Hi All,
Just realised I hadn't posted for some while. The Yam is waiting for me to custom make some cables, I've bought the nipples the gas burner, the solder, it's just really waiting for me to get motivated again. I need to finish fitting the VM34 carbs to the Yam, and also finish the foot rest hanger that I am trying to make out of a plate of ali that was sitting around - not sure it's thick enough really to support my weight, suppose we'll see...
I have orderd a Zeeltronic ignition and power valve controller for the Suzuki, in the hope I can move the hole in my power band around by opening/closing the valves at different times, the programmable ignition should allow me to gain a few horsepower as well, again I will need to test early in the year, in order to get it right.
The snow has arrived, and with Xmas just around the corner, I have other stuff to do, so will start on the bikes again in the new year, still keeping up the Gym, so with a bit of luck, I will keep my weight down, and muscle my upper body - especially the shoulder.
All the best to your families, and have a great Christmas and a happy new year.
Saturday, 24 December 2011
Sunday, 6 November 2011
Update....
Well, it's now 4 weeks since my accident and I am no longer wearing a sling, and my physiotherapist says I should now start to muscle up the shoulder. I have pretty much complete mobility although still some pain. I will be left with a bump on the shoulder where the collar bone became disconnected from the shoulder, apparently they won't operate on that unless there is a particular reason, which for the moment I don't have.
Although I haven't been driving (until this last week), I have been working from home, and at the same time helping Pierre-Luc change the engine on his Triumph Thunderbird! We found an engine in Wales, and had it shipped down to Grenoble, and have fitted it. It started up pretty much first time last Saturday! So now I once again have some space to start working on my bikes. The Yam, needs a new right hand footrest, brake lever, plus the fairing needs straightening out. I have received some VM 34 carbs, which will be added this winter, oh and I need to get a new battery, as my expensive LiFo went missing during the accident.
So far the fairing is off, the carbs are off and I am messing with the footrest to see what I can build.
I still need to buy some new leathers, although I will try to get the old ones fixed. They cut through the zips and up the arms and across the chest to get my arm out, so I am not sure a fix will be possible. I am looking at different makes of leathers, and I am zooming in on either Dainese (shop in Grenoble), Furygan which are French, and Gimoto which is Italien, but they do a web based made to measure service which looks good, although expensive. I did try to buy some tax free leathers in Andorra, however they only stock "Spannish market" leathers which do not have a cotton lining which is obligatory in France!
Although I haven't been driving (until this last week), I have been working from home, and at the same time helping Pierre-Luc change the engine on his Triumph Thunderbird! We found an engine in Wales, and had it shipped down to Grenoble, and have fitted it. It started up pretty much first time last Saturday! So now I once again have some space to start working on my bikes. The Yam, needs a new right hand footrest, brake lever, plus the fairing needs straightening out. I have received some VM 34 carbs, which will be added this winter, oh and I need to get a new battery, as my expensive LiFo went missing during the accident.
So far the fairing is off, the carbs are off and I am messing with the footrest to see what I can build.
I still need to buy some new leathers, although I will try to get the old ones fixed. They cut through the zips and up the arms and across the chest to get my arm out, so I am not sure a fix will be possible. I am looking at different makes of leathers, and I am zooming in on either Dainese (shop in Grenoble), Furygan which are French, and Gimoto which is Italien, but they do a web based made to measure service which looks good, although expensive. I did try to buy some tax free leathers in Andorra, however they only stock "Spannish market" leathers which do not have a cotton lining which is obligatory in France!
Sunday, 9 October 2011
Tuesday, 4 October 2011
Croix-en-ternois Race Report
Hi All,
Got back from an eventful weekend at C-en-T yesterday.
To start off the weekend the Yamaha was still leaking gearbox oil, and this turned out to be the neutral plate which had come slightly loose, whilst I was looking, the power valve pulley cover also needed tightening - this may have been a reason for the flat running at Ledenon...Anyway I was feeling very unprepared as we arrived at the circuit, I hadn't even looked at the plugs on the RG, and I was supposed to be racing in both, the classic and Superbike series, along with the 3 hour endurance on a mates VFR, so not much time could be spent on mechanics!
I managed to test both the 350 and the RG500 on Friday afternoon, and Francois turned up late with the VFR, but we still managed to get a 20 minute session with it, which went OK. My lap times were pretty slow, but he was running some road tyres, so it would be better in the race.
At Friday evening scrutineering, one of the marshalls commented on oil covering the RG500 engine, and he wanted me to take a closer look - I did try and tell him, that I was waiting for the Gammna listers to come up with some ideas, but he wouldn't take that as an excuse.
So Friday evening, I removed the carbs and replaced all the dodgy looking O'rings, then liberally applied gasket silicon around the rubbers to ensure no leaks from the carbs. I checked the plug colour while I had the fairing off, and everything looked good!
The Saturday morning started with running in some pads and tyres for the endurance, and then qualifying for the superbike and classics. The organisation were planning on running the slower qualified Superbikes with the classics, so I needed to get a reasonable time with the RG, in order to be able to qualify in the A final, and then run the 350 in the classics.
Well I managed to get under a 1:03 with the RG running really well, the official time was a 1:03.013, but my Alfano had me at 1:02.88, so I was pretty pleased, although still only good enough for the second to last line on the grid! It just keeps getting quicker!
The 350 I managed to put in a respectable 1:06 which wasn't near my fastest time on the 350, but good enough to qualify on the 3rd row.
The first Superbike race was Saturday afternoon, I managed an OK start and got in front of a few bikes on the first lap, and managed to stay there until being lapped near the end of the race. I didn't manage to improve my time, so I was a little disappointed, I had made a rear sprocket change just before the race which obviously did not have the desired effect!
Before the first classic race Francois put our race tyres on the VFR, and I had a session on them which felt pretty good, much more confidence inspiring than the road tyres.
The last race of the day was the first Classic final, running with the "final B" superbikes. My start was good, not losing out to anybody. On the 3rd bend I managed the inside line past a 1200 Moto Guzzi, and then under the bridge, and then .....nothing.... I woke up in the ambulance stark naked with a pain in my shoulder.
2 versions of my accident, the first was the guzzi and me came into contact and both bikes went down, the second version was that I was too wide and turned into the bend with to much brake. Anyway I can not (still) remember a thing. I spent 5 minutes layed out on the track whilst they cut off my leathers to put back my shoulder which was dislocated, I came round but Libby said I was speaking rubbish for a further 10 minutes.. Where am I? What bike was I on? What happened?... looping around and around...The records broke!!
I spent the Saturday night in the hospital just to make sure I was all there, and they let me go Sunday morning. Francois managed to find a replacement for the endurance and they finished 12th, a respectable end to the weekend.
Thanks to Libby for driving the van all the way home and Hughes, and Francois for helping us load up, and Laure Arnold for driving Libby to the hospital.
I now have to wait for 45 days before I can get the Yamaha back to showroom condition! Still I have plenty of time to do email, and edit the video.
My helmet did it's job and is now dead, and my leathers have also seen better days, good job Xmas is coming!!
Got back from an eventful weekend at C-en-T yesterday.
To start off the weekend the Yamaha was still leaking gearbox oil, and this turned out to be the neutral plate which had come slightly loose, whilst I was looking, the power valve pulley cover also needed tightening - this may have been a reason for the flat running at Ledenon...Anyway I was feeling very unprepared as we arrived at the circuit, I hadn't even looked at the plugs on the RG, and I was supposed to be racing in both, the classic and Superbike series, along with the 3 hour endurance on a mates VFR, so not much time could be spent on mechanics!
I managed to test both the 350 and the RG500 on Friday afternoon, and Francois turned up late with the VFR, but we still managed to get a 20 minute session with it, which went OK. My lap times were pretty slow, but he was running some road tyres, so it would be better in the race.
At Friday evening scrutineering, one of the marshalls commented on oil covering the RG500 engine, and he wanted me to take a closer look - I did try and tell him, that I was waiting for the Gammna listers to come up with some ideas, but he wouldn't take that as an excuse.
So Friday evening, I removed the carbs and replaced all the dodgy looking O'rings, then liberally applied gasket silicon around the rubbers to ensure no leaks from the carbs. I checked the plug colour while I had the fairing off, and everything looked good!
The Saturday morning started with running in some pads and tyres for the endurance, and then qualifying for the superbike and classics. The organisation were planning on running the slower qualified Superbikes with the classics, so I needed to get a reasonable time with the RG, in order to be able to qualify in the A final, and then run the 350 in the classics.
Well I managed to get under a 1:03 with the RG running really well, the official time was a 1:03.013, but my Alfano had me at 1:02.88, so I was pretty pleased, although still only good enough for the second to last line on the grid! It just keeps getting quicker!
The 350 I managed to put in a respectable 1:06 which wasn't near my fastest time on the 350, but good enough to qualify on the 3rd row.
The first Superbike race was Saturday afternoon, I managed an OK start and got in front of a few bikes on the first lap, and managed to stay there until being lapped near the end of the race. I didn't manage to improve my time, so I was a little disappointed, I had made a rear sprocket change just before the race which obviously did not have the desired effect!
Before the first classic race Francois put our race tyres on the VFR, and I had a session on them which felt pretty good, much more confidence inspiring than the road tyres.
The last race of the day was the first Classic final, running with the "final B" superbikes. My start was good, not losing out to anybody. On the 3rd bend I managed the inside line past a 1200 Moto Guzzi, and then under the bridge, and then .....nothing.... I woke up in the ambulance stark naked with a pain in my shoulder.
