The Desmo Due Weigh In
 

As we will have lots of free time to kill at Donington I am hoping to bring my two sets of scales along and weigh as many bikes as possible I think we have 34 entered at present. The forms are printed and the ramps are made, maybe have to get some new batteries to be on the safe side

On Saturday the scrutineering bay will be a busy area and then we will be on track at 11am and then later in the afternoon so I am proposing we try and arrange it for either Sunday Morning or Sunday Lunchtime (what would people prefer) and possibly do it in 3 groups

Class B odd numbers
Class B even numbers
Class A - All

Normally weighing of bikes to police the series would take part when a Parc Ferme is held after a race and then bikes directed to the weigh area.

I intend for this to be more of an eye opener so anybody whose bike is under weight can address the situation and those with bikes over weight can look to see where they can make improvements.

I also intend to bring 3 bottles of Plonk with me as prizes, just need to rember to put them in the van with everything else.
One for the lightest legal bike in each class (must have at least 2 litres of fuel in the tank) and one for the Heaviest overall.

As my bike has no chance of being the lightest in class A I was thinking of filling the tank to the brim and see if I can make it the heaviest

Helpful and constructive Comments please

Kev

Kev,

I take it that yo will not be weighing the bikes with the rider on then?

Chris

I reckon I could have been in with a chance for heaviest as there has hardly been anything removed from mine apart from the required stuff.

Lily that just makes your results that much more impressive,

My bike needs to shed a few more Kilos and the rider a few stone, wouldn't do me any harm in the acceleration and stoping stakes

Maybe by the end of the season we will have a feeling for who had what in the way of power to weight ratios


Certainly not as the Class A lightest combination is a dead cert, it'll be the skinny guy on No.34 :)

I think Scooter was in with a good chance in Class B but has had to withdraw, he tells us its something to do with strengthening frames but maybe he just couldn't find any lead to get his up to the required weight, He's nothing but a lightweight :)

Anytime on Friday, Saturday or Sunday will work for me.

So much time to kill that I'm thinking about having a crash or 2 to keep me busy :lol:

Thanks so much for your involvement Kev, you are one of the greatest assets of this series.

And btw, I do hope my bike is as light as I've tried to make it. Look forward to getting some figures :D

:D Years of race diet

Craig

Hope you have the Lloyd's test certificate for them Kev;)

I used the BSI weights at work to check them and carry out a direct comparison with one of the sets of calibrated scales at work, which are checked not by lloyds but E.H.Oakley to UKAS standards, which I have to make sure gets done as one of my roles is the Calibrated Equipment officer responsible for maintaining a calibrated equipment register that is Audited several times a year by the likes of the BSI and the FDA.

I would suggest a crash at Redgate as I've seen you practice that one and you do it quite well :lol:

Thought you would have that coverd Kev, can you get our bathroom ones checked my misses recons they weigh at least 5lbs heavy:lol: :lol:

Thats what I thought about my Kern ones when I got them and weighed myself, sadly the bu99ers don't lie, they are very accurate less than 1% error over the range tested.
Mind you they do cost a bit more than your average bathroom scales
http://www.kern-sohn.com/en/shop/proddata-2678.html

Any chance you can bring the scales to Mallory as I'm intensely curious as to the weight of my new race bike! :D

Yes Phil I can bring them to Mallory






















On the 21st of June :p

my bike weighs the same as before, but i weigh 2 stones more since this time last season

I thought you might say something like that!

Maybe I'll magically happen to have a bike in the back of my van when I return your headers ;)

Phil, there's a weighscale in the scrute bay at Mallory.

I did not know that! Thanks for the tip.

I took mine into work last week to weigh it, so it will be interesting to see how the load cells compare. A light battery and Harriets alum tank I may just make minimum.
Have you got ramps both sides Kev so it can roll on, then roll off, for quickness of getting the punters through.

Certainly have Phil, picked them up at lunchtime today
20" ramp each end
44" deck in the middle
and scales that are 12" by 12 1/2"
So ideally suited to a wheel base of 56"

Still some work I would like to do like build a mains to 9v supply into the underside of the deck for powering the scales.
When its finished everything should pack inside the 44" X 13" Deck section with the 20" X 12 1/2" ramps acting as cobers to protect the scales, but that will take time, if I'm lucky I may get the carrying handle fitted before the weekend.

I use to weigh my specials with a load cell at work, I think the 10 Ton crane was a bit over kill though, although it was useful for ploting the rising rate curve after removing the spring from the shock and learning how different shock lengths put you into different parts of the curve

Brilliant stuff look forward to seeing it. I had 1kg difference front to back split so very neutral, untill I get on it.

