Change in dates.....

Hi All,
Fantastic skiing in Carroz! Whilst I was gone, they changed some dates :-
- 11 et 12 avril à Carole
- 2 et 3 mai au Vigeant
- 9 et 10 mai à Croix en Ternois
- 13 et 14 juin sur un circuit encore à confirmer
- 8 et 9 août au Vigeant
- 29 et 30 août à Carole
- 19 et 20 septembre à Croix en Ternois avec une épreuve d'endurance
- 10 et 11 octobre à Nogaro

Got the fairing lined up

I was dreading putting the top of the fairing on the bike, because I really thought the extra width of the forks would make life a misery when fitting the fairing. Well good news is that it lines up pretty well, and the clipons don't hit the fairing on either lock. I still need to sort out a way of putting stop locks on the bottom yoke to stop the forks and avoid any damage if it falls over.

I also received some overflow bottles from one of the guys on the French RG500 forum - nice guy lives in Valence, and sent me loads for free!

The brakes have been bled but I had to move the master cylinder banjos around so I need to blead them again.

I ordered a left hand thread rose joint to complete my gear lever rearset, and they sent me a RH threaded one...doh! They will send another one for free!

My Michelin Tyres have not been sent yet apparently Michelin haven't yet made the medium fronts, so I have gone for a soft front and medium rear and hopefully these will arrive during my holiday next week.

That's it for now.

Le Mans cancelled

Well the title says it all really.... The first race of the year will be replaced by a weekend at Le Vigeant (near Poitier), on the 8/9th August. The downside is that I was really looking forward to going back to Le Mans to race on the Bugatti circuit. The upside is that I will have a few more weeks to prepare the bike!!

I've pretty much finished the rearsets, this weekend I need to fit the fairing.

Rearsets and more..

Hi All,
Well the weather has been bad and as the weekends go by, I get guilty at not working on the bike. SO this weekend, I wanted to fit my goodridge brake hoses, make my gear and brake levers and finish fitting the alfano (dashboard).

I was pretty pissed off whan I found they had sent through the wrong hoses, as I had bought them in the UK before Xmas and Ann had to send them over for me (my sister) at additional expense, still the pound is really weak against the Euro, so the money wasn't really important, but the shag and hassle of sending them back was a daunting program, however after a couple of calls through to K300 (where I bought them), it appeared that goodridge were putting up a fight! They insisted that for my bike (GSXR 750K) these were the right model..... Getting well wound up, I had another look, and sure enough they were right! I just hadn't taken off the right bit - seems stupid but hey they could have put some instructions in the box. Anyway I am now happy that I don't have to send them back!

After keeping the rear wheel bearings in the freezer and warming the wheel up in the kitchen, the new bearings slid in nicely although difficult to line up the spacer and I didn't get it spot on, although the wheel turns fine.

Now getting to the levers, Christophe one of Oliver's mates is working as a welder on a site where they are putting up aluminium stairways, he picked me up a bit of scrap 8 mm thick plate, and I got to work with my CNC programming interface (Jigsaw!), and cut out the right shapes.

Take a look at the photos but I will probably need to cut down the gear lever as it looks too long - I am not sure if this will give me an upside down change patterm or not - I really need to think about that. I am having someone on ebay make up a gear rod with right thread one end and a LH thread the other - he's making it in Titanium (ooooh....), and I have sourced a LH thread rose joint from mcgillmotorsports also of ebay - they have a great catalogue of bits!!

Anyway I was quite pleased with the look, pretty basic but hey - home made! Libby made the comment that I should make two sets - I can't think why!

This coming weekend I really need to fit the fairing and start finishing stuff, I need to fix the rear mudguard, fit the front exhausts etc...

Provisional Dates 2009

Hi All, we had our annual general meeting this past weekend, and so here are the PROVISIONAL DATES for Proclassic 2009 :-
28/29 March at LE MANS
12/13 April at CAROLE
9/10 May at Croix en Ternois
13/14 June at Magny-Cours
27/28 June at Ales OR Le Vigeant
29/30 August at Carole
19/20 Sept. at Croix en Ternois (PROCLASSIC ORGANISED)
10/11 Oct. at Nogaro

Some comments:- The 27/28 June weekend is not fixed - it could be either Ales or Le Vigeant. The 19/20 September will be organised by Pro Classic at Croix-en-Ternois, and there will be a 3-4 hours endurance plus normal racing.

Getting there.....

Over Xmas not a lot has happened. Although I have made a list!! Oliver helped me put the stickers on the fairing which created some issues.... as the paint job on the RG fairing isn't exactly the same shape as the Sheene racebike, plus the paintjob as you can see is not 100% the same! Still it looks pretty good! (I think), although it wouldn't look good parked next to the real thing.

I have also been messing with the GSXR rear wheel to see what it needs to make it fit. The bearing sizes are different as are the axels the GSXR is 20 mms and the RG 17 mms. After much investigation I can get new bearings that have an internal 17mm (RG Axel) and the 47mm external diameter to fit the GSXR wheel. The spacer between the two wheel bearings may have to be made up, as it needs to precisely butt up to the inside parts of the bearings to allow the wheel to be tightened correctly, if I am lucky the one in the RG wheel may fit (?). In order to get the correct chain alignment I am using the RG sprocket carrier which seems to fit, and on the left hand side I am using the spacer from the RG, but on the right hand side I am using the caliper carrier from the GSXR, along with the spacer from the GSXR, this makes a perfect fit, although I will be mounting the brake caliper at the bottom of the disk rather than the top (as originally placed) mainly because the torque bar will only connect to the caliper at the bottom.

I'll take some photos of this when it's finished. I put both the wheels in the shop to remove the wheel bearings. I have sourced the bearings and I will pick them up tomorrow.

I have also bought an Alfano Pro Version 2, which you can look at here
this will replace my dash board, and give me rpm, temperature gauge, and automatic lap timing via a magnetic impulse sent via a trackside unit - these are common on all French tracks. The advantage of this is a) Space (with the GSXR fork I can't leave the original), and b) I don't need someone with a stopwatch at the side of the track.

Also, I have ordered new goodritch brake hoses for the front brakes, and finally I found some really nice footrests which integrate a bearing surface to suit my home made gear and brake levers... phew.... Oh and I managed to find a black seat on ebay, plus I bought some fairing screws and nylon washers whilst in the UK for Xmas.

The club AGM is on the 17th of January, so I will know the dates of the races in a couple of weeks - I can't wait!

Bodywork done

Hi All,
Well I have been relatively busy. The Yamaha is now wintered up - a new power valve motor solved my problem, and both the Yamaha controller and Zeeltronics works fine. The bike revs and opens the valve - so although I haven't road tested (too much snow!) it should be OK.

I got back my bodywork for the Suzuki, and here are some pictures. Considering the guys are a simple car body shop they did a pretty good job, the stripes are a little wider than I would have liked, but once it is stickered up it should look mint!

I have also fitted the GSXR forks, and although I will need to create an ingenious way of setting the steering lock, they fit straight on, although the RG500 standard instruments will have to go! I now need to concentrate on finishing the gear and brake levers, plus trying to find the "right solution" for the rotary disk valves.

I put the standard amount of oil in the GSXR Forks that is :-
(without spring and inner tube compress fully): 416 ml or 141 mm oil level: K model SAE 10

Have a great Xmas nad a happy new year, this will be my last post this year!