Shane - Superlite (#43)

AMCC Round 3

I am so sore. It's been a while since I had so much fun on a motorbike so I'm not surprised I'm all aches and pains today.

This time we thought it'd be best to get to the track nice and early as things took quite a while to work through at round 1 so I picked up Michael just after 6:00am and we headed for Hampton Downs.

When we arrived we had a quick scout around to figure out where we could pit. Last time we were pitted between the sign in/marshals office and the pit lane which was sweet. Looking at that spot this time there was no way we were going to be able to pit there again. I spotted Paul Duncan setting up in pit lane itself and seeing as pit lane was virtually empty we decided to set up right next to him.

After pulling all of our crap out of the car, unloading the bike, getting set up and getting rid of the car I wandered off to sign on. I got my transponder, went back to the bike, went to scrutineering, got through that easy as but my log book hadn't been stamped at sign on so before helmet check I went to get that sorted out. After getting the stamp I went to helmet check and everything seemed to be great until the MNZ Steward pointed out that my licence wasn't in the front of my log book. I stood there with a completely blank expression on my face and a feeling of dread creeping over me. Shooting back to the car I had a quick dig around in there, then back to the pits to have a look through all of the gear, then to scrutineering to see if it was there. I was really starting to think I was going to have to cough up for a day licence when I found it lying on the ground by our pits. It seems it'd fallen out earlier and Paul had parked his van on top of it while unloading. Once he got rid of his van it was lying there in plain site. That was a heartattack averted and something I will make damn sure doesn't happen again.

I was a bit nervous because so many things had been changed on my bike. It'd gone back to CKT so Robert and Dennis could sort out the handling issues. The biggest problem was also very dangerous. The high speed rebound was too weak which meant the rebound adjuster needle was playing far too much of a role in rebound damping. Because of that the low speed damping was too harsh, meaning the forks would compress but then they didn't want to decompress. It's dangerous because the front tyre wants to lift off the ground instead of staying planted so the bike wants to throw itself into the weeds at every corner. Riding around the problem can be done (I did it at Manfeild) but it's scary as hell.

Not only was the suspension being sorted but I'd put a new, adjustable throttle tube on from Scotty at MotoSR. It meant I now had a 1/4 turn throttle and could change the cams to change the characteristics of the throttle.

Another thing was I'd reinstated the idle circuit. The road going TT600 has a hose coming down out of the airbox into a small chamber. That chamber has 4 small hoses coming off it, one to each intake manifold. In this way the butterfly valves on the throttle bodies are bypassed and you can then control the idle independent of the throttle bodies. One side benefit is that you are also moving more air to the cylinders.

I'd been trying to come up with something so that I could change the idle speed manually, but I wasn't able to at relatively short notice so I put the idle stepper motor back in and reprogrammed the computer to idle at 2300rpm.

Finally, I had new peg hangers made that repositioned the footpegs a bit further back. The ones I had on it were too far forward. The height was good, but they needed to be approximately another 40mm rearwards. I'd gotten some made up and they look great.

When written down these things don't seem like all that much but in my head it was like I'd changed half the bike and I was nervous about riding it because I didn't know what to expect.

Given I was very nervous about how the bike was handling I decided I'd go out in the 3 lap shake down session to try and get a vague idea of how it's behaving.

Scrub in

The 1st thing I thought was "omg this front end is steep". The geometry changes had gone from having a bike that sat quite flat and felt low in the arse but had a very soft front end that dove heaps and stayed there so that the trail stayed great for corners, to a much more conventional arse up head down and keep the changes to the trail due to frontend diving etc minimal. It didn't seem to be unstable and improved as I sped up so I rapidly got used to it and after the first lap it didn't bother me anymore.

Overall it seemed to be great except that it kept pushing wide and I was missing apexes by a good metre or more. I did notice that when I sped up I suddenly started hitting the apexes spot on etc so I got over it.

Qualifying

Qualifying for F3 was first up so I didn't bother getting off the bike and just waited for the marshals to let us go. Getting out on track I settled more and more, rapidly gaining confidence in how the bike was behaving. I gradually pushed more and more and ended the qualifying session pleased with how the bike was handling.

Once I was back at the pits I noticed that the idle was up around 4500rpm. That would explain why I wasn't able to hit the apex in slow corners because the engine was still pushing at a point where I didn't want it to. Now that I knew that I also knew how to get around it; don't be a slow bastard and keep the corner speed up!!

Race 1

Finding my grid position wasn't too hard. Thankfully the AMCC guys had gotten out on the start grid with chalk and marked out the places so it was just a matter of finding the right number.

The grid marshalls quickly worked their way through the grid and the flag marshal walked off the track. The lights came up and the revs with them. All lights were red and the guy beside me jumped which made me jump the start as well. We only rolled forward a few inches so stopped and waited. It seems someone on the front row also jumped a bit early so they held us with the lights for a lot longer then normal. That and the fact I'd already jumped the start a little meant I got a very bad start and everyone seemed to go past me heading for turn 1. Can't believe I had another crap start where I lose lots of places.

Thoroughly pissed off I wasn't able to pick up any places into turn 2 because I'd gotten stuck on the outside of someone. I went around him in turn 3 as a 125GP went around me as well. After the first 2 laps a couple of guys had passed me and I'd managed to pass some others, although I was really cautious about out braking anyone because each time I tried the high idle would make the bike push against the brakes so I'd back off because I didn't want to skittle anyone. After a while I finally got past a bronze SV that I'd been chasing and put my head down to chase the next guy.

