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Suzuki GSXR Motorcycle Forum
Welcome to Gixerboyz. The Suzuki GSXR Motorcycle forum. If its about GSXR's then you have come to the right place. Of course, other motorcycles also welcome...
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rev gsxr
stunt monkey
Joined: 03 May 2007
Posts: 1116
Location: northampton
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 Posted: Wed Jun 04, 2008 8:40 am Post subject: |
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| Leon who are you going with and what are your plans i want to do it, We could have a chat at cadwell about it. |
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L3on
Site Manager
Joined: 08 Jun 2007
Posts: 2884
Location: Berkshire
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| Posted: Wed Jun 04, 2008 3:32 pm Post subject: |
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| I'll try to find out more details, a mate of mine is organising it, I know the ferry has been booked already & I think the hotel has too. I'm picking some bits up from him on the way to cadwell on Tuesday, so I'll find out how far arranged it all is & we can chat at cadwell. |
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Highside
scooter boy
Joined: 20 Jun 2008
Posts: 22
Location: South derbyshire
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| Posted: Thu Jul 31, 2008 8:08 pm Post subject: |
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| We're there that weekend, arrive Friday, leave Monday. Staying at Ringhaus, steak on hot stone at Sabines parents Sunday night. K3 750, blue and white, blue Astra GSi (old shape one). Plus a few other bikes. Come and say Hi. |
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L3on
Site Manager
Joined: 08 Jun 2007
Posts: 2884
Location: Berkshire
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| Posted: Tue Aug 26, 2008 5:23 pm Post subject: |
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| Highside wrote: | | We're there that weekend, arrive Friday, leave Monday. Staying at Ringhaus, steak on hot stone at Sabines parents Sunday night. K3 750, blue and white, blue Astra GSi (old shape one). Plus a few other bikes. Come and say Hi. |
Not long now, we leave thursday overnight ferry, not sure where we're staying - blue & white k7 750, black blade, another bike? & me on my ktm 990 sm. I'll look out for you, have a good one. |
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Baldrick
moderator
Joined: 06 Mar 2006
Posts: 4698
Location: Nuneaton, Warwickshire, Home of the Banjo
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| Posted: Tue Aug 26, 2008 5:30 pm Post subject: |
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Take it easy Nick! We leave Tuesday morning next week for the midweek session  |
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andyk3
Site Founder
Joined: 15 Dec 2005
Posts: 21599
Location: Widower to a Nintendo DS
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| Posted: Tue Aug 26, 2008 7:46 pm Post subject: |
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| have fun guys |
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L3on
Site Manager
Joined: 08 Jun 2007
Posts: 2884
Location: Berkshire
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| Posted: Thu Aug 28, 2008 1:48 pm Post subject: |
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Right I'm off soon, see you all in a few days  |
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papertech202
Dyno Man
Joined: 25 Feb 2007
Posts: 1339
Location: Staffordshire
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| Posted: Thu Aug 28, 2008 3:07 pm Post subject: |
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Have fun Nik and take it steady  well ok steadyish  |
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Highside
scooter boy
Joined: 20 Jun 2008
Posts: 22
Location: South derbyshire
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| Posted: Thu Sep 04, 2008 5:05 am Post subject: |
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Usual format for us, meet at Dover Travel Inn on the Thursday night, get there for about 6 ish after a reasonably good travel down from Derby via Birkhampstead to collect Tim and his ZX10R. As the Gixer engine has gone pop the other week – a by-product methinks of the crash at Mallory and suspected crank twisted with overheating – I’ve had to take the little CBR600RR belonging to the wife….I was under no illusions not to bother coming home if it was to be collected from the breakers at any stage of the holiday. Meal downstairs, and some hit the town for a giggle at the local weirdos walking around.
Up at 04:30 to check in for 5, on ferry at 6am and sail to Dunkerque. Plenty of giggles at Johns (home-made?) trailer and memories of last year when Marks trailer decided to fall apart 20kms from the Nurburgring on the way home…Usual un-eventful journey along the E40, usual stop at Leige (Luik) services before the final hour and a half to the Ringhaus. Arrive at mid morning, unload bikes and trips to cash points for Euros / Bitburger money for weekend. Track open at five thirty ish, 25 lap ticket bought as no half season ticket this year (boo…). Weather nice and dry / warm so off we set on a sighting lap. 5 laps later decide to call it a night as flowing nicely and speed now up. Had a good few laps chasing Mark on his GSXR750, this is the first time I’ve ridden the wife’s bike in anger and on track, the most I’ve done on it is probably about 200 miles in total and it’s set up for her riding style and weight. First impressions are good and it turns in a lot faster through the twisties better than the Gixer. Evening meal in the Ringhaus and the bar-man (not Frank) kept us up until 03:30 with his love of rock music and ‘submarines’…(?)
