Are Introductions always this long?

Hello there! Thank you for taking the time to read my blog, it is still in its adolescence so please bare with me whilst I make this website into not only something I can create as a blog of memories but also as something I can share with you guys. So here's a little bit about me! My name is Tahnee and I live on a little island at the bottom of the UK known as the Isle of Wight, we are a small island with a slower way of life than that of many of the mainland towns and cities. We have some beautiful scenery, climate and roads on the island and believe it or not only one dual carriageway! The rest are all little country lanes, which are both a blessing and at times a hinderance. My passion is anything with an engine, I started my passion for adrenaline fixes at a young age riding horses however adult life soon come into play and boyfriends, college and eventually work all took over my life and unfortunately...my time. I still have a great passion for horses however, fast forward the years and my passion moved on to something with a few more horses than I was used to! NEWBIE:

2011...a few of my friends had motorbikes, my dad had motorbikes, my grandad had motorbikes, so it was only natural I was next in line to have motorbikes...or was it? I remember saying 'Dad, please can I get a motorbike?' ...'No'....'But, but..please I think I would really enjoy it' ...NO ... you won't be able to stop, you'll end up keeping the throttle open and crashing into something! Anyway, fast forward to 2012... I'd already learnt all of the BHP and specs of all the bikes in the brand new Yamaha motorbike shop catalogue (still trying to impress my dad that I knew what I was on about), I knew most of the riders names past and present in MotoGP that he used to watch every sunday... little did he realise i'd already been searching bikes online and planning what bike I wanted and even in what kind of paint scheme. Anyway mid year 2012 came around and my life took a bit of a turning point when one of my nearest and dearest was tragically killed in a motorcycle accident. This not only tore my life apart but would fuel my fire for motorsport for the next 9 years to this day... By the end of 2012 due to recent events and my dad finally giving up with my nagging I managed to secure myself a 2011 model YZFR125 in black and gold...I thought it was the nuts, as did I think the same about myself. I would stay out all hours, in all weathers in my horrendous Suzuki bright blue leather trousers, my ebay 'specially made to fit' Yamaha jacket that ironically didn't fit at all, a bright pink box helmet and some ropey far to big mens boots and gloves that I found in a local dealership...(a downside to the island at the time not many bikeshops on the island kept in womens motorcycle clothes) anyway I thought I was the dogs b****cks and felt like the coolest person in the world (ohhh how wrong was I!)

