Technical Update

First time out in the garage after Croix. I have received my new TM34 carb from MotoCarb in the UK, about the cheapest in Europe (that I know), and very quick service. There are some differences which are a little worrying - the bellmouth is a slightly different shape, and the needles are different, but in principle I will exchange over all my jets, needles etc.. from the old one so I am hoping there will not be any significant difference. The fuel spigot is a bigger diameter, which means a bigger diameter fuel pipe (good).

I purchased a new ignition controller from Borut which should be compatible with the Dent ignition pickup, I installed it in about 15 mins. mostly plug and play, except the old controller needed a sepearate wire for each coil whereas this one only needs one pair of wires (standard). Hopefully I can test this with the Dent pickup sooner rather than later.

Of course I will need to think about cleaning out he crap in the rotary valves on Cylinder 3 and also think about what to do with the fairing. I picked up some cheap lever replacements in the web, which I'll pick up from the UK in a couple of weeks.

Croix-en-Ternois

Spent the weekend filling and repainting the right fairing with some rattle cans and fibreglass filler, in the end I was pretty pleased with the result, although it would need some varnish to have the same finish. Anyway no time for that, I rebalanced the carbs after having shortened the throttle cable by about 3 mms, I did it in situ which isn't easy as I didn't want to burn the fairing or instruments, but I managed OK.

So the plan was to attend the weekend at C-en-T circuit as it was the last ProClassic weekend of the year, plus Philippe was putting on some parade lap sessions, so thought I would see our buddies and have some track time aswell!

We travelled up, with just the 500 in the lorry, and on the Thursday evening, stayed in Troyes over night and then finished the journey on Friday morning arriving at the circuit just before midday.

I booked in for some free practise in the afternoon and setup up camp. The first session with the needles in position 2 from the top was (I think) better, and the bike was lifting the front in the first 3 gears (off the hairpin), not surprising as I run 14/40 front/rear sprockets, and I still only just needed 6th gear along the straight! I was able to measure my acceleration and top speed with some of the GSXR's and I am not bad, still missing a little for the top boys, but I think pretty competitive for the middle runners.

I didn't change anything for the second of third sessions, although I could try lifting the needles one more clip position as I am still suffering from a huge hole (less than Magny-Cours - maybe).

Anyway in the third session I was being overtaken by a couple of fast guys on the right hand side, and as I drifted out to the left to prepare for the next right hand bend, someone came past on my left and clipped me, taking me down! I just had the chance to see his bike as I fell. Not the fastest part of the circuit but probably at 80-100km per hour, I slid down the track and then as I left the track I did multiple head over heels. I got the feeling that I had stopped but still kept going, finishing in the gravel trap. The bike ended up further into the gravel having slid all the way on the left side.

Got ambulanced back to the medical centre, all my fingers were really painful, and I had a sore shoulder and had burned a hole in my knee where my leathers had worn through. I felt quite sick for a bit, and so I got shipped to the local clinic to be checked out. My right middle finger was broken (last phalanxe) and the rest was just bruised (luckily). My head had scuffed the deck as the visor was scratched but nothing serious.

I got back to the circuit later that evening, to look at the bike. Most of the damage was to the left hand fairing which had worn down the top (nr3) carb finishing by splitting the bell mouth, so it is basically dead. The top of the fairing was lightly scratched and the clutch lever and cable broken. The seat unit suffered a few scrapes and some gravel rash!

Not fixable for the rest of the weekend, and anyway with the splint they put on my finger neither was the pilot!

Lots of work for the winter!