2002 SEASON

What a strange year - no TT, Manx or Southern 100. Who would have thought that foot and mouth disease would affect us !!
By April we realised that our trip to the Isle of Man was regrettably off. Undeterred, we used the "extra" time by offering a "ride in/ride out" service, something we can usually only offer in our quieter times from September to November. It proved very popular and it was nice to see so many of our customers (and their bikes ) in person. This system has also enabled us to measure the suspension ratio of several of the new bikes. This is vital information when we build a Maxton shock for a customer.

During 2001 we have been corresponding with our local council in an effort to obtain planning permission for a small extension to our workshop. In October, to our delight, we heard that planning permission had been granted, so we will hopefully start to build in early Spring and be able to move into it in June. The extra space will mean we can employ at least one more person and it will also give us much more storage area, something we always need in our small, converted Methodist chapel.

Our racing commitments have continued despite the loss of the Isle of Man races and also many of the Irish road races. Once again we have helped P.R. Tyres Racing, who had Paul Jones riding for them in 2001 and will have Gordon Blackley riding in 2002. Mark Heckles, as we predicted, went to ride for Rumi Honda in the European Superstock and it proved a successful year for him. This year he will be riding for Rumi in World Superbike. Nigel Nottingham completed his last year of racing and in 2002 will be manager of the Renegade Racing Team who will have "Shakey" Burn and Michael Rutter riding for them. We will be also be involved with Jason Davies who is riding in the BSB. We wish them all every success in 2002. Our association with sidecars has continued and this year we will be involved with Tony Baker, Joe Shelbourne, Terry Windle and Dave Molyneux, and are also helping Founds and Hanks who are contesting the World Sidecar Cup.

ISLE OF MAN

We look forward with anticipation to May when after many weeks of hard work we will fly to the Isle of Man for the TT. Our flights, hotel and car hire are all booked and the word is that this year it will be bigger and better than ever. We will be helping Adrian Archibald who is riding for Honda UK. Ryan Farquhar, who won the Manx GP in 2000 and is riding for Winston McAdoo, John Donnan from J.D. Motorcycles in Ardglas, who was runner up to Adrian Archibald in the Irish Road Racing Championship, and V. & M Racing who are running Jim Moodie and Iain Duffus, as well as many other riders in every class from 125 to sidecars. The evergreen Nick Jeffries will be returning to the TT this year and we are pleased to be involved, once again with his team. Hopefully we will meet up with our friends from the French sidecar team!

TV APPEARANCE

In October we were filmed by Diesel Films for a programme called "Petrol Heads" which is to be shown on Discovery Home and Leisure. The programme we took part in is about Trackdays and Richard and Ron are shown giving advice on suspension set up at our workshop. Barry, our machinist, also makes an appearance. We are pleased with the results, although we won't be giving up our day jobs for life on the small screen!! Our 4 minute slot took almost all day to film !

2002 SEASON AND BEYOND

It's March 2002 and the racing, both home and abroad, is about to start in earnest. The weather is getting better and we are really busy. We are looking forward to a safe and successful season and will hopefully meet up with some of your during the year.