Next steps

Hi All,
So the season has ended early and hopefully this will give me more time to prepare the RG500 for next year. I am still working on the RD for the coming weeks, as I still have to send an ignition set back to Borut (Zeeltronic) and I wanted to get back to full power. Hence last weekend I installed a new piston and rings in the right hand (seized 2 races back) cylinder. At the same time I have installed some new (ebay) powerjet carbs. The principal of powerjet carbs is to have an additional jet that come into use high in the rev range, allowing you more adjustment in the mid range with the standard main jet, but still giving enough cooling fuel at the top end - I am hoping this will make my bike more reliable especially at the top end. In principal, the power jets are 60 on the left and 65 on the right, so I am starting with 300 main jets both sides (at the top end this should make it Very rich 60 + 300 is 360, and I was running 340's at the last race.

I also spent a rainy weekend simplifying my wiring - I ripped out all the light related stuff and have just left the ignition and generator wiring along with the temp. gauge, neutral switch and the ignition switch. Saved 300 grams in weight :-)
I tried my old zeeltronic boxes and couldn't get them to fail, so I expect I will send the others back, although something funny going on there! My West Country Windings stator has gone back to them for fixing with a suitable letter - I will wait for their reply before slagging them off publicly!

Next thing on the program will be start the RG500 project I want it to look similar to Pascal Mayer's bike as shown above! We will see how it progresses. Speak to you soon.

Dave Vs. Duhamel Ducati

Dave takes Philippe at Carole 2008

Carole Results

The weekend started Friday morning early, traveling up from Grenoble to Paris (6 hours), this time with Chris (visiting), Carly and Libby in the car - loads of support! We arrived at Carole arount 12:45 after an easy trip, and then we spent 15 minutes looking for a place to park, as the Promosport crews had all been there since Wednesday, and all car parks were full! We ended up parking next to the model car track, with no loos, water or electricity nearby - the girls were pissed off!

Chris and I rigged up a plastic sheet over the trailer and car to give us some shade as the weather forecast was good for the Saturday.

The GOOD news, I managed the 2 open training sessions with ZERO break downs, Chris helped me do a plug chop after a couple of laps, and although the plugs were certainly not a uniform colour, they were not showing any signs of over heating, so I continued to complete the two sessions. I was running my race stator, plus new ignition boxes from Zeeltronic - everything OK.

The bike was using surprisingly little fuel - we calculated around 3.75 litres for 20 minutes, so we filled her up ready for the early 9:00 qualifying practise on Saturday morning. Again qulifying went without a hitch, the bike is not pulling as strongly as previously, however this could be because I am running richer, or because of low compression due to my "rapid" fix after last times seize. (I put in an old piston with old rings!).

I managed a respectable time of 1 minute 17, which put me at 18th on the grid of 32, and second RD 350. Christian Degardin, my strongest rival had got down to 1 minute 15 seconds! Some work for me to do!

Race 1.
The first race was Sunday morning at 9:00, and I got a reasonable start, and followed a TZ350 through a wide first bend scrabble which allowed me to get a few places forward. After a couple of laps I got into a battle with Philippe Freon (Proclassic president), with his Kawasaki 1000, I was quicker through the twisties especially at the parabolic, I even managed a couple of outside overtakes (not to be advised for the feint hearted), and I also got him on the brakes at the end of the back straight, but the speed and torque of his 1000cc's was making things difficult for me. A couple of laps from the end, the bike started to miss a beat..... another bend... oh dear it's not running.... hand up... stop... shit....

Back in the pits, the bike starts again, and then no more sparks!!!!! again.....

To cut a long story short, Chris and I manage to get it going again around 15:00 in the PM, a couple of hours before race 2.

Race 2
I am thinking to myself that the bike will only last a couple of laps, as we have not really found any specific problem, I am running a different stator, new plugs and plug caps now, and my slight flat spot is back (linked with the stator). I am on the back row of the grid because I didn't finish race 1, but in the company of some strong contenders, Ramyond Faboulet and Dominique Denis-Lutard (normally at the front) are next to me! The green light comes on and I get an OK start - Raymond stutters and doesn't get away clean as does Pierre Eline, some lines ahead - well that's 2 of my category behind!

I make good progress, moving past the Arnold brothers (Hugues and Franck), and then getting past Philippe Freon and the last Arnold (Pierre). I ended up having a small scrap with a Ducati 906 (Daniel Duhamel), which I enventually won! I finished in 15th position scratch and 3rd position in my category.

I had brought my lap time down to 1 minutes 16 secs a personal best and on lap 13!

The next race is on October 4th & 5th once again at Carole (yawn...). I will try and post some photos or video clips!

Ignition Tests

After Carole last time my ignition was deemed faulty, and although the manufacturer (Borut - zeeltonic) could not find any fault with it, he very kindly replaced both the boxes. As he couldn't find a problem he sent me back both sets, and I need to try them both out and give him a set back - great service!!

