Anglesey – March 21/22
I’d always intended this to be a test and setup weekend (including race day) but I had hoped that it would have gone better than it did.
Saturday – Test day
The days test sessions were split into four groups:
A – Classics, forgotten era (unlimited), modern bikes up to 400cc, 650 mini-twins.
B – 600’s and superbikes.
C – 600’s and superbikes.
D – Sidecars.
Testing on a Ducati 250 at the same time as the modern 125 GP’s 400’s, SV650’s, FJ1300’s, etc was always going to be difficult as the speed and cornering line difference can make it quite hazardous at times.
Each group was scheduled to have 4 sessions on the track during the day.
On the first session my main intention was just to check handling (with new taper roller head bearings, etc) and to scrub in a new set of Avon tyres. Handling and tyres were fine but the engine was struggling to rev properly – on a full throttle it would stop revving at about 8000rpm, by closing the throttle a little it would then slowly climb then run OK again once above about 8500rpm. There’s also a flat spot between 4000 and 5000 which wasn’t there previously.
I changed the battery, cleaned the points and checked out the electrical system but couldn’t find anything very significant.
Between sessions the sun came out, but then it got a little misty again by the time we went out for the second session. The bike still wasn’t pulling properly, but I didn’t get much chance to work anything out as the session got halted after a few laps due to fog rolling in and making visibility at the top of the hill very poor. An early lunch was called.
Back in the paddock I spotted a crack in one of my exhaust mounting brackets so I went visiting one of the sidecar boys to get some welding done (they always have welding kit with them – maybe I should too!). Before it was done we got called back to assembly – session 2 was being re-run. I went back to the bike and hurriedly fitted my other silencer (and brackets). The bike may have been running a little better, but still not perfectly – I can’t say that I achieved much other than getting the shine off the tyres.
After that session I fitted my spare back wheel fitted with a Dunlop and took my front wheel to get a Dunlop fitted on that. Howard at Disco Volante had given me a pair so I was going to test them out. After half an hour it became clear that Ken Inwood wasn’t going to get time to fit the tyre before the next session so I took the wheel back and put it back in. At least I’d have chance to scrub in the Dunlop rear.
As I got the bike ready to go out for the third session my clutch cable went – the soldered nipple pulled off at the lever end of the cable so I didn’t have time to get out.
I immediately took the front wheel out again and took it to Ken as he’d then have over an hour to swap it from Avon to Dunlop. When I got there he had such a backlog that he’d still not have time to change it so I took the wheel back and put it back in.
The only spare clutch cable I had was from my Darmah – a thicker cable than on the singles, but I got it in place although the ends didn’t seat properly.
By the time the forth session came along I still hadn’t found anything wrong with then engine but it still wasn’t revving properly. After a few laps I came in – going into corners with a 125GP bike underneath and an FJ1300 on the outside was getting to be too much for very little return so I called it a day.
Once again I took my front wheel to Ken as I now had no time constraint, but he decided he didn’t want to do any more that day. Ah well.
I also found that my silencer had a big split in it where it had been welded up once before so it was back to the smaller silencer (with the freshly welded bracket).
Sunday – Race Day
7:30am I headed down to scrutineering – no problems.
8:02am I was at Ken’s van with wheel in hand – an hour later I had a Dunlop shod bike.
Practice. I have to say that I didn’t get on with the front Dunlop at all during practice. It felt very skittish (which I put down to it needing scrubbing in) and I did have a couple of dodgy moments.
I got noise tested as I came back in. 105dB so I just scraped in (and I can’t say that I was necessarily revving it to quite the right speed) but I might not pass next time.
When I got back to paddock I checked my wheel alignment, which was a bit out, and dropped a psi out of the tyres.
I also re-routed the clutch cable as it was puling a bit on full lock.
Race 1. Had the front tyre been as skittish as during practice then I’d have come in after a few laps, but it didn’t seem as bad so I stuck with it. My lap times weren’t good, a mix of lack of confidence in the front, a gearing setup I was trying out which proved to be a little high for some parts of the track, an engine which wouldn’t rev properly and a clutch cable which came out of place and ended up with the cable sliding through the slot in the adjuster (I can’t have seated it properly when I re-routed it) which meant I was doing clutchless changes for most of the time. I did have a reasonable scrap with a Suzuki 500 (but he beat me).
After the race I sorted out the clutch cable (again) and decided to stick with the Dunlop tyres as they were working reasonably well (although I didn’t feel as confident as with the Avons). On giving the bike the once over I spotted that the welded bracket had fractured so I set about fabricating a new one. Caroline stopped me and told be I couldn’t go out in the next race anyway. She’d spotted that I had cracks through the frame tubes on both sides.
Game over for the weekend!
A bit of a frustrating time overall.
I never got chance to try out a 34mm carb (I’m using a 32mm at the moment) and I now need to find what’s wrong with the engine, sort out the exhaust (maybe get a new system) and above all sort out the frame. It’s either going to be a case of getting some extra bracing put in or I might set to on one of the SCR frames I’ve got and use that instead.
I’ve got 2 weekends before my next meeting which is at Pembry (south Wales) at Easter.
Watch this space!
Cheers,
Roger
