what a silly weekend.. W100 Anglesey

[zimm]

im gonna keep this brief for now ..

top tip : having finished building your racebike, resist the urge to "wazz it up the road and back" to see how it's pulling with different carb settings.. at least .. if you cant resist , make sure you put your kit on .. or you run the risk of crashing the bloody thing and losing a lot of skin.

how i managed to highside the bike 30 feet from my house i dont really know.. (im blaming invisible diesel and under inflated/cold tyres).. but i did .. it hurt(s), fleece tops and combats arent known for their abrasion resistence.. and nor is the left side of my body ..

so.. hobbled around making wimpering noises punctuated with swearing and loaded a rather battered bike into the van at about midnight and set off anyway (paid entries innit .. ) arrive around 4:30 am .. hobble about a bit, find jake's caravan .. wait for folk to surface whilst trying to get sosme sleep while the van is battered by high winds ..

cobble bike together with mucho gaffa tape, scrape through scrutineering and signing on, go out for practice and wobble round at 50mph being blown around so much by the wind that at one point im leaning right to go left then breathe a sigh of relief when racing is cancelled due to the winds .. oh .. and bike's running shite.

spend the rest of theday in jake's caravan drinking coffee and talking shite.. stripped carbs and lifted the needles a bit ..

everyone else goes to the pub about 8ish ... i go to my van .. eat a pot noodle and pass out till 9am sunday.

awake to blue skies .. and a wet track..

go out on dry tyres anyway..

wobble round .. not last .. result

go out for the forgotten era race ..

track now dry .. folk going a lot faster ..

still not last .. but got a skunk start as i forgot to knock it back to first after coasting up the grid in 3rd .. doesnt matter as im bottling it on the 1st corner and letting everyone past anyway ..

2nd f400 race .. cant actually remember not last though

2nd FE race .. got a good start, didnt bottle it at 1st corner .. went ok .. had a good 3 or 4 lap battle with 2 other zxr400-H1's passing and re-passing several times me just stealing the place through the final corner and on the drag up to the flag ..

oh .. got me knee down for the first time ever at some point .. was happening several times a lap by the last race .. both sides n all .. its amazing what not listening to other people about tyre pressures can achieve

then got sent on a 60 mile detour on the way home cos half of wales is flooded

BIG BIG THANKS TO JAKE AND HIS BRO FOR FEEDING ME CAFFIENE AND GENERALLY BEING EXCELLENT COMPANY EVEN THOUGH I WAS BARELY AWAKE ENOUGH TO RECIPROCATE

what a silly weekend

cant wait for oulton park

[tk400]

Sorry to hear about your tarmac fetish, but hope you are OK now. Sounds like a good weekend racing but. Hope the carb tunning worked better for sundays races...cheers


regards TK400

[will#224]

Great write up, i cant wait to get racing again and share my dramas, usually end up with a lay down on the tarmac but seems your ok.

[Scott221]

LMAO! Thats what its all about mate, you'll laugh one day. Oulton park should be great!!

[zimm]

Hope the carb tunning worked better for sundays races

better.. but no where near perfect .. dynojet needles and H airboxes really dont seem to get on ..

lean-rich-lean-rich.. topend was better than stock needles, but it was snatchy and hesitant when you cracked the throttle.. with a couple of random flatspots..

better than it was though.. wouldnt pull through the midrange in neutral at first !

reckon lift them a bit more and fit smaller mains .. but, SP cams and other stuff to be fitted now, so it'll all be changed again for oulton park ..

still, 8th in class for the last FE race of the day .. thats like top ten n stuff !

(bit better than the pair of 24ths i managed in F400 lol)

looking forward to oulton park now.. as long as its dry im hoping to go better than last time there now i know my way round.

[jake]

i think you did well mate. Much better than i fared the first time i was there.. and i was'nt injured then either!
I wished it could of been a better weekend of weather for us, but at least we got out on sunday.
My journey was'nt to bad on the way home, not much trafic.. how long did it take you back down? you must of been knackered today.
I feel a bit pissed at my efforts, and feel i should of done better. Im gonna take them friction plates out and soak em proper. I was also thinking that maybee the front cover plate that you screw the springs thru may be different to the L one?
I just took the plates and the front, springs in all out of my h, straight into the L. It might explain why those new 'L' springs where longer if they differ?

