragon and heads towards Valencia was like a mountain rally stage so that kept me highly amused for the first hour or so, Cartagena's another story though, one that I have to sit and type out a bit later, for now though I'm a very happy boy, big thanks to my team for all the hard work they put in to get us there and for the job done at the test, onwards and upwards or downwards as geographically the case is to Cartagena. Take it easy, Shakey #67

2012 so far...

Well, here we go, 2nd Blog of 2012 already, how efficient am i getting ;-) It's fair to say that this year has had it's share of ups and downs, quite literally in both cases but i guess dwelling on stuff isn't the way forward so we'll talk quickly about it then move on!!

The first week of the year as i said in my previous Blog was mega, loads of cycling and a bit of running thrown in, my wife got a load of running in too plus we got to spend some nice time relaxing too which is always a bonus, it seems every time we spend any amount of time in the UK there's always a million and one little things that need doing and they always end up going from a five minute thing to an all day thing, don't know how it happens so i guess i'll just be grateful that we're in a position where if something does take all day i can make it happen regardless!!!

Travelling back on Monday the 9th one of the most painful things to ever happen to me happened, sitting here typing it it could be a movie script and sounds so far fetched that it's almost hard to believe, basically without going into a load of detail we got left with nowhere to go and drove straight into the side of a side on stationary crashed car at getting on for about 70mph, then after bringing my wife back around, kissing and checking my children i got out of the van, stood there in the pitch black looking around wondering what on earth had happened, looked at the already crashed vehicle i'd hit and then as if out of nowhere i heard this screeching noise, turned 180 degrees to see another car skidding towards my van, i waved my arms above my head trying to warn the car but he'd already lost control, he smashed straight into the back of my van right in front of my eyes while my wife and children were still inside but glanced off the van and whilst at the last split second i attempted to jump to safety the car hit me, ran over my leg and at the same time flipped me off my feet smashing the back of my head on the floor, there i was with what i was convinced was a broken leg/ankle and feeling all a bit fuzzy not knowing if the impact had done anything to my wife and children, i remember laying there screaming for what seemed like forever, i tried crawling towards my van agin then a couple more cars smashed into each other and i just didn't know what to do, eventually a couple of French guys came running over and in broken French i told them to drag me to my car, shortly after i saw my wife and children the ambulances and police etc all turned up and we were all taken to the local hospital...

Since getting back to the UK i've been flat out trying to get fixed up after the accident. In france they missed the broken bones in my foot and it took 5 days until a further x ray back in Spain revealed the broken bones, i absolutely couldn't wait to get home to get some proper Dr's on it, that said the upper body workout of being on crutches had been handy ;-)

Three weeks to the day of the accident and my treatment's finished, i'd already been walking, well hobbling without crutches for 3 or 4 days before that final treatment and i have to say a massive thank you to Brian Simpson for all his and the girls at his clinics help, i now have a removable splint and bandage so that i can get my foot in my cycling shoes again as with the splint and bandage it's too big to fit, i still have to use it for another couple of weeks but yesterday i took it off and got in 50km's on the push bike, do you know what, it was probably 60% sleet, 30% snow and 10% rain but i've never been so happy to get out training again!!! Today i went up to Milton Keynes to meet my trainer for a core gym session which was pretty cool, i also picked up my new mountain bike from the top top guys at Corley cycles who are once agin sponsoring me this year, i'm really hopeful of competing in some cycling races/ sportives in their team colours this year, it should be fun, there's even been a proper challenge mentioned which i'm up for.. cycling from London to Paris in 24 hours in one hit, that's hardcore, i'll take a view on that one for now but it would be pretty cool!!!!

