| 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.  |