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Jack Lilley newsletter



Since JL has been the topic of much conversation on this site of
late, I wondered if you all knew about the free e-mail
newsletter they send out? It's regular (i.e. sporadic), but is
quite useful and entertaining.
I think anyone can subscribe. As far as I know, you don't need
to be a regular customer of theirs or to have bought a bike off
them.
The address is:

jlnews@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


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And here's a sample, received today:

Welcome to the latest news from
Jack Lilley Ltd - European Motorcycle Specialists

Dear newsletter readers,

I know this is meant to be an infrequent newsletter, so, thank
you Magnus
for the reminder that there has not been one for ages. I've been
meaning to
sit down and get writing for the last week or so, but work has
some how got
in the away, despite the fact that Eric Shelly seems to think
all I do is
sit around and drink coffee.

In the last letter I mentioned that we had just taken CCM on
board, little
did we know at that time the success it would become. Last
Monday we had
three new ones and the Demo in stock, by Friday we had none
left! The trail
ride in the Lake District is a must, as I mentioned David and I
were there
in May, gosh that is a long time ago, anyway, what a superb day.
Starting
out at 10am we were lead around some nice gentle routes and had
time to
admire the spectacular scenery of the area, the afternoon was a
different
deal. Things started to get tougher and we were lead up some
quite awesome
passes, one in particular, Drysdale, was like a trials section
the bikes
though behaved incredibly well, I think at the end of the day my
comment
was that the bike took the pratt factor out from behind the
bars. David
managed very well for his first time, only managing a couple of
falls, I
was impressed that for the first time ever I stayed on the bike
the whole
day, that's not my skill but the bikes good nature I can assure
you.
This week Geoff is on holiday and is doing the ride out, I'm
sure that he
will have a great time, the CCM boys really do look after the
riders very
well. So, anyone who can spare the time, do not delay, phone the
factory
and get booked in, you will not regret it.

The Racing season is proceeding along, Matt left the team in
May, basically
he was not happy that the bike was not able to run at the front
and felt
that he would rather not be on an uncompetitive bike, no hard
feelings,
Matt is a professional rider and needs to be seen riding top
bikes. Francis
has got on with the job and is now normally the top Aprilia
runner. The
Isle of Man went well, Jim Hodson bringing the RSV home in 17th
spot, the
first RSV to complete the race, and Bronze replica time. The
bike went well
the whole time and ran faultlessly for the two weeks, which is
very
impressive for a new model over the most demanding circuit in
the world.
Not only that but we at last had the Aprilia race can and Eprom,
which by
the way, are now in stock.
Being in the Island meant that we had to miss the round at
Mondello Park,
so Francis had a weekend off. The next round at Silverstone was
directly
after the boys returned from the TT. The class was combined with
the 600's
and meant a full grid, Fran made a good start but was soon
overhauled down
the fast straights by the R1's, and although holding a strong
position in
the class was knocked off by an over eager 600 rider four laps
from the end.
The beginning of July saw us at the GP held at Donington Park, I
love GP
racing and managed to get there for the Saturday and Sunday, no
small help
from the fact that we had John King, of SkyKing fame, staying
with us. The
GP is a strange event to be involved with, as support races we
are treated
as lepers and confined to the car park areas, not allowed to be
anywhere
near the main paddock, even having to join the circuit at
Redgate rather
than through pit lane. Still being there is what it is all
about.
Last race of the day was us, and the crowd, a very small number
probably no
more than 25,000 in total, had drifted away. Francis made a
reasonable
start but was almost knocked off at Redgate, the first corner,
by one of
the R1 riders, recovering he made a
good job of trying to stay ahead of much faster bikes,
eventually finishing
9th, again the first non Japanese bike home and of course top
Aprilia. It
all sounds rather gloomy I know, but the bike has been very
reliable and
given us no real problems, considering that it is the first year
of the
bike, we are pleased with the progress that has been made, above
all we
know that Francis always gives 110% effort, if only we had
another 25BHP
then it could all be a tad different. Next outing is the WSB at
Brands
Hatch on
August 1st. We will have Francis and Andy Nottman riding in the
SBK round,
so anyone attending, please give the boys a cheer.
On a personal level the GP was really a super event, not only
the GP
classes, which saw some great rides, and none more so than
Harada on the
500 V twin getting onto the podium in 3rd, but the Classic race
as well. We
were in the same car park area with the entry and in there was
Bonera with
one of the 3 cylinder works MV's, working out of the back of a
van with two
helpers. Bonera was one of the works riders in the 70's, he is
53 now and
still rides the wheels off the bike, and the sound.....wow. I
could go on
forever about it, then you really would get bored!

