Technical Update

Some photos:-

Well, just some notes while I think about it. Tyre pressures with the Power One's were 1.5 rear and 1.7 front (bar), which worked reasonably well in the wet, and I kept the same pressures for the only dry session - which worked well - no slips.

The carbs were running 240 mains, I was running a 15 front sprocket and a 41 rear, but couldn't really tell if this was good, but I certainly wasn't at the end of 6th along the start finish straight.
I was using Motul 80w90 Gear oil (thick grey stuff) which made the clutch slip, so I went back to Motul 10w30 (or 40??) Two stroke gearbox oil, which didn't slip although the clutch still drags.

At home all plugs were dark (too rich) but nr. 4 was differently coloured than the others - I think my problem is with this cylinder, and more over the plug cap on this pot is reading double the resistance of the others, which are all 10K ohms, nr4. was reading an irregular 20K ohms, so I think my problem is coming from there. I have swapped out the "bad" plug cap and will test this evening. For reference the primary side of the coils were measured at 0.6 ohms on both coils, and secondary measured from plug cap to plug cap measure about 34K ohms.

That's it for now.

Le Mans Videos and photos

Race 2 at Le Mans, in the wet I am right at the back.... :-(



Race 1, in which I lasted one lap....

and it's still raining......

Well, back from the weekend at Le Mans, and I hope the season will only get better from here.....

The rain started as soon as we got near Paris, and unfortunately we only saw the sun for a couple of hours throughout the weekend. We arrived at Le Mans on Friday morning, just in time to miss the early morning practice at 9:40, I was hoping I would be able to grab a practice session from another category, however they were all full, so I had to wait until the early afternoon before getting the RG on the track.

In between times we put up the barnum, and hung onto it while we were hit with bouts of horizontal rain, and gusts, that blew away a couple of tents next to us, and basically soaked everything.  We couldn't put up the sides to the barnum, because it just acted as a sail.

Anyway, getting back to the bike, I had decided to run with the bike with the carb trunks on, as I wanted it nice and rich to give it a chance to run in at least a bit, the practice session was wet, but again it didn't really matter to me, as I ran around rediscovering the circuit bringing the revs up nicely in the first few gears, and trying to restrict the bike running on full throttle down the straights, still only 15 minutes, and the bike was running OK, so I came back in relatively relieved, as you may remember I had had some issues at home.

On Saturday morning, we had a timed practise session and guess what, there was a dry line! I left the bike unchanged. In this session I started really opening her up, and although it was clear I was running way to rich, the bike reacted nicely, and it was a real pleasure to start pushing it a bit. The clutch started slipping as the bike came on pipe, which was an issue, which later I fixed by changing gearbox oils. I managed a 2mins 10 sec best time, which placed me on the 4th row of the grid,which I was pretty pleased about.

I had planned to remove the trunks from the carbs, and change the gearbox oil in the break, which is what I did, I also checked the plugs, and as expected they were black, so very rich.

The first race, and even on the warm up lap I knew I had a problem, the bike was popping a farting, and I was really worried about damaging it. On the start grid, I looked over at the guy next to me, and there was a long bolt under his bike, I shouted at him to take a look, and he got off his bike, and checked out his suspension, not finding any problem, he simply took the bolt and threw it over to the start marshals, meanwhile I stalled.... Anyway I got a crap start, but the bike was not firing properly, so I just finished the first lap and in I came. The race was pretty exciting, as not quite dry, we had plenty of falls, one quite nasty, so there was a red flag and restart (the guy was OK, a couple of cracked ribs). 

I really thought that removing the trunks had caused my issues, so in the second race I thought I would put them back just to complete the second race. This is what I did, and I tried the bike in the pit lane, and it did seem OK, however in the race I was still having an issue. However I did finish the race although in a very lowly position, fighting it out with some VFR's who were much faster than me on the straights, but I was taking more corner angle in the wet, so I could keep with them (did I mention it was WET again). The race was pretty awful, I couldn't see much when my visor started steaming up, and with the bike running badly.... 

So conclusions of the weekend are, I think I may have an electrical issue, may be as simple as a plug lead or plug cap, as these were the only things that were disturbed during the weekend, and I am now pretty convinced that carburation is not the route of my problems, and I think I have a breakdown somewhere in the electrical area. I think the popping and farting, is probably coming from unburnt fuel that is being ignited by an intermittent spark.... I will take a look.

Next race is endurance on the 350 at Carole!

it's raining again.....

Well it looks like the bike will get a good washing this coming weekend. The first weekends racing looks to be taking place under rain (the whole 3 days!)..... Well at least as I will be finishing running in it won't affect me too much, except of course I will get wet. 

I have managed to run the bike a couple of times up and down the road. The first time it was not running right at all, but taking off the carbs, checking the rotary disks, and putting it back together (and new plugs), seems to have it running right now, although I have no idea of whether my jetting is right. I have put the trunks back on the carbs, because the road outside my place is very stony and I was seriously worried about breathing in some gravel.

So we are ready to rock, I only hope I can put in sufficient laps on the Friday (free practise) to be able to open her up sufficiently for the races on Saturday and Sunday. I will be happy if I can beat the lap times I managed on the 350, which should be feasible given that Le Mans is a fairly fast circuit.

Anyway I will put the results on line on Monday, next week.

This weekends testing

Well, we had planned to be testing and running in the RG 500 this weekend, but I hadn't bargained for the snow! We were on our way to Ledenon this morning at around 7:00 am, and got as far as Montelimar, when it started to snow - big flakes, so we turned around and came back again (3 hour round trip), and guess what we couldn't even get the car up the hill! We had to stop half way up to put the chains on, and although I thought we would have made it, we stopped in the village at some friends house, to let the snow plough come through, and salt the roads.

There wasn't too much snow, but it was freezing on the road, and making it extremely difficult especially with two bikes in the trailer. Well it looks like I will be running in the RG at the first race weekend at Le Mans.....

It lives....

Managed to get out and put a second coat on the trailer again on Saturday, but the weather was closing in and we were in for a storm Saturday evening, so it was a rush to complete. Still I managed a second coat on the rear - enabling me to refit the lights, number plate etc.., and a first coat on one side.

I finished some small jobs on the bike, got the exhausts, battery (charged) fitted, and I was ready to start her up in the afternoon, but I was knackered, so I left it to Sunday morning! It started 5-6 kick, but only on 2 or 3 cylinders, plus the carb slide on nr. 2 was sticking, I sorted that out, and then it ran on four cylinders, I used my new carb air flow tool to balance the carbs, and the bike would tick over no problem - I think that was a good purchase!

I ran the bike until it was warm, and then noticed it was leaking coolant from the top of the radiator. I let it cool down, and managed to paint a second coat on one side, and then turn the trailer so I could put a first coat on the other side. I re-torqued up the cylinder head nuts and bolts, and re-tightened the radiator hoses, and then let the bike run for 15 minutes. There was also a slight leak from the front exhausts, so again I waited until it had cooled down, and re-fitted the exhausts, with plenty of high temperature silicon sealer.

I managed to get a second coat of paint on the second side of the trailer, so apart from the top it has had two coats all over. I managed to persuade Oliver to design some more interesting paintwork for the sides, so we will see if we can put that on before the end of March (first race). 

The weather forecast is good for next Sunday, so I intend to take the bike to Ledenon for running in, and carb fettling. Speak to you soon.