Christian Iddon
Work hard, play hard? Iddon’s been living the high life and testing the new S1000RR.
Although I don’t really get the whole New Year thing, I kind of like the fresh page idea and even more so this year after the 2018 race season I had, so naturally, I’m as keen as ever to get a new season under way. Since my last column I’ve had a great Christmas and New Year and I hope you all did too. I bet you all got to sleep in until past midday getting up solely to watch those movies that only ever get put on over the festive period while munching on a diet consisting almost entirely of chocolate. I’m hoping you all got to do those things anyway because I certainly didn’t.
While Christmas with the family was quite a chilled day, I was almost immediately then whisked off to
Thailand for a 10 day Muay Thai tropical fit camp. As I had mentioned before, my mother (in her wisdom) decided we should go on a family ‘active holiday’ and little bro and the missus were dragged along for the ride. As much as I’m certainly not into relaxing holidays, I was quite looking forward to a few days off the pretty rigorous training routine we endure throughout the season but it wasn’t to be. At the time I should have been laid in bed watching Elf while eating chocolate orange(s); I was instead munching apples and grilled chicken while performing the best rendition of ‘wax on, wax off’
I could muster.
It was a pretty cool trip away and we all enjoyed it, but I’m not going to be stepping in the ring anytime soon that’s for sure. Getting beaten up by 4ft something Thai lads that look little more than 10-year-old boys does nothing for your cred or confidence in a brawl but I should be pretty damn awesome at polishing cars now. In the end it was an epic trip away and all was good until it came to the journey home. The day before our due return, storm Pabuk blasted through Asia and we were almost directly in its path. It got pretty hairy at one point but thankfully the storm headed slightly south and we didn’t bare the full brunt of its brutal power. Due to the conditions, all flights were cancelled for over 24 hours and the backlog meant we were delayed by a seemingly inconsequential three hours. However, we then missed our connecting flight so had a 26 hour layover in Bangkok and then 18 hours to wait in Doha. Total journey time: 66 hours.
Not to be beaten, we made the most of it and had one night in Bangkok, rode tuk tuks (which is way more scary than lining up on the grid at round 1 of BSB), had a city tour of Doha, celebrated my birthday in an airport lounge with a cake bought from Costa Coffee and after many hours of practice, my complaining skills at the customer service desk have now hit new heights so all was not lost. Anyway, we eventually made it home safely and of course our plight was completely irrelevant compared to the devastation it caused and of course my thoughts go to those who were truly caught in the storm.
Now, on the motorbike front (I guess I better mention them as this is a column for Fast Bikes after all) I have ridden the brand new S1000RR and it is awesome! I can’t tell you much more because I only had 10 laps and
I’m sworn to secrecy (like a leather clad James Bond) but I rode a stocker on slicks at a track I didn’t know and it felt just plain lovely; I can’t wait to swing a leg over the finished version in the very near future. I’m sure the TYCO BMW is going to be an absolute weapon. After all, it’s a new year so it’s a chance to start a fresh page and with all that kung fu I’ve been up to, I plan to come out fighting…