UK and Spa here I come

CB1100F Joined: Jun 18, 2006 Posts: 2523 Location: UK

By this time next Friday i will be on the way to Spa

Brent just looked at long range weather forecast and showing around 30 deg C (86 deg F) for next weekend, should get your Tyres warm enough

Keith

Posted: Fri Jun 26, 2015 11:27 am

krgood0 wrote:

By this time next Friday i will be on the way to Spa

Brent just looked at long range weather forecast and showing around 30 deg C (86 deg F) for next weekend, should get your Tyres warm enough

Keith

So pleased to read that Keith… I want a lovely rain-free break.

I've swapped that Harris over to the standard pipes now, so you won't need your ear plugs by the way!

Posted: Sat Jun 27, 2015 6:22 pm

krgood0 wrote:

By this time next Friday i will be on the way to Spa

Brent just looked at long range weather forecast and showing around 30 deg C (86 deg F) for next weekend, should get your Tyres warm enough

Keith

I won't be able to get there this year after all Sad

Posted: Wed Jul 01, 2015 4:20 am

Hey guys where and on what time do we meet for the group picture?

May be the saterday afternoon at 17.00 hour a idea?
This is 1 hour before the great parade lap.
May be it is possible to make a picture with Captain,s bike?

CB1100F Joined: Feb 17, 2009 Posts: 2105 Location: Oz

Second place in class for race one. Well done.

http://www.raceresults.nu/uitslagen//2015/Spa%20Franchorchamps/Bikers%20Classics%202015/CSBK-Masters-Series%20-%20Race%201%20-%20per%20class.pdf

Something has happened in race two.

http://www.raceresults.nu/uitslagen//2015/Spa%20Franchorchamps/Bikers%20Classics%202015/CSBK-Masters-Series%20-%20Race%202%20-%20per%20class.pdf

Posted: Sun Jul 05, 2015 5:24 pm

Something went wrong for Angus Green as well, in the first race... "Thegoosecat"..

With a 2:45 to 2:48 lap times, that's a big track..

Posted: Sun Jul 05, 2015 5:57 pm

I have visit the team yesterday.
What a friendly guys and what a bike!!
On this picture are the Captain and Tony working on the bike.

Posted: Sun Jul 05, 2015 6:02 pm

And here are JJam from the US and Keith from the UK inspecting the magni R.

Posted: Sun Jul 05, 2015 6:13 pm

This is a picture of the team box with Mr Larkin from the UK on the right and Mr Ivan the terrible from Italy on the left.
JJam and Keith [krgood0] behind Andy.

Posted: Sun Jul 05, 2015 6:17 pm

And my wife and myself with the Vince and Hyde bike Very Happy

Posted: Mon Jul 06, 2015 12:55 am

Thanks for the pics, Wout.
Having that kind of access to the pits is outstanding.

Posted: Mon Jul 06, 2015 1:02 am

Yes, thank you!

Twinstar Joined: Apr 26, 2015 Posts: 49 Location: SWFL

Captain and crew;

Congratulations on a tremendous undertaking.

Eric

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.

The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."

-Theodore Roosevelt

Posted: Mon Jul 06, 2015 4:09 am

Monday morning and we are packed up and preparing to ship our bike back to NZ. We have had a fantastic time with the CSBK guy"s here at Spa and their hospitality and help has been second to none. We could not have achieved what we have without them. To my crew I am indebted for the efforts provided but know that we have all experienced a special moment in our lives.
We came here to see how what we have built compared to others so far away and at our fist attempt finished 5th outright and second in our class from 70 starters on the grid. Our second race was a DNF due to the gearbox breaking whilst leading our class and making the pass for third outright.
Tomorrow we start the journey home and although it is summer here in Europe and hard to leave and return to our winter, it will be good to get home again.

MB-5 Joined: Mar 07, 2013 Posts: 23 Location: Hinckley UK

Congratulations, to your achievements.....truly heroic, such a pity about race two.

