Nogaro

Just FYI, the rear tyre was changed on the RD350, the guy didn't balance the wheel.

I raced at Nogaro in the South West of France this weekend. We arrived Friday afternoon as the free practice was scheduled for the end of the afternoon.

The RG started fine, the re-found power band (with the exhaust valve working!), was incredible, but really accentuated by the fact the clutch was slipping freely, so every time the bike hit the power, the clutch would slip, and let the engine run up to 12K. I tried adjusting the clutch on the run, but couldn't get my gloved hands around the cable adjuster - should have come in really. Anyway I kept going but the bike was running dangerously hot - around 94 degrees celsius - too hot!!

As you may remember Nogaro has a long straight along which the clutch was slipping most of the way, at the end of the straight, I have already suffered from a "shut throttle" seize..... well it happened on the RG! On previous laps I had been holding the choke in to give some more fuel as the throttle is shut for braking, well on this particular lap, I was more concerned with other things so I forgot, and well, I got my punishment - leaving a 20 metre darky as the wheel locked, grabbed the clutch and cruised to a halt at the end of the straight - bummer!

Back at the pits, I let the bike cool off, and I could then freely move the engine, removed the plugs - all nice and chocolate coloured, removed the exhausts, and piston nr. 1 was the guilty culprit - unusual I was expecting nr. 3! The piston had touched on the exhaust port side, below the rings, I could see some shiny aluminium on the piston, which actually rubbed off with my finger!

All the other pistons looked OK, and no damage to the cylinders.

On Saturday morning, and after receiving the advice from most of the paddock, I decided to increase my main jets to help (up to 230's with the carb trunks on) with cooling the engine, and raise my idle speed to about 3K to ensure that even with the throttle closed, there would be some fuel going through - plus use the choke every lap!

The Saturday was as hot as the Friday, but the RG ran at the hottest of 84 degrees - hot but not as hot.... I shared the timed practice between the RG and RD as the game plan was to use the RD if the weather was really hot and use the RG if it cooled down. Well in the end we started for the first race Saturday evening at 18:00 and the air temperature was around 35 degrees, so the RD took the punishment. I got a reasonable start, but I was totally under geared for the long straight, which meant the RD was up at around 10K for most of the straight and people came whizzing past. Never mind, I had a few good scraps around the twisties, and finished a somewhat lowly (scratch) 29th place, but a fairly respectable fastest lap of 1:52.

Sunday was forecast rain! We awoke to a misty day, with moisture in the air - a great day for a hot bike! I lined up on the pre-grid (8th line), and slowly the heavens opened up on us! Really big blobs of rain, getting steadily faster. A few of the guys abandoned without even going out, but I was determined to give the RG an outing. The warm up lap was incredibly slow, and when the start was given, I must have got the worst start of my life, Libby said the lap car was nearly pushing me up the backside to get me going! Anyway throughout the deluge, I was opening the bike up only when I was in a straight line and vertical, the Michelin Power Ones, are OK, but they need to be up to temperature!

So the bike goes OK fairly linearly up to 6K, then a huge hole, and then the full beans as the valves open at around 7.5K - lovely to feel the bike really accelerating cleanly to the red line again, although the big hole made things interesting in the wet.

As the race continued, I got past a few guys, for the fun, but I wasn't risking anything, I was having to change lines as the puddles were getting bigger near the rumble strips!

Anyway I finished at 18th (scratch), with a fastest time of 2:23, even the fast guys were well over 2 minutes for a track that at it's best is around 1:35 for the promosport 1000's.

Now I have to find a big radiator, and clean up piston/cylinder nr. 1, before Magny-Cours in 3 weeks. Plus I need to move the needles either up or down - take your pick!