I got a couple of photos from Magny-Cours which I can share.
Tuesday 30 June 2009
Monday 29 June 2009
Pau
Monday evening last week, I started looking at the bike after Magny-Cours, the throttle wasn't returning properly, and after investigation it turned out that the cable had frayed, so I needed to get a new one, fortunately tuesday morning and the local dealer was optimistic about a new one arriving on Thursday morning - it would be tight but doable as we were planning on leaving for Pau on Thursday evening, and stopping half way (it's about 9 hours for me).
Thursday lunch time cable in hand, I head for home, and low and behold my new Lancegamma filter pods have arrived, so a good time to fit everything before leaving for Pau at 19:00.
The cable went on no problems, the LanceGamma pods come with ball valves which replace the standard needle valve and seats (which invariabley leak on the Gamma), and we didn't really know how to fit them, and got it wrong, after some exchange of email with the manufacturer, however it was too late so we packed up the trailer and off we went at 18:50.
After a night in a small hotel, we arrived at the circuit at around midday on Friday. Practise sessions were planned all afternoon, but as we had to remove the carbs again and refit the floats, I didn't buy any sessions until 15:00, by which time I had the chance to go out and learn the track. Pau-Arnos is a super track, quite narrow in places but combines some really technical hairpins and chicanes with some very fast downhill bends, a very exciting track, and one which produced some good racing, you will see from the video when it gets posted.
Anyway back to the bike! It's not running well, far to rich, after the first practise we back of the mains by 10 points to 250's, and then again to 240's, but still it's not happy, as we have no smaller jets, time for some drastic thinking! The guys in the paddock (and my brother) are convinced it can't breath properly, the filters are getting crushed by the fairing, so we decide in the second race to run it without any filters at all - big risk, as this could have been a very unhappy ending to the weekend, except it did the trick, and the bike ran great, gasping in huge quantities of air to go with the big jets! I think I can still go down again if the weather remains hot!
Anyway, the first race was with an over rich bike, that wouldn't pull the skin of a rice pudding, plus I got a typical start i.e. I was almost last going into the first bend! I managed to get back up with the RD350's after a bit of dicing with a couple of 750/4 Hondas who were going well, and difficult to pass, the 350's went but they seemed to get motivated seeing me pass, so we then proceeded to have a great battle between us, Christian Degardin did not want me to beat him, but I finally pipped him at the chequered flag, although he did a much better job of racing than I did!
The second race was Sunday morning, and as we had decided to leave the filters off, I spent a restless night contemplating seized engines at every turn. However that was not to be! I got a reasonable start (I wasn't quite last), and the bike was running great, with real punch at 8K through to about 11K - GREAT, I blasted past the 350's and starting coming back on the straggling GSXR 750, they normally run in packs for safety, but I managed to pick off a couple of stragglers, and come in at a respectable position, and had a thoroughly enjoyable race! Of course learning these new tracks is great, but frustrating, as you know at the end of the weekend how much faster you COULD HAVE gone!
Lap times came down all weekend which is good, starting of with a 1:44.775 in practise, Race 1 I clocked a 1:38.868, and Race 2 I got down to 1:36.782. The cumlative results should get me a couple of points this time around!
Overall a great weekend with great weather neither too hot but just right! Next time is in 5 weeks time at Le Vigeant a track I am familiar with, so should be good. Photos and videos soon.
Thursday lunch time cable in hand, I head for home, and low and behold my new Lancegamma filter pods have arrived, so a good time to fit everything before leaving for Pau at 19:00.
The cable went on no problems, the LanceGamma pods come with ball valves which replace the standard needle valve and seats (which invariabley leak on the Gamma), and we didn't really know how to fit them, and got it wrong, after some exchange of email with the manufacturer, however it was too late so we packed up the trailer and off we went at 18:50.
After a night in a small hotel, we arrived at the circuit at around midday on Friday. Practise sessions were planned all afternoon, but as we had to remove the carbs again and refit the floats, I didn't buy any sessions until 15:00, by which time I had the chance to go out and learn the track. Pau-Arnos is a super track, quite narrow in places but combines some really technical hairpins and chicanes with some very fast downhill bends, a very exciting track, and one which produced some good racing, you will see from the video when it gets posted.