My bike has been running on the standard Yam ignition so I know it works. I replaced the yam ignition and powervalve controller with the zeeltronic ignition and power valve controller. I had to charge the battery as it had gone flat during my vacation, but the bike started second kick, and I ran the bike up and down the road for 10 minutes. It went to the red line OK, and seemed to produce reasonable power.

Second test, was to replace the standard Yam stator with the race stator (less windings, less electrical friction). This went on fine, and although it is wired up wrongly (the red and green wires are inverted and so are the pickup wires red/white, and green/white), it worked fine, and I think I even perceived a difference in the bike's ability to pickup revs. quickly. I have been noticing that the bike is difficult to start off the line, a slight hole in carburation at low revs, however with this setup, this certainly seemed diminished. I ran the bike up the road a few times and it worked well. This is the configuration I will start with for the race this coming weekend.

I will need to test my "old" zeeltronic ignition, as I promised Borut that I would send back one of the sets.

I have ordered some XR77 Castrol 2 stroke racing oil from a web site, however - typical France - they accepted the order but are on holiday until September 1st - so I now have the urgent problem of finding some decnt oil. I have found a supplier in Lyon, which I will check out tomorrow (Tuesday). The XR77 is supposed to be 2 stroke oil specifically suited to unleaded fuel, so I am hoping it will be OK, if I can't get Castrol, I will use Ipone Samourai, as it has a good reputation on the forums. I just can't find a good supplier of Motul 800 (roadrace) or I would probably stay with that!

More news after the weekend.

Update

Well I haven't been that busy on the bike with holidays etc.. however I have now received a new rear shock, and my race gearbox for the Suzuki, plus Borut (zeeltronic) has sent me a replacement ignition, which I need to test this weekend. Chris will be coming over next week, and we should be travelling to Paris for the next weekends racing on the 30/31st August. This will be a promosport weekend, so lots of bikes/people at Carole. If you want to come and see us, we will be hidden away a long way from the main pits (in my opinion)!

Weekend de merde.....

Travelled to Carole this last weekend on my own as Libby was otherwise indisposed... Arrived on Friday afternoon, and setup up in the pits. There were two planned free practices. The weather was unsure and there were some big black clouds coming from the North, so I just bought the first session. The bike started well, and as we waited on the pregrid for the off, the skies opened up. My first track experience in the pissing rain! It really chucked it down, but after a few laps you get more and more confidence, and the bike only slipped ever so slightly a couple of times so I had a good run for 20 minutes... I overtook most people on the track, and I was quite glad when the chequered flag came down as I am sure another few laps could have lead to disaster.

I missed the second practice as it was full, which was a shame as the sun had come out and dried the track.

The official timed practice was on the Saturday morning with the first race Saturday afternoon. After the wet practice the plugs seemed to be running a little hot, so I decided on going up another 10 points on the jets, also I had run a 15 gearbox sprocket which was OK going down the straight, but was awful in most of the bends, so I also decided to go up to a 16 tooth sprocket.

Saturday morning I took the bike out for a warmup lap on the exterior of the circuit, and although it seemed to be accepting the bigger jets it didn't seem to run smoothly. This worsened as I took it out onto the track - halve a lap and it conked out! This was slightly serious as this was qualifiying and we are supposed to do a minimum of three laps to qualify. Anyway I got back to the pits and started troubleshooting. Jerome Lefevre helped as his TZ always runs perfectly, and soon we had identified an ignition problem, preventing the bike from starting, plus an airbox problem (in fact I discovered that my airbox contained a couple of K&N filters that I didn't even know were there!). I swapped in the original Yam CDI box, and cleaned out the airbox, and the bike started fine. The dilema now was should I up the jets or not!!

For the first race I left as was, i.e. with 290 mains (this was already 10 points higher that Le Vigeant). After a few laps the temperature was going up alarmingly fast, and so I was obliged to pull off. For me this was an indication that I hadn't jetted up enough.

For the second race I went up to mains of 300 - the biggest I had! THe bike was running well, and no signs of overheating, so I started to really open her up - on the third lap I had overtaken a few guys and was finally getting into it, when at the end of the (quite short) back straight I seized! F*%K!

After having stripped the top end down, the right hand piston had siezed, and starting to disintegrate, although the cylinder itself is relatively undamaged. I have already put in an old replacement piston (I have quite a collection of sizes now). It seems to giive quite good compression, and I hope it will last the next 2 weekends racing.

The only 2 things I am looking at that could have caused the seize are :-
Still too weak - I have ordered bigger jets, and will try an extreme (like 340s and work backwards)
The ignition (remember I seized with this ignition at Nogaro!).

I need to retest the zeeltronic again to make sure it doesn't work..... Borut (the friendly manufacturer will not be pleased) I have received a replacement for the powervalve controller which will also go back on.

Voila un weekend de merde!

The only saving grace was I picked up a winter project on the way back from Paris - I am now a proud owner of an Suzuki RG500, possibly the most powerful, fastest road going two stroke ever......photos coming soon.

Saturday