TEAM-THUMPER

Developments...?

2009-06-11T05:46:00.000-07:00

First off, sorry for the lack of any updates of late!

We all went up to Cadwell for the first round on the 16th & 17th May. I went up earlier, to test on the Friday and sort out those carb/ timing niggles.

First off, i noticed that it was decidedly reluctant to get going, worse than the last test at Snetterton...

However, I put the carb needles back to base settings, as per the last laps of Snetterton. Not sure why, but it felt even worse, tho would just about run. Someone had an off on my first lap tho, and they held us all on track just after Mansfield. Told to kill our engines, it was back to the paddock in the Race Support truck. Not for the first time...

So I decided to decrease the size of the needle jet. Running round the paddock it was no better. So the other way, jet up. By that point, I must have been feeling optimistic, and it was our next session, so I tried, but got a few hundred yards before stalling at the slow-running point of the hairpin. Unable to bump it again before it stopped rolling, I sat that one out and waited for the Support van to come and get me again.

I put the carbs back to standard, and then tried to very marginally retard the timing. She still wasn't happy to start, and would barely run at all. Ok then, advance? No better.

By this point, the best part of the day was behind me, and I was no further forward.

To cut a long story short, I fiddled a bit more on Saturday morning, but couldnt even make it out for practice. A bit more time on the carbs and the rollers in the afternoon, but I eventually spat the dummy and went home on saturday night.

On the way home, the heater matrix in the van burst, making for a sauna-like cabin.

So what now then??

Well, I sold the van, and haven't touched the bike. The week after Snetterton got married, and then had a couple of weeks off on honeymoon...

Got back on monday, and I think I may start pondering where to go with this. Perhaps its the cam? Its a stage 4, previously used with a 100mm domed piston. In this motor, its got a 98mm flat-top piston, could this explain why it will only run well above about 5k??

The season's not looking great for me, but I'll keep posting on the development of the bike. For more successful racing-related stories, may I direct the avid reader towards Dave Bennett's excellent www.drbracing23.blogspot.com

The Empresses New Clothes

2009-05-10T13:48:00.000-07:00

Ta Daaa!!

It has been said that the results achieved with doing bodywork stuff are directly proportional to the time and effort put into preparation. Subsequently its looking a bit ropey, but I had no more time, no more aerosols, and it wont matter after a trip through the gravel...

I wish I had more time to make the suface good; more paint (yellow doesn't give great coverage!), and more skill. However, it was a not unpleasant weekend, and as ever, I learned lots. "Every cloud" and all that....

Far from perfect (Andy- its not even "good"!) but at least its now all the one colour. In Team spirit, its akin to Dave's (click that link- his is looking sweet) but I get the feeling that mine will be a poor relation parked up next to his shining jewel!

I only put the bodywork on to make myself feel better on Sunday morning. So the exhaust hangers aren't there, and there bellypan isn't on properly.

From here, I've hung the exhausts, made lower brackets to stop the pipes banging about, sorted that back faster on the bellypan and painted number boards on it.

A bit of soldering to finalise the wiring, add some vinyls (thanks Ash) then off to Cadwell to sort the jetting of Friday. Saturday is the first round of the British Supermono Cup of 2009. I should really have been at this point 12 months ago, but it just didn't happen. And it would still be in multicoloured bits without buckets of help from lots of people. Thank you boys n girls!

She feels fine...

2009-04-20T09:34:00.000-07:00

An early morning trek up to Snetterton on Friday, and I was feeling very nervous! The van's been abit rough of late- would it get me there? And the bike's an untested hypothesis- would it work well enough to ride? Or would it clatter to an early death on the back straight? Or would it pitch me off, making life much more complicated than it needs to be?

Ash and his brother Rob were a huge help all day

I needn't have worried, the noise man just laughed when I pitched up for testing. So the whole morning was written off, trying to (ahem!) tune the exhaust with baffles and lots and lots of gaffer tape....

