Happy Christmas!!

Hi everyone!  Just thought I'd say a very Happy Christmas and New Year to you all!  Sorry its all been a bit quiet around here for a while, Tim is working on a new improved site which we hope to have up soon.  Editornez.

North Weald 9th August 2009

Another dry sunny day! Not sure how it works for Mr Huck, presumably one day he has to face payback!  We took over 3000 pics again so if you missed our tent on the day then check out the www.tdmphotographic.com website where you can peruse to your hearts content!  Thanks to all for being patient and not moaning at all whilst Tim sorted and printed your images.

North Weald 26th July

Hi everyone! 

Once again the Gods smiled and we had a dry day! Great to see all the old Volkswagens, always amazes me how many are still around!

 The pics are appearing on the TDMPhotographic.com site NOW!   You can scroll through the images ( I have no idea how many there will be, but several thousand is normal) and order them in whatever format you want. The pix in the galleries are fairly low resolution images. They are not the high resolution pictures you will receive!  We process and post the orders very quickly although the canvas prints take a few days to get out. 

Good to see the regulars there again, and see you all at the Bike Fest on the 9th of August.

Nez the Ed.

Pics on the magazine

Tim assures me that the new gallery will be up shortly!! Not sure what shortly means for Tim, but it will be much better when its up!

June 14th 2009 North Weald.

I have now put just a small sample of images in the gallery section, I will be adding more over the next few days!  However the main bulk of the pics will be up shortly and in a gallery from which you can order them.  Our small gallery on here is just that.....small...lol. (Nez)

Haha.....Mr Huck gets smoked....

Once again North Weald, Tony Huck and the Straightliners crew excelled themselves.  Actual runs for the day exceeded 1200!  We shot well over 3000 photos which is why we had a slight problem in getting them up quickly enough for you guys to see and order your pictures.  So apologies for that.  I think most people were given directions to here so over the next few days Tim will have them all sorted and put into their relevant groups.

 He can be a bit colour blind (ha, well ya know you can be Tim...) so please check the other groups if you can't find a pic of yourself.  I know we must have got every one at least once and some of you have probably got a few cd's worth of pictures floating around.  Whats going to happen next is that Tim puts them all onto our TDM Photographic bit and from there you will be able to select whichever pics you want and select the format you want them in.  There's quite a range of products from a canvas as big as a house to a keyring. The cost is inclusive of post and packing and we turn orders around within a few hours of receiving them.  You can pay by credit/debit card through the very secure Paypal system.

For us out there shooting it was a great day, hard work but very entertaining so thanks for that! 

Sooo next is the Volks Fest on the 26th July.  Its a test and tune day too so we hope to see you there again.

 If you've got any questions on todays event phototography please feel free to email us or pop it on the forum,  I know not many people use the forum but we do read it!!

Molly's Dad before he REALLY destroyed the rear tyre! 

NezTheEd.

OOOh and no, for those of you who wanna know, we didnt have time to  get the 10R sorted in time for this one so no fun for me  :(

North Weald Test and Tune

Sometimes, just sometimes the gods smile on you!  The weather immediately preceding May the 10th was, shall we say, a tad draughty to say the least.  If you have ever done straightline stuff, then you will know that wind is usually a bad thing.  Wind AND rain means the day is canned.  But once in a while it all goes right and this was one of those days.  I dunno what god  Tony Huck sacrifices things to, but what the hell, it works.  So we got there early on the Sunday morning, and waited patiently for the gates to open at 8.30.  Sunny with a gentle breeze, not quite directly up the strip but close enough.  By 9 the place was humming and the PA was announcing that the numbers were well up, certainly the queues for signing on were loooooooong!.  The cut off is usually 200, but this was extended to 220, then another 30 or so were signed on around lunchtime.  Great to see the day so well attended.  We were running the 10R again, and pulling some very smokey burnouts.....

Times were not a lot different for us than last time, mainly cos we haven't done a lot to the 10 since!  Best time was a 10.38 at 139mph.  For the next event on the 14th June we are going to alter the gearing slightly and at some point there will be a quickshifter set up and running which should knock a few tenths off.  Of course, knocking a few tenths off also depends on the pilot getting it right.....!

So get youself down to North Weald on the 14th June.  We will be there doing the photography for you on the day, so you can get a picture of yourself looking fast to impress your mates later down the pub. 

 See you there.

Nez the Ed.

Jetski goes racing....

