Your right Paul I certainly have spent hours on the bike bt then I have always enjoyed that side of things, last few years we have been preping TT bikes. before that I was usually getting my bikes from breakers and sorting them out, before I went racing myself I was mechanicing for a couple of mates, doing fork rebuilds etc. And before that It use to be building the specials, mainly Harris Magnums.

Seat is now Gloss Black and fitted to the bike it just needs a bit of foam for me to sit on.
Rear Diablo should be here tomorrow.
Transponder bracket is fitted in place and the transponder has been charged up
Other than it could do with testing it is ready to Rock & Roll apart from one number board.

Picked my rear Diablo up on the way home yesterday. During my lunch-break I had shaped and trimmed the seat foam so on arriving home the first task was to fit the seat foam, easily done with a pot of Evo-stick. Was just about to top up the fuel when I had a visit from one of the nighbours who then wanted to talk about bikes for the next 45 mins. Finally the tank was topped up, helmet, boots and gloves were put on and off I went for a little jolly in the country. I soon noticed the gear position was still to high and the front end wasn't quite straight. The roads were still a bit crowed with people making their way home from work so there wasn't much chance to open the bike up until on the way back home the road opened up onto a long straight which was void of cars, so I wound the throttle to the stop and had her flat out through the gears then as the 30 limit approached I was hard on the brake and unlike last time the bike didn't cut out. I'm hoping the replacement tank and pump have cured the problem but as this wasn't a true simulation of 3 laps on a race track I can't be certain.
After getting home I removed the rear Metzeler Sportec and replaced it with the Diablo and if weather permits I will will do some more road testing prior to loading the bike up for Cadwell.

Had another successful road outing yesterday evening when I went for a 10 mile jolly to scrub the new rear tyre in, this time I managed to find a bit more space for opening the bike up and had the poor little thing at full throttle for about 2 miles. On the lower gearing it was reving hard and it does make me wonder how long the engine will last.
Again there was no signs of the engine cutting out although at low revs and just off a closed throttle it did feel very fluffy as if it was a tad rich.
I can safely say the suspension is not set for the road as pot-holes and derain covers are best avoided.
As the bike stands the budget is up to £1835 to which I will probably end up adding a Rev counter, not worried about it at Woodlands as I doubt if I'll have time to look at it.
Pic is of the bike after I arrived back home after testing yesterday

Great effort, Kev. Congrats! It represents the true spirit of club racing. Best of luck with your racing this season.

Thanks Felix, the only way I can justify taking part is to do it the way I have, with my experience I thought I would stay away from the extra power a bigbore kit would provide and with several preped race bikes already in the workshop the budget had to be adheared to.
So thats basically what I'm putting into it a under £2k bike built and maintained by myself along with my riding abilities.
What I hope to get out of it is a lot of enjoyment and a bit more corner speed that will help me when I go and do a few races in other classes and if I ever get my knee down that would be a real bonus, although I feel having a few metal pins removed from my body may help on that front.

See here for Cadwell race report

http://www.ducatisportingclub.com/xm....php?tid=19215

Brake problems
 

Following the 3 DNFs at Cadwell due to brake failure here is what I have found so far, bearing in mind that at the meeting I changed the disc, pads, fluid and mastercylinder.

This morning I have been Checking for cause of the brake problems and I think I may be onto something.
I suspect that a major part of the problem is the change to a better disc, firstly I ran a SPS iron fully

floater which is what I had on when I crashed, after that I changed to a modern semi floater off my 748RS

front end. Trouble is both discs are a nominal 5mm thick making them 1mm thicker than the standard 600SS

disc, in itself this should not be a problem as the narrowest point of the calliper is 7.5mm wide giving

the newer disc 2.5mm of clearance, however this is only true if the disc is aligned dead centre of the

calliper, now looking at how the pistons are protruding from my calliper there is a 2.5mm difference with

the outer pistons stuck out the futhest, which suggests the disc was running near enough up against the

inner edge of the calliper.

