Bike Team

Manx GP Preparation – 30 July Since our race meeting at Carole, the bike prep for The Manx has had to take a backseat to Rik and Sarah’s wedding. Leaving me only enough time to do some admin and ordering. I did manage to squeeze in some fairing painting though, and this last week Matt […]

Circuit Carole – 08/09/10 July 2022 – Part 3 Our race was due off at 10.20, so it was a fairly leisurely morning tidying away as much as possible before needing to sort out the gear we needed for the race and pit stop. This includes two sets of fireproof overalls, balaclava, goggles, fire extinguisher, […]

Circuit Carole – 08/09/10 July 2022 – Part 2 Saturday dawned, as forecast, bright and sunny. ‘Gonna be a good day,’ I thought. I was outside the Dunlop set-up prompt at 7. Such a shame they didn’t open till 7.30. But at least I was second in the queue, which rapidly extended, and as it […]

Circuit Carole – 08/09/10 July 2022 – Part 1 Fortunately for us, the weather was due to hold fair and remain dry throughout the weekend. I say this because we have a problem with the truck’s wiper motor that’s proving somewhat tiresome to fix. Carole is situated just north of Paris and a fraction south […]

Navarra, Spain – 17/18/19 June 2022 – Part 4 We all survived being burnt alive as we slept, thankfully, but the smell of the fires hung over the paddock as a stark reminder of the previous night. Matt was up at first light leaving me undisturbed in my slumber and only waking me up when […]

Navarra, Spain – 17/18/19 June 2022 – Part 3 From how Rik described what had happened I suspected a flat battery, so we now know, for sure, the race ignition is not charging at all. I pushed Trudie back to camp which wasn’t too bad as a slight decline was in my favour and fortunately […]

Navarra, Spain – 17/18/19 June 2022 – Part 2 I forgot to mention in the last update, that towards the end of the second test session Rik had a misfire. When Matt checked the battery it was down on voltage and we deduced it wasn’t being charged sufficiently. So we swapped the race ignition for […]

Navarra, Spain – 17/18/19 June 2022 – Part 1 This race meeting marks our first anniversary of racing in France, not including test days, and what an event it turned out to be. Truly memorable. Not all for the right reasons though, as it was an extremely tough few days! It also coincided with a […]

Pau Arnos – 13/14/15 May 2022 – Part 3 Courtesy of Matt being on other duties, I was able to purloin his nice soft ‘Goldilocks mattress’, snuggle up and have eight full hours of wonderful slumber. Deep joy. I was up, revitalised, with the larks at 5.55 am, ready willing and able to overcome what […]

Pau Arnos – 13/14/15 May 2022 – Part 2 I was up early just as daylight crept over the paddock. The morning air was full of moisture, producing a heavy atmosphere like a thick fog, without the fog. It was quite fresh which was a pleasant change from the previous day. The forecast was for […]

Pau Arnos – 13/14/15 May 2022 We arrived at Circuit Pau Arnos early Thursday evening after an uneventful journey, for a change. The Truck was performing wonderfully well for an ‘old gal’ and did the 404kms in five and a half hours with a long fuel stop, as she has big tanks. The recent hike […]

Test day – Le Vigeant 11 April 2022 Apart from the routine preparations, all we had to do on Trudy was the fork oil seals, which were easier to replace than expected. We did experience a little difficulty compressing the springs sufficiently to gain access to the dismantling nuts, but Rik quickly worked something out. […]

Le Vigeant 23/24/25 March 2022 Finished Trudy’s prep with two days to spare, so not quite last minute. That gave me a half-day to play with ‘The Truck’. The hold up with the bike was once again the race ignition system. Somehow I’d been sent the wrong rotor forcing us to revert to the standard […]

Update 16th March 2022 These last three months have flown by, leaving us within a blink of an eye before pre-season testing. Six days to be precise and, true to form, the prep is going down to the wire. I took delivery, at Cigma Racing HQ, of the new fairing set and refreshed tuned engine […]

Update January 2022 A very Happy New Year, we hope and trust a fantastic Christmas was had by one and all. With the season fast approaching and just around the corner it’s time for a little update. Firstly we have had a slight change of plan for the 2022 season and are extremely excited to […]

Season Review 2021 Just a reminder of our goal as a Team, which was and still is racing on The Isle of Man in The TT, either in 2022 or 2023. Everything we do is with this in mind and only practice for this end. Results haven’t exactly gone our way this year so I […]

La Vigeant – 09/10 October – Part 2 The time soon arrived to get up to the collecting area and we were once again blessed with perfect racing conditions. Rik beat us there as he rode Trudie. We were all on foot carrying stands and warmers but by the time we’d caught him up, there was a […]

La Vigeant – 09/10 October – Part 1 Here we are, in the paddock on a beautiful Friday evening for the season finale and it’s rammed, we only just managed to squeeze in. It was a Team decision to forego the Friday practice day as it was only 4 weeks previous that Rik put in a […]

Ales – 24/25/26 September – Part 4 Race result 12th The corner Rik lost it on was a downhill, slowish, right-hand turn with the camber running away, so quite tricky in the wet. I was rather relieved to see the bike being pushed onto the trailer at the end of the race with fairing still intact, […]

Ales – 24/25/26 September – Part 3 First job this morning was to visit scrutineering, which opened up at 8, just after first light. We had, for the first time in ages, a heavy cloud cover with rain forecast for the afternoon. But for now it remained dry and there were no problems to report with the […]

Ales – 24/25/26 September – Part 2 Friday greeted us with clear blue skies with a crisp autumnal feel to the air. Quite beautiful in our mountainous surroundings. It really is a picturesque location and well worth the trauma getting here. We had five test sessions to look forward to with 2 before lunch and 3 in […]

Ales – 24/25/26 September – Part 1 Ales has nestled away in the Ardeche, a mountainous region of France, about 560 km from home with no direct route for the final 100 km of the journey. That last part was somewhat exciting, to say the least. Although the terrain is spectacularly beautiful, the poor old truck […]

Le Vigeant – 26/27/28/29 August – Part 4 Sunday race position 6th Matt was up at 7 am making coffee, the smell of which tempted me out of bed to join him. We formulated a quick plan then got to work on Trudie with the usual race prep routine. I took the wheels next door to […]