Ledenon Saturday

We were at Ledenon for probably the last outing, with the 350 and the FZR 600. As Sunday the weather was not good we decided to just do the Saturday. 3 sessions in the morning and 4 sessions in the afternoon, with Pierre-Luc on the 600 and me on the 350. It was a little bit cold for the first run, (7 degrees), but the 350 was fine, a little light colour on the plugs after the first run, but all good after.

We did have a bit of a panic getting the 350 started as one of the plug caps had come lose on the HT lead, but once that was plugged back properly, it ran fine all day.

I was pretty knackered after 7 runs out, and I must find a different riding position as my legs are really aching today. I think I am a little cramped on the bike, which leads to my toes pushing on the front of my boots and cramped legs.

Pierre-Luc, had a great day, and started to get his lap times down, so he was happy with that, and he is starting to abandon his road style and get his bum and knee out so all's good.

Sunday I spent some time in the garage, got the crankcase top back on the engine and cleaned up the swinging arm, and superglued the front mudguard which had quite a clean split in it. I sanded down the "cracks" on the swinging arm, but they are just on the surface, so nothing to worry about (!).

Top crankcase on

Installation at ledenon - very busy (not)

New Gearbox shaft O ring

Cheap bits

Output shaft o ring behind the gearbox sprocket. One of the cheaper parts for rhe RG. Oh and my fairings are ready at Poly26 (not so cheap). What colour should I do?

Thruxton R

Tried one of these at lunch time today. Here are my first impressions.
Didn't pick up from idle at first (maybe cold...)
Also had a fluff I thought I had run out of petrol, at one point, but it must have got itself in a twist.
The front end (showa) wasn't as planted as I would have liked. It didn't like going over bid bumps - I am sure the front wheel left the ground (maybe over damped).
The overall position was (for me) much the same as Libby's street triple, they do an option with the fairing with lower clipons - which I think would suit me better.
Very comfortable (I only had it for about 40 mins though).
Once the engine is up to about 3K rpm, there is a real PUNCH all the way to the red line ~7K rpm,
I miss the 12.5K on the Daytona, it almost reminded me of a 2 stroke power band - 3k - 7k.
The rear was lovely end (Ohlins) was lovely, the bike feels quite small as the tank is slim although in order to get your knees in the cut outs you have to sit back a bit, which is no bad thing.

It doesn't feel at all the heavy thing I was expecting.
Overall riding was quite pleasant, I am sure the fan came on, but I could find the temperature gauge so I am not sure if it was running hot! The instruments seemed at the wrong angle and picked up the reflection of the sky quite easily, which made them difficult to read. And at idle the needle is not steady (same on the Daytona).

Do I want one? No not really, I might like to try the version with the lower clipons to see if that makes the front feel any nicer, the biggest thing I would miss though is my lovely 3 cylinder engine with bags of power all the way through a large range of revs... Just suppose I'll keep on looking!

Thanks to cylceworld for the photo.

Ready for repair

Well the RG is now down to the bare frame. The cranks have washed up well and no bearing damage. The big end bearings and small ends feel OK. The piston on nr. 3 had some impacts and the top ring slot was slightly squashed and after some advice from the gamma listers I opened it back up with a file. Next step is to get the frame straightened and rebuild the engine.

Engine stripped

I am stripping the RG engine because it has swallowed some gravel and also coz it's lighter to lift out when dismantled!

Cylinders 1 & 3 are the worrying ones, loads of shit everywhere, some impacts in the cylinder heads and loads of dust in the transfer ports.

Surprisingly the cylinders are undamaged, the pustons are showing some impacts but after a session with the emery cloth they are not too bad. The worst is that one of the ring grooves has slightly squashed gripping the ring.

The general consensus on the RG list is that I can file some metal off to release the high pounts in the groove - so I am going to try it.