Nicole Lynch in action
We catch up with Nicole Lynch for the latest installment of her‘ Life on Two Wheels” column
How dangerous is the sport?
People always ask me is racing motorcycles not very dangerous. My usual answer is that it’s not as dangerous as playing football. I have more friends who have broken bones playing ‘safe’ sports than racing motorbikes.
The importance of proper clothing
Personally, I’ve never broken a bone (touch wood) and I also make sure that when I’m racing I only wear the best protection gear. As a girl, it can be hard for me to find leathers that fit correctly but this year, I was lucky to be sponsored by RST Motorcycle Clothing, who very kindly made me a custom leather suit and provided me with gloves and boots as well. While I was waiting for my custom suit to be made, RST gave me a standard suit for racing which was as close to a perfect fit as I have ever gotten until the arrival of my custom suit a couple of weeks ago. Both the standard and my custom suit were super comfortable. New leather suits are usually very tight and you have to wear them around for a while, but the new RST design allows you to wear it straight on the bike.
Safety
I have also been given an Arai helmet which is the best helmet brand on the market. Having the trust that your protection gear is the best gives you much more confidence on the bike because you know you are as safe as possible.
Staying safe on your bike is a continual work in progress and there’s always something new to learn. Thanks to those nice people at Bike Buyers Guide magazine, for whom I also write a monthly blog, I went to the California Superbike School event at Mondello Park recently. To make you really focus, the instructors took away all your gears and brakes. In session 1 we were limited to one gear and no brakes, in session 2 we had two gears and no brakes. That was interesting. How fast would you go down the straight if you weren’t allowed to touch your brakes at the end of it? It made me focus on my core skills and evaluate where I can improve.
A quick thank you
On another note, I love writing my blogs and articles, but my (up until now) trusty laptop decided to die on me a day or two before they were all due in. I needn’t have worried though as already the amazing people behind www.1network.ie and www.VoyagerIP.com, two loyal sponsors of mine who know their stuff in the IT business, are getting me a new one so that my blogging can continue without interruption. I’d like to send a massive thank you to them for this, as writing blogs on a tablet is no fun at all.
I’ll be updating this blog monthly with race reports, and general snippets of how everything is going. You can also follow me on Twitter , Instagram or facebook
Nicole Lynch
10th July, 2017