Safe journey home guys

Si

Posted: Mon Jul 06, 2015 11:41 am

So nice and good to finally meet you, Brent. Truly an honor. And you where surrounded by a number of very nice people too.

Hope we can meet again in the near future,

Cheers Rob

Posted: Mon Jul 06, 2015 11:56 am

Great achievement Cool

no idea what your bench mark was - with respect to expectation, but it clearly demonstrates your competing at home - at a world class level
previously mentioned - Spa is a long one - that's a heck of a lot of work for your engine - at the state of tune its in - yet it seems to have achieved this reliably - ref: the power side - brilliant, that must give the engineer in you a nice feeling - Laughing

that same engineer must be thinking - hmm maybe i've left something on the table ? - next revision

CB1100F Joined: Jun 18, 2006 Posts: 2523 Location: UK

Just got back from Spa

It was nice to finally meet Brent and see the bike in the flesh, it truly is a work of art and a credit to Brent, Vince and the rest of the team who have worked so hard to build this amazing F

It was also nice to meet Ivan( the terrible) Jim(jjam) and Tony (herdygurdy) from Aus while i was there

Now you have seen the place Brent i bet you and Vince will be iching to return next year

Keith

Posted: Mon Jul 06, 2015 8:33 pm

Valiant effort and achievement. I'm certain you'll make more great strides by this time next year as you have recently broken major significant barriers in that motor's design as well as continue to develop the bike overall. You're doing things with this model that it never could do before, and under restrictive rules. Really good show.

Posted: Mon Jul 06, 2015 9:12 pm

Had a great time meeting everyone at Spa. I'm sorry but my brand new Garmin video camera wouldn't work so there are no on bike videos. I was super bummed about this.
The V&H bike is awesome to see, hear and watch go around the track!!!!!!!
When I get home, I'll get up as many pictures as I can for you guys. There were SO MANY AWESOME bikes that I actually got tired of taking pictures of them.
The US needs to step it up and get a series like what the CSBK does from Germany. I have never seen anything like this event at home, hands down.
Spa should be on everybody's bucket list. I will do my best to go back in 2017 and try to take the bike. I will also race it myself as I loved the track.

Posted: Tue Jul 07, 2015 9:20 am

Nice to meet you at last JJam, HurdyGurdy and Captain…

Brent… It was wonderful to see the Hotrod in the flesh…that bike really is a work of art and a testament to your forward thinking and perseverance. And thanks for taking the time to sit and natter about it for so long… there can't be much worse than a queue of middle aged blokes drooling all over your pride and joy and asking the same sets of questions over and over again… especially in that heat.

A real bloody shame we didn't get to see Vince cut through the field, I was willing a victory for you all. But glad also that he was ok and hadn't pranged himself when he failed to come round that second lap.

And Jim…I really hope you do get back to Spa with your bike… it really is something else as an event isn't it? And the number of trick DOHCs blew me away! Well done on making the effort to get over for it and I hope you journey home safely.

Posted: Tue Jul 07, 2015 4:53 pm

It's been an incredible week end at Spa! The track, the paddocks, the pits, the woods ... everything first class!

And the the CSBK people have done an hell of a work , everythink well organized .... but more important 've never ever seen such a friendly atmosphere, not nowadays anyway, from general chatting down to the portable swimming pools, the barbecues in the paddock ....

So many people from every part of the world , so many beatiful and performing bikes, built with care and ridden as they deserve.

I had the honour to be part of the Vince and Hyde Racing team, hosted under the official CSBK tent, all of us wearing the same uniform , either in white or black, and had one of the super head on display for the general public, and Vince did a very good job in taking the seond place considering the track was completely new for him ....

I could go on for pages, but that could be boring, so this is a bunch of pics among the hundreds I took ...
Jjam took far more picture than I did

One last thing ---- I feel all this changed something in the perspective of racing in most of us !

