Ducati Sporting Club UK > DesmoDue Race Series > DesmoDue - General Questions and Chat > Skidlids Desmo Due Diary

[skidlids]

Had a 2nd hand Hagon shock arrive today, obviously it's not as good as a Ohlins but as its only a year or two old its in excellent condition and for £50 its also Excellent value and keeps me well within the £2k budget
The added Bonus is that its approximately 7mm longer than the standard one so should inprove both ground clearance and quicken the steering.
I will hopefully get around to fitting it in the morning.

[tetol]

thats a great effort i you can keep within a 2k budget i wish i had a bit more know how could of saved meself quite a bit and buy a few bags of skill instead.

[skidlids]

Shock now fitted, still need to set the sag and dial in the damping, but I have measured between a point on the subframe to the rear spindle and the distance has been increased by 12 to 13mm.

[Iconic944ss]

Good stuff Kev, I'd be interested to hear any riding comments you care to make about the difference in ride height and the Hagon shox.

Dont think you got to ride it did you b4 tearing it down to the ground ???

Just out of curiosity is there a std setting for rear ride height in the manual?

Good work marra - Frank

[skidlids]

At last I have ridden the DD race bike, didn't do as many laps as I would have liked and never got to push it as fast as I wanted to, more on that later.

On Wednesday afternoon, Dallas and I headed off to Sunny South Wales with our bikes, I took my road going 916 along with my 600SS, Dallas took his Tuned ZX10R, now running 16 1/2 Dymags fitted with slicks and a lighter spring on the rear Ohlins.
We headed to Llandow touring Caravan Park right next to Llandow circuit that 23 of us had got together and hired to run a training day the following day with a lot of the participants never having been on a track before the rest were mainly North Glos club racers.

Several hours after our arrival Senna3 arrived with his wife Trudi and his 600SS DD racer, we were also joined by a futher 10 or so of the group, so befor long the BBQ was cooking burgers and sausages and a trip was also made to the local chippy and off licence to make sure everybody had something to eat and drink. while the food was cooking several of the road bikes had things like mirros removed and lights taped up. Eventually the evening came to a close around 10:30 when it started raining.

Thursday morning I emerged from the back of my van to a bright sunny morning, things were looking very promising. After packing away the sleeping gear I loaded the DD bike back into the van and we all headed for the circuit to find several more mates waiting for us and the Cafe open.

after unloading the bikes we filled in the necessary paperwork and had the compulsory safety meeting.
Next the group was divided in two those that were there to learn from the day and those there to assist. The former group was then split into two groups mainly one for those with track experience and the other for those without. Then assistants were allocated to each student so to speak.I had agreed months ago to help somebody who was new to track riding. I was allotted my mates next door neighbour Dave who I had met once before, his bike was a SV650 so not a bad choice for me to help on my 600SS.

As I have never been to the track before and as I haven't at this point ridden the DD bike I did the first session on my 916, taking it very steadily at first as I didn't want to Put Dave off as the track was still mainly damp from the overnight rain with a few places having some sizeable puddles mostly on the bends.
After the first session finished I had a chat with dave to see if he had any issues with the track and if he was happy with the initial pace. As far as he was concerned all was good and roll on the next session.
Time to try my DD bike at last, the track was still fairly damp so I spent the 15 minute session leading Dave around at a slowly increasing pace as I got familiar with my bike.
Next time out the track was mainly dry with only one corner still having a puddle on the entry to it. Again on the DD bike I went out infront of Dave and after a couple of laps to warm the tyres I waved him past so I could follow him and see what his riding was like and if he had taken in our previous discussion about turn in points and apexes. He started to circulate at a comfortable pace, nailing it down the straights which gave me a chance to open up the 600SS and also try its brakes as Dave was still braking far to early. As he wasn't getting the line right on some of the corners I later nipped past him to try ang get him to turn in later and hit the remaining Apexes.
With that session out of the way and after a debrief I suggested we try a bit of late braking into the Bus Stop chicane as ther is a what they call a NO **** escape road in case you mess up. The idea was to get him to brake harder than he would normally on the road and to give him confidence in what he and the bike can do just in case one day something pulls out in front of him on the road.
The chosen braking point that we were aiming for was the last marker board before the chicane, previously Dave had been using the one 25mtrs earlier.
All went well for about 5 laps on the previous laps I had gradually left my braking later and later and by the 4th lap I was braking at the target point as was Dave and each time as I exited the chicane I looked back to check he was Ok. On the 6th Lap I again braked at the final marker board using enough force to get the back end loose and then the engine died. I just made it into the chicane which luckily is where the pit lane joins the track. so I pulled to the left curb and then pushed the bike into pit lane. A few minutes later I had it running again and rode it back to the van. Nothing obvious so I decided to do away with the oneway breather valve in case it was causing an air lock.
Next few sessions I took the 916 out to be fair to Dave and keep his progress going.
After lunch it wass time to try the 600 again, then after 3 laps it did exactly the same thing at the same place, so I again pushed it into pit lane got it fired back up and rode it back to the van, this time it was missing a bit. i had a few options so I went with the easiest first, I fitted new plugs although I suspected it was the carb as adding a bit of choke improved things as if the pilot jets were blocking up, aided by a the heavy braking stirring up the remains of the rust inside the tank and the fuel system.
Next seesion I again went out on the DD bike and this time it cut out after 3 and a half laps, this time I coasted to the entry to the pit lane, where again I managed to get the bike fired back up and rode it back to the van. I then proceeded to pump the fuel from the tank into a fuel jug and a lovely colour of brown it was. (How much do I regret selling Ali that SS tank last September).

