Another big weekend coming up at Magny-Cours in the center of France. I am racing both the 350 with the VMA club and the RG500 with ProClassic, so it will be a busy weekend. I have setup the gearing to run 15/39 on both bikes. I've stuck with 230/240 main jets on the 500, although probably a bit rich, and the 350 is still on 390's, which should be rich aswell dependant on the weather.
I have changed the twistgrip on the RG, and the new one has a much larger diameter, so quicker action, so should be good, I have also relinked the carb trunks up to the air box, to try and prove once and for all where the premix is coming from. I also changed the gearbox oil, (Silkolene Pro75(?) gearbox oil) and cover just in case there was an oil leak coming from the clutch actuation lever or somewhere else. Like this I should be able to at least count out leaky carbs and/or gearbox oil, as the culprit for my oily engine! There is a chance that connecting up the carbs trunks to the box, will make the engine run rich, but I will see after the first practise. The metal plates in the clutch were bluing quite badly which means the clutch is slipping quite a lot, I may need to find some stronger springs
Other than that, everything should be ready to go.
Monday, 30 July 2012
Thursday, 26 July 2012
On-board
On board footage from le Mans Race 2 - see if you can spot me (62).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9u7uUFNv_w
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9u7uUFNv_w
Tuesday, 24 July 2012
Race weekend 4 - Le Mans
Back at work, after a great weekend at Le Mans, the 4th weekend on the ProClassic Calender. Arrived at the circuit on Friday midday, after going through a couple of rain storms, on the way up through France.
Found the paddock, and installed the tent, and van, and got the bike ready. Running 230/240s as main jets this weekend (at least to start), and I had left the gearing quite short (14/41). 10 litres of premix in the tank, and of for the first practise of the day. Unfortunatley we were just out for 4 laps or so, as the rain came down, and there was a bad fall just after the Dunlop chicane. The guy on a nice RC30, high sided, and fell on his head, so was unconscious, so the red flags came out.
Anyway it was enough laps to establish that my gearing was too short for the long start/finish straight, I was running out of steam going into the Dunlop bend, plus I had altered my needle to the third clip setting, which did not improve my hole in acceleration, so I would need to go back to the second slot down from the top.
For the second practise session, the carburation was back to normal, and I changed the rear sprocket to a 39. The second practise was also dry, so I set about learning the track, and trying to get to grips with the chicanes. Le Mans, is a great circuit, the start/finish straight ends with a top speed right hand sweeping bend running into a left/right chicane under the Dunlop bridge, if then runs downhill to a long/tight right hand bend (La Chappelle), and up to the Musée, where the braking point comes up on you very quickly, and then around and down to the double right hand bend (Garage vert), and then down the back straight 'til Le Chemin aux Boeufs, another tricky chicane (where Simoncelli took out Pedrossi), then onto the "S" du Garage Bleue, a nice right and then left sequence which is quite quick, and then down to the reccordement which joins you back up with the main straight again. It's a nice long circuit, just over 4kms, which I lap around the 2 minutes. Dani Pedrosa did a fastest ever lap at 1'32.647, so I have a little progress to make before changing my day job!
The 2 chicanes are key to keeping speeds up as they are one of the slowest parts of the circuit. Second practise I hit a 2:04 lap time, which was a PB, so was quite happy with the bike setup.
Saturday afternoon, we had qualification, and I could only manage a miserable 2:06, which put me 28th on a grid of 44 bikes. Pole position was 1:52, by an RC30!
Race 1
After my traditionally crappy start I went into the Dunlop chicane around the outside, and managed to get past some of the traffic, and was back in my "grid" position going into the Garage vert. I had a pretty good race, battling with a GSXR, who I was quicker into the Dunlop chicane, but he had me around the Garage vert, and eventually he managed to keep in front, and I finished yep - 28th, with a best time of 2:04.295.
There are just so many places where it seems like you can go quicker, I was determined to do better on Race 2.
Race 2
No changes for Race 2, and again, I got a real bad start, but managed to claw my way back to behind the same GSXR as the first race. this time we were joined by a ZXR 750, and a guy on a CB6 600, I managed to stay in front to them right up to about 3 laps from the end, when both the GSXR and ZXR came through.
I finished 27th with a best lap of 2:04.273, yippee another PB, but still with some work to do.
