As far as motorbiking goes, I haven't been up to much - aside from the occasional commute on my brother's 125cc cruiser, which isn't quite my usual style! Still, we're hoping to do some riding and maybe racing when summer comes. It depends a lot on my Uni schedule and whether or not the Team can secure enough financial backing, but there should definitely be some 2-wheeled action to look forward to! In the meantime, the RS250 is in our local Hein Gericke store, in Fitzalan Square. It's looking beautiful in a new blue and white paint scheme, so go and check it out if you can!

As well as studying, we're spending a lot of time on organisation for the year in Japan, which is my next academic year. We apply to the Japanese universities at the beginning of next semester, so there's already loads to do! I need to sort out insurance, get some immunisation jabs, renew my passport.. and pass my end of semester exams into the bargain. If I don't pass all my modules this year, I can't go on the year abroad! Plus, the choice of Japanese university is limited by my results, so I have to do the best I can to stand a chance of going to the university I want. So uni's pretty tough at the moment, but it's good, even if I am feeling a bit nervous ^^;

Recently, I've also had a run of bad luck with illness. A couple of weeks ago, I got bad earache (which I've never had before) and it's still affecting me.. The doctor reckons that my ear canal is infected, and also my cold (which I picked up a week ago) isn't helping. It means that the hearing in my right ear is really muffled, which is a pain in listening classes! With the cold as well, I've been feeling pretty tired and under the weather, and I've had to miss several lessons at uni. Hopefully I'm on the mend now though, and I can catch up with things a bit!

VW Gilder Van Centre Sheffield help us out with the use of one of their VW hire vans whenever we need it for racing. The hire service is additional to their main status as a VW Commercial Vehicles dealer, and so we've been able to use all the latest models, which is cool!

When we first became connected with Gilders, they were based in Hillsborough, but they've recently moved to a new building on Europa Close - near Sheffield Airport. It was custom built with eight fully equipped service bays plus a van showroom, as well as the hire service, spares etc. It's a lot more convenient than the old premises too!

David May, who is the head of business at Gilder Van Centre Sheffield, is a big motorsport fan as well. He's always enthusiastic about our racing and has given us a lot of support! Without his help and that of the other staff there, we might not have made it to as many of the race meetings this year, so thanks a lot!

VW Gilder Van Centre website: www.gildergroup.co.uk/vw-vans-centres.php

We decided to prepare for the race weekend by doing a trackday at Mallory on the Thursday. The weather was great, with only a few gusts of wind to worry about, so I was able to build up speed well throughout the day. I didn't go all out, not wanting to crash and damage the bike right before the races, but I was still able to push a bit and work out my lines. We altered the gearing slightly for a higher top speed, and also to enable higher corner speed. It worked well - having the gears slightly higher meant that there were more revs left on the exit of corners, where before I had been running out of power and having to change up. We also bled the brakes, making them much more responsive, so I worked on braking points too.

The race 'weekend' was actually Sunday and Monday, because it was a bank holiday. That gave us plenty of time to prepare the bike and make sure the van was fully loaded. VW Gilder Van Centre gave us the use of a long-wheelbase VW Crafter from Thursday right the way through the weekend. It's a fantastic van! We even managed to pack an extra chassis and engine (just in case), and had plenty of room left ^^ Our friend Martyn also let us use his caravan and marquee again, which was really helpful.

We arrived at Mallory on Saturday evening, unloaded and set up the marquee ready for the next morning. It's always an early start so we wanted to make sure everything was ready! As it was, there weren't any hiccups, the bike passed scrutineering and I headed out on track for practice. The first thing I noticed was how different it was to the Thursday track day! Instead of having a wide range of speeds and styles of riding, everyone was going flat out, practicing overtaking moves as well as their lines! You have to make the most of the practice, because you only have one 15 minute session before the first race.

However, Sunday's races didn't go to plan - I felt confident on my lines and technique, but I was suffering under braking and my stamina wasn't great. In the first race, I got a really good start and went well for the first few laps, but started to drop back as I tired, and in the second race I had to pull out before the finish as I was struggling to turn the bike at speed! People are often surprised at how physical riding a motorbike is, especially at a track like Mallory where you don't get much chance to rest each lap. In a race, you have to go at full tilt from start to finish so it was taking its toll!

On Saturday, I made sure to rest and only entered the 2nd race of the day. I got a good start again and had a good battle with 2 riders who had started on the row ahead of me, but again I tired quickly and had to pull out. I was disappointed, as it meant that from the whole weekend I only had one result (10th in the Clubman class) - but on the other hand I would probably have crashed if I had tried to continue! It was still a good weekend and I enjoyed what riding I did, especially as the weather was excellent.

I was really glad that the weather had finally improved, as we were there all day. On the other hand, I was wearing my leather suit and it got a bit hot! The fountains in the Peace Gardens were looking pretty tempting by midday - there were a lot of people taking advantage of them! Luckily, Jay brought along plenty of water so I didn't get dehydrated.

