scracha
24th September 2007, 19:14
If you don't like long race reports..don't read any further.
Feeling very smug with myself after beasting Tom (VFR400) and Nicksta (VFR400) and Mr Coyle (Hyosung 650) in Rd 4, I went down to Mansfeild with high hopes. Since my Italian bit on the side had left me skint the only thing I'd done to the CBR was give it it's annual oil and filter change.
SATURDAY
Scrubin: Track felt unbelievably sticky. CBR felt a bit strange after not riding it for 5 or 6 weeks. Pumped up black rubber things a bit before qualifying as leaving too much of themselves on track.
Qualifying: Plan was to just take it easy and knock in a low 1.27 to get middle of Clubmans B. Wasn't too bothered as the races were so long. CBR felt really umm...$hite. Very unstable in braking. Didn't seem to be revving out too well up the top end. Took my usual lines, didn't push it and assumed I'd got a 1.27 in lap 2. Came off the track early in about lap 4 as there seemed to be about 3 or 4 yellow flags out on the track so didn't see the point in staying out there and becoming even more of a sweaty sock.
Oh bugger....1.29.5. Think I was faster my first time out at Mansfield. 24th on grid. Track bone dry so not a hope in hell of dicing with the big boys including Glen on his 1100bus who at this point was just one point ahead of me.
Back in pits. Nothing obvious why braking all screwed up. I cleaned up the front pistons anyway. Chuck some water in the coolant expansion tank thingie but it's full anyway. At that point I reckon the bike feels so $hite because I've been spoiled with a lovely Ducati for a couple of weeks (from an 86 VFR750 to a CBR400 to a 748r in 6 months really shows the advances in braking and suspension). Race plan is to just try and follow Nicky and Tom and not loose too many points.
Race 1
Good start (yawn). Round the usual traffic jam that's the inside. Up behind Vicky (Flame) on her new Ducati 749 (lovely rear end BTW). Early on the gas, up along side her...."moohaha" thinks I, "I'm gonna spook her on her new bike". Not a bloody chance as she just laid the power down waaay earlier than on the Priller bus and buggered off not to be seen again. Bike still not running right, not pulling well even at high revs. Notice temperature about halfway on guage (normally sits below 1/3). Brakes working hard but bike slithering about and shaking my confidence. Having to brake before the end of pit straight FFS. Dice with Nicky on tweety for a wee bit and then she pulls a gap. Red flag out....restart time. Temp guage just below red. Tom nowhere to be seen. Mumbles arrives with some water as I feel like I've lost about 2 pints of sweat.
Race 1 Restart
Start bike up and lug it in top gear during warmup lap to try and cool bike down a bit. Get another good start. Right from the off I'm dicing with Nicky again. Bike getting progressively worse. On the gas really early but tweety pie just blats past me. Only thing I can do is block pass her on just about every corner. I've really got the final turn to a tee though so can slipsteam her down the straight. This continues for about umm..13 laps. Final lap, just behind Nicky, about to bang it into T1 and there's a large bike up my inside, and by that I mean about a foot from my front wheel. No, make that 2, no make that 3. No blue flags waving, they didn't show their nose...nothing. Mugged. I guess somehow it would have been my fault had I taken out the race leader on the final lap...NOT. My bike is way off line and I've had to drop 3 gears to get back on the (cough) power. Bye bye Nicky. I'd have booted the leader after the race but he was in my garage :jerry: Complete red mist remainder of lap and I don't think I even throttled off before final turn. Final lap a 1:25.340 (my best all weekend..sigh) even after botched first turn. Killed engine ASAP as needle in red and can feel heat billowing out of fairing. Almost nearly pass out from heat in pitlane. My Scottish cooling system needs improving.
Back to pits. Check bike out. Phil (Toast) tells me it could be too much oil. Well, there is too much oil in there (see..I should just not do any spannering). Guy with Ohlins trailer gives me a large syringe and we remove about 200ml of engine oil.
SUNDAY
Sunday I'm hopefull it's all fixed. Scrub in confirms it's not. Bollocks. Grab a hold of Gav (HDTBoy) as he's to blame for getting me in this fine mess in the first place :rolleyes: Tank off, throttle bodies checked and carb cleaner squirted down there.
