Eunos Chump

It's a big silver sea lion, I want it! Yesterday, Chris and I finally made it to Loomies for breakfast (the last attempt was extremely unsuccessful ). There were Harleys present and I was tempted again, I should be ashamed but I'm not.

Sound advice about the approaching storm here .

Spent yesterday doing the level 1 training at Silverstone with the California Superbike School . They offer 4 levels, and as each builds on the lessons of the previous, you must do them in order, regardless of how bloody great you think you are.  It's a long day (7am to 6pm), there's a lot to learn, but it's extremely rewarding and I strongly recommend it. Mirrors and speedo are taped up, to avoid distractions Level 1 is very good for noobs like myself who've never been on track. Although the focus is on track riding, much of what you learn is useful on the road.  The format is a classroom session which will concentrate on a specific objective, followed by 25 minutes of track, then a short break where you can top up with water, free bananas and crisps.  Finally, a school that encourages you to eat crisps!  They're not meant as a treat though, you need the salt as electrolyte, while the bananas are for potassium. Cornering is the sole objective of lev...

Putting together a jigsaw puzzle that's been disassembled at high speed, with no pictures to work from, is very tedious.  It's done though, and I've just been out for a spin.  The top fairing panel doesn't quite line up so it looks very much like a binned bike.  Some fittings are either lost or broken too.  I reckon an OEM panel will be required for a proper repair.  If it wasn't so bleeding hot I'd be out playing on it! I picked up my Alpinestars leather jacket today, it had been in for alteration by Nine Lives Leather as I've lost a couple of stone since buying it.  Now it's a snug fit and you'd never know 4" had been taken out of the waist, it's superb workmanship.

This was just super , especially filtering past miles of stationary traffic on the VFR.  I saw some celebs too - I squeezed past Max Chilton walking behind an F1 truck (you know, Max Chilton as in " taking the final spot on the grid in the Marussia is Max Chilton ").  I also walked past Dougie Lampkin, the motorbike bloke.  What else are you supposed to do?  1967 Ferrari F1 car.  You can't get this close to such cars anywhere else.  Brabham-Repco  2013 F1 cars - DRS detail below  Broken down Mercedes Broken down McLaren causes massive multi-million-pound traffic jam  Why aren't we driving cars like this yet?  This is a 1978 Lanci prototype, that's 35 years ago! Now for some bikes - my favourite first, the Honda NR McGuinness Fireblade  Britten V1000, here from New Zealand   Rows of historic BMWs, just imagine the damage a rabid CBR could cause here; it'd be like a ...

The CBR parts arrived today from Wemoto , they're pattern rather than OEM but the quality is good.  If the Honda nuts and bolts were not made of cheese, it would be fixed by now.  I'm not going to bother getting the top fairing panel painted until winter... mostly to get it on the road quickly, but it can't help to be a bit cautious... I coughed up the cash for the BMW repairs today, £1550.  I'm only going to ride with people with cheap bikes from now on! Another friend, who will further more be known as Crazy Rob of Wokingham , has bought an electric scooter rather like the one in this photo.  I had a go on it last night, despite my ingrained prejudice against scoots, and it was great fun!  I'm not ruling out getting one at some point, though it'll be a petrol.  Rob is covering his in LED lights for comedy Tron effect, is this any way for grown men to behave?  Find out when we start the Southern Scooter Racing Championship , coming soon to a...

I'd like to claim this is the result of some heroic riding where I pushed a little too hard, but it's not - I ran into the back of my friend's BMW S1000RR approaching a junction..  I wrongly assumed he was going... classic lack of observation. I knocked him off, but nobody was hurt.  I've offered to pay for his repairs rather than the grief for both parties of using insurance.  He was very understanding, and we shook hands afterwards. I've already ordered my parts as I need it for California Superbike school in a couple of weeks. I need the top fairing panel, the support bit underneath, and a clutch cable.  Side fairing has a neat hole which I think will repair.  Left headlamp had a broken mounting tab which I've superglued, some scratching of the lens too but it'll last until the next MOT.  £150 in total, BMW parts likely to be 10x that.  There goes my bike budget for some considerable time...

Red VFR with ABS?  Looks familiar!  I didn't know he rode bikes. Taken from this month's Riders Digest

I used to own all of these, but eventually smashed each one up with a hammer (or set them on fire).  Is this normal behaviour?  Perhaps I subconsciously knew I'd eventually have a son with no interest in cars whatsoever. I still own the one below though.  It's been repainted at some point with top quality Humbrol enamel.  Now I'm lucky enough to own a real car with a paint job just like this! In other news, I've booked a day at California Superbike School for the end of this month.  It's at Silverstone which means 90 minutes and a big chunk of M40 on the CBR - my arse hurts just thinking about it...