[zimm]

i didnt get back till gone 11 mate .. utterly shagged, had to soak me bandages off in the bath cos they'd formed into extra body armour as i'd been bleeding through them all weekend .. got charged an extra £45 for taking the van back late cos my mate wasnt working today ..

dont think the knock i took friday really affected my riding tbh.. made a me a little cautious on left handers but that was it really.. most painfull thing was sitting down for 5 minutes then trying to stand up again ..

um, clutches .. yeh, the KBATL (L and H-sp) clutches differ completely.. I had some pics somewhere but my servers down atm so cant access them.. dont think the front plates are interchangeable though, so you must have had one in your H engine for the bits to have swapped like they did (was it an SP ?) have a gander at the manuals should be clear(ish) from them

got some decent digi verniers or micrometer ? cos i'd check the thickness of those friction plates.. theres a chance they got fried slipping all through the 2nd race.

if you need any bits let me know and i'll see what I can find in my engine spares boxes.. springs/steels/front plate etc ..

thanks again for your help though man .. really honestly would have been lost otherwise.

where did you place in the end ? fraid its all a bit blurry.. know you were lapping about 10 sec a lap quicker than I managed and with a slipping clutch 'n all !

[jake]

think i was 12th and 14th... not to bad, ive done far worse but not as good as i feel i should be now.
you will have to get the welder out and sort your van out man.
the engine i took the clutch face out of was what i thought a h2sp. but it could of been the h1sp, but tbh, who knows... the bikes have changed hands a few times so could be a L/H/M/J mix. the steels i bought where for a H from cradley..and they always ask h or l even if the parts are the same...
its going back to chris on wednesday with all the clutch like spares to test em all.
Chis said i might of fooked the plates by not soaking em and twatting it off the line! im hoping i dont need steels again aswell..

[zimm]

steels are steels (L/H), and i doubt they'll be shot after one race..

got my SP cams this morning so i'll get them in and crack on with the van if the weather holds off for long enough..

its only 2 dozen plates, rear suspension bushes, re-wire the headlights and ignition switch, re-make the pop top roof, strip and re-pack the king pins, replace the rear axle oil seals and rebuild the brakes .. ! then bribe someone to get it through the MOT.. sounds a lot .. (and it kinda is) but it'd only be 3-4 days work if i had a warm dry workshop instead of a cold wet drive .. 4 post ramp would be nice .. lol

you entering FE man ? I reckon its ace value for money for double the track time and a choice of practice sessions.

[jake]

not this one. I probs will next year tho.
I only just got a place in the f400. just phoned margy before, cos i forgot to leave my entries on sunday...and there was only 2 places left for the f400.. nice full grid

[zimm]

was there anyone taking pics this weekend ? didnt see anyone in the paddock..

[jake]

there was a few taking photos there.
dpix have some up today man
http://www.d-pix.co.uk/gallery/main.php
there was other guys doin them, but not sure who tho

[zimm]

me

jake


seems the camera doesnt lie ! .. i look slower .. and i was

[jake]

here is your knee down corner zimm. could'nt find any more on the site tho

you ready for oulton then?
ive left mine till last minute, and will sort bike tommorow. need to run it up the road to make sure its reving as it should, changed carb springs to really light ones.. worked well on the dyno, but been told ram air can fucki the slides up

[zimm]

oooh .. ta mate .. f*** thats bright !

now see.. if my leathers fitted and the slider was in the right place it'd be down loads ! lol

ready for oulton .. hmmm .

my bike is in bits ..
the ignition curve is untested
im praying it stays dry, cos my spare wheels are still .. well.. pointless

i am however not bleeding/hobbling, my sp cams are in and sorted, the handling's a LOAD better and i already have the hire van ready to load outside

what time you getting there ?