Cranks in ?

Well, I tried aligning hte cranks today, and I think it is relatively straight forward, with all the dots and marks lined up both 2 & 4 are at BDC and 1 & 3 are at TDC. Maybe difficult to see on the photos but you align a mark on the rotor with the crankcase bottom half and at the same time align two punch marks on the crank gears.

Unfortunately, I had bought some Permatex Ultra Black to use between the crankcase halves, however after better investigation this product can not be used for long period in petrol, so not suitable. I have had to order some Threebond 1104 (replacement is now 1194) which is good for sealing and is resilient to petrol oil etc... so I will need to wait a few days until that arrives before fitting the upper crankcase and then fitting pistons etc... (which haven't yet arrived).

The 350 is now ready (oil topped up) and just needs a road test to make sure it still starts after my crash at C-en-T. Interestingly I removed the plugs from the 350 which stalled during my crash (just after the long straight), which should have given me a good idea of WOT carburation (main jets) and they were pretty black, so rich - I may need to reduce jets for Ledenon which maybe hotter than C-en-T given that it is down the South. I have also bought a new front tyre which I will have fitted at Ledenon.

Crankshaft photos

So I got my cranks back today with new Maranello bearings, and oil seals and Suzuki conrods and big end bearings. I had the work done by Gonin Moteurs in Lyon, who has an excellent reputation - we'll see! He confirmed that I needed to change my conrods and big ends because of the wear on the cylinder Nr.2 conrod, as in the photo - according to him, it was ready to explode! Anyway it will be nice to have a good bottom end to build on, I'll see time permitting if I can fit them tomorrow. Fitting is a question of lining up the dots on the drive gear together whilst lining them both up with a position given on the drive shaft. You have to refit the rotor to the drive shaft temporarily and align all the marks up and then away you go! Things to look out for are ensuring you replace/position a waterway O'ring, plus ensuring the half moon rings are correctly engaged in the slotted bearings, other than that lot it should be a piece of cake! Here are the photos of the old conrods, bearings and seals plus the newly built cranks.

Technical Update...

A quick update. After crashing at C-en-T I have had to replace a couple of bits on the 350, namely, make a new brake lever, change the right hand grip, and repair the clutch cover. The bike should be ready to run this weekend, if I receive a new throttle tube, and new silencer springs.

For the 500, as you remember the cranks went off for rebuilding. Well, the conrods and big end bearings needed changing, which needed ordering from Suzuki, but it should be ready at the end of the week, so fingers crossed I can get it on Friday (work permitting!). I have spent some time cleaning up the top crankcase cover, and all the gasket surfaces, I should be receiving new small ends and other bits from Performance Fabrications, who are replacing these bits for free, as Mark can not (even) guess why the small ends have all disintegrated. He assures me that these pistons and small ends have been used elsewhere with no issues, so I just have to go with it..... I have asked the crank rebuilder (Gonin Moteurs) to check ovality in the small ends to see if there is a reason there.....

After rebuilding I just have to setup the bike to run at Ledenon on the 9/10th October. This is virtually my home track, so I would like both bikes to be in running order!

Endurace and Unlimited races at C-en-T

Endurance

Race 1

Race 2

Photos from Pau

Just a selection from Pau, that I received at the weekend from our photographer :-

C-en-Ternois - Race weekend

Travelled up to Croix-en-Ternois at the weekend for both the ProClassic Endurance race this is the second race in the series, and the continuation of my participation in the normal ProClassic race series. As the RG is in a thousand pieces in the garage, I only took the 350!

We arrived at the circuit Friday morning, and quickly set up camp in the pits. I had two free practises on the 350 Friday afternoon, and although it was running a bit hot, everything was OK. I jetted up from 330's to 350's Friday evening, as the plugs looked a little hot, and the weekend was forecast cool, plus we are nearly at sea level, so the air is dense.

The rest of the team turned up Friday afternoon, the fireman (Jean-Luc Robert), chief mechanic (Chris Gough) and 2nd pilot (Christian Dejardin). Libby was in charge of timing and filming of course!