Up Saturday morning and the circuit was shut due to fog until 08:45. First closure was at 09:06…ho hum. When it re-opened, I waited for one of the group who was a bit nervous about riding round there – he had seen John (R1 rider in group) have a very bad smash at Cadwell several years ago in a race and it has knocked his confidence a lot. Coupled with the fact that he had bought the bike 3 days earlier (2001 ZX9R for 1,600 quid) and never ridden it, had to bump start it everywhere and it didn’t tick over, all that aside he was fine. Just about to put ticket in barrier for first lap of the day and the orange lights go on….ho hum again. We wait and wait in the heat until John calls us about 1.5 hours into the closure. He’s caught up in the incident but he’s not crashed – Tim has and his bike is a mess. We wait another hour and I go for a ride round the local roads with Mark / Gixer 750. We stop back at the Ringhaus for a jungle wee as the toilets stink and are always crowded at the track, and agree to go straight out onto track. I filter through the cars and go up to the barrier expecting him to be behind me. I go through and wait but no sign of him. I wait as long as I dare and decide to have a potter about by myself to warm the tyres up and catch up with him for the next lap. As I come into the car-park I see him standing there with no bike or leathers on – he explains that as he rode towards the road from the Ringhaus car-park his brake pads fell out of his front brake…!!! He was half way across the road before he came to a stop and it transpired that the retaining pit that holds the pads in the callipers had worked it’s way loose and his pads just fell out…!!! WTF is it lately and Gixer brakes? He has also found Tim who is hobbling about with a very sore ankle but in good spirits, and fills us in with what happened to him…
Hit-Miss-Hit, at GT3 dumps it’s coolant. It apparently belongs to a young Irishman who keeps it over there and has it race prepped for his trips there. A coolant pipe split in the middle, a day after it had been serviced. However, a Pug 306 Rally thing lost it on the spillage and parked itself against the armco. The Porsche driver had stopped and was running back up the track to warn others of the danger, but it was too late….the next thing to come barrelling round the corner was a Carrera 4 turbo, and as it had a lot more inertia than the little Pug, smashed into it and the armco, coming to rest with the little French mobile ontop of it’s bonnet. Tim was the next victim to fall foul of this and as the back end broke away, he was sliding down the track on his back, head first looking at the way he had just come. The Z4 M behing him collected Tim with his front spoiler and twisted his boot. Tim said afterwards that he could see the panic on the drivers face as he fought for control – unbeknown to Tim, he was about to become the cushion between the armco and the BMW, but the driver could see this and tried to steer away. When they hit the grass, the car (either by luck or skill) spun off to the other side of the track and planted itself in the armco on the opposite side. Tim put a few nice dents down the one side where he rolled down the wings and door, and the barrier did a good job of making sure every other panel was also dented. Seeing what was unfolding, Tim jumped up and started running up the hill to warn others of the danger. The Dodge viper was the next thing along…lost it on the coolant and headed straight for Tim. Tim had the presence of mind to swiftly vacate the spot he was occupying and jumped over the Armco. As he turned around he heard an almighty bang and promptly got a face full of dirt, which he said filled his eyes so his reaction was to shut his visor. He opened his visor a few seconds later and cleared his eyes, just intime to see a new 430 loose it….but luckily regain control. Another ZX10 fell foul before he could get far enough up the track to warn others of the danger. The GT3 driver stayed around and was later fined 500 euros. He also has track insurance and to date he will be facing claims for 2 x ZX10’s (1 written off), Dodge Viper, BMW Z4 M (written off), 911 turbo 4 (written off) and a Pug 306 (written off), plus Armco damage and down time of two and a half hours….
We all decide to have a break for a while, and it’s also bloody hot, but John and Gaz (both R1’s on trip) want to continue riding. We decide to take him down to Adenau Police station to fill in the forms and sort that out, and jump in Johns Diesel Mondeo. This starts overheating and smoking a bit but is running fine and holding – if a little high – temperature. Jud is driving, Tim in passenger and me and Mark in rear with John and Gaz following on their R1’s. We sort the paperwork out and as we sit by the leisure shop having a half roast chicken and chips, Johns frustration at having to tidy enerything in the boot of his car again due to Juds driving is apparent, and his parting words are “Don’t f**king spank it” ring in our ears as we agree to meet at the hotel. It would be rude not to pass the track entrance at Breidsheid without attemping a lap, so decide to take the scenic route back to the hotel. The bloke on the barrier just waves us on without taking a lap off our ticket, so couldn’t resist a free lap…
As soon as we enter it’s apparent that it’s underpowered – and taking Kesselchen flat out at about 55mph is a piss take, the temp is running hot and we all panic incase John decides to do a lap before meeting us at the hotel. We manage to crawl round, and literally 200 yards from the exit it cuts out. f**k. Tim jumps in the drivers seat and the 3 of us proceed to push it off the track and up the slip road. Our plan is to get it to the roundabout and roll down the hill away from Ringhaus, get it as far away as we can and then ring John and tell him his car has broken down. We succeed in this mission and John and Gaz bring water in rucksacks to fill the rad up. This cures the problem and the car runs fine thereafter….Even now he is none the wiser.
