“As you can probably imagine, lots of people want to know why I want to race at the TT. Some common questions/comments include, ‘you’ve got bigger balls than me’ and ‘you must be frigging mental!’ or ‘have you got a death wish?’

He may have been packing some timber last year but Nibbo is super-fit for 2013…

“The last one does throw up a good conversation point. Yes, every competitor and I fully understand the risk associated with racing at the TT, so why do we do it? The stats don’t lie: it is an incredibly dangerous event. A cheesy phrase really sums it up for me – ‘If you are not living on the edge you are taking up too much room’. The buzz I get going around the TT cannot be replicated anywhere else, simple as that, and it is mainly down to the fact it is so dangerous! I am a bit of an adrenaline junkie and love anything to get the pulse going, be it mountain biking, bungee jumping, rollercoasters, winding up my wife or riding on public roads at 195mph (my top speed last year on Sulby Straight).

Pic by: Gert Meulman

“The TT is the ultimate adrenaline fix and while most of what Guy Martin says is complete rubbish, I share his view on the dangers of the TT and what he said after his infamous fireball crash. We don’t go out there to kill ourselves, far from it, and we all know the risks but you cannot get the buzz you get from the racing the TT anywhere else.

“I lost my best friend a few years ago racing. It wasn’t at the TT but in his very first novice race at Mallory Park in a freak accident, where he got hit by another rider after he fell from his bike. For some that might put them off racing or riding forever, but in fact the opposite happened for me and Rick inspires me to live life to the full, follow my dreams, and not waste a moment in life. All he wanted to do was to go racing and he did it, albeit only the once, which is just the cruelty of life I guess? That is why you will see a little Rick 23 sticker on my helmet.

Pic by: Gert Meulman

“So after getting all a bit serious and sentimental, what is my point?! Well, if someone thinks I’m crazy racing at the TT, I would say I’m no way near as crazy as the man who wants to race at the TT but doesn’t do it…”

Related posts:

1. The Weekly Nibbo – A Privateer’s TT
2. The Weekly Nibbo – A Privateer’s TT 2

Ready, steady, MILF…

The Isle of Man TT is the ultimate test for a motorcycle. There were a whopping 60 entries for the new Lightweight class this season, and about 55 of them were Kawasaki ER-6s – most of the 55 were Ryan Farquhar built with Team Green backing. Taking on the might of Ninja power was a little shop in Bristol. JHS Racing entered as a privateer entity, with the previous year’s Manx GP winner, Dave Moffitt, as the pilot. The team managed an 11th place finish and was the top Suzuki, splitting a horde of Kawasakis and narrowly missing out on a top-ten due to some technical issues. Nevertheless, the JHS Racing SV650 also zapped the speed traps as the fastest Supertwin at this year’s TT, and boasted the healthiest horsey output on the TT paddock dyno. The team are racing at the North West 200 before heading back to the Isle of Man, and retiring the SVs to start developing Suzuki’s Gladius.

As you may have spotted, I been campaigned the bike on the short circuits last season with, er, mediocre success. After a year’s worth of development and tinkering, Fast Bikes decided to release the SV650 from circuit captivity and return it to its natural environment – everyday chores on Her Majesty’s highways. A nifty daylight MOT certificate and a trip to the Post Office for some road tax later, we were let loose on the TT course. The Mendip TT course.

Is it a 675? Is it a race bike? Er, it’s an SV650

There’s no doubt the class has brought excitement and a raft of new technologies, bordering on prototype material, such is the openness of the rulebook. Manufacturers of aftermarket parts and tuning bolt-ons must be rubbing their hands with glee, what with the influx of interest in the ER-6. But with all the financial shitstorms circumnavigating the world right now, do we really need a class that requires £15,000-£20,000 spent on being at the sharp end? Hell yeah…

Airbox/induction
JHS has developed a Triumph 675 intake that fits snugly to the SV’s headstock. Forced air volume is at least doubled over the standard. The true magic lies beneath the tank and if we printed what was under there, we’d be sleeping with the fishes.

Electronics
The ECU has to remain standard, but the loom is open to all sorts of, er, openness. JHS has used its experience of racing Minitwins and developed a loom using CAN-line technology. A Translogic quickshifter sharpens the shifts, while a super-light and heavy duty battery ensures the fuel injection system can fire the juices. As the year progressed, a lot of the unnecessary goodies were removed because of complications, like datalogging.

Back-end
The standard swingarm has been modified to house a 675 rear wheel, and is supported by an Öhlins shock that’s been built specifically for this bike. An underslung brake caliper speeds up rear wheel changes, not to mention makes the process much easier. Various linkages have been tested but the standard linkage rate seems to work best. And a new swingarm will be fitted later this year.

