Classic Motorcycle Racing Club

[Bixxer Bob]

Hi guys, the CRMC meetings are :

April 19 + 20 Pembrey
May 17 + 18 Lydden
June 13 +14 + 15 Anglesey Track day on Friday to be advised
July 5 + 6 Brands Hatch
August 8, 9 + 10 Donington Park Classic Festival 3 days of bikes,  displays and racing
September 6 + 7 Cadwell Park
October 11 + 12 Snetterton Race of the Year

They are great meetings with all sorts of old machinery racing. Entry to the pits is free and you can wander around and chat to the riders and pit crews who are a friendly bunch.  If you fancy pitching up at any of them, be sure to pop in to our pit garage where you'll find me (usually covered in oil), and probably my wife Jackie. Look for the RAF Motor Sports Association banner or the Honda MT125 crowd that we usually share with.  The kettle is always on and there might even be a biscuit left   

[threepot]

Might see you over at Pembrey Bob??
Apart from the track,do you know what else Pembrey is famous for??

[Bixxer Bob]

Unless you are talking about how obnoxious the people at the Caravan Club campsite just down the road are, no.

[threepot]

Read this then.....https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armin_Faber

Also..Amelia Earhart landed at Burry Port(just down the road) ,becoming the 1st woman aviator to cross the Atlantic.

[Bixxer Bob]

I saw the Earhart memorial when we attended last year. Nice circuit and the campsite was a good base for exploring South Wales. We did the race weekend then moved to the campsite; we had the Girly on our trailer so it was a nice few days.  Other than the people on the campsite. Apparently folks that spend thousands on Mercs and big caravans don't like smelly, noisy motorcycles....

[Sin_Tiger]

Maybe it was your "Jeremy Clarkson - Fan Club" T shirt they didn't like 

[Bixxer Bob]

More like the Blue Flame wake-up at 8am.......


There's half a chance we'll be doing a non-CRMC event at Knockhill as well,  I'll let you know.

[Sin_Tiger]

Apologies for the temporary hijack, normal service will resume shortly. I'll give you a ring later today mate.

We're driving to the Scottish Bike show on Sat the 8th. Anyone elsegoing to be there vibe me a shout.

[NeilD]

you racing or spannering for someone?? I normally pop up to Cadwell for the classic/vintage events so may well see you in September 

[Bixxer Bob]

Racing? . Spannering, that's all 

[NeilD]

Thought they might've had a 'seniors' class 

[Bixxer Bob]

I'm a relative youngster in CRMC company... 

[Bixxer Bob]

Thought I'd post up belated post on how the first meeting went for us at Pembrey. 

The 125 is still running like a dog and we don't know why; what power it is making is likea switch - nothing below 10,000rpm and all over by 12,000.  It needs a back-to-basics review to get a grip on it.

The RD400 is a different story.  You might remember our man Sy got second place in the Post Classic Air Cooled 500cc championship last year at our first attempt, but the winner isn't racing this year. We first ran on the Friday trackday to get us ahead of the game and it seemed ok, engine pulling well and the handling no worse than last year despite a frame change.  On Saturday the sun shone all day, we raced twice and got two 2nd places which confirmed our worst suspicions; New guy Gary May is as fast as his reputation led us to believe.  Gary is representative of a worrying trend in classic racing; teams that can't win anywhere else are starting to enter what has been an amateur area for many years.  Gary is riding a bike prepared for him, unlike many riders / owners.  Don't get me wrong, he's a nice guy; but it's a bit like Tom Sykes entering a clubman race.  Sy held on to him albeit trailing him by 50-60 metres most of the time.  Both were miles in front of the rest.  Sunday dawned overcast and cooler but still dry.  I should point out at this point that there are two classes on the grid, the other class being for up to 1000cc.  this time Sy got a good start and was hanging on to Gary for the first lap when Gary got balked by a 1000 (more power than skill = fast down the straights, slow through the corners) in the right-hander before the straight allowing Sy to get close enough to draft him on the straight and pass him into the hairpin.  Gary held on through the twisties but Sy missed a gear going into the fast right hander and #Gary slipped underneath him.  Unfortunately, another skill-free 1000 tried to take both of them and clipped Gary's front wheel.  HE and the 1000 both went down at around 80mph.  They were both ok if a bit bruised, but Gary's bike dug in, cartwheeled into the air, cleared the tyre barrier and landed on the banking behind.  Sy was ok and went on to win.  Sadly, Gary's bike was trashed so he didn't ride in the wet race in the afternoon which Sy won easily giving him a comfortable points lead going into Lydden this month. 

I feel sorry for Gary because it wasn't his fault, and - although we are winning - we haven't beaten him yet so it's a bit hollow.  Fingers crossed for rest of the season 

[Bixxer Bob]

So, last weekend it was Lydden Hill, not a circuit I've visited before.  Easy to get to, 3hr drive, set in a valley surrounded by trees making it a natural amphitheatre where you can see the whole track from the banking.  Toilets and showers are rubbish but hey ho...

Our main rival, Gary May, was back with his bike fully repaired and gave Symon a really good scrap in the first 500 race but, sadly for him, his bike seized and put him out for the rest of the weekend.  1st win to Sy.

In race 2 Sy was leading when a stupid rookie error saw him pull in from the lead and 25 valuable points frittered away.  The fairing centre bolt had come undone allowing the fairing to drop on the bars.

Race 3 saw him in fighting mood partly from losing the 25 points, but also having to start from the back of the grid due to not finishing the previous race.  He went from last to first in two laps.  Win number two.

Race 4 was a cruise where he played cat and mouse with another rider before buggering off and taking another easy win. 

The icing on the cake was finally finding out what was wrong with the 125 and getting some decent results with that bike too.  Happy days!!

[Bixxer Bob]

This time it was Anglesey.  End of the world (almost), as far West as we are East, seven hour drive; Jackie said, "Next year lets take the following week off and jump on the ferry to Ireland, we're almost there now anyway FFS....."

Arrived Thurs afternoon to do the land-grab in glorious sunshine that lasted most of the weekend. Friday was a track day where we tried out new Hagon rear shocks with both compression and rebound damping (infinite ways to f**k it up then... ) on the RD along with some different tyre options and finalised gear ratios for the coming weekend.  We also ran the MT125 after quickly taking the barrel off to check the piston after a fairly good run at Lydden.  It was fine but under geared, so was revving out on the straight.  We decided that, due to Sy being bigger than most other 125 riders, we'd gear up so he'd have revs left when drafting other riders in the hope he could do some overtaking on the brakes.  Then he got a good start and no-one to draft so we knocked it back again.

In the first RD400 race he missed the gate despite me telling him it was his 5 minute call so had to start from the back of the grid.  He got stuck among more powerful 750s that were slower in the corners so only finished 4th and grumped about the place for half an hour afterwards.

Race 2 was better having started from 10th on the grid (4th in class) and having a ding dong battle with Gerry Crawford to take the win.  Race 3 saw another battle with Gerry who took that win with Sy 2nd and finally Sy winning race 4.

Sy now has a healthy lead in the championship so we look forward to Brands Hatch next month.

And the new shocks  F**ked if I know.  We got so screwed up in the handling that we even put the old ones back on only to find they were truly terrible.  The fork brace and a couple of clicks on the steering damper has reduced the weaving to a manageable level but the rear end chatter doesn't seem to respond to any changes.  Time to do some reading up I think...