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I am sure a lot of you will be sick and tired of hearing about the Rev-Up 4 DSI so rather than putting this in a thread and clogging your "View New Content" up I am putting in to a blog. Hope you enjoy anyways!
Preparation:
As usual i set aside some time for getting the bike ready. I took Friday off work to give the bike a good service and a proper cleaning. However things conspired against me a little and I started working on the bike at 6 in the evening. Yes I know I shouldn't have accepted the invite to go play golf but the weather was crackin' and it was my favourite course.
I eventually got started on the bike and first tackled the oil change. Now the bike doesn't really need an oil change because it is burning so much oil that it gets changed automatically every week but I wanted to get the new filter on. That all goes fine thanks to harry for lending the proper oil filter removal tool.

Given the time of the day and the complexity I decide that the best way to tackle the oil leaking from the rear suspension is simply to remove all evidence of the leak. Sorted! Funny thing is that the handling of the bike over the whole weekend was fantastic.

I then go a step too far and decide to tackle the brakes. The brakes are OK but I know if I give two quick pumps of the lever I get fantastic braking and decide to reverse bleed the brakes using my trusty cow insemination style syringe. This all works well and I have a great firm brake for the first time. I remember to syringe out the excess fluid before closing up the reservoir. All good. Time for a beer and then bed early as I know it is a long day tomorrow.

Departure:
Surprisingly both Karen and I have to pack our luggage in the morning. Karen is usually well packed so it was a bit of a surprise to find us ready to go around 9-ish. I load the bike up and we say our goodbyes to kids and grand-kids. Heading to Joe Duffys for registration I head down the back roads from Swords to Finglas. The bike starts slowing down, 60, 50 drop a gear, 40 oh oh something is definitely not right.

I think about pulling over. I touch the front brakes which had been great and the lever goes all the way in to the bars. No front brake at all!
Now some people would think that's it I ain't going but me I am thinking jaysus if we have to do an emergency stop with Karen on board and just use the back brake then it might be hard to stop. The thought that we weren't going to keep going never crossed my mind.
We keep going to JD's and when I arrive I immediately ask Aidan are any of the support crew lads still here. Neil is on-hand and by the time he comes over i already have the toolkit out and I proceed to bleed the brakes. They come back and I tighten everything up. I have a quick discussion with Neil over what may have happened. There is brake fluid everywhere. The front tyre is covered, the handguard is covered - it's everywhere. I am not sure what happened. I suspect that one of the pistons in the brake calibre was not working and the reverse bleed got it working, it then became stuck and boiled the brake fluid. Either way I am not deterred and Neil and I agree that WD40 and a hammer will sort it if it sticks again as a roadside quicky.

In the meantime we get checked in and Karen is delighted with the goody bags - loads of stuff to go through later. Almost everyone is gone at this stage except Ted and Frodi. Chopper from biker.ie is late (as usual) with his crew. Aidan tells me to head on and I can ring him from the next checkpoint to see how far behind Chopper and the crew are. They did tie one on the previous night and needed the recovery time

So we set off at a reasonably brisk pace and the funny thing is having checked the route for Aidan before the event it all seemed so familiar. I didn't need to refer to the route guide as the hours of studying Google street paid dividends.

Day 1:
Classic route to Athy through Prosperous and Monasterevin - great weather and the bike is handling well. Waited for a while and Choppers crew arrives looking a little worse for wear but in great form. Second section of the day is ahead and is just cracking. Twice I nearly take a left turn that looks like the road goes straight. At one stage there is a car ahead and I am about to gas it seeing the straight ahead and then the car disappears around the right hand bend. Woooo I drop into the corner, heavily counter steering and breathe a sigh of relief. I later hear that at least two of the dead ducks didnt make the turn LMAO.

When I arrive with Karen at the final checkpoint the first thing I am asked is "did ya make the bend". They weren't talking about the left exit but a really nasty surprise right exit left bend. So this time if you go straight you cut across the opposite side of the road. Again I am heavily throwing the bike into the corner. I cross the solid white momentarily and thank the Gods there was nothing coming the other way. Later on I have one more like that but this time it is much worse as I was overtaking a car at the time and had to viciously cut back in front of the car to stay on the right side of the road.

The only other part of the route that stands out is the R666 - worth looking up and marking down as a road never to go on. It has all the makings of a great road with brilliant twists but the road surface is atrocious. This is something we start to get use to as Cork county council seem to have blown their road fixing budget on foreign junkets as it ain't going into the roads.