Engine
In its fifth generation, the JHS lump has severely gone under the knife. As previously mentioned, all that remains from the standard lump is the crankcases and the crank itself. Everything else is made in-house (pistons, con-rods etc), and with hours of head work and valve detailing, James has now found the limits of the internals.

Clutch/gearbox
The big difference between the TT bike and the short circuit bike is the gearbox. The ‘factory’ bike has a close-ratio ’box that allows for not only higher terminal speed, but better acceleration. The standard gearbox has country miles between certain gears, which makes gearing for certain tracks a friggin’ nightmare. Sigma (as in Neil Spalding off of the Eurosport telly box) designed and manufactured an SV-specific slipper clutch to cope with the 30 per cent extra power. Engine braking is so fierce, clutch wear was ruining a race weekend…

Front-end
The eagle-eyed amongst you will spot this SV wears a complete 675R front-end. A little stem modification, and the Triumph yokes, forks and wheel slips on nicely. The Öhlins internals have been revalved and shim stacks adjusted. The length of the fork stroke has been lengthened to aid balance.

The JHS Racing SV650 is one tricky bitch to ride in more ways than one. This is a bike honed for flat-out buffoonery, throttle tube pinned to the stop, throttle bodies battered and soaking up v-twin vibes, with the dash never hovering below 6,000rpm. The biggest problem we faced on the photoshoot though (and the KFC drive-through) was the steering lock. It’s got the turning circle of a sinking Dreadnought, although that matters little when giving it the berries.

Big Mac please…

Think race bike, think stiff and unforgiving. Not really. Even with my weight to consider, the suspension is far more progressive and controlled than OE road kit. The JHS SV has bump management that £20k superbikes would be envious of. Until active suspension is properly proven, the combination of super-gnarly bumps at Ginger Hall and baby-bum smooth Shellgrip Tarmac over The Mountain will have to be sorted via good old fashioned screwdriver know-how.

The riding position does little to nurture comfy riding, as the standard tank makes for a far reach with race clip-ons and the Daytona 675R front-end, and the super-high pegs necessary for its addiction on corner speed. After half an hour of riding, my wrists were ready for bed. But the crux of the stiffness and rigidity is down to the frame and aftermarket race components (mainly the extra rigidity of the 675R Öhlins fork).

There’s some serious work involved here

If you missed out on our adventures of Thundersport GB last season, you wouldn’t know about the teething issues we’ve had. This is a bespoke machine with bugger-all to aim for from a base setting, and radical geometry changes from a standard SV. It’s like cut-n-shutting your mountain bike, hacking off large amounts of metal and welding on some more, and expecting it to handle. Well, that’s what it feels like, anyway.

It feels long and stretched out, perfect for attacking open corners, yet with a whiff of bar, it falls on its ear without instability or any nervousness. It’s sexy cornering rolled into a 165kg mass. Apart from shitty ergonomics and the AIM dash, and having to lean it against the petrol pump to pay, not once did I think I was on a race bike.

Baldy fills her up with 95-octane fuel. James wasn’t happy…

It’s only when we edged out of town and beyond urban environments that I had to think about riding, and any limitations involved. It’s a bike that only truly functions in a small parameter of thrashing, yet is still capable of dawdling and high street window-shopping. Must be all down to those SV genes.

The Bridgestone R10s are an unbelievable race tyre, but do little to inspire confidence on the road with this set-up installed on the SV. A bit like Rossi at Mugello, when he slowed his pace a little and bust his leggy-weggy, you have to stay committed to maintain heat in the rubber. UK climes, 72-point U-turns and modelling for the camera don’t mix. This isn’t a Page Three poser, more of a sexy back-page headliner.

We started off the year with a Power Commander auto-tune unit but not even that wizardry and technology can handle the bespoke and finicky air/fuel ratio of the JHS Six-Fiddy. When you’ve got the induction intake the size of a killer whale’s vagina, gasping for gargantuan amounts of oxygen, and an intricate fuel injection system that pumps in copious amounts of gasoline, fine-tuning has to take place in realtime and ‘pinking’ has to be disciplined.

A small badger was found hiding in the intake

Many thought there would be oodles of torque and usable grunt escaping from a tuned 100bhp SV650. This puppy is relentless in its charge to the redline and has around 4,000rpm of viable power and is only really happy when the shift rod is activated and rebounding for another climb up to the rev ceiling. A big, bucket-hand fistful of throttle and an equally brutal clutch hand are needed to even launch cleanly, despite the stupidly short first gear. There’s no pussyfooting welcome here. You need to boss it.

