Getting ready for brands hatch

The bmrc letter arrived yesterday which outlined what the technical inspectors will be looking for. So I've been around doing my checks, got a decent torque wrench so I've been checking and tweaking all the nuts and bolts. Lock wired the sump bolt, filler cap, dip stick, and put a large jubilee clip around the oil filter and lock wired that to something close. The steering lock is good. Started the engine, ran well with no blue smoke! On my spare front wheel I've lock tighterd my new wavy discs. What else, I've made a small bracket which fixes to the bottom of the radiator and fixes to the cylinder head just to give it added support. The bike will be going through a lot of stresses

video camera!...£14.50 from China

I was looking through video camera's that fit to bikes, they all were basic models about 100 quid. Being a cheap skate I searched through ebay to find this camera from china. Its a bullet shape like a small torch, rechargeable last about an hour, comes with various mountings, dubious translated instructions a cd with software that doesnt work to well...but it saves mpeg files at 720*480...not Hd but cant complain for something at this price which included postage. It save files on a micro sd, once you understand how it works its simple. The quality isnt bad, I will upload a test at somepoint.

carb tweaking

Today my original carbs were ready to put back in. All set up with 135 mains, 1mm spacer lifting the needles and 2 turns out from pilot stop. Ive got carb swapping down to about 30mins, quite simple once one knows how to prize/lever them in. I found by popping the rubbers on the carbs, a touch of wd40 wiped on the inside of the rubbers help them slip onto the firstly the front cylinders then gently ease with a bit of wood resting on the rear cylinder head and resting on one of the rear carb tops, bit of force pulled down towards the front of the bike just gently eases them onto the rear intake ports.

The spare set are from a 1994 vfr and have the same jets and needles but slightly shorter intake funnels....would the shorter stacks give a better top end but less low and mid range?...have to read up on that or wait for the track.
I also filled the bike with some nice silkolene race oil 10/50. on starting the bike it firstly ran lumpy but at the same time clouds of blue smoke were piling out the exhaust. I couldnt work out why this was happening...until I realised when i drained the oil before the sump plug is right next to the exhaust down pipe connector, draining oil inevitably dripped onto the exhaust and into where the pipes connect and must have slipped into the sleave! so 5 minutes of running the blue clouds gradually cleared! lucky! Once the engine was clear of smoke and warmed up fully I turned the pilots in a 1/4 turn which smoothed out the lumpiness.

Its ready!

lap timer bracket

The cockpit area is tiny so the only place for the timer display was on the tacho! the receiver sits on the rear subframe and the link wire just long enough to get to the front. The wires going into the plugs and connectors are pretty weany and look fragile, they were supplied without the sleaving and look quite exposed...taped that up with electrical tape...then I went round the bike taping wires and soon I realised if its wet while racing I might get a few electric problems...then i got the cable(zip) ties and tied down everything......as one does. Back to the bracket..problem solved, flat Alu plate about 0.9mm thick, drilled two fxixng holes, curved the edge to match the tacho dial....industrial velcro supplied by pzracing( but only managed to send me one half of velcro)...

fairing fixing....or bodging

before and after shot......................


This has been a real bothersome task. I hate messing with glass fibre....I always get my hands covered in resin when someone knocks at the door. The job in hand was to pull in the fatty TLR fairing and give it a gastric band. It seems to be only fat on the right side and decked out all too easily on right handers as the suspension compressed in the corner. Task one was to wind up the ride height to its maximum gained about 9mm....then pick a suitable line to cut on the side panel...bit of guess work...and cut using my nifty electric hacksaw.
on the inside I had to strengthen an area with Alu mesh, what i did you can just see a very faint light coloured scar this was a cut line/more like angle grinder score line, taking it close but not breaking through this I could then pull in like a score line on a piece of card. So I bent it in then bottom part then overlapped the other cut line with the fairing...like a nip and tuck....then lots of filler to blend in the overlap and other rough bits........its done the job...painted it back to white.
I also fitted the quick release dzus fasterners.....just need lots of stickers to mask the bodgy bits!

Father Christmas has been buying early

Here are some goodies that arrived in the last couple of days. Westcountry windings sent me the 'unbreakable' front brake lever( 5 yr guarantee!), a pzracing gps laptimer....minus the usb computer attachment which will arrive soon, and a good deal on some metzeler racetecs from the Visor shop at crossand motorcycles N.Ireland...prices will go up when the season gets going next year so they tell me. also I didnt know but Metzler is Pirelli or is it the other way round..........spending spree is now officially over for this year...!