I got used to the off road handling and two stroke power band at my Uncles farm where we'd made a Motocrross track for my eldest cousin who was 7 and making me look very amateurish
There is a piece of land called 'Tin Tac' at Thirsk where lads and lasses have rode off road bikes for donkeys years and so a couple of us would go up there and thrash the tits off our bikes just for fun. I did a 'Mad Stubble' meet for my first event and promptly crashed lying 2nd off the line at the first corner and the whole field rode over the top of me, the body armour saved my ass that day =D> A few Mates followed suit and we had great fun. We entered a couple of MX events. One at the A64 track and another over near Market Weighton which opened our eyes to this being a young mans sport so the writing was on the wall for the Motocrossing and the bike but I managed a beach race at Redcar when the bike developed a "Nope, I don't want to start and if you do get me started, I'm gonna run with a misfire and keep cutting out to piss you off". So, decision was made, the YZ was going and a road bike was on the cards.
I looked around, as you do and decided to go back to what I knew, so bought a Honda VF400four because I did enjoy that bike and I would just need to get back into road riding without learning the foibles of a new bike. I had a white Ford Sierra XR4i with colour coded bumpers and which I had put a full Janspeed system on at the time and It wasn't long before I wanted a bigger bike because I was having to ride the wheels of that little 400 to keep up with me Mates who had CBR600's, ZXR750's, GSXR750's and FZR 600's, we did alright me and that VF but it was getting manic through the corners because we were loosing out on the straights. I learnt to go round corners fast on that bike through necessity
Early 1994 and I traded the VF in for a red GSX600f, affectionately known as a teapot in the biking world. Woa, the change up to a 600 was brilliant, compared to the VF it was a flying machine, to me anyway and th brakes were incredible, they actually not only slowed the bike but stopped it too \:D/ I was right in the mix with me Mates on that bike and with it's neutral handling could leave them standing through ththe bends, not the usual way a 'teapot' was ridden. I 'piped' her up with a Nexus can and put a black screen on her too, she was my pride and joy. I bought my first set of one piece race leathers when I had that bike from the Bike show in Birmingham, Texport red & white with bright lime green flashes on the forearms and a RX7RR Arai, I felt on top of the world on that bike. I went to my first race meeting abroad on the GSX, Assen WSB in 1994 where I met two guys who have become and stayed my best friends since that weekend 
Its 1995 and I'm doing a lot of miles on the bike, over 12,000 pleasure miles within a year and counting. I got my knee down for the first time and my vision, planning ahead and general riding was improving every week, I needed to up my game and get a 750 race rep. I looked around and Suzuki were bringing the new WV model out and so giving great deals on the replaced GSXR750WS and I found my next bike, my first 'brand spanker' in Tillsons, Stockton on Tees. I bought her in December 1995 and stored her in a Mates garage because I didn't have one and I wasn't gonna lock her up to the house as I had been doing with my previous bikes. As soon as the roads were clear of salt in 1996 she came out. I was blown away but not intimidated by her power and the handling was sublime, it was my perfect bike.
The exhaust was starting to show signs of, not corrosion but it was affected by something mad although Tillsons said It wasn't a warranty issue, York Suzuki said it was and, they could get me a race exhaust as a replacement, ha, happy days. Within a week She was fitted with a Yoshimura duplex full race system, OMG, what a sound, I was over the moon and the crackles and bangs on the over run were brilliant, in my ears anyway. I perfected the 'rev the bike in first or second gear while riding, shut the throttle, flick the kill switch off, 3 seconds and kill switch back on'
and it was like a shotgun being fired. Get it right in a narrow street with high buildings and people would duck and jump into doorways wondering 'What the hell was that' Childish I know but 'funny as owt' it wouldn't be very clever now what with all the ISIS bollox but back then the IRA had ceased bombing England and we were all less wary I think.Next on the horizon was a track day on her. I'd done the Yamaha Race School at Caldwell Park in 1994 and so decided to do the full track on her there. Bike and tools into my van and away we went. KAfter the briefing I was 'bricking it' waiting to go out in my first session. I had put myself in the fast group
never being short of confidence and being 'full of myself' but this was a nervousness I hadn't experienced before. Walking onto stage in the school play as The Pharoah dressed in a boiler suit covered in bacofoil and singing with a microphone in front of parents and families was one thing, going out on my first session at a track day with all the exotica with tyre warmers and dedicated track bikes was another. I needn't have worried, I learn't where the track went, followed a couple of fast lads through the bends to look at their lines and in the second session I was 'on it'. A couple of Mates had rode over to watch me and were very impressed and could see my ear to ear grin every time I came in, so much so that we all ended up doing track days after that. Another trip to Assen WSB that year in the glorious sunshine and me and the bike were knitting together like a repairing broken bone. I removed the speedo cable during that year because I was racking up the miles and ended up doing 16,000 pleasure miles. It was a great year for the weather and we rode from March to November I remember, brilliant =D> Track days became an annual event after Caldwell and I did all the BSB tracks I could barring Knockhill and Thruxton but it was always my road bike and had lights and indicators and mirrors.
Move on to the winter of 1997 and the racer Dennis Winterbottom, who I had met through a Mate was preparing two brand fire new GSXR750WV's to race in the Bol d'or. The French are a funny bunch and he got refused entry at the last minute for being a British Team Dennis reckoned, anyway, he was selling the two bikes. One was the qualifying bike and was tuned to fook and the other was the planned race bike, which I bought. It had the following:-
Blueprinted engine
Maxton internals in the front forks
Ohlins rear shock with remote preload in with the clocks behind the screen
Full Arrow race system
Rearsets
Race bodywork
Endurance paddock stand bobbins with two bobbins on each side, one for general maintenance and a second higher up which lifted the bike a few mm off the floor to allow a quick wheel change during the race.
I got it painted Lucky Strike colours with a Kevin Swantz #34 on the race single seat cowl and I got all the original bits they had taken off the bike to put it back to standard or sell with the bike when the time came.
That engine was 'a belter', it had so much linear power and the bike was a rocket ship. First ride out on it I took my wife of the time, who was the best passenger I have ever had on the back of any bike, out. I put the original dual seat back on and passenger pegs and out we went one sunny Sunday in early March 1998. We rode to friends in Norton, Doncaster and we all rode over to Bridlington, onto Scarborough and back home to Thirsk. The bike was wanting to wheelie ever time I rolled the throttle on with the extra weight and it was a great challenge to keep it on the ground. I've never been a wheelie man, too frightened I'll flip a bike, I'll go round corners as fast as you like but I like both wheels on the ground thank you very much and if the front lifts when I'm on the power over a lump or brow in the road I don't panic but soon have it back on 'terra firmma'. Everything was rosy until Mothers Day that year. We were going to see my Mam later that lovely sunny day and so I would nip out for a couple of hours on the bike. I filled her up before leaving Thirsk and within 3 miles the bike was in two bits and I was lying in the road not very clever at all...............tbc
