One week to go!

The matrix of control points came out last week and it took until this Wednesday to settle on a route. The reason it took a while was I was trying to put together a route that would allow me to fall back from a Gold route (500mile min) to a Silver  (400mile min) to a Bronze (300mile min). I'd also printed out a relief map of the UK and was constraining myself to the flattest areas possible, all important when you have a maximum of 5bhp on tap!
Credit for the final route goes to my wife though. As patient and supportive as ever she stayed up one night after I'd given up and came up with the best route possible.
I'm now drawing up route cards for the journey between each control. I'll laminate these and use my extremely unaerodynamic clipboard to view them whilst riding. To assist at night I've bought a book light which will be firmly secured to the bars.

I had a practice run out to the first control this morning and averaged 32mph. So a Gold may be possible, even if it is not probable. I'll have to see what the true distance of my route is when I've finished planning it. That's the aim for this weekend, finish the route and print out all the route cards.

Finally, I'll be updating the blog through the rally so you'll be able to track my progress. Give me a follow here, or on Twitter (@duleyp) to keep upto date.

If you've sponsored me already then thank you, it is appreciated. If not then you can use the link on this page 'Sponsor Me'. Every donation counts no matter what the size.

Cheers.

Getting ready...

I didn't manage any miles on the C110 last week, as the cylinder head was off.  It's been getting very smoky when under load and I suspected the valve guides were worn.  I had managed to get a set from the USA a month or so ago, just in case.  So, the weekend that we got back from holiday I had the head off to fit the guides and new valves.  Unfortunately the new guides were ever so slightly too large and wouldn't fit the head.  With the old ones a bit damaged after their removal it was a case of sorting through the spare cylinder heads to find the one with the least wear.

Having got the new valves installed I refitted the head.  The bike is now a lot less smokey (it's barely noticeable), and it does seem as if it'll hold 40mph on the flat a bit more easily.  I think there is also an improvement in fuel economy, I haven't had a need to fill up yet and I've gone further than 100 miles since the last fill up.  This is a good thing!

One of the jobs I've had to do for a few weeks now is to make a map holder.  I looked at quite a few options before settling on something that looks a little officious but will hopefully do the job.  I'm going to make up A6 sized route cards to take me between controls, hopefully they'll be large enough to show all the information that I'll need.

Finally, a lot of the riding on the rally will be done during the night.  To be honest I find it a bit unnerving riding the bike on A roads during the day, the speed differential to the rest of the traffic is so high.  So I'm really not looking forward to doing the same during the night.  To reduce the chance of getting squashed I've bought myself a hi-vis jacket.  I couldn't resist the temptation to get it customised though!