First Round of The 125hundreds – 23rd March 2013

The weather decided to show us just how foolish our motto is: “Quid Potuit Fortasse Erra” – What Could Possibly Go Wrong!

Snow throughout the UK…. did that stop us? NO

Mechanical gremlins also chose to try and show our motto to be a bad choice as Gregg’s bike found yet another way to break, Tom’s bike has no clutch and Staff’s bike decided to spit its toys out and his carb cracked making his bike temporarily U/S too. Ows has had to put a hold on buying a bike due to other commitments.

This left Matt, Iain and myself with running bikes that were eligible and I felt the woe and dread that this series was going to fall flat on its face even before we started. Gregg however managed to persuade his lass to lend him her 6 month old Yamaha YBR125…. which was not eligible due to costing way over the £500 budget but at least he turned up on a bike so we let him score points on some of the rounds but not all.

I managed to also be as disorganised as possible and even forgot my bike boots… easily remedied but still added to the stress of the start of the first round!

Once we had all had some breakfast we informally judged the eligible bikes for the first event: Concours d’ Elegance (lol)

My Yamaha RXS 100

This was unanimously voted into first place which earnt me 7 points

Matt’s Huoniao AF125-F4 Runner

which was voted second place getting Matt 6 points

Iain’s Honda MTX

came 3rd due to being the only other eligible bike so earnt him 5 points

Gregg’s Yamaha YBR

due to Gregg managing to at least bring a bike he was awarded 1 point

Once we were all kitted up and I had found my bike boots we headed off towards our start location for the Gatwick TT

We then made sure we all knew the route and rules (2 laps, one in each direction, not allowed to break the speed limit and closest person to the datum 2 lap time of 20m00s achieved on my Guzzi wins, if you were under the time each second under was multiplied by 5 and added to the lap time).

Matt and Gregg went first, each going in opposite directions so as to not race each other, then when they had completed their laps myself and Iain took our turns.

The times for the 2 laps were:

Matt –    23m20s
Me –      20m51s
Gregg – 20m11s
Iain –    19m58s – 10 seconds penalty time was added to this giving him a total time of 20m08s

Matt’s time was reflected by how honest he was with speed limits and when he started to accelerate to changes in the limits, the others…. well we must have just had faster accelerating bikes and got held up at traffic lights for less time!

So Iain got the full 7 points for first place, Gregg got 6 points for second place, I got 5 points for third and Matt got 4 points for forth place.

We were all now freezing, the weather was atrocious, we were all covered in ice, both inside and outside my visor had ice forming on it and visibility was hard work but it was a right giggle

To warm up we popped to the next venue which had a kettle and heaters and we waited for the companies in the business estate to shut up shop before cordoning off an area for the GP8s.

GP8s involve riding 5 figure of eights around 2 cones starting in a box and stopping in the same box. You are not allowed to put your feet down, hit cones or get lost.

We all had a quick practice and then we got into it and worked on the best times after three attempts (Iain had an extra attempt as his front brake was binding causing his wheel to lock so we fixed it with a hammer and let him have another shot at it)

Our best lap times were:

Iain –    55s53ms  – 4th place, 4 points
Me –      52s18ms  – 3rd place, 5 points
Matt –  50s41ms  – 2nd place, 6 points
Gregg – 48s28ms  – 1st place, 7 points

We then topped up our fuel and headed out in convoy to The Plough pub in Coldharbour for a brew before starting the green lane

Once warmed up we headed to the start of the lane just opposite the pub

We then headed off into the soggy unknown!

Staff acted as support vehicle with his Pajero and seeing as Gregg was allowed to score points on a non eligible bike we allowed Staff to score on this round, we all earned 4 points

All the bikes took to the dirt with no issues at all, we were all amazed how well they coped even when submerged in water above the exhaust pipes, Iain was the only one with knobbly tyres yet none of us struggled with our skinny road tyres even Matt who has never ridden off road had a wicked time!

My RXS has suffered a lil bit with the abuse, I have lost my righthand foot peg rubber and my lefthand rubber has split and also needs replacing. I am going to see if I can retro fit folding pegs as they are better in ruts. My paint work on the tank is very scuffed where my knees rubbed it covered in grit, that would probs polish out with a lil bit of effort. The throttle cable seems to have stuck so possibly needs oiling or re-routing… or it may be broken so will need replacing. My fork seals are leaking a little too but they did seem a tad before we started any of these shenanigans

Iain’s front brake needs stripping and rebuilding, I don’t know of any other issues…. Gregg may be being murdered by his misses for green laning her new 125!

Oh, just so you know the lane was not a total wuss lane…. Staff’s Pajero bust its turbo chasing us as it grounded out and snapped a mounting bracket!

I’ll post the GP8 vids when I have more time to upload them