weekend of ups and downs!

I'm a cheap skate, ill buy some pictures soon to get rid of the water mark. The weekend was tough going, having set up camp in garage 18 at brands hatch on thursday evening, staying until Sunday to pack up around 6pm I was totally knackered.

It was exhilerating experience being at Brands Hatch, the plunge into Paddock hill and up to Druids on the first lap was pretty hairy business. I nearly got side swiped at druids and then run off the circuit at graham hill but managed to stay on the tarmac. Over the weekend the steering tightened up, the ground clearence became a big problem, the bike would simply dig in with the footpeg then the brake pedal woud and as there was no where for the brake pedal to go it lifted the bike off the tarmac..tjhis happened twice on the rise around clearways as the suspension compressed. I tried puting more ride height on but it made the bikes back end start weaving out of clearways. The frustarting thing is I can go much faster, so my plan is to re-think this situation as I'm not wearing out my expensive pegs again. I can do a number of tweaks, get the shock sent back to nitron and have them make it longer, make some high rear sets, change the forks...get longer ones?.....lifting up the rear will make the front too steep..maybe a dont know....bit of a pickle. Anyhow I've promised the wife that now Brands is out of the way Ill do the bathroom so there may be intermitten posts from now and until the bathroom is done.

Brands Indy!

Well I'm setting off thursday evening to set up ready for Friday test day then on to the race weekend. Ive put my new footrests on and bodged the fairing back together where it had ground out. Will to test out whether the exhaust mod worked on Friday but to be honest I'm stuck with it now. Roll on Brands!

trophies!

some pics!, trophies! was amazed that I was 2nd and third rookie in the thunderbike class!...probably wont happen again for a while!!! but a confidence boost...In reality I think i was running 15th or so if you take into account all the non rookies, but its a start, my first time out at Snetterton...

exhaust fiddling2

Both now opened up, re-welded.

spent the afternoon fixing it all back and fired it up!.......wow what a difference! its got 4 cylinders back to norm! sounds really really awesome...must get a before and after sound bite....mow worried about the sound levels. At Snetterton it was reading 106 Db..scraped me through..maybe check tomorrow with my sound meter.

I also tweaked the ride height, extended the adjustment on the nitron shock by about 10mm. Looking at some footpeg adjusters from 'Thurn' motorcycles in germany but havent committed yet.

Just switched back my 135mains carbs for tomorrow.

exhaust fiddling

I knew the bike wasnt running right, I had comments that it sounded like a twin! it seemed to have an uneven sound which I was baffled, 2 sets of carbs cant be duff and my jetting cant be too wrong. So looking at reviews on my exhaust pipe work I found the problem which answers the strange sound...not a proper v4 sound that this bike should have. With the Dyno run at snetterton giving a disappointing 77 hp told me why I was struggling so much on the straights, with the mini-twins able to keep up with my acceleration..The poor engine has been struggling...well the front 2 cylinders have strugggled because of how front down pipes connected to the rears. The pipes didnt exactly merge....heres some pictures.....look nice on the outside but on the inside hide the restrictions, that hole is about this size of 1pence coin may be less.

Snetterton race report

Wow what a long weekend, went up friday morning, packed up there so I parked in the over flow bit, set up my gazebo and got ready for the pm practice slots. Signed on, then found out that this side of the inner circle there were no tannoys so couldnt here the session callouts. Later moved into the paddock area opposite MCN guy Michael Neeves with hsi gleaming new looking bmw s1000r.
The track is long and real fast, by the end of the weekend I was getting the hang of the circuit. I know now where i can go faster, be more smoother wider entering the hairpins..The vfr never missed a beat even though its dyno'd power registered a low 77hp and 206 kg so really disappointed on one side....(further investigation later) and elation for completing 4 races without crashing and bringing home a 3rd position rookie, and 2nd position rookie in thunderbikes in sundays racing. For such a heavy beast and low power I was getting faster, I just had to calm down get a rhythm and take some corners wider especially 'corrums' I know I just have to get the lines and corner speed but
my biggest issue apart from power was the ground clearance, so i have to jack the bike up. Theres no question here, if i want to go faster i need more lean!.,,get some rear sets, then get the bike set up on a dyno. I managed to destroy 2 sets of boots. Most annoyng fact , spyke leathers are poorly assembled, poorly tested, bad quality control. The knee slider attachments use the velcro the opposite way to most knee slider companys. they unglued themselves from their own backing. The inner lining is held together with a plastic zip....they've all pulled out. bought from George whites a couple of years ago, only used rarely.....i will take a picture on send it too spyke.
too tired now to say any more.....pictures to come along with better race analysis

Snetterton looming closer!

So Im getting excited about Snetterton, I've made a huge list of things to take, more than the test weekend. I've done a few things to the bike, not all good, like snap a disc bolt, still waiting for my new bolts to come through the post, managed to calm myself down and drill out the remains, took some nerve cos I couldnt make a mistake and damage the wheel rim thread. I just hope they arrive before thursday. Its not the end of the world because I just have to take the wheel with my slicks on and not have a spare front wheel.
Next job was to make a shark fin, found some 3.5 mm AL plate, cut it then heated it up a little and bent it so it could attach to a chain cover bolt hole on the swingarm and bend in under it so its about a cm from the chain and sprocket.
Lastly Ive drilled 2 22 mm holes in the airbox lid, just to try and get a little more air flow in. Advice from vfrdiscussion forum under carburation/airbox stuff. Will try it out on friday, if its too week Ive got some bungs for the holes.

changed the front sprocket from 14 to 16 teeth, left the rear at 45.