Coming out of turn 6, knee on the ground, full throttle for most of the corner the back steps way out. I should've highsided big time but instead I was leaning so far over and I was well off the inside of the bike so that when it hooked up and flicked upright I just hit the side of the seat fairing instead of being on the seat itself. So instead of being 2 metres off the ground I was hanging down the right side of the bike. By the time I got it back together I was well out onto the grass and I could see the marshals were already starting to head towards me. However, I hung on and eased her back towards the track as I watched the bronze SV power on past.

Once again I was thoroughly pissed off. However, hot tyres and dirt/grass aren't a good combination so I had to settle down and ride a complete lap a bit more sedately to make sure I scrubbed the crap off the tyres. Once I'd completed that slightly slower lap I put my head down to get that SV back again. Coming out of turn 4 he was close and I was trying when the back stepped out a second time. This time, however, Paul Duncan was coming past me as the back let go. Taking out the race leader by highsiding into him wouldn't have been a good look.

Paul's SV is a bit of a weapon so he was able to power up the inside of the other SV into turn 5. Once we were down on the straight Paul had a long look back. Sounds like the other dude didn't give him much room and was more likely to have taken the race leader out than I was.

I was edging closer and closer and gassed it hard out of turn 6 but the SV managed to stay a couple of metres in front of me by the time we got to the finish line so I had to settle for finishing behind that dude even though I know I was faster. The big whoops at turn 6 lost me a lot of time and meant I got lapped but on the bright side I was very pleased with the way the bike was handling. Surprisingly, I realized that I hadn't even noticed the 1/4 turn throttle even though the original was a full 1/2 turn.

The wait until Race 2

While on the dummy grid earlier I'd seen Dennis from CKT wander past so I knew they were around and wandered off to look for them. I found them revalving Craig Shirrifs bike. Seems they hadn't brought the trailer this time so it was a lot more difficult finding them.

After talking to Robert he had a look and said to take about 2mm of preload out of the shock. A fraction too much ride exhibits the characteristics I noticed, ie letting go right at the exit of a corner. So taking a little bit of preload/ride height out of it would get a bit more weight transferred to the rear end so it wouldn't light up like it had been.

Unfortunately it took a long time to get to race 2. First a Posties bike dropped it's guts from the finish line all the way to turn 2. That took ages to get cleaned up. Once things were rolling again there was a big accident in the 250GP/Pro Twins class. I was sitting down in pitlane just chilling out when I heard lots of noise and I saw a pair of legs, feet pointing at the sky, go past on track. Seems one bike slowed dramatically and the following bike stoppied, the rider going straight over the bars into the back of the other bike. The rider that stoppied was down for quite a while but he was talking and moving and thankfully there weren't any life threatening injuries. The ride whose bike suddenly slowed and subsequently got hit from behind was stumbling around and holding his arm.

Everyone was very relieved to find out that both riders were going to be alright, although there would be a bit of time spent in the hospital.

By now I was starting to think that we wouldn't get to the 3rd round of races and I was considering packing up and heading home as soon as the 2nd race was done. However, we decided to stick around and see how things went.

Race 2

By this time the sun had finally burned off the cloud cover and it was hot, damn hot. By the time I got to the starting line I'd completely forgotten how hot it was. I hadn't forgotten how crap my start was for the first race so I was concentrating very hard on not jumping the start. I successfully managed not to jump the start, however, I still got a terrible start. Once again just about everyone got past me by turn 1.

Things sorted themselves out relatively quickly with fewer people to pass. However, I end up racing against Ben Rosendaal for about 4 laps with both of us swapping position between 1 and 3 times per lap. Eventually I managed to get past him and stay in front and set about hunting down the Bronze SV that I gifted a place to in the first race. Unfortunately the white flag was out and I had a bit of ground to make up. By the time we exited turn 6 I was right on his back wheel but I wasn't able to get past before the finish line. Another lap and I would've had a chance to have a go but alas it didn't happen.

Race 3

There weren't anymore incidents to stop the racing so the second round of races went by very quickly and we lined up for our final race of the day. This time I nailed the start and got well forward of where I was for the first two races. Unfortunately I then got a bit locked in behind another bike, which turned out to be that bronze SV again and a couple of others got past me. For the rest of the race I ended up following those three while the two that passed me tried unsuccessfully to get around the SV. It was interesting to watch because one of those two is Steve Clarke, a guy I've known for a while over Tauranga way. What's interesting about his riding is that he doesn't hang off the bike at all but he can ride the arse off things. He was chopping and changing line all over the place to try and get past the SV but the other dude was not giving up. It was very entertaining to watch Steve try and get around the dude.

On the last lap Steve suddenly slowed coming out of turn 5. Seems his bike suddenly expired. This let the pressure off the SV guy a little leaving a gap between him and the next bike.

Into turn 6 Ben Rosendaal slipped up the inside of me. I knew he'd gone in a bit hot so I lined up the exit of the turn and got on the throttle very early knowing he wasn't going to be able to hook up as well as he'd like. It worked and I powered past him after the exit, crossing the line in front of him.

After pulling into the pits I stopped by Ben Rosendaal's pit and shook his hand. I'd really enjoyed racing against him. He's a good, fair, level headed racer who didn't do anything silly or dangerous and I was very happy to share a track with him.

Michael had things half packed already so I went straight to the car instead of the pits. While I got out of my riding gear everything got packed away and we were ready to get out of there in record time.

Something that's becoming apparent after a few race meets is that I tend to get slower as the day progresses. This time my qualifying time was my fastest all day with each race getting a little slower.

What a fantastic day. It was really good to be able to ride the last 2 races without any handling problems to worry about and the AMCC did a great job this round. I was very pleased to see they'd sorted the initial teething problems with running things at Hampton Downs and I'm really hoping they race there more.


Thanks to:
AMCC for a great event
Michael for being interested in motorsport and willing to help out
Brent for his continued mechanic expertise
Stefan @ DL Consulting
Bruce and Doesjka @ Layer X