At the end of the route we end up at the final checkpoint Kearys Motorrad. They have laid on a great spread of grub and I get to see the last 10 minutes or so of the Leinster game on the multiple wide screen TV's dotted around the showroom. Aidan has one last surprise in store for us. As the gardai lead us out under escort we head off for the hotel. I know which hotel but am a little confused about the route. It turns out we are going to take a ferry. That was some laugh having 150 plus bikes on a ferry. One of me mates Eugene has serious problems with overheating - more than a nod towards the Gardai for the slow escort. Everyone's bike was running hot at the slow pace.

Day 2:
I was knackered the previous day and didn't go mad in the bar. I knew we had a long day ahead of us. Aidan and Mick McCormick played a blinder as they had to come up with a complete re-write of the route as we found out that the Rally of the Lakes was going to the Beara peninsula for the first time. Just happens it was also the route we had planned for the day.

Anyway the first part of the route to Bantry is the same and I know it pretty well too. The great news for me but not for poor Karen is she was in a lot of pain from the cramped position all day the previous day and decides to give Day 2 a miss. Yippee I am going solo - something that would prove very fortunate later on. The day started off damp but as we progressed the weather dried up and more importantly so did the roads. I am out on my own and enjoying not having to worry about people behind me or chasing people in front. I cross over a bridge with a right handed the other side and suddenly Aidan is coming towards me with some other bikes. WTF, but as I round another bend there is Stuie Carrick climbing up a cliff to get shot of the lads coming round the bend. He signals me to turn back and do it again but I am in flying form and just want to keep going. I roll into Bantry and just a little surprised to discover that I am nearly the first there. The chckpoint is manned by our own Fabio and Gary. Gary and I both laugh when we realise we are mates on facebook. Jimmy Dunne, my old sargeant from the army is there with a mate and we have a grand auld chat. We are joined by Kaos and Matt and then the IBF core team with Animal, Frodi, Tiler, Playtime, Snooze and Oakers. The funny thing is that I was going to go with them from the hotel but as they were ready to go I noticed I needed oil. I ran back to the room to get oil after filling up I set off with the idea of catching up later. No wonder I didnt catch up with them - they had still left after me.

We all set off from Bantry and suddenly realise that the re-worked route was missing an essential element - which way to go at the first turn. Luckily someone knew and we spent 10 minutes struggling to get through the local fun run with 100's of people about. We head on the Glengarriff road and reach the right turn at Ballylickey with Kaos and Matt in the lead. I know this road and know there are parts that are just wonderful. I stay with Kaos and Matt for about 3 bends before their talent loses me. There is no one behind me and I press on as it is straight road nearly all the way. This is just fantastic. Long sections of road with very few road signs. It's great when you just have to read the road yourself to decide what the bend ahead is like rather than relying on the opinion of the local county engineer. I arrive at the final T junction and decide to wait for the others and 30 secs later get bored and press on. I arrive at the checkpoint and only have to wait a couple of mins before the others arrive. Everyone is in great form and we are all ready to get started on the next section after a brief chat.

The Moment
We set off and immediately I realise that we are going at a good pace, not too fast not too slow. I have a problem with wind noise and have to wear earplugs or else I get that bloody ringing in my ears for ages after a spin on the bike. One of my ear plugs is not sitting right and I pull over to fix it. So in the time that it takes to take the lid off fix the plug and put the lid the lads (and lassie) are well gone. I decide to chase and I am pushing it. I am really enjoying the road and putting into practice some advice Aidan had given me which is really paying off.

Right hander coming up, Doesn't look too bad, drop a gear and start into it.

Woah Woah Woah, sh1t sh1t sh1t surface is rough - I mean real rough and I am heading straight for Frodi's bike and possibly Frodi too who is sitting up on the verge after coming off the bike.

All that went through my head is "I am going to do a Yogi here and crash too". Luckily enough I keep control and stop well in time before hitting anything. I look at the corner and the road is seriously bad right on the perfect line. I hadn't mentioned this already but Frodi takes the perfect line every time. I know he has his thoughts on what happened but it wouldn't surprise me if he was literally shaken off the line by the bumps and ruts into the gravel.

I quickly get my bike in to the side of the road and see Andy (Tiler) with Frodi. Grand, I let Andy take care of that part but quickly realise they are both in serious danger as any traffic coming round the bend will not see them until the very last second. And there will be bikes pretty soon.