Although I was at the MotoKat display for most of the day, I did see a few of the other exhibits, including a fair few bikes - classics, cruisers, customs; in fact there seemed to be a representive for every type of motorcycle. It looked like we were the only ones with a real race bike though! Of course, there were loads of cars too, but I didn't pay as much attention to them ^^;

I was really surprised with how many people turned out, especially as it was a Sunday. It was good, as we got to talk to a lot of people who were interested in bike racing, and in the very good looking Aprilia RS125! Quite a few people asked for their photos to be taken with one of the bikes, which was fun. The Hein Gericke '07 catalogues were popular too, and we also handed out Loaf Hair vouchers, information on Aprilia bikes and copies of a magazine article about the team. I think we made a good impression on people - they seemed very interested, especially when they found out that the rider was a girl! So I got to talk a lot about racing and my favourite circuits, which I always enjoy ^^

Just back from holiday in Scotland. We stayed in Aviemore, in the Cairngorms National Park. It was good fun - we did a lot of hiking and mountain biking. I also got my results back for the Japanese exams - 2:1s! So I'm pretty happy with that - I just hope I can repeat it next year!

This Sunday is the Sheffield Motorshow, in the city centre. I'm going to be there with the Aprilia RS250, and also a road-going Aprilia from HMC Motorcycles. We're preparing the display at the moment, and it should look pretty good, so I hope you can come along and see it! We're going to be by the Peace Gardens from 11:00 to 4:00, with the VW Gilder van and a blue marquee. I'm looking forward to it, although it means standing in my leathers for a while! I hope it's sunny.. the forecast is fairly promising ^^

At the moment, we're not doing much bike-wise although we have been doing some work on the RS250. When we stripped down the bike after Knockhill, we discovered that the swingarm bearings need replacing. We also fitted a few nice carbon fibre bits from MOTORACE Bodyworx, including a chain guard and front hugger! It's important for the chain guard to be strong as it prevents my foot being caught in the chain in the event of a crash.. and the carbon front hugger is just because carbon fibre is cool ^^;

I've got a fair bit of free time at the moment, so I'm trying to keep training by running and cycling, and I've also started doing Karate! It's a lot of fun and the training involves quite a bit of flexibility and general fitness work, which is good. I get to practice my Japanese too ^^

The Biker Show, which is a Channel M programme in conjunction with bikeanimal.com, are doing a series of features on my progress, and they also came up to Knockhill. They filmed the whole day, and did some interviews (including one with Chris Walker, who is a current British Superbike rider and won a World Superbike race last year!). It's quite strange being filmed - I'm sure I'm much better at riding than giving interviews.. ^^; Hopefully it will be OK. It will air on Channel M, and you can also watch episodes via the Biker Show web pages if you'd like to see it!

Ready to go out on track

The day started off cloudy, but dry. We had still had wet tyres on the bike from the very wet Mallory test day, but we decided to change to dry tyres for the first session. Unfortunately, it then started to rain! We didn't have time to change the tyres back, so I went out as it was and tried to ride steadily. We were also trying out a new 'quick-action' throttle, but it was giving me some trouble as it was very stiff, meaning I was struggling to be as smooth as usual. The combination of the throttle and dry tyres, and me trying to go a little more quickly into the hairpin last turn, made the rear tyre slip and slide out - a crash in the first session of the day! Thankfully, it was at slow speed, but the right-hand footpeg broke off so we had to make some quick modifications to a left-hand bracket to get the bike ready again! Ah well, it was a bit of added drama for the film crew at least ^^;

Jay's uncle Hugh sitting on the RS250 in our 'pits'

We changed the throttle back to standard, and fitted the wet tyres for the next session - which then dried up! I was in the advanced group, which was definitely the quickest group of riders I've ever been on track with - there were Superstock, Supersport and Suzuki 600 Cup racers, and even an ex-Moto GP rider! A lot of them were on race-prepared 600cc and 1000cc bikes, which are a fair bit faster down the straights than my 250.. still, I was about even with most through the corners. Again having the wrong tyres for the conditions, I was riding fairly steadily, but it was a fun session. Knockhill is a short but fast and flowing track, with a few ups and downs too which are always fun! I practiced my lines and braking points, and worked out which gear was best for each part of the circuit. As soon as I came back in, we switched back to the dry tyres - and this time it stayed dry!

In the afternoon, I asked Chris Walker, who was leading my group, to show me around for a few laps. That really helped me bring my lap times down, because I got more of an idea of where to break and how fast to go into the turns while I was following him. Of course, the pace was quite easy for him - he had plenty of time to pull wheelies on the straights! I talked to him after the session, and he explained a few techniques which would help me under braking, which was very useful.

Heading out behind Chris Walker

In the final two sessions, I tried to put into practice what I'd picked up during the day. Although the racers were still tearing past down the straights, there were fewer at a time and I definitely wasn't the slowest on track, which I was very happy with! Ideally, I would have liked to spend a few days there to really learn the circuit but I think I have improved even so. Plus, it was a really enjoyable day despite the crash!