Everything you see here is 100 per cent legal, but I still felt like I’d fondled my neighbour’s wife and was on the run. It’s not obtrusively loud or offensive, but like anything slightly idiosyncratic, this bike attracts needless attention. Two coppers fly by and I tense up, grabbing the bars with superfluous angst. Chill out, man! A quick glance later, they were off to catch proper criminals…

The majority of race bikes we ride bear some resemblance in feel, and looks, to their donors – even the triple-figure WSB bikes. But the JHS Racing SV650 is unique and offered some of the most fun I’ve had on two wheels. It’s an SV on serious steroids, and it’s legal.

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Now, it’s his first ever go at something like this, so give the lad some time and do hang on to watch it all. The most amusing part of this, for us, was watching someone who can’t normally shut up, clam up initially in front of the camera. Anyone out there who knows Tommy, also knows this usually isn’t an easy feat! It’s also brilliant to listen to Tommy without a single F-bomb being thrown in the mix! But as his blog goes on, true Tommy shines through now and then, and are moments to be savoured.

Anyway, we love Tommy here at FB, he’s always been a breath of fresh air and his ascendancy up the BSB ranks means there’ll soon be another straight-talking, exciting competitor hopefully looking at wins in the near future. We want Tommy on a ‘factory’ seat eventually, or at least the closest thing to one because we believe that’s all that’s missing, to make that next step up for regular podiums.

Click here to view in YouTube. Enjoy!

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“So for this week’s blog we’re discussing the budget for competing in the TT. Great idea: I just hope my wife doesn’t read this…

“Now you might guess that racing at the TT is fairly expensive? Well you would be half right: it’s fecking expensive! You might also assume the organisers pay for all the riders to compete? Well on that one you would be wrong, very wrong. Many competitors like myself this year totally fund racing at the TT themselves except for a nominal travel allowance that doesn’t even cover your ferry. To give you an idea the cost to get my race van and camper van to the island this year is £744!

Exemplary landing at Ballaugh

“Motorcycle racing at any level is expensive but the TT really does strain the purse strings. Due to the nature of the circuit, you need your bike to be in top condition, you need lots of spares for when things break, and you do a year’s worth of racing miles in two weeks! Every night of practice sees you burn a tank of fuel and a set of tyres. You need a few chains, various sets of brake pads, bodywork and screens get destroyed, and the list goes on. So how on earth does a working Joe like me afford this madness? Sponsors!

“I am lucky to have two great mates helping me with supplying the bikes. I have a ZX-10R from my good friend Stuart Tromans of Astro Racing, who has previously run bikes at BSB. And a Triumph 675 from my friend, sponsor and Manx GP competitor, Les Liney Vehicle Hire. Without them I wouldn’t be doing the TT, simple as that, and an ingenious sponsorship idea has got me to the Ulster GP, 2012 TT and now this years TT.

Onnit…

“I kept pestering my boss for some sponsorship (which worked to a degree to be fair) and he said why don’t you get your mates to give you a small amount of cash for their name on the bike? Well, why not indeed! So this year, through my Facebook page, I have arranged a load people to have their names on my bikes and a signed photo from the TT for £50. That money is a big help towards the costs and it is a cool way of friends, family and supporters can get involved at an affordable cost. The total cost of the TT is probably between £2000 and £5000, excluding buying and preparing bikes – my ZX10R stands in around £12k and the Triumph about the same, not helped by when I stuck it into Mallory Park’s tyre wall in fifth gear which almost wrote the thing off. That has been a £2000 unplanned bill I could have done without and fortunate for me, my friend Rob runs RJS Superbike at Mallory, and he’s taken on the job of a full rebuild project ready for the TT. Once the frame was straightened, the forks, tank, swing arm and anything that bolts to it got replaced.

“Basically without my friends, family, sponsors, supporters and work I wouldn’t be at the TT so when I pick up my replica and get some beer down my neck at the presentation, it’s going to taste pretty sweet! Only 3 weeks to go…”

Related posts:

1. The Weekly Nibbo – A Privateer’s TT

I’ll be there giving it my all and battling for another signature towards getting rid of the orange bib. Unfortunately the project racer build is still ongoing, so I will be wheeling out the old ZX-7R. She’s a stocker, but a goodun – I know ‘Team Coconut” won’t let me down. Fagan will be making his debut on the JHS Racing Gixer Thou, no doubt he’ll be blisteringly quick.

So come on over, up or down to Snet and soak it all up. Make sure you come and say hi too, we’ll be in the JHS Racing awning – be great to meet you all.

