By Christian Tiburtius

An exclusive interview with Gearlink Kawasaki team manager Michael de B♚idaph, who is ru𒅌nning Ben Wilson and Alastair Seeley in this year's British Supersport Championship.

New signing Seel🌺ey leads the series, with Wilson - a former title runner-up to S꧑eeley - also making a strong start with three podiums out of the four races...

wuqian0821.com:
What is 'Gearlink'?

Michael de Bidaph:
We are car and van manual gearbox specialists, hence the name 'Gearlink'. We do repair some bike gearboxes, but that's not our mainstream. I work full-time in the business when I'm not rac𒉰ing.

wuqian0821.com:
Is the name 'de Bidaph' French?

Michael de Bidaph:
Yes it is, it goes back to my grandfather. We don't have a lot of information about it thoughཧ, because he left my grandmother when my dad was only 3 so the name had to be resurrected.

wuqian0821.com:
H🧸ow did you start in racing, what's the motivation to put the hours in for your race team on top of a full-time job?

Michael de Bidaph:
I've always been in the motor trade and my father was a mechanic before me and taught me everything I know. I started my own business in 1976 specialising in re-conditioned gearboxes then moved from South Bucks. to the New Forest, in 1992 when I set up Gearlink and it became a very successful business. It's quite an unusual and stressful pღart of motor mechanics and I employ four to five people as w💖ell as myself, I am a "hands on person", I don't like sitting in an office.

I used to be heavily into cars but in the late 90s I bought a Suzuki 750 'Teapot', after t💫hat I got more into the sports bike side of things and did a lot of track days with a🎃 mate who was a club racer, I just really got the bug. I loved it.

I wanted to become a racer when I got back into bikes but I knew I was t🍰oo old. I've always watched♌ BSB and particularly enjoyed the R6 cup, that was great racing.

In 2004, by chance, I bought a local paper, one which I had never bought befoꦍre, and on the back page it said 'R6 rider looking for local sponsorship'. That was probably the most expensive paper I ever bought! It was that paper that got me involved in racing and in turn caused me to invest heavily into the sport.

The rider concerned was James Hillier, he had a couple of sponsors who couldn't see the year through, so we picked it up for him when they couldn't continue. We got to the end of the year and James was having difficulty getting a ride, we reckoned him as a rider, so I said to James that I loved the racing and wanted to be a part of the paddock so we would see how much it would cost 𝔉to run our own team.

That was 2005, when they were just starting the Supersport Cup, that meant it was possible to be in the field at a reasonable budget. I think the kind of budget we were talking about f🅰or a year was ?30,000. Needless to say, it went over that, but🧔 the fact that you only had to do 10 rounds helped. We had 2 bikes and we started with Kawasaki's.

That is how we🍌 started and I still love it as much now as I did then, it's an obs🧸ession that runs very deep. I do it purely for the passion of it.

In 2007 w♉hen we ran another rider, Guy Sanders, as well as James, we started getting some good results and then you get that bug where you always want to do better. You start to realise that you could actually win a race.

It gets more and more expensive, but by then you're hooked. We've only ever managed to get a couple of modest sponsors so we have to bear the majority of the expen🎐se ourselves. It's fair to say that if we don't find someone this season we may have difficulties before the end of it.

Oꦆur motivation now is to win races and championships, which shows ⛦how far we have come.

wuqian0821.com:
Talki🐓ng about your motivations, you so🐼und exactly the same as the riders

Michael de Bidaph:
For the team manager and the rest of the team, winning a race feels amazing. The sheer exhilaration for e🐬veryone is hard to describe.

In 2011 we won 9 races, but the last race we won was as good as the first, wh𒐪at a buzz! You put so much into it, all the work behind the scenes, all the long hours and to have your rider on the winner's podium is a dream. I can't tell 🦄you exactly what the rider feels, but what I feel as the team boss can't be any less. I get elated.

wuqian0821.com:
Do you thin🐼k that the Gearlink team has a special feel to it?

Michael de Bidaph:
Most definitely, the team is a family and it certainly wouldn't be possible without my two full time mechanic♉s, David Harris and Arron Phillips. They've both been with us for a number of years, and I would struggle to find two better people to be involved in my race team or even in 🎀my life.

They do whatever it takes, they never moan, work incredible hours, sometimes work unpaid a🍷nd are always there. They're just not bot🐈hered by any of those considerations, they're totally motivated by passion for racing and the team.