Anyway back to the bike! It's not running well, far to rich, after the first practise we back of the mains by 10 points to 250's, and then again to 240's, but still it's not happy, as we have no smaller jets, time for some drastic thinking! The guys in the paddock (and my brother) are convinced it can't breath properly, the filters are getting crushed by the fairing, so we decide in the second race to run it without any filters at all - big risk, as this could have been a very unhappy ending to the weekend, except it did the trick, and the bike ran great, gasping in huge quantities of air to go with the big jets! I think I can still go down again if the weather remains hot!
Anyway, the first race was with an over rich bike, that wouldn't pull the skin of a rice pudding, plus I got a typical start i.e. I was almost last going into the first bend! I managed to get back up with the RD350's after a bit of dicing with a couple of 750/4 Hondas who were going well, and difficult to pass, the 350's went but they seemed to get motivated seeing me pass, so we then proceeded to have a great battle between us, Christian Degardin did not want me to beat him, but I finally pipped him at the chequered flag, although he did a much better job of racing than I did!
The second race was Sunday morning, and as we had decided to leave the filters off, I spent a restless night contemplating seized engines at every turn. However that was not to be! I got a reasonable start (I wasn't quite last), and the bike was running great, with real punch at 8K through to about 11K - GREAT, I blasted past the 350's and starting coming back on the straggling GSXR 750, they normally run in packs for safety, but I managed to pick off a couple of stragglers, and come in at a respectable position, and had a thoroughly enjoyable race! Of course learning these new tracks is great, but frustrating, as you know at the end of the weekend how much faster you COULD HAVE gone!
Lap times came down all weekend which is good, starting of with a 1:44.775 in practise, Race 1 I clocked a 1:38.868, and Race 2 I got down to 1:36.782. The cumlative results should get me a couple of points this time around!
Overall a great weekend with great weather neither too hot but just right! Next time is in 5 weeks time at Le Vigeant a track I am familiar with, so should be good. Photos and videos soon.
Wednesday 17 June 2009
Tuesday 16 June 2009
Magny Cours Race 1
Race 1 video - you will have to excuse the poor quality, but it's really difficult for one camera to get a good idea of the race at magny cours as the circuit is so spread out.
Sunday 14 June 2009
Magny-Cours
We got back a few hours a ago, from a super weekend at Magny-Cours - circuit very familiar to those that follow F1 or Superbike, although the motoGP hasn't been held there for a number of years. Anyway, a big name circuit, and certainly one of the best in France.
The ProClassic series was integrated into a weekend with the French Endurance Championship and the VMA (the other old bike club).
We arrived at the circuit Friday morning after a night in the local "Premier Class" hotel, found the rest of the guys, and installed the gear to be ready for the first untimed practise at 10:50. Being my first time at Magny-Cours for me it was important to put in as many laps as possible, to learn the circuit, which initially seemed like a few straights, which someone had decided were too quick and had put in chicanes all over the place to slow people down! For me there are only about 6 real bends linked by long starights, with the dreaded chicanes, and I think this is where the races are won and lost - in the chicanes. What appears to be slow at the start of the weekend rapidly becomes very fast!
The circuit, starts off with a nice curve to the left followed by "Estoril" which is a VERY long right hander where big B#$%s are required to keep the gas turned up, then onto the longest straight and down to Adelaide (a slow hairpin bend), up through Nurburgring (chicane) and down to "180" a long left hander, up to "Chateau d'eau" past Imola (chicane 2), and then down to "Complex du Lycee" and onto the start finish straight via the third chicane. Finally coming back to Estoril via a very fast left hander.
Because of all the straights, I had replaced the rear chain sprocket with a smaller item in an effort to pull a faster speed down the straight, but I seemed to be in the wrong gear the whole time, so I went back to a 38 at the rear after the first practise. Honestly I was still not redlining in 6th on the longest straight so it was more important for me to find a gear that would pull me through some of the slow bends where you can lose loads of time, waiting for the power band to come in.
The bike ran well on Friday practise, and although we slept under a 5 zillion watt light, Libby and I spent a reasonable night in the car, and woke up to a sunny Saturday morning. I had got down to a lowly 2:11 in untimed practise, and I was looking forward to improve things for qualifying. That was not to be as I qualified with a 2:12, and really I should have taken note and changed the carburation to better suit the very hot weather.
Race one I got the most pitiful start after having qualified on the 5th line, I was last into turn one, and although I was back to my "place" after a couple of bends I had really lost touch with the guys I should have been fighting it out with. I spent most of the race on my own, trying to catch up, and not really managing. The bike was not responding well, and I really should have dropped some smaller jets to cope with the very hot weather (less oxygen = smaller jets).
