Coming into his third Isle of Man TT, a lot of talk has centred around Peter Hickman’s chances of glory but the GBMoto Kawasaki rider has been taking it all in his stride, going about his business in his own manner and has been pleased with his progress so far on the Kawasaki machines, having previously competed around the TT course on BMW.
“The Superbike’s been a bit of a handful but that was what I expected. it’s my BSB bike, which is obviously set up a lot stiffer and that’s how we started with the bike when we got here. I wanted to see how it was like that and that make the changes accordingly,” Hickman told BSN today.
“I did 129.5mph on Tuesday from a standing start but it was still too stiff and the changes we made on Wednesday didn’t really work so we’re planning to make some big changes for Thursday.”
“We’ve only got two nights of practice before the first race and whilst it’s ok on the Mountain, I need it to work better elsewhere. The Kawasaki’s totally different to the BMW I’ve ridden these last two years and it’s been like starting all over again but we’re going in the right direction for sure. Last year, my best lap in practice was 126mph so I’ve already advanced forward from that.”
A problem with the bike, which meant he couldn’t push above 11,000rpm meant that when he was overtaken on the road by Michael Rutter, Michael Dunlop and Ian Hutchinson, resulted in him being unable to follow them and pick up any pointers but the Louth-based rider is happy with where he’s at on the timesheets.
“The weather’s helped massively and to have that first night on the 600 was a great help. I did three laps and parked it as i was really happy with it but I’ll go back out on that during Thursday evening’s split session. I’ve managed about 15 laps so far and things are moving forward and the general feeling with all the bikes is good.”