I mention these two people because they are just an example of the members of 🍌Gearlink who all have the sam♛e desire. There's nobody in the team who isn't fully committed. Also now I've got a couple of new people, Dan Dadley and his dad, Andy, who are exactly the same. When you include Paul Kemp as an all-rounder, and Gill Greggor who helps on pit wall, I've got a really strong team around me.

Our data is handled by Akira Technologies, a French company. David and Arron e-mail data to them and act on any recommendations made by them. Akira bu🅷ild engines for us and the WSS team, they come at a heavy price, but they're the best we ca🎶n get for Kawasaki engines.

My wife Norma comes to every race. She's much better at the PR, ꧃sponsorship and the social aspect of the team and most importantly, she feeds us!

She is very busꦡy and over a weekend I don't think I've ever seen her sit down. I'm just worried she does too much, because she is always taking so much on, having said that though, the team couldn't function ♋without her.

wuqian0821.com:
Who is Joshua de B🅺idaph, has he got any connection to yo🐠u?

Michael de Bidaph:
He's my nephew. Myꦅ brother is bike mad and his son, Josh, used to watch us go racing and got the bug. He started going club racing last year using one of our bikes. Yes, he's family.

wuqian0821.com:
What's with the green and orange colour scheme?

Michael de Bidaph:
I'm a firm believer that Kawasaki's should be green. We needed another colour though so we went for orange because it's Norma's favourite colour and it𝓡 also ties in with Gearlink's company 𒆙colour.

We presented the colours to Kawasaki Motors UK 𓄧in 2008 when we became the official Kawasaki Supersport team and they said that they liked it and thought it was different. Whether you like it or not you can spot a Gearlink bike instantly.

wuqian0821.com:
Take us through a normal race weekend?

Michael de Bidaph:
After finishing work, we'll arrive at the circuit first thing Thursday morning. Thursday is set up day and Friday is free practise, it is a very busy day on the Friday b🌼ecause we aౠre now running Superstock 600's and Supersport bikes.

Every morning we're in the garage at 7am and if we're lucky, we'll finish at 6.30pm, though if we have a problem, it can be a lot later. Sometimes th🐎e boys can be working until 10 at night. Saturday is a very tense day because you've got qualifying and the fi🌃rst race in Supersport.

Comparatively Sunday is probably the easiest day because you've got more time on your hands. It's not that you're doing nothing it's juꦏst that everything that could be done has been done💦.

On Sundays I get very nervous, I'm absolutely dreadful. After warm up, the nearer it gets to the racღe, the worse I get. I'm just a bag of nerves. The ri🐻ders are probably in a better state than me, they at least get the adrenalin rush.

We try to watch the races on the monitors, but at Thruxton I had to leav🌸e. I got to lap 4 and thought, 'I've got another 11 laps of this I just can't watch it'. It can be hard and sometimes you wonder why you do it!

It takes us 2 or 3 hours to get packed up after the race and then, if 💙we're not staying over, we drive home and I'm back at work first thing Monday morning.

wuqian0821.com:
Are the♈re any riders in Gearlink's hist💜ory that have stood out?

Michael de Bidaph:
It has been great working with all our riders, but one thing I can tell you is that Ben Wilson is a very genuine, down-to-earth person that I clicked w𒈔itဣh from day one and it's a real pleasure working with him.

wuqian0821.com:
What do you look for when signing a rider?

Michael de Bidaph:
When we are thinking of signing a rider and you test them, it's not necessarily the quickest lap that is important. You have to look at their style and how they interact with the bike. Also that they work progressively rather than trying to go 🧔too fast too quickly.

Obviousl✅y their CV is important, having said that though, It's tꦡhe overall feeling you get when working with them which counts.

Most riders that we have worked with have come from the BSB paddoc☂k anyway so we ten𝕴d to already know them.

When we tested Ben, he had just come off the 1000cc bikes and needed to find speed on the 600s. It would have been unfair to judge him on lap timꦺes. Rather it was how he conducted himself that got him the ride.

In terms of style, once a rider comes to us they are usually pretty experienced so we only comment on their styles if they are doing something, which in our eyes, is obviously wrong. It's a diffe🍒rent matter with young Superstock ridﷺers though, there we try to give guidance.

wuqian0821.com:
Was it a conscio♋us decision to recreate the incredible 2011 season within ♚your team?

