Trackday project K3

[Redmist]

Finally got the forks back together after I got a friendly chap at work to braze the compression holes shut:



Initially I felt the 9.0 springs might be too much but after replacing the top spacers using a stack of 5mm thick spacers we (SVGTI came to help measure!) achieved a static sag of 10mm and Rider sag of 23mm with the adjusters FULL in, full out = 36mm of rider sag, so a healthy range to play with at the track.

[Redmist]

Today was dyno day!

The aim was to see how the bike is performing, making sure its making standard power at least.
And also to get some help diagnosing Andy's (SVGTI's) curvy model which was running poorly last time out. Thankfully we now have an answer and it seems a poorly CDI unit needs replacing on his bike. (See the wanted section!)

We went to see Paul at Dynobike in Malton: http://www.dynobike.co.uk/
An established dyno test centre, with 15 years bike and car experience.

The good news is that the bike made bang on minitwin power, 72hp at the rear wheel, its running a standard ECU, beowulf can with baffle in, pipercross air filter and with the snorkel in place.

Dyno printouts:

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Video:

Pics:

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[Redmist]

Yesterday was a lovely day soaking up the sun and pounding the track at Darley Moor, Derbyshire.

A short but rewarding circuit, finished with a quickest lap time of 1m 11s which is reasonable pace. The fastest boys on tuned up 650s will be doing 1m 01s.

Suspension felt good, the bike was looked over by a scrutineer and found no issues for racing so its all set for first ever race on Easter Monday.

A video from the day:

[Redmist]

So first ever race event at Darley Moor. April 21st.
I set off for noise test a bit later than I should've, so after that I joined the queue for practice / qually.
With the track still damp and on cold tyres I was happy to just plod around but that kind of set me back for the races later.

First race, from 14th grid slot, did a mini wheelie from dropping the clutch and that set me going backwards.
Got a couple places back into the first chicane and set about getting upto 11th place. Was catching others but didn't improve before the 6 laps finished.

Second race, having practiced the start on the sighting lap start, I made a better but still slow start.
Two of the 125s were harder to shake off this time until I wised up and stopped giving the first one the line into the hairpin. Again, I ended up finishing the race with some bikes up the road but not able to catch up like the first.

The newcomers race was a handicapped race so it was a staggered start, a lonely 125 went on the first flag (He actually went as the marshall raced the flag!) then me and two steelie 600s next.
We all got past the 125 and the steelie 600s were long gone as I was now lapping a fair bit slower.
Then on the last lap, an R6 blew past me out of the hairpin onto the back straight.

Now I'm confident I took my usual braking marker and lined up behind the R6 to follow him thru paddock bend.
(My mate Andy will say otherwise, something about Redmist by name, and by nature!)
Eitherway unfortunately he braked slower and slower. I didn't want to muck up his race, so I slotted into the space on his outside. Sadly he then drifted left to begin his corner entry. I got squeezed out until eventually my bars hit his seat or elbow, at which point the bike wriggled and I ended up on the gravel.
The bike wasn't seeming to slow down much, so I decided to jump ship to save being carried into the barriers.
That was my last thought until I was sat up chatting to the medical staff in the medic centre.
Andy saw it and said it was pretty spectacular with both me and the bike bouncing to a stop.

The bike is messed up but the main damage seems to be limited to the forks, exhaust and right clip-on area.
For now the aim will be to rebuild for trackdaying and see where we go from there!

Let the ribbing commence!

Brave of you mate. Very honest in coming out with the reasons and I'm sure you will learn from it. Racing is a completely different mindset to even trackdays. And on trackdays I have the mentality that I must take care of the guy in front. No matter what the idiot might do, its my responsibility to make sure I don't hit him. So, get past as soon as I can if possible of settle back and give room. Little you can do about some idiot behind you as you shouldn't be looking back really, but you'll learn. Main thing is that you're ok and ready to go even harder again the next time. Bet the ****** didn't even come to see how you were!

[JulesW]

Great effort Redmist, sounds like a very respectable outing for a first ever race event at that circuit, getting to grips with a new circuit is never easy.

I really hope the incident in the 3rd race doesn't put you off!

Take care and good on you man

[Redmist]

Thanks chaps, don't worry I'm not put off, but it'll be a while to get the bike up to scratch again.

Some pics thanks to Robster Racing Pics:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Rsbro...78246038889865

You never forget your first race. Good luck piecing things back together.

[Redmist]

So this is now officially a rebuild thread!!

Well actually here's the run down of jobs to do:

Swap forks for new ones - swap over the internals and re-oil.
Brakes - Replace master cylinder and lever - bleed the lines.
Throttle cables - Plastic worn thru - replace top half??
Exhaust - gentle persuasion to get it straight!
Fairings - Replace - Respray - resticker
Tank - dab on some paint where the gravel pebble-dashed the paint work!
Find the damn key!!! Or replace ignition barrel with a big switch and get a race style filler cap??

Tonight I set about with the job of fork swapping.
Before:



So I stripped off the right clip on, removed the steering damper and pulled out the forks.

It turns out that it may be only one fork (The right one) that is bent, I will have to find a straight edge to prove the left was ok but I carried on with stripping both forks.
Thankfully the internals all came out nicely so I moved onto the new ones.
I'm a little concerned the new ones have misting of oil on the stanchions after bouncing on them, just a very fine rainbow film shows up but apparently the seals were done already??

So with them all apart, and no new oil arrived yet, I set to taking the exhaust end can apart to try and hammer the entry piece to somewhere near straight again. That was a major pain in the bum but its near enough now. Just needs new rivets and a new jubilee clip thingy to join onto the link pipe.

By then it was dark so I packed up the shed:



Hopefully she'll be ship shape by the weekend (Bar the fairings) if all the bits arrive this week!
Although I still haven't sourced a front mudguard.


.

Get a new cable. It doesn't cost much. A GSXR cable works fine is in a bit of an upgrade because its a little longer.