Battle of the Buckets Ruapuna, 8-9 September

[timg]

15 minutes into the main event
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Quick hone, bit of JB Weld and it'll be better than new

[richban]

Quick hone, bit of JB Weld and it'll be better than new

So did Alistair win?

[timg]

So did Alistair win?

Yep. Alistair 1, Matthew 2, James 3, Hoogie trifecta

[bucketracer]

15 minutes into the main event
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Bummer .....

[F5 Dave]

Well here’s my sad tale, but in fact quite the opposite, strange I know.

Part 1 Saturday BOB

My day started at 2:30am sat morning when I woke & couldn’t get back to sleep, even though I needed to. Not to worry as I had to get up at 5:30 & drive into wellington to catch a plane where Skunk picked me up (ohh baby).

2 laps in & I was pushing from the far end of the track the humble push of shame. It’s a long way & I was pushing against time & I knew it.

As I got near the pits Yow Ling & Budha gestured to Ling’s spare bike & it was pushed over to my pit as I got there.

Head off & it was clear the head had been leaking.

The problem was when I’d put the bike together with different piston & destroked crank etc the stack up meant I needed to take a little off the barrel to correct things, but I don’t trust my lathe to hold the barrel so I spigoted the head, which in itself is actually a good way of positively locating the chamber, in fact my GasGas is done like that std. But it only needed 0.3mm step & when I put the head back on in the frame I must have ‘missed’. It sealed on the edge. . mostly. Worked ok on the dyno but let go with a couple of laps.

So it sucked air & seized pretty badly. The brand new piston was toast.

Sand paper the ally out took a good hour & put in the piston that I’d seized before & sanded down. This is now the most seizures I’ve had on a bike having raced for 24 years.

Put it back together with the crappy spare piston. I got out in a race on the spare bike & tried to re-learn the track. Not sure it helped.

Finally got my bike together & did an all in race to try run the piston into the heavily sanded bore which won’t be very round. Given time & some drain cleaner or acid it would have lifted the ally, but needs must. . .

It ran ok, but I was in a fluster trying to ride it. They then announced that they were running a bit late so next race would be the BOB. Oh crap.

I cheekily positioned myself on the front row with the Hoogies. I started well & got to the Hairpin braking marker first & promptly got lost. The young lads are fast & it doesn’t matter if you’re on a fast bike, you have to bring you’re A game if you’re going to beat them. I was D minus. One slipped by. Then another.

Then comes the Freddie Spencer excuse. Seriously, my left contact went walkabouts. I was blinking & blinking to try get it to come back. I seriously considered stopping then as I was a bit over the place. I just hoped the camera on the back of the tailpiece of I think Matts bike wasn’t rolling. The 3 lads gapped me but after a couple of laps my eye almost felt ok. The bike was stuttering. Oh super!

On lap 5 my eye was back to normal. I’ve raced with contacts for 24 years & never had an issue. The bike started to run a bit cleaner.

I tried to press on, I could see James bike which sticks out coming back the S’s when I was on the straight, but couldn’t make any impression. Worse he was slipping away bit by bit. I find it hard to change my riding style mid race, but at least I knew where the track went now. My plan had been in the prelims to learn the fast way out of the hairpin &, well, everywhere else.

Then the bike went off song & I was only riding to destruction so I found a path back to the pits. My watch said I’d almost made ½ way. Went to watch from the bank. Matt & James had a good tussle but Alistair had it tied up pretty well under control.

If the bike had kept running I would have been a lonely 4^th (again). No chance of catching the front & no one behind that I could tell.

I then went out on the Ling RG250 TF100 they had lent me. It had felt alien the first time & slow. In fact stdish FXRs puffed it off.

But it started to click & I started to trust it. I was catching & passing bikes that were much stronger on the straights & started to have a ball. This slow old bike made my day & Thanks Heaps to Mike for lending it to me. No wonder Bren likes his RG frame. for long cct at least I'd use one, I don't think the RS was any better handing, just different.

Alistair wasn’t going to be riding sunday & he had also offered to loan me the winning CBR to race. Anyone who thinks they are ‘spoiled kids’ haven’t spent any time with them, they’re actually good guys, I was impressed as many young blokes are surly outside their usual clique.

Diesel & his Dad Stephen had a mate Garth show up & he’s the dude who does the machining for them. He kindly offered to shave the step off the head for me that night. They took the head away & called a couple of times to check details. Turns out it was a bit warped probably from being run while stuck on the edge for so long.

We went back to Tonys where we were staying again & had a few drinks & a slap up steak meal. And then probably a few too many wines. . . . Well maybe that was just me.

[F5 Dave]

Ok Sunday pt 2


I awoke surprisingly fresh but we had heaps of time as it was a Bears fun day & started at 12.

We got there 10:30 & the guys had brought back my head all flat so I put it together. Almost failed scrutineering as there was oil over the back of the bike. Wiped it off but it must have been residue from the leaking head.

The 3 Hoogies weren’t there & it was clear I could do whatever I wanted. But I started to ride better. I found a new line through the hairpin where I wasn’t off the power so long & it was working for me. The bike was running well & I was riding a whole heap better. This is how I should have turned up to the start of the BOB.

There was only a few races but it was fun passing people & letting them back past again & turning it up again.

