No Budget Cup - That's Numberwang! Racing

[punyXpress]

All the best to team #wang.
You'll be about in the thick of it about right now!

How did it go tim, first place.

Originally Posted by bluefishman

How did it go tim, first place.

Not quite, an eventful day. a report will follow shortly....

So a great day with lots of learning and lots of help from Charlie Whyte and team Phoenix.

Turned up, sailed through techniacl inspection, stickered up bike with sponsorship stickers, moved into a pit box with Charlie and Team Phoenix, who were quite surpirised at us having not pit crew, no refuelling man, no fire extinguisher man, no legal refuelling device.





Charlie kindly lent us his spare ex-kawasaki endurance team dump fueller, and two of his crew to refuel us when required (not that we ever quite reached that stage, 10 mins short ). The refueller is modelled by Mick here:



Qualifying was interesting, I was slow in getting back into track riding, a nice big spin up on the first lap out on new tyres, a few more twitches, especially on a new bike that seems to have a powerband come in at 8k rpm with a bit of a rush. After a few laps I got black flagged for excessive noise 95.9dB.... So I came in (a 2nd black flag due to noise would have meant being DQ'd for the rest of the event).

Mick then went out and seemed to gel quite well with the bike, securing us a qualifying position that wasn't last!

We lunched, faffed a bit, got a wet rear tyre fitted to our spare wheel, then it started raining gently, most other teams turned to wets. We stayed on dry BT-016s due to the fact we didn't think we'd be able to change wheels and discs over by the start of the race. This is something we difinitley need to practice.



I went out in the damp, steady eddy, we were soon red flagged. We reformed, went out again, I got overtaken by the guy behind me, also on BT-016s, I had a few ar$e puckering moments, once the front locking a little under braking for turn 1

So as a drying line was developing I upped the pace from very tentative to tentative and start to slowly draw him in. Still getting to grips with the track, various chicane option (i.e shortcuts that were being taken), meant I'd catch a up a bit then drop back a bit. In the end I caught him and passed between turn 1 and 2. I then got ahead of him but then started to be overtaken by the front runners. Again it was drying more, and I slowly sped up (but not quick), got some knee down, and really got in a groove and enjoyed myself.

Soon my 45 mins were up, I came in, swapped with Mick and out he went, just as it started to spit again. The track dampened up a bit more and Mick stayed out putting in a fiar number of laps, but was unlucky to get caught out at the end of his stint on the entry to chicane just before the start/finish straight.

The bike used its crash bungs, spilt a little oil, cuaght a little fire, got put out, a normal day at the office. No damage to Mick luckily.

A great day even with mishaps and many lessons learnt:

- Try riding a bike on track in advance of a race meeting
- An SRAD with a new baffled can will set off the noise meter in third and a fair bit of throttle, even staying away from the mic
- An SRAD with a new baffled can will haul in Blades and RSVs on the straights when there are no noise meters
- More than 2 riders are required for an endurance team
- Team Phoenix are a generous bunch, but at least we repaid the favour by lending them a 36mm socket
- If it's wet use your wets
- If you have wets make sure the wheels have discs fitted so you can use them
- A super spout and jerry can does not pass for a bona fida refuelling device
- A decent breakfast is a good idea before endurance racing, not 2 muesli bars
- Jaine Omorogbe is tall in real life and was giving us track tips, we were that fast
- Oil from smashed casings can catch on fire when it contacts hot exhausts
- Powder fire extinguishers make a mess of your bike[/li]
- Suzuki electrics still work after a fire and with a bent key
- Rebuild and refuse to lose, Dijon here we come
- The dutch speed limit for towing is apparently 80km/h not 100 according to some traffic coppers, but they seem to take pity on foreigners with broken motorbikes


A little damage, I will inspect closer tomorrow night, but it looks fixable, upper fairing, screen, levers, crash bungs and alternator cover, gearchange rearset, brake side foot peg, rear fairing patch up and a new tank scuff to fix!

















So we've experienced a racing baptism of fire but we'll be back, 2 months to Dijon

[yorkie_chris]

Originally Posted by Tim in Belgium

seems to have a powerband come in at 8k rpm with a bit of a rush.

- An SRAD with a new baffled can will haul in Blades and RSVs on the straights when there are no noise meters

Good innit , sure there's another one lurking higher up somewhere where it really gets shifting.
can't believe you've made a boll*cks of it already, bit careless weren't it

Have you scuffed the same bit of tank you patched up?

Fantastic write up Tim! Sorry the bike went down the track but thats all part of racing Bend it, fix it, bend it again! Really glad the riders are unscathed.

The guy on Ebay sells the footpegs for those rearests individually if you Email him (because the one you bust was brand spanking) but its always good to have a few spares along with spare handlebars, spare clutch and brake levers etc. I now carry half a bike with me to the meetings just in case

And, like the last time and like my drop, it went down on the left side. Cheaper to buy an engine casing than a new exhaust! R&G covers for the next meeting?

I'm loving this step by step "blog" approach to racing. Maybe I'll do the same for this weekend if its popular with other folks? Its addictive reading and we feel like we're involved

Some engine, isnt it? The power coming in at 8K is from the top end tune. How does it compare to your road bike engine?

You'll get better and better at changing wheels as you get a system. I've got it down to under 5 mins for a front and rear change on the 600 now and I can change and balance a tyre in less than 5 mins too. Just do it a few times and it'll come. I've probably changed 30 tyres on this bike's wheels now and its second nature.

What was your qualifying lap times compared to your racing times? How much did you drop?

C

Chris - a bit of the previously scuffed bit and a new bit The Power keeps on coming, it slams into the rev limiter at a rate of knots, no tailing off/soft limiter as I discovered. It was also spinning up over the grid positions on the start/finish staright, nice!

Berlin - Yep a good learning curve for us. Do you have details of the seller of those rearsets? Could you pm me if possible?

Also do you know who made the race fairing? we only need an upper, but that's if it'll fit to the lower.......

Had a heavy duty spare casing waiting in the wings already Just needs a few more bits to make trackable...

Get some case covers! More important than crash bungs

So did you actually use your wets?

[yorkie_chris]

Doesn't look like it considering the green line on them next to the crispy bike!

Originally Posted by lukemillar

So did you actually use your wets?

No , but next time it's wet we will!