With the self aligning aspect of the the fully floater this is not so obvious

and also less of a problem, but changing to the semi floater after the crash probably made things worse as

shown by how many laps I did in race 2 compared to race 1.
I have checked the speedo spacer I made and it is exactly the same width as the original speedo drive so

its not that.

Attention then turned to the spindle retainer that clamps inside the bottom of the left fork

leg, in the time I have owned the bike I have never disturbed this, on inspection it was found to be

protruding 1.5mm on the inside of the fork leg which in turn moves the front wheel and the disc 1.5 mm

futher away from the calliper mount, not a issue with the original narrower disc but may well be with the

thicker 5mm discs especially the semi floating one and as things got hotter and expanded clearances would have been futher reduced maybe to the point where the disc was continually rubbing the calliper causing the brake fluid to overheat.

Currently ony a suspicion/theory but it is something I can easily alter.
It may also be the cause of my original new brake pads glazing over on Saturday evening practice as the thicker pads would certainly had clearance issues on the Saturday afternoon untimed practice, especially the inner pad, but again the fully floating disc would have helped mask it.

Interested to hear Paynep (Paul Paynes) and Fil2's views

kev - got a great pic for you mate, will bung it over on email;)

kev - got a great pic for you mate, will bung it over on email;)

ops repeating myself

[Edited on 2-5-2005 by bradders]

Kev,
I think that you could be onto something re the alignment of the disc - I will check out my semi-floater to see - but it was the original disc off of the bike, and I know the spindle bush was located properly cos I have fallen for that one before!

However, I did not have any problems fitting new pads to either disc setup - which I have experienced when the disc and caliper are not aligned properly. Also I have run identical full-floaters and calipers on my 851 on both road and track without any noticeable problems............

I will pop the pistons out of the caliper tonight and see what the inside is like.

Maybe we were just using our brakes too much for a single disc setup?

Didn't Fil2 have similar problems, something to do with the speedo drive replacement spacer being the wrong size or wrongly located or something? Which meant that the caliper was getting too hot as it was rubbing the disk constantly?

Probably worth a U2U ??

Yes Tim, Fil2 had a few problems as I did a bit of brake bleeding for him and as I understand it the spindle bush in the left fork was repostioned.
I came into work late this morning as I spent a hour checking the front end out again.
My latest findings show that my front wheel is approximately 2mm off centre as the gap between the tyre and the right fork leg is almost 4mm smaller than the gap between the tyre and the left fork leg,
I double checked my Speedo spacer against the original speedo drive and they are both 35mm, the bush in the left fork leg is in its original position and as it has a top hat shape to it the wider rim bit is already pushed hard up against the fork leg. Now either this bush is noy the correct one, or its the wrong way round or possibly a wheel bearing has been replaced with a wider one, but somewhere a error the best part of 2mm has found its way into the setup which I know for certain has nothing to do with me. I have made things worse by fitting a thicker disc but if all was correct in the first place this would not be a problem.

I now have several options available to me

1:- Reduce the width of the speedo Spacer by 2mm down to 33mm
2:- Machine the rim off the top hat bush in the left hand forkleg
3:- Remove the wheel bearings and check their width
4:- Try my spare front wheel and see if its any different.

Which ever solution I use will move the wheel back towards the lefh hand fork leg and should hopefully give a lot better alignment between the calliper and disc.

Skids, not being an engineering bod, but I'd be tempted to throw in your spare wheel and check the alignment there first, you may well need to use that wheel at some point in the series...

Depending on the results I'd go with checking the width of the bearings on both front wheels, again just to be sure in your own mind...

Good luck

[Edited on 4-5-2005 by JPM]

Good point JPM, if I'm taking out the original to check bearings I may as well fit the spare to save having it up in the air on paddock stands for to long.
I have just made a 33mm Speedo spacer just in case and willl pop around Senna3's later in the week to check out the components of his front wheel setup.
Also just cleaned up the faces of the Pads that I glazed over on Saturday evening in untimed practice and also machined a slight chamfer on them to make them easier to locate over the disc.

