2
Warning, I'm wordy!
Prep before the event - CF Tank rebuilt by Matt Tanner, now holds gas beautifully. OEM steel tank bought from the UK, has been de-rusted, striped, primered and has a rough basecoat of paint on it and is standing by as a backup. FCR carb rack that was randomly gumming up and sticking was sent out to Sudco for a full rebuild at crazy expense... only to be told once I got them back that "BTW, some screws stripped out on us, you should get that fixed." I could nearly have bought a new rack for what I paid to have these rebuilt... I'm NOT happy with them.
Friday - Open racer practice
First session out, going well until I suddenly have no throttle... no resistance, motor dropped to idle on the last lap. Coasted in. Inspection revealed the pull cable had popped out of the retaining bracket. Re-attached, re-adjusted, safety-wired in place.
Third session out, really started feeling 'frisky' when I got passed into 11 by an expert instructor on a motard. I wasn't about to stand for that so I tried my best to drop the hammer out of 12, managed to blow by him on the front straight without being contested into 1. He was up my inside again out of 2 leading to another drag race to 3, I held it on a bit longer than normal, he waited even longer than that... resulting in a psyche-out backing it in overshot turn for him and a nice trip up the hill without any pressure for me. Out of 12 he was right there on my inside again so I rolled it on but only got 1/2 throttle before I hit the 'stop' which was odd. Rolled off, shifted, got full throttle and proceeded to tear down the straight after and by him. When I went to roll off at the 3 board, it wouldn't roll off, throttle stuck wide open so I clutched, did a nice rear wheel stand to scrub speed and parked in the NASCAR oval for the rest of the session. After I shut the bike off the throttle closed...
A little inspection didn't reveal anything obvious other than possibly too tight a pull cable which I adjusted, also tweaked my cable routing. Couldn't reproduce the issue in the garage. Last session out was without incident.
Saturday - 1st day of Racing, and my wife and inlaws are on site which is cool.
1st practice I rolled out of pit out, hammered the throttle, shifted, hammered, shifted, hammered and stuck WFO heading into 3. Clutch in, kill switch, park in the 3/10 split and contemplate yet another unplanned underwear change for the weekend. Getting complimented by the cornerworker for using my head after noting the kill switch was used was nice though. Back to the pits, missed 2nd practice diagnosing the issue.
The problem only seemed to be when I was snapping to WFO after being WFO and releasing for a shift, and it'd let go on it's own after. I had already eliminated cabling/external issues so the next theory was maybe I was pulling the slides TOO far causing a needle to pop out of the emulsion tube? Tank off again (I'm getting good at this now), throttle snapped hard, everything looks good. Gen holds the throttle WFO and I poke at the needles and find #3 is just sliding up and down of it's own volition. Crap. Carb cap off and it's quickly determined that the needle retaining screw had lept out of the slide and was rattling around in the top of the carb, randomly gumming up the works. When the carb prevented me from getting full throttle that last time down the front straight, that was the screw just about backed out, giving me warning. Ok... not happy seeing as Sudco was the last to touch that, screw back in place WITH LOCTITE, the others checked and #2 was also starting to back out.
Ok, problem sorted, carbs locked down. Time to race.
Went out for GTL, chased a 696 Monster for the whole race. I know I'm way slow rolling the throttle on out of turns. I just don't have a good feel for how hard I can get on the gas leaned over yet. Well, I noticed I was getting to the stop pretty quickly trying to chase this 696 down, but I still wasn't pulling on him like I figured I should. Whatever, it was good to have a carrot to chase the whole race, I was having fun. On the last lap it dawned on me that I wasn't getting full rotation on the throttle which put me on alert, but finished the race without incident.
In the pits, tank off yet again. I was thinking one of the needle screws was loose but a quick poke through the carb throats negated that diagnosis. Carb caps off again, I found two of the slide height adjustment nut lock screws backed out, jamming on the carb cab when trying to go WFO. I'm now seriously pissed, I accused Sudco of two attempts of manslaughter at one point venting to whomever was within shouting distance. I visually sync'd the carbs and loctited these assemblies. Based on my ear, I somehow ended up with a better sync than the bench sync they shipped with. Bike ran the best it's done yet after that eyeball hack. This took me long enough that I didn't have time to wolf down lunch and get prepped for race 8, LWGP without crazy scrambling, so I skipped it.
Race 10, ULSB is the one I cared about so that's what I focused on next. Got a typically for me poor start as I'm still not used to launching this thing, as well as getting distracted by the HD XR1200R that did a nice power wheelie by splitting myself and Roland on his 125 for the holeshot into 1. Spent the race chasing Savas on his Hawk GT. I could make up ground once I got the bike upright and under power as well as into the corners, but he was much better getting the power to the ground out of the corner. Chased him the whole race for a 4th place finish and a new PB of 1:24.375, a solid second quicker than I've ever been around that track. Turns out Savas was caught taking a baby rolling step forward before the green dropped and got tagged for creeping dropping him from 3rd to 6th, giving me the podium by technicality. He had me beat solidly on track though. I could match his times but not beat him. Only technical issue is a stumble right at 12.5k RPM, closing the throttle slightly cleans it up and lets me pull past, by 13k RPM I can go WFO again all the way to 14.5k for the shift.
Sunday I normally don't bother with, LWSB is near the end of the day plus I normally camp so I've got a tent/etc to pack up PLUS the bike and gear... I'm lazy dammit. This weekend however I had my wife to help out which was awesome, and also meant we Red Roof'd it so no camping cleanup so I decided to stay and see if the FZR can punch above her weight. I decided to focus on getting on the throttle quicker out of corners, and while trying to chase down Ian on his SV I apparently put in on hell of a flyer producing a 1:22.718 which blows my prior PB out of the water. Only placed 9th out of 14 in that one, but I think it was my best race of the weekend. I was actively passing people, I held on to my spot going into 1 the first time instead of backing off, the tires and suspension were talking to me in a language I understand and that game of cat and mouse with #604 was too damn fun.
The FZR rewarded me by promptly dumping gas into the sump after the race. Bah.
So I've got some carb work to do still, but other than that, the FZR and I are starting to work well together. I shredded the left side of my rear tire, guess I'm going fast enough now that I really need to pay attention to wear, heat cycles, pressures, etc.
Reply With Quote
It was cool seeing my mother in law settle in and relax with the whole goings ons like she was meant to be there too.
99 + 02 SV650 ex-race - 91 FJ1200 street - 03 KDX220R woods - 12 WR450F motard/ice
Originally Posted by Kurlon
