F5’s F4 race at Taupo Spectacular

[F5 Dave]

Have to say I was both pensive & looking forward to this meeting.

Has been ages since I raced & apart from being seriously rusty the bike I was to race had never been raced before, well ok yes it had in a past life but had a motor transplant & several other changes since then & had been apart many time since it last raced about 10 years ago.

This bike has been my nemesis. I bought it about 10 years ago with the new idea of putting a bucket motor into an ancient RS125 chassis. It was a MB100 which was water cooled c/w pump & full case reed into crankcase with a clever tricky exhaust port. That is another (miserable) story, but I decided to start from scratch & fire in another engine.

So here I am with the new bike on a course I haven’t seen before & I wobble out onto the wet track on slicks stupidly positioned at the front of the line of bikes. I was following a TL/CB125 & got bored of that but was expecting the 150s & Classics we were mixed with to come past. But everyone was pensive on the wet ground & I had to panic my way around alone & left the first session as lost as when I started.

The bike was ok though, not very fast but I had measured it at 18hp so it isn’t a powerhouse.

Had taken a picture but is on the camera at home. Close your eyes & imagine an old RS125 chassis resplendent in signal Orange (same colour as my old H100 Bung Bung now has), with an air cooled Suzuki engine.

Pt 2 later, better do some work.

[F5 Dave]

So it was a strange mix of classes. The Buckets, Streetstock 150s/250s & Classic bikes. But they started the Classics ~ 20secs in front of the rest of us.

The track was well dry for the prelim race to decide grid positions. Got a good start & sort of buggered off I hid catching & passing most of the Classics, maybe all, was hard to tell. There was one little bugger that snuck into our race on a bright yellow RS125, Cheeky prick, he beat me, but I was angling up a pass earlier on in the process. All seemed vaguely familiar somehow.

So that put me on pole but still 20sec behind the Classics for the races the next day. People kept telling me my bike was real fast, but a friend in the stand said to watch I would get a good drive onto the straight but then it would get eaten up by the end of it. The 150s are running 10hp more than me & the sole ZXR250 more still. (whoever he was, was pretty unfriendly, wouldn’t talk to me. Maybe doesn’t consider buckets real bikes, especially when they beat him).

First race for Sunday the rain never came & I lined up the only bucket on the front row. Got juiced to the front corner, hardly surprising I guess but worked my way through & then through the Classics with one more to pass but the last lap was running out. It was actually pretty fast for a 650ish Brit-bike. Gave it everything & passed him down the hill but made a mistake & went on the outside of a lapper & he pushed me wide hurting my drive.

Slapping my hip cowboy style I couldn’t summons the horsies & he passed me on the line. Big grin, this is what racing should be like.

Next race I got a worse start & took me a while to work my way through a few. Then I got stuck behind someone & Avalon got us both on the RG150 (she’s a friend’s daughter & rides better at 14 then I did at 30). Decided it wasn’t my race so I didn’t repass down the hill lest I mess it up for her. Big mistake as then I was swamped at the end of the straight by a couple of 150s & a 250.

Is quite scary when they pass you with big speed diff & then brake right in front of you when you are pinned full open with no intention of braking. Took me a couple of laps to get the flow again & started to work my way through. Sadly the bike started to slow & I knew something was wrong. It slowed further & I thought can I finish? The buckets caught up & the bike died.

Walk of shame. Oh well -didn’t need another trophy he lies.

Still not totally sure what happened, something has gone through the engine mongering the piston.

So went out for the last race on Mike’s MB/RG100. This bike does go well & was well generous for him to lend it to me for the trip, - pity you couldn’t make it.
Won the buckets race, but couldn’t convince myself to ride it as hard esp as I was essentially out of the running with a DNF in the 2nd. The 150s slipped beyond my reach but I was glad to just be out there.

Damn that was a fun day & a great track. Lets all do it again!!!

[Goblin]

.

Slapping my hip cowboy style I couldn’t summons the horsies & he passed me on the line. Big grin, this is what racing should be like.


Damn that was a fun day & a great track. Lets all do it again!!!

I saw ya whipping the bike over the line...cracked me up!
Great effort Dave. Bugga about the engine dying tho.
I'll be there again for '07.

[Ivan]

Sweet Dave,
Bit of a shame about ya engine, I saw it slowing and your hand telling everyone there was something wrong, I kept watching till you hit the straight then it stopped.

Was a perfect track next year I may be keen to take the mighty AX100 along.

Didnt see ya in the last race probably because I easnt looking for SpeedPro's bike.

Now im guessing this Suzuki engine is a RGV150 sleeved down to 125?

[F5 Dave]

That would be the one & the tiny 24mm carb.

[Ivan]

Yep in a spoke wheel frame nasty handling but rev quite a lot then just cut out that sounds like the ones to me,

I have one as my road bike they are a almost a TF125 engine bored out to 150


18 Horsepower is quite a bit still,

So whats happened to the mighty water cooled MB100 engine

[F5 Dave]

Think they have a 28mm std.

24mm is 125 aircooled rules. Still think it is too small to ever compete with serious buckets on bigger tracks. I built the 125 for shorter tracks.

MB engine is on hold until I see if the RGV is successful. But really 18hp is pitiful when you consider a RG150 is doing 28-30 & is only 20% bigger. Has a bigger 26mm carb, water cooling & a more modern port layout. On the other side is a stock roadbike.