Race 1
A good start (Yawn) and Nicky and Tom streak past me on the back straight. Here we go again. A good 3 way develops :devil2: Either my bike's lost more power or Nicky's bike is running perfectly. The way it's streaking away from Tom's bike makes me think the latter....bugger. Final turn in lap 2 and I've got it perfect and pass Tom and Nicky. CBR still running $hit so Tom and Nicky pass me just past the start finish line. For once I go up the inside, unfamiliar territory and I'm rapidly running out of braking zone and likely to T-bone Tom or Nicky. I panic, hit the rear brake too, lock it up, the @#$ckin CBR swings left a little but I'm too scared to release it incase I high side. I think about Jay Lawrance and the word "bastard" springs to mind before I hit the kitty litter. Managing to keep the bike upright it takes me about 40s to get it into neutral and restarted. I get my $hit together over the next couple of turns and then decide to chase after the tail enders as it's a long race and I'm after points. The race is then red flagged. "Bugger"
Race 1 restart:
Woohoo, aren't I a lucky boy. Restart at our original grid positions. Again dicing with Nicky and a big black bike (hey...that's descriptive). 2 or 3 laps into the race I take my normal wide line into T6. Nicky took her normal line up the inside. For some reason the black bike stood on the brakes right at the apex. Nicky pulled a fantastic stoppie before hitting the rear of the black bike and falling off. Unfortunately I had nowhere to go but the kitty litter to avoid her. I managed to stay upright again. Seriously p!$$ed off at my bad luck I look round to see if Nicky is OK. She seems fine so I start stamping on the gear lever and get it fired up before she does the same. Nope, looks like she's killed her bike. "Time to claw some points back" think I. A few corners later the red flags are waving. Nicky ends up with more points than me as the results are wound back to the start of the lap. Oh well...ying to the yang of my good luck in having a restart in the first place. I found out after the race that Tom was off to hospital.
Toast's comment about going back to my TDM as I'm off the track so much isn't appreciated at that point but I smile gracefully.
As bike's still cooking we surmise it's either a blown head gasket or cracked head. Tank off, coolant checked. The bike takes well over a litre of water...fark... Much oil checking and hose squeezing later we cross fingers and take the assumption it's the worlds biggest air bubble.
Race 2:
The bike's running cooler with the needle just over halfway. The CBR's got some mid-range again and has pulled back some of its power. I gap Nicksta and try and dice with a grey bike (mibby Bruce Meads' ZXR400) for 4 or 5 laps. The temp needle hits 2/3rds and the power starts sapping again. Keeping with the grey bike starts getting really hard work and I don't want to crash. Plus, to be honest I'm knackered. I look back and Nicky's a good 4 or 5 seconds behind so I ease off a little. The next 4 or 5 laps are largely uneventful. The temp eases down a wee bit. By lap 9 or 10 the bike's a bit all over the shop so I guess the rear shock is completely cooked....it's running wide and taking longer to slow down. I ease off even more as there's still a big gap. This obviously gave Warren (another ZXR400) some motivation as he must have pulled some seriously quick laps towards the end of the race to reel me in. I pull my finger out my arse and wake up. Final lap into T1 and Warren dives up my inside. I figure he has too much corner speed so turn in a bit later, cut up his inside and make sure I position myself to screw up his exit. Finish the race absolutely buggered.
Dunno what the hell to do about the braking thing. Hoping that the front mudguard I've ordered will help with the cooling issue. Dunno whether to give F3/Pre89 a go next round as I think I'll gain more from dicing at the back of a pack of similar bikes.
Big ups to (in no particular order...there are some I've missed...I met a LOT of people this weekend).
Phil (Toast) for transport, chewing the fat with me, riding tips, etc etc.
Nick (Mumbles) and his missus Allie for giving me somewhere to sleep, supplying beer, steak, being a great pit bitch and other advice.
Phil's da for running about after us.
Sam the Celtic leather man (ooer) for putting extra cooling vents in my leathers.
Avalon for the cracking free photo's on her webbysite...good work lass.
The other photo guy who runs around the pits with his pics...good work fella. (He also confirmed that once purchased they may be copied, scanned, whatever)
Econohonda for getting me parts at cost price (and sometimes letting them just disappear from the shelves)
Nicksta for making the racing much more interesting. You do look good from behind but I'm happier in front of ya!
Kerry from KTL for tyre warmers and the lovely 748r :-) (I need race fairings and a tank)
Tom (Tom) for entertaining us by sharing his first gay experience and then crashing and breaking his collar bone. You managed a 1.24 on one of the 5 laps your bike actually worked bud.
