Walker 'blowing off the cobwebs' in Cartagena

Author: Oli Rushby Pics: Tim Keeton Posted: 06 Mar 2015

Chris Walker has said he’s spent the first two days of testing in Spain ‘blowing away the winter cobwebs’ as he rides the Be Wiser Kawasaki for the first time.

The veteran racer, who is the oldest rider on the grid this year, moves to the Tommy Hill-managed outfit this season and although he’ll still be Kawasaki-mounted, the bike is quite different to ones he’s ridden in previous years.

As to be expected in a first shakedown, the team have experienced a few technical glitches meaning the Nottinghamshire rider hasn’t done as many laps as he’d have liked to.

“It’s all been good so far,” said Walker, talking to Bike Social in Spain. “It’s very exciting, everything is brand new, the team, the bike, the paint jobs. We met some of the crew members for the first time on the plane on the way over! All the ingredients for the bike are right, I’ve got some serious winter cobwebs to blow away yet, I know quite a few of the guys have been coming out over the winter, including Danny who has done a lot of laps here, so you’ve not got to get too into laptimes. I think we’ve managed 20 laps so far so we haven’t done a great deal of laps; my longest stint was 5 laps!

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“We’ve got plenty to do and I’m chipping away. I’ve got a new crew chief this year, new suspension, different engine tuner so the bike is feeling quite different at this stage but the signs are good at this stage. Most of the work we’ve got to do is getting my eye back in – now I’m the oldest on the grid it takes me a bit longer to get going!

“At the moment the bike is set in terms of geometry exactly how I raced it last year, however I wasn’t on K-Tech suspension last year. I need to get myself up to speed, which hasn’t been easy as we’ve had a few little technical issues, as you’d expect with a new bike. We’ll make a few tweeks to the chassis and try to put a better lap time in. I’m happy with how the team is working and that’s the main thing for me at this stage.” 

The Be Wiser team will continue testing tomorrow before packing up and heading inland to Guadix on Sunday.