The last race I let everyone go & was waiting till they got to about the hairpin & started off. My right footpeg wasn’t there. Arrgh, what do I do, do I pull out. . . nah there’s the folding stub & I’ve come this way so I might as well enjoy the ride. I did feel foolish as the starters must have thought what a plonker as the extra delay looking around for the peg meant I’d never catch up. But I just enjoy riding that ‘B’ track at Ruapuna.

I was later told I’d done a 1.01 which apparently is pointy end competitive but I had more left & a footpeg would have helped the confidence over the hill.

That hill is great fun & the corner following. I still need to work on being smoother but harder on the throttle there.

So it was a great trip. I will have to pay it back on the card a bit, but you only get one life & these are good times. What really blew me away was the generosity of the SI guys, ribbing aside they helped us poor hapless souls & that was probably the part that made the trip for me.

Thanks to Andrew and Leigh for organising the transport & making sandwiches etc, with my little kids I had to fly in & out sat/sun. To everyone who didn’t come, you missed a great race & should really make sure you start planning & doing rather than talking about it.

This is a far more fun race than the GP (& I’ll always do those) & is cheap entry & good times. Usually held Sept or October it is worth planning to make the trip. Just don’t leave it to poor Skunk to try organise again.

Flight back into Wellington wasn’t so fun, but what a great weekend.

[andrew a]

Bummer about the bike Dave. Well done to the hoogies. Would have loved to come down but the days didnt work for me. Was Nick not there? I'm shure Cam was missed also.
Caleb is enjoying the Gas Gas. He road A last outing. He got 4th.

[F5 Dave]

Nick has moved to Auckland, his dad rode the bike, on sunday at least. Yes there were a few #26s on the side of bikes & Cam Restart Coffee labels.

- 4th in A grade on my old Gasser? Heck the bike will be scared, I certainly could never ride it to that level.

[gav]

Brendan didn't ride either, still licking his wounds after his new bike seized and spat him off while testing.

[Muzzab]

Had a hoot on my RGV-FXR, still can't walk properly today, after all the racing Saturday and the BEARS round Sunday and then a 4 1/2 hour drive home via the Lewis pass, legs just not functioning. Really enjoying riding the bike, found a couple of folk to battle with in the sprint races, in the BoB ended up by myself for most of the race except when getting lapped by the hoogies and less often by others, but starting to trust the tyres and working on trying to hang off a bit in the corners and trying different lines and maintain corner speed.
A long race is so cool, with a 6 or so lap race you just get into the swing of it and it's over, 55 minutes is just awesome.

[richban]

Brendan didn't ride either, still licking his wounds after his new bike seized and spat him off while testing.

Please tell me it was the 2 stroke. Surly he didn't seize an FXR?

[Kickaha]

Surly he didn't seize an FXR?

Yes he did and another one did the same in practice and spat someone else off

[F5 Dave]

These 4 strokes eh?

[Yow Ling]

Yea 4 big ends in 2 weeks,(mat hoogie, hank, josh and bren) after Akunar pistons the biggest FXR killer out there.
But lets not let a good story get in the way of the truth, hes sick !

[Buddha#81:Me]

Well like all how can ya not have a cracker day at one of these meetings. A couple of weeks back the decision was made to give the FXR donk a freshen up. The old motor was rebuilt a couple of seasons ago and as the std pistion was mint it went back in with new rings. it was a stdish rebuild and I was having to ride the wheels off the poor thing to keep up with skinnier rider or/and more powerful bikes.

Up stepped Bren and he ordered a new performance o/s piston and hot cams. The engine came apart and the cylinder went off to Mr Ling for the rebore while Bren split the cases to put the balance shaft back in to try and eliminate the tzr frame from cracking.

We reassembled the engine to a standard state of tune and i put a couple of heat cycles through it and changed the oil, last saturday bren and i went out to run thebike in and tune his........we all know the end result so I had to do KOR rd 1 without really getting it sorted. I had a few issue on Sunday and ended up riding Lings bike for most of the day.....I did get mine going for the last race and was pretty happy with the end result even though it still had some sorting.

Well other than changing the front sprocket for B track, I never had a chance to do anything to the bike for BOB so i had to ride it as is. The sprint races in the morning showed promise and i didnt seem to be losing out on anyone but the hoogies.

The BOB started for me on the 4th row and after the first few corners i could see ahead the three Hoogies were clearing out (no surprises there) with dave in hot pursuit. I latched onto the back of Hank and Chris and and let them set the pace for the 1st 10-15 minutes, unfortuatly i got balked by three backmarkers and Chris and Hank gapped me and that was them gone, I found the rest of the race a bit lonely and kept my pace by setting goals. The first was to lap Kick which I just managed before he destroyed another engine. Dangerous and Andy mac tick, Josh tick, Mr ling tick. Unfortunatly the oko carbs have a small fault in the fact that it starves for gas when the fuel level drops in the TZR tank and with 10 min to go i was having to short shift otherwise it would run the bowl dry on the back straight. This allowed Hank to lap me on the second to last lap, only to fall into the FXR crank pin failure on the last lap and DNFed. Ling passed me on the final corner and unlapped himself.
So 5th overall, same lap as Chris in 4th (great ride man!) and other than Yow Ling, I lapped everone behind me. Bloody happy for a bike that still can be developed more.

Thanks Bren and Mike for your efforts leading up to BOB