Our mate Jetski had an eventful weekend at Brands in her first ever race meeting. She's a fighter alright, and was looking good until getting wiped out in the third and final race, see it all in the Gallery!   Full race report to follow as soon as her fractured finger allows typing...

WELL DONE Juliet

Also well done to Phil Polden who rode to a podium place in the same race.

If you are thinking of going racing but don't know where to start, a good place would be Jetski's 'how to get your ACU Licence in the 'How to' section. 

Does Your ZX10R lack a little punch?

Stuart Boyd thought his did, so he did a bit to it....

and you can see it in Features...

Joining

When you register for the magazine, don't forget to register for the forum too!!! Then you can say Hi and introduce yourself....

Yamagammahonda

John Hays take on what the Japanese should have made a quarter of a century ago....see his creation in Features, this is one trick LC!

North Weald test & tune day 8th June

We moan about the English weather but so far, this year, almost every thing we have been to has been pretty good!  North Weald on Sunday was blisteringly hot, and really great fun.  Good to see a lot of Essexbikers there, posting some very respectable times, along with the lads from West Kent College on a selection of Kawa's (mainly).

We were running the ZX10R and the ZXR750.  For some reason (we are crap, hahaha)  both Ian and I struggled with launching.  The 750 seems to have a slipping clutch which really shows when under full power take offs.  The 10 finally got a 10.4 second run at 142mph, which was ok but could be a lot better.  Must buy a quick shifter!  It's all in the first 60 feet really, if you can get off the line without wheelying or wheelspinning (or both) then the times are good.  Practice,practice, practice!  Still, for £15 I got 11 runs, which is real value when you consider I paid £2.40 for 2 widdly bottles of Ribena today!  We also got the datalogging gear working (still a few bits to do on it) but it's interesting stuff to playback and work out exactly what you did wrong. 

Some of the cars taking part were pretty awesome, I have included some in the gallery, along with some of the bikes that were there. 

The T & T days are full on, with a short break for lunch and then on till 5pm, with the bikes alternating with the cars.  The whole day was run very well, maybe the signing on could be quicker, the queue's were long, and the two ladies were struggling a little. 

In these days of health and safety and a society that seems to think we all need wrapping in cottonwool to protect ourselves from ourselves, it's an exhilarating feeling to hit the brakes at nearly 150mph, jam it down a couple of gears and with the slipper clutch struggling to keep up just  make it into the last exit of the strip..............as an aeroplane trundles down the live runway that goes right across the end of the drag way!  Life's good, I love it.  

This year is gonna be a blast so sign in and join us, we look forward to seeing you.  If you are Stateside, or in mainland Europe we would also like to hear how your track and bike experiences are shaping up for the coming season!

Phil Gordon enjoying the June sun at Cadwell

up up and away.........

Pictures of the Brands Hatch evening

You can still view and order photos from the Brands evening by going HERE

Really the ultimate trackday tool........or not?

So what do you do when you have arguably the finest track tool known to man?  You take it to a track day where with standard pipes it fails the noise test in spectacular fashion...... 

Even stuffing the pipes with copious quantities of wire wool and some very sexy db killers, it still was too loud.  (gloriously so, the desmosedici sounds just like it's motogp brother). 

It would have been fantastic to hear it out on track but it was not to be.  Oh well Mark, get it down on the noise front and PLEASE bring it along on the 8th Of July to our track evening...... 

TDMTrackdays has a brilliant first event at Snetterton

Exclusivity.....good word. I don't think anyone is going to argue. 

 Last night (Weds 21st May) we ran our first track event and it was simply superb.  The weather was perfect, the track was warm, the numbers were limited and it was open pit lane. Need I really say more!!!  'Best track evening I have ever been on' ....a comment I overheard & it wasn't my ventriloquists dummy saying it!

Nick, you can't see his grin but trust me, it's just under the dark visor

Instruction was there for everyone, I think we all used the services of John Chambers & Brendan Roberts from 121 Trackdays & got a lot of good stuff from them.  As ever they were really on the ball with advice and tips.

Batfink (ZX10R) & Shaun on the Aprilia Factory

I have to say, & I know I am a tad biased, it was such a great evening.  I am still buzzing.  Thanks to all who had a bit of faith in us.  The ones who turned up to have a go, the guys from MSV (they run Snett circuit) Dave, Hayley, James,the Marshalls and Medics.  Our staff on TDM, especially Maria and Tim who ran around all evening making sure all went smoothly.  It did. 

Loads more pics in the gallery.  Thanks to Dan Watts for a lot of them, he takes a good pic. 

Nez the Ed.