Good, Clean (mostly illegal) fun.

I've always loved bikes. Ever since I was a little boy, watching them roar past, totally awestruck. The noise and the speed - scary but exhilarating at the same time. Then I grew bigger and was able to buy one :-) Only problem with bikes is, if you ride a lot and ride hard (not in Grandma fashion that is) then it tends to be a matter of WHEN you come off, not if. ......I got out of hospital on my 18th birthday (April 1983), almost 2 stone lighter than I went in (a rate of a stone a month!). Once I'd learnt to walk properly again without the sticks, I made several promises to myself. (But thats another story)

I waited until 1994 to get another bike of my own, for a number of reasons. What really pushed me to get another one at that time of life was that most of my friends had cool sports bikes, and the urge was far too great to resist anymore. Plus the train strikes (1994-remember?) were really pissing me off, so that was a great excuse! So I went and bought a GPZ550 Kwak off of a mate, bit knackered, but certainly good enough to get me to and from work - plus if I binned it, it wouldn't exactly cost me an arm and a leg to either repair nor replace. However, I just love speed - speed and power [who doesn't??]...so I couldnt resist it, along came the Ex-up1000RU in May '95. Oh yyyeah! I'll never forget that ride home from the dealers in Portsmouth, with Jus (Followed by the intensely steep learning curve!) But what an awesome, long, hot summer that was, in fact the last proper one we've had as far as I can recall.
Oh yeah, apart from one thing... remember I just mentioned the WHEN not IF thing, well, I got taken off of the GPZ in a rather spectacular fashion riding home from town one night in June 95. Come to think of it, it must have looked fairly spectacular as the first thing one of the construction workers on the Jubilee line ext behind Waterloo shouted over to his mates was "Fuck me, he's alive!" - why thank you mate - I was only wedged under the wheel of a tipper truck at the time! That kind of thing stays with you. I was ok though, bashed and bruised, but essentially ok.

Winter came and I replaced the stricken GPZ with a CX500. Thinking that 500,000 couriers couldn't be wrong! (a bold statement if ever there was one..) And I was right, what a stonking bike that was. Much to my mates' amusement, I loved that bike. It started and ran as sweet as a nut every single day, even in sub-zero temperatures or pissing rain. (Mostly due to the much appreciated 'guru-like' attentions of the guys at Chasbikes in Blackfriars - Cheers guys!) Plus you could get the pegs down on it on the way to and from work for extra fun. Well, until I tried to do it on fresh diesel on Waterloo round-about one morning-I don't recommend that...

Winter(95) fiiiiiinally came to an end (Jeezus!) and "The Island" called. I'd always wanted to go to the Isle of Man TT as had a few of the others. A couple of the guys had been before and the stories of heroic moments on Mad Sunday were aplenty. Needless to say, it was everything I expected it to be, and more! If you ever get the chance to go, at least once in your life, do it. There were a couple of evenings remembered there, that I wouldn't ever trade. Anyway, we all survived!..which was nice.
It amazes me actually, you always hear about at least 3 or 4 people getting killed each year at the TT, but having lapped the course several times on Mad Sunday, I'm surprised it's not a lot more. So many people wobbling about on bikes, going way too fast (or at least trying to) for their own experience - amazing. (Mind you, I was probably one of them!). I've put the Isle of Man pics on a seperate page. You can see from the 'grin factor' just how much fun we were having!

Well, eventually I decided I wanted my ultimate bike - ever since they were released in '91 I'd drooled over the Fireblade. It had it all and looked so cool too. Aggresive and chunky with the performance to match, that's what appealed to me(can't think why!) so in Feb.97 I traded my beautiful Ex-up (sad, sad) for the spanking new BlackBlade (woohoo!). A bit of tweaking and tuning later and here we are. Later on I've posted some pics of a few trackdays, amongst other things). Donnington (98) has to be the best in my opinion, what a stupendous time that was.
I originally built this site when I moved to the States in June '99. I had to move over to work in Boston by June but couldn't move my family/home over until Oct'99 - so I spent much of my [free]time sitting...[in a coprorate suite, for basically the whole of the fucking summer of '99 - a looong hot one I may add]...dreaming of those very early summer Sunday morning country road blasts (the Brighton runs!) and trips like the one to the WSB at Nurburgring in June of '99, with Jus (pics later on) etc. What rrrREALLY didn't help was me getting back to the apt on a friday evening from a couple of after work beers, only to ring the guys back home and hear that they're all sitting parked up at Boxhill having a coffee and a smoke - you coulda lied you wankers and said it was pissing down and you were all sat indoors bored!!
Anyway, once I'd moved over properly things weren't so tough (the Blade went into storage). It wasn't long before I became a Dad, so that occupied just about all the free time I had and bikes soon became relegated to a firm second place - where they shall stay.
Now I'm back though (well Sep 02 actually), lots of catching up to do - trackdays, Isle of Man etc etc woohoo!!! :-) In fact the IOM 03 has been and gone - what a fucking great 'lads' holiday that was - pics are on a link below

Anyway I'll stop boring you now, pictures speak a thousand words right?...

Nuf sed.

Group therapy - boys and their toys

Slipping past "Spidey", Melbourne loop, Donington - Jul 2003

Rockingham April 03
Rockingham Aug 03 (before I stuffed it..)

Shep/Ash 1, Brands Indy Jul 05 (Clearways)
Shep/Ash 2, Brands Indy Jul 05 (Clearways)

Ash, Brands Indy Jul 05 (exiting Clearways)
Ash, Brands Indy Jul 05 (temporary traffic in Clearways...)

Mr Sheppard Rockingham (16th April'03)
duuuuude!

Jud - GSX-R WT in typical pose
Weags' racing at Brands - 2001 600 BEMSEE rookies (3rd overall)

Donington July 2003
Rockingham Aug 2003
What happened next? - click here!

My Triple in full flight
Can't keep a good Triple down...

PJ wheelying at warp speed!
Shep pulling one (fnaar fnaar)

"Never knock on Death's door - ring the bell and run away! Death really hates that!"

	Rockingham April 03			Rockingham Aug 03 (before I stuffed it..)
	Shep/Ash 1, Brands Indy Jul 05 (Clearways)			Shep/Ash 2, Brands Indy Jul 05 (Clearways)
	Ash, Brands Indy Jul 05 (exiting Clearways)			Ash, Brands Indy Jul 05 (temporary traffic in Clearways...)
	Mr Sheppard Rockingham (16th April'03)			duuuuude!
	Jud - GSX-R WT in typical pose			Weags' racing at Brands - 2001 600 BEMSEE rookies (3rd overall)
	Donington July 2003			Rockingham Aug 2003 What happened next? - click here!
	My Triple in full flight			Can't keep a good Triple down...
	PJ wheelying at warp speed!			Shep pulling one (fnaar fnaar)