Jas's mum for just being her usual lovely self and mothering us all:devil2:
Feeling very smug with myself after beasting Tom (VFR400) and Nicksta (VFR400) and Mr Coyle (Hyosung 650) in Rd 4, I went down to Mansfeild with high hopes. Since my Italian bit on the side had left me skint the only thing I'd done to the CBR was give it it's annual oil and filter change.
SATURDAY
Scrubin: Track felt unbelievably sticky. CBR felt a bit strange after not riding it for 5 or 6 weeks. Pumped up black rubber things a bit before qualifying as leaving too much of themselves on track.
Qualifying: Plan was to just take it easy and knock in a low 1.27 to get middle of Clubmans B. Wasn't too bothered as the races were so long. CBR felt really umm...$hite. Very unstable in braking. Didn't seem to be revving out too well up the top end. Took my usual lines, didn't push it and assumed I'd got a 1.27 in lap 2. Came off the track early in about lap 4 as there seemed to be about 3 or 4 yellow flags out on the track so didn't see the point in staying out there and becoming even more of a sweaty sock.
Oh bugger....1.29.5. Think I was faster my first time out at Mansfield. 24th on grid. Track bone dry so not a hope in hell of dicing with the big boys including Glen on his 1100bus who at this point was just one point ahead of me.
Back in pits. Nothing obvious why braking all screwed up. I cleaned up the front pistons anyway. Chuck some water in the coolant expansion tank thingie but it's full anyway. At that point I reckon the bike feels so $hite because I've been spoiled with a lovely Ducati for a couple of weeks (from an 86 VFR750 to a CBR400 to a 748r in 6 months really shows the advances in braking and suspension). Race plan is to just try and follow Nicky and Tom and not loose too many points.
Race 1
Good start (yawn). Round the usual traffic jam that's the inside. Up behind Vicky (Flame) on her new Ducati 749 (lovely rear end BTW). Early on the gas, up along side her...."moohaha" thinks I, "I'm gonna spook her on her new bike". Not a bloody chance as she just laid the power down waaay earlier than on the Priller bus and buggered off not to be seen again. Bike still not running right, not pulling well even at high revs. Notice temperature about halfway on guage (normally sits below 1/3). Brakes working hard but bike slithering about and shaking my confidence. Having to brake before the end of pit straight FFS. Dice with Nicky on tweety for a wee bit and then she pulls a gap. Red flag out....restart time. Temp guage just below red. Tom nowhere to be seen. Mumbles arrives with some water as I feel like I've lost about 2 pints of sweat.
Race 1 Restart
Start bike up and lug it in top gear during warmup lap to try and cool bike down a bit. Get another good start. Right from the off I'm dicing with Nicky again. Bike getting progressively worse. On the gas really early but tweety pie just blats past me. Only thing I can do is block pass her on just about every corner. I've really got the final turn to a tee though so can slipsteam her down the straight. This continues for about umm..13 laps. Final lap, just behind Nicky, about to bang it into T1 and there's a large bike up my inside, and by that I mean about a foot from my front wheel. No, make that 2, no make that 3. No blue flags waving, they didn't show their nose...nothing. Mugged. I guess somehow it would have been my fault had I taken out the race leader on the final lap...NOT. My bike is way off line and I've had to drop 3 gears to get back on the (cough) power. Bye bye Nicky. I'd have booted the leader after the race but he was in my garage :jerry: Complete red mist remainder of lap and I don't think I even throttled off before final turn. Final lap a 1:25.340 (my best all weekend..sigh) even after botched first turn. Killed engine ASAP as needle in red and can feel heat billowing out of fairing. Almost nearly pass out from heat in pitlane. My Scottish cooling system needs improving.
Back to pits. Check bike out. Phil (Toast) tells me it could be too much oil. Well, there is too much oil in there (see..I should just not do any spannering). Guy with Ohlins trailer gives me a large syringe and we remove about 200ml of engine oil.
SUNDAY
Sunday I'm hopefull it's all fixed. Scrub in confirms it's not. Bollocks. Grab a hold of Gav (HDTBoy) as he's to blame for getting me in this fine mess in the first place :rolleyes: Tank off, throttle bodies checked and carb cleaner squirted down there.