2 versions of my accident, the first was the guzzi and me came into contact and both bikes went down, the second version was that I was too wide and turned into the bend with to much brake. Anyway I can not (still) remember a thing. I spent 5 minutes layed out on the track whilst they cut off my leathers to put back my shoulder which was dislocated, I came round but Libby said I was speaking rubbish for a further 10 minutes.. Where am I? What bike was I on? What happened?... looping around and around...The records broke!!
I spent the Saturday night in the hospital just to make sure I was all there, and they let me go Sunday morning. Francois managed to find a replacement for the endurance and they finished 12th, a respectable end to the weekend.
Thanks to Libby for driving the van all the way home and Hughes, and Francois for helping us load up, and Laure Arnold for driving Libby to the hospital.
I now have to wait for 45 days before I can get the Yamaha back to showroom condition! Still I have plenty of time to do email, and edit the video.
My helmet did it's job and is now dead, and my leathers have also seen better days, good job Xmas is coming!!
Sunday, 25 September 2011
Yamaha gear shaft removal
So after the oil leak on the Yam I decided that the gear change shaft must be worn sufficiently to cause the leak, and hence needed to be changed.
In order to remove the shaft, you need to remove the clutch basket in order to draw the shaft out from teh right hand side of the bike. In order I drained the gearbox oil, drained the water, removed the clutch engine cover, remove the clutch pressure plate then all the friction plates and steel plates and finally the inner basket and the out basket, tehn you can simply pull on the gear shaft and it comes all the awy through. I tool a couple of photos, but you can't really see the wear on the shaft, however you can certainly feel it, so it definately needs changing. I just need to hope my parts arrive before Thursday, as we will be leaving for Croix-en-Ternois for the last race weekend of the year on the Thursday evening.
In order to remove the shaft, you need to remove the clutch basket in order to draw the shaft out from teh right hand side of the bike. In order I drained the gearbox oil, drained the water, removed the clutch engine cover, remove the clutch pressure plate then all the friction plates and steel plates and finally the inner basket and the out basket, tehn you can simply pull on the gear shaft and it comes all the awy through. I tool a couple of photos, but you can't really see the wear on the shaft, however you can certainly feel it, so it definately needs changing. I just need to hope my parts arrive before Thursday, as we will be leaving for Croix-en-Ternois for the last race weekend of the year on the Thursday evening.
Thursday, 15 September 2011
Ledenon Race Report
Arrived at the circuit at around 11:30 Friday morning with Chris (my brother), and Carly (my daughter) in the van. Managed to get everything setup pretty quickly, but despite that I missed the first practise session of the day, and signing up after lunch meant I also missed one of the afternoon practises, only the ProClassic practise session had places, so I signed up for that.
Wasn't too worried although I would have liked to take the 350 around the circuit, as the last visit here, I had only used the RG 500. I was racing in 2 categories, the VMA Postclassic 350 class, aswell as the ProClassic Superbike class with the RG 500, so it would be a busy weekend.
I had moved the needles on the RG500 to the top slot, thereby weakening the mixture in the midrange, and to be honest I didn't perceive much difference from my previous test at Ledenon a month previous, so in the evening I decided I would try and go the other way and lift the needles to the middle slot (Nr. 3 from the top), in timed practise on the Saturday I was convinced that this had helped my low end power and filled the hole slightly, so we maintained this setting for the first race.
The 350 was running well, although a little flat, I put this down to the very hot temperatures on the Saturday morning ~ 30 degrees C. I probably should have down jetted, but I couldn't be bothered, better a little rich, especially as the engine temperature was already bordering on the red line.
My first race was on the 350 on Saturday afternoon, where after a reasonable start I was soon fighting it out with many other TZ's and RD's running at around the same speeds as I. After qualifying with a 1:47, my race speed came down to a 1:46, which although relatively pleasing, I was still being blown into the weeds down the straight, and up the hills, after analysing the situation we decided to drop the gearing as I was only using 6th gear at the very end of the longest straight, in the hope this would give me more oomph up the hills. My gear lever shaft started leaking again, and after having already changed the oil seal, it would seem that either the shaft is worn, or grooved at was persistently leaking. The droplets of oil were reaching the left hand side of the tyre, and I felt it slip a couple of times during the race, so in between races we got to grips with some gasket cement, and tried to stem the flow. We also decided to drop the gearing to a 15 tooth sprocket at the front to improve acceleration!
On Sunday, I had three races starting and ending with the RG500, with my second VMA PostClassic race in the middle.
The weather on Sunday morning was overcast with a high level of humidity, and because I had initially gone richer with my needles, I thought the bike would run well, however after an honest start I soon discovered that the two position change of the needles was too much, and the bike was not carburating well at all, anyway I managed to stay the race out and managed a lowly 1:46:5 and somewhere near the back.
The 2nd race with the Yamaha 350, I got a good start but was blocked in around the first series of bends, and lost a few spots. I then had a good battle with a couple of Ducatis (not in my category), and eventually passing both, the bike was going well, much better with the lower gearing and I had a good race improving my position over the first race and also getting a best lap time of 1:45:4 so a pretty good race, and I marked a few points as well!
The 2nd race with the RG, was great, the bike was really pulling hard, after 8K rpm and the temperature stayed around 80 degrees C, which although high, was reasonable enough not to worry about it. I got a reasonable start, and managed to build up some good speed. I was fighting with an FZR600, and once I had managed to get past him (finally), I concentrated on running down a VFR, and then a 900SS, which I took in the later stages of the race. I am still outside the points (18th), but managed to get a 1:41:1 which is definately a personal best so well happy. The bike still has a hole below 7.5K but it was very managable with huge gobs of power coming in all the way to 12K. I have seen some people on the RGV250 forum that recommends using the RG400 needles, so maybe I'll try them out. I will also try dropping the gearbox sprocket as like the 350 I was only hitting 6th gear near the end of the straight - a note for next year!
Thanks to Chris and Carly for helping out all weekend, and my buddies for coming to support on the Saturday afternoon and Sunday. Libby did film a little bit of Sunday, so I will post that up as soon as I get home.
Next race will be at Croix-en-Ternois, the first weekend of October!
Nr. 62 on the 500
Nr. 72 on the 350
Wasn't too worried although I would have liked to take the 350 around the circuit, as the last visit here, I had only used the RG 500. I was racing in 2 categories, the VMA Postclassic 350 class, aswell as the ProClassic Superbike class with the RG 500, so it would be a busy weekend.
I had moved the needles on the RG500 to the top slot, thereby weakening the mixture in the midrange, and to be honest I didn't perceive much difference from my previous test at Ledenon a month previous, so in the evening I decided I would try and go the other way and lift the needles to the middle slot (Nr. 3 from the top), in timed practise on the Saturday I was convinced that this had helped my low end power and filled the hole slightly, so we maintained this setting for the first race.
The 350 was running well, although a little flat, I put this down to the very hot temperatures on the Saturday morning ~ 30 degrees C. I probably should have down jetted, but I couldn't be bothered, better a little rich, especially as the engine temperature was already bordering on the red line.
My first race was on the 350 on Saturday afternoon, where after a reasonable start I was soon fighting it out with many other TZ's and RD's running at around the same speeds as I. After qualifying with a 1:47, my race speed came down to a 1:46, which although relatively pleasing, I was still being blown into the weeds down the straight, and up the hills, after analysing the situation we decided to drop the gearing as I was only using 6th gear at the very end of the longest straight, in the hope this would give me more oomph up the hills. My gear lever shaft started leaking again, and after having already changed the oil seal, it would seem that either the shaft is worn, or grooved at was persistently leaking. The droplets of oil were reaching the left hand side of the tyre, and I felt it slip a couple of times during the race, so in between races we got to grips with some gasket cement, and tried to stem the flow. We also decided to drop the gearing to a 15 tooth sprocket at the front to improve acceleration!
On Sunday, I had three races starting and ending with the RG500, with my second VMA PostClassic race in the middle.
The weather on Sunday morning was overcast with a high level of humidity, and because I had initially gone richer with my needles, I thought the bike would run well, however after an honest start I soon discovered that the two position change of the needles was too much, and the bike was not carburating well at all, anyway I managed to stay the race out and managed a lowly 1:46:5 and somewhere near the back.
The 2nd race with the Yamaha 350, I got a good start but was blocked in around the first series of bends, and lost a few spots. I then had a good battle with a couple of Ducatis (not in my category), and eventually passing both, the bike was going well, much better with the lower gearing and I had a good race improving my position over the first race and also getting a best lap time of 1:45:4 so a pretty good race, and I marked a few points as well!
The 2nd race with the RG, was great, the bike was really pulling hard, after 8K rpm and the temperature stayed around 80 degrees C, which although high, was reasonable enough not to worry about it. I got a reasonable start, and managed to build up some good speed. I was fighting with an FZR600, and once I had managed to get past him (finally), I concentrated on running down a VFR, and then a 900SS, which I took in the later stages of the race. I am still outside the points (18th), but managed to get a 1:41:1 which is definately a personal best so well happy. The bike still has a hole below 7.5K but it was very managable with huge gobs of power coming in all the way to 12K. I have seen some people on the RGV250 forum that recommends using the RG400 needles, so maybe I'll try them out. I will also try dropping the gearbox sprocket as like the 350 I was only hitting 6th gear near the end of the straight - a note for next year!
Thanks to Chris and Carly for helping out all weekend, and my buddies for coming to support on the Saturday afternoon and Sunday. Libby did film a little bit of Sunday, so I will post that up as soon as I get home.