Kev, fwiw I'd prefer Saturday after qual, as Sunday I will be away from the track with family until our evening race.

Guy, we will have to see how Saturday goes, with changes o the bike and not having raced the GP circuit I will probably be working on the bike after Qually, possibly changing gearing and suspension setup, but may be still have enough time to weigh a couple of bikes.
Ideally would like to do it in the Scrutineering bay and only really want to set up once but if the part of the paddock I end up in allows the odd bike to be checked it may be possible to do a couple Saturday

hows does this work then? one wheel on 1 scales, one wheel on other scales and add the 2 figures together?

Basically, yes.

If you think about it, you can't have the same weight on two scales at the same time ... it doesn't magically appear from nowhere and disappear once you take the bike off. It's the same principle that two guys lifting a heavy box makes it easier than one guy on his own!

Mark borrowed a set of car scales from work once and we measured mine on it to see what the weight bias was like with a plan to adjusting the suspension to see how it changed the bias.

I'll see if I can dig the pic out...

Here we go...

Corner weight scales........hmmm you can have hours of endless fun messing up suspension settings with them. Usually done with the driver etc on board

Not seen much overt measurement of similar techniques (with the obvious differences due to one pair of wheels less!!) in bike racing?

Maybe front rear weight bias tuning with the rider on board is done behind closed garage doors?

Ray

MOT stations do it slightly different as in they only use one set of scales, these are usually set into the floor so that they are the same height as the floor. Then they wheel the front wheel on take a reading then the rear wheel and take a second reading and them add them together.
When using a single set of scales it is important to have them level with the surface the other wheel is sat on other wise you could be adding a bias to the process, if the scales are set lower then the bike will read over its true weight and if they are set higher it will come in lighter than it really is.

A set of scale under each wheel eliminates this chance of error.
Using two scales dead flat will also give you the weight bias of the bike and if you raise one set a known height above the other the figures can be used to calculate the bikes centre of gravity (CoG)

Only in the X direction the Z direction is quite complex.

Thanks to everybody that took part
There was certainly a wide range of bike weights, 7 Class A bikes were weighed long with 20 Class B bikes, two classics, a 1098 and Sam West's M600 standard road bike.
Class A ranged from 183kg down to 156.1kg with Steve41 taking the bottle of bubbly for the lightest.
Class B ranged from 186.7kg down to 157.6kg, with Dallas having the lightest bike in class and Rosco572 taking the prize for heaviest overall.

Other bikes weighed

Sam's 600 Monster road bike 187.6kg
1098 race bike 170kg
Classic Lansdowne Racer 138.8kg


After the weigh in I stuck my bike on the Dyno (at a cost of £25) where it recorded all of 55bhp and with its weight of 173kg I have quite a lot of work to do if I ever want it to be a competitive

Thanks for doing that Kev - any chance you could publish the list to serve as a snapshot of where bikes started the season? If not, can you PM me my bike's weight for my records? I remember it was heavy, but not HOW heavy!

Hi Guy, it was good to meet you at last and you were riding well, which made it harder for me to pass you as I worked my way through the field from my 27th place on the grid.

Weights
if people are happy to have the weighs of their bikes known add your name to the list and I will fill in the weight, also let me know if you would like the splt front & rear, I have been asked in certain quarters not to just publish a spread sheet with the results.

No record was made of any fuel levels so only you know what you had in the tank at the time of the weigh in.

skidlids Fr 86 Rr 87 Total = 173kg
Injected Total = 167.1kg

I'll leave it to Craig if he wants it published, but OMFG, how did I manage any decent results with such a porker of a bike!
Some carbon fibre on order I think...

I'm available on a consultancy basis for any interested parties;)

http://www.slim-my-ride.co.uk ;)

Money well spent me thinks !!

these are cheaper !
 

http://www.ex-lax.com/

or

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tapeworm


PMSL !!!!!!!!

If that will remove 13kgs before a race I'd be worried :p

I didnt think my bike was to bad

and then I stood on the on them and realised I was giving over 70Kg it total to harriet

Cleggy, you will have to go on Ruth's diet !!!!!

"I stood on the on them and realised I was giving over 70Kg it total to harriet"

Insist she takes a pillion !!!!! that will help

this is one of my biggest concerns, should i decide to enter a race at sometime... the leathers i bought last season, that were marginally too big, i cannot fit into now. I'm actually 2.5 stone heavier now than i was at the first race last season!