So that was it for my SS for the day, i was very pleased with its handling and braking, I was also very confident with the Diablo in the front and I know the Diablo rewar will be marginally better than the Sportec I had in the rear.
But after doing a few laps on Senna3's big bore kitted bike I am a bit worried by the diffence in power/torque. Then just to really scare myself I took out Dallas's ZX10R on a track that only requires 3 gears. I only did half a dozen laps then i came back in before I binned it. its safe to say there is still alot of setup work needed on the suspension, due to the lack of feedback I was getting through the 8mm foam seat I could probably have lapped quicker on my 916, how Dallas was lapping at the pace he was make the mind boggle especially as he was chasing two guys that regularly run near the front of the NG 600 class who were both on tuned and setup GSXR600K2s.

The Good news is I have got a replacement tank coming which along with cleaning out the carbs should hopefully sort things in time for Cadwell.

[Iconic944ss]

Good write up marra - and yes, I've been shocked at the amount of crud left in my tank. Filter changes/cleaning still to be done.

Just out of interest - how did you rate the track?

Frank

[skidlids]

Track was ideal for the purpose of testing the bike and teaching people new to a trackday, at only 1.5 km long it is fairly easy to learn. It has a good tarmac surface that offered loads of grip when dry.
My mate Simon Knowlson is the lap record holder there and a rider of his calibre finds it useful for testing. It was more suited to the GSXR600s than Dallas's ZX10R and was perfect for the 600SS as you only really had to use the brakes once for the entry to the Bus Stop chicane. Even the 916 was enjoyable to ride around LLandow but a 180 tyre would have helped, the 190 made it feel a bit slow turning through the chicane
We intend doing it again as it was a enjoyable experience and any body wanting to try a track for the first time I would recommend they join us if they are in the South of England (Take Note Chippy and Evertons better half Brenda)

[bradders]

Great read Kev. I remember a discussion a while ago about this and forgot it! Would be defo up for doing another, especially if I get some tuition because I need it!!!

At least I realise why i am so slow, I rarely brake, certainly not hard. Maybe DD would have been a good learning experience for me, but still working on on the missus and I expect lost of positive reinforcement from you guys when she comes with me to cadders

[skidlids]

Senna3 tells me my replacement fuel tank has been delivered to his works, so I will pick it up on the way home and hopefully have it fitted this evening complete with a new fuel filter.
Saturday evening I managed to make a subframe for the race seat which is the 916/600SS hybrid one that I refered to in a earlier post, so the seat and Tank will add just over a £100 to my budget Taking my expenditure to date up to £1761 and barring any futher problems the only other item I need is a Rear tyre.
So still looking good for staying under £2k budget wise all be it by only running a 583cc bike.

[skidlids]

Yesterday after checking out the inside of the replacement tank I refitted the cleaned out carbs added the airbox, battery etc and then fitted the tank to the bike added fuel and had the bike up and running again. All OK so far but then so was the other tank until it saw a race track.
So with the tank back in place it was time to fit the race seat and the newly made subframe.
As can be seen in the pic the seat still needs painting and a bit of bum padding adding.