On the Road Again!

Since I started motorcycling back in the 70's I have had an affinity. My favourite rider of the era was Barry Sheene on the TR750 and then RG500 Suzukis. Over the years I have had a number of Suzuki motorcycles of my own and was active in the Suzuki Owners Club for around 36 years. I still have a Suzuki! So it was natural that over the years I have been a fan of the racing efforts of Suzuki.  This year the British Super Bike team of Gino Rea and Danny Kent  will ride the Suzuki  GSX-R1000R in the main BSB class for Buildbase. With racing not getting underway until June instead of Easter time.  Another Covid affected season. Best hopes for these two riders.

So the BSB tickets have arrived and Neill has his so that he can call in on Friday if he is up there early enough. We are on the 1120 Shuttle from Folkestone and that means we won't hit French soil until 1255 local time.  TomTom calculates that it will take around 6 hours.so we are really looking at arriving at the hotel about 7pm.  So no stop off at Assen on the way past. Tonight I need to pack a bag. I have a series of motorcycle oriented t-shirts ready to pack, plus of course waterproofs. Last weekend in September and Holland/Netherlands can be iffy on the weather front. So we need to pack for all eventualities. Being in the car in pissing rain might be a bonus over the bike, but it is still as wet when you get out..... so brolly? So that's about it until the morning.  Drop off the dog at his holiday suiter and then top the car up with UK diesel and then straight to the Shuttle. And away....

The trip is getting closer. Hopefully not travelling at a weekend on the Eurotunnel Shuttle  might mean that we don't get the ridiculous delays that I had on Saturday coming back from Belgium on Saturday. Delays in both ways but the return was ridiculous.  Not so much the breakdown but the lack of information and disregard for the paying customers. The bright spot is that the tickets are in the post and should be with us in a few days. I can give Neill his and he can decide what his travel plans are. I expect on his "Ginny" her will make better progress than we will in the car. The Insignia has a range of about 650 miles on a full tank of filthy disgusting child poisoning polluting  (TM anti car groups) diesel so with it topped up before we get on the Shuttle, we should easily make it to the hotel near Assen with plenty to spare.  Depending on the € price per litre I might have to splash and dash instead of a full tank fill-up. The best UK mpg I have ever had was 47...

Booked today.  Cost £64 for the car on top of the Assen MotoGP trip fare that I had parked with them after we couldn't go. To accommodate taking Reggie to the kennels for the weekend on Friday morning I have booked 28/9 1120 out and 1/10 1750 back. As we will be back too late to go and get him on the Monday I have Tuesday leave as well and so I can go and get him in the morning.

So. We have ordered three tickets for the race weekend.  Claire and I will go in the car and Neill on his BMW, I expect. Before then he had a trip to Canada to fly in the Lancaster bonber. Before we make any firm travel plans I have booked the leave from work and Reggie is booked into Wyncot. We need to sit down with Neill and see what his plan is for the journey up. He won't want to be contrained by the progress a car can make especially when the roads get a bit busy. We have to take Reggie to Wyncot. That is easily an hour round trip from home on nasty narrow country lanes. I don't want to be thrashing it all the way there to wherever the hotel at the Assen end is located. I think we'll be looking at around an 11am Shuttle. Anything not to be around Antwerp at lunchtime or evening rush hour. That place is a bloody nightmare through the tunnels and merging highways. The Insignia has a range of about 650 miles to a tank of diesel and so there should be no problems in that a...

I had originally planned the trip to the Assen round of BSB   as a weekend away for me and Claire in the car but since the disappointment of the MotoGP at Assen it has got a little bigger. We have Claire's hip operation hanging over us and until we get a firm date or even a hint of roughly when it will be, it is difficult to start making to many hard plans. I had booked a twin room in hotel we have stayed at a few times before (in 2009 / 2010 ) before at De Wapse. Claire and I will still need to go in the car and Neill may still want to ride his BMW "Ginny" up there. So with three of us we need another room.  De Wapse was oddly full on the Friday night and I had booked Sat/Sun nights.   Neill has booked two rooms elsewhere from Friday to Monday, three nights.   At the moment it all hinges on the hip op.   Of course, Reggie still needs to go on his holiday and that will complicate things a little and at £14 a day I'd rather not have him there long...

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.