vtec
14th April 2008, 17:22
Me again,
Been a while since I last emailed. Had a lot on my plate. Heaps to write home about just no time.
First person to guess what year and model bike it is in Picture no 23 and 24 gets a massive 10 points. Just so you know the guy walked away. Someone else wasn't so lucky, and had to be choppered out after they got to him not breathing.
Anyway, I'll start by letting you all know what's going on. I decided I needed something in my life again that I was passionate about, cause I was doing far too much partying and drinking so I got my crap together and bought a wrecked 1992 CBR250RR to fix up for racing. Bought it off the guys at Victorian Motorcycle Wreckers for $2500, and it needed a bit of work. Started working on it on Saturday the fifth of april, stripped it down took the carbs off and did a bit of work on them, replaced the jammed and broken throttle cables, didn't manage to get the bloody thing going on that weekend but I managed to order some tyres, and Johnnie gave me a damaged piece of front fairing so i could stick a number on it. Changed the oil. Took friday off to finish off lockwiring everything and sticking it all together. Big thanks go to Ken, Lokki, Keith, Johnny, Dan and Rob from the wreckers, honestly I wouldn't ahve been able to do it at all without their help and expertise (and tools). All up, it cost me $3150, so a very cheap racer.
Managed to get a bit of a test run in on the friday to make sure everything worked. Had some gearbox and engine running issues but I was hoping they'd come right on the day.
Got out of bed at 5am on the Saturday, waited on the corner of my street with my riding gear bag for Ken to turn up by 6am. Didn't really get nervous till we got to the track. You go through a very cool tunnel to get to the pits :).
Parked up, and fluffed around for a bit, then went and entered bought my day licence and unloaded the bikes in time for the riders briefing. Was rushing to get the bike scrutineered before the first practice session. The battery was dead, so I had to push start it. Luckily it wasn't running hot like it previously had.
First practice session was also qualifying, and also my first ever time on Philip Island circuit. After my first couple of laps I was starting to ask myself, where do you actually need to use the brakes, it was just that fast, I think there's only 2 or 3 spots around the track where we need to use the brakes on the 250's, which would mean it was going to be hard to separate the bikes, cause I'd only be able to make up good ground in a couple of places.
Qualified poorly, well back. Had really been crapping myself cause I was trying to race my first few laps ever on this really fast track and I hadn't ridden a motorcycle for over 3 months. The first race was some kind of club race. Again was on the 6th row of the grid which means I was about 20 bikes back from the front. Launched quite well, the front wheel come up a bit, and then tried hooking second... straight to neutral... argh...kept kicking at the bloody gear lever and eventually got it into second gear after nearly all of the rest of the field had wizzed passed, bugger. Luckily all the gears above second were working fine, so I got down to business, passing several bikes around the outside in the first few corners. Only 3 lap races, so I had to work fast. Kept carving up groups of riders, eventually on the last lap I caught up with a group of about 5 bikes who were being held up a bit by a 400. Turns out that the group contained the front of the 250's including Ken and Keith. They were being held up pretty bad, at one of the two tight right handers where you hit the brakes on a downhill, I managed to go from the back of the group right to the front behind an RGV250 which shot off pretty quick. That was crazy but good fun. Not sure where I finished in the field, but was the first of the 250 four strokes.
Next race was the Formula 3 race, which included my class the club sport superlites I think. This race I was on the 8th row of the grid which put about 30 bikes ahead of me. I decided my best bet was to try launching from second gear, cause I just couldn't get it to change to second within about 5 seconds. When the flag dropped I let the clutch out, and the bike started taking off reasonably, but inevitably the revs dropped right down, and again any bikes that were behind me started flying past. I had a lot of work to do if I wanted to win the 250 four race. I'm pretty sure there were none behind me. Again started going round the outside of people in some of the faster corners. Large groups at a time. By about halfway through the second lap, I was in about 4th place in my class, I could see Ken, Keith and Johnny slightly further back. Johnny is on a beautiful well modified CBR250RR like mine. I drafted behind Johnny on the the start/finish straight, and we were neck a neck with him on the inside going into the full throttle right hander at the end of the straight. I let him go, cause I'm still a little nervous on that corner cause it's a bit rippled and extremely fast. But waited for the first of the tight right handers and flew past on the brakes. Didn't have time to catch Ken and Keith though, so I finished in a respectable 3rd place.
