situation –InfoPosSPEEDaaarrrggghhh….Sod
it!
Being the conscientious, professional
paramedic that I am I didn’t bother to ask if
he’d hurt himself and just got on with putting
the bike straight. Luckily after our original off-
road exploits we had a spare set of footrests.
So I swapped the
bent gear-change
mechanism and
levered everything
back into line
while Simon got
busy with putting
gaffer tape all over
the fairing. I got
the bike back
together just in
time for Simon’s
next session,
pointing out that he
owed me a couple
of pints for making
me miss mine.
The rest of the day passed off fine with us both
learning to squeeze the best out of the little
bike and managing to ‘pick off’ a couple of
much newer faster machines. The FZR has just
about got enough power to hoist its front wheel
up a few inches over the Mountain.
We’ve had to do hardly anything to the bike
since we’ve had it running. We’ve changed the
handlebar grips, which cost about £2. We’ve had
to replace a fork seal again as it turned out we
damaged one when we replaced it before and we
killed another battery after the bike had stood in
the garage for a long time. Sadly we’re still
running the same unmatched, outsized tyres that
the bike came with. We have bought a sticky new
rear Dunlop but we haven’t fitted it because the
old Michelin is
still holding up
and meanwhile
we’re saving up
for a front
Dunlop to match.
I’m particularly
keen to try the
new tyres as I’m
sure the odd
sized rear is
affecting the
handling which
was borne out
when we saw the
pictures from
Cadwell. On a
couple of shots you can clearly see that the rear
tyre is right over the edge of its tread. I thought it
felt a bit vague.
I finished my first article warning that both Ebay
and track days can be seriously addictive. Just to
prove it, in the last week, while my wife was
away, this little Kawasaki ZXR400 appeared for a
bargain price…….watch this space!
Kay Hull minding the high-speed
snack-wagon. Kay has provided
cold drinks and biscuits to every
slow riding course over the past
two years which has been much
appreciated by all concerned.
Images from the September, October & November
Slow Riding Courses