From a technical perspective, I still have a lot of petroil mix covering the engine after each race. It seems to drip from as far forward as the exhaust valve on the front cylinders, back and around the carbs on both sides... I have tried changing the all the rubber o'rings around the carbs, and I have also now changed the black plastic carb insulators, all to no avale. I currently run with just the carb inlet trunks (not connected to the air box), and I will be trying to connect up to the airbox, to see if the reflux or petroil is coming out of the carbs inlets or whether I really do have a leak. I would have thought that if the carbs were leaking I would be seizing or suffering from air leaks somewhere as well. Someone told me that with tuned disk valves, there is a lot of mixture that comes back out of the carbs. All the plugs have consistant colouring and seem quite rich. The only other technical mishap, was the gear change return started to mess up, and this turned out to be that the shaft was pushed too far to the right, and therefore binding on something on the clutch side, I pulled it out to the left and retightened the small collar to avoid it moving again.
Thanks to my pit team, Chris my brother had travelled down from Finland via the UK to pick up his bike, and my wife for supporting my habit! Video and photos coming later.
Two weeks to Magny Cours, where I will be running the RG500 and the RD350!
Found the paddock, and installed the tent, and van, and got the bike ready. Running 230/240s as main jets this weekend (at least to start), and I had left the gearing quite short (14/41). 10 litres of premix in the tank, and of for the first practise of the day. Unfortunatley we were just out for 4 laps or so, as the rain came down, and there was a bad fall just after the Dunlop chicane. The guy on a nice RC30, high sided, and fell on his head, so was unconscious, so the red flags came out.
Anyway it was enough laps to establish that my gearing was too short for the long start/finish straight, I was running out of steam going into the Dunlop bend, plus I had altered my needle to the third clip setting, which did not improve my hole in acceleration, so I would need to go back to the second slot down from the top.
For the second practise session, the carburation was back to normal, and I changed the rear sprocket to a 39. The second practise was also dry, so I set about learning the track, and trying to get to grips with the chicanes. Le Mans, is a great circuit, the start/finish straight ends with a top speed right hand sweeping bend running into a left/right chicane under the Dunlop bridge, if then runs downhill to a long/tight right hand bend (La Chappelle), and up to the Musée, where the braking point comes up on you very quickly, and then around and down to the double right hand bend (Garage vert), and then down the back straight 'til Le Chemin aux Boeufs, another tricky chicane (where Simoncelli took out Pedrossi), then onto the "S" du Garage Bleue, a nice right and then left sequence which is quite quick, and then down to the reccordement which joins you back up with the main straight again. It's a nice long circuit, just over 4kms, which I lap around the 2 minutes. Dani Pedrosa did a fastest ever lap at 1'32.647, so I have a little progress to make before changing my day job!
The 2 chicanes are key to keeping speeds up as they are one of the slowest parts of the circuit. Second practise I hit a 2:04 lap time, which was a PB, so was quite happy with the bike setup.
Saturday afternoon, we had qualification, and I could only manage a miserable 2:06, which put me 28th on a grid of 44 bikes. Pole position was 1:52, by an RC30!
Race 1
After my traditionally crappy start I went into the Dunlop chicane around the outside, and managed to get past some of the traffic, and was back in my "grid" position going into the Garage vert. I had a pretty good race, battling with a GSXR, who I was quicker into the Dunlop chicane, but he had me around the Garage vert, and eventually he managed to keep in front, and I finished yep - 28th, with a best time of 2:04.295.
There are just so many places where it seems like you can go quicker, I was determined to do better on Race 2.
Race 2
No changes for Race 2, and again, I got a real bad start, but managed to claw my way back to behind the same GSXR as the first race. this time we were joined by a ZXR 750, and a guy on a CB6 600, I managed to stay in front to them right up to about 3 laps from the end, when both the GSXR and ZXR came through.
I finished 27th with a best lap of 2:04.273, yippee another PB, but still with some work to do.
From a technical perspective, I still have a lot of petroil mix covering the engine after each race. It seems to drip from as far forward as the exhaust valve on the front cylinders, back and around the carbs on both sides... I have tried changing the all the rubber o'rings around the carbs, and I have also now changed the black plastic carb insulators, all to no avale. I currently run with just the carb inlet trunks (not connected to the air box), and I will be trying to connect up to the airbox, to see if the reflux or petroil is coming out of the carbs inlets or whether I really do have a leak. I would have thought that if the carbs were leaking I would be seizing or suffering from air leaks somewhere as well. Someone told me that with tuned disk valves, there is a lot of mixture that comes back out of the carbs. All the plugs have consistant colouring and seem quite rich. The only other technical mishap, was the gear change return started to mess up, and this turned out to be that the shaft was pushed too far to the right, and therefore binding on something on the clutch side, I pulled it out to the left and retightened the small collar to avoid it moving again.
