More Race Bike Progress

Just in case anyone is remotely interested...

Out in the garage until 12.30am this morning getting everything
sorted for my first test at Snetterton today. Considering that
the bike has only just been rebuilt, so I'm running it in, and
the suspension was all set to mid-range as this needed setting
up properly, it was superb!

The running in period of less than 6K revs lasted for about
3 corners, and the tyres warmed up fairly quick too, and
scrubbed pretty fast.

Nigel's rearsets did the trick (tvm) and the new exhaust
gives plenty of ground clearance as the fairing was the
first thing to touch down.

The 45t rear didn't help (standard is 41) especially at
Snetterton, but I was more concerned with having the bike
ready for Cadwell woodlands this weekend, and just getting
it run in and used to it.

So, I'm pretty pleased. First time out on it with a new
big-bore, new tyres, unfamiliar bike with unknown suspension
and it went like a dream.

Roll on sunday as I'm now very de-stressed about the whole
thing and looking forward to it!

Pics here:
http://horrible.demon.co.uk/050425_snetterton/
http://horrible.demon.co.uk/050425_snetterton2/
and some of Brands from Good Friday on the 748
http://horrible.demon.co.uk/050325_brands/

 

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

I am, I am...

*Excellent*. That's good to hear.

Have a good one mate, we'll raise a glass on Saturday night in France.

--
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"

 

antonye says...

Nice exhaust. Good people at Gibson, aren't they? Have you sen Tony's
LC and TZR collection?

 

Out in the garage until 12.30am this morning getting everything

Go for it - wish I had the ability/balls - though not sure which order would
be best.

Some very good photos in there - do you know what were they taken with
camera and lense wise?

 

Good luck. You'll have a blast. We'll expect a full
race report.

--
Alex
BMW R1150GS
DIAABTCOD#3 MSWF#4 UKRMFBC#6 Ibw#35 BOB#8
http://www.team-ukrm.co.uk
Windy's "little soldier"

 

An educated guess says the pro Snetterton pics were taken with a Nikon D2H
body.

Dunno about the lens but at least a 300mm.

 

snip

Um...... Interested?

No ... I think I'll just keep doing jealous for a bit longer if that's OK
with you 'Tone ;-)


--
Nidge
ZX6R J2 Stunning in zit yellow. KX 125 MX 'I'm snot green -fly ME'. A few
bits of CB500S in Norwegian Parrot blue. BOTAFOT#63 BOMB#5

'Just because I don't care doesn't mean I don't understand'.
Homer (Simpson).

 

Some very good photos in there - do you know what were they taken with

Swot I was thinking lens wise. I can see this is going to get expensive.

 

The first isn't really necessary. The second will happen in the first
race ;-)

 

Best of luck. Bloody well done so far.

I wonder if that replica bodywork can be adpted for road use if I ever
bin mine???

Oh, and don't forget I've still got The Cheapest Rear Wheel in the World
waiting for you.

Btw, swinging arm re-shimmed and rear wheel bearings replaced on mine.
Removal of the old bearings was, apparently, a bastard job of the
highest order, but 'tis done.

 

It came from Germany and he does road versions too. It's
actually really good stuff using fibre glass matting rather
than chopped strands, so the finish is nice on the inside
as well as the outside.

http://www.ricambi-weiss.de/

Seat unit + two sides + front piece was £180 delivered.
It doesn't say on the site but he does take PayPal. Simply
order the stuff you want through the shopping cart and he
then sends a confirmation email through which contains
the PayPal details. It then took 3 days to arrive.

Yes, yes, but it ain't no good if the bike isn't running!
Now that I'm not spending all my spare hours out in the
garage getting it working, I can start ticking off the
"nice to haves" and get that wheel picked up too.

Nice. I was honestly surprised at how good the bike handles,
but as someone pointed out it's a 50bhp motor in a 150bhp
chassis! It'll be interesting to get it on the dyno and
see what it's putting out, and how the 674cc big-bore
compares to your 750.

It's running really hot, and I mean *really* hot, so I'm
definitely putting an oil cooler on by the Snetterton
races as it might not last otherwise. Should be an easy
job [1] to take out the two blanking bolts and get the
deflector plate fitted when the oil is out.

There's a slight weep from the crankcase join or the
base of the vertical cylinder, but I'm not worried about
that atm. It just means that the bike "smokes" somewhat
when it comes back in :-D

[1] Famous Last Words...

 

I spent at least two hours getting it all setup right, trying
different configurations, measuring, re-measuring and so on.

You may notice that I had to mount the rear brake master off
line as the stroke wasn't right on the push rod. I'm sure you
took this into account when you made the mounting holes though.
The original push rod worked better here, as it put the brake
lever in about the right place.

On the gear side, I ended up using the shorter original rod
with the rose joints wound quite far out, and the connector
on the gear shaft rotated a bit. This again put the lever in
the right spot, as the other one you made up was just a touch
too long.

The footpegs held all day too. They were loctited in place and
then I put the mole grips on and gave them a few turns with
those as well. What would be good is if you could mill out a
flat so you can get a spanner on there to torque them up?
Might be useful for Champ as well?

The pegs and seat are very cramped, but that's because the
OEM seat is much higher (by about 2-3 inches!) and obviously
the pegs are much lower too. Although my back is giving me
a bit of a twinge today, it will be fine for a race day and
the benefits of ground clearance outweigh the discomfort.

I might put another layer of foam on the seat, but I'm fine
with the bike as it is and don't want to go fiddling before
the first race.

Have a beer for me in France :-D

 

Dunno, but I'm sure that the info is encoded into the pics so
I'll check the originals when I get home and let you know.

 

Nope. The trackday was with Focused Events and they're very
hot on that. In fact they did an announcement on the day
about people on the pit wall "using mobile phones" as well.
Plus they'd turned the beacons off, which a lot of trackday
companies don't normally do.

That's being done by my sponsors, but as the bike was only
finished at the weekend it can't get done in time for the
first race.

I've already done that - check my left shoulder and forearm
in those shots, eg
http://horrible.demon.co.uk/050325_brands/images/DSC_6955.jpg

 

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

Take a hacksaw and a file to it. The threads are quite long.

Yours are a different design to the Team UKRM ones, in that the mounting
plate is threaded as well as the peg. That's so that any of the holes
can be used for a peg or a lever.

--
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"

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, Alex Ferrier

BTW, yesterday I was watching a documentary about the loonies who
attacked the Tirpitz with mini-submarines. One of said loonies was name
of "Alex Ferrier". Any relation?

--
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"

 

coo Ta!

 

Pah - call that scuffed!

 

That's a bloody good price for all that, especially given it's matting
rather than chopped strand.

Could one of the German speakers navigate the site to see if he does
stuff for ZX7Rs, please?

 

Yeah, the pegs are higher for ground clearance and the seat
is lower because it's a cheap fibreglass unit with a piece
of inch thick foam on it rather than the nice 4" thick padded
oem one!

It's not that bad to be honest - it does feel weird but doing
a trackday on it I can still walk today which is more than
can be said for the 748.

I'm sure it will be fine running practise, qualifying and
then six laps races, which is less than a trackday.