As you will have seen by now there's an all new shakey.com website up and running, it's something we've been working on for a while, NYTA the guys who run my site suggested a Big update using all sorts of different platforms to deliver a much slicker site, sure, there's some parts of the site that have been dropped which is a bit of a shame but they explained that things like forums just aren't being utilised nowhere near enough to even consider keeping them going, i actually posted a link on my forum asking what needed to be improved to make the forums better and i think we got maybe 30 or 40 replies, i guess that kind of made the decision, i hope no one gets too upset and who knows, they're gone for now but there's a comments section on the new site and if enough people ask it's not impossible to bring the forums back, anyway, lets hope that some of the new features out weigh the loss of one feature!!!

I've been speaking a fair bit with the team lately, everything seems to be coming together very nicely, my crew chief and the team co ordinator have just returned from France after picking up 5 brand new engines from Akira who built some of the WSB motors and they're very happy with what we've got, all the other bits and pieces are coming together nicely so probably next week sometime the first bike will be built, i know the plan is to get a run out somewhere in the UK for a quick shakedown towards the end of this month then we're off to Portugal and Spain for loads of riding throughout march, i absolutely cannot wait to start, it's worked out pretty well with my foot being hurt because the initial plan was to start testing a little earlier which might've been a bit sore!!!

That's you guys well and truly up to speed now with all that's happened and is happening so i'm going to sign off now, my debut on the Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki may well have happened by the time i do my next Blog but follow me on Twitter @67shakey to hear all about it before i get round to typing another full on Blog, talk to you all soon, take it easy, Shakey #67!!!

Lets get it on!!

So then guys and girls, i hope you're all suitably recovered from your hangovers!!!??? Looking back doesn't it seem already like Christmas was months ago?, it does to me!! Christmas was a pretty quiet one for us, we spent it in the UK and had mum around for dinner, the kids, well our son had a lovely time, my daughters a little young to know what was going on but hopefully she had a good time too!! I don't think i'm going to bother going over what happened in 2011 as it's always better to look forward i feel, with that in mind we headed off to Spain so i could get a solid 10 days training in, last year on new years day we were over in the Czech Republic and i had my father in law drop me up at the Brno circuit and i ran the 8 miles or so back to their house, i hardly ever run nowadays as i spend too much time cycling but after a quiet new years celebration here in Spain i decided to go for a run once again, however today the suns shinning and it's about 18 degrees, quite a contrast from last year when it was about -8!!!, i only did 10km today but feel good for it ;-)

New Years day... Beats being in the rain and cold in the UK!!!!

Training for this year is fully back in swing, i spent what feels like pretty much the last two months feeling poorly with man flu's of one form or another but after a bit of rest boxing day i finally got out on my push bike albeit my winter bike, not the one in the pic below.., it felt mega to get out training again although it was only a short steady plod, i did exactly the same ride again the following day then got out on the motocross bike the day after, tomorrow i'll be out pedalling on the bike in the picture which i can't wait for racking up some steady miles, same again tuesday then maybe another run on wednesday, i think i have to fly to the UK for the day on Thursday for an event for Kawasaki then back here for a few more days cycling and running!!

Around the 9th i think we'll head back to the UK and at some point i'm going to be dropping my bike back to Corley cycles where they're going to put it up for sale for me, the thing is mega, a Specialized S-Works SL3, full Dura ace gears, trick Mavic wheels, it really is the nuts, get in touch with them if you're interested in a bargain!!!!

I Love this bike, it could be yours via Corley cycles 01908 311424 (ask for Phil)

I'm really looking forward to heading up to Penrith sometime around the 2nd week of January to see the team and check out the bikes which are back now from Macau, on route to there or on the way back down i'm meeting up with a trainer guy to check out what kind of shape i'm in heading into the season, there's all sorts of tests he's going to run me through in order for me to be sure that i'm in the best possible shape heading into the races so i'm really excited about that, getting to the workshops will be good as it'll give me a chance to have a sit on the bike and see if there's anything we need to change position wise before we head out testing, talking of which we're hoping to get out for a shakedown test mid february just to run through a few things, there's going to be quite a lot of stuff to be working through at that test then the guys will head back to the UK build two bikes to the spec that we prefer before heading back out again to Spain for some track time to confirm a few things and try anything they come up with from the data from the first set of tests, it's kind of funny in a way that the longer i seem to spend racing the more i look forward to getting out on my bike for the first time, definitely no problems motivation wise, i literally can't wait to start riding!!!