Michael de Bidaph:
I didn't set out to sign Alastair by any means, Alastair contacted me before the end of the season a💎nd we had our first meeting at Assen. We were also talking to a number of other top riders such as Christian Iddon at the time though so signing Alastair was not part💙 of a long-term strategy.

Signing Alastair has given Ben that little competitive push and it means that we'v𝐆e got tw𒁏o strong riders pushing each other. Ben didn't have the season he wanted in 2012 and has shown huge determination in training and working over the winter and seems really psyched up for the season.

It is a good feeling knowing that top experienced riders now consider Gearlink to be a team to be contacted for a front running ride and we feel proud of that achievement. We may be a victim of our own success though because we are perceived to be a laಌrge team well-funded by Kawasaki and 𒀰that couldn't be further from the truth.

We get a 🌃small budget from Kaꦕwasaki, but the rest of it we have to make up and even this year we're struggling.

wuqian0821.com:
What's your assessment of your four riders?

Michael de Bidaph:
Luke [Hedger - Superstock 600] is coming on really well, for someone who's never raced a 600, he jumped on it and is qualifying exc🌱ellently. Though I do think that he needs to maybe toughen up a bit in the race because the Stock 600 is such an aggressive clas✅s. At Thruxton he got bashed around a bit and lost a couple of places and he needs to give as good as he gets.

We signed Nicole [McAleer - Superstock 600] as a development year. She hasn't been in the BSB paddock for over a year and with her we are almost starting f🍃rom scratch, I do feel that we'll make good progress over the season though. We're not going to push her, her competitive spirit will do that, with Nicole it will be more g♉radual.

The fact that she is willing to get stuck in, in a class as competitive as Stock 600s, is admirable on its own. Her enthusiasm and dete𒉰rmination is fantastic and for a team like us, it's very rewar🌄ding to see a rider progress rather than signing an established performer. She also fits in with the family atmosphere at Gearlink.

With ♏regards t🎉o Ben and Alastair, I think the results speak for themselves.

wuqian0821.com:
How do Alastair and Ben get on?

Michael de Bidaph:
I wouldn't say that they're particularly friendly to each other, their relationship is more professional. They don't ignore each other but they𒊎 aren't making conversation🧸 in the garage either. There's a great respect between the two.

wuqian0821.com:
Would you impose t꧒eam orders if need be𓆉 at the end of the season?

Michael de Bidaph:
I can't really an𒊎swer that as I would ne♋ed to see the situation. It's just great seeing the close racing between the two and that's the way we want to see the season out.

wuqian0821.com:
As a team manager, h💮ow do you deal with r☂ider injury?

Michael de Bidaph:
We've had to𒆙 deal with the worst that any team has to deal with when we lost Guy Sanders at Mondello Park. Norma and I got to a point then where we were asking ourselves whether we could carry on racing. We were both close to Guy right from the R6 days and it hi♓t us really hard.

The way we took it was that Guy would certainly not have wanted us to give up and we felt the need to pick ourselves up from it and continue. You have to switch of🐠f to the fact that it can happen, the same as riders do.

I don't think that as a team boss I should be thinking in terms of injury all the time. We have to approach thin🌳gs professionally and say that if you are too preoccupied with the possibility of tragedy then you really shouldn't be racing. The whole paddock knows and accepts the risks.

wuqian0821.com:
What kind of bud🌞get does a team like Gearli𒁃nk operate on?

Michael de Bidaph:
This year it's🅘 going to be close to ?200k. Kawasaki are very supportive and help us as much as they can and the general manager of Kawasaki UK comes to some races, but we have to find the financial budget ourselves.

We are getting sponsorship from Tim Todd Surfacing this season though an𒐪d that's a great help. Ben has also brought sponsorship from Vale Livestock Ltd into the team🔯 which is hugely welcome.

We also get a good amount of ꧟product sponsors such as exhaust systems, brake discs and NGK spark plugs.

When people criticize teams for accepting paying riders or riders that bring f൲inance with them, they really don't understand the way team finances work and the financial commitment you have to put in. Without that there might not be a grid.

wuqian0821.com:
What are the future plans for Gearlink?

Michael de Bidaph:
I don't really want to go to the world championship because of how long you ha🅷ve to be away traveling. I wouldn't rule out British Superbikes but there are no plans at the moment. Having said that tho♚ugh, I never plan, I like to take things as they come. I'm enjoying doing what we're doing.

wuqian0821.com:

When was your last holiday?

Michael de Bidaph:
Over 15 years ago!