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.
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