Race 1
A good start (Yawn) and Nicky and Tom streak past me on the back straight. Here we go again. A good 3 way develops :devil2: Either my bike's lost more power or Nicky's bike is running perfectly. The way it's streaking away from Tom's bike makes me think the latter....bugger. Final turn in lap 2 and I've got it perfect and pass Tom and Nicky. CBR still running $hit so Tom and Nicky pass me just past the start finish line. For once I go up the inside, unfamiliar territory and I'm rapidly running out of braking zone and likely to T-bone Tom or Nicky. I panic, hit the rear brake too, lock it up, the @#$ckin CBR swings left a little but I'm too scared to release it incase I high side. I think about Jay Lawrance and the word "bastard" springs to mind before I hit the kitty litter. Managing to keep the bike upright it takes me about 40s to get it into neutral and restarted. I get my $hit together over the next couple of turns and then decide to chase after the tail enders as it's a long race and I'm after points. The race is then red flagged. "Bugger"
Race 1 restart:
Woohoo, aren't I a lucky boy. Restart at our original grid positions. Again dicing with Nicky and a big black bike (hey...that's descriptive). 2 or 3 laps into the race I take my normal wide line into T6. Nicky took her normal line up the inside. For some reason the black bike stood on the brakes right at the apex. Nicky pulled a fantastic stoppie before hitting the rear of the black bike and falling off. Unfortunately I had nowhere to go but the kitty litter to avoid her. I managed to stay upright again. Seriously p!$$ed off at my bad luck I look round to see if Nicky is OK. She seems fine so I start stamping on the gear lever and get it fired up before she does the same. Nope, looks like she's killed her bike. "Time to claw some points back" think I. A few corners later the red flags are waving. Nicky ends up with more points than me as the results are wound back to the start of the lap. Oh well...ying to the yang of my good luck in having a restart in the first place. I found out after the race that Tom was off to hospital.
Toast's comment about going back to my TDM as I'm off the track so much isn't appreciated at that point but I smile gracefully.
As bike's still cooking we surmise it's either a blown head gasket or cracked head. Tank off, coolant checked. The bike takes well over a litre of water...fark... Much oil checking and hose squeezing later we cross fingers and take the assumption it's the worlds biggest air bubble.
Race 2:
The bike's running cooler with the needle just over halfway. The CBR's got some mid-range again and has pulled back some of its power. I gap Nicksta and try and dice with a grey bike (mibby Bruce Meads' ZXR400) for 4 or 5 laps. The temp needle hits 2/3rds and the power starts sapping again. Keeping with the grey bike starts getting really hard work and I don't want to crash. Plus, to be honest I'm knackered. I look back and Nicky's a good 4 or 5 seconds behind so I ease off a little. The next 4 or 5 laps are largely uneventful. The temp eases down a wee bit. By lap 9 or 10 the bike's a bit all over the shop so I guess the rear shock is completely cooked....it's running wide and taking longer to slow down. I ease off even more as there's still a big gap. This obviously gave Warren (another ZXR400) some motivation as he must have pulled some seriously quick laps towards the end of the race to reel me in. I pull my finger out my arse and wake up. Final lap into T1 and Warren dives up my inside. I figure he has too much corner speed so turn in a bit later, cut up his inside and make sure I position myself to screw up his exit. Finish the race absolutely buggered.
Dunno what the hell to do about the braking thing. Hoping that the front mudguard I've ordered will help with the cooling issue. Dunno whether to give F3/Pre89 a go next round as I think I'll gain more from dicing at the back of a pack of similar bikes.
Big ups to (in no particular order...there are some I've missed...I met a LOT of people this weekend).
Phil (Toast) for transport, chewing the fat with me, riding tips, etc etc.
Nick (Mumbles) and his missus Allie for giving me somewhere to sleep, supplying beer, steak, being a great pit bitch and other advice.
Phil's da for running about after us.
Sam the Celtic leather man (ooer) for putting extra cooling vents in my leathers.
Avalon for the cracking free photo's on her webbysite...good work lass.
The other photo guy who runs around the pits with his pics...good work fella. (He also confirmed that once purchased they may be copied, scanned, whatever)
Econohonda for getting me parts at cost price (and sometimes letting them just disappear from the shelves)
Nicksta for making the racing much more interesting. You do look good from behind but I'm happier in front of ya!
Kerry from KTL for tyre warmers and the lovely 748r :-) (I need race fairings and a tank)
Tom (Tom) for entertaining us by sharing his first gay experience and then crashing and breaking his collar bone. You managed a 1.24 on one of the 5 laps your bike actually worked bud.
Jas's mum for just being her usual lovely self and mothering us all:devil2: