A chap called Chris Petty brought it back from RMKD secret headquarters in deepest darkets corner of York to a Sunny Sunny Sun drenched Isle of Man.
The ZXR was pulled form the back of Chris’s van when he says, “You getting it sprayed?†“Yeah; Why?†“Well she has a few oily finger marks on the White fibreglass fairingâ€.
Well she rolled out and low and behold I thought it was feckin Dalmatian on wheels.
The cheap spray job would have been to lacquer over the spots and to leave it as that. One thing for sure is that it would have been a good conversational point and also something for the kids to point at and laugh and shout insults at me "dog boy, beast boy, dicked on a dog and that bikes a dog" are a few that spring to mind.
Gotta say, the fairings that Roger made were stunning. Granted, White fairings with black Oily finger marks never did them justice but once sprayed they were a proper thoughjob, cheers Rog. 4" taller and about 3" wide, if only there were medical procedures that could do the same thing.
Saturday morning the bike was up a Slick Performance as Roger had said a Dyno set up may be required to get the CV carbs set up, so I duly obliged.
After a few days I get a call from the Dyno guy, Robbie Sylvester (VRS) telling me one thing and another and it may need more work. Slick hires teh Dyno out to Robbie over TT fortnight as Slick cant build engines and run the Dyno, hence RS being on site
I’d asked Robbie to set up the Flatslides and not the CV’s as they were set up last year and worked a treat. I know last year the FS's were a pain in teh butt but I thought that if they sat in a box for a year then they may be working properly now.
“Robbie†I said. “Do what needs to be done and make it happenâ€
A few days later and £615 lighter in the butt pocket I had the bike back.
Next job was the fairings.
I managed to hook up with a family friend of the girlfriend (Katie Smith). I gave my colour preference…….er……..Green and …..er………Black please, and the design I just said "do whatever you want". I suppose a statement like that could have tragic consequences as he could have tackled the job whilst full of booze, thankfully Ian only drank before work as he never likes drinking ion the job
(for the record. Ian Smith is not a boozed up spraypainting maniac, he's a top man with a top skill)1 Week later and they were ready.
Mega top tidy Job (Ian Smith – no relation to Katie) and they look the dogs on the new RMKD fairings. Just need the tank doing now which should be before the S100.
Well I had the bike for the Manx Telecom Post TT races.
To say they never went according to my hopes were an understatement.
In short, I Qualified on the 2nd row after having only two flying laps and then in the race I pulled in after about 2 laps.
When the lights went off for the race, by the tim eI crossed teh start line the last placed rider had passed me. Am not saying it was demoralising or anoying or frustrating or enraging and I want go on bout it but I have to say.................nah, old news an dthats the last of it.
Caus eof teh issue????? Seemed like the bike would not run on 4. It just seemed to want to run on 3 or it was running way too rich. Don’t forget this was after £615 of hard earned cash was handed over for setting the fueling of the flatslides up.
Practice was cut short to only 1 session as we were running on a Sunday seeing as the TT senior race had to be cancelled on the Friday and then it never ran on the Saturday so our race day was the Sunday.
I was going to switch to the CV’s for the second practyice session but alas, that plan fell apart.
Well it was back to Slicks with her now to have a re-fettle.
I got a call from slicks 3 days later with some news.
“Hey bu, (he calls everyone Bu, B or Bu bu) I put the CV’s back on and ran it up....boy she was running like sick pigâ€
“Feckinel†that was the last thing I wanted to hear!
Slick then piped up “I then threw some new plugs in her though bu, and she’s now running a like French soilder. She’s quick, clear, clean and crispâ€
That was the only news I’ve always wanted to hear, not even “Congratulation Mr Jones you have a healthy and beautiful baby boy weighing in a 10lbs 12oz†would have done the trick.
It would have made me giggle a little I spoze, as one that size would have deffo brought a tear to your eye as you squeezed it out….still, not as painful as full on man flu.
So……………I’m giving up with flatslides now and sticking with CV’s………….unless…………… I can locate a pair of full on FCR’s rather than the SP’s.
So, if anyone has a set they can loan me for the S100 and the Manx I’ll give you a few quid and stick your name on my bike.
That’s all I’ll bleet on about this time but I’ll try to rustle somit up after the S100, which starts on the 9th July.
Next Job:
Spray the tank
Next race:
The Southern 100 (S100)
Special thanks to:
Roger Middleton at RMKD for the fairingtastic job he has done on making me fairings that fit and for the engine work and fixing the bits I broke after last years Manx. The guy is a genius and when he tells you something, listen cuz its right.
Ian Smith for a superb spray job, truly is superb. He likes to be paid in Whiskey and beer but I fear that may change as his name gets around as a class act. And I have now seen that he can also Airbrush helmets and teh one that I've seen is again, Quality.
Slick Performance for putting up with my whining and getting the bike back on song.
Katie Smith (the Girlfriend) for putting up with my terrible terrible temper, snappy disposition and generally being an all round grumpy giraffe. Oh yeah, I asked Katie to pass me a spanner so she passed me a socket set. That did test me a little as I was in the process of holding a calliper with one hand whilst balancing a wheel on my foot….and my foot was getting tired and I was ready to rock.
Chris Petty for bringing my bike back to the rock, Cheers fella…and wife, and apologies for never getting up for a cuppa. You did well at the TT though.
That’s it for now folks
Pics of the bike are on face book (Adam Jones)
Happy ZXRing
Jonesy
