Olly Stone: Time out for a bit of R&R
By Olly Stone on 2nd Apr 14
The last month has seemed like its taken ages to pass not that Im wishing my life away but not going to races has left a void.
And watching Dean Wilson race from my couch seemed even weirder.
It was good to see him do so well on Chad Reed's bike and impress a few 450 teams, which should help him for next year as we all know he will be moving up to the big class.
As a result we have already been talking about the Des Nations team between ourselves.
With Dean showing that he has the speed on the 250 and the 450 I hope we get the chance to come over and represent team Great Britain.
But before we can cross that bridge we need to finish off the rest of the West Coast championship and get through the outdoor season – hopefully on top!
So, with not having Dean on my hands for the last few weeks I had chance to really catch up and get ahead in the race shop.
I think I spent about a week in the machine shop honing my skills and making some cool stuff for myself and the rest of the team.
I actually got the chance to ‘live the dream'. I hear all the time from people who think it's all play over here and it was great to spend a little time down at the beach on jet skis.
After a few weeks of play I was ready and waiting for Dean to be done with Team 22 and get back to business on the PC bike.
So after a week back on the bike Dean is actually looking faster than he did before.
I think riding the 450 was a good move and it showed in his little-bike riding skills.
With that in mind I built him a Pro Circuit 450 to play on a little, as it seemed to help all round.
I am now all settled into my new place here in Corona.
Trust me when I say It wasn't easy carrying my new sofa and bed up three flights of stairs but we got there.
At one point on Friday night I was regretting the move, as an earthquake hit and being on the top floor it seemed to rattle everything out of the cubboards.
I just hope there isn't anything bigger on the way. It's the first one I have felt since living here in California and the locals say it can be a regular occurrence.
With one week until we race in Texas, our suspension guru Bones has a long list of new things to test.
Dean has only been away four weeks but the team has still been busy developing and trying to improve the bike.
So I'm excited to get going to try and make Dean more comfortable and even faster.
Although we are out of the West Coast title hunt it would still be good to win the remaining races.
By the time you guys read this I will already be in Texas getting things ready to race.
Sorry if I bored you this month as my life has been kind of quiet.
But it's back to some serious work now to hopefully get Deano back on top.
