Photos: 13 & 14 Feb Mt Wellington Buckets

[Damien_Toman]

14th Feb 2010 Mt Wellington go-kart track, Auckland: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dty1/sets/72157623305751769/

Practice day, 13th: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dty1/sets/72157623300561277/

Photos mostly taken by Ray Toman with my gear. He's gotten the hang of it now :).

Many more to upload shortly.

Regards

Damien

[Henk]

Rays photography is definitely coming along.
Must be a point at some stege where we tie him to a bike and make him ride it.

[woodyracer]

Rays photography is definitely coming along.
Must be a point at some stege where we tie him to a bike and make him ride it.

someone has to take good picts tho! ahhahha

[Buckets4Me]

there some good fotos there Damien

now I see that I can lean the bike over more and I got to move my sholders over as well
I'm sitting a bit cock eyed on the bike :P

[bucketracer]

Buckets4Me I thought you were looking pretty good, you were making that bike sing along.

[Damien_Toman]

Thanks guys, yes Ray got some good keepers. I'll be uploading the rest from practice day this evening.

[Arronduke]

great pictures.... had a good ay on Saturday...(mine 64) ... those pictures say a thousond words.... need to work on conering. Looks like I'm going for a quite ride to the shop....

anyway cant wait until next meeting... i'll be looking for improvment and will do Sunday as well.

love the pictures... my kids thought they were cool.

[lanci]

Bloody work on that weekend so missed out! Doesn't really matter, haven't sorted the timing out on the CB125 yet... Carb looks good though, although I am missing a slow run/pilot jet (still runs though!?!?)

[Damien_Toman]

great pictures.... had a good ay on Saturday...(mine 64) ... those pictures say a thousond words.... need to work on conering. Looks like I'm going for a quite ride to the shop....

anyway cant wait until next meeting... i'll be looking for improvment and will do Sunday as well.

love the pictures... my kids thought they were cool.

Hi Arron. Sunday was wet at times, early on, but cleared up and was perfect. Thanks for feedback on the photos. Yes, race day was great. That was my 2nd race day in over 25 years :). I'm getting back into form and loving it.

Regards

Damien

[Damien_Toman]

Buckets4Me I thought you were looking pretty good, you were making that bike sing along.

Yes, Buckets4Me, you were going well, looking relaxed and like you were enjoying the ride. Your posture on the bike looked fine to me. When you decide to go harder, your position will inevitably change to suit. The most important thing is to enjoy it. Was a great day.

[Buckets4Me]

Yes, Buckets4Me, you were going well, looking relaxed and like you were enjoying the ride. Your posture on the bike looked fine to me. When you decide to go harder, your position will inevitably change to suit. The most important thing is to enjoy it. Was a great day.

the trouble with that bike is the suspention
it was getting air born over the bumps doing the oval
and getting majorly out of line threw a few corners :) other wise i was having heaps of fun

[Damien_Toman]

What tyre pressures did you run? Was it the front, back or both that was the problem?

[Buckets4Me]

What tyre pressures did you run? Was it the front, back or both that was the problem?

it was both
the back is just to stiff and bounces and I thinkl the frount is much the same :)
at a guess 18 psi frount and 20 psi back but it may have been a little lower 16frount and 18 rear ? not sure as I didn't check and cully set it up
we know whats wrong just got to spend money and fix it

[Damien_Toman]

My suspension was bad on practice day - my brother (no.41 on CB125T) tried my bike and found the front end diving badly, and issues with softness and travel both front and back. He was spot on - I was just "used to it". I added oil to the front (was low) and adjusted the back to the max hardness. It was then great for the Sunday racing. Tyre pressures are critical and depend on many factors, including how hard you are riding and braking. You need to consider hot tyre pressure measurements verses cold. Your bike and body weight are also important. My choice for Sunday after taking readings on Saturday were: front 16psi cold. Back 17psi cold. Hot pressures are then 17 & 18 or so respectively. You are a bigger guy on a lighter bike - you will need different settings. You need the right suspension settings as well as the right tyre pressures to suit your riding style and weight. It makes a huge difference. Much more than a horsepower or two. The photos on my Flickr site can help you decide as you can sometimes see the tyre profile on contact with the tarmac. That is how I determined my tyre pressures for Sunday's racing.

[Buckets4Me]

all sounds about right
tyres where working well
suspention wasn't
both frount and back are to stiff and cant be made any softer (at the moment)
will see what they come up with next meating

ps thats why I spent up large (well not very) and got an rs honda with olyns frount and back :)
now I have brakes and suspention that should work
all I got to do is get Cully to give me his engine (and learn how to ride)

also Ive had a few injuries and been a bit scared of falling off again ( and again and again)
dont realy want to go back to ACC for the third time ( they are such a pain in the backside)

[Damien_Toman]

Yes, I understand. My 3 offs in the wet, all in practice, as I was starting back into racing in late 2009, were painfull and recovery was slow. I'm decades older now than my early days of racing and need to ride based on my condition - I am not only older but much less fit. I used to be fast in the wet. Now, I realise that I cannot take the same risks - it hurts too much! I'm still loving the racing and last weekend was fantastic fun - I was back in form after 2009 injuries.

Damien

[Henk]

The wet seems to be a good time to work out whats wrong with the bike. I think my front forks have too much rebound after having a good look at where I went down a couple of times on Sunday and having a think about it. Only way I can see to fix it is to go from 15wt to 10wt fork oil at the moment. No adjustment at all on the cheap and nasty FXR forks.

[Buckets4Me]

Yes, I understand. My 3 offs

Damien

lol that all :) (then again it only takes one
I think I have crashed on every corner bar the hair pin (have been crashed into there)
fastest crash was around the sweeper after the straight (also my slowest and last broken collar was there 2)

[Damien_Toman]

Those 3 offs were in 2 days of practice so I didn't like the rate! :). Things now look much better with 4 days and 0 offs :).

[Damien_Toman]

Henk, you will need your fork oil measuring kit back. I can drop it off or you can pick it up if you get out my way. Your suggestions worked for me. I used 10-40 engine oil to top mine up on the Sat night as that was all I had. It worked perfectly. I'm not sure I should drain and re-fill after all :). Maybe I'll wait to see how the 10wt works for you :). We should also test each others bikes on the next practice day - would be interesting to compare suspension and also you will notice that my XR400 carb makes a huge difference over the standard - the needle change to middle slot on Sat practice helped minimise the bog moving from low revs.

[Henk]

No hurry on the oil level tool. I've got enough on my plate at the moment without doing the forks again so will live with what I have for now. Will grab next time I see you.
Be keen to try your bike at some stage to see how it compares to mine. The riding positions alone are significantly different.