First Race Meeting Report - Extra Long Extended Version (Warning- It's Really Long, Honest)

Brace yourself, Dumpy birds are slippery.

Aha - thanks.

So they're at the top of the forks?

Best avoided then.

Ah, seen those, worked out that's an unthreaded bit so it can clamp
two bits together - am I right?

Near the rear?

And then mr spark makes it go boom.

So basically you cut them up - but they might fall off

I think it has something to do with the twisty go handle.

Why would you want them to move side to side?

It does thanks. Anything mechanical confuses me, the style of
thinking to see how it all fits together and works is a bit beyond me.
Not enough time spent with old blokes standing around with a cup of
tea and a fag and getting oily when I was at an impressionable age.

 

... when wet.

Steering stem. That's the bit /between/ the forks, the one that ends
with the big fuckoff nut below your ignition (that's the bit where the
keys go in). The bearings fit in their races between the steering
stem and the headstock and their freedom of movement is what allows
you to turn the bars.

The shank is machined to the exact diameter of the hole it fits
through, generally. Used in situations where there is sideways
("shear") stress on the fastener and threads would wear away.

In the middle. Pegs. Called a rearset because it offsets the pegs
rearwards of the actual mounting point. Look at the bolts holding it
on in relation to the centreline of the footrest.

After Mr and Mrs valve have opened to let it into the combustion
chamber.

SFW? That's racing - so they tell me.

To equalise their position between the pads. Allows the pads (and by
inference, the pistons that push the pads out) to take up their own
position (or "set") that they find comfotable, then being fully
floating allows the disc to remain in close contact with the pads.
This position is only variable by a tiny amount, but is enough to
enable more efficient braking. Most of the time - but as with
anything of this nature, wehn it works it is fine - when it goes even
slightly out of kilter it's a fucking nightmare.

There's plenty of time for that. You're still an impressionable youth
.... or so Matt tells me.

 

Just to put the carb thang into girly speak, you know those perfume
atomisers that old grannies use? They've got a jar that the perfume
goes in, a lid with plastic pipe that does down into the jar, a nozzle
that the perfume comes out of & a squeezy rubber bulb to operate it.
When you squeeze the rubber bulb it forces air at speed through the
nozzle. This creates a vacuum where the air passes over the top of the
plastic pipe, which sucks the perfume up from the bottle. The perfume
gets mixed with the air (atomised) then squirts out the nozzle.

Carbs work in pretty much the same way, except the air flow is
generated by the vacuum created in the engine when the piston goes
down, helped along by a ram-air system & pressurised airbox on most
sportsbikes (or a turbo/supercharger if fitted). The carb's float bowl
is the equivalent of the perfume jar i.e. that's where the petrol sits.
Then there's an emulsion tube, main jet & needle (and a primary jet for
small throttle openings) which together replace the perfume bottle's
plastic pipe and control the amount of petrol passed up to the
airstream. Finally a slide or butterfly valve connected to the throttle
controls the amount of air that's allowed through - i.e. how hard you
squeeze the rubber bulb.

It's obviously a lot more complex than that, & different types of carbs
work in different ways, but that's the gist of it.

 

That's still a good album. Up there with Thunder in the cheesy rock
that's actually stood the test of time.

Yes, yes, that bit I worked out (wonders whether to tell the wondering
why the bike hadn't started story) a while back.

What's a race? A channel?

The headstock is the bit with the nut?

I had to break that down piece by piece to work it out. It's weird, it
is just a blind spot, like mechanical dyslexia, I look at the words
but they seem to shift around.

Ah and this is where Mr Eaton comes in with his tools that measure and
make mechanical things?

The fastener being the shank we were talking about, or is this another
fastener? And what situations cause sideways stress?

makes sense.

See there's too many sets in there, I'm getting distracted by badgers.

Will do.

snip

OK that makes perfect sense where as the bald mechanical stuff didn't
sink in. However if I think of them as little people it works - weird.