Right, that's about it for my first Blog of 2012, i wish you all a happy new year, Lets hope it's going to be a safe, successful, healthy and wealthy year for us all!!! Take it easy guys and girls, Shakey #67

Motocross madness!!

Do you ever find yourself thinking do you know what, i'm going to go and do something, doesn't really matter what it is but it seems the longer you delay that do you know what i'm gonna stage the more difficult it is to actually get out and do it, well, generally that's the case for me anyway!! On this particular occasion i'm talking about motocross, it's one of those things you know, it's so so good in terms of training not only from a cardiovascular point of view but bike strength, keeping sharp etc in fact i'd probably goes as far as saying there's not much better you could do than a few sessions on a motocross bike to keep fit over the winter....BUT, and it's a BIIIIGGGGGG but, it's easy to get hurt, just the simplest little cross rutted take off over a jump or get something slightly wrong and a&e it is sunshine!!!

That 2 and a half years had played havoc with me, the longer it went on the less and less bothered i was about actually getting out and going riding but when Kawasaki gave me a brand new 2012 KXF250 well, it'd be rude not to use it now wouldn't it!!!!

Going back a few years, well nearly 10 to be exact the only training and i mean the only training i did that year was motocross twice a week if i could, it's one of those sports that if you're at it all the time you get real sharp, in fact the week after the final BSB round at Donington Park that year my friends entered me into a motocross race meeting, in my class i won all 3 races and actually finished 2nd overall out of everybody there, well, let me tell you, yesterday riding for the first time in so long i felt like i needed an orange jacket on or something!!! It all started last week when i said to one of my mates, right this is it, i've got a bike and i want to go riding, i don't care where i just need to go as soon as otherwise this 2 and a half year thing will turn into god knows how long!!!, i was so excited the night before i had everything loaded and that was it, a quick call by Wag my mate i went riding with to the guy who runs Churchills motocross track confirmed the track was open so Wag and i were on route!! We arrived at the track and i jumped out of the van all excited and immediately thought oh no, the place was like a mudbath, don't get me wrong they'd done a great job of preparing the track but overnight torrential rain had taken it's toll in a big way, my poor new bike was the 1st thing that went through my mind!!!

My first stint only lasted 14 minutes, i wore my Garmin heart rate monitor so that i could download the data when i got home, i remembered in the past that mx was a hell of a workout, let me tell you just staying upright for those 14 minutes was a workout in itself, the bike was fantastic, a 100 times better than i was, but it was so slushy wet mud that the minute you shut the throttle on some parts of the track which you had to do because the corners were quite tight the bike practically stopped dead and sunk!!!!

I ended up doing 3 or 4 good sessions and the track did dry out a tiny bit in a few places so i started to really enjoy it but immediately driving home i started to get a bit stiff and sore so i knew full well the following day was gonna be painful and sure enough it was but a quick call to my physio got me a 9-30am appointment which worked wonders!!! I downloaded the data from my monitor and to give you and idea generally cycling which is the training i do the most i'll average my heart rate at around 155 beats per minute and unless i go crazy my max will be around 185-188, well my final stint on the mx bike was 25 minutes long and i had an average of 172bpm and a max of 192 so it goes to show how physical the motocross thing is!!!!!

I'm really looking forward to my next ride out now, it might even be this weekend yet we'll see, if not next wednesday for sure, got to make sure i don't slip back into that two and a half year thing again haven't i, let's face it, BSB starts in March next year and i want to start and maintain a very high level of fitness!!! I've posted up two videos so far from the riding so check them out in the videos section at www.shakey.com

Right talking of fitness they say recovery is really important don't they so on that note i'm outta here and off to bed, take it easy, Shakey #67!!!