Saturday morning I went out for the timed practise for the endurance (twice) and I was circulating in comfortable 1:04/05's which was good, so the bike was running well. Christian had just finished rebuilding his bike after Carole (holed piston). So after some carb adjustment he was running it in (a bit), and was also circulating well around the same times.

I qualified for the front row of the Unlimited/Classic race with a time of 1:03.9, a personal best which I was very pleased with.

The first race was Saturday afternoon, and I got a pretty good start just getting taken by the big four strokes, but making up most of the places at the first hairpin. I was running 5th for most of the race, but I got back a 1100 Suzuki a couple of laps before the end, to finish 4th (equalled my starting place).

We up jetted again Saturday evening, as I really wanted the bike to last out the 1.5 hours of the endurance race - now running 360's, these are the biggest I've got!

It rained during the night, and the second Classic/Unlimited race took place on a soaked track. I got a good start, and everybody was pretty slow due to the conditions. I was third for most of the race, but Jacques Danzer came past me towards the end, so I finished 4th again, although Jacques is not in my category. Two of the racers who finished in front on race one did not race in the wet conditions which allowed me to finish a creditable 2nd overall in the Unlimited category.

The Endurance started at 14:00 or there abouts, our strategy was simple, each pilot does 45 minute relays, so 3 pit stops. We were using both bikes, which suited me and Christian although we have a 2 lap handicap using both bikes. The other top teams in our category were using one bike, so we would have to get back at least 2 laps before being on even terms.

My first session was good, I managed to get out in front of our category, although of course most of the Superbikes came past, I was running 1:05's which was OK. I lapped a couple of the competition bikes, so I was happy with my session. Christian made good times also, and we were in the lead (almost) when I went out for the second time. I had been practising all weekend using the back brake in some of the heaviest braking zones i.e. the 2 hairpins and the left hander (Nr. 2), however at the begining of my second session, I didn't let my tyres warm sufficiently and I went straight on into the gravel trap at turn 2. It took me a couple of minutes to dig myself out, and restart the bike.

I had a nice fight with one of our direct competitors, overtaking and then getting retaken, and this lead me to take some risks at the end of the second session. I overcooked it going into turn 1 (hairpin) and the bike slid out from underneath me, doing a neat pirouette and coming to a stop just before the gravel. I picked the bike up, but it was leaking oil from the clutch case, I had holed the engine case!

I parked the bike up under the direction of the track marshals and legged it back to the pits with the transponder, it was only a couple of hundred metres, but I was knackered running with full leathers and helmet! I passed the transponder over to Christian and he was off for the remaining 50 minutes - I had crashed about 7 minutes before the end of my relay!

The pressure was on, Christian's bike had been losing a little gearbox oil, and his silencer was not looking that solid, so it was a stressful last relay, but he managed to coax his bike to the finish, and at the same time bring us back to within 32 seconds of the second place team - a well merited third place, and another cup (and cheque) for the mantelpiece!

I now have two broken bikes in the garage which hopefully I can get operational for the last race of the year at Ledenon in 4 weeks time!

Videos and photos to follow. Thanks to all the team, you are all appreciated!

RG Engine

Well, started the 350 up at the weekend and everything was OK, clutch and brakes worked fine. However starting the 500 was a different matter! It started fine, although after a couple of minutes running it was making a louder and louder noise from the engine.... stop everything I can't run it like this!

So my gamble with the broken small end bearing did not pay off, if you remember, I had thought I could get away with just cleaning out the crakcase after the Nr3 cylinder destroyed it's small end bearing, well hey ho, I must have missed some stuff, and it's still bashing around in there somewhere.

I stripped the engine right down, and as you can see from the pictures, when I took the pistons off, ALL of the small end bearings (1, 2 & 4) were in the process of coming a part, plus on Nr. 3 the pieces of metal I had not picked up had made a few marks on my brand new head and piston..... That will teach me!

The cranks are now out, and I have already bought the bearing/seal kit, but all I need now is to find someone to fit the lot, and rebuild the cranks, not easy in France.

So the big question is why are all the small end bearing disintegrating.... ? Discussions are open....

Ducati wheel Picture