Brands Hatch Acu license test completed!

Finally made it, great 2 days I really enjoyed it. Got back sunday totally knackered. The written test was easy and the whole of saturday went well. I had to weight until 6pm to get the bike to the garages as there was a car track day happening.....unfortunately a porsche gt3 dumped oil all round druids so on sunday we had to take care because there was oil still left. The marshals did a good job cleaning it the best they could.

On sunday had an early start going through the scrutineering, few things to tweak, like add a sharks fin under the rear sprocket, I thought it would be ok because the exhaust comes up under there and would stop any flailing hands getting caught. Still have to do it though...job 1, then I should also grind off some casting webs the are on the frame which stick up, could be dangerous. The bike passed anyhow. It past the noise meter test but I only had to hold it to 5000, I thought it was higher as in the acu manual.

Tyre warmers on! First outing Dave Harviek our instructor led us around to get the feel of the track and see how druids looked...it was still slippery right on the racing line. I noticed straight away the juddering effect on braking... after 20 mins back to the pits. Another thunderbiker Colin helped me through the suspension, he noticed the back rebound was too quick so slowed it down with a few clicks, Then set the front to have stiffer compression....2nd session was annoying I was really getting good, my entry speed in the corners was fast and so I could carry the speed in the corners. Some 600's were too slow going in so would hold me up...tried going round them some of the time, they would get passed me on the straight. I'm not saying Im good but i was trying to keep flowing. My brakes still juddering and spongy..not happy braking. Back in after the session Colin looked at the calipers and noticed that 2 pistons on the 4 pot calipers were not moving! causing drag on the discs...both sides. I tried cleaning one pair and accidently pumped one of the pistons out!!! disaster....fluid leaking...bit of a bummer, had to push it back in and bleed the front brakes...by this time I could'nt do the other side as it was time to go out again. I just took it careful on the brakes and spent the rest of the sessions working on my lines and style, I had to really hang off the bike round clearways as the right side would ground out.

On the last session my kneeslider unstuck itself, not the velcro part but the glue holding it onto the velcro pad. My right boot ground away too.

The bike seem to go ok, it pulled to the redline and didnt miss a beat. Just the carburation need looking at. The power was'nt arm wrenching but progressive. The gearing worked well for the short circuit. Handling..apart from the juddering front, grounding out it held its line, was smooth and I'm juffed the way it behaved.

Dave the instructor said I was doing well and my lines were fine. Overtaking wasnt dangerous, kept my distance but he said I just have to be more forceful. Thats true and I can work on that.

I'm waiting for the on-track pictures.

Ready For brands!

Entry forms have arrived!

Received the Bmcrc entry forms today.

So I've filled in he first 2 rounds, Snetterton 300 24th 25th March, Brands Hatch 14th 15th April. I'm also going to do the Snetterton test day but will have to book a day off work( I'm allowed 10 personal days a year so most of the test days will be personal days!) . Roll on next weekend should be fun but I hope the weather is reasonable. Bike is already on the trailer as I won't have much time next week to get ready.

Bit cold in the shed now.

Today Ive really done nothing but check a few things, stuck a very small foam pad on the seat, can't raise the seat height any more.....it will have to do until I can fabricate a new rear frame, which if I could run without a battery then that would save space and weight. No time now to change things around. I weighed the bike using the bathroom scales method, it came to 202kg wet weight....a touch heavy...which is disappointing...the fairing alone weighed 6 kg so thats 208Kg....power yet to be determined but a dont think it will be above 95bhp because its only had minor work this is only what I can work out from examples on the vfr discussion forum and the type of jetting.......not sure if I want to take it to a dyno until after the bemsee race school not much time left to start fiddling.......unless it warms up by 10 degrees in the shed.

My small bullet camera that I bought a couple of weeks ago ....I kind of lost it! cant find where i put it....anyhow I got another one from china, this time it was 16.25 not 14 quid. Im going to test it on my road bike later in -6 degrees...

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.