Ok , so Friday afternoon we drive 175 miles to Wales for the Amman Valley Shorttrack races .
We have one XR 750 and one Vertemati (for Drogo to race !) on board .But by Bristol it's pissing down - hard DAMN IT . Anyway keep going in the vain hope it'll stop , it does'nt ! just gets worse .... I've already said i'm not racing if its wet - as my collar bone is only just back together and the XR is a handfull in the wet , but i've got drogo's bike onboard so we keep going .
Once at Amman Dickie meets us at the gate (Ant's dad ) and we slide on down to the track - it's waterlogged and obvious to me we won't be racing Saturday anyway , but we give it an hour or so as we can't get hold of Drogo and i'm presuming he's riding anyway (even tho it's his first race , i'd have wanted too being keeno) but there's no sign of him to hand the bike over to and i can't leave it unless i can find out if he can get it back home without us , as i'm thinking of turning round and going home ! (rather than sit around and go home Saturday - as i'm not booked in for Sunday which may be dry ?)Also it saved Rach having to sleep in the van - with her bad back ! Bit gutted not to race but hate sitting around in the rain hoping / praying for the sun !
My mate Brian has a 50th party all day Saturday - Hot rod run / Rockabilly band in the Evening and i'd blown him out to go racing , which i felt bad about , but now we had a chance to attend and party - which we did ! Thanks Brian - great party mate .
So onto Sunday and it's gonna be sunny and we're gonna ride !
Cafe racers pulled out (see garage pic - can u choose a ride ? 5 cafe racers in there - 2 Tritons , 1 Norton , 1 Paul Smart and Rach's Salt Lake Spitfire ) Rach takes her Sporty Cafe and i choose a Triton (the 650 as the 750 needs higher gearing ) then we gotta decide where to go - Sammy Millers Museum has a Brit bike ride in , Ace cafe has Cafe racer day and Beaulieu has a ride in day ! hard to choose , but the nicest ride is across the New forest to Beaulieu - decision made !
Once on the road , temp is up in the 20's and we're thundering across some great forest roads and making a mental note to adjust the clip ons down further and raise the gearing , maybe on the front sprocket . Rach's 1200 easily out drags me , but i get her back in the corners and i know she's still a bit apprehensive after her broken back and finding her feet again , she rode great today !
Glad we chose Beaulieu , cos although the ride in event is average at best , we met up with a few good friends there and had free entrance to the museum (which has loads of Brits in there and a Ducati race bike display to rival the factory display !) and the top gear car display , which made us laugh ! and the James Bond hall so Rach could drool over Daniel Craig's body !
The race (ride) home was just as manic as we sliced several cars in half cos they were asleep and stopped for a Sunday roast at a good old British Pub to boot !
Home now Watchin' Simonchelli helping Lorenzo orfa the track at Assen .
So that's 350 miles trip to Wales , Hot Rod party , Cafe Racer raid on the Forest , Watch the Moto GP ......
What did u do this weekend ? On any Sunday eh ? How about this Sunday ..... Phew .