Where you been hiding JPM I popped up to Silverstone the other weekend hoping to catch up with you and give you back the £15 I owe you, didn't see you there and I read the reasons so I hoped to catch up with you at Cadwell on Sunday but again no sign.

Yeah Silverstone didn't happen, got called out on the Saturday by work from 8am until 5am on Sunday, so was in no fit state to drive to SIlverstone let alone ride a bike!

And Cadwell, we had the best intentions and got up at 6:30 to meet up with Steve M, but it was raining and we don't do riding in the rain, so eventually ended up at Oulton via a mate with GSE passes, then when I got back later decided to go for a spin and the bike was dead anyways...

I took the 600SS budget racer down to Llandow on Thursday afternoon for yesterdays trackday to use the day to test the front brake setup.
The weather was brilliant as was the condition of the track.
I was out in the advanced group along with all manner of bikes, R1's, ZX10R's, Fireblades and of course Senna3 on his 674SS.
Started cautiously to bed the pads in but was having to use them a lot more than I intended to stop me running into the rear of some of the bigger bikes in the corners, Next session was interupted by our only faller of the day, he was wisked off to hospital but later returned with just a bandage on his knee, his ZX600 wasn't to badly damaged either.
Once we restarted I was soon comfortable with the front brake and started to put in quicker laps, I finished that second session happy with the way the front brake had performed. 3rd Session I got stuck behinnd my old Fireblade, unlike last time at the track the safety officer had told us there would be no overtaking on the bends, that caused a bit of a problem, how do you pass a 120bhp fireblade ridden by a ACU licence holder down the straight when your on a 600 twin putting out just shy of 50bhp. Answer you DONT consequently my lap times remained in the 52sec bracket. The following session I managed to find a bit of space and was quite happily lapping in the 51sec bracket which I was quite pleased with so rather than push any harder I decided to rest the bike for the rest of the day especially as the left fork seal was now leaking.
The next advanced group I took my GSXR600 out, it felt so different, heavier, wider but worse was the bar angle which was so different from my SS, still after 4 laps I was doing 51 sec laps on it, I finished the session early to come in and alter the bar position. Next time out on it I went in the inters to have a look over some of the other riders that were taking part.
First I came across was Lin on her 583 Monster after 3 laps warming her tyres she decided to get on the gas and was comfortably moving around the bike and riding a good line, earlier in the day i had noticed she wasn't really moving about the bike which was mentioned to her by my mate Mike who was one of the instructors. As for Lins lean angles I think she impressed alot of people with them especially around the left hander onto the pit straight. Sadly Lin and Zimbo couldn't sort out increasing her ride height on the rear so she was finally limited in corner speed by her exhaust dragging on the track.
I then went out in the novice group to watch a few others including Chippy but as he looked as if he had everything sorted we left him to enjoy himself
Senna3 was having a good day he was contiuing with his improvement as a rider and is getting faster every time out on the bike.
Kev's wife Trudi took part in her very first trackday and after a very nervous start riding the bike I picked up at the BMF last Sunday she was soon enjoying the experience.
Speaking of enjoying the day Chippy (Simon) was beaming from ear to ear as he got into the action on his immaculate 749 on his first ever trackday, finishing the day with well chewed tyres and the paint bubbling off his wheel rims due to the heat in the tyres, a trip to the powder coaters is now required.
I didn't enter the final Advance group as i had been out in other groups so just sat back to watch as all the instructors were out in this group for a play. it was entertaining watching jeff White on his sorted GSXR1000 trying to get past Tommy Garness on his borrowed standard R6 it just wasn't going to happen, he would just about get alongside Tommy at the end of the straight when Tommy would leave the braking latter and pull a gap that increased as the corner went on, this was the pattern twice a lap for about 15 laps, good fun to watch.
All in all a succesful day one which we hope to repeat in the future

Sounds like a cracking day Kev,

Mrs E & me will be along for the next one hopefully - that is if you do it again.

ps - please check your e-mail

[Edited on 28-5-2005 by everton]

Fork seal in left leg replaced to day, also fitted the 15T front sprocket and the new Harris Ti/alloy exhaust can picked up at the BMF for £35. Just need to make a new exhaust hanger for it as the new can sits higher up and sits in tighter against the side of the bike.