As it’s now getting on for late afternoon, I decide to get some laps in as having only done 6 in total so far. I head off by myself and take it easy to warm the tyres up, and at Klosteral an R1 comes past me with a Nurburgring bib on…Game on! I tag onto the back of him for a tow but he looses me a bit through the twisties. I am about 10 to 15 seconds behind him at Eschbach and come down to the spectating area at the top of the corkscrew to find him lying on the verge and his bike a good 30 yards away. I anchor up and run over to him. He has a very weak pulse so unzip his leathers and look for chest wounds – I didn’t want to start CPR if he had broken ribs and cause more damage. He groans and tries to lift an arm up, I just hold it down, tell him to lie still and that help was on the way. He doesn’t look too healthy and the paramedic eventually turn up. As I ride away, I notice a black M3 with the bonnet up – it transpires that he had also dumped his coolant on the track and this biker was the first to discover it. They air-lift him away and I gather that he died of his injuries at a later date, the second person to loose their life that day. I am unsure of the circumstances of the other death, and these are also unconfirmed as they are hearsay, but it’s still not a nice thing to come across. The only consolation is that I think that it would have been quick and as he was in and out of consciousness I hope the shock would have numbed the pain sufficiently. This brings it home to us and we all reflect on how we are treating it like a race track and not with enough respect. Beers and food in Adenau follow and we retire back to the hotel at about mid-night. That day was absolute carnage on track - so many accidents.
The next day, now that we are down to 4, decide to finish our laps and have a good ride round. I work on my lines and smoothness, trying to keep momentum up on the little 600 as I can only manage 150 ish in the fast sections. The days passes without too many stops, and I complete 18 laps, despite stopping for a few hours in the afternoon as the heat is gewtting to me and the tyres (one moment coming out of Ex-Mule where the back slid away). So I shower and go to a few spectating point with Tim, just to get him out for a bit, and return at about five thirty for half a dozen laps. Have a good chase with A Gixer 750 and 1000 – both British plates – and come off feeling pleased with the days riding. I was able to keep with a GT3 on one lap, and the Ringtaxi on another despite being on a strange little bike so chuffed with it. Tyres now scrubbed in ready for her to ride on the road….
Evening meal booked at 8 at Pistonklause (spelling) and we retire for the evening at a sensible time. Up at 7 to leave for 8 to catch the ferry at 14:00, me and Tim leave an hour later after collecting his bike from the salvage yard (it’s a mess, everything is bent), I have to drive his car to his house as his ankle is too sore, we arrive ther at 8pm and I saddle up to finish the remaining 2 hours on the CBR. Junction 15 and it starts to f**k it down with rain – all the way home. Rain suit did a good job and only gloves and feet got a little damp, not piss wet through, just damp towards end of ride despite tucking in as best as I could and sitting at a steady 130mph on the M1.
All in all a mixed feelings of a trip, but looking forward to returning next year. |
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L3on
Site Manager
Joined: 08 Jun 2007
Posts: 2884
Location: Berkshire
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| Posted: Thu Sep 04, 2008 5:22 pm Post subject: |
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Well, I enjoyed the trip, but won't be in a hurry to take the bike back, spent most of the weekend waiting for the circuit to open after all the off's as described above by highside, we were told 2 deaths & arm taken off in smashes on the saturday & sunday. In 2 1/2 days managed just 8 laps & only the first was yellow flag free.
Still was please to lap in 9.12 on the ktm even with a yellow flag slowing us down a bit, condisering I'd never been before and was riding it like a road.
we all agreed that we would rather go & do cartegena or similar for a few days next year, but it was an experience worth doing just for the craic & the rest of the time was a right laugh, so was more than worth it for that. |
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P3tchy
BSB novice
Joined: 22 Aug 2007
Posts: 2027
Location: MK
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| Posted: Thu Sep 04, 2008 5:45 pm Post subject: |
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| Good write up fella, Shame about the accidents and loss of life but like you said you need to show that place respect. Even if it was due to Cage's shitting them selves on the track. |
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Highside
scooter boy
Joined: 20 Jun 2008
Posts: 22
Location: South derbyshire
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| Posted: Fri Sep 05, 2008 7:55 pm Post subject: |
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This is the accident Tim from our group was involved in...
[link] |
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Baldrick
moderator
Joined: 06 Mar 2006
Posts: 4698
Location: Nuneaton, Warwickshire, Home of the Banjo
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| Posted: Fri Sep 05, 2008 8:36 pm Post subject: |
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| Great write up mate. Sounded like a typical Saturday though. Glad your mate is OK. |
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andyk3
Site Founder
Joined: 15 Dec 2005
Posts: 21599
Location: Widower to a Nintendo DS
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| Posted: Sat Sep 06, 2008 2:29 pm Post subject: |
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video has been removed  |
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