Photos from Le Vigeant

Le Vigeant

My weekend started on Wednesday evening when I took the bike out to do some run-in miles. I got 2 miles up the road, and it stopped! I pushed it back to race HQ, and started troubleshooting a spark problem.... After 30 minutes or so, the Power valve started acting up - it didn't initialise on startup... hmmm. Thursday evening should have been spent packing the car and trailer, although I still have to find the problem, which turned out to be the Zeeltronic Power valve controller, it seemed that the controller was pulling the ignition to ground and preventing the spark getting to the ignition coil. So racing this weekend would be without the power valve! Fortunately the ignition system works without. Finished the evening packing up, and watched Germany/Portugal on the TV!

We drove to the Vigeant and arrived around 15:00 at the circuit, the circuit was shared with the Endurance, Protwin and VMA series, so not that packed in the paddock.

Timed practice was on Saturday morning with the first race in the afternoon and then the second race on Sunday morning. I ran the bike in the paddock for sometime just to help run in a little more, and then went out on the timed practice. The circuit is quite complicated, but having been here last year really helped - it came back fairly quickly, they had changed the surface apparently although I didn't notice any difference, and the last bend was changed to avoid running out into a wall! The bike was going really well, although my practice came to an end when a loud bang going up the back straight brought me to a stop! I had lost a spark plug! Dummy - I must have left the right hand plug lose! A trip back to the pits in the track lorry.

The plug went back in and the bike started OK, so no damage!

The first race - I started off from the sixth line, and got a crap start, the bike without power valves is not that torquey, and so difficult to get off the line. I was last going into the first bend although I soon got past the slower part of the pack, and started making progress on the middle group. The bike was working really well, pulling past the red line, and very powerful above 8K rpm. I pulled in all the other RD's after getting past some of the big 4 strokes, a couple of slower GSXR's and Daniel on his 1000 Martin Kawasaki (he was having problems!). Towards the end I was making great headway on Raymond on his TZ350 and we were having a 3 way fight with a Ducati TT. Unfortunately my race ended 3 bends from the chequered flag! When the bike conked out - shit! This turned out to be a fuel problem (not enough of it!).

The temperature around the circuit was about 35 degrees centigrade, and it was a really hot Saturday afternoon, so I suppose we should have expected the storms during the night, unfortunately we didn't! At 3:45 in the morning we woke up with the marquee tent flying over our heads, taking a nice chunk of paintwork out of the car on the way past! Everyone was up running around in pants and pyjamas, trying to pickup things before they got blown away! Our marquee, and the Proclassic tent were completely wrecked (another few hundred Euros in the bin!)

Race 2 - again I got a crap start - I will post it on Youtube just for fun! The bike was running less well but still great, I should maybe have jetted up as the temperature was a lot cooler on Sunday morning, and the ground was wet. The racing line was dry as we started racing around 10:00 am and 2 other races had gone through.

Again I had all the hard work getting past the slower guys, and on the way had some good fights with David Boisnard (750 Honda), and Christian on the RD350 YPVS, and then I was back fighting for the 3rd place in my category with Raymond Faboulet on the TZ350. My strategy was going to be to get him on the last bend as I was quicker than him through there and the start/finish line was only 50 yards up the straight - too little time for him to get me back, unhappily for me, I was too far behind him to overtake on the last bend, and therefore I finished behind Raymond!

The lap time for the weekend came down from 2:16 in practise to 2:11 in the first race to 2:10:558 in the second race which was quicker than last year, so I am happy with my progression. For comparison the first GSXR did 1:54:562 best lap time!!

Overall a mixed bag of a weekend!
I will post some photos later and a couple of video clips.

Next race at Carole on July 12th.

Nogaro

Nogaro is a small village in the South west of France, and for those of you that know Circuit Paul Ricard - well this one is Circuit Paul Armagnac another famous spirit - those guys obviously wanted to market their alcoholic beverage with the circuit scene in the sixties & seventies. Well the Circuit of Nogaro was once used for the French Grand Prix, and they have recently completed a renovation, increasing the pit area and renewing the pit boxes. So although not quite as pro. as Le Mans, it is a circuit that is well organised (good loos and showers), and with plenty of space. We were sharing the weekend with the Promosport boys, so there were stacks of people, and a good number of spectators over the weekend, which was free (for the spectators at least!).

