Pressing F5

Back off holiday and moved in with my dear friend Tom… its Paradise ;)

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Andy Barnes and I headed down to Brands hatch on Tuesday for our first track day (actually Andy’s second but that’s another story!). We arrived on time and got assigned into our groups. Fortunately we were both give yellow wristbands so we could ride (ahem,… race) together.

The day started out just fine with both of our bikes passing the noise tests. Neither of our bikes have after market cans so there was never any doubt, but as it was the first time the bike was I was slightly nervous. So nervous in fact that I stalled my engine when attempting to head out of the pits. Embarassing to say the least. Nerves aside we started our scouting laps. Three laps in total following an instructor who pointed out the entries to the corners and the right apex. It was great fun but we were all waiting for the go ahead to give it some and warm up our tires properly!

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Andy, myself and the lads in our garage lined up with our pride and joy! Taken moments before the crash :(

The second time out was a different experience entirely. More confident having completed the scouting laps and knowing how to take the corners, I pushed myself to speeds that got my adrenalin pumping.

On my fourth session I could hear myself screaming with joy when I finally got my body in the right position round Druids Bend to get my knee down. It took a while, but the my brand new Dainese pads were scuffed! Woohooo!!!

Annoyingly it didn’t stop there, foolishly I pushed myself further and further thinking I was some wunderkind and had something to prove. On the fith and final session I awoke being lifted from the stretcher onto the bench in the medic’s centre at Brands Hatch. I had lost control and crashed just above Paddock Hill Bend. They found me unconcious so I don’t have any recollection of what happened. Needless to say I spent a night in hospital and the bikes needs a bit of tender loving care before it will race again…. which it will!

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The aftermath… thanks to Dan for helping me fix the bike!

I’m currently exploring the west coast of America with my father on a Harley-Davidson. For more information please go to the dedicated blog: www.harleyboys.co.uk

I’ve just bought a Nokia N95. According to Nokia it does just about everything except make a cup of tea. Techies reading this will be particularly pleased to hear it supports SIP VOIP calls… according to Nokia anyway.

The truth is Orange and Vodafone have crippled the firmware of their Nokia N95s so that they aren’t able to make VOIP calls. The option is available under settings, but a key application that allows you to choose between a normal voice call, video call and VOIP call is missing!

Truphone, a company that makes an application just like the one mentioned above, have created a video documenting the difference between the standard N95 and the crippled Orange version. Truphone crippled Orange N95 demonstration

I have two options:

1. return the phone to Orange and get a T-Mobile contract with web’n walk (T-Mobile haven’t crippled their phones and neither have O2)

2. try to flash the firmware on the phone using tools such as Pheonix 2007 and BB5 Reaper 2006 (more info) available on the Internet (see my N95 page for details), although doing this will invalidate my warranty supposedly :(

For a few months now I’ve been using streamripper, a plugin for Winamp, to rip and save to disc tracks played on Shoutcast radio.

The great thing about streamripper is that the plugin slices the files properly and even embeds the ID3 tags. With the exception of the odd spill over from the previous track, it’s perfect! A great way of getting the latest tracks for your MP3 player.

Thanks to the above technique I’ve discovered a whole bunch of artists I would never have come across otherwise. Here are just a few examples:

Both awesome tracks…

Back from Lydden Hill after having spend spent two days watching Bemsee racing and celebrating Red’s birthday.

Word of advice! Sleeping in Recaro bucket race seats isn’t fun! Especially when you are six foot three :(

Here are some of the best and coldest moments from the weekend:

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Red “digging” in to some birthday cake!

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Jen waiting for her warm-up lap in the rain. Note the new fairing ;)

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One of the Palmer brothers being chased.

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Our very comfy beds for the night. NOT!

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Turned out these guys were the World Champions and it showed! They started from the back of the grid and beat everybody. Simply amazing to watch!

Thanks to Red and Jen at Two Tone Racing I have a couple of tickets for Lydden Hill this weekend. Dan and I are going to make the trip down there on Saturday and enjoy the sights and sounds once again (Brands Hatch a few weeks earlier)… can’t wait!

Expect more photos and even some mp3s this time.

The question I’m asking myself once again is… do I want to do a rookie season?!? I think you know the answer… :)

Lydden Hill links:

Lots of bikes, noise and FUN! It was the BMCRC-MRO bike racing championship this weekend at Brands Hatch. Just about to go to bed and my grin still hasn’t worn off, but then neither has the ringing in my ear!

Here are some pictures :)

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Some of the photos are of Racer Jen :), who has her own blog…

OMG!!