Skip to main content

Raceday

Started off badly!!

We loaded the bikes and Neill set off and I went to follow.

CLUNK!!

In all the messing about I had set off with the bright yellow disc lock still in the front wheel and we took a tumble in the car park. 

Luckily I had my left foot on the ground but Pepé is a heavy bastard and my leg crumbled and I had to lay it down.  It looked as though it rested on the left pannier.

One of the French guys ran over to help. Filled will embarrassment I had it on two wheels without much help. Adrenaline I guess!

The only damage was to the lock itself in that the key wouldn't unlock. It turned part way but the lock body itself was a bit skew-wiff in the casing..

Luckily another  French guy (GS1200 owner)  with an adjustable grip wrench broke the casing to get the key to turn. Otherwise I'd not be going anywhere. Phew.

Modified Lock

After that the ride down was a little odd as I was picking up every noise and weave in any uneven road surface as a problem of the tumble.

I couldn't see any damage to the bike, paint nor levers etc.  More phew.

That set us back a little and we arrived at the circuit just before 9am. That included a stop at a village boulangerie for bread.

Nothing in the world can compare to a fresh French baguette.

There are vastly more bikes and we are in Row 21 rather than the 16 of yesterday. Also with the stickers we went straight in to park.

We found a space on the fence level up by the chicane again. A little nearer the screen than yesterday. 

There also seem fewer VR46 caps and other gear today. 

Once again the Moto-E bikes haven't made an appearance apart from one bloke doing a single lap on a road bike.
In the Moto 3 class there is little British interest apart from John McPhee. And he won it. As he did in Brno in 16. We sang the National Anthem. "God Save the Queen"..

Moto 2 about to start ..

Doing brisk business all day except now!!!
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Bikers Loft 3

The last day. After leading yesterday's run to Ypres, I decided to take a back seat, or a different place in the line of 8 bikes. And so after a repeat of the previous day's self cook breakfast we packed the bikes and headed off. Aiming for Nieuwpoort aan Zee as the first stop. The plan to follow a canal all the way there to where it meets the sea at a huge marina. I was bringing up the rear of the column and saw a sign like this one. "No Motor vehicles" After only one short section of the towpath/road. We tried to alert those ahead but Cal and I were the only two not heading past this sign. We chose to turn left across a lift bridge onto the other bank, where Nieuwpoort was signposted 15kms away. As we headed along we sounded our horns and waved at the "first wave" to no avail. Some miles further on their side came to an end. By then we were way ahead despite dropping the speed to 40. We carried onto t...
1 comment
Read more

Screen fitted

Today I was working from home after the trains were cancelled and I came home from the station!  I did a bit of work, you can only do what is in front of you on the helpdesk software, and so  I had a late lunch and decided to have a look at the screen fittings. In the end, it was a 90 minute lunch and it is fitted. The four brackets have to be done one at a time, offering up the screen each time before tightening them in place. In the end it looks pretty central.  No time to test it today. That will have to wait until the weekend. Fitted! The instructions are pretty rubbish, and look like an eighth generation photocopy of the original drawing. Still, the photo on Skidmarx website was marginally better. My positioning looks a little different but it seems rigid. Only a test ride will tell if it is okay.
2 comments
Read more

Bikers Loft 2

We were up reasonably after a latish night and the self cook dinner! Breakfast is included in the room rate and is also self service as well as self cook. I'm not used to eating breakfast and so opted for the continental style rather than the bacon and eggs style!  The rooms are pretty basic. I shared with Trevor and we had two single beds. A little re-jigging of the room ensured that there was a man-gap between the beds! Early suggestions for the Saturday ride out had been to the Wire of Death. An electric fence that was built by the German occupation army in 1915 from the coast at Knokke to the German border, and just inside the Belgian frontier. It was to stop Belgians escaping into neutral Netherlands.  Over the course of the war it claimed over a 1000 lives. Read more.  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wire_of_Death I can't tell you any more as we didn't go!! In the end we decided on Ypres, only  30 miles aw...
1 comment
Read more