Back to the shop. It has been an interesting year, with so many
different
deals coming out it has been hard to keep up with it. Triumph
have been
very aggressive with some of their prices and we have seen quite
a burst of
activity with customers taking advantage of them. The factory
though are
now in a very good position to start bringing in next years
models, the
first are already with us, in the shape of the Speed Triple and
next week
the 955. The major changes are to the silencer, now the round
style of the
Sprint ST, a new gearlever which is direct and does not have the
linkage
anymore, new decals and computer management changes. The Daytona
is in
Silver and is shorter by 5mm, the ST will be in Blue as well as
the Red and
Black. A few weeks ago I was at the factory and able to have a
look at the
new Sprint RS, which will be shown at the forthcoming shows in
Italy and
the UK. What can I tell you? Well since MCN have had pictures
already in
the paper, then a little bit I suppose. The one I saw was in
Lucifer Orange
and looked superb, the half fairing is well done, not just a
chopped off
Daytona one, the colour scheme of the frame and engine certainly
make the
bike stand out and have been executed in a tasteful way. The
riding
position is just right and with the twin arm swinging arm, the
bike will be
lighter, all in all I feel that it will be a success for them,
and us of
course, we should be able to sort out quite a few new
accessories for them.
The wraps were still well and truly over the 600, but the news
is that the
bike will be around for the start of next year. I also spotted a
factory
rider on one of those Kawasaki twins. Now I wonder why?

The new Service Centre is coming along well, although sometimes
it seems to
be one step forward and another five back. We welcomed Don
Cairns into the
team recently to help with new and used bike preparation, that
was until he
was knocked off his bike coming into work, a broken ankle means
that we
will be without him for quite a few weeks. Also Gez Brown, who
has been
managing the stores was also involved in an off which meant
losing him for
a couple of weeks, and with it being the holiday season we
always seem to
be people short. In a couple of weeks we will be bringing a new
member in
the form of Grant, who was until recently with Daytona
Motorcycles, he
brings with him Triumph experience and we look for ward to
welcoming him
onboard.
In mentioning Daytona I feel very sorry for Geoff Carter, who
was the owner
of the Company, for they recently went into receivership. I have
known
Geoff for many years and really hope that he will be OK and get
things
sorted.

The parts side have been incredibly busy, the mail order side of
the
business has taken off, and as I know many of you use this
service, a very
big thank you to all. There is not much on the new product side
to report,
I know I mentioned last time about the Beringer Endurance
callipers, we
were delighted to receive an order from Phase One Racing
Endurance Team for
them to be used on the teams bikes. We are hoping next week that
we will at
last be able to get an ST to our "carbon man" to start getting
some parts
made, it has been the first time that a bike has been available,
up to now
we have not had stock ST's. The Road Racing alloy parts for the
Speed
Triple and Daytona have been selling extremely well and we are
hoping that
during the next few months we will be getting some more new
products.

And finally, hoorah they say. The Trident magazine will now be
quarterly,
we have had to reduce the number of issues since we found that
it was
getting to be firstly a great drain on our time and secondly on
the
advertising budget, we have not been able to attract enough
advertisers to
cover some of the costs, which in terms of post alone amount to
nearly
£1500 per issue. We hope that you will still enjoy the magazine
when it
arrives and understand our point of view. Last but not least. DW
reliably
informs me that the re-vamped web site will be up and running
very, very
soon, having seen the mock up I hope that you will agree with me
that the
wait has been worthwhile. (Pleased to say that the revised site
is up
and running.... See: http://www.jacklilley.ltd.uk/ - DJW)

That's it! Thank you to everyone for subscribing to my rantings,
I'm told
that there are now over 1,000 of you out there, I certainly hope
that you
stay with it, and I will try to keep things a little bit more
current than
they have been.

Steve.


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