Next race will be at Croix-en-Ternois, the first weekend of October!
Nr. 62 on the 500
Nr. 72 on the 350
Tuesday, 30 August 2011
RD 350 Brake pistons seals
So I received my seals for the rear brake of the 350, the problem I am trying to solve is that the brake squeals and rubs. Anyway removing one piston is relatively easy. You just remove the pads, and keep one piston completely in, and pump the brake, the pistons are about 3cms long, and a single piston should come out no problem. The first side I removed and then used a hook to remove the seals, the outside "dust" seal was slightly damaged, but the inner seal was in good condition.
While I was waiting for my seals to arrive (purchased at at WEMOTO cost 12 quid for the two sets), I wanted to remove the second piston, the only way I could think of was to put back the first one and pump it out, which is what I did. The second piston was in good condition as well as the seals.
Both pistons had small pitting in the chrome surface, which I (very lightly) sanded down so that there was nothing proud.I received the new seals, but they did not come with any red rubber grease - apparently this is the stuff to use to lubricate, the seals and pistons, anyway I didn't have any, and it doesn't seem to exist in my local shops, so I tried putting some teflon grease in some brake fluid and also some "Judy butter" grease in the brake fluid, I just wanted to see if the grease would dissolve or not.
The teflon grease dissolved. The judy butter (which is a mountain bike fork grease) didn't dissolve and remained greasy, so this is what I used to put the seals in.
Putting the pistons back in was hard work! Initially there was not enough space to get any kind of tool in there, but after much sweating and swearing I could get a bar of metal in to lever with. Again you have to be careful not to damage the pistons, and the technique that worked best was really to "walk" the pistons in, not pushing against the piston equally across its surface. Don't ask me why, but it definitely worked better by pushing and rocking the pistons in. Once the pistons are sufficiently in (about 1cm showing), you can just push and the piston will go in relatively easily. For the second piston I used the same technique.
The brake bled quite easily, I kept the bleed nipple in a high position to enable the air to escape easily.
I have managed to enter the VMA Postclassic 350 series for Ledenon with the 350, so I will be running the 350 and the RG500 the whole weekend! Should keep us busy esepcially as I will be doing some back to back races. I changed the gearbox sprocket back to a 16 on the 350, as Ledenon is a longer circuit than the planned Croix-en-Ternois. Hopefully as this is my "home" race, I should have some support, although the racing starts early - first race on Sunday morning at 8:30 - still it will be cooler at that time in the morning!
The only thing left to do this weekend is check the cab synchro of the RG and take a quick look at the plugs on the RD.
Speak to you soon.
While I was waiting for my seals to arrive (purchased at at WEMOTO cost 12 quid for the two sets), I wanted to remove the second piston, the only way I could think of was to put back the first one and pump it out, which is what I did. The second piston was in good condition as well as the seals.
Both pistons had small pitting in the chrome surface, which I (very lightly) sanded down so that there was nothing proud.I received the new seals, but they did not come with any red rubber grease - apparently this is the stuff to use to lubricate, the seals and pistons, anyway I didn't have any, and it doesn't seem to exist in my local shops, so I tried putting some teflon grease in some brake fluid and also some "Judy butter" grease in the brake fluid, I just wanted to see if the grease would dissolve or not.
The teflon grease dissolved. The judy butter (which is a mountain bike fork grease) didn't dissolve and remained greasy, so this is what I used to put the seals in.
Putting the pistons back in was hard work! Initially there was not enough space to get any kind of tool in there, but after much sweating and swearing I could get a bar of metal in to lever with. Again you have to be careful not to damage the pistons, and the technique that worked best was really to "walk" the pistons in, not pushing against the piston equally across its surface. Don't ask me why, but it definitely worked better by pushing and rocking the pistons in. Once the pistons are sufficiently in (about 1cm showing), you can just push and the piston will go in relatively easily. For the second piston I used the same technique.
The brake bled quite easily, I kept the bleed nipple in a high position to enable the air to escape easily.
I have managed to enter the VMA Postclassic 350 series for Ledenon with the 350, so I will be running the 350 and the RG500 the whole weekend! Should keep us busy esepcially as I will be doing some back to back races. I changed the gearbox sprocket back to a 16 on the 350, as Ledenon is a longer circuit than the planned Croix-en-Ternois. Hopefully as this is my "home" race, I should have some support, although the racing starts early - first race on Sunday morning at 8:30 - still it will be cooler at that time in the morning!
The only thing left to do this weekend is check the cab synchro of the RG and take a quick look at the plugs on the RD.
Speak to you soon.
Monday, 22 August 2011
Rear wheel bearings
Rear wheel bearings for the RG/GSXR rear are 47 OD, 17 ID, and 14 wide.
The SKF reference is 6303-2RSH for the sealed bearings.
Replace the gear shaft oil seal on the RD 350 YPVS, a relatively simple job, remove the engine cover, I removed the gearbox sprocket although you could probably do without, remove the nylon chain roller thingy, and then I used a small hook to get inside the seal and pull it out, after a few minutes of huffing and puffing it came out. I pushed the new one in and then bashed it in the remaining distance with a box spanner fitted over the gear shaft.
Hopefully no more leaks from there.
I have also renewed all the pilot jets on the RG500 and moved all carb needles to the top slot, hopefully this will help my hole in the middle issue. We'll see.
The SKF reference is 6303-2RSH for the sealed bearings.
Replace the gear shaft oil seal on the RD 350 YPVS, a relatively simple job, remove the engine cover, I removed the gearbox sprocket although you could probably do without, remove the nylon chain roller thingy, and then I used a small hook to get inside the seal and pull it out, after a few minutes of huffing and puffing it came out. I pushed the new one in and then bashed it in the remaining distance with a box spanner fitted over the gear shaft.
Hopefully no more leaks from there.
I have also renewed all the pilot jets on the RG500 and moved all carb needles to the top slot, hopefully this will help my hole in the middle issue. We'll see.
Tuesday, 16 August 2011
Ledenon
Was at Ledenon this weekend to try a few things on the RG, but also to let my friends have their first experience of the track on the 350! Only Pierre-Luc was up for it, as others were either too busy (scared) or on holiday.
Traveled down on the Friday evening and setup in the pit car park, the weekend was open with sessions alternating between cars and bikes. We pitched the barnum, had a few beers and went to bed.
For a change the weather was fantastic, if anything too hot on the Saturday, and just a small breeze to take the bite out of the heat.
You purchase 20 minute sessions at Ledenon for 20 Euros each, which is great coz if you break down you don't waste your money on a whole weekend. The only trouble is you have to queue extensively first thing in order to buy your places for the day. For the Saturday we bought 4 sessions each 2 in the morning and 2 in the afternoon.
Pierre-Luc was a little nervous, firstly about the bike, and secondly about going onto the circuit for the first time. He certainly looked the part, with his old road boots, and borrowed leathers - a real 70's continental circus racer! He had never ridden a 2 stroke previously a part from a teenage moped, so it was sure the 350 would be a surprise. Would he become a 2-stroke convert?
As we drove up through the pit lane, you could tell he was loving every minute of it. After a couple of minutes they let us loose, and we were away, he stayed behind for the first lap, and then when the tyres were up to temperature I picked up the pace and left PL, to his own devices.
The 500 was running bigger pilot jets (up to 30 from 25)and I had also added back the rubber tubes connecting the carb snorkels to the air box - the idea here, was to try and get cooler air from the air box instead of taking hot air from behind the radiator - anyway the combination of the two modifications had made the bike way too rich, so it wasn't pulling at all well, although interestingly at about 9K rpm it took off with loads of power all the way through 12K... a bit high for my liking.
After our first session, PL was already half ways converted certainly to the track, but also I believe he already had a small taste for 2-strokes. He had kept the revs. down, so hadn't completely experienced the manic acceleration of a 350 coming on pipe. He was a very happy chappy, very impressed with the speed of some of the bigger 4 strokes shooting past him in all places on the track.
I didn't have time to alter anything for the second session, with only one hour between them. On a good day it takes me one hour to change jets, so it wasn't worth the stress, plus I had a group of guys around the bike asking questions, so I knew I wouldn't be able to concentrate on the job on hand.
The second session (11:00am) I only did a few laps, the bike still not pulling right, and I didn't want to damage anything. I pulled off, and started to pull the fairing off. Suddenly there was no noise from the circuit, and I guessed that the session had been red flagged, and a couple of minutes later I was surprised to see PL back at base? Oh dear..... he had been involved in the accident. Apparently a guy had come through under him on a left hander, and promptly lost it sliding into PL's trajectory, he managed to avoid the bike, and pulled off to the exterior edge of the track with another guy, and then he felt a dull impact from behind, and another guy had come through fast, and must have panic braked when he saw the accident and promptly lost it, and threw himself at the back of the 350, he ended up with his leg up and under the rear mudguard. PL was sitting on the bike, and trying to get this guys leg out from behind him.... Anyway it all sorted itself out, the second faller broke his leg, a couple of ribs, and collarbone.....
The damage to the bike was minor, one of the silencers had been bent up, and a weld had been cracked along the silencer, we bent the thing straight put on a new spring, and it held for the rest of the weekend.
PL was pretty nervous about going out in the afternoon, but soon got over it and had a great time for the rest of the day. I, in the meantime, and replaced the pilot jets with 27.5's, and to be honest It was potentially worse, so the third session of the day stopped before it started. I did notice that I had not fully tightened one of the carbs (nr. 3) so maybe this was why it seemed worse, anyway for good measure I changed all the plugs (first time running with Denso Iridium plugs - apparently they contain much more Iridium that other brands, and are therefore much more hard wearing - we shall see!).
