Hello mate, Bit of a long and I guess ‘sad’ story. There was a lot going on at the time inc a Nasty divorce which ended up putting me in hospital after collapsing at work due to stress and getting zapped by a defibrillator. was going pretty well pace wise, probably faster than I had business doing really for the amount of time I’d been racing. Think I did a 1:44 at Oulton on a stock engine cbr600. The divorce didn’t help, but it was a period where a lot of people seemed to be getting hurt (or worse) around me and my head just went, then we had covid land and basically a perfect storm of shittery. I had a lot of bike issues as well on the 600, I had relentless suspension issues which turned out to be a fault with the forks but it took a year and 5 returns (numerous accidents) 2 of which were well over 100mph, for the suspension guy to find the problem! It was sketchy. Smashed myself up at Oulton and threw my toys out of the pram. Rebuilt the bike, went to Cartagena to test, day one was going really well and then stacked it on someone’s oil. Sold the 600… I instructed for a little while and spent my life circulating Donington, it helped initially as I was still riding and I got a great deal of ‘good’ for helping others for a year and a half however it buggered my speed. I also had brake failure at estoril on the 1000 and that totally shit me up. I really struggled on the 1000 and thought it was me, turns out the master cylinder on the front was what was causing much of the problem. All of the above buggered my confidence and I really wasn’t enjoying riding anymore, nor the financial outlay for the return I was getting so I called it a day 2 years ago and tried to take up any other generic hobby (gardening/purchase of a sports car etc).. but it didn’t cut the mustard. Purchased the little zx6 last year, and here we are today To say it was a relief to get some laps in on Thursday and be beaming ear to ear again, is an understatement. I don’t care for the pace, it’s just good to ride again and not hate it.
Sometimes we just have to step away clear the baggage and go again The smiles go on for miles Good on you ads
Thanks you’re absolutely right. I don’t begrudge any of it, it was a painful but very good life lesson for me. Life is better than it has ever been now
When I was TDing and had a tumble the best tonic was always to repair the bike and get back on it asap, otherwise it grows into a thing/monster. Glad yr back on it! When's the next?
Hey mate, Have found the adjustment on them is never right for me. There’s not enough holes in them to get it ‘just right’ although I appreciate this is down to preference. I’m struggling to get concise changes on upshift and especially back shifts. The travel is also excessive. the alignment is also not right for the mc and I had to have my spanner guy machine me some spacers to make the back brake work properly.
Absolutely mate, although mine wasn’t just my riding, it was external goings on as well and I found myself getting pretty depressed a day or so after a race meeting. It was like my peaks were great but the troughs were horrid. The higher the peak the lower the trough. I don’t think there’s any secret in saying that I clearly had depression, probably amongst other things. Anxiety was a pretty big factor. Didn’t even know what it was back then ha That’s all history now though, I’m all good these days. Plans are to get riding atleast once a month and maybe enter the odd race meeting and get my ass kicked. We shall see early signs are good. My laptimes in the three sessions I did would have put me top 10 in recent club races which honestly shocked me, totally unexpected as I was just cruising really. Bottomed out the forks on lap 2 and later found I had 33 psi in the back tyre (r11 which is 3 years old or something daft) ! Traffic was biblical as well. I feel like I’ve got 2-3 seconds in me on a good day with some practice and set up. anyway, that’s my excuses out of the way and not to get too excited as I’m extremely rusty and not the shit or bust rider I used to be haha. I’m trying to not take any notice of laptimes and just enjoy the ride. I was also at brands, which I know very well.
interesting, I only ask because I personally loved the fit of them on the R1 but they had a couple of annoying features, I think I would agree with you that the leverage points aren’t the best but I really done have lots to compare them with
Everyone’s different, doesn’t help me having size 13 feet but, I’ve used lightech and promach previously and they’ve been spot on
I used to get post euro TD trip blues something horrid, especially in the winter. I learned to recognise it for what it was and used various strategies to beat it/manage it. It's great to see a fella bounce back...Play on playa...
