RUST magazine: RUST #44

The Bike Shed Fesival
motorcycles. For instance, the Ace had
a very definite ground clearance issue.
In the big sweeper that is Chesson’s
Drift that meant avoiding the obvious
inside line, which had a negative
camber, and instead going deep to
the back of the corner where the track
eventually tipped up and gave the extra
inch or so needed to effectively get the
bike leant over and turned. Up at the
hairpin, meanwhile, I found the Ace
could brake improbably late, helped
by its lack of pace, huge twin discs
and a hill gradient so steep that just
by chopping the throttle you almost
immediately came to a standstill.
The races were hysterical. I loved the
first turns where everyone was ducking
and diving everywhere, all licence
plates, mirrors, indicators, helmets,
goggles, elbows and knees. The Journo
Cup was of course fairly competitive
with a few almost appropriate
motorcycles. I snagged 8th out of 14
there, not my finest hour. But in Street
Bike Cup Rapids – where the Ace
leapt off the line and refused to stop
for two corners – we’d got up to 8th
before fading to finish 11th from the 31.
Lack of speed and ground clearance
(and bravado) counted against. But it
wasn’t about the result, it was about
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