On the Road Again!

So long ago. A day out at Brands Hatch riding the circuit during the Festival of a 1000 Bikes.  I originally wrote this for a fledgling website hosted firstly by Compuserve and then by Geocities (both long since dead!) for the Suzuki Owners Club in 1998. I rescued the source and in 2009 it went on my other blog "On the Road Again" and that's where I have copied the URL from. So here it is - " Running with the Kettles ".

Up at 0745. Out by 0845 after breakfast for me and for Reggie. When I was getting my gear together last night I found a pair of cordura trousers I had bought last year and never worn. In fact had forgotten. These replace jeans and over-trousers and are waterproof. They fitted a dream.  Not too expensive and made by ARMR Moto . I was to meet my brother Neill at the lay-by opposite the Oakdene Cafe where the A20 meets the M26 at 0930. A few holdups on the way to the motorway meant that I was a few minutes late. He took a photo of me. I don't have many of me and the bike. The run up to Brands took about ten minutes. This year after all the bad weather and snow even, the usual parking was too wet and so they had a great idea. They opened the GP circuit to bike parking. What a great idea. Except this meant not going near the main entrance but in a side gate on the way from the A20 to the entrance to the Paddock. The day was miserable really, weather-wise, and with 9 races to get in some...

BSB Round 2 Another chance to score some 5E points in the Challenge and see British Superbikes. It's round two at our local track at Brands Hatch. It is a track we know well. I was corner commander for the marshals there and Neill was the chief flag marshal at Dingle Dell Corner. This is on the long GP circuit. This week's racing is on the short Indy circuit. We are going thanks to complimentary tickets from Suzuki GB. Thanks to Claire for them. She works with Suzuki moving bikes around Europe.

Originally posted on the first ever Suzuki Owners Club website hosted by Yahoo! Geocities. First posted in 1998. When Geocities announced they were closing I saved the source. Running with the Kettles - August 1998 On the face of it, a group of over fifty GT750's, drawn from all the different models from the entire six year reign, might seem a particularly insignificant and sobering thought to the non-believer. But. I BELIEVE! Thanks to some jiggery-pokery by Dave Pitcher, Chairman of the Kettle Club UK and Suzuki Owners Club member, we had a half hour. No. A wonderful half hour of track time to ourselves at the VMCC's "Festival of a 1000 Bikes" on the Sunday of the weekend event. Having a special Kettle-only session meant that we didn't have to put up with the myriad of slow blokes on Z900's and old British rubbish as we had done in Sunday's first session, the 1972-77 Over-500cc 'parade'. Waiting in pit lane I listened into a couple of ot...