Shane - Formula 3 (#43)

Well, I've got it in the shed now so it's 100% mine and I can tell everyone about it

Some people may recognize this bike as it was always at the track a few years back. It's owner is also well known cos he's a good bugger, but unfortunately, is better known for an accident at Pukekohe that left him in a wheel chair.

I've bought Paul Garrett's #94, a 2005 CBR600RR. It's got a full Arata Titanium exhaust system, PC3, Ohlins all around and a bunch of other stuff. ...

Now that I've finally taken the exhaust and radiator off it's very obvious that the huge gash in the front of the block wasn't the cam chain, it was a conrod.

Should've known but the noise I heard after the bang tinkle tinkle tinkle sounded distinctly like a chain being dragged across something.

Here's what I extracted from the inside of the engine

Have a guess what this is ....

(click on images to view larger ones)

...

I finally stopped sulking about it all (cheered by news that I have a replacement in the pipeline) and went and had a look at my Triumph to see what happened on the main straight of Paeroa.

The first thing to do was take the fairings off so I could get to everything and locate where the problem was. Even before I'd taken a bolt out of the fairings I could see the belly pan was full of sludge (oil and coolant mixed together). This didn't surprise me because even though it didn't ...

The Trumpy is most definitely dead. But that means I get to start again with something else and that's not a bad thing.

I've got something lined up and provided nothing earth shattering happens in the next week or two it's a done deal, and what a deal it is.

Looking forward to telling you more soon.

Yeah nah.

Short story; something in the engine broke on the main straight and it made awful tinkling noises. It's not fixable and I'm not replacing the engine. So the worlds only TT450 triple race bike is no longer.

Now that was a good weekend cos I learnt a hell of a lot.

Saturday my wife and I rolled out of bed a bit later than we should've, buggered around for longer than we should've and generally dragged our arses. Neither of us wanted to get out of bed at such a ridiculous time, her because she doesn't ride bikes (working on correcting that particular failing but a fix is gonna take a while) and me because it'd been a long week. After I'd made us both a decent cup of coffee ...

Talk about wet!! The ducks have more brains than motorcycle racers cos the stayed home.

5:30am is a ridiculous time of the night (even though there's light it's ridiculous to call it morning) to do anything, but that's the time I set my alarm for. A short while later I was out of bed and making a coffee for the road. Throw the rest of my gear into the car and I'm off to McDonalds for the traditional grease-fest that gets me through a race day.

Pulling ...

AMCC Round 1 at Hampton Downs signalled the start of Summer racing and the first race for me since Paeroa in February, 8 months ago.

This time I planned to get an unusually early start so that we're not rushed even if something doesn't quite go as it should so I'd set my alarm for 5:30am. That's an insane time to be awake. On the average work day my body might be walking around but my brain isn't awake until about 10:00am. Even then that's only after some breakfast ...