I kept the 125 for a couple of years and once I started having a more serious job I ended up doing my car test but to me a car was always just a box with wheels on that go me from A to B it would never excite me as much as the bikes did. Anyway, after a few years I had a little 300cc bike that, somehow, managed to get me to LeMans to Brugge and back..it was a miracle really but again I was having the time of my life, exploring in another country with my little 2-wheeled friend. SPORTSBIKES: After my few years on a restricted license, I ended up finding myself purchasing a VFR400 NC30 Import, it was in Colin Edwards Laguna Seca colours..this bike was the nuts... I remember the first time I rode it thinking..'WOW! This is so quick...it's amazing...wait a minute they make a 1000cc bikes??!...how quick are they?!' If I wasn't hooked already the NC30 had me hook, line and sinker. It was a great, fun little bike albeit breaking down every 5mins, having a single sided swingarm so it was a nightmare to change tyres (usually hoisted up in my friends workshop) and also a pain to work on, I oftern had to carry around a bag of tools in a rucksack when I went out for a ride...however once you get past the quirks I would recommend to anyone to get one if you have the chance, I should never of sold mine and now they are only going up in value. Whilst I still had the NC30 I ended up buying a Suzuki GSXR600 K4, I totally fell in love with it. I was in anniversary colours and it just looked amazing. My friend had ridden it back down from Croydon for me to the island and it had been 'fully inspected and passed an MOT' and deemed fit enough for me to have it. However, my first outing out was an experience...coming up behind a large tractor..I began slowing down and all of a sudden the brakes failed... I had nothing ...S**T! By some grace of god the bike managed to come to a stop (it was a bit of a fred flintstone moment!) and I pulled it over..the brake fluid had boiled ...S**t! Managed to ride it back to my friends workshop where I was keeping it and the overhaul began, I was taught basic mechanics by a friend and shown how to rebuild brake calliper's. I took the brakes apart on this bikes and how the hell it was ever deemed fit to leave the showroom I will never know, the brakes were full of gunk and required a full rebuild. I spent months going through this bike, changing bits here and there and once she was finally ready to get out on the road and given a bit of beans I realised yet again not all was what it seemed. Every time I took this bike out, it would try to throw me off, I was chased down by two 1000cc bikes and this 600cc was like a bucking bronco, after lots of playing around the suspension set ups etc I eventually found out after measuring it against another k4 that the wheelbase was actually 20mm shorter than it was meant to be, the anniversary top yoke, front end and brake discs were no where to be seen and it looked as though the frame had been very carefully painted over, it had obviously had a front end smash. I sat in my friends workshop in tears, my first big bike sportsbike was a mess, not only was I down a bike but I was also down a lot of money...I learnt from this never by a bike with your heart! Make sure it is what it says on the tin... Following the K4 saga I was very nervous to save up an purchase a new bike, I knew what I was after..another sportsbike. Had I learnt my lesson from the last one? No. Did I buy another bike I thought was 'awesome'? Yes! So my next bike from this point was a 2004 Yamaha R6 5SL in anniversary colours (becoming a bit of a theme here, eh?!) First issue...TPS...first ride out, every traffic light - it turned itself off! ...ARGHH not again!! ...Soldering wires was not my forte until this bike but fiddling around with a TPS soon became a lesson, as did changing and testing coil packs. However after these little issues were resolved it was a very good bike for me but I just wasn't taking to it like I did the Suzuki.. I then decided that I was going to look towards getting another Suzuki and sell the R6. I was searching and searching for a K6/K7 model, ideally a 600. By this point i'd had a few bikes and had ridden quite a few of my mates bikes so I was pretty confident and my past mishaps had made my mechanical skills much stronger. Then one day, funny enough..my little pigeon brain in my head remembered that just down the road my cousin had a lovely GSXR sat in his garage, sad..locked away and maybe saw the light of day once or twice ...and maybe hit 5000rpm if it was lucky (Sorry Dan! haha...He will take the mick out of me for that later on!) Away, I brought this bike off of him, instead of a 600 it turned out to be a GSXR K6 750, I was a little nervous to begin with to make the jump from the 600 as you hear all the wind up stories from the blokes you know telling you that a 600 + is going to rip your arms off your shoulders! Well I didn't listen and I brought this bike anyway and it has been nothing but amazing, i'm totally in love with it and still have it to this day...currently taking pride of place in my front room! SUPERMOTOS: I've always been sportsbikes through and through, I loved the look and loved the feel of them and i'd never really considered enduro bikes as I'm quite vertically challenged! Around the same time I had my R6 I was looking to getting some motorcross experience and was searching for something like a XR250...(looking back now i'm so glad I didn't get one as they are an absolute pig for someone short like me to move around!) Anyway I ended up with a 2005 CRF450X, it had a massive 48T sprocket on the rear and 13T on the front..the first time I opened this thing up on the dirt I thought I was going to die! Sky...floor...bike....hedge...mud...sky...hedge...ahhh open field!! But I survived ! And I got used to it but like many things you get used to it, you get cocky and you crash which I did...ALOT. After the experiences of the soggy slippy enduro I was convinced by those closest to me to get a set of supermoto wheels...so I did and it was the best thing i've ever done...I took to it like a duck to water. I now have x2 CRFs, still my orginal X model and I also have a CRF450R model which it a bloody lunatic but it is great fun and lets you know to wake up on the bike when it gives you a bit of a whisky throttle. I've done a number of trackdays on the supermotos now and I am hoping to join the guys over at Norasport to compete in 2022. Watch this space! AUTOTESTING: In addition to my two-wheeled hobbies, I also found a passion for autotesting. I have a little 2002 MX5 1.8 Import which I compete with in the IWCC championship, the championship meets are usually held every other weekend on a sunday and consist of 6 timed laps around a certain course, these events are both on road and off road you can find out more about these events at https://iowcc.co.uk/ Thanks for taking the time to read a little...or rather blabbed on bit about me! I will try to update the site regularly and will try to include both photographs and videos. I also have a youtube account which is under Blondie_biker. Take care and Stay safe. Much love, T x