Talan Skeels-Piggins Castle Combe Report

Talan enjoying the sun and getting focussed

The weekend of 21/22 June saw Talan Racing attend the two day motorcycle race meeting at Castle Combe, with North Gloucester Road Racing (NGRR). The circuit has special meaning to Talan as it was the venue that saw him get back on a motorcycle having been paralysed. The staff and instructors helped Talan to overcome the difficulties that paralysis has for riding two wheels, then it became home to The Bike Experience charity in 2011.

Saturday began with a much needed free practice. Due to time constraints and work commitments, the Team had not been able to make a track day at the circuit to sort out gearing, set up and re-acquaint themselves with the whole layout. Within a few laps, Talan had remembered his way around and was dropping in lap times. The plan was to try and get as close to the previous years lap times as possible. At the same race last year, Talan had been doing regular track days and his confidence was high. This year is all about rebuilding that confidence after the near fatal accident last August.

The weekend had a number of positives for the Team. The first was a two day meeting at the circuit and the second was that NGRR had allowed Talan to race in the Pre-Injection 700’s & 1300’s as well, which meant another possible four races. He wouldn’t be scoring any points in the extra races, but it was valuable experience in starts and racing against more powerful machines.

In all the races on Saturday, Talan proved to be quick off the mark and quick on the opening lap. In one race alone he managed to overtake 15 other bikes on the first lap, something that surprised the riders and officials alike. The same went for Sunday, with lap times coming down to the 1min 25.8sec best set last year, and then dropping into the low 1.25’s before finally being taken to 1min 24.2sec. Confidence has certainly been restored!

Talan and his Performance of the meeting award

The performance put in by Talan and the Team was recognised by the officials of the NGRR with the ‘Performance of the Meeting’ Award being presented to Talan after the final Minitwin race of the weekend. Another bonus from the weekend was the appearance, at the Talan Racing tent, of none other than John McGuiness, who popped in to chat with Talan and find out a little bit more about the bike and how someone who’s paralysed can still ride.

John McGuinness and Talan talking bikes

Talan Skeels-Piggins is the only paraplegic solo motorcycle racer in the UK. Talan founded The Bike Experience- which gets disabled people back on to two wheels. www.tbex.co.uk. Talan wears Held Rider Equipment.

Donington: Solid 4th Place for Held wearer Joe Burns

Solid 4th Place for Joe Burns 

Joe Burns at Donington- Jon Jessop Photography

Friday free practice and qualifying 1 turned out to be a complete washout, in free practice Joe used old wet tyres and achieved 24th fastest time, qualifying 1 was little better more rain, but with new wet tyres Joe cruised to 20th.  There being little point in taking risks, as the forecast for the weekend was for dry weather.

Saturday was indeed dry and sunny, and qualifying 2 was much more representative of Joe’s abilities, he was 3rd fastest in a very competitive 46 bike session, so the race would include a valuable front row start place. The top four riders were within 0.35 seconds of each other.

Warm up on race day and Joe put in the 2nd fastest time, showing once again that he is highly competitive in this race series.

In the race Hudson Kennaugh got the best start and into turn 1 Joe was dropped to 4th place but in a very tight group, for the next 8 laps he chased Victor Cox and at one point took third place, only to lose it at the next corner.

Joe’s front tyre began to lose grip and he came home in an excellent fourth place, just 4.6 seconds behind Coxa good intelligent ride that sees Joe rise to 8th in the championship.
Superstock now has a three week break until we race again at Silverstone.

 To see more about Joe Burns click here

To see more about Held Rider Equipment that Joe wears click here

7th Place for Held wearer Joe Burns at Snetterton

National Superstock 1000 racer Joe Burns and his Held leathers

 Soaring temperatures at Snetterton Circuit over the weekend helped encourage a huge crowd of spectators to come and watch for some excellent racing, with the Pirelli National Superstock 1000 Championship continuing to maintain its strength with 54 entries.
Qualifying 1 took place on Friday afternoon, with Joe still learning the Snetterton 300 track layout, the resulting 8th fastest time was just 7 tenths off the table topping time set by Jimmy Storrar who was riding a BMW, a bike well suited to the long straights of this circuit. 