It got quieter with each successive modification, but he still wouldn't let us out. And if I'd have run for more than a few minutes, the tape would surely have melted. However, all wee needed was the "Pass" sticker... And anyway, with so much backpressure it barely ran at all! I managed to buy a couple of new, more restrictive baffles. You can see them plugging up the cans here:

These met with his approval, but then hen the noise man tells us "Oh you were right enough, we whould have been testing at 4000rpm, not 5000"..... So I've missed the mornings test, and I'm thirty quid down.... oh well...

Ash removed the baffles for me, skilled motorcycle engineer that he is!

Anyway, after a bit of fiddling with the timing, she ran, well enough to test.

Dave Bennet took few shots, just so you know I'm not telling fibs! Check out his blog on the Yamatax he's building for Ash.

So she runs, but the carbs need a bit of fettling now. We kind of ran out of time, but managed to get an approximation of base settings for the carbs, the ignition timing and the chassis. And I am in no way to be considered a test rider...!

However, I'm very pleased about the motor. There are many people who have contributed to Friday, and I know its not even a race, and I was slow-slow-slow, but even just a test feels like a victory. So thank you to all who know who they are! Will post soon on the minor fettles before the next test at cadwell, on the 15th May, the day before Round One.

Recalcitrant Single!

2009-04-10T06:37:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the lack of info of late! There were a few minor issues to iron out with the motor, involving loose things bouncing around, and part-strips, petrol-soaked shoes and lots of time on the rollers.
A definate reluctance (or rather a refusal) to run had us scratching our noggins.

Ash has rebuilt the carbs, retimed the ignition, checked the cam. And now she runs, and despite re-packing the cans is still pretty loud. So I've got a couple of dB killers coming this week.

We've decided not to bother dynoing it now, but have instead booked a trackday for the 17th April at Snetterton. The back straight should tell us if she's making any power or not... And it will also let us see what the chassis is like initially.

And 4 weeks later, (if the motor holds together) we should be at Cadwell for the 1st round. For a while it looked like she was going to spit the dummy and refuse to run, but Ash cajoled and coaxed her into agreement.

We'll put some pictures up from Snetterton. Promise!

On Any Sunday

2009-02-15T13:09:00.000-08:00

The peace in an otherwise non-descript industrial estate was shattered today with the harsh bark from the cut-down "silencers"; the bike running under its own power for the first time. Finally. About a year later than hoped!

I didn't realise that my hairline was receeding quite so much....

However, Ash described himself as "looking like the man-mountain on that".

We spent the morning fitting crash bungs, here: Also captive nuts to the seat unit, sorting the tank cover and making exhaust brackets. They sit much betrer now. We also fitted a guard to stop small children being sucked into the carbs :

You can see the white plastic guard here, as well as Ash who obviously thinks that he'd be a great bouncer. Looking less thuggish than usual here, he is almost smiling. Despite the hideous exterior, he is a great guy to have onside. I am massively looking forward to the imminent 2009 season.

So, out findings from the initial run: the pipes need brackets underneath, and the silencers re-packing. The battery terminals need to be better secured, and more importantly we need to consider getting some time on a dyno to sort out the ignition timing and the fuelling. There's also an oil weep from the crankshaft where it passes through the CNC ally engine cover, so that will be next. Its getting there, the first race meeting is on the 16th of May. We will be on the grid at Cadwell Park!

A few hours more...

2009-01-22T04:21:00.000-08:00

...and we’re very nearly there!

The weekend was very fruitful, and now with a little bit of faff (oil, fuel, tyres, lockwire, and check fasteners) its testing time.

This is how it was on Saturday morning:

We needed to push a new stem into the yokes, and buy some new bearings. It then became apparent that we had 2 different cups in the steering head- one metric, one imperial! So another favour was pulled in and DBR machined out the lower one to size.

Back to the shed to put it together. On its own 2 wheels, we did those little all-important jobs :

Front and rear brakes, engine and tank breathers, (with a non-return valve in the tank breather). We decided that for the present, we’d use the 5litre tank under the cover, with the under-seat tank and on-going project. Fuel lines, positioning of bars, controls, steering damper and fairing, rearset link rod and rose joints. We fitted the Scitsu tacho, and then decided about placement of the (few) electrical components.

