Carole - Endurance Race weekend report

A relatively successful weekend finishing with a 4th place in the Superbike category!

Got to Carole on Friday afternoon with a very light van, given that my partner was providing the bike. Libby didn't come either as it was Easter weekend - I even managed to find my way without GPS or Libby map reading!

Francois Degarden is the brother of the guy I normally ride with, he was due to make up a team with his brother, but he had a road accident, so I took his place in his brother's team! So first time racing a 4 stroke in anger! Francois turned up with the bike at around 14:00, all ready with new Pirelli tyres, and pads ready to go, I had reserved 2 sessions in the afternoon to get used to the bike, with the real times practise taking place on Saturday. Francois had bought the tyres off the web, and fitted them himself, unfortunately leaving the tyres pressures very high! In my first session I was to run-in both the tyres and pads, and even after 3-4 laps the bike really felt strange - it felt like it was hinged in the middle. I have had a VFR roadbike in the past, and my memories were of a sweet handling, torquey bike - this was totally different. I was hitting 1:20's which is way off the pace, my best around Carole was 1:13 on the RD350.

After some discussion we checked and discovered that the tyres were at around 2.5bars, much to high for racing tyres, we checked with the Pirelli stand and they confirmed that the pressures should be around 2.1 front and 1.9 rear hot. So we adjusted the pressures, and went out on the second session. Still the same, the bike really felt like it was moving about all over the place at the rear, the front was fairly stable in braking.

You can imagine how I felt having never riden this bike before - Francois gets relatively good results with this bike, and is a fast rider, and I get on and can't get anywhere - I really wasn't sure if this was my lack of experience with a 4 stroke or really something wrong with the bike - so a fairly uncomfortable night, thinking about everything. I also slept under a tree which had stuff dropping of it in the night, and each impact sounded very loud inside the van - Note don't sleep under trees!

The next morning we decided to stiffen up the rear shock, and Francois was going out for the first practise. He came back in after 3 laps and confirmed that the bike was dangerous! The Pirelli guys didn't seem to recognise the type of tyres, but it would seem that the tyres were road tyres, and although they should have coped the structure of the tyres was not supporting the weight of the bike, and they were really moving about.

Luckily Francois had a spare set of old tyres which we threw on, these were Bridgestone Bt003's which although road were certainly better than the Pirelli's.

The afternoon practise was completed with the Bridgestones, and we both had a much better feeling, and less movement from the bike, although I still couldn't get flat out around the parabollic which I can on the yam. (flat out - relatively speaking!)

During Saturday night Francois had news from our fireman that he had been arrested for drink/driving so would not be attending the race - so the team was down to...... 2. We had to share a fireman between teams, which fortunately worked out OK, as our stops were at different times - thanks are due to Jean-Pierre Sorin for his excellent help during the race!

We setup our pit on Sunday morning, and were ready for the off at 8:30am. We had decided to fill the bike up, and this would last us for half the race, and then we would need to refuel. Francois did the first 45 minutes, and kept in the group of the VFR's, doing respectable laps times although he was capable of going quicker. I went on for the second 45 minutes. To be honest my heart really wasn't in it, I was on my own pretty much the whole time, at the end of my relay, the fuel guage was on empty, and despite signalling to my pit, I had to keep going for another few laps before everything was ready in the pit. An anxious time as the bike was misfiring on the right hand bends at this point! Still I pitted safetly and we refueled without problem, putting another 18-20 litres back in.

Francois did another good job during his relay, and we were moving up the leader table. Some of the faster teams were having problems - a loose footrest, a leaky rocker box (missing screw), brake pad changes etc...
We put another 10 litres in for the last relay, and I went out. This time I was in the middle of some other bikes, which really did get me going, and I had a great fight with a GSXR 750, overtaking numerous times, so much so that Francois was signalling me to go slower as we were safetly cushoined with 2 laps between us and the next teams, anyhow I didn't see his pit signals, so I just hammered it 'til the end, I was watching the clock, so I was reasonable! I took the chequered flag, and got the news from Francois that we had finished a creditable 4th position, with many of the faster teams behind us! A really great performance, considering how the weekend had started!


On a different subject I also got my parts back for the RG, so I am busy rebuilding that as I speak - the only fly in the ointment is that a Thrust washer has gone missing, so I will not be able to reassemble one cylinder until Thursday afternoon - if it arrives in time. The thrust washer keeps the piston and con-rod centered and it goes in the piston - so nothing I can do but wait for the part!

In the meantime, Laurent had a theory about my RG problems which I will elucidate next time around.

Cylinders

So ALCO has my cylinders and he says they need a rebore to 57.00mm next size up - unfortunately the Suzuki rings are no longer available in this size so I am obliged to go for pattern parts again (!). Laurent will be using Technium pistons (CR125 again), which have the advantage that they are relatively cheap and available, but they do not have offsets (front and back) like Suzuki pistons, and they need internal machining to make space for the thrust washers.

If things go to plan I will meet him at Carole this weekend (Endurance racing), and I will be able to run-in the bike at Croix-en-ternois. Not holding my breath though as all the best made plans......

At least I will have the faithful (and now reliable) 350 ready to role at C-en-T as necessary.


Next update will be after Carole, Libby is not coming up as it is Easter weekend, so no video I'm afraid!

