Race Report

Wow, that kicked off for no big reason!!

I think Chris and Shellywoozle need to have kids ... just think how fecked up those little 'piglets' would be with two 'scatterbrains'/'mentalists' as parents!!

Anyway, on a more serious note, I think people are being a bit harsh on old Chris here.

Sure hes he is cr@p at it, but you gotta admit, in all fairness to him, he is giving it a bash (all be it in a really unfathomable manner). I also see far to many people give it large and never actually do anything about it!! So from that perspective he has got 'the balls'

Chris does have dreams above his current station and needs to take a reality check and chill pill.

I for one am glad he wrote that report, it was a bit hard to read/disjointed in places (now I realise that is partially due to dyslexia, so not going to take the p1ss) but its cool to see someone out there living/realising their dream. not many people have the balls or inclination to actually do something with their lives, Chris needs to sort out sporadic nature in which he is doing this, but he isn't harming anyone in his over keenness is he!!

Again, sure he was carp at it, and it wasn't really the logical thing to do (I'd say massively random actually ) ... but the boy is out there doing what he wants to do. Good luck to him!!

Its good to see that finally he is taking heed that he needs to calm down and take things one step at a time. Sure its taken a while for him to get there and its taken a few slaps round the face, but so what??

Chris, I have never actually seen you ride, I hope to one day. I also hope after these slaps in the face, you are now open to try and absorb some of the good advice/help that those on the .org have tried to give. I also appreciate that if you have advice being thrown at you from all angles, its gonna make you 'shut down' and ignore it all ... I seem to recall we had a similar incident with the lovely Melody on a rideout and she got quite upset at the responses/reactions she recieaved.

I have seen a few posts by her where she has been out and about since, enjoying her bike and the scenery, so its all good Hopefully from his point forward we will be seeing the same here too

I think that we can now draw a line under this whole episode.

Various comments/ideas have been mentioned here and I hope useful conclusions can be reached.

Chris has said that he realises some of the things he has said were either wrong or not written as he meant them to sound. Fair enough, and he has had the guts to admit the mistake on-line/publicly.

Chris, All I'm going to add is;

Good on you for having a go at the race in Belgium. I hope that you can take some idea from the event that the whole racing learning curve is huge. There is a massive difference between road riding and competetive track riding.

To paraphrase a few people I would suggest concentrating on getting your road riding up to speed first but take in as many track days as you can afford. Ive only done 3 TDs but I now find myself riding far better (If a little aggresivley! Something I need to address myself.) on the road. Road riding is not a speed thing (although having ridden with you and you could do with speeding up a little, don't worry, it'll come with experience and training.) it's more of a smoothness thing. Smoothness leads to faster and more enjoyable riding and I'm still learning after 14 years of riding.

Take in as much training as you can, Bike Safe etc. Also do a race school, Ron Haslam, CSS. A friend of mine did the CSS and found it to be a massive help.

I would also think about what Spiderman said about the race bike. Personally I would sell it and buy a ratty old CB500 to charge around a track on. Its a good little bike and spares are dirt cheap, and bear in mind there was a CB cup so they are good for the track and pretty bulletproof, look how many were used by couriers!

Just take your time and don't rush into the racing thing. As you have seen it's a whole different game. Take as much advice as you can but please listen to it. A lot of the Soho guys n gals have been on and around bikes for a long time now and can give good advice to you that can be trusted.

Finally, there were some comments that you made that have p**sed off some people. Just a suggestion but you may want to personally speak to them the next time you are in Soho. Just a thought!

This thread will now be closed to stop it descending into a scooter/Santa bashing thread!!