NEWS 2/01/2012

Happy New Year, and I hope 2012 will be a good one for everyone.

2011 seemed a long year and at times not such a good one, but there were a few highs, especially pole at the Race of the Year and winning the Buildbase Mallory Championship.

Now it's 2012 and I decided to kick off the season early and do the track day today at Mallory Park, it was a nice sunny day but a bit windy and a little cold.  It was a good opportunity to try the Suzuki properly, and make it feel more like my own, as I hadn't really made any changes to it since I bought it, I just jumped on it and rode it.  I did change the rear shock from a TTX to a Bitubo because I just don't seem to get on with the TTX.  I'd also changed the front suspension springs, but I only managed one session at the track day in November before the engine started knocking.  That engine has been sorted and is now being fettled, so I was trying the stock engine I bought a few weeks ago.  The track was wet in the morning so I couldn't really compare the engines, but I discovered that I needed to change the position of the foot rests because my legs and feet felt too high and I couldn't get the movement I wanted.  That done I went out again and felt much more comfortable.

After the lunch break the track was drying, and as I was still on wets I was looking for the damp patches.  Then I changed to slicks for the last two sessions, although there were still a few damp patches, especially round Gerrards, so I just took it a bit more careful there.  I did find the stock engine doesn't have the speed of the tuned one, I was going to start the season on the stock engine, but I'm not so sure now, although I will keep it as a spare, which I could have done with at the last Thundersport round at Mallory.  I enjoyed the day and it blew away the Christmas and New Year cobwebs.  Now I'm really looking forward to the start of the racing season in March, and hopefully I might be able to fit in a couple more track days before then.  There are a few photos on the pictures page but the design and colours of the bike will be changed.  I took all the stickers off and plain black just doesn't look so nice, and I'm not keen on plain black bikes.  It already has some white on it so I'll just add some red.