Saturday brought a continuation of the good weather, and Qualifying 2 was held just after midday, by the time the chequered flag came out Joe had posted the 6th fastest time giving him a combined qualifying grid position of 7th for the feature race on Sunday.
Joe did not get the best of starts and fell back into 11th place, however by lap 3 he had moved up to 10th and then the race was interrupted by a safety car for 3 laps whilst a fallen rider and bike where recovered, by lap 13 Joe had made it to 7th place where he would finish the race. 

After the race Joe said "I came here not expecting a great deal, it not a favourite circuit of mine, so to finish 7th is better than I expected, but this is a long season and I have held onto 2nd place in the Championship."
 
The result keeps Joe in second place, the gap has opened up to 25 points between 1st and 2nd place, but closed down to just 1 point between 2nd and 3rd . A satisfying result, the next race takes place at Brands Hatch on July 19/20/21

For more information on Held motorcycle clothing, Held motorcycle helmets and Held motorcycle accessories please visit www.held-uk.co.uk

Held gloves - how they are made

Held gloves. Many awards, huge amounts of great feedback. Here's how we make 'em. Here's why they're good!

Grading

Every single piece of cowhide, kangaroo pelt and stingray skin is checked by hand – often by Erhard Held or his son Christian Held personally. Hides are very rarely perfect, but any faults such as marks from barbed wire, thorns or ticks are identified and the piece rejected. The leather is then soaked so that it can be stretched for punching, to ensure that the finished items will not lose its shape with use.

Punching


All Held gloves are punch cut. This is far more precise and provides a cleaner edge than cutting with scissors. A costly, sharpened metal die must be fabricated for each leather section. And when you consider that a pair of Held Phantom gloves has 156 individual sections, this means we need a lot of cutters! It then takes 18 minutes to punch out each pair.

Moulding

We only use carbon fibre of the highest grade, which we punch-cut and pressure mould ourselves to ensure a perfect fit. Once cut, each piece is heated to 450˚C and then subjected to 40 tons of pressure and shaped over our custom moulds. These custom protectors are often underlain with shock absorbing gel and sometimes even overlaid with Titanium.

Stitching

Each pair of gloves take a highly skilled machinist 90 minutes of sewing time.

Finishing

Finally every single Held glove is carefully formed on hot irons to create the perfect ergonomic fit. Once this is achieved, the material and workmanship of each one is carefully inspected. If even the slightest irregularity is detected, the glove will be rejected.

There! Hope you found that interesting. We'll be blogging lots more from now on - so please be sure to check back. Meanwhile, if you'd like to know more about Held, our range, our stockists etc please visit www.held-uk.co.uk 

Pics: c Held GmbH; schöffel design

c Held GmbH; schöffel design

Superb Held Sports Touring Gloves - just £54.99

If you're looking for some superb gloves now the weather is (finally) warming up but don't want to break the bank why not consider the Held Troy? At just £54.99 (RRP) and available in mens AND ladies sizes they offer superb value, comfort, style and safety.

Held Troy Motorcycle Glove - RRP just £54.99

Let's look at a few more details:

Sporty touring motorcycle gloves with a perfect price ticket. Goatskin palms make for good grip, supple cowhide back and leather covered knuckles provide protection. These gloves are unlined for summer use. In our book: Comfort to just hop on and ride off.

• Goatskin palm
• Supple cowhide back of hand
• Colourfast and sweat proof
• Leather covered hard plastic knuckle protector
• Knuckle protection backed with Temperfoam
• Reinforced edge of hand and thumb
• Superfabric reinforcement on fingers and edge of hand

Held Troy motorcycle gloves- many colour options available

Check out the full spec on page 185 of our online catalogue: http://held.de/livebook_english_2013/index_livebook_english_2013.html

For our main website including a dealer locator please click HERE