Photos of damage

Mechanical Update

So after my seize at Nogaro - I was hoping that there would just be a touch due to shutting the throttle at the end of the straight, but hey, no such luck! I took off the exhaust pipes to get a look at each piston, and both rear pistons have suffered. After removing the rear head, both rear pistons have been eaten away on the exhaust side which is a typical sympton of running lean. really annoying since I went to the trouble of doing a plug chop - if I had left it one or two more laps I think I would have seen it on the plug chop - so I live and learn the expensive way.

Both pistons on cylinders 3 & 4 have melted around the exhaust port, on number 4 the molten piston has spread itself over the inside of the cylinder causing the piston to seize against the cylinder. Both pistons are dead, but I think the cylinders are probably OK, after a ream out, however the big issue I have now is sourcing the same type of piston. These were ProX CR125 pistons, and that model no longer exists.

My choices are twofold :- Either I go back to Suzuki pistons, in which case it is probably prudent to change all 4 pistons at once, or I can buy a couple of more recent CR125 pistons, which are different from the old ones (only one ring), and this is probably dodgy as the friction will be different from the front crank to the back, so it will unbalance things.

I will probably go to the Suzuki pistons as I don't have to get them machined on the inside, and at least I will have no doubts about the quality of them. They are also offest to the original specifications, i.e. there is a back set and a front set - so this will bring things back to standard, and in the future I can source my pistons from any Suzuki dealer instead of going through Mark Dent.

In any case I will need to send off my cylinders for a check up, and we will see if a ream will clear out the aluminium debris or whether I need to rebore to the next size up.

On top of that I will need to clean out the crankcase, and up jet (a bit late now!)

Nogaro Video

The first weekend was a somewhat mixed weekend. Arrived Friday, after not much sleep Thursday night in a Premier classe hotel, the weather was fine. The only practise session Friday was at 17:40 so setup camp, and had a ride aournd the paddock to see who was around.

I had decided to do a plug chop on the RG, as last year (and the year before) I had nipped her up at the end of the back straight, so I took the Yamaha down to the end of the straight in the hope off getting my money's worth out of the session, and going straight back out on the Yamaha to complete the session.

This would have worked well, except the marshalls decided they didn't like my bike leaning up against the wall down there and decided to get it removed - lucky Libby was still in the paddock to receive the bike, and take it right back down there! Anyway, I did one warm up lap on the RG, and then opened her up on the second lap, and pulled the clutch and flipped the run swithc to off, and left Libby with the RG, whilst I jumped on the Yam, and drove back up through the pits to rejoin the circuit - and they actually let me on! I completed another 5 or so laps on the Yam just to get my hand in again - the Yam worked fine (even with the new battery!).

Back at the pits, I removed the fairing, and removed all the plugs, but honestly there was nothing much to see, the plugs were not coloured one bit. So I am now assuming my carburation is nearly right.

Saturday morning, and the weather is lovely, really quite warm, we don't have qualification until 14:00, so I spend the morning checking things on the Suzuki. I am running 1.5 bar tyres pressures at the front and back with the Michelin Power Ones, which don't seem to slip...

I had the front changed on the Yamaha, as I had lost the front on the Yam at Croix last year, as the front tyre was well used. Tyre pressures on the Yam are 1.7 front and 1.8 rear.

Qualification 
Went really well, I did about 10 laps, and did a personal best of 1:50.979. The track was very fast, and I quite like the faster bends on the circuit, you can seem to go faster and faster each lap - just depending on how far your balls let you go. However the long straight is always an anxious moment, I used the choke each time decelerating and the bike was going really well, except for a bug hole around 6-7K, still keeping it over 7K was fine, and she was reving through to 12K when I let it. The temperature was creeping up, and did get to 90 degrees C - I will really have to investigate this further - I am losing so much power to heat!

I did nmy best time at the end of the session, after a couple of guys appeared in front of me, giving me something to go for - had a great time!

Race 1
I ended up on the 5th row, in 20th position on the grid. For me my start was a lot better - the clutch is a lot better with the Kevlar plates - it really has improved things ten fold. However I still let about 10 bikes past me - I've gotta work on my starts. Got through some of the slower traffic in the first bends but by the time I got back to my "grid" position the faster guys had all gone, although I had a good fight with Eric Perrono on his VFR, and another guy on a GSXR - nothing got past me, until I got lapped by the first 2 riders, one of which I got past on the straight (he ran out of fuel on the last lap!). Overall I finished 20th and I had taken 0.5 seconds of my PB, so I was well happy. My personal best now sits at 1:50:426.

Race2
The temperature for the Sunday had dropped significantly, and I maybe I should have taken that into account. The morning race had gone well, the bike had performed great, so when I lined up for the start I was really happy to get a reasonable start and be up with "my" group in the first bends. I did the first lap OK, slowly catching Eric again. Then second lap coming out onto the straight, I had my head in the fairing and can honestly say I wasn't looking at the track, when I suddenly looked up, and there was the VFR of Philippe Laleve just in front, and he just put up his right arm!!! Panic - I don't know how I missed him, I did however hit his arm with my left shoulder, which did destabalise me somewhat, but neither of us fell off! Phew...
Anyway, at the end of the straight despite my choking the bike siezed leaving a 20 metre darky - F*&K -
I have yet to investigate, so I don't know whether this is a case of jetting or just the fact that the throttle was shut - I don't know, I will update you soon! You can see me on the video of the second race going straight on at the end of the back straight!

For info. the bike temp was at 80 degrees and the air temperature was probably nearer 12-15 degrees.



Thanks to my pit crew (Libby) for putting up with me, at least I seized at the end of the weekend!