Photos from the Weekend in the Mercantour

Col d'Allos

Col d'Allos

Col d'Allos

Col d'Allos

Col des Champs

At the Auberge du Riou (Austrian Triumph) and not any oil leaks!

Walking to the Col Mairola

In Gilette

Top of the Col de Turini for lunch

Just going into the Gorges de Cian

Daytona pads changed

Had a great weekend down in the Mercantour, incredible roads and loads of new tarmac. We stayed in Puget Rostang for 3 nights and did some walking on one day and then we did a great loop taking in the Col Turini, lunch at the top, and then following the Vesubie valley up to st. Martin en Vesubie and then across taking in the Col de Couillure and then down into the les gorges de Cian.

Home on Sunday, with Libby's front tyre completely finished and my brake pads down to the metal on the back.

The bikes got a good clean and the front wheel in preparation for a change and new pads all around on the Dayto. I bought Brembo red pads this time around and they seem pretty good after a brief test ride. (86K kms on the Dayto) (18K on the Street).

Carb Changes FZR

I was really happy with the mid to high range fueling on the FZR, however the low range was worse, so I put back the smaller pilot jets and now it should be perfect!

Ignition changes

Last ditch attempt at improving the drivability of the RG500, I am looking at timing changes.

My feeling says that something is wrong below 9K rpm, and as the needle changes seemed to make very little difference (seat of the pants), I am studying the ignition curve, to see what I can see.

To be fair I don't know what I am doing here, but I shouldn't do any damage as I know it accepts the 30 degree advance no problem.
I have changed it to below :

Try Nr.5  100 12   Power valve opening and shutting at 7100 1500 12 2500 12 3000 30 6000 30 9000 20 9500 15 11500 11 12000 10

4G track days at Ledenon

Left home Thursday evening and got setup at the circuit just in time to watch France beat Germany in the Euro. The guys next door were watching it over a 4G connection. Pretty good quality aswell.

Woke up to rain Friday morning! The circuit was soaked. Had a briefing with the 4G guys - Still don't know there names! I was in the Fast group oops.... I was supposed to be in the medium plus group but there weren't enough people to have more groups. Took the 500 out for a poodle round whilst the track was damp. Running OK I suppose, although nothing below 8k and lots of farting and blowing. When on the pipe, though great power through to the rev limiter at 11K. I used the 600 for the next 6 sessions. The mid range is now great up to and though the red line at 12K, it was slightly rich (I think) at low rpm, which wasn't really an issue although it had me dropping into a couple of slower bends slightly more quickly than I would have liked, still driving nicely. 

The coaching, which I thought was a bit naff consisted of the guy following you with a camera and then de briefing afterwards with the video. The trouble was that at the allotted time we would go out and basically the guy would video whoever he got behind, which never seemed to be me, so by the end of the day I had listened to feedback given to the other riders in the group, which was all very relevant, but still wasn't specific to me! Anyway I eventually got some footage and some criticisms at the end of the day. To be honest, my lines were OK, but I am just not quick enough. I need to practise braking less and using more throttle! I have a nr. 2 on my back, and I appear at 6:51 -> 9:40

Anyway I did 5 sessions on the Yam and 3 on the Suzuki. The evening was spent changing the pilot jets on the Suzuki up to 35's and moving the needle down to the last slot, in an effort to find better running in the mid range.

Saturday I tried the Suzuki in the morning must have been around 25 degrees, but with a wind making feel a little cooler, to be honest I didn't perceive much difference. Still had to give it some choke to get if off the line and still popping and farting before getting to a slightly less strong top end.  On the Saturday loafs more people had arrived, so the groups were bigger and they able to have a medium+ group. I used the 600 right up until the last session and took rhe Suzuki out for a final outing. All packed up by about 18:00 and home at 20:15 absolutely knackered!

Daytona fork seal

Just for the record really. The right hand side of the Dayto has suffered from a bit of oil misting which I was having problems identifying the source, well last week the fork seal really started to leak, so I think I have found my leak!

Received pyramid seals from Ebay 7.99 pounds plus 4 quid delivery, put the bike on the stands and removed calipers, wheel, mudguard and then loosened all the bolts to enable the fork leg to slide down. Oh and before loosening stuff, I loosened off the fork top.

Because I am a lazy git, I only did the leaky side, and also I was a bit pushed for time, taking the leg a part was a breeze, even removing the screw at the bottom securing the damping rod was no issue, it came straight out. I emptied out about 550 ccs of old oil, so given that the other bits a nd pieces were also covered in oil, it amounts to about 560 ccs (I think the book says 580 of 10 weight oil).
The teflon bushings were both in good useable state, so it just got a good clean up inside and out, and then on with the new seal - bashed down with my very useful Sealey fork oil seal drift!

Filled up the fork leg with 550 ccs of 10 SAE motul fork oil - an interesting aside here is that the factory recommend Showa SS8 oil, now you and I would think that the 8 refers to the weight of the oil, but in fact it doesn't SS8 oil = 10 SAE fork oil. And that leads to another interesting fact, that all forks oils of the same "number" don't necessarily have the same weight. Check out this chart. You can see that the Showa SS8 is nothing like say a Silkolene 10 SAE oil.....

Anyway, fork leg back on everything bolted up, the brake pads are on there last legs another 2K kms and they will be toast. Pain in the neck getting the lower stanchions to line up and get the axle through, but got there in the end.

Quick road test.... derrr the speedo is not working....But the fork seal is fine....

Pulled off the fairing inner that I had removed for better access to the fork leg bolts, and low and behold as I followed the wire up from the front wheel to the first connector, one wire came away in my hands, and then trying to get the connector apart I managed to "remove" another wire....

I suppose at least I hadn't damaged the magnets in the front wheel - they are really expensive to replace, this will just require removing the pins from the female side of the connector  (ho ho) and then resoldering/crimping on the wire further up.

What a pain!

Anyway off to Ledenon this weekend to learn my way around (stage de pilotage with 4G). So hopefully I will take some photos!