For the 4th session, I reduced the pilot's back to original size (25's), and still the big had a huge hole in the power literally nothing between 6-8K, but making good power again up top. I had no idea that the pilot jets could make so much difference to the midrange - previously I had thought this area of the carburation was pretty much 90% the needles.
On Sunday, I was back to my original (Magny Cours) setup. I had removed the rubber connectors, and was running 25 pilot jets. The bike still seemed to be running a little rich on the rear cylinders (remember I am are using 10 points bigger main jets at the back (240's)).
With the bike in this config. the hole is much smaller, and manageable, and the low down power made the bike drivable. The two last sessions on Sunday were a real pleasure, and I managed to concentrate on getting my lap times down, eventually seeing a 1:44.9 which would put me roughly in the top ten if I managed to do it regularly during a race. So this is the setting I will probably use, although I may try tweaking the needles to run one position higher, thus hopefully leaning off the mid range slightly.
Anyway a great weekend's testing for me, and a great experience for PL, who was thoroughly converted to the track, although he was eyeing up those Triumph Daytona 675's, so I am not sure he is completely 2-stroke crazy - yet!
Traveled down on the Friday evening and setup in the pit car park, the weekend was open with sessions alternating between cars and bikes. We pitched the barnum, had a few beers and went to bed.
For a change the weather was fantastic, if anything too hot on the Saturday, and just a small breeze to take the bite out of the heat.
You purchase 20 minute sessions at Ledenon for 20 Euros each, which is great coz if you break down you don't waste your money on a whole weekend. The only trouble is you have to queue extensively first thing in order to buy your places for the day. For the Saturday we bought 4 sessions each 2 in the morning and 2 in the afternoon.
Pierre-Luc was a little nervous, firstly about the bike, and secondly about going onto the circuit for the first time. He certainly looked the part, with his old road boots, and borrowed leathers - a real 70's continental circus racer! He had never ridden a 2 stroke previously a part from a teenage moped, so it was sure the 350 would be a surprise. Would he become a 2-stroke convert?
As we drove up through the pit lane, you could tell he was loving every minute of it. After a couple of minutes they let us loose, and we were away, he stayed behind for the first lap, and then when the tyres were up to temperature I picked up the pace and left PL, to his own devices.
The 500 was running bigger pilot jets (up to 30 from 25)and I had also added back the rubber tubes connecting the carb snorkels to the air box - the idea here, was to try and get cooler air from the air box instead of taking hot air from behind the radiator - anyway the combination of the two modifications had made the bike way too rich, so it wasn't pulling at all well, although interestingly at about 9K rpm it took off with loads of power all the way through 12K... a bit high for my liking.
After our first session, PL was already half ways converted certainly to the track, but also I believe he already had a small taste for 2-strokes. He had kept the revs. down, so hadn't completely experienced the manic acceleration of a 350 coming on pipe. He was a very happy chappy, very impressed with the speed of some of the bigger 4 strokes shooting past him in all places on the track.
I didn't have time to alter anything for the second session, with only one hour between them. On a good day it takes me one hour to change jets, so it wasn't worth the stress, plus I had a group of guys around the bike asking questions, so I knew I wouldn't be able to concentrate on the job on hand.
The second session (11:00am) I only did a few laps, the bike still not pulling right, and I didn't want to damage anything. I pulled off, and started to pull the fairing off. Suddenly there was no noise from the circuit, and I guessed that the session had been red flagged, and a couple of minutes later I was surprised to see PL back at base? Oh dear..... he had been involved in the accident. Apparently a guy had come through under him on a left hander, and promptly lost it sliding into PL's trajectory, he managed to avoid the bike, and pulled off to the exterior edge of the track with another guy, and then he felt a dull impact from behind, and another guy had come through fast, and must have panic braked when he saw the accident and promptly lost it, and threw himself at the back of the 350, he ended up with his leg up and under the rear mudguard. PL was sitting on the bike, and trying to get this guys leg out from behind him.... Anyway it all sorted itself out, the second faller broke his leg, a couple of ribs, and collarbone.....
The damage to the bike was minor, one of the silencers had been bent up, and a weld had been cracked along the silencer, we bent the thing straight put on a new spring, and it held for the rest of the weekend.
PL was pretty nervous about going out in the afternoon, but soon got over it and had a great time for the rest of the day. I, in the meantime, and replaced the pilot jets with 27.5's, and to be honest It was potentially worse, so the third session of the day stopped before it started. I did notice that I had not fully tightened one of the carbs (nr. 3) so maybe this was why it seemed worse, anyway for good measure I changed all the plugs (first time running with Denso Iridium plugs - apparently they contain much more Iridium that other brands, and are therefore much more hard wearing - we shall see!).
For the 4th session, I reduced the pilot's back to original size (25's), and still the big had a huge hole in the power literally nothing between 6-8K, but making good power again up top. I had no idea that the pilot jets could make so much difference to the midrange - previously I had thought this area of the carburation was pretty much 90% the needles.
On Sunday, I was back to my original (Magny Cours) setup. I had removed the rubber connectors, and was running 25 pilot jets. The bike still seemed to be running a little rich on the rear cylinders (remember I am are using 10 points bigger main jets at the back (240's)).
With the bike in this config. the hole is much smaller, and manageable, and the low down power made the bike drivable. The two last sessions on Sunday were a real pleasure, and I managed to concentrate on getting my lap times down, eventually seeing a 1:44.9 which would put me roughly in the top ten if I managed to do it regularly during a race. So this is the setting I will probably use, although I may try tweaking the needles to run one position higher, thus hopefully leaning off the mid range slightly.
Anyway a great weekend's testing for me, and a great experience for PL, who was thoroughly converted to the track, although he was eyeing up those Triumph Daytona 675's, so I am not sure he is completely 2-stroke crazy - yet!
Monday, 8 August 2011
Technical Update
Finished the 350 over the weekend - refitted exhaust, and tested powervalve - everything seems OK. So got to work on the 500, I wanted to check the clutch operation, and fit bigger pilot jets going up from the standard 25's to 30's - may be a little excessive but according to people on the gamma list that's what I should be running with all the other mods to the bike - maybe it will make it easier to get off the line. I also refitted the connecting tubes to the carb trunks, in order to ensure I am getting cooler air into the carbs instead of picking up hot air from behind the radiator. I removed one exhaust, in order to get a clear view of the oil drain plug, drained the oil, and removed the clutch cover, nothing interesting in the clutch, my washers were still in place, and everything seems OK, I did however notice that one of the power valve covers was loose, which could have been causing the rattling noise I was hearing after Magny-Cours. Anyway put the clutch back, then changed all the pilot jets in the carbs, changed Nr. 1 o-ring aswell as it was looking a bit knackered. I opened the mixture screw to 1.5 turns in order to compensate for the bigger pilot jets.
In order to mess with the carb trunks, I needed to remove the petrol tank and seat unit, and when I did this, I noticed that my battery eliminator (a big capacitor) was broken, the positive connector was snapped off, unfortunately it had snapped off right at the base, so impossible to get some solder on it to fix it, so that one went in the bin, and luckily I still had a spare, so that went on. I have since ordered a couple of capacitors with a screw fixing to the terminals, which should be more solid.
Fresh oil in the gearbox, and now all is ready, we should be doing a track day at Ledenon next weekend. A couple of mates are interested in coming down, and will be trying the 350, while I will be trying to improve my times on the 500!
In order to mess with the carb trunks, I needed to remove the petrol tank and seat unit, and when I did this, I noticed that my battery eliminator (a big capacitor) was broken, the positive connector was snapped off, unfortunately it had snapped off right at the base, so impossible to get some solder on it to fix it, so that one went in the bin, and luckily I still had a spare, so that went on. I have since ordered a couple of capacitors with a screw fixing to the terminals, which should be more solid.
Fresh oil in the gearbox, and now all is ready, we should be doing a track day at Ledenon next weekend. A couple of mates are interested in coming down, and will be trying the 350, while I will be trying to improve my times on the 500!
Tuesday, 2 August 2011
Photos of broken bits
You can see the broken bush which comes pushed into the right hand Power valve covers, and also you can see a new joining part, compared to the old one which has been worn significantly giving a kind of step in it between the two valves.... Anyway these parts are now replaced, my only hope is that the valve hasn't been damaged in the process.
Tuesday, 26 July 2011
Le Mans
Hi All,
I was supposed to be at Le Mans this last weekend, however we got pushed out. I did try and get a place from the VMA (a different series), but I was too late, so we decided not to go. Next race will be at Ledenon (home circuit) on the 10th 11th September.
Whilst I was preparing the 350 for Le Mans, I thought I would investigate a rather oily mess in front of the cylinders, this turned out to be leaky power valves because the retaining clips were both broken. This is seemingly a re-occurring problem as it has happened before. It allows the valves to float back and forth, and leak mixture out between the pipes. I have found a guy that makes stainless reataining clips (RDLCCRAZY.co.uk) so they will be going in soon. While I was there I also noticed some play between the rotation of the two power valves, about 20 degress difference betwen the valves. This is more serious as it means that the driving power valve (the left one) would open 20 degrees sooner than the right hand side one. Doh... I thought it was a little down on power the last time out!