Sunday morning saw a trip to Maplins to buy a small (1.3Ah) battery. You can see it’s a good bit smaller and lighter than the 3Ah one I had planned on. I will just have to keep an eye on charge etc. I think a spare would be a good idea for a race weekend!

We put the Silent Hektic ignition unit under the battery at the front fairing stay, and the coil beside this.

It was decided that it was (reasonably) out of harm’s way, and would be kept quite cool. The problem with carrying the oil in the frame is that it quite quickly gets rather warm…!

Ash stuck on a toe-guard

while I made the tea!

The blue seat unit weighs about 2 elephants, so we decided to recycle Ash’s old red one. We’ll need some captive nuts for this to enable speedy strips and mounting, but that’s not a problem. it’s a lot lighter and looks a bit more modern too- I’m guessing this seat unit is a later development of the Tigcraft chassis

And that was the state of play on Sunday night
Looking good eh?? I can’t wait to just do the few little things, then hopefully, around the end of Feb, we can get back on track. Cadwell’s the first round on the 16th of May!

Happy New Fuel Tank

2009-01-11T12:40:00.000-08:00

I’ve been thinking about fuel tanks of late. The original tank, holding 5 litres sits under this cover, but may be just a little too small.

A phone call to Dave Pearce at the Tigcraft Technology Centre was very fruitful. He let me have not one but 2 tanks, for an absolute steal. Thanks for that Dave, very much appreciated.

Option one is 7 litre plastic job, which could live under the existing (or my spare) seat unit.

This was originally on a Derbi GP50, but could potentially solve our problem.

Secondly, he also gave me (for a song), a manx tank, which looks like it holds about 18 litres! As he said, we’d probably only have to fill it up at the start of the season…”. Dave also observed that it did appear to have fallen out of the ugly tree, but maby it could be judiciously modified by someone who knows what they’re doing. there’s certainly enough sheet ally to work with there!

I think it was made for flying Scotsman Denis Gallagher for the '99 Singles TT, and then passed thru the hands of Andrew McCombe before coming back to Dave.

Next to it is the carbon fibre cover.

The bike is still out at Ash’s, I’ll report more after we get the front end together next weekend. And there may be another seat option too...

Finally, provisional dates have been published for the upcoming season:

Cadwell May 16-17

Snetterton June 19-20 BSB Combined UK & Euro-round

Brands GP July 25-26 (Possible UK/Euro-round)

Snetterton September 5-6

Brands Indi September 26-27

Plus probably one more weekend in either April or August to give a championship of 6 weekends. I'm getting excited!

Carry on Racing!

2008-11-27T11:47:00.000-08:00

Now then!

Here’s a little insight into what has been going on over the last few weeks. The bike’s been at Ash’s place out in Manningtree, home of the beautiful Robert Adam-designed Mistley Towers...

However, I digress, for I did not go out there to admire the fine architecture.

Oooooh No! Missus!

I went out there (on the coldest day of the year) to help young Mr. Norrington put up his new shed. It was a fabulous erection; although I do owe him heavily for his help with the 640 Tigcraft.

It became apparent that our steering stem (previously using a 12mm bolt...!) wasn’t up to snuff, so we knocked out a stem from Ash’s old (crumpled) frame, and with a bit of engineering work, this can be reused. We had to play about with the steering head cups a bit, and I’ll need some bearings but these are not major problems.

Despite the lever being attached to the cheapest nastiest clip-ons in existence, the front brake seems to be working, now it’s been bled.

We’ve also re-sited the pipes, and now they appear to sit a bit better.

The heavy and rather large...

...one-piece seat unit may be ditched in favour of an ally subframe and lightweight race seat unit..., ...but as it is, it works, so maybe we will start the season with the original.