It's about 8 hours drive for us from Grenoble, so we left Thursday evening, stayed overnight in Nimes and then arrived at the circuit at around 13:00. If you remember I had squashed my left hand expansion chamber, and one of the guys (Raymond Fabulet) was going to get it repaired, and luckily he turned up just after we had installed out stuff, so before lunch, on went the expansion chambers, this would give the gasket paste enough time to dry before practice at 17:45.

Practice came and the bike wouldn't start, we eventually got it going with a rolling road, and then it seemed to be running OK, however after the second or third lap, I seized at the end of the long straight (over a kilometer), unfortunately I didn't stop immediately as the bike restarted after I let the clutch out. I went around another 2 laps with the bike slowly getting worse, and finally I pulled into the pits after 4 laps.

The result was a slight seize on the left cylinder (again!!!!) and the piston was vaporizing as a large chunk was missing all the way down to the rings (exhaust side).

I spent the rest of the evening stripping it down, and then got really pissed off with a screw that was not loosening so we went to eat with the Arnold group, who were staying at a local gite - Cassoulet is the typical fare of the region, and we had a great meal with them, along with a proposition to use their spare bike - also a Yam.

Saturday, I finished stripping the barrels of my bike, and gave them to our only professional mechanic who prepares a GSXR for one of the guys. Laurent Badie, persuaded me that he could have my barrels ready and post them back to me in the wink of an eye so that I can be ready for Le Vigeant in 2 weeks! Lots of advice on why the bike seized, however another RD350 had exactly the same problem so we consoled each other. His machine had seized on the right side.

The "mulet" or spare bike, is a recent RD350 YPVS, however it really needs some tender loving care, however it starts first kick, and runs and doesn't seize! I used it for the timed practise and the 2 races, and although there was a horrible vibration coming from the forks, it worked fine.

I even tried putting my front wheel on it to help the vibration but it didn't really help, dropping my tyre pressure down to 1.7 bar in the second race did help slightly.

My lap times improved all weekend ending up with a 2:04.8 fastest lap, whilst the GSXR's were going round in 1:44.1 - fastest time. The first timed practise (where I seized) I managed a 2:09! I could have gone much quicker with my bike, but I was really happy to have learnt the circuit (a very fast circuit with a super fast straight), and also to have participated.

The cherry on the cake was an unexpected 4th place in my category only bettered by the 3 TZ 350's - EXCELLENT points. The other RD 350's were pissed off, as they were so clearly faster than me when running but hardly anyone was capable of finishing the 2 races - hence the 4th place! Excellent! One of my direct competitors seized twice after having found some spare barrels and pistons (300 Euros) in a local breakers yard! He was extremely unhappy to say the least!

My cylinders should be ready in 5 days with 2 days for the post, so I should be ready next week.... Some 8 days to find the reason for the seize. Speak to you soon!

Frustrating

Well, since the last time, I received some Vforce 3 reeds, and I got back my race stator, which again has proved to give problems, and may have even caused my zeeltronic ignition to play up. Basically "no sparks" when I fit the race ignition. This comes down to either no pickup signal or no CDI charge. After checking everything, even the zeeltronic ignition would not function with the standard Yam stator.... I have a few more clues to follow up before sending the stator back (again!).

The Vforce reed cages apparently allow for a large reed surface area, which is supposed to increase flow, and hence increase power. Fitting them does involve removing the petals from the inlet rubbers, to allow the Vforce to sit flat - this is a bit delicate, and I will be interested to see if I can get a good seal.

The bike, has been running, but very rich due to having the original pipes installed. But I will change this at Nogaro directly as I hope to be able to put the Gibsons back on if the left hand one has been repaired.

Speak soon

Aftermath....

Well the bike is back together. The result as initially guessed was basically cosmetic, and although I haven't had the bike on the road again it should be OK. To replace the left foot rest and gear change I have put back the originals parts, but with some drilling and machining I have made them into acceptable rearsets. I am just missing a footrest, a simple aluminium tube, with a thread on the inside and some decoration on the outside - the sort of thing you could knock up on a lathe in ten minutes, well I have to wait for the Yam dealer to receive one from the Bihr catalogue.

