Woohoo! First race outing for the 800 this weekend
 

Got my entries back for Croft this weekend. It's 10 months since I last raced and I'm looking forward to it again.

It's the race debut for my 800ss. I'm about to realise a long-held ambition to race a Ducati. Ok so, it's not a 4-valver but, somehow that doesn't matter.

Cool, nice one Nige - at long bloody last!!!!

All the best dude :D

Best of luck, let us know how you get on :)

I'll be awaiting your report with keen interest.

:D

Good luck.

Well I am just back from practice and I have to say I am impressed. It's taking me a while to find my race legs again. Slowly but surely I am getting there. In the last session I had an epic dice with an Honda RS250GP bike. The 800 had it out of corners on grunt, stayed with it all the way down the straight and could just squeeze past on top end!!!!!! How impressive is that?

The rider and his mechanic came over afterwards to shake my hand and said "WTF is that?" ;)

The other SV650s were destroyed by it - they didn't get close. No contest. And this was all with a slipping clutch which, I have to fix this evening :(

All that remains is for me to ride it to its full potential. I've got no doubt that this is a superior race package compared to the SV.

The clutch ... in my DD bike we had an extra plate, semi-synth oil and 748RS clutch springs.

It was a muthaf***** on the left forearm but the clutch didn't slip after that. :D

Goddamn I want to race your 800 now!!!!

:lol:

Guess who is robbing his 748 this evening? :o

It's awesome Tony. That RS could not pull away anywhere - even through the fast kneedown Jim Clarke Esses at the back of the circuit where the 250 should be able to make use of it's corner speed and lightweight. The 800 clung to it all the way.

I think the relatively gentle power, lots of grunt and lightweight really works well for it. The only criticism I have of the bike is that it needs a fair heave on the bars to get it to change direction through those esses but, once it's on its ear it is exemplary.

What plate and where did you put it in the clutch pack?

Dunno, Sigma Performance were sponsoring me then and they did the work.

:confused:

Maybe try a little more ride height and see how you get on with it. It might steer a bit quicker. I like mine with a lot of rideout so they steer quicker.

I rode this years model R1 around the Stowe circuit for two days last week. They hammer, goddamn that thing was fast!!! Whenever you were pinned in 2nd or 3rd and you hit the bumps on the back straight the front would come up and the bars would get a real wobble on and then it would touch down and just keep on rocketing! And it steered quite quickly, I was very impressed.

You are right,.it does'nt matter.What does matter is that its a Ducati.
Best of luck for the racing.Let us know how you get on.:)

Thanks KeefyB.

I've had the 800's clutch apart this evening. The plates looked fine, however, as a precaution, I fitted the pack out of my spare engine. I tried fitting an extra plate in but, there's no room for it - it locks the clutch up solid because it removes all clearance from the clutch - it looks like Ducati fitted extra plates to cope with the increased shove that it puts out anyway. The problem would appear to be the exceedingly gay clutch springs that Ducati have fitted to appease the whingers who complain about heavy clutch action - they are so lightweight. So, I popped in a proper set of manly 748RS springs. Result - much heavier clutch that is hard work :lol:

It shouldn't slip now - if it does then it's a set of Barnett plates next.

Qualifying:

Qualified 14th, got gridded 34th. Ummm...go figure. Protested - got it sorted.

Race 1: Good start, lead Minitwin, about 6th overall, got punted off the track at the hairpin by some tit who outbraked himself and used me as a crash barrier. Quite how he thought he was gonna get round the hairpin on that line is beyond me. I went grasstracking, somehow stayed on and recovered my composure to come 10th overall and 3rd in class.

Damage: wrecked boot left boot, scratched left exhaust, scratched front carbon guard, broken fairing mid-panel, broken upper fairing, broken bellypan, scratched swinging arm..

Gord' worked wonders and got the bike sorted for race 2 - held together with duct tape.

Race 2: The recent late nights (especially last night trying to fix a slipping clutch) were taking their toll and I was popping Pro-Plus to keep me awake.

Got a good start and was in contention until lap 4 when I seemed to lose the plot and went backwards for some reason. I struggled a bit simply with being too tired. 10th overall, 3rd in class.

Mixed bag then - I'm still not up to what I call good race pace with my lap times being in the 1:37-1:38 bracket. The bike was fine - fast and competitive. I wasn't but, then that's my first race in 10 months so, maybe I'm being a bit hard on myself.

Nice one,great little report.
When are you planning to be out next?

Well done Nige !
1st time out with it and 2 x 3rds in class is a result in my book.

Great result, twpd! Congrats on your success. It sounds like the bike is what you had hoped for. Mine will turn its first wheel next week.

Sounds like a good start to the 800s racing career, interested to hear you and others also suffered from clutch slip. I have to look at the clutch in my 750SSie before its 2nd Minitwins outing at Darley in two weeks time.
Doubt if I'll be seing any 3rd places especially as the bike still needs to loose some wait and needs the front end sorting.
I think I wiil try and fit in a few early nights before the meeting based on your comments and then hope no twonker rams into me at the hairpin.

So when you racing the 800 again

That sounds pretty good for a first time out on a new bike :) Shame it got damaged first time out, always the way when you put some effort into having them look nice!

Well I haven't cured the problem with slip - it was still there. Less chronic than before but, there nonetheless. It really manifested itself when rolling on the gas in the mid-range in 3/4th gears making it impossible to use the mid-range grunt that the bike has. Rather oddly high revs didn't cause any issues but, I was losing corner exit speed because of it - probably to the tune of 2-3 seconds per laps. Even the 400's were able to out pull me out of corners initially but, I could get them back again in the high-speed esses and at the top-end. In a straight line the bike is extremely fast - ridiculously so. I'm gonna order a Barnett clutch pack from the USA this week.

I'm, not too worried as I'm not actually campaigning - the whole object of doing these few meetings is to iron out these sort of bugs for next year.

Next meeting for me is NG at Pembrey Sept'.

Re. early nights - I got a decent night's kip on Saturday and felt so much better for it - from now on I'm gonna try to get my bike fully prepped and ready at least a week before any meeting so, I can get a week's decent sleep beforehand. I really did feel below par on the Saturday and this didn't help me at all.

Sunday's results:

11th overall, 2nd in class
8th overall, 3rd in class.

Yeah...I think it's more than competitive. Although I have clutch problems with it, I am the limiting factor atm. Ur right about paintwork - next time it's handbrushed matt-black! :lol:

Nice one Nige, I've been looking forward to seeing how it got on against the SVs, just surprised someone hasn't been riding one all season! Will be watching with interest . . .

I can't think why no-one else has done it either. It's massively faster than an SV off the line - no clutch slip required, just let it out and wind it on. The same goes for maximum speed. I was purely the limiting factor with the bike and in the right hands it will win.

Nice one Nige, but you needed an old srad to spur you on.....
An 800 motor would go nice in my monster, must resist LOL

No. I only need you in me sights ;)

I do have a spare 800 motor you know. Make me a hugely generous cash offer and it's yours. Note the emphasis on huge.