I move quickly back up the road in order to stop oncoming traffic. I see Martin (Playtime) coming up to me and I shout for him to take the other end of the bend and control traffic there. He quickly and smoothly turns the bike heads down the road. He pulls in to the verge and put his foot down to steady the bike and quickly and smoothly falls into the ditch with the bike nearly falling in on top of him. There was no ground where he chose to put his foot down. I don't know if it is shock but I double up laughing as I see Martin pulling himself out of the ditch. Someone comes up to me, might have been Wayne (animal) but not sure. I get him to take over so I can see how Dave is. He's ok but to my untrained eye I think he has some broken ribs. How do you feel? He answers "pain but not too bad unless I do this, then it really really hurts". We discuss going in the van or getting an ambulance. That was a mistake. Once we knew he was going to hospital we should have called the ambulance immediately. As it was it was a few minutes before we decide to call it anyway, Dave himself had the cop on to know he would be seen quicker if he arrives in a ambulance.

We call the support van and Jay is closest. He is about 10 klicks away.

We settle into a controlled situation and the scene is safe and Dave seems to be OK. Bikes arrive and more bikes and then team 2 stroke with Rickshaw aka Jim Leonard the legendary road racing paramedic. He quickly takes control of caring for Dave.

The rest is just routine. The only thing that I worried about was as we departed the scene after the ambulance had gone and there was moment where we were a little exposed as we pulled out on the bend but the Garda car was blocking half the road and should keep traffic slow.

A little word about one person who stood out from everyone else. That was the fcuking muppet in the go faster fiesta who raced through the whole accident scene as if he was in a rally. Hopefully there is a wall waiting for you somewhere ya tosser.

The IBF team on the scene made our way to Dunmanway where the rest of Team IBF were waiting. Jimmy and his mate are still there too. We decide to call it a day and head for the hotel after a coffee in the service station.

When we get back myself and Tiler head for the hospital to check out the story. 48 hours later we leave with Frodi in hand. Alright I know it wasn't 48 hours - it just felt like it. I think we were there less than 2 hours. The Doc in the hospital was a good guy with a good sense of humour. "I have bad news Dave - we are not going to let you stay here - you have to go".

I heard later that we did such a good job of keeping the scene safe that we didn't let one of the bikes stops to give assistance. Maybe we should have as the rider in question is a trauma surgeon

Later as we sit down for dinner it is great to see Frodi sitting with the rest of the crew. it could have been so much worse. Hopefully the bike can be fixed because I know how much Dave loves that bike.

Sunday Night:
There are plenty of people who can post up about what went on that night but it is enough to say that there was plenty of high jinx indeed. I did my usual and took to bed relatively early. Must be me age - old fartitis setting in.


Day 3
We get packed and I decide to take all our luggage - so the bike is fully loaded. Top box, two panniers and a full tank bag. I top up the oil and get under way. Except we aren't riding the route, Karen and I are manning the 2nd checkpoint in Bagenalstown. We head up the motorway in rain. There is nothing more miserable than riding motorways except riding motorways in the bloody rain.

But it could be worse. Dayglo is manning the first checkpoint and he rang Aidan at 9:30 to ask how many had left because he was at the checkpoint at 8:30. Aidan tells him - none. First crew to leave only went at 9:30 quickly followed by team 2 stroke.
Meanwhile Karen and I leave the motorway around Urlingford and head for Kilkenny. What a cracking road and what the hell is that bright thing in the sky - OMG the sun is coming out. By the time we reach Bagstown the sun is well and truly out and it is turning into a cracking day. We take our time getting settled into the checkpoint and I am wondering how long before someone arrives when Team IBF pull in.
Poor Frodi is not with them as his bike is in the back of a van on the way to Dublin. But the rest of the crew are there and hang around a bit.
We arrived at the checkpoint around 12 and it was 15:30 before the last riders arrived - team 2 stroke who were second to leave the hotel. God love 'em they were struggling and needed to move as fast as they could in order to make it to Dublin for the final parade. They weren't going to make it and worse still Rickshaws bike blew up just a couple of miles from home.

The parade itself was an adventure in itself for the marshalls and I dont think poor Karen realised I was going to be marshalling. It is surprisingly easy to wheelie a bike when you have two packed panniers, topbox and pillion on board.

I always have my breathe taken away by the sight of a 100 plus bikes travelling in convoy but it is really special when it is the M50 at a decent pace.

We all made it home - some bikes didn't. Sorry lads. A fantastic weekend with a truly great bunch of people made all the better by the fact that Frodi had no broken bones and no serious injuries.

A very special thanks has to go to Aidan Lynam (Magnets) very few people know the full extent of the amount of work you put into the organisation of the event but I for one say a huge thank you for organising possibly the best on-road biking event in Ireland.

Next year will be my fifth and I can't wait.