This turned out to be a broken bushing in the outside cover on the right side. I can only guess that at some point in time, due to the valve moving about, the bushing got stuck, and eventually broke into 3 pieces, it also wore the joining piece between the cylinders, again I assume because it must have been jamming. I have a new (second hand) cover on it's way, plus a new joining piece.
So the 350 will be better than new in a couple of weeks.
On the RG, I want to up the pilot jet size. A guy on the gamma list assures me that for a tuned engine bigger pilot jets make a big difference - we'll see. Plus I need to investigate the clutch noises.... I also want to attach up the carb trunks to the old air box again, I am not really satisfied with the carbs sucking their air from behind the radiator (hot air), and I think I may get cooler air from the original air box, without the filter of course! Again something to try.
I am planning to do a track day to test out both bikes in August (around the 14th).
Speak to you soon.
I was supposed to be at Le Mans this last weekend, however we got pushed out. I did try and get a place from the VMA (a different series), but I was too late, so we decided not to go. Next race will be at Ledenon (home circuit) on the 10th 11th September.
Whilst I was preparing the 350 for Le Mans, I thought I would investigate a rather oily mess in front of the cylinders, this turned out to be leaky power valves because the retaining clips were both broken. This is seemingly a re-occurring problem as it has happened before. It allows the valves to float back and forth, and leak mixture out between the pipes. I have found a guy that makes stainless reataining clips (RDLCCRAZY.co.uk) so they will be going in soon. While I was there I also noticed some play between the rotation of the two power valves, about 20 degress difference betwen the valves. This is more serious as it means that the driving power valve (the left one) would open 20 degrees sooner than the right hand side one. Doh... I thought it was a little down on power the last time out!
This turned out to be a broken bushing in the outside cover on the right side. I can only guess that at some point in time, due to the valve moving about, the bushing got stuck, and eventually broke into 3 pieces, it also wore the joining piece between the cylinders, again I assume because it must have been jamming. I have a new (second hand) cover on it's way, plus a new joining piece.
So the 350 will be better than new in a couple of weeks.
On the RG, I want to up the pilot jet size. A guy on the gamma list assures me that for a tuned engine bigger pilot jets make a big difference - we'll see. Plus I need to investigate the clutch noises.... I also want to attach up the carb trunks to the old air box again, I am not really satisfied with the carbs sucking their air from behind the radiator (hot air), and I think I may get cooler air from the original air box, without the filter of course! Again something to try.
I am planning to do a track day to test out both bikes in August (around the 14th).
Speak to you soon.
Tuesday, 5 July 2011
A photo from Magny-Cours plus oin-board video
The video below, was from a GSXR with on-board camera, you don't see me, but who cares anyway !
Wednesday, 22 June 2011
Monday, 20 June 2011
Magny Cours Race Report
Arrived at Magny Cours Friday morning, before the first free practise at 10:45. The weather was pretty dodgy with thick clouds seperated with sunny intervals, and a westerly wind blowing across the pits, so I only bought one practise session in the morning as the second practise for my category was at the end of the day.
The bike was still feeling fairly flat, with not much below 7.5K, although significant punch after. Magny Cours has 3 sets of chicanes which can be taken progressively faster as you get used to the speed of the circuit. The slowest chicane is at the "complex du Lycee" leading onto the start/finish straight and this area is often the place for last minute overtakes with interesting results as the kerbs are quite high at this area. I really like the "grande Courbe" followed by "Estoril" where, from the start finish straight you can take as much speed as you can handle into Grande Courbe and then flip over to your right hand to take "Estoril" as fast as your balls (and your rear tyre grip) will allow. I love that sensation of full out leaning whilst travelling at a fast pace. Just to add some spice there is a bump in the middle of "Estoril" which I use as a marker for full throttle, but it can de-stabalise the bike a little, which drifts the bike out towards the edge of the track - this happened to me a couple of times, but luckily the painted areas were quite grippy in the dry at least.
The bike ran well in the first session and my times started to come down to last years pace.
Cleaned off the bike during the afternoon, as there is a bit of petroil mix coming from some where which is liberally covering the engine - I am not sure if it is coming from the carb area or unburnt mixture from leaky exhaust manifolds. I also changed my rear sprocket to a 39 tooth (up from 38), as I was only really using 6th at the very end of the long straight.
As the weather stayed clement I bought a second session at the end of the day, which went pretty well again, and I finished the session by a plug chop cutting the ignition at the end of the last lap and rolling back into the pits - Libby pushed me downhill back to our installation. The plugs looked a bit light (difficult to tell with SP98) but hey, I thought it was worth jetting up a little, especially as the weather forecast for Saturday was cooler, I just managed to finish the left side carbs (going up to 240 rear and 230 front), and the heavens opened, and we had to get the bike under cover to finish the right hand side carbs.
We had dinner with the bikes sharing our space under the tent, and keeping our feet off the ground as the water poured through the car park.
Saturday morning we had timed practise, and we awoke to rain on the windows of our bedroom (the van windscreen!). Cold and wet - typical English conditions - all the French guys think I should go well in the wet, but I hate it, plus I don't have any wet tyres..... Anyway the weather cleared a little for our session, and with a strong wind the track was dry, I managed a 2:09 in timed practise which put me in the middle of the grid. The grid is full as Magny-Cours is a popular circuit, so there were over 50 bikes in practise with 44 taking place on the final grid. Jetting up had made a considerable difference to the bike, it was fuller as it came on pipe and it reved out cleaner, so that was a good move.
The rest of the day, alternated between rain and sun, with the track drying out occasionally. Sunday forecast was for cloud and sun but no rain!
Race 1
I got an OK start from the 7th line, but with a long straight before the first bend I still had the big four strokes coming past on all sides, after the first time around "Estoril" and then the long straight towards "Adelaide" spread out the pack and I found myself fighting with a Kawa ZXR750 and a GSXR, where they definately had me on the longer straights, but I could make up time with higher corner speeds and more bottle on the fast bends. Eventually the Kawa got the better of me, and he was off, and then I spent the final laps battling it out with No. 71, finally getting past him under braking at the "Chateau d'Eau", fully expecting him to come straight back past under acceleration, but he waited until the right hand, right angle bend at the "lycee" to try and out brake me, he came past really too late, and over shot his bend, and I tucked in inside and got back past him, and then the final chicane on the straight, with the flag 100 metres further up, I managed to stay in front! Good race. My best lap was a 2:08 on the second to last lap! The race was won by an 851 Ducati with a best time of 1:54 - phew....
Race 2
I got a really crap start, the bike bogged a little, and I got stuck behind a slower guy at "Estoril", I got past a load of guys at the next few bends, and basically at the end of the lap I was back behind No. 71again! Fortunately I was on a roll and managed to take him almost immediately, and make my way to the next group, I was really pulling out all the stops to reach the guy in front, and I managed to put in a best lap of 2:05.7, so I was pushing my limit, however despite him making a few errors I was never in a position to get past. I did however find some areas where I improved my speed a lot, and there are still some seconds to come off my time! I finished 23rd - a fair way down, but I had a good time!
Thanks to my pit crew (Libby) for her support during the weekend!
The bike was still feeling fairly flat, with not much below 7.5K, although significant punch after. Magny Cours has 3 sets of chicanes which can be taken progressively faster as you get used to the speed of the circuit. The slowest chicane is at the "complex du Lycee" leading onto the start/finish straight and this area is often the place for last minute overtakes with interesting results as the kerbs are quite high at this area. I really like the "grande Courbe" followed by "Estoril" where, from the start finish straight you can take as much speed as you can handle into Grande Courbe and then flip over to your right hand to take "Estoril" as fast as your balls (and your rear tyre grip) will allow. I love that sensation of full out leaning whilst travelling at a fast pace. Just to add some spice there is a bump in the middle of "Estoril" which I use as a marker for full throttle, but it can de-stabalise the bike a little, which drifts the bike out towards the edge of the track - this happened to me a couple of times, but luckily the painted areas were quite grippy in the dry at least.
The bike ran well in the first session and my times started to come down to last years pace.
Cleaned off the bike during the afternoon, as there is a bit of petroil mix coming from some where which is liberally covering the engine - I am not sure if it is coming from the carb area or unburnt mixture from leaky exhaust manifolds. I also changed my rear sprocket to a 39 tooth (up from 38), as I was only really using 6th at the very end of the long straight.
As the weather stayed clement I bought a second session at the end of the day, which went pretty well again, and I finished the session by a plug chop cutting the ignition at the end of the last lap and rolling back into the pits - Libby pushed me downhill back to our installation. The plugs looked a bit light (difficult to tell with SP98) but hey, I thought it was worth jetting up a little, especially as the weather forecast for Saturday was cooler, I just managed to finish the left side carbs (going up to 240 rear and 230 front), and the heavens opened, and we had to get the bike under cover to finish the right hand side carbs.
We had dinner with the bikes sharing our space under the tent, and keeping our feet off the ground as the water poured through the car park.
Saturday morning we had timed practise, and we awoke to rain on the windows of our bedroom (the van windscreen!). Cold and wet - typical English conditions - all the French guys think I should go well in the wet, but I hate it, plus I don't have any wet tyres..... Anyway the weather cleared a little for our session, and with a strong wind the track was dry, I managed a 2:09 in timed practise which put me in the middle of the grid. The grid is full as Magny-Cours is a popular circuit, so there were over 50 bikes in practise with 44 taking place on the final grid. Jetting up had made a considerable difference to the bike, it was fuller as it came on pipe and it reved out cleaner, so that was a good move.
