Isle of Man TT 2004

We arrived on the island on the Friday evening after a long days travel down to Neil’s in Staffordshire, where we packed the van and drove up to Liverpool Ferry Terminal, to sail to Douglas.

Couperman and Tonto from Melville Motor Club had kept us a space in the paddock and we were very glad they had, it was about the last space available. It must have been the busiest year so far and we were camped right at the bottom of the Nobles Park Campsite (close to the prison).

We got the garage set up in the morning and got all the kit packed out ready for use. At the riders briefing, I found out that there would be a new flag at the marshals points this year (a red diagonal cross on a white background), which signifies “Rain”… very useful.

Later that day we went out on our first sighting lap in the van (the first of many). I was really excited to see just how the R6 would react on the circuit, as it has 50% more power than the 400 from last year and is about 10Kg lighter. I expected it to be much more airborne and be wheelieing a lot more and a lot higher……….IT DID !!!!!!!

On my first practice session that evening I found out just how the increase in powder affected the pace.
It was fine down Bray Hill although I was a little cautious on the throttle. up to Glen Vine the front wheel was up in the air a few times, but when I got to the crest at the Highlander (one of the fatest parts of the circuit) the bike just pointed its nose at the sky and stood right up (at 150mph). I learned after this to cover the back brake.

Further round the circuit towards Ramsay on the ripply and bumpy Glen Tramman and Milnhouse it was tank slapping violently. So much so, that the oscillation of the front wheel was causing the discs to push the pads back into the callipers, resulting in NO BRAKE. I was having to pump the lever to compensate at 4 or 5 points on each lap.

My first lap speeds were not brilliant (98/99mph), but I didn’t expect them to be. we realised that the steering damper had also been set at 0 for the first practice, which didn’t help the twitchy steering I had experienced.

The next practice was two days later on the Monday and we checked the settings, to make sure the steering damper was set properly. I was a little bit more aware of what to expect this time out and it felt a little better, but my course recognition meant that I could remember points better and therefore go faster. My times surprised me with how much they had improved. I had qualified at 106mph on my third lap.
The bike was still standing virtually upright going over the crest at The Highlander and was very twitchy and tank slapping so much that I had to back off through the run in to Ramsay.
I later found out that as you change suspension settings to allow you to go faster, you find that they are no longer good enough. So, a problem at 105mph which had been cured by adjusting suspension, can become a problem again as you increase the lap speed to above 106mph. Sometimes as you improve your lap speeds, you find you can continually chase the perfect setup for the suspension. Its logical really.
In fact you can get to a certain lap time and not be able to improve past it, because you cannot find the correct suspension adjustment to make, to allow the bike to go faster.

These are things which are experienced on most circuits, but on the TT circuit (due to the high speed and huge variation in surface condition) they will be experienced at an extreme which exaggerates any imperfection in suspension setup, to the extent where I was experiencing huge tankslappers and violent twitchiness at the front end.

Anyway, despite all this I qualified on my 3rd lap, so it was pretty good going. A wee trip down to the Queens pub on the promenade was in order to celebrate.

Tuesdays practice, I was still experiencing the same problems as above and my times were not any faster, so we contacted John Donnan, who is the Irish rep for Maxton Suspension. Him and Ray Porter were both running R6’s and using Maxton suspension. John had a look at the bike asked us to add a couple of clicks High speed compression damping on the rear suspension and take it back to him. (it seemed as if the damping was a little soft). Later he checked the front suspension and made a few adjustments.

Wednesdays practice session was cancelled due to bad weather, but on Thursday, I was out and my speed had definitely increased. I was up to 108mph (things were looking good). But as before, I had increased my speed by 2 or 3 mph and as a result needed to set the suspension up to cope. The bike was back again to its tank slapping and twitching, which at 140-150mph is a little off putting !!!!

On Friday we got in contact with Richard from Maxton after 2 laps of practice, as the bike was still the same. Richard listened to our comments on what the bike was doing and increased one click on the rebound damping on the front forks. I went out and from a standing start on a short lap got just over 109mph. What a difference a click makes !

We watched the F1 race from The Cregg, but I had to get down after the race to get the bike scrutineered for practice that evening. The weather had been good all week and the forecast was looking promising for the following week. So I got out on another dry practice session. I just couldn’t seem to get my speed up any more because I felt I was backing off at several areas of the circuit where the front end was VERY twitchy. My times reflected this a little.

For the first year I got to see the Lightweight 400/125 race (from the pits anyway) It was quite a pace that was set and I kind of wished I still had a 400, but that’s all irrelevant now as the 125/400 class has been taken out of the program for next year.
I got a laps practice where I managed a108.74mph lap. Not bad, but I would have liked to see a litte more progression. Perhaps I was just expecting too much. After all it was a standing start (short) lap.

Junior Race Day
After the 4 hour delay for the 400’s I was a little bit concerned there would be a delay for the race. It turned out there was a half hour delay due to a car accident at Handleys.
It seemed like I was starting right at the back. No 74 starts 740seconds (over 12 minutes) after the No. 1 bike!
I got away quite well and it wasn’t long before I caught the bike in front of me. Things were going well round the bottom towards Ballaugh (although it was still very twitchy into Kirkmichael and through Ballaugh, Kerrowmoar, Milntown and through Ramsay up to May Hill. By Handleys I’d caught Phil Read’s French Girlfriend on a ZXR 600, but I struggled a little through the sections above and lost time there.

On lap two I felt comfortable on the smooth sections and the bike felt stable here. At the pit stop at the end of lap 2 I came in a little short of the mark and Neil had to really stretch the fuel hose to get it in the tank, nevertheless it was a good fuel stop and I got away well.
I began to notice on lap three that the suspension was warming a little and the bike was becoming more twitchy. Going along Sulby straight (which is flat out) I decided to turn the steering damper up a click. As I brought my hand back to the bar I let a couple of fingers get caught in the air outside the fairing and as my hand was ripped back I was made aware of just how fast I was going.