Beaky

Lilt – the drink of choice for racers

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Well, here it is. British firm, arc-on offer their superb-spec Evo II suit for just £749, or £849 for a made-to-measure, either in one-piece or two-piece. And you can have any colour in your design. Protection-wise, there’s a full set of Forcefield CE armour inside, stingray skin to aid abrasion resistance, and 1.2-1.4mm cowhide covering your skin.

We get 100% freedom on what we wear here at FB. The Evo II suit has been crash tested by some of BSB’s finest, which gives me piece of mind for my next stack, and the fit (I’m a 44 off-the-peg) is superb.

Check out the arc-on website for more details

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With zero miles on the clock, it was just a case of not being too brutal with the engine and getting a rough feel for the chassis, and working out which way to go with set-up. With Öhlins suspension and the GSX-R’s innate talent, the JHS bike is hardly going to be miles off, but the balance of the standard bike is always affected with aftermarket goodness and race rubber fitted. Thankfully, the JHS Racing Suzuki is primed and ready to race – I wouldn’t touch a click before heading to Norfolk.

It was a day of firsts, including sampling the new hugely impressive Bridgestone V01 slicks. Being the elite open class in the country, Thundersport GB’s GP1 division has (thankfully) an open policy for tyres, joining the World Endurance championship in a war of rubber.

Beaky and Team Coconut will also be in action at Snet this weekend, so come and find us in the JHS Racing truck/awning. You might even get a brew…

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Marc Marquez: Bookies were shutting down soon after he trounced the field in every session over the weekend. This kid is unreal. He could have cleared off and risked a lot more, but you can tell he took his riding down a few levels during the race (compared to his qualifying tekkers) and used his head. And the harder rear tyre. Are we looking at 21st century Mick Doohan-type domination?

This was always going to be the story in Texas…

Jorge Lorenzo: J-Lo knew he couldn’t win the race but cruised to his 100th career podium, and left as joint series leader with MM93.

J-Lo was the best of the rest

Andrea Dovizioso: Dovi looks half-decent on the Ducati. Some suggest his riding style suits the Desmo’s weight distribution. But once again he was the top Ducati and only a few seconds behind Valentino Rossi.

Howdy, etc

Micheal Laverty: M-Lav hit a false neutral on the first lap but ripped through the field to finish just outside the points in 16th, and 4th placed CRT. He’s nearly there with the PBM bike.

Laverty will soon challenge Espargaro and win CRT ‘races’

Nico Terol: The 2011 125cc World Champ really struggled adjusting to a four-stroke last season, but Austin proved he can ride after all.

Terol stayed away from the carnage behind him

SRC Kawasaki: The 24-hour experts won their second Bol d’Or in a row. The new-look team consisted of young guns, Loris Baz and Jeremy Guarnoni who joined Grégory Leblanc on the ZX-10R.

Baz, onnit

Bad weekend…

Valentino Rossi: The Doctor couldn’t find the cure in Texas. Apparently, he had some brake disc issues that slowed him but, in reality, sixth was always going to be his best at CotA. He’ll be back though!

Only VR46 can get away with a celebration mono for finishing sixth…

Scott Redding: Despite leaving the US leading the Moto2 World Championship and blitzing qualifying at CotA, Redding had some tyre issues (the hoop slipped on the rim causing bad vibes) in the race and slipped back to fifth. Still, could have been worse – he could have been Pol Espargaro…

Chatter, chatter, chatter

Honda TT Legends: After iffy conditions played havoc with Magny Cours’ Tarmac, a few of the WEC teams dropped out before night fell. Our very own TT Legends squad, who ran Mickey Dunlop for the first time, were looking good for a podium position. Unfortunately, the ‘Blade went bang with McPint onboard in the early hours of the morning.

Mickey D in action during his first 24-hour race

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1. Good Weekend, Bad Weekend
2. Good Weekend, Bad Weekend

On recent months…
“I’ve been living in Spain since late December, mainly for training. The Jerez test was good. We had a four-day test but we had one day of rain, which was good for us as we struggled in the wet last year. But I was quite happy to get some laps in, and we ended up fastest in the rain, which was good. In the dry, we had really bad chatter on the first day but there were cars there for 7 days before our test. We’re on the pace anyway. We had a new chassis to test, which is similar to last year’s and we’ve got the same set-up as last year – we try to change things and end up in the same place, so we couldn’t have been too wrong last year.”

On Kalex…
“Kalex are really good, as everyone gets treated the same. With Suter, Marquez got everything and everyone else got whatever’s left. The Kalex guys have been really good. I know I’m getting the same stuff as Pol Espargaro and he gets the same bits as me. That’s a fair deal, and I couldn’t ask for anything more at the moment.”