The second race however was at 18:30, so I was hopeful that the temperature would have reduced, and effectively the bike was much more lively in the second race, plus I was cheered on by the crowd from Pommiers (my village) watching from Adelaide, which was a bonus! They had travelled up (taking more than 7 hours by the pretty route) to watch, so I had to put on a show!
I managed to get a reasonable start (only lost a couple of places) and again I found myself alone, but trying hard to catch Jacques Danzer, and our new female racer on a GSXR - Paticia Houille Audebert. I never managed to catch them, but I did get my best lap time of the weekend, and I was not lapped by the leaders! In the second race I managed a 2:10.
I didn't manage any points from the weekend, and I think this shows how difficult the Post Unlimited category is going to be this year.
Because all the racing was over (for us) on Saturday evening we did manage a small celebration, and a few glasses of English beer followed up with some red wine, whisky, and Pineau des Charentes, so Sunday morning we were happy to stay in bed.
Thanks to all the "fans" that travelled up from Pommiers, and I will try to do better next time at Pau in two weeks!
Video and photos will be posted during the week.
The ProClassic series was integrated into a weekend with the French Endurance Championship and the VMA (the other old bike club).
We arrived at the circuit Friday morning after a night in the local "Premier Class" hotel, found the rest of the guys, and installed the gear to be ready for the first untimed practise at 10:50. Being my first time at Magny-Cours for me it was important to put in as many laps as possible, to learn the circuit, which initially seemed like a few straights, which someone had decided were too quick and had put in chicanes all over the place to slow people down! For me there are only about 6 real bends linked by long starights, with the dreaded chicanes, and I think this is where the races are won and lost - in the chicanes. What appears to be slow at the start of the weekend rapidly becomes very fast!
The circuit, starts off with a nice curve to the left followed by "Estoril" which is a VERY long right hander where big B#$%s are required to keep the gas turned up, then onto the longest straight and down to Adelaide (a slow hairpin bend), up through Nurburgring (chicane) and down to "180" a long left hander, up to "Chateau d'eau" past Imola (chicane 2), and then down to "Complex du Lycee" and onto the start finish straight via the third chicane. Finally coming back to Estoril via a very fast left hander.
Because of all the straights, I had replaced the rear chain sprocket with a smaller item in an effort to pull a faster speed down the straight, but I seemed to be in the wrong gear the whole time, so I went back to a 38 at the rear after the first practise. Honestly I was still not redlining in 6th on the longest straight so it was more important for me to find a gear that would pull me through some of the slow bends where you can lose loads of time, waiting for the power band to come in.
The bike ran well on Friday practise, and although we slept under a 5 zillion watt light, Libby and I spent a reasonable night in the car, and woke up to a sunny Saturday morning. I had got down to a lowly 2:11 in untimed practise, and I was looking forward to improve things for qualifying. That was not to be as I qualified with a 2:12, and really I should have taken note and changed the carburation to better suit the very hot weather.
Race one I got the most pitiful start after having qualified on the 5th line, I was last into turn one, and although I was back to my "place" after a couple of bends I had really lost touch with the guys I should have been fighting it out with. I spent most of the race on my own, trying to catch up, and not really managing. The bike was not responding well, and I really should have dropped some smaller jets to cope with the very hot weather (less oxygen = smaller jets).
The second race however was at 18:30, so I was hopeful that the temperature would have reduced, and effectively the bike was much more lively in the second race, plus I was cheered on by the crowd from Pommiers (my village) watching from Adelaide, which was a bonus! They had travelled up (taking more than 7 hours by the pretty route) to watch, so I had to put on a show!
I managed to get a reasonable start (only lost a couple of places) and again I found myself alone, but trying hard to catch Jacques Danzer, and our new female racer on a GSXR - Paticia Houille Audebert. I never managed to catch them, but I did get my best lap time of the weekend, and I was not lapped by the leaders! In the second race I managed a 2:10.
I didn't manage any points from the weekend, and I think this shows how difficult the Post Unlimited category is going to be this year.
Because all the racing was over (for us) on Saturday evening we did manage a small celebration, and a few glasses of English beer followed up with some red wine, whisky, and Pineau des Charentes, so Sunday morning we were happy to stay in bed.
Thanks to all the "fans" that travelled up from Pommiers, and I will try to do better next time at Pau in two weeks!
Video and photos will be posted during the week.
Wednesday 3 June 2009
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