Mallory Park 17th August

Countryfile is that TV show on BBC on sunday mornings with John Craven about country things. it has a "farming" weather forecast which is quite good

stay in novices until you're happy to move up. I would say that once you're consistently getting your knee down & carrying some reasonable corner speed, & most importantly, that you're getting held up by being in novices, then that is a good time to move up

if you think someone is riding like a knobhead, then tell the trackday people. with the best will in the world, they can't see the whole track all the time, so they'll keep an eye on the person next time out

[johnnyrod]

Totally.

Tim, cam swap should cost you about 210 Euros for parts (2x camshafts, don't bother with all the other stuff). Fitting I would allow a full day for as the Sv is a pain to work on. Insurance - don't mention it, unless someone strips your engine they will never know, and then the intake is still an SV intake. What you get is 10% extra top end from about 7k upwards, which is exactly what you need, check this out:
http://www.johnnyrod.co.uk/dynoruns.pdf
(Ignore the blue line).
I'd recommend it to anyone now I've tried it! Yes the big boys will still blow you into the weeds, but it makes a big difference to the 600s.

Did you get the cams new or secondhand?

And I'm back in the UK so will be paying for them in Sterling

[johnnyrod]

New, about £140 or so for the pair. There are instructions on svrider.com, but basically you take the old ones out. Put the new ones (K3 intakes) on the intake side, alignement marks are the same. Put your old intakes on the exhaust side, you need to make your own timing marks. With patience this isn't difficult, the photos on svrider.com help. Slap it back together, done, it really is that simple. You don't need new buckets or anything, and everyone I've heard who's done it hasn't even had to replace the shims (all on low mileage bikes). Oh yeah, it makes it a little bit louder too..

Well did you get there in the end Rod?

Was a good day although I didn't pass my rite of passage.

I wasn't very impressed with the surface, in particular the repairs, some of which were green????!!! right in the middle of Gerrards. I did get my tyre right down to the edge although I think I might have only done it once.

I was absolutely pants at the hairpin before bus stop and kept getting taken on the inside by loads of people. I had a few wobbly moments there probably because I was changing down into first and the fuelling was very grabby.

Some donut dumped his oil on the right hand at Edwinas in about the third session which made it a bit pants as we had to go either really tight or really wide to avoid the mess that was left. That was probably my favourite corner. It was also my undoing in the very last session as I went straight through the middle of it and promptly stood the bike up exiting the corner straight onto the soaked mud. Luckily I kept it sunny side up but as the tyres were so muddy I sat it out at the Marshalls hut and watched for the last ten minutes or so. Was pretty good watching my mates battle it out.

The lads all got their suspensions done by the fell there and it was amazing to see what difference it made to the bouncing. Obviously not worth doing mine but I did crank up the rear pre-load which didn't realy make any difference.

Overall a good day and I'm sure I'll be back there.

Glad to hear you had a good time there, and managed to keep it sunny side up, you return to fight another day

Originally Posted by teriyakimonkey

...

glad you had a good day & kept it rubbery side down. knee-down will come when it's good & ready, Mallory's not the best place to get a first knee-down to be honest, my vote would be Brands for that - I think a mid-speed, mid-radius 3rd gear corner is about right - Druids or Mclaren/Clearways are perfect

the hairpin's a bit tighter than Druids, don't you think? I don't bother going down into first on the SV, I find second is fine with the v-twin - I used 1st on my mate's cbr6 when I tried that though

some of the surfacing at Mallory's a bit dodgy - 2/3rds round gerrards there's some nasty patching & the exit to the busstop is a mess too

Yeah although I won't be fighting another day on the SV. I'm getting a new baby soon. Really wanted to get my knee down on it before I get rid but hey ho.

I don't know if what it is but I seem to be lacking something on track days. It's nothing extreme but I seem to push just a tiny bit less than others. I've only had two dry track days so far and my mates three. Could it be the difference in bike so far? I'm told I'm ok on the corners. I was onlly getting to about 100 at the end of the straight and was told the others were doing about 125 although I probably wasn't geting the best exit speed from the long left hander before.

Originally Posted by teriyakimonkey

I don't know if what it is but I seem to be lacking something on track days. It's nothing extreme but I seem to push just a tiny bit less than others. I've only had two dry track days so far and my mates three. Could it be the difference in bike so far? I'm told I'm ok on the corners. I was onlly getting to about 100 at the end of the straight and was told the others were doing about 125 although I probably wasn't geting the best exit speed from the long left hander before.

nothing wrong with pushing a bit less hard, it means that you can concentrate on being smooth. ride slower to be smoother to be faster -type of thing. the opposite is being brave, which gets expensive

I think that there's such a learning curve on the initial few trackdays that there is potentially a fair difference between having done two vs three. I couldn't get my knee down after my second trackday, but I could after my third

were your mates on SV's? any 600-4 will absolutely cane an SV down that straight. it's a tricky left-hander to get a good drive out of too - a bit off-camber, plus it needs a gear change whilst you're leant over to the left, which is quite unusual on a british track

don't beat yourself up mate, it'll come with time & practise. which is a great excuse to go on another trackday

Originally Posted by weazelz

glad you had a good day & kept it rubbery side down. knee-down will come when it's good & ready, Mallory's not the best place to get a first knee-down to be honest, my vote would be Brands for that - I think a mid-speed, mid-radius 3rd gear corner is about right - Druids or Mclaren/Clearways are perfect

the hairpin's a bit tighter than Druids, don't you think? I don't bother going down into first on the SV, I find second is fine with the v-twin - I used 1st on my mate's cbr6 when I tried that though

some of the surfacing at Mallory's a bit dodgy - 2/3rds round gerrards there's some nasty patching & the exit to the busstop is a mess too

Yeah I love Druids. That's where I got my brake lever and peg down. I changed my pegs back to standard cos I had the low ones on. I'll agree that the hairpin's just a tiny bit tighter! He he. Bloody silly if you ask me. It didn't look like the repairs were of the highest quality. Do tracks get totally re-surfaced from time to time? Was funnt turning up to find no garages as the last few days I've been on have been Brands and Silverstone. Still a nice venue though. The woman in the cafe had a real attitude. He he. ****ed my mate right off. Prices were extortionate in there too. £7.50 or so for a dollop of lasagne, a few frozen chips and a couple of lettuce leaves? I wish they'd cut out luch cos it's like going back to square one after. I didn't fill up though.

Can you compare Rockingham to Mallory, Brands, Silverstone or Cadwell park as I'd like to do that one.