Ducati Sporting Club UK > Sport > Trackdays & Race Schools > Coolant enhancer? anyone used it ??

[WeeJohnyB]

Be sure mate......I've NEVER argue with da man Shaazam, but I know that all hell broke loose when it was discovered at a New Era race meeting at Snetterton this year.

I went through it and it was NOTHING like going through plain water, the bike was all over the place - 9 racers don't go down on a patch of water.

Try the ACU or New Era

ACU

admin@acu.org.uk

New Era

onfo@neweramcc.org

WeeJohnyB

[Shazaam!]

My guess is that the accident was caused by some residual amount of glycol still in the system - or perhaps some oil on the track. Here in California, it sometimes doesn't rain for six months - so when it does, oil on the roads floats on the rainwater and makes the roads initially as slippery as ice until the oil washes away.

[Edited on 12-31-2004 by Shazaam!]

[Monty]

"Here in California, it sometimes doesn't rain for six months" thanks for that Shazaam, I'm sure we all needed to be reminded..........here in the Uk it sometimes doesn't rain for all of 5 or 6 days!

John

[yeti]

Originally posted by Monty
here in the Uk it sometimes doesn't rain for all of 5 or 6 days!

Rubbish,

[skidlids]

Originally posted by WeeJohnyB
My race/track bikes sit in my garage from Nov - March with just water and I've not had any icing problems, nor have I had probs at March race meetings with the bike sitting in a freezing cold tent, but not sure if the temp went as low as freezing point, I doubt it. If you're worried, do as Skids says, (good idea mate), or try putting a blanket around the rad.

WeeJohnyB

Johnny you have been lucky so far.
I remember a couple of years back when Dallas put his race bike away in the garage for the winter without draining the water. Two cracked heads later and a rather large bill to pay, be bad enough if it had been a 916 Strada like my race bike was at the time, but in Dallas's case it was a rather more costly model as it was his 748RS.
At the same time my bike was sat in the garage having had its water drained and replaced with a Antifreeze mix, which I then drain at the begining of the race season and store in a container for next time.
Currently my GSXR600 is sitting in the workshop with nothing in it, bit of a pain if I want to run it up as I dont like running it dry as it may damage the water pump and also you can't tell how hpt it is getting. But its still preferable to risking damaging a tuned engine thats had a fair few quid spent on it.
Luckily the Desmo Due bikes will not be having these problems which is a good thing because New Era take a very dim view of this sort of thing (and after that Snetterton incident, who can blame them after all its the rules as published in the ACU handbook sent to every current ACU licence holder every year), there punishments for offenders includes fines, expulsion from meeting, expulsion from club and even suspension of race licence.

Kev

[Felix]

As WJB says, if you're racing don't put anything but water in your radiator. The rules are VERY clear. The incident at Snetterton is not the only one and since no competitive advantage can be gained by using antifreeze, you'd have to be very daft to do it. If I'd crash due to someone running additives, I'd be seriously hacked off!

For trackdays you can run whatever you'd normally run on the road.

[yeti]

Originally posted by Felix
For trackdays you can run whatever you'd normally run on the road.

Does that include foreign trsckdays Felix?

[Felix]

Originally posted by WeeJohnyB
On some foriegn tracks they scrutineer your bike - it has to be lock-wired and no additives, not sure about belly pans. Check with the organiser before you travel.

WeeJohnyB

Take the man's advice!

[Edited on 31-12-2004 by Felix]

[WeeJohnyB]

Very interesting chart Shazaam.

3% waterwetter is not a lot in terms of absolute quantity, maybe the rider had a higher percentage mix. Even so, from the level of detail I can read on this chart on my screen, it actually looks like 3% waterwetter is gripier than plain water - can that be right?

Looking at the chart, I notice the further down the chart, the less relative friction at static, but interestingly, the gap between static and dynamic grows. Why is this? What is it about friction that makes it less grippy? What is the effect of cold/warm tyres? What would happen if your mix was say 50% waterwetter.

Either way, it's not allowed in the UK.

Kev - you're making me think now!!! Should I drain my bikes then? They're in my garage attached to the house, I'm not sure if it ever gets to freezing point out there. although it does get friggin cold - too cold to work out there without the heater on. Think I'll do it to be on the safe side.Thanks for the advice, hadn't thought of it. Come to think of it, we leave bottled water/beer etc in the garage and I've never seen it frozen up!! Maybe the heat of the house keeps it above freezing point???? I don't know, better safe I suppose.

WeeJohnyB

[Felix]

WJB, sounds like my situation with regards to bike storage is very similar: attached garage to kitchen. Mine even has the boiler in it, so it definitely never goes below 3 degrees or so, and that's up North! But as you say, propane heater a must when working on the bike during winter.

Oh, and Waterwetter is barely more than soap!