The rest of the day, alternated between rain and sun, with the track drying out occasionally. Sunday forecast was for cloud and sun but no rain!
Race 1
I got an OK start from the 7th line, but with a long straight before the first bend I still had the big four strokes coming past on all sides, after the first time around "Estoril" and then the long straight towards "Adelaide" spread out the pack and I found myself fighting with a Kawa ZXR750 and a GSXR, where they definately had me on the longer straights, but I could make up time with higher corner speeds and more bottle on the fast bends. Eventually the Kawa got the better of me, and he was off, and then I spent the final laps battling it out with No. 71, finally getting past him under braking at the "Chateau d'Eau", fully expecting him to come straight back past under acceleration, but he waited until the right hand, right angle bend at the "lycee" to try and out brake me, he came past really too late, and over shot his bend, and I tucked in inside and got back past him, and then the final chicane on the straight, with the flag 100 metres further up, I managed to stay in front! Good race. My best lap was a 2:08 on the second to last lap! The race was won by an 851 Ducati with a best time of 1:54 - phew....
Race 2
I got a really crap start, the bike bogged a little, and I got stuck behind a slower guy at "Estoril", I got past a load of guys at the next few bends, and basically at the end of the lap I was back behind No. 71again! Fortunately I was on a roll and managed to take him almost immediately, and make my way to the next group, I was really pulling out all the stops to reach the guy in front, and I managed to put in a best lap of 2:05.7, so I was pushing my limit, however despite him making a few errors I was never in a position to get past. I did however find some areas where I improved my speed a lot, and there are still some seconds to come off my time! I finished 23rd - a fair way down, but I had a good time!
Thanks to my pit crew (Libby) for her support during the weekend!
Wednesday, 15 June 2011
Technical Update
Hi All,
A very quick update before the Magny Cours weekend. One of the listers on the RG 500 mailing list had a problem with his exhaust valves not opening correctly due to a missing gasket on the exhaust valve external cover, and I had omitted one of the gasket's on mine last time I took the cylinders off. Unfortunately you need to remove the cylinder or unbolt the engine mounts to take the forward exhaust valve cover (actually the bit under the cover) off. Instead of doing this, I just made up a gasket out of an old coffee box, and split it with scissors, you can actually loosen the cover, and then slide the gasket in position without doing all the rest....
We will see if it leaks!
I also changed the rear sprocket to a 39 to give me some more speed as Magny cours is much faster than Croix-en-Ternois. I also rebalanced my carbs as the cables seemed a little loose on number one cylinder. I will be travelling up on Thursday evening to participate in the Friday morning practise.
Bad news for Pau and Le Mans. I have had to cancel going to Pau on the July 9/10th weekend due to house moving, and unfortunately ProClassic have been kicked out of Le Mans on the 23/24 th July. I am trying to reserve a spot in the VMA races (at Le Mans) for the same weekend, otherwise no racing until September!!!
Speak after the weekend.
A very quick update before the Magny Cours weekend. One of the listers on the RG 500 mailing list had a problem with his exhaust valves not opening correctly due to a missing gasket on the exhaust valve external cover, and I had omitted one of the gasket's on mine last time I took the cylinders off. Unfortunately you need to remove the cylinder or unbolt the engine mounts to take the forward exhaust valve cover (actually the bit under the cover) off. Instead of doing this, I just made up a gasket out of an old coffee box, and split it with scissors, you can actually loosen the cover, and then slide the gasket in position without doing all the rest....
We will see if it leaks!
I also changed the rear sprocket to a 39 to give me some more speed as Magny cours is much faster than Croix-en-Ternois. I also rebalanced my carbs as the cables seemed a little loose on number one cylinder. I will be travelling up on Thursday evening to participate in the Friday morning practise.
Bad news for Pau and Le Mans. I have had to cancel going to Pau on the July 9/10th weekend due to house moving, and unfortunately ProClassic have been kicked out of Le Mans on the 23/24 th July. I am trying to reserve a spot in the VMA races (at Le Mans) for the same weekend, otherwise no racing until September!!!
Speak after the weekend.
Monday, 16 May 2011
Technical Update
This weekend I set about measuring as accurately as possible the squish clearance of my cylinders, and I learnt some stuff in the process.
I started out using 2mm diameter solder which I bent into "L" shapes with roughly the radius of a piston, I then inserted the solder into the combustion chamber via the spark plug hole, and trying to get the solder pointing along the gudgeon pin axis, and touching the cylinder wall, you turn the engine over and the piston squashes the solder. In principle you remove the solder and measure your squish clearance. You then do it again in the same cylinder but on the opposite side of the piston, and then you have two readings which you add together and take an average.
The problem of this approach is that you can not be sure that your solder is really at the edge of the piston, and therefore it is not as accurate as hoped (good for a quick check though!).
A more accurate method, is to remove the cylinder head, and then "stick" some solder along the axis of the gudgeon pin with some grease, ensuring that as you move the piston the solder is not moved by any ports, once you are convinced that the solder will not move, you position the pistons some where in the middle of their travel ie. not at TDC or BDC, then you replace the cylinder head, and torque it down, and then using the kick start you turn the engine until both pistons have come to TDC (one after the other) and squashed the solder, if you have put too much grease to hold the solder in place, the solder may stick to the cylinder head, so care should be taken to only do one revolution of the engine - no more as the solder will have moved, and the results will be spoilt. You then remove the cylinder head, and remove the solder, and measure the squish clearance. Repeat for the other cylinders!
This method proved far more accurate although the next challenge is where to measure the thickness of your solder! When the solder is pushed up against the cylinder wall, and then squashed, the very tip of the solder is not squashed, because it is in the clearance gap between the piston and cylinder wall, so you end up will a small ridge of solder at the very tip, which should you measure here, will give incorrect results. You need to measure just behind this ridge at the very smallest width - I have tried to represent this in the following diagram.
The problem of this approach is that you can not be sure that your solder is really at the edge of the piston, and therefore it is not as accurate as hoped (good for a quick check though!).
A more accurate method, is to remove the cylinder head, and then "stick" some solder along the axis of the gudgeon pin with some grease, ensuring that as you move the piston the solder is not moved by any ports, once you are convinced that the solder will not move, you position the pistons some where in the middle of their travel ie. not at TDC or BDC, then you replace the cylinder head, and torque it down, and then using the kick start you turn the engine until both pistons have come to TDC (one after the other) and squashed the solder, if you have put too much grease to hold the solder in place, the solder may stick to the cylinder head, so care should be taken to only do one revolution of the engine - no more as the solder will have moved, and the results will be spoilt. You then remove the cylinder head, and remove the solder, and measure the squish clearance. Repeat for the other cylinders!
This method proved far more accurate although the next challenge is where to measure the thickness of your solder! When the solder is pushed up against the cylinder wall, and then squashed, the very tip of the solder is not squashed, because it is in the clearance gap between the piston and cylinder wall, so you end up will a small ridge of solder at the very tip, which should you measure here, will give incorrect results. You need to measure just behind this ridge at the very smallest width - I have tried to represent this in the following diagram.
Of course the other problem is the width of your vernier caliper, which induces some error in the measurement although mine has a quite sharp edge which I used to insert just after the ridge of solder.
On a 125cc cylinder the squish clearance is given as an optimum of 0.8mm, mine were all measuring around 0.78 or 0.75 mms, which is just about within tolerance. So I will not be changing them, which is somewhat of a disappointment, as it means there is no additional power to be had there!
Monday, 9 May 2011
Circuit Elevation for Jetting
Le Mans 70m
C-en-T 122m
Magny Cours 222m
Nogaro 96m
Pau-Arnos 202m
Le Vigeant 160m
Carole 73m
Ledenon 175-201m
Dijon Prenois 483m
Pommiers 589m
Grand Vivier 784m
minus 305m should equal an increase in main jet of 5 points
minus 609m should equal an increase in main jet of 10 points (for Mikuni 042 jets)
And of course assuming constant temperature and humidity.
C-en-T 122m
Magny Cours 222m
Nogaro 96m
Pau-Arnos 202m
Le Vigeant 160m
Carole 73m
Ledenon 175-201m
Dijon Prenois 483m
Pommiers 589m
Grand Vivier 784m
minus 305m should equal an increase in main jet of 5 points
minus 609m should equal an increase in main jet of 10 points (for Mikuni 042 jets)
And of course assuming constant temperature and humidity.
Friday, 6 May 2011
Technical Update
So the list of things to do get's bigger. I have ordered some different thickness base gaskets (0.25mms and 0.75mms) in order to get my squish down to 0.8mms. I have been reading all I can about setting squish, and I really need to be working out my compression ratio aswell. This involves measuring the capacity of the head - with a piece of (greased) plastic sealing the bottom, you pour water into the top from a graduated syringe and hence you measure the capacity of the head. You also need to measure the height of the exhaust port, and then you use a complex formula to get the compression ratio and the corrected compression ratio.
Hmmmmm.... I need to brush up on this, although taking the measurements would seem relatively straight forward.
I have ordered a new rear tyre, which will get fitted at the circuit.
I need to alter the final gearing for Magny Cours which is one of the fastest circuits of the year, so I will go down to my smallest sprocket at the back on the RG, and on the RD I will put on the biggest gearbox sprocket!
I can also improve on my cooling system. I made up some plastic fairing pieces which deflect air into the radiator, and these can be modified to fit better, and to seal better to the rest of the fairing.
Hmmmmm.... I need to brush up on this, although taking the measurements would seem relatively straight forward.
I have ordered a new rear tyre, which will get fitted at the circuit.