3rd and final race for me was the Formula 3 again. Again launched, again bogged, looked back and there were still 2 riders out of about 40 behind me. This time I knew I was going to have to work even faster to catch Ken and Keith. So I got a bit more aggressive with my overtakes, blocking people going into corners. Keith was a bit back from Ken by the time I caught him on the second lap and was with another couple of 250's. I passed that group into one of the tight right handers and started working on Ken. By the end of the second lap I was about 20 metres behind, but he opened it up down the straight and into the first right hander he was really strong. I pulled him back on the first tight right hander on the brakes, and made an overtake, but he took a tight line towards lukey heights, and had the inside running and left his braking later than usual and I didn't want to stuff him up into the right hander so I didn't go down his inside. I just stuck on him for the high speed corners leading to the front straight, and drafted him. Looked at the speedo and it was reading 190kph even with the really tall 140/70 rear tyre which puts the speedo out by a bit. His bike was fast to drag me up to that speed. I was gaining on him about 5 kph till I pulled out of the slip stream, and slowly all that extra speed dissipated and we were literally neck a neck for about 200 metres and over the line. Ken thinks he got it by a foot, but I'm not so sure.
Had an absolute blast, nobody in my class crashed, so a fun successful day out. Thanks to Vic Wreckers for the $100 cash prize for second overall for the day.
Things to sort for next time. A clean airfilter to get back some thrust from the engine, didn't have time to source one before the race. Fresh fork oil to get some dampening going on and stop the front tyre bouncing on the brakes. Tighten the steering head bearing to get a bit more stability, could feel it was loose. Try and get some more air out of the brake lines. And hopefully change the gearbox so I can use first at the much tighter broadford circuit. Also, there was a bit of bogging after getting back on the throttle, could be to do with running too high octane petrol and the clogged air filter. They are supposed to run on 91.
Thanks for reading, and hopefully I'll have another email out for the people at home to let you know what I've been up to.
Cheers
Jason
Been a while since I last emailed. Had a lot on my plate. Heaps to write home about just no time.
First person to guess what year and model bike it is in Picture no 23 and 24 gets a massive 10 points. Just so you know the guy walked away. Someone else wasn't so lucky, and had to be choppered out after they got to him not breathing.
Anyway, I'll start by letting you all know what's going on. I decided I needed something in my life again that I was passionate about, cause I was doing far too much partying and drinking so I got my crap together and bought a wrecked 1992 CBR250RR to fix up for racing. Bought it off the guys at Victorian Motorcycle Wreckers for $2500, and it needed a bit of work. Started working on it on Saturday the fifth of april, stripped it down took the carbs off and did a bit of work on them, replaced the jammed and broken throttle cables, didn't manage to get the bloody thing going on that weekend but I managed to order some tyres, and Johnnie gave me a damaged piece of front fairing so i could stick a number on it. Changed the oil. Took friday off to finish off lockwiring everything and sticking it all together. Big thanks go to Ken, Lokki, Keith, Johnny, Dan and Rob from the wreckers, honestly I wouldn't ahve been able to do it at all without their help and expertise (and tools). All up, it cost me $3150, so a very cheap racer.
Managed to get a bit of a test run in on the friday to make sure everything worked. Had some gearbox and engine running issues but I was hoping they'd come right on the day.
Got out of bed at 5am on the Saturday, waited on the corner of my street with my riding gear bag for Ken to turn up by 6am. Didn't really get nervous till we got to the track. You go through a very cool tunnel to get to the pits :).
Parked up, and fluffed around for a bit, then went and entered bought my day licence and unloaded the bikes in time for the riders briefing. Was rushing to get the bike scrutineered before the first practice session. The battery was dead, so I had to push start it. Luckily it wasn't running hot like it previously had.
First practice session was also qualifying, and also my first ever time on Philip Island circuit. After my first couple of laps I was starting to ask myself, where do you actually need to use the brakes, it was just that fast, I think there's only 2 or 3 spots around the track where we need to use the brakes on the 250's, which would mean it was going to be hard to separate the bikes, cause I'd only be able to make up good ground in a couple of places.
