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Post by bella on May 16, 2021 11:08:13 GMT
Once owned a GT500 Suzuki. That should have been enough but my stupidity knows no bounds. Car pulled out on me and it got written off, mainly cosmetic damage but you wouldn't know the piece of shit that it was. So what did I do, only went & bought it off the insurance company and turned it into a proddy racer. Told you I was stupid. Not exactly competitive in a field full of RD400's and the occasional KH500. Most memorable moment was the old Snetterton circuit, back then Corams was wide open and never ending before the chicane went in. Speed through this very quick corner was dictated by the bravery through the bombhole which upset suspension. On that crate I needed a safety roll through the dip. Then one lap I decided it was a pussy's move so kept it pinned. Now, the GT500 has a long spindly swinging arm made of plastic. The bump at the bomb hole set off a weave and as the corner unrolled the weave got progessively worse and every shake of the bars had me heading towards the outside of the corner till my front wheel was nibbling the grass. As I was still fighting to stay on, I saw a flurry of movement in my peripheral vision and yellow flags. Through my mind went the words "fuck you, I'm still on this, you bastards" Hung on somehow and made it through, went back to rolling through the bombhole after that. On the slowdown lap the marshals at Corams were standing at the side of the track clapping & giving the thumbs up. I bought an RD400 shortly after that. Nice reading, it takes balls to have a go at racing, the commitment, the cost, even at lowly club level is more than i would ever contemplate.
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Post by armstrongracer on May 16, 2021 12:08:22 GMT
Cheers, I was shit but had a go. Portsmouth was fairly low crime so cops had nothing else to do but nick lads on bikes. I was heading for a ban under totting up & best mate was one nick away so we bought a van & went racing. Probably the reason I'm still here to write this. we were young & stupid.
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Post by mekon on May 16, 2021 12:42:47 GMT
My mate fucked road bikes off to race but it cost him nothing as it was his old man's vanity project. Mucho expensive if you've not got that sort of backup.
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Post by armstrongracer on May 16, 2021 13:56:57 GMT
Had no support cos my folks hated bikes, they didn't even know I was racing for about half a season until I got held over night at Norwich General. Rode to mates house & put plates etc on. Back then you could race on an average salary, I raced Bemsee plus the odd national (Marlbro Clubmans the equivalent to BSB) on an engineeing technicians wage. Helped that I had facilities at work plus I did my own engines. Falklands war meant a lot of overtime which helped pay for it, still feel guilty when I hear the Costello/Wyatt song "Shipbuilding"
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Post by pantah on May 19, 2021 7:37:31 GMT
I had a 550 Honda (who thought of that number) which must have been laid up with petrol in the carbs cos it had a massive flat spot which rendered it almost unrideable. It was like a fucking 2 stroke without the kick. Tried every carb cleaner but was told by a bike mechanic that the carb drillings were blocked and would need new carbs. That wasn’t happening. Polished it up and sold it. Oh and fully enclosed front disc. What was that about? Took about half a day to change the pads.
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