Mallory park, final round of the ThundersportGB season.
This is my last meeting of the season and to be honest I am glad for it because there is so much work to do on the bike and riding it as is is becoming a little hard, especially in the Nationals...Club racing at Aintree is easy compared to these races and its going to get harder as next year there will be a few more bikes on the grid and with ex-wsb heritage too. Despite being a decent bike for what it is, its missing an extra 2 valves per head and water cooling.....but having said I would much rather race it in this series than a Classic series.
Friday PMTurned up for Friday afternoon qualifying only as we werent doing the morning practice sessions...I had doubts whether I should go but there was still some work to do on the bike so it was impossible to set off that early - plus Dad was having a delivery of slates for the new workshop roof Friday AM anyway. We got there at 2pm to a full to bursting paddock and as I needed some new tyres I went off to get some as soon as we unloaded the bike. As luck would have it the Aprilia 450 Cup team next to us were chucking some Bridgestone R10 tyres away so they gave them to me, I stuck them on and qualified in 3rd on the grid behind an RSVR and a VTR SP2 - awesome, ha ha.
Its the first time Ive tried these tyres and I thought they were good, the front is more pointy than Pirellis so the steering is quicker, but to be honest I couldnt really tell that much difference in grip...but I am not so used to the bike yet anyway so I cant really comment in much detail.
Race 1 SaturdayWas in 5th place but the clutch started to slip badly so had to pull out. Turned out the clutch actuator rod seal had gone which was contaminating the already worn out clutch plates, so we sorted that out and put in some new (old) plates that a 1098 team had, just to be sure. Its sounding like a scrounging weekend...
Race 2 SaturdayBattling for 4th, finished 5th. The speed difference between my bike and the Aprilia 1000's and 750 IL4's is starting to become apparent now
Brakes need sorting out as I didnt have the stopping power so I bought (yes bought) some new Performance Friction race pads.
Whats started out as the theory of it should go round corners and stop quicker isnt really coming to fruition as they can hold you up mid corner and they arent bad on the brakes either....
Race 3 Sunday5th, the back tyre (which was free) had gone off, causing some serious slides around the 100mph Gerrards corner which we later realized was because the tyre was too soft and it was ripping up - or more than likely, the team was throwing it away cos it was knackered. I splashed out on a new harder back tyre from Bridgestone.
Race 4 SundayWas in the leading group of 5 and made my way up to 3rd place and everyting was OK-ish. It was running wide round Gerrards and I couldnt pull a tight line so lost around 5 bike lenghts and a lad snuck up the inside, either its the front tyre or geometry...nevertheless I was enjoying it and the new brakes were awesome. Lap 8 and i went into Gerrards and the clutch lever was solid, its happened before and the clutch retaining nut had come loose despite a new nut and new locking washer??!! So I had to pull out, gutted.
Managed a 56.1 second lap though, I am sure if it wasnt running wide I could do a mid 55 but we'll not know till next year.
As a comparison the quickest Elite 600 class are doing mid 52, the quickest lap in my races was 55 second....not that far off....but too far off if you know what I mean.
Winter Preperation and modsAs it stands now, its not a bad bike and there is so much potential.....to a point.
We go into the off season with some ideas, we need to get it on a dyno to find out what power it is giving. If its shows 90hp, then I will be happy because it means I can find more...but if its more like 100, then I am stuck with what I have. I dont want to go much higher than 105 and sacrifice reliability. One thing that we can do is bore out the carbs to 41mm and maybe give it some more advance, plus we can play around with the cam timing but I need to buy some adjustable pulleys or make some offset keys.
I need make some new shorter offset yokes to get it to hold a better line.
Need a new clutch pack, so might as well buy a slipper clutch for it.
Get a working rev counter.
Get the quick shifter up and running.
Paint the fairing.
Maybe a new tank with an extended back and wider sides as I have no where to rest my arms in the corners (just something I noticed).
Try a 2-2 exhaust system with one silencer in the seat and one at the side, 2-1 on a 90 degree v twin....hmm, the phase is going to be out for the scavengeing to have any effect...anyway, its development at the end of the day so its something to try and if it works weve found something else if not, then...well, thats the fun isnt it?
Roll on 2013 !!