However, there is more important news than mere motorcycles! In an effort to play to combined strengths, we have decided to consolidate our (your?!) own Team Thumper with Ash’s Moto450Supermono. So now that we have become a happy threesome (can a threesome be anything else?!), and, given the grave world financial situation its 2 for 1.

2 bikes, 2 vans (neither warrant a photo), 2 riders, and Boyd Brooks- the 2Bs!

Ash's CRF450-derived racer is full of the trick bling, nice wheels, and looks the business. A welcome addition to the usual rag-tag which has so far defined Team Thumper!

Derby’s finest has been sorting out a remanufacured front fairing stay/tacho mount. Soon this will also be down in Manningtree and we can get a bit more progress once she is back on her own 2 wheels.

The only other thing we need is a name...

TeamThumperMoto?

TeamThumperSMR (as in SingleMindedRacing)?

Answers on a postcard plase to the usual address. Any suggestions welcome...

Bling Bling!

2008-10-30T06:24:00.000-07:00

Well, here’s the rather lovely R6 radial caliper mount. I’ve not seen it in the flesh, but Ash sent this from his mobile. Technology eh??

The bike’s at his place now, thank you matey. And to Mark at DBR for the beautiful looking chunk of ally on my forks! And if you need any more convincing of his prowess, I hadn’t realised, but it turns out that he also made the blanking plate for where the water pump used to be. He recognised it when we turned up with the bike. Small world, eh? I wonder if the nice swirl which has finished it off will make it any faster….?

And given the press fanfare of the recently re-anglified Norton Motorcycle Company, a name forever associated with single cylinder race bikes, we can hardly not wish them the very best of luck… Ok, so we’ve been here before, and the great name has had a rough time over the last decade or so (Norton Nemesis, anyone?) but if they can turn up beautifully engineered bits of kit as quickly as DBR then they’re half way there. Will the Crighton and Garner partnership result in new Nortons on the road in the next few years? Lets hope so. Now, could a single-rotor rotary motor ever be considered eligible for Supermono…?!

What News, Sire?

2008-10-25T09:05:00.000-07:00

Well, this week has been relatively fruitful. Long, dark, cold nights are no better spent in the closed season than in a short, dark, cold garage.

The sloppy swingarm has been cured by using the correct spacers, and the bike now sports a single 320mm disk upfront. After a long day at work Wednesday, I got home, loaded up the van and completed a 200 mile round trip to deepest darkest Essex. After a couple of hours driving I met Ash Norrington at a layby off the A120, with him as ever grinning like a loon! I think he had been dogging, actually…

He took us (me and the bike) out to see Mark, who runs D.B. Racing in Thorpe-Le-Soken, specialising in CNC-machined bits and pieces for racers and roadbikes alike. His workshop was more like a lab (fastidiously clean, spacious, well lit, no sh*t lying around- clearly not MY lab!!), and I was impressed by both his facilities and his attitude. Nothing was too much of a problem, “Yes, we can do that”. Great!

Ash is still concerned about our rear shock keeping the back end rather low, but he may be able to help us out (again!) with something.

Will post some piccies of the bling-bling brakes when I pick up the bike.

***STOP PRESS!*** I just got a call from Ash. Its done! Will try to pick up asap and post a coupla photos.

A bit of video...

2008-10-13T04:11:00.000-07:00

This is a bit old, but shows the first time running.

And how stupid we can be, trying to bump it in neutral!

I couldn't figure out how to flip it, so one of the videos is on its side. Just tilt your minitor to enjoy the buffoonery! :)

Nic says...

2008-10-09T14:23:00.000-07:00

“Update yer blog!” So in answer…

The bike runs, its just about complete, electrics such as they are, are ready to be laid on, the bodywork fits, cables, levers, bars, steering damper, all good. Brakes… After our screwing around with the (knackered) KR1S callipers, and twin FZR400 300mm disks, Ash came up with a great solution, which suits the Scotsman’s wallet.