Sure enough on lap three I was caught by the Leader John McGuinness, in Ramsay. I was feeling good at this stage as I just had to accept the loss of time through the bumpy sections due to the front end twitching. I was getting my knee down on some sections that I wouldn’t have thought possible, like at Joeys (26th milstone) with walls on either side!
As I approached Mountain Box (almost at the top of the mountain) I had to slow down to 30mph as there had been an accident and the rider was still on the road. It was a long time before I saw the accident and this lost me probably at least 30-45 seconds, as it was a fast bit of road I was on.

I struggled a bit on the 4th lap, with the suspension and I didn’t realise how much until I came back in at the end of the race and realised just how tired I was. I had a great race, and had averaged a speed of 106mph including pit stop (6mph up on my 400cc speed ! ).

I really wanted to get another race (I had my entry for the Production 600 race rejected as there were so many people applying, despite my pleas to the race secretary) but I found out that I could apply for the Senior Race. This is the race for the fastest of the racers and I Thought “what have I got to lose” so applied. As much to try out some new suspension settings as anything else, because I wanted to get to a point where I was ready to progress next year and the only place to do it is at the TT…on the circuit!

They accepted my entry !
Because I had a lap of 108mph in my Junior Race I qualified for the Senior.

The Senior was held on the Friday as the last race, so we had a day to get the bike prepped and check it over.

Senior Race day
I was quite apprehensive about going into the Senior as there were only about 8 600cc bikes out of 90 starters, the rest were 1,000cc F1 and Production bikes.

I was given No. 77 as a start number, but I wasn’t bothered how far back I started, I was in the Senior TT and I had never dreamed of getting this far!

The roads had been a bit patchy for the 600 Production race in the morning, but were completely dry (although we had a few doubts about whether it would rain during the race and the decision about which tyres to put on was not made easy by the ominous clouds above)

We had made a couple of changes in the suspension; on the advice of Maxton we had increased the rebound damping on the front by 1 click, but we found out that the rear compression damping was only set at 2/3 of what it should have been (probably due to a fault with the adjuster). This was remedied and we were ready to go.

Right away I felt the bike a little less twitchy going down across Glencrutchery Road. The bike felt just that little bit tighter.
This gave me a little more confidence although it had not cured the twitchiness completely, I think you have to accept a few high speed tank slappers now and again. Its just the way that modern bikes are set up, with their short wheelbases and high steering angles. They are more prone to light front end shakes and wobbles.

My first lap felt pretty good. There were only a few areas where the bike was misbehaving. But it wasn’t too bad. Again I caught a couple of guys on the first lap, but then luckilly got some clear space to myself.
On lap two I was getting even more settled with the way the bike was now reacting and this (unknown to me was showing positively in my lap times).

I stopped closer to the mark in the pit stop, and again the crew did a great job of getting me in and away in a quick time.

On the third lap I was getting well into the flow and even found myself getting my knee down at Appledene, which is a tricky, very fast 4th gear corner (about 110mph). My exit to Rhencullen was the best I’d had all week, a lovely mega wheelie, which landed steady and let me get full drive through into Bishopscourt.
Just before Ramsay however there were Rain flags out as it began to rain and the surface was getting wet. It wasn’t bad and I decided to just be as smooth as possible, but not back off too much. The rain was all the way up the mountain.

Not that I had much time to think about things except for what was coming up next, I felt that it was smooth and that is normally a good sign that it is going to be a fast lap.

At the end of the lap I was passed going down into Douglas by Wade Boyd on his ZXR 900. I managed to keep close to him for about 1/2 a lap and he was using the least excuse to wheelie. I thought “hes just showing off!”, but then he’s not got all that experience in American Speedway and road racing for nothing !

Lap 4 was really good (except for my monster wheelie at Rhencullen), which came down and wobbled a bit.

I think subconsciously I knew that I had achieved the goal though the fortnight of getting a suspension setting, where I was happy that I could go flat out I the bumpy areas without worrying about huge tank slappers followed by no brakes.

As I came across the line to finish the race, I felt absolutely great, I just wanted to keep going.
I wasn’t anywhere as tired after this race as I wasn’t fighting the steering as much as in the Junior Race.
It was that and the fact that I had done a 110.6mph lap !……….I had a wee secret goal that if I could do a 110mph lap It would be a real bonus……and I did it !!!!
In fact my race speed was 108.6mph.

Nobody could shoot me down for the next week ! not even the low that comes after such intense adrenaline rushes as you get at the TT could get me down.

So I’m ready for 2005, when I will be able to tune the bike for more speed for the new classes which will be appearing next year.

Thank you to my sponsors without whom I would not have been able to compete:

Thanks to all the sponsors and everyone who supports the team:

A HUGE Thanks to Neil for supplying the bike, doing all the mechanics, being a set up guru, getting sponsorship, pit crew and generally making it happen !

Scottish Association for Bikers with a Dissability

www.magsport.com

Brian "Bud" Patterson (sponsor and pit crew)

www.saddletramps.net Saddle Tramps Bike Club

notjustbikes ltd Galashiels

York Barbers Russell Murray

www.zoomracing.co.uk

freja-fashion.co.uk

John my brother for "the wets"

Morgan Est

Thanks to Al Cameron of www.dominioncinemas.co.uk

Thanks to Stuart Ireland for the excellent, fast paintwork.

Thanks to Jenny (Turbo Tea Lady, for coming across to pit Crew).

Thanks to Colin for Pit Crewing and getting himself cautioned for nudity by the Manx Police.

Thanks to Orla, Jeff and Rachel for coming to support the team.