So there's an element of 'feel' to good mechanics then?

So less distance to travel to get the brakes on.

Must only give you tiny amount of time advantage though, mind you I
suppose their racing to win not just for a laugh.

Sticky brakes touching intermittently?

" "

is the best option here I think.

 

Not quite that bad - usually the rider attempting to overtake is doing
it at the point where you are both on the brakes, about to turn into
the corner. He attempts to come alongside - if you move out (away
from the corner eg to the right for a left hander), you give him
plenty of room, and he's then in control. If you move in, he has to
chose between moving closer still, which tightens his corner entry
line (and a tighter entry is slower [1]) or backing off (i.e. braking
harder) and following your line (and you) through the corner.

This would be much easier to describe when watching some racing

[1] fnarr fnaar

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, Lady Nina

The fastener is the bolt.

<THWAP>

There, that was sideways stress.

Clear now?

--
Wicked Uncle Nigel - Manufacturer of the "Champion-105" range of rearsets
and Ducati Race Engineer.

WS* GHPOTHUF#24 APOSTLE#14 DLC#1 COFF#20 BOTAFOT#150 HYPO#0(KoTL) IbW#41
ZZR1100, Enfield 500 Curry House Racer "The Basmati Rice Burner",
Honda GL1000K2 (On its hols) Kawasaki ZN1300 Voyager "Oh, Oh, It's so big"

 

Wicked Uncle Nigel said...

Oi! No belting my bird.

That's my job.

 

That's the kiddie - makes planes fly, engines go vroom, AND masks the
smell of wee on old women. Top bloke that Bernoulli.

 

That's good that is. ta.

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, MattG

That wasn't a belt, that was merely sideways stress.

Good man. Here, have a club. Now, back to your cave.

--
Wicked Uncle Nigel - Manufacturer of the "Champion-105" range of rearsets
and Ducati Race Engineer.

WS* GHPOTHUF#24 APOSTLE#14 DLC#1 COFF#20 BOTAFOT#150 HYPO#0(KoTL) IbW#41
ZZR1100, Enfield 500 Curry House Racer "The Basmati Rice Burner",
Honda GL1000K2 (On its hols) Kawasaki ZN1300 Voyager "Oh, Oh, It's so big"

 

You know way too much about perfume.

 

Perfume, no - atomisers, yes. Something to do with using my mum's
crystal & silk one (inherited from her grandmother) as an airbrush
because I couldn't afford one of those funky Badger ones. The resulting
trauma will be with me til the day I die.

 

I love it when I hear tales of mums striking fear into their little
ones hearts. Gives me something to aim for.

 

I think threatening one of yours at the BOSM with publishing baby photos of
him was a good start.

<small voice>
Although I might have threatened him with a haircut
</sv>

 

Bear said:

He deserves to lose his account - we don't allow top posting on this ng.

 

It was somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the
drugs began to take hold. I remember "Krusty"

The scent of lavender still haunts you, eh?

 

That's just playing.

Oh I wish. But he 'wants to grow it long' so it has to go through the
shit stage - I think it lasts about 10 years until they decided to get
it cut.

 

Department stores are the worst. If one of those sales people comes
towards me brandishing an aftershave tester I run screaming from the
building.

<twitch>

 

Heh, did that myself, to piss off my parents

Have to confess, when I saw the little tyke, the first thing I did was turn
to the wife and say, "Oh look. Supergrass Lite"

 

Round 2 - Castle Coombe
Saturday 4th June - Races 3 and 4

Round 3 - Snetterton
Saturday 25th June - Race 5 - Time Trial
(part of the KRC 24-Hour race event)

Round 4 - Donington Park
Saturday 13th August - Races 6 and 7

Round 5 - Brands Hatch Indy
Sunday 18th September - Races 8 and 9

Round 6 - Cadwell Park Full Circuit
Sunday 9th October - Races 10 and 11