If anyone hasn't seen this then it's a must. Grab yourself a brew n get the link up on the TV to watch.
Excellent and entertaining, was surprised about the helmet advice but after 2000 cases they must know by now. Nice touch to add the short length of racing footage at the end and last bike you see is a paramedic not hanging around himself.
I actually watched his you tube clips recently a fascinating individual with a great sense of humour.I hadn't picked up that he died..sad.
I had the pleasure of knowing the doc, real gentleman and a character too. Bought the Zx10 pictured above from him a few months before he lost his life. Keep er' lit
Not trying to be morbid, but does anyone know how he passed? Was it doing what he obviously loved? Was he rushing to help someone? I think if he passed in the service of helping others, he'll probably get a ZedX in heaven. Godspeed Doc.
John wrote some great stuf in his time and his passion for motorcycles was more than apparent in the stuff he penned. Here's a piece he wrote some time ago (still makes me laugh out loud today) Don't go too well It's an unfortunate thing, watching your brand new K9 gsxr1000 sliding up the road in front of you, trailing sparks like a red arrow. Well, to be fair it wasn't my GSXR1000 until a couple of seconds ago, but Big Boys Rules dictate that it's certainly mine now. This thought is foremost in my mind as I hit the fence. Funny thing, when racing's on at this road circuit this fence isn't here. It's removed for safety to allow a run off into the nice soft field beyond. Still, I think as I break a couple of two-by-fours in half with my legs and "my" new bike cartwheels over my head, at least there wasn't any cars coming the other way. The sliding stops eventually, as it always does; but bitter experience tells me to wait a second to be sure. Standing up while still doing 50mph isn't a good thing, but the associated high-speed gymnastics means you quickly learn not to do it twice. Bloody hell, I've got away with it! I take a couple of steps. Ooop. No, I haven't actually. I guess a broken right tibial plateua and left 5th metatarsal. Bugger. Gareth appears on his fireblade, understandably looking a bit concerned. I limp out of the field and we pull the GSXR as best we can to the side of the road, and phone for a van. Both wheels are smashed out of my sorry looking new purchase, in typical suzuki style. Numerous cars drive by, several stop to ask - not the police though. Helpful as always, they cruise past the carnage with me lying in a ditch, trying to do a one-man posterior draw test to see if I've pulled off my cruciate ligaments as well. It's a sorry sight indeed. It starts to rain. Eventually, the van appears, and I get back to the dealers and write them a cheque. Bargain. I drag myself into the car, and drive the 20 miles to hospital; broken foot grinding with each dip of the clutch, and the top of my tibia coring out the inside of my knee joint on the brakes. After a dozen miles or so, I eventually change clutchless, and brake for nothing. Nothing. In A&E, it turns out my provisional diagnosis is spot-on - metatarsal and tibial plateau, but the plateau is a nasty bugger: inside of the tibia busted off, and up into the knee joint. Surgery is planned for the next day. So - that was a couple of weeks back. The damage? The legs a mess. Medial plateaus are, pretty much, about as bad as it gets. Outcomes from them are pretty shit, even with a good surgical outcome. I can't put my foot on the ground for at least 3 months. Delightfully, this means mobilising with crutches and my broken foot. There's 14 stairs in my house; I never counted before and used to take them three at a time. Now I have to hop up each of the bastards on a broken foot to go to bed at night. It stings a bit. The bike? Looks worse than it is. Currently on it's way to a mates house, who races one in Irish Superbikes. Provisionally: Wheels, subframe, shock top-mount, fairings, and exhausts are all gone. Frame has a handle-bar dimple but looks OK Forks will need looking at, but I think they are OK Engine is untouched (wheh!) So - a few months of misery; a few more months of real misery, physio and heartsink in the gym. The plan? Get the gsxr built to an evo-spec chassis, then give it a damn good lesson in manners at Kirkistown. The deadline? February 2010. -John