I will be interested to have the original pipes back on to make a comparison with the expansion chambers - see if it revs more easily. My rewound stator should be back from being "fixed" this weekend so hopefully I will be able to fit it.

I have also sourced a second hand engine cover as it was damaged in the crash. I am interested to see if I can make a carbon crash protector with the old one. There is a guy that sells carbon ribbon in Grenoble, and so I might give this a try, as soon as I get the replacement. Anyway, I made a mess of repainting the scrape on the fairing, but it is back on and straight, so nothing much to do until my bits arrive.

Speak to you soon

First Race at CeT

The start of the first race - as I mentioned below, crap start for me!

Croix-en-Ternois

Hi to all,
I am back after a busy weekend. Libby and I packed up the trailer and car on Wednesday evening, and left for Croix-en-Ternois on Thursday which was the May day holiday in France. We travelled up France without a hitch and stayed in a hotel in Arras Thursday night - mainly because Libby didn't want to spend 4 nights in the car on the circuit.... Understandable with her knee in its current state.

We arrived at the circuit around 9:30am and setup the tent, trailer and bike. The weekend racing was with the VMA, so basically an "old bikes" weekend, so the paddock was very roomy -even the showers were hot!

I managed 3 practice sessions on Friday, the bike was running well, and the new brakes and forks were working very well - better than expected. Libby was timing me, and my laps times were improving on those from last year, so I was pretty happy.

Saturday morning we had the timed qualifications for the 2 categories I was running in. I had opted to run in both sets of races just for the fun! That means in my category (250/350 two strokes) and the faster Post Unlimited category.

In my category I qualified on the 3rd line of the grid with a 1.07 fastest time (one second faster than last year). And in the Post Unlimited category I qualified on around the 4th row, but my time had improved to 1:06 and I was in front of some GSXR's and other faster bikes.

Saturday afternoon, and the first race (my category) - I got a crap start barely missing a guy in front who stalled on the line (perhaps this was an omen (bad)), but managed to pull back a few places in the first hairpin. After a couple of laps I was fighting it out with 2 other RD350s, and we stayed together all of the race. A new guy on a blue 350, was outbraking me at the end of the long straight, whilst I would get him back on the twisties. We swapped positions, and I lost out on the last lap coming in third of this group, and (I think) 5th in my category. My best lap time had come down to 1:05 which was getting pretty good, although I must improve my braking. Just for info, the GSXRs are getting for the fastest in the 59 seconds, and for the slower in the 1:05, which is easily understandable with the long straight!!

Second race, and I got a better start, although as soon as we got to any straight, I was blasted into the weeds by all the bigger bikes, after a couple of laps I was overtaken by a couple of Martin Kawasaki's and although I was faster in the curves, I could not make enough headway to stay in front down the straight, and hence I ended up behind them to the end, and my best lap time was "only" 1:07.

Sunday morning racing started with my category at 10:40, and we went out for our setup lap, and then 2 warm up laps (as the circuit is small). The lights changed and off we went, I think my start was going to be good, however once again the guy on pole had had mechanical problems and stopped about 5 metres down the track. Herve with a 750 Honda, had come past me like a rocket off the start, and smashed straight into the back of the Ducati on pole (Christian Vite). His engine struck Christian's rear suspension and hit his leg, Herve's bike went down straight in front of me, and I basically ran over Herve's leg (we think!), my bike pushed Herve down the track a few yards before taking off, and throwing me over the top. I landed on my shoulder and head (no problem!), and rolled down the track a few more metres, my bike sliding after me - I have an image in my head at one point seeing the bottom of my bike sliding down on me! I jumped up scared about being hit by someone else, but most people had either got passed or stopped - luckily no one else was involved.

The result of the accident was a broken leg for Christian, a sprained knee and ankle for Herve, and pretty much nothing for me - just lucky I guess.

The race restarted, but without us. The damage to the bike was surprisingly little, however enough to stop me restarting. The left foot rest, gear assembley was destroyed and the left expansion chamber was flattened. The fairing had only a small scrape, so after removing the broken bits you would hardly notice.

We stayed to watch the second race, which was one by the fast no. 16 - GSXR.

Anyway, the weekend was positive overall with my lap times coming down and a general confidence level moving up, but of course now I have to get the bike ready for Nogaro in 4 weeks time. A small challenge!