Thanks to my pit team, Chris my brother had travelled down from Finland via the UK to pick up his bike, and my wife for supporting my habit! Video and photos coming later.
Two weeks to Magny Cours, where I will be running the RG500 and the RD350!
Thursday, 5 July 2012
Race Weekend 3 Croix-en-Ternois
Back up to Croix-en-Ternois, for the third ProClassic race weekend. This weekend included the first round of the ProClassic Endurance, which this year I had decided to give a miss, after my injury late last year.
I was planning however on doing both sets of other races, with the RG500 and the RD350.
The weekend started Friday afternoon with free practise, a part from gearing down the bikes, I had left the carburation as Nogaro, i.e. 240/250's on the RG and 370's on the RD.
The 350 was running OK, but one float valve was getting crap in it from the tank, luckily I had bought an inline filter, which I installed after the first practise, but I still needed to clean both pilot jets and float valves.
I really am finding that the bigger carbs give a fuller mid range, but the bike seems to rev out earlier, which is kind of strange.
I ran the 500 twice, and it was running too rich as expected, however I was reluctant to change the jets, as the weekend weather was supposed to be cooling down, especially on Sunday. I was using sprocket sizes 14/41 on the RG, which meant I was wheelying frequently, which was difficult to control, and I was a bit pissed off that I couldn't improve my times from last year. Neither on the 350 nor the 500. Probably should've down jetted. The 500 was still leaking some petroil mix, and I really am losing hope of finding a solution to this. At least it doesn't seem to affect the running of the bike.
I briefly had to fix a small water leak on the 350 (after running in the new piston), coming from the cylinder top water pipe. But other than that the bikes ran well all weekend.
The weather was mostly fine just with Saturday afternoon and evening where it rained, and a small amount of rain on Sunday morning - but more of that later.
I qualified for final B of the Superbikes, but as they run the classics with the superbikeB final, I got upgraded to the A final, which meant I started nearly at the back of the gid for Race 1. I got a reasonable start (I rev the nuts off it, and slide the clutch out - seems to work!), and managed to catch a couple of guys, mainly the slower GSXR 750s and a couple of CBR 600's, before the race was red flagged. I learnt later that someone had lost the brakes and piled straight through the gravel trap and hit the tyres (on an RC30). He was fortunately OK, but too shaken to race for the rest of the weekend. As we rode off the track it started to rain, and they postponed the race restart until later in the day as we were all on dry tyres.
In the meantime, the guy who had crashed was also supposed to take part in the endurance race, and low and behold his co-pilot came to ask me if I would take his place. They were racing a ZXR750 Kawasaki in the endurance, the following day, but if I wanted to participate I would need to qualify with a few laps on the ZXR 750. So I went straight out for the rest of qualifying for the endurance in the wet! First time on someone elses bike in the wet, with over 100 bhp at the rear wheel was interesting to say the least! Still I wobbled round, and got quicker towards the end of the session, as the track started to dry.
I just had time to put a couple more litres of fuel in the RG and I was out for a further 10 laps of Race 1. I started further up the grid, as I had passed some people and others had fallen (yes they let them restart!). The race was pretty good the bike was getting better a the ambient temperature was dropping. I still finished in a fairly lowly position, but I had a good race.
No sooner had I come in on the 500, than I was out for Race 1 of the classics (running with the slower Superbikes). In reality I think there was only 5 classic bikes and the rest of the grid was made up of superbikes, so despite my second row start I was quickly passed by all the big 4 strokes up towards the first hairpin. I spent the rest of the race playing catchup in the twisties, before getting blasted past on the long straight. I finished 2nd classic, and had a good time battling it out with a CBR 600.
Saturday evening we discussed strategy for the endurance and had a few beers. We had to borrow a fireman for fueling and we had no outside help other than Libby who would tell us what was happening on the track.
Sunday morning and the sky is blue, we have a new set of Michelin Power Cups on the bike, and we were ready to go. The race got off early at 9:20, I suited up after my co-pilot had started the race. Everything went to plan after he had run in the tyres (couple of slow laps), and he started to build speed, getting some reasonable lap times, he was pushing the 1:01 lap times, and consistently in the 1:02. My personal best previously had been a 1:03 on the RG, last year, so I was hoping I would let the team down on a strange bike. The first change over went well, I jumped on and went out, and tried to get up to speed.