Ivan

Posted: Thu Jul 09, 2015 10:42 pm

I'm gutted I couldn't make it this year, but I'm gonna pencil in 2017. Book holiday for it, put some money aside for it and come down on the bike.

Partly it depends on my wife's health by then. She's got kidney cancer. So we'll have to see how she's getting on with her chemo', her general health, if she can manage a couple of extra days on her own, and so on. She's just finished her first course of chemo', the courses of drugs she's on go in 4 weeks on - 2 weeks off cycles. This first round has hit her hard.
The doc's say she'll get used to the drugs so the side effects won't affect her as badly.
Obviously no plans for what I will do in two years time can be set in concrete. On the other hand, if I don't start planning for it now there's no way it'd be possible in two years time anyway, so I'll put things in motion now and hope for the best Smile

I just had a thought (yes THAT was the strange noise you heard Smile

).
Perhaps the 2017 Spa meeting could also be a UK and European Ride Out / Meet n Greet?
Set up a meeting point (Maastricht for eg?) where we can meet up and run down to Spa together?
There are a couple of years between now n then Shocked

, plenty of time to sort out the details. But if enough of us think that's a decent idea, we can all work out what we'd each have to do to make it workable and start things moving in the right direction.

Posted: Thu Jul 09, 2015 11:58 pm

Sorry to hear about your wife Simon. I hope things go well and wish you both the best in life.

Posted: Fri Jul 10, 2015 12:35 am

Prayers sent Simon.

And I wonder if a crazy Muricen might be invited to this European gathering?
Shocked

Posted: Fri Jul 10, 2015 2:14 am

Hondo57 wrote:

Sorry to hear about your wife Simon. I hope things go well and wish you both the best in life.

1100russ wrote:

Prayers sent Simon.

And I wonder if a crazy Muricen might be invited to this European gathering?
Shocked

Thanks guys.

I'm pretty sure there was a crazy Muricen at this years gathering, who plans on being at the 2017 gathering.
That is what sparked my idea. I'm guessing that a 2017 meeting was discussed, for JJam to have mentioned it in his post.
I hadn't considered it an exclusively European gathering anyway. Besides which, the Captain, Vince and team are Antipodean, so if it's exclusively European they are out, which would rather knock the edge off the whole experience.
Any crazy Muricens (or even sane ones) would be just as welcome as everyone else who wants to come to this gathering. I was thinking European in location rather than the attenders.

It's a fairly long trip for everyone, although Wout lives reasonably close, I think. Most of us will have to do some major pre-trip planning.
So I figured it better to get the idea out there now, so we all have the time to make any preparations. Rather than leave it until the last minute.

It's been mentioned that Spa-Francochamps is a long track, yes it is, 7.004 km (4.352 mi) at present although it was 14.1 km (8.761 mi) until 1978. It's a Formula 1 Grand Prix circuit and the F1 lap record for now stands at 1:47.263 (Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull, 2009). From a truck, you can see the pits and pit straight ,if you look at the right time, from the motorway which passes to the East. Not far away, just 1hr30 drive, is the Nurbergring. Another F1 circuit, although it has now been dropped. It's another public road circuit, up in the mountains and even longer. Both circuits are pre WW1 I think.

Posted: Mon Jul 13, 2015 11:39 am

I've Googled it to no avail so I have to ask ???

So please excuse my ignorance, but what is a "Muricen" ????

Captain

Posted: Mon Jul 13, 2015 12:10 pm

Captain wrote:

I've Googled it to no avail so I have to ask ???

So please excuse my ignorance, but what is a "Muricen" ????

Captain

American said with a redneck accent I think.

CB1100F Joined: Feb 17, 2009 Posts: 2105 Location: Oz

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Murican

Posted: Mon Jul 13, 2015 9:02 pm

Thank you..............Ahhhh, not a very complimentary term I see.

Captain