He has been an absolute diamond by sorting out Team-Thumper with an R6 calliper and RS125 master cylinder. And Supermono stalwart Nick Oliver also threw a 520 chain our way; top bloke, thanks Nick.

We caught up at the final round of the British Supermono Championship of 2008. Although we weren’t in a position to compete, we did witness to some great racing, and met up with old friends. Ash’s CRF450-based racer is a thing of beauty, and I’m looking forward to a bit of a scrap next season.

So now we need to get a calliper bracket machined up (probably CNC, from DB Racing). It’s a radial calliper, onto our distinctly 1990s fork legs. We also now have 320mm disks. One for our wets, one for the slicks, as we are now going to run a single large disk, saving a decent amount of (unsprung) weight, as opposed to twin 300mm disks.

The whole thing has been dragging on a bit, not helped by the van needing an MOT… So there’s been a month of hand-wringing, and head scratching, before finally forking out. Cos a race team without a van is like…. a chav without Burberry. Or Sovvy rings. Or a Staffie. Or something like that.

I thought that the swingarm needed some spacers turning up, but on tidying the garage last night, I found a suspiciously homeless looking ally spacer which I’m willing to bet takes up the play between frame and swingarm.

No photos on this post, cos nothings changed! But we won’t leave it so long next time- promise! Testing soon?? There’s really not too much in our way now….

She Runs!!

2008-08-11T09:24:00.000-07:00

Hurrah!!

We got her on the rollers last weekend, and ran like a good un!

Even with the approximate timing and jetting, I'd say the motor is now ready to test. She sounds nice tho, even if I say so myself.

The chassis will definately require a little tweaking to give me confidence to test it on a circuit tho! I think Ash is gonna help me out on the braking side of things... Watch this space!

I think there is a little bit of video floating about. As sson as I can get it off my mate's phone, I'll post it up here.

Cheers

Andy

Ash-en Faced!

2008-07-15T16:04:00.001-07:00

Given the unholy speed with which fellow supermonoist Ash is throwing together his very tasty looking CRF 450-based project, (click it; he puts us to shame!) and the excruciating pace of ours, we had better get the finger out.

Its not that we’ve not been working, but there were some minor yet fundamental details which needed sorting:

So:

oil lines- check! Thanks Ben at Pirtek...
exhaust springs- check!
clutch lever assembly- check!
front brake line- check!
stripped thread on the brake caliper –sadly, also check….
the all-important kill switch –check!
ignition timing- check, check and check again!

You can see the trigger for the latter on the end of the crankshaft. Its a Silent Hektik unit, and allowed me to ditch the hefty alternator rotor/flywheel unit.

It also became evident that the cam was a tooth out, so I’ve had the engine out and back in as well. One tooth- “a minor yet fundamental detail”…

So these photos now show rather less of a mock up and more of a near-final machine.

Boyd will soon be on the case with a battery box and a few little brackets (ahem! once I send him some details on sizes etc- sorry mate!). However, as previously, these can be secured with cable ties. We just need to get her on the rollers. Because now I think with some oil in the frame, some fuel in the tank, and a car on the rollers, she may be in a position where she'll bang and pop. I do have the feeling that the 145 jets in the Keihin CR33s will be too big (these were feeding a 690 motor), and that the ignition timing is very approximate. But we need a starting point and now its tantalisingly close.

However neither of us can meet until 3 weekends from now. Life has seemed to get in the way of Team Thumper. This is piss! More on that later. And priming the oil system would seem like a very good idea. This will require running (plug out) on the rollers until we are sure there are no air locks and that its all getting where it should. Even when the motor turns by way of 4-stroke internal combustion principles we then have the chassis to address. Of course, a test day at Mallory may show that she handles absolutely beautifully, runs in without any drama and then gives herself a lick of paint whilst driving us back from the pub. Although I feel even most optimistic reader will know that this is not an entirely likely scenario.

It has been noted that it has taken us an unfeasibly long time to get ourselves into a semblance of shape. And we have had a lot of help from lots of people, to whom we are indebted. Thus the executive decision has been taken that we will have to compete next season. However, the author hasn’t quite broken it to one of the (generally) silent partners of Team Thumper. I am almost certain that she does not read this….