The bike had an on board lap timer, so I was aware of my lap times gradually falling, until I was dipping into the occassional 1:02, but more consistently in the 1:03s. Still I was pretty pleased with completing my first 45 mins without any issues.
The second pit stop had some fuel spillage due to an over filled derrick, and a bike that was consuming less than expected, but Olivier was back out there in a flash. We were running in 9 place scratch out of 23 teams.
The bike is equipped with a catch tank which I was immediately worried had some of the pilt fuel in it, but as my co-pilot managed to complete his first few laps it didn't seem to be a problem :-)
We were still steadily running in 8th/9th position, until I took over for the 4th relay. Smooth change.
I never managed to get below 1:02, but I was getting more and more confident, until opening up at the begeinning of the straight, there was a tremendous noise. The bike still pulled and as it sounded like the exhaust I continued to the pit. We verified and most of the exhaust springs had dissappeared on the header, so it was seperating from the engine. The leaking header whilst noisy did not affect much the bike, so I went out again, only to be black flagged at my next time past. I had to do a STOP & GO because of speeding in the pit lane. arghhhhhhh!
We only had a few more laps to do and suddenly the heavens opened, initially the track stayed relatively dry, however it soon soaked up the water, and became slippery for the last 2 laps. I kept my cool, although a couple of others fell off, one team in front of us. So in the end we came across the line 7th Superbike team.
Congratulations to Olivier (and me) and thanks to Libby for her help!
Fortunately we had a lunch break before the second Superbike and Classic races.
The RG was out first, and we had a good race if somewhat quiet, some good action at the beginning as everyones pace settled. The bike was running really well, as the temperature had gone down to around 18 degrees centigrade, although still quite a hole in the acceleration. My tuning buddy suggested lowering the main jets by 10 points, and upping the needles by one slot. I might try this at Le Mans - our next venue. My best lap was 1:03.702
I really had a blast with the 350, in the second classic race. I was full of confidence, but got off the line poorly, I then had all the work to bite my way back up the rankings. Had a near miss with a colleague who was engaged in a (right hand) hairpin, who at the last moment swung out, whilst I was trying to go around the outside. Had a great battle with a VFR 750, who got fed up with me eventually, and pissed off. My final overtake was getting past a ZXR750 in the final laps. Had a great race, the RD sliding about all over the place - really nice, and so controllable. My best time was 1:04.711
The end result was a cup for 2nd place in the Classic category, although no points in the Superbike category!
I was planning however on doing both sets of other races, with the RG500 and the RD350.
The weekend started Friday afternoon with free practise, a part from gearing down the bikes, I had left the carburation as Nogaro, i.e. 240/250's on the RG and 370's on the RD.
The 350 was running OK, but one float valve was getting crap in it from the tank, luckily I had bought an inline filter, which I installed after the first practise, but I still needed to clean both pilot jets and float valves.
I really am finding that the bigger carbs give a fuller mid range, but the bike seems to rev out earlier, which is kind of strange.
I ran the 500 twice, and it was running too rich as expected, however I was reluctant to change the jets, as the weekend weather was supposed to be cooling down, especially on Sunday. I was using sprocket sizes 14/41 on the RG, which meant I was wheelying frequently, which was difficult to control, and I was a bit pissed off that I couldn't improve my times from last year. Neither on the 350 nor the 500. Probably should've down jetted. The 500 was still leaking some petroil mix, and I really am losing hope of finding a solution to this. At least it doesn't seem to affect the running of the bike.
I briefly had to fix a small water leak on the 350 (after running in the new piston), coming from the cylinder top water pipe. But other than that the bikes ran well all weekend.
The weather was mostly fine just with Saturday afternoon and evening where it rained, and a small amount of rain on Sunday morning - but more of that later.
I qualified for final B of the Superbikes, but as they run the classics with the superbikeB final, I got upgraded to the A final, which meant I started nearly at the back of the gid for Race 1. I got a reasonable start (I rev the nuts off it, and slide the clutch out - seems to work!), and managed to catch a couple of guys, mainly the slower GSXR 750s and a couple of CBR 600's, before the race was red flagged. I learnt later that someone had lost the brakes and piled straight through the gravel trap and hit the tyres (on an RC30). He was fortunately OK, but too shaken to race for the rest of the weekend. As we rode off the track it started to rain, and they postponed the race restart until later in the day as we were all on dry tyres.
