Are you sitting comfortably?
Due to have a mug of tea in hand
I want to give a massive shout out to Matt (Matthew) Waldron who runs Small Boys Track Hire Bikes. Matt is not always the most approachable guy, and anybody who drives a van with a stuffed toy of "Anger" from the "Inside Out" movie tells you something however this story is all about treating people right when Sh1t is going wrong all around you.
As many of you might be aware I have been hiring from him, when ever I go on track. Have done so for I guess about 5 years now. My financial situation improved recently due to some inheritance and I made the decision I wanted to buy a track bike. Knowing that Matt services the crap out of his bikes and they are really well prepared this was the first place I turned, as I knew he was selling off his Kawasaki ZX636's to change his range to Triumph 765's moto 2's (which seems to be a bad idea as everybody is crashing them due to to much low down power... but that's another story)
So we did a deal and I paid my money.
Matt then went to town, remembering this is a track bike with track fairings, all of the panels and tank got resprayed, new stickers back on, the bike got a full service all fluids and oils changed and any major bits that needed to be done was changed.
On my last hire from him at Cadwell Park in April the bike I was going to buy broke down, as the clutch went. It was clear the person who had hired the bike before had not noticed the clutch was dragging and had basically burnt out the clutch. So fair play to Matt he paid and got a brand new clutch put in the bike ready for me to collect it.....
Roll on a month an I arranged to do a track day at Snetterton and after a 7 hour drive due to traffic (thanks Dan the drifter) we arrived at Snetterton and it was clear that the clutch was not working as it should and had not been installed properly. Turns out Matt had paid for it to be done by a professional Kawasaki clutch fitter as he didn't have time (as everybody was crashing his new Triumphs) and the guy had let him down. I found out afterwards that Matt was so pissed that he fell out with the guy as he was so angry with him for letting him down and letting the bike leave his garage when it was clear it was not working.
So this was the first point where I was really impressed with Matt. I needed my bike for Llandow as I was yellow vesting and Matt agreed this was his responsibility so he paid not only to have the clutch fixed but also paid for my van hire and all of the diesel for me to drive to Donington (where I got to go out for a session to test the bike) and then drive to Llandow do my day then drive home. As an extra bonus he arranged with No limits to move my Snetterton day (which cost about £150) to a Donington Noisy day (which cost about £230) free of charge to me. talk about taking ownership....
I found out later that he saw the smallest amount of fork oil leaking from one of the forks so the morning I was collecting the bike he paid 100% suspension to change the fork seals and change the fork oil ready for my collection, just incase as he didn't want any other hick ups.
I then take the bike to Cadwell and do a full track day at Cadwell and all is well and have a great day
I then go to Donington for my double header. Day 1 all is perfect and actually do a personal best lap in the 3rd session and have a great day. Day 2 rolls round. Its raining for the first 3 sessions so i go out on session 4 and suddenly I realise something is very wrong and the bike keeps cutting out and its clear that its a quick shifter issue. Matt happened to be running the day and I politely asked if i could get the benefit of his experience and could he give me some guidance on what might be the problem. Instead of this he actually took full ownership, confirmed that it was a quick shifter fault and stripped the bike down helped me remove the HM Quick shifter and then magically out of no where a Kawasaki factory fit quick shifter appeared and was put on the bike (which reminds me I owe him some money for that) and also we needed a specific bolt end which Jimbo just happened to have (which also reminds me I need to buy another one for him). Later I realised there was a wire that had been scraping on the tarmac and it caused it to short circuit so should be an easy fix to get it back fully working again just by reinsulating the wire.
Having installed the quick shifter it was clear it was not working and out came a special mechanical electrics wire harness and a plug into the laptop and 10 minutes later we have a working quick shifter again.
Now lets remember at this point the bike is mine, I have bought it paid my money, tested it confirmed I'm happy with it and done track days on it so this is in no way his responsibility.......
So with a working Quick shifter i head out on the 6th session and all is going very well. just as I go round the Melbourne loop (close to pitt in) suddenly i loose nearly all power and the engine suddenly sounds like a V6 or something. So I pull in the pitts
Again a little walk down to Matt and again ask for some guidance and advise not expecting or wanting anything. He jumps on his phone whilst holding his head in his hands and after about 20 minutes of phone calls says that he thinks the bike has dropped a valve. which is clearly not good news but he owns the issue and says he has a trusted mechanic that he uses for rebuilding engines. He is away at the Manx GP but when he is back he will arrange for him to do the work for me and get it rebuilt. he takes the bike away with him and engages with the mechanic.
As I type this we don't know if the bike will be ready for Portimão and if I will be loading it on the stillage on the 7th September but he is pulling out all the stops to try and make it happen. As we are chatting and I am getting understandably concerned about my expensive European event going south as well as a big repair bill he basically tells me if the bike is not ready then I can take one of his hire bikes so I have something to ride and I don't miss out on the event.
Let me please say again..... its not his bike its mine, its my problem to sort, he has enough of his out sh1t going on but he is bending over backwards to help me through obligation that he wanted to sell me a great bike and he want me to be proud of it (which i am)
So this story has not ended yet it still has a chapter left... but this is just a shout out for how fantastic Matt has been.
So if anybody is looking to do a track day and is worried about using your own bike and you want to hire one. I really cant recommends Small Boys Track Hire bikes enough. They are not cheap but the experience is well worth it, and as long as your nice when things go wrong then you have somebody very supportive on the other end who will help you......
https://www.smallboytrackbikes.co.uk/