Poco a Poco...

2008-06-25T06:08:00.000-07:00

So now we have a rear master cylinder, and some exhaust brackets. Every day she grows a little more!

And I know the exhausts look a bit daft from the back, but at this rate there wont be anyone behind me to see them...

Am not sure whether to take a front disk off, or add a second caliper. Either way, not a massive job, I am sure testing will sort that one out!

And once I get a few little fiddly jobs out of the way I'll have to get wiring in the Silent Hektik ignition system. Oh...! And that reminds me, we'll need to make a battery tray too!

Slow but Steady...

2008-06-21T18:16:00.000-07:00

...kind of sums up Team Thumper I suppose!

A bit of a progress report on the current state of play:

Today I fibreglassed the necessary fixings and exhaust brackets onto the tail unit; you can see the standard of workmanship here...!

I also got a (barely) functional rearset linkage on the go, to at least allow me to knock it into gear when the time comes to try to run it.

On top of that, we now have a chain (to facilitate the same), and I've cleaned up the front fairing bracket to allow a bit of welding to be done.

But its almost a bike now: the tail unit is ready to go, and the brackets for the little ally tank have been bodged out of some flattened tube. I have the distinct feeling that when it comes to actually running (reliably), then they'll have to be re-made, but they'll do for just now. She is beautifully narrow across the waist tho; we have faith in the belief that when she runs, she should be a good 'un. Getting to that point has just been more problematic (for oafs like us) than we'd ever though would be the case...

Slightly more problematic may be mounting the rear master cylinder as space would appear to be rather tight. Nice rearsets tho, eh??

Note the lower bolt in this pic (there are 4 in total) which support the seat unit and rider's weight; impressive given the lack of subframe.

Oil lines should be on within a week. Ditto the front brake line. Then after a bit of wiring, and finding a clutch lever and handlebar bracket, I would hope that we can start to think about fuelling up and putting some oil in... then Boyd can break a sweat pushing me and a dead bike up and down the street!!

Progress!

2008-06-10T16:30:00.000-07:00

3 sets of valve stem seals, 2 camshafts, lots of thinking and stupid questions, long hours filing collets and a complete lack of any engineering prowess.

The motor is now in the frame and all the major bits are hanging on it. It even rolls... Oil lines have been problematic, tho Ben at Pirtek at Kings X has been trying hard to sort out the niggles.

I have a chain on its way, an immediate problem is the shift linkage. I have RH thread rose joints (M6 thread and 6mm pivot hole), and some M6 bar which will do for a link rod just now. However, all of the gear shaft clamps I have have old knackered rose joints (with LH threads) pressed in... And they wont press out. I need a clamp to bite onto the gear shift splines, with no rose joint on it...

Back the the Electronic Bay. Do such items exist? I'm about to find out...

Piccies soon!

a

Terrible Headaches!

2008-05-06T15:50:00.000-07:00

Here’s a bit of an update after a rather prolonged silence. Rest assured that while we’ve been a little lax in updating the blog since Snetterton, things are progressing. As usual there’s been more thinking than actually doing!!

Oil lines should be on their way from the friendly and helpful guys at Pirtek at Kings Cross (cam feed and main tank-motor and motor-tank oil lines). They’re also fixing me up with a front brake line. However, inside the motor, I’m still fretting about the valve gear, and we are acutely aware that time is marching on. Having received the oversize shims from Rog Key, I re-checked the spring installed height; they’re all now spot-on. However, I then wanted to just make sure that the collets weren’t going to do anything comical with the valve stem seals at full lift.

The subject of much domestic strife….!

The valve guides have already been shortened for use with the Stage 4 Megacycle cam, and the motor apparently ran very well. It may have broken the bottom end, but the top was fine!