In the meantime, the guy who had crashed was also supposed to take part in the endurance race, and low and behold his co-pilot came to ask me if I would take his place. They were racing a ZXR750 Kawasaki in the endurance, the following day, but if I wanted to participate I would need to qualify with a few laps on the ZXR 750. So I went straight out for the rest of qualifying for the endurance in the wet! First time on someone elses bike in the wet, with over 100 bhp at the rear wheel was interesting to say the least! Still I wobbled round, and got quicker towards the end of the session, as the track started to dry.
I just had time to put a couple more litres of fuel in the RG and I was out for a further 10 laps of Race 1. I started further up the grid, as I had passed some people and others had fallen (yes they let them restart!). The race was pretty good the bike was getting better a the ambient temperature was dropping. I still finished in a fairly lowly position, but I had a good race.
No sooner had I come in on the 500, than I was out for Race 1 of the classics (running with the slower Superbikes). In reality I think there was only 5 classic bikes and the rest of the grid was made up of superbikes, so despite my second row start I was quickly passed by all the big 4 strokes up towards the first hairpin. I spent the rest of the race playing catchup in the twisties, before getting blasted past on the long straight. I finished 2nd classic, and had a good time battling it out with a CBR 600.
Saturday evening we discussed strategy for the endurance and had a few beers. We had to borrow a fireman for fueling and we had no outside help other than Libby who would tell us what was happening on the track.
Sunday morning and the sky is blue, we have a new set of Michelin Power Cups on the bike, and we were ready to go. The race got off early at 9:20, I suited up after my co-pilot had started the race. Everything went to plan after he had run in the tyres (couple of slow laps), and he started to build speed, getting some reasonable lap times, he was pushing the 1:01 lap times, and consistently in the 1:02. My personal best previously had been a 1:03 on the RG, last year, so I was hoping I would let the team down on a strange bike. The first change over went well, I jumped on and went out, and tried to get up to speed.
The bike had an on board lap timer, so I was aware of my lap times gradually falling, until I was dipping into the occassional 1:02, but more consistently in the 1:03s. Still I was pretty pleased with completing my first 45 mins without any issues.
The second pit stop had some fuel spillage due to an over filled derrick, and a bike that was consuming less than expected, but Olivier was back out there in a flash. We were running in 9 place scratch out of 23 teams.
The bike is equipped with a catch tank which I was immediately worried had some of the pilt fuel in it, but as my co-pilot managed to complete his first few laps it didn't seem to be a problem :-)
We were still steadily running in 8th/9th position, until I took over for the 4th relay. Smooth change.
I never managed to get below 1:02, but I was getting more and more confident, until opening up at the begeinning of the straight, there was a tremendous noise. The bike still pulled and as it sounded like the exhaust I continued to the pit. We verified and most of the exhaust springs had dissappeared on the header, so it was seperating from the engine. The leaking header whilst noisy did not affect much the bike, so I went out again, only to be black flagged at my next time past. I had to do a STOP & GO because of speeding in the pit lane. arghhhhhhh!
We only had a few more laps to do and suddenly the heavens opened, initially the track stayed relatively dry, however it soon soaked up the water, and became slippery for the last 2 laps. I kept my cool, although a couple of others fell off, one team in front of us. So in the end we came across the line 7th Superbike team.
Congratulations to Olivier (and me) and thanks to Libby for her help!
Fortunately we had a lunch break before the second Superbike and Classic races.
The RG was out first, and we had a good race if somewhat quiet, some good action at the beginning as everyones pace settled. The bike was running really well, as the temperature had gone down to around 18 degrees centigrade, although still quite a hole in the acceleration. My tuning buddy suggested lowering the main jets by 10 points, and upping the needles by one slot. I might try this at Le Mans - our next venue. My best lap was 1:03.702
I really had a blast with the 350, in the second classic race. I was full of confidence, but got off the line poorly, I then had all the work to bite my way back up the rankings. Had a near miss with a colleague who was engaged in a (right hand) hairpin, who at the last moment swung out, whilst I was trying to go around the outside. Had a great battle with a VFR 750, who got fed up with me eventually, and pissed off. My final overtake was getting past a ZXR750 in the final laps. Had a great race, the RD sliding about all over the place - really nice, and so controllable. My best time was 1:04.711
The end result was a cup for 2nd place in the Classic category, although no points in the Superbike category!
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