Qualified poorly, well back. Had really been crapping myself cause I was trying to race my first few laps ever on this really fast track and I hadn't ridden a motorcycle for over 3 months. The first race was some kind of club race. Again was on the 6th row of the grid which means I was about 20 bikes back from the front. Launched quite well, the front wheel come up a bit, and then tried hooking second... straight to neutral... argh...kept kicking at the bloody gear lever and eventually got it into second gear after nearly all of the rest of the field had wizzed passed, bugger. Luckily all the gears above second were working fine, so I got down to business, passing several bikes around the outside in the first few corners. Only 3 lap races, so I had to work fast. Kept carving up groups of riders, eventually on the last lap I caught up with a group of about 5 bikes who were being held up a bit by a 400. Turns out that the group contained the front of the 250's including Ken and Keith. They were being held up pretty bad, at one of the two tight right handers where you hit the brakes on a downhill, I managed to go from the back of the group right to the front behind an RGV250 which shot off pretty quick. That was crazy but good fun. Not sure where I finished in the field, but was the first of the 250 four strokes.
Next race was the Formula 3 race, which included my class the club sport superlites I think. This race I was on the 8th row of the grid which put about 30 bikes ahead of me. I decided my best bet was to try launching from second gear, cause I just couldn't get it to change to second within about 5 seconds. When the flag dropped I let the clutch out, and the bike started taking off reasonably, but inevitably the revs dropped right down, and again any bikes that were behind me started flying past. I had a lot of work to do if I wanted to win the 250 four race. I'm pretty sure there were none behind me. Again started going round the outside of people in some of the faster corners. Large groups at a time. By about halfway through the second lap, I was in about 4th place in my class, I could see Ken, Keith and Johnny slightly further back. Johnny is on a beautiful well modified CBR250RR like mine. I drafted behind Johnny on the the start/finish straight, and we were neck a neck with him on the inside going into the full throttle right hander at the end of the straight. I let him go, cause I'm still a little nervous on that corner cause it's a bit rippled and extremely fast. But waited for the first of the tight right handers and flew past on the brakes. Didn't have time to catch Ken and Keith though, so I finished in a respectable 3rd place.
3rd and final race for me was the Formula 3 again. Again launched, again bogged, looked back and there were still 2 riders out of about 40 behind me. This time I knew I was going to have to work even faster to catch Ken and Keith. So I got a bit more aggressive with my overtakes, blocking people going into corners. Keith was a bit back from Ken by the time I caught him on the second lap and was with another couple of 250's. I passed that group into one of the tight right handers and started working on Ken. By the end of the second lap I was about 20 metres behind, but he opened it up down the straight and into the first right hander he was really strong. I pulled him back on the first tight right hander on the brakes, and made an overtake, but he took a tight line towards lukey heights, and had the inside running and left his braking later than usual and I didn't want to stuff him up into the right hander so I didn't go down his inside. I just stuck on him for the high speed corners leading to the front straight, and drafted him. Looked at the speedo and it was reading 190kph even with the really tall 140/70 rear tyre which puts the speedo out by a bit. His bike was fast to drag me up to that speed. I was gaining on him about 5 kph till I pulled out of the slip stream, and slowly all that extra speed dissipated and we were literally neck a neck for about 200 metres and over the line. Ken thinks he got it by a foot, but I'm not so sure.
Had an absolute blast, nobody in my class crashed, so a fun successful day out. Thanks to Vic Wreckers for the $100 cash prize for second overall for the day.
Things to sort for next time. A clean airfilter to get back some thrust from the engine, didn't have time to source one before the race. Fresh fork oil to get some dampening going on and stop the front tyre bouncing on the brakes. Tighten the steering head bearing to get a bit more stability, could feel it was loose. Try and get some more air out of the brake lines. And hopefully change the gearbox so I can use first at the much tighter broadford circuit. Also, there was a bit of bogging after getting back on the throttle, could be to do with running too high octane petrol and the clogged air filter. They are supposed to run on 91.
Thanks for reading, and hopefully I'll have another email out for the people at home to let you know what I've been up to.
Cheers
Jason