I need to alter the final gearing for Magny Cours which is one of the fastest circuits of the year, so I will go down to my smallest sprocket at the back on the RG, and on the RD I will put on the biggest gearbox sprocket!
I can also improve on my cooling system. I made up some plastic fairing pieces which deflect air into the radiator, and these can be modified to fit better, and to seal better to the rest of the fairing.
Tuesday, 3 May 2011
Croix-en-Ternois Race Report
Arrived at the circuit Friday lunch time, unpacked the bikes and the van, and booked myself 4 practise sessions to really run the RG in. The RG started fine, and although initially only running on 3 cylinders (well spotted Libby!) - I had left a plug cap off, I let it warm up on the stand two full cycles before taking to the track.
As a reminder, the changes since the last race (seized), new pistons (now Technium Honda CR125 items), new small end bearings, gudgeon pins, rings etc... with a rebore. After having checked the squish clearance, I was running at around 0.5mms of squish which is too low. The recommended squish is anywhere between 0.8 and 1.0 mms, so I added another 0.5mm base gasket to bring me up to around 1.0mm. Whilst this is on the big side, it will certainly be less fragile. Also I upped the main jets in the rear carbs, to 230's and added the carb trunks which I consider to be worth at least 5 points of richening.
Nothing to report after 3 sessions of gently bringing the RG up to full revs. We didn't get to complete the fourth session (or even start it) as the heavens opened and we were all awash. The bike was running quite cool at around 65-70 degrees C, which is a good sign.
Saturday morning, I had to qualify with the 350, so despite a damp track I went out to qualify near the back of the grid - I was having problems getting confidence in the drying conditions, and I couldn't get my lap speeds down.
Next out on the now completely dry track, I managed to qualify the RG 500 with a 1:04, which whilst 6 seconds off the leaders pace, it did allow me to qualify for the Superbike final - all be it from the back row. Both bikes were running well, if a little soft, I probably needed to down jet on the 350 a little, and reduce the squish on the 500.
Classic Race1
I got a reasonable start from the rear of the classic grid and managed to pull back some places before the hairpin at turn 1. The organisers had mixed up the slower superbikes with the classics, and although this did provide more bikes, it was a bit of a pain as these bigger bikes are faster on the straights than my 350 so it was a case of lots of overtaking in the bends and then get blasted on the straights. I got my best lap time down to 1:05.8 which is 1 second off what I can do on the 350. I finished 3rd classic bike.
Superbike Race1
Starting from the last row, I was last into the first bend, I had some fun with a VFR750, and a GSXR, on the first few laps. The race was red flagged because of a petrol spill and a multiple pile up involving one rider needing hospitalisation (broken ribs and collar bone). On the restart I was up a grid row, with all the fallers behind me, and whilst they didn't stay there long, it made the rest of the race entertaining. My fastest lap was a 1:04.697 finishing at 22nd position - not last but nearly!
Saturday evening was again stormy from around 17:00 onwards, so much so, we were grateful to have booked a meal in the circuit restaurent!
Classic Race 2
Starting from the second row, I got a reasonable start, and straight away got past my competitors in the classic category, with only the TZ350, and a Ducati in front. I kept roughly the same position, not being able to pick up time on the guys in front, but once again losing out to the bigger power of the Superbikes that were racing with us. The best lap time I could manage was a lowly 1:06.
Superbike Race 2
Once again starting from the rear, the race was consistent with the first i.e. I was fighting to keep off the last place, which once again I managed but only due to the unfortunate fallers or break downs. Still the bike went reasonably well, nothing to report, pulling quite well 'til around 11k rpm.
I will be changing tyres for the next weekend at Magny Cours, and I will need to change the squish on the RG to be a little more agressive. Speak to you soon, and thanks for Chris and Libby for coming to watch.
I will post video soon.
For memory, the gearing on the 350 was too short, being difficult in a number of spots reving to high out of bend 2 and having to short shift into bend 5 (before hairpin). The gearing on the 500 was fine using a 42 tooth sprocket at the back, and standard at the front.
As a reminder, the changes since the last race (seized), new pistons (now Technium Honda CR125 items), new small end bearings, gudgeon pins, rings etc... with a rebore. After having checked the squish clearance, I was running at around 0.5mms of squish which is too low. The recommended squish is anywhere between 0.8 and 1.0 mms, so I added another 0.5mm base gasket to bring me up to around 1.0mm. Whilst this is on the big side, it will certainly be less fragile. Also I upped the main jets in the rear carbs, to 230's and added the carb trunks which I consider to be worth at least 5 points of richening.
Nothing to report after 3 sessions of gently bringing the RG up to full revs. We didn't get to complete the fourth session (or even start it) as the heavens opened and we were all awash. The bike was running quite cool at around 65-70 degrees C, which is a good sign.
Saturday morning, I had to qualify with the 350, so despite a damp track I went out to qualify near the back of the grid - I was having problems getting confidence in the drying conditions, and I couldn't get my lap speeds down.
Next out on the now completely dry track, I managed to qualify the RG 500 with a 1:04, which whilst 6 seconds off the leaders pace, it did allow me to qualify for the Superbike final - all be it from the back row. Both bikes were running well, if a little soft, I probably needed to down jet on the 350 a little, and reduce the squish on the 500.
Classic Race1
I got a reasonable start from the rear of the classic grid and managed to pull back some places before the hairpin at turn 1. The organisers had mixed up the slower superbikes with the classics, and although this did provide more bikes, it was a bit of a pain as these bigger bikes are faster on the straights than my 350 so it was a case of lots of overtaking in the bends and then get blasted on the straights. I got my best lap time down to 1:05.8 which is 1 second off what I can do on the 350. I finished 3rd classic bike.
Superbike Race1
Starting from the last row, I was last into the first bend, I had some fun with a VFR750, and a GSXR, on the first few laps. The race was red flagged because of a petrol spill and a multiple pile up involving one rider needing hospitalisation (broken ribs and collar bone). On the restart I was up a grid row, with all the fallers behind me, and whilst they didn't stay there long, it made the rest of the race entertaining. My fastest lap was a 1:04.697 finishing at 22nd position - not last but nearly!
Saturday evening was again stormy from around 17:00 onwards, so much so, we were grateful to have booked a meal in the circuit restaurent!
Classic Race 2
Starting from the second row, I got a reasonable start, and straight away got past my competitors in the classic category, with only the TZ350, and a Ducati in front. I kept roughly the same position, not being able to pick up time on the guys in front, but once again losing out to the bigger power of the Superbikes that were racing with us. The best lap time I could manage was a lowly 1:06.
Superbike Race 2
Once again starting from the rear, the race was consistent with the first i.e. I was fighting to keep off the last place, which once again I managed but only due to the unfortunate fallers or break downs. Still the bike went reasonably well, nothing to report, pulling quite well 'til around 11k rpm.
I will be changing tyres for the next weekend at Magny Cours, and I will need to change the squish on the RG to be a little more agressive. Speak to you soon, and thanks for Chris and Libby for coming to watch.
I will post video soon.
For memory, the gearing on the 350 was too short, being difficult in a number of spots reving to high out of bend 2 and having to short shift into bend 5 (before hairpin). The gearing on the 500 was fine using a 42 tooth sprocket at the back, and standard at the front.
Tuesday, 26 April 2011
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.
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.
Monday, 18 April 2011
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!
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!
Friday, 8 April 2011
Thursday, 7 April 2011
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!)
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!)
Tuesday, 5 April 2011
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!
Thursday, 31 March 2011
The Van's full and ready to go!
Well, not quite as much space in the van as compared with the trailer and car, so it's a bit of a squeeze, however everything is in (even the bicycle!), so we are leaving this evening and stopping off in Montpellier, and finishing the trip Friday morning.Should reach the circuit at around midday.
Weather forecast is good for Friday & Saturday but showers are forecast for the two races on Sunday. Good thing I didn't buy any wet tyres, otherwise I would have another decision to make :-)
Weather forecast is good for Friday & Saturday but showers are forecast for the two races on Sunday. Good thing I didn't buy any wet tyres, otherwise I would have another decision to make :-)
Sunday, 27 March 2011
Starting bikes
Mixed up some fuel, poured a couple of litres, into the Yam and Suz. 3 kicks on the Yam was enough to breath it into life and smell that two stroke aroma. Took it up the road just to make sure I could get through the gears and all was OK, the gear lever is a little high, but that will get adjusted as necessary at Nogaro next weekend.
I was kinda putting off starting the Suz, but everything worked fine, about 5 kicks was enough to charge the battery eliminator, and it started fine, running it up the road and what a difference the new clutch plates make - won't celebrate too soon, but it did seem like the dragging clutch has gone, and I could even get to neutral really easily - hope for the best. The Dzus fittings are a little fiddley but quicker than screws. Next week first race report!
Wednesday, 23 March 2011
Technical Update
The bikes are both nearly ready. Distilled water has replaced the anti-freeze (put in over winter - but illegal on the track), the pipes are back on the RG, and the battery has been installed in the RD. Both bikes are basically ready to roll. I will start the bikes this week, and ensure everything is running OK, then prepare for Nogaro.
Sunday, 6 March 2011
The van
I may have mentioned I bought a Renault Trafic to serve as race transport this year. The van will be cheaper to run than the car plus trailer and also it will go through the "peages" cheaper as it is less high than the trailer.