The new Exhaust worked out well at Castle Combe passing the Noise test at all of 94dB.
I had also decided a rev counter would be neccesary for Castle Combe to enable me to build a final drive ratio database.
Having blown up several intergrated circuits trying to get the 916 rev counter to work on my SS I ran out of time and fitted my Stack Revcounter that has sat idle for the last 4 and a bit years. A bit OTT for my budget bike but it does the job, cost me nothing (although does have a decent value) and as a bonus has a shift light and recall.

I think this would be well over the top
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...keTra ck=true

Castle Combe race report to follow

[Edited on 11-6-2005 by skidlids]

Ohhh, yummy!!

Thats a 'proper' rev counter :lol:

:D

Saturday 18th june, what a scorcher of a day. I was up early with the intention of going to Beaulie Motorcycle World show, but the others I was going to go with decided Golf was the priority for the day. Not for me it isn't.
Preping the DD bike for Snetterton was this weekdnds Priority.
So we started by getting the bike out into the sunshine and giving it a checkover to see if anything was about to drop off.

All checked out OK, so what next change gearing, nah leave it as it was at Castle Combe, I've never ridden Snet so I would only be guessing and with a few extra practices in the form of a trackday I have a bit more time to test and see what works.

OK what next I said to my self, I know I'll fit a twin disc front end.
Checked the length of the fork legs in the 600SS ah-ha they are the same length as in the 620 Monster. Measure from the underside of the bottom yoke to the centre of the wheel spindle on the DD bike and get a reading of 430mm to use as front ride height reference.
Jack up the monster and whip out the front end less yokes & callipers.
Next jack up front end of 600SS and whip out its front end less Yokes and replace with the Monster front end. Next pinch callipers and Mastercylinder off my 996 project.
Hey Presto a twin disc front end, couple of problems, steering damper clamp doesn't fit the later fork legs and also the wrong tyre and the mudgaurd look naff.
Solutions :- Remove Steering damper, swap front mudgaurd for my well tatty Carbon one that has been kicking around the garage since November and as for the front tyre, Knock the bearings out of bothe front wheels and swap over along with the spacer, Job done wheel colours still match.
Check front rideheight measurement, 410mm.... right who knicked 20mm... time for some single rate Ohlins springs, check my stocks two sets of 0.9kg/mm ones one set off a 748/916 and the other set off your guess is as good as mine.
The 748/916 ones are the same outside diameter and only 4mm shorter in length, only slight problem was their inside diameter was a fraction smaller causing then to bind on the plastic guide. I could have just done away with the guides but with a deburring tool I trimmed them to the right size.
Re-assemble the forks with the Ohlins springs and now the front ride height is 420mm, still missing 10mm, 5 of which I can get back by running the Fork tops flush with the yoke, but as the spings are 0.05kg/mm stiffer than the ones I had in the original front end hopefully the front mudgaurfd meeting the fairing will not be a issue.

I will work out what this adds to the budget when I have replaced the Monster front end bits that I robbed and offset that against any parts I sell on from the SS front end if I decide to sell, firstly lets see how I get on with the new front end, certainly isn't going to make the bike faster down the big straight at Snet but it may allow me to brake a bit closer to the corner at the end of it.

And while I have been doing all this I seem to have missed something happening with some posts if Weeksy's one that I have just read is anything to go by and juding by the replies it is !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

look Mum it has one each side

They will keep you out the Cabbage patch. ;)

quick update, to replace the forks, callipers and discs robbed from my M620 has cost me £180.
I still have the original front end that has a fully floating SPS disc which if I was to sell I could offset against the cost of the new bits.
But at the moment I will hang on to them as the budget racer is still a cheap bike now owing me in the region £2075 and has a spare engine (noisey but runs) and a spare front end minus a wheel.