Completely knackered after a good weekend in the South of France, while the rest of France was in the rain, we were (Libby & I) down South in the sun (except for some spots of rain Sunday morning!).
Got to the circuit around 13:00 Friday, and got straight in and a good place next to the pre-grid - very noisy but very conveniant. We had all of Friday afternoon to get setup and to go see our old friends from ProClassic, racing at the circuit. One of the guys had bought the 2014 Johan Zarco Moto2 bike, and there were already loads of other great bikes to look at :-
Got to the circuit around 13:00 Friday, and got straight in and a good place next to the pre-grid - very noisy but very conveniant. We had all of Friday afternoon to get setup and to go see our old friends from ProClassic, racing at the circuit. One of the guys had bought the 2014 Johan Zarco Moto2 bike, and there were already loads of other great bikes to look at :-
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| 2014 Zarco Moto2 |
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| Scott Redding Moto2 bike |
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| Wayne Rainey GP Bike |
On Saturday morning, we started in the second session at 8:55, the RG had barely been run-in from Ledenon, so I took it really easy, although when you only get power between 9K-11K rpm, it's a bit difficult to "take it easy". Everything was working OK, but the clutch was a bit strange making gear shifting difficult.
The second sessions in the afternoon, was pretty good, building in confidence with the bike, getting the times down, way off competitive but 2mins 51 was not too bad. I was feeling pretty good. I checked out the clutch cable which looked like the adjuster was coming lose, and while I was there had a plug out which was a super colour.
Saturday evening, aperitif at ProClassic, followed by more drinking with the Arnold's at their gites. When we got back to the circuit the endurance was just finishing so we spent the last 30 mins of our evening watching that.
We also met up with someone (thanks Bil) chucking out an FZR600 engine, so we picked that up - god knows how we would get that in the already packed van!
Sunday morning, a little hungover, back on the bike for 8:55! It went a little worse than Saturday, so put this down to the cold morning temperatures (note to self : this means I need to richen it up a little - needles!), the session ended and my clutch cable broke on the last lap...
Still I had a couple of hours before the next session, so set about changing the cable, which in fact was not broken at all. When the cable joins the actuating arm on the clutch the screw was not holding the arm, and it had slipped around, once I had understodd what was wrong, the clutch was soon back in operation. I got ready for the 11:00 session, started the bike, with a whole load of noise coming from the clutch! We quickly stopped the bike, and stripped off the leathers to further investigate the problem.
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| Look at the 2 screws holding tabs (not there) main shaft. |
There was some evidence of metal in the oil, sparkling in the sunshine! And with the clutch removed Libby spotted what was wrong. On the primary shaft there are supposed to be 2 tabs holding the main bearing in place, held by 2 screws visible on the photo above. Well looks like the main bearing has made a move to the right under some pressure as it broke off the 2 holding tabs , and they consequently have been bashing around the clutch area. End of story for the RG500. I did meet loads of RG fans, around the paddock as I rode around on the bicycle to see if anyone had any of these tabs, but suppose I am glad that no-one did, coz without finding the missing bits it would have been impossible to start the bike, and that would have involved removing the gearbox.
Anyway looking on the bright side, this would give me the opportunity to try out the FZR 600 on the famous Paul Ricard circuit! I had to get agreement from the organisation to swap bikes, but after I found a very nice guy (Philippe), he peeled off the stickers from the RG and placed them on the FZR, and we were ready to go for the last session at 18:40 - phew...
We had all afternoon left to wander around - some nice and unusual bikes :-
Fortunately with a lot of people leaving the circuit they decided to group together the last couple of sessions, so we got out early, at 18:20. The FZR was running OK, I don't think the last change I did to the needles was a success though, I think it was running better with them one clip position up. Anyway enough oomph to run it up to 11.5K rpm in 6th along the mistral straight, dunno what that equates to in speed, but it seemed pretty quick!
I mixed bag of a weekend, here's hoping that I will find the reason for the bearing moving and that the 2 missing bits of tabs are found whole!
Speak soon!
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