But will everything fit in - you don't realise the amount of "stuff" that becomes indispensable when trying to keep 2 bikes running all weekend. Well it was clear from the start that we would never fit all the crap in the trailer and car into the back of the van. This weekend we made a trial run, and in fact I was surprised at exactly what we could fit it.
I took the opportunity to down jet the Suzuki to 220's as it was really still too rich at 230's at Ledenon, although first race of the year is at Nogaro in 4 weeks, and Nogaro has this notorious long straight which has never been lucky for me - I have seized both bikes at the end of the straight! So I am hoping that the temperature will be less extreme than during the summer (the RG hit 94 degrees C last year when it seized, with an external temperature of around 34 degrees!), and I will keep the tickover really high, and the choke on at the end of the straight to ensure enough cooling fuel lubicates the cylinders!
But will everything fit in - you don't realise the amount of "stuff" that becomes indispensable when trying to keep 2 bikes running all weekend. Well it was clear from the start that we would never fit all the crap in the trailer and car into the back of the van. This weekend we made a trial run, and in fact I was surprised at exactly what we could fit it.
I took the opportunity to down jet the Suzuki to 220's as it was really still too rich at 230's at Ledenon, although first race of the year is at Nogaro in 4 weeks, and Nogaro has this notorious long straight which has never been lucky for me - I have seized both bikes at the end of the straight! So I am hoping that the temperature will be less extreme than during the summer (the RG hit 94 degrees C last year when it seized, with an external temperature of around 34 degrees!), and I will keep the tickover really high, and the choke on at the end of the straight to ensure enough cooling fuel lubicates the cylinders!
Sunday, 20 February 2011
Finished fairing
Well I put the finishing touches to the fairing on the RG this weekend. I completed the last DZUS fastener on the part of the fairing below the radiater - I don't know how it will hold up because the original holes are VERY close the edge - anyway we'll see.
I also took to the top of the fairing with the dremel cutting wheel and sliced off a couple of centimetres from each side so that the clipons have a bit more space to move. Last year the technical scrutineers were always having a go at me, because there wasn't enough space between my hands and the fairing edge - well that solved now! I wanted to touch up the cut edge with black paint, so I opened up a can of PJ1 gloss "fast black" paint, and then proceeded to get extremely frustrated with it, as the nozzle would just not fit in the hole, I ended up with paint all over my hands! I sent of a complaint to them, because they must be sending out the wrong size nozzles!
I need to get the bikes going again soon, just to ensure my peace of mind that they still work. I am going to be running in the Grand Prix Classic Endurance at Carole with Francois Dejardin on his VFR, as his brother kindly gave up his place (he fell off his road bike, and has broken his rotula), so that should be interesting - that's at the end of April (23/24th in Paris!).
Speak soon.
I also took to the top of the fairing with the dremel cutting wheel and sliced off a couple of centimetres from each side so that the clipons have a bit more space to move. Last year the technical scrutineers were always having a go at me, because there wasn't enough space between my hands and the fairing edge - well that solved now! I wanted to touch up the cut edge with black paint, so I opened up a can of PJ1 gloss "fast black" paint, and then proceeded to get extremely frustrated with it, as the nozzle would just not fit in the hole, I ended up with paint all over my hands! I sent of a complaint to them, because they must be sending out the wrong size nozzles!
I need to get the bikes going again soon, just to ensure my peace of mind that they still work. I am going to be running in the Grand Prix Classic Endurance at Carole with Francois Dejardin on his VFR, as his brother kindly gave up his place (he fell off his road bike, and has broken his rotula), so that should be interesting - that's at the end of April (23/24th in Paris!).
Tuesday, 8 February 2011
Healthy and ready to race....
Just a quick note to say I had a new ultrasound on my leg today, and the blood clot has almost disappeared so the Doctor agreed I would only need another month of medication, and I could stop the anti coagulants at the end of March - Just in time for Nogaro on the 2/3 April.
Looks like we're ready to rock and roll!!!!
Looks like we're ready to rock and roll!!!!
Sunday, 30 January 2011
Almost finished DZUS fasteners
Well when I came to fitting the upper fairing with the DZUS fasteners I couldn't lip them over the edge of the fairing due to the holes being to far in, but after some research the fitting seem to be fitted either lipped over the fairings or simply positioned over the hole - which is what I tried to do, this didn't turn out as planned because using this method it makes the whole thickness 3-4 mm thicker, so the male parts were too short - Where have I heard that before :-)
I ordered some longer male parts but even these didn't do the job for some reason as there angle of attack was to abrupt and they got stuck on the females.... In the end one of the Gamma listes suggested I notched the fairing to be able to place the females over the edge of the fairing - this worked a treat and so now the upper fairings are now complete.
I ordered some longer male parts but even these didn't do the job for some reason as there angle of attack was to abrupt and they got stuck on the females.... In the end one of the Gamma listes suggested I notched the fairing to be able to place the females over the edge of the fairing - this worked a treat and so now the upper fairings are now complete.
Sunday, 23 January 2011
Kevlar clutch
Hi All,
I wanted to try Kevlar clutch plates in the RG, and as the only source seemed to be from RG500.com at $120, problem is it is very expensive to ship from the US, so I thought I would try and find the equivalent at EBC in Europe. I had read that the ZX6R clutch plates were similar, so looking at the EBCbrakesDirect site for both the RG500 and the ZX6R you find the same reference in standard clutch plates, but no reference for the RG.
Being as the standard clutch plates are the same, the logic goes that the Kevlar ZX6R ones would also fit, so I ordered a set. Unfortunately they only seem to sell them as a kit with the springs, which are not at all the same, probably twice as long, anyway this morning I took the RG clutch down, and compared the plates. Almost exactly right, although the ZXR ones are 143 in overall diameter versus the RG plates at 141mms. On installing the plates I can confirm that they do seem to fit, and do not rub at all. The other difference is that the ZXR plates have a notch cut out of every third tab, but I don’t think that is of any consequence. For reference the Kevlar plates come up around 2.8mms in thickness, and there are nine in the kit.
The reference at EBC for the kit including springs is : SCR 038 and I ordered mine here :-
for 90 pounds plus shipping. Given current exchange rates this is probably more expensive for America, however this is cheaper that getting the RG500.com ones shipped.
So they are in the bike now, I just need to find a suitable oil, and I will be able to test my new clutch.
Wednesday, 19 January 2011
Programme for 2011 book your diaries!
The calendar for 2011 has been published on the ProClassic site :-
Health permitting, my name is down for all the races, I will see if I can find a partner for the endurance races.
- 2/3 April Nogaro
- 30/1May Croix en Ternois
- 18/19 June Magny-Cours
- 9/10 July Pau
- 23/24 July Le Mans
- 10/11 September Ledenon
- 1/2 October Croix en Ternois
Grand Prix Endurance Classic :
- 23/24 April Carole
- 1/2 October Croix en Ternois
Health permitting, my name is down for all the races, I will see if I can find a partner for the endurance races.
- 2/3 April Nogaro
- 30/1May Croix en Ternois
- 18/19 June Magny-Cours
- 9/10 July Pau
- 23/24 July Le Mans
- 10/11 September Ledenon
- 1/2 October Croix en Ternois
Grand Prix Endurance Classic :
- 23/24 April Carole
- 1/2 October Croix en Ternois
Monday, 17 January 2011
Dzus Fasteners
Hi all, I started to fit my DZUS quarter turn fasteners at the weekend. I bought 14mm long ones with a riveted female part. I chose the riveted type because the holes in the fairing are not all at the right distance from the edge of the fairing to be able to use the clip-on type. Using the riveted type you can have the choice of either sliding them over the edge of the fairing or placing where you like on the fairing so that both “female” parts are on one side of the fairing.
I wanted to try to use the same holes as my old screw in fasteners, so this required that I removed the captive screw-in female part. These are kind of crimped to the fairing, I imagine that when they are installed they go through a fixed size hole and then some tool is used to squash them so that they can no longer escape through the hole. So to remove them you have to cut off the oversized part so the remainder will go through the hole. First off I thought I would simply drill the large diameter part off, but this proved difficult because as soon as the drill bit caught on the brass fitting it simple started turning in the fairing, and wearing away the fairing, so I eventually used the cutting wheel on the dremel to cut away the “head” of the female part, this worked OK, but I made a few marks on the fairing which will need touching up with black paint – I started on purpose on the lower part of the fairing where the fasteners are hidden from view!
With the old female screw part removed, I needed to line up the female DZUS part, and drill 2 small holes the same diameter as the pop rivets supplied with the fittings. After drilling one hole I pop riveted the fastener on so that I could use it as a guide for the second hole, this worked pretty well, and the female part of the DZUS fitting is securely fastened to the fairing. In order to fit the male part, I simply used a 7 mm drill to bring out the hole size to fit the male part through. It’s very difficult to stop the paint and top gel coat splintering with a new drill (I didn’t have a 7mm drill), so next time I will try enlarging the diameter with a file, or stick some tape on the area to hold things together. You need to fit the first nylon washer then push the part through the newly enlarged hole, and then fit the second washer, this keeps the male part in place even when undone. I fastened the two fairing halves together using the three fasteners I had completed, and off the bike they seem to hold the fairing halved together pretty well. Next I have to attack the upper halves, and it will show if I bugger it up so I will take it carefully.
I also received in the post today two SteadyStands which I will be using in the van to hold the front wheels of the bikes. They came from a company AKXION in France near Ales (circuit) who distribute all sorts of interesting stuff to hold bikes. They gave me a small discount for racers, and the products were exactly as they said they would be. I have already put them together as you can see from the 2 photos, which was pretty easy.
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