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!