However, the pattern valve stem seals I received were not a particularly good fit. At full valve lift (measured rather inaccurately at 12.1mm for the inlets and 11.4mm exhaust) there was indeed contact. I only tried it on one inlet valve, but turning the cam by hand was enough to feel contact. I tried to get the seals to sit a bit further down the guide but to no avail. They may have been cheap, but I can hear my old man warning me “Buy cheap, Pay dear”. Paying dear would almost certainly result from a dropped valve. I resent the time and hassle more than anything: rockerbox on, rockebox off, cam in, cam out, setting/checking the tappets every time. Measure, turn, check lift, blah blah blah! So now you see why the blog’s not been updated?? This part is just too boring, and time consuming!

A second old adage of my father’s is “Buy cheap, Buy twice”. Another accurate observation from the old felly. I duly received my new Yamaha valve stem seals Fowlers on next day delivery, having placed an order at 4-30 the previous afternoon. Top service. I was pleased to find that as a result of their better fit, there was now clearance. Not as much as I’d like admittedly, but there is clearance. And the new collets are no bigger than the old ones, so I’ll probably go with it as is. Unless of course I could remove just the slightest amount of metal from the bottom of the collets…? Hmmmm, probably not.

As a little aside, measuring lift accurately is difficult as I am not, by any stretch of the imagination, an engineer. Working with a only vernier (“very-near”) caliper is difficult in the confined space of the head. And the curves of the valves and inside the combustion chamber make it hard from that side.

So having previously made a note of the lift, I then built up the collets and retainer without the springs. You can see this here, and underneath the R/D bottom cup is Rog’s shim.

So how to measure? I ended up bodging on a bit of plasticine, removing it and measuring the distance between the top of the seal and the bottom of the collets.

Obviously not the most accurate, but just about the only way I could think of doing it. And I think it will do, in the absence of any other expertise…! Or am I just showing myself to be a fool, who can’t build an engine? Well, you can all say “I told you so” when it drops a valve!

Right. Lets get this head on!

Irritating Minutiae?

2008-04-24T08:22:00.000-07:00

Or important details?!

Since our outing at Snetterton, some things have happened...

1) My missus finally hit the roof with the prolonged head-build on the dining room table. Much cooking and grovelling to be done this evening.
2) I have dremelled the inlet manifolds such that they line up with the (enlarged?) inlet tracts in the head
3) I received from Rog (you lovely, lovely man!) some shims of 1.6 - 2.0mm to sit under the lower cups under the valve springs. These allow the installed height to be as per the R/D spec. Effectively this preloads the valve springs. I'd think that failure to appreciate/rectify this would result in valve float at high revs.
4) Ordered some spangly new oil lines.

So last night (having promised that the head would be off the table and atop the motor that evening) I got my shims on, and just before putting the springs & collets etc together, I thought I'd make sure that at full lift the collets & top spring retainer don't foul the valve guide seal.

Guess what?? There's contact... I can still turn the cam, but I wanted about 1mm clearance. The spec sheet recommends 50 thou, but I reckon 40 would do. Anyway, its a no go.

I tried tapping the seals on, taking them off, grease on the guide, etc etc. No f'cking joy. This would surely be asking to drop a valve...

The seals are pattern parts. I have now ordered genuine Yamaha parts, so we'll see if these are any neater... Failing that, it will mean (god no!) machining the already shortened guides.

Its a puzzle, as the motor ran with this cam. Although not these springs collets and retainers... I tell you what, building this motor is fast becoming a pain!

andy

SuperMono Championship (Rounds 1 & 2 - Snetterton)

2008-04-17T06:13:00.000-07:00

Friday 11 - Sunday 13 April 2008

Friday practice was the low point of an otherwise brilliant weekend. Having been fairly confident that Steve Lakes bike, TZR250 chassis and SRX640 engine, would be reliable for the whole weekend Andy promptly dumped it at Russell’s chicane. I think he had a genuine excuse as the tyres were not brilliant (road-biased), it was on the first lap (cold tyres) and although not actually raining, it was damp. Andy suffered minor, but I expect painful