On changing things for 2013…
“It’s more mental riding style, not so much physical riding style. When I’m out riding, I need to save the tyres and mentally be stronger than the other riders. I’m mentally strong anyway, but I need to work on weakening the other guys around me because this year is the year I’ve got to go for the championship, as that’s the only way to get to MotoGP on a good bike.”

On dieting…
“We’ve got the Moto2 weight limit this year, but it doesn’t effect Espargaro because he’s on the limit and doesn’t have to carry weight. I’m still 11 kilos over the limit, still working to lose weight. I’m 75.5 kilos now and I was 76.5 kilos last year. During this winter, I was down to 73 and I was having 600 calories a day, living off 4 rice cakes and two bananas a day, and training at the same time. It got to the point I was sleeping three times a day, and then had some advice that if I carried on like that, I’d do some real damage to myself. Now I eat more, more veg and low fat foods. I’m even pulling away from chicken and eating turkey, as it’s fewer calories. It’s hard when we’re travelling. We had a 30-hour drive home from the Jerez test and the challenge was not to eat on the whole journey. The only thing you could eat was a lemon. When people are relying on you to lose weight and there’s nothing you can do, you resort to nutty things like that.”

On riding the Ducati MotoGP bike at Mugello…
“It was different, I’ll say that much. The power was unreal, just to get used to going down the main straight, full throttle, and use all six gears was stage one. I was like, ‘fuck me’, I’ve got a lot of learning to do. But we had two days on the bike and by the end of the first day it started to slow down a bit. My arms and legs were just fucked from holding on so tight. The thing is an animal. It’s like a bucking bronco, trying to chuck you off the back on the gas and throw you over the front when you brake. There’s so much G force going back and forth. Once I get on a bike like that, I’ll be in my element. It was such an experience.”

On the electronics…
“It was weird; you’ve just got to trust it. They said, “you’ve got anti-wheelie”, so I came onto the straight, hooked fourth and nearly went off the back. It’s only when I got back to the box that they said it could be overridden. The TC wasn’t too bad, you’ve just got to figure it out, learning where it would spin. All I’ve thought about in racing during corner exit is what the rear’s doing, but with that system you don’t have to. It’s more about line choice.”

On lap times…
“In three corners, I was losing a second to Rossi at Mugello. Just three corners. It was the tighter corners that I struggled with, but there’s so much grip with the Bridgestone front. I was 1.3 off of Rossi. It was the first sector where I lost the time. Some places I was faster, and the Ducati guys said they’d never seen anyone as fast through the Arrabiata section up the hill, I don’t know why. Me and fast corners bond well. To be 1.3 off Rossi at Mugello after two days, I was pretty happy with that. I didn’t want to crash it, and we aimed to be faster than the CRTs, and we were, and I was 0.8s from Bautista’s fastest time.”

On nearly getting a MotoGP seat…
“My manager tried really hard to get me in MotoGP next year. I nearly had the Gresini Honda ride, and nearly had the Yamaha ride (Bradley Smith’s). It’s one of these things. I thought things would be better with the weight limit in Moto2, but as it turns out, it hasn’t effected my direct rivals. If I go top two in the championship, I should get a good ride in MotoGP, that’s sort of how it works. I’ve got to do it now. I’ve got the team, I’ve got the bike, the manager, everything, and there’s no reason why I can’t go for the championship. If I can’t, then there’s no point in me chasing for a seat in MotoGP.”

On WSBK…
“We had options to go to World Superbike, but for me at 20 years old, I can’t go there. When young riders go there, it’s because they can’t get anything else in GP. If I have to go superbike at some point, then fair enough, but I wouldn’t want to go there unless I’ve had a career in MotoGP. I’d rather go and fit windows and enjoy life.”

On making a living…
“I’d say the top five in Moto2 are getting paid. I also know there are riders paying £800,000 to get a ride, and minimum 250k, for a Moto2 seat. For me, if I had to do that, I would do better things with 800k than ride a bike for a year. But the countries where these guys are coming from, the government help them out. For English riders, we get fuck all. Mike De Meglio, he’s an ex-world champion. He had a house, a car, and now he has no house, and no car and he’s in debt because he’s paid to ride. For what? Some of the stories you hear are nuts.”

Thanks to Marc VDS for the pics…

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Today started brightly but that soon changed for the worse, so much so that Dani Pedrosa has already packed up. Here’s a selection of pics from the test…

J-Lo was rapid in the wet…

The rain in Spain falls mainly at Jerez

You won’t fail to spot Bautista in 2013

This game is all about looking good and going fast. Dovi has the former nailed

Valentino goes well at Qatar.

Dani, onnit

Who’s betting against Marquez to win the opener?

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