My name is Kevin Charman. I was born in Berkshire, United Kingdom in 1967. I have always been a self confessed petrol head, and winning competition Bike in 2006, and runnner up in 2007, have decided to bite the bullet, not go turbo, but carry on along the nitrous route and build a funny bike for the 2008 season.........
I was found in an egg crate around the back of a hospital where I was kindly taken in by Nuns, as no one won me in the League of Friends raffle. In later years I was thrown out for farting, and started my “Life Education”.
During those painful years, life was tough; the only contact I had with the outside world was listening in at the Church Confessional box door.
After my basic education, I found work surprisingly easy, doing any job I could get, entirely to my own satisfaction.
I learnt to drive and ride a bike, and gained points for my prowess, eventually earning enough points to win a couple of years off and walk around the world being a bum! It was in the land of the Free where I got my lucky break, found religion, and was privileged enough to be introduced to the God of Speed, which took up my life’s work. I finally rejoined civilization, joined a cult of the “Speed Freak” and met like minded folk.
SERIOUSLY THOUGH…….
My interest started in 1998, after one too many lemonades at the local, and much discussion, I decided to fit a nitrous kit on my (then) bog standard road bike.
Sensible head (sort of) came to the front and stopped being a maniac on the road, and started to complete in Straightliners. It was there I met a bloke who had like minded ideas, who was prepared to help me progress. That man was Ken Cooper!
We used the Bandit for a few years, had a few fires, and achieved the bikes PB of 8.71 @ 168, still ½ second behind the Super Street Guys. However we did win the Big CC Horsepower shootout 3 years in a row, (the last year’s title won with BHP of 347) and got on the cover and the centre page spread of Street fighters Magazine!!
Having earned the nickname of "Flaming Kev"
(thanks TJ) for the monstrous nitrous fires, I decide that enough was enough, Super Street was not the way forward for me, took a year out, and crewed for a quiet unassuming man by the name of TJ O’Brien !! This gave me the chance to gather up parts for my next project, as I had already done a deal to buy the Jones and Friend rolling chassis and the end of the season.
This is the time I should thank or blame Paul Rose. Having heard that I had bought a comp bike chassis, he offered me the use of one of his bikes with wheelie bars and a 7 inch slick so I could get some idea what I was letting myself in for. I was getting out on it at test and tunes, and the Bulldog Bash. What a hoot, I was hooked!!
Ken was called on to put all the bits for the new engine in some semblance of order, which he did, and this rewarded me with the winning combination to win Comp Bike in 2006, and the number 1 plate! Thanks Mate!
2007
The tired second hand parts were exhausted, and gave us a very interesting and frustrating year. Repairing gearboxes, cranks, heads, and anything else that broke along the way! But we learnt a hell of a lot, and still managed to scrape the number 2 plate to a very worthy opponent, Phil, “number one” Leamon!! We did however get Number 1 at Avon Park with all odds stacked against us.
Congratulations to Phil for getting the Number 1 plate.
Deciding an upgrade would be inevitable, I had a “haggle” with Dave Holland and struck a deal to buy his Pro Mod chassis. I am reminded by Lizz that it is not a Dave Holland chassis, it is an MRE one!! My chassis was up for sale for, oh, all of two hours before it was snapped up by my old crewman, and good friend, John Austin (Marlon).
In November Lizz and I went to the States (annual pilgrimage) to watch some racing, the last Prostar at Gainesville, drink some rum runners, and buy lots of shiny bits from the likes of :- Jay at MRE, Falicon, and Andy Dawson, packed Lizz up like the proverbial pack horse (“You are taking no clothes home, we need the space”). So with tyre, head gearbox parts, block and pistons, clutch plates and accessories, crank end, and lots of other goodies- left the warmth of Florida and came home to a blizzard and a cold house.
At the time of writing, the bike has not been touched. (Although Ken tells me the engine is nearly ready) We are moving house imminently, so it is in storage at the mo, until we move to our “garage with house attached” So I guess all that is left to say is…. Watch this space!!!
