Diary of a (another) race mechanic

slob · 25-04-2006, 02:02 PM

Desmo Due Round 2, Brands Hatch 23/04/06
Well, Zimbo's away in Africa this month and lack of funds mean Lin is saving her money for our trip to Assen next month and another set of tyres.
Which leaves me writing the race report.
Doug(DRC) was still keen to have a go at Brands and Lin and Jason were good enough to lend us the #16 bike(Dessie) for the event, however neither myself or Doug owns a car, and while Brands Hatch is dead convenient for an East Londoner like me, the bike lives near Redditch and Doug lives near Brighton. Chas and Domski kindly agreed to pick up the bike for us and take it back afterwards, typical of the cameraderie in a race paddock... top chaps!
Lin called me on Friday to say the bike was on road gearing(15/45) which is
a bit high for Brands, where drive out of the corners and up the hills is more important than top speed on the straight. A couple of calls and a quick detour to Tecmoto http://www.tecmoto.co.uk/tecmoto.htm on the way to Benson's Southend chip-fest secured a good value, part used 14T front sprocket and we're ready. I also met Marky in Southend, who turns out to be Dessie's original owner... small world.
I arrived at the circuit around 6PM on Saturday to find Doug and Dessie already there. Doug had a hire-car with some tools and his kit and Chas had brought Dessie, a jerry-can of fuel and a paddock stand. Once the car racers from Saturday's events had left we moved into our pit garage and set to work cleaning and checking Dessie over.
We changed the front sprocket, however this involved removing the clutch slave cylinder, causing an air bubble to get up the hose and we have no clutch! Still we'd rather find out now than on track, this is duly bled and given a fairly full transfusion since the fluid doesn't look pretty. We also reduced the preload on the rear shock, since Doug weighs a bit less than Graeme, sorted out a couple of very minor oil leaks and re-fitted the belly-pan. We even had time for dinner, a swift beer and the riders' meeting.
After fueling the bike up ready for the morning, we were discussing fuel loads with our garage-neighbour when he shook the bike with the tank cap open and it promptly fell off the paddock stand(more the stand's fault than Phil's, it has to be said)
So Phil fits us a new front brake lever while I replace two bent footrest mounting bolts. It's now after 1AM but we're ready to check tyre pressures and get scrutineered first thing in the morning. We got five hours sleep on the garage floor, thanks for the kind loan of a kip-mat Phil!
Sunday is a miserable wet morning, it sound worse still under the tin roof of the garage. We get scrutineered without problem, Doug picks up his transponder from race control, final checks on the bike, drop the tyre pressures a bit from road settings but not much given the track conditions and wait for qualifying practice which is delayed by nearly an hour while the marshalls clean up an oil spill in the braking zone for Paddock Hill Bend.
Doug manages to qualify 16th out of 23 with a time of 1:15 on a wet track, pretty good since he's only ever ridden this bike round the block with a misfire before and it's only his third ever race meeting.
Doug feels the clip-ons are a little high so I set about dropping them a bit, clean and check the bike again, the oil leaks are now under control, all is good, we just hope for an improvement in the weather.

25-04-2006, 02:02 PM	#1
slob . Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: East London Bike: Multiple Monsters Posts: 9,738	Diary of a(nother) race mechanic Desmo Due Round 2, Brands Hatch 23/04/06 Well, Zimbo's away in Africa this month and lack of funds mean Lin is saving her money for our trip to Assen next month and another set of tyres. Which leaves me writing the race report. Doug(DRC) was still keen to have a go at Brands and Lin and Jason were good enough to lend us the #16 bike(Dessie) for the event, however neither myself or Doug owns a car, and while Brands Hatch is dead convenient for an East Londoner like me, the bike lives near Redditch and Doug lives near Brighton. Chas and Domski kindly agreed to pick up the bike for us and take it back afterwards, typical of the cameraderie in a race paddock... top chaps! Lin called me on Friday to say the bike was on road gearing(15/45) which is a bit high for Brands, where drive out of the corners and up the hills is more important than top speed on the straight. A couple of calls and a quick detour to Tecmoto http://www.tecmoto.co.uk/tecmoto.htm on the way to Benson's Southend chip-fest secured a good value, part used 14T front sprocket and we're ready. I also met Marky in Southend, who turns out to be Dessie's original owner... small world. I arrived at the circuit around 6PM on Saturday to find Doug and Dessie already there. Doug had a hire-car with some tools and his kit and Chas had brought Dessie, a jerry-can of fuel and a paddock stand. Once the car racers from Saturday's events had left we moved into our pit garage and set to work cleaning and checking Dessie over. We changed the front sprocket, however this involved removing the clutch slave cylinder, causing an air bubble to get up the hose and we have no clutch! Still we'd rather find out now than on track, this is duly bled and given a fairly full transfusion since the fluid doesn't look pretty. We also reduced the preload on the rear shock, since Doug weighs a bit less than Graeme, sorted out a couple of very minor oil leaks and re-fitted the belly-pan. We even had time for dinner, a swift beer and the riders' meeting. After fueling the bike up ready for the morning, we were discussing fuel loads with our garage-neighbour when he shook the bike with the tank cap open and it promptly fell off the paddock stand(more the stand's fault than Phil's, it has to be said) So Phil fits us a new front brake lever while I replace two bent footrest mounting bolts. It's now after 1AM but we're ready to check tyre pressures and get scrutineered first thing in the morning. We got five hours sleep on the garage floor, thanks for the kind loan of a kip-mat Phil! Sunday is a miserable wet morning, it sound worse still under the tin roof of the garage. We get scrutineered without problem, Doug picks up his transponder from race control, final checks on the bike, drop the tyre pressures a bit from road settings but not much given the track conditions and wait for qualifying practice which is delayed by nearly an hour while the marshalls clean up an oil spill in the braking zone for Paddock Hill Bend. Doug manages to qualify 16th out of 23 with a time of 1:15 on a wet track, pretty good since he's only ever ridden this bike round the block with a misfire before and it's only his third ever race meeting. Doug feels the clip-ons are a little high so I set about dropping them a bit, clean and check the bike again, the oil leaks are now under control, all is good, we just hope for an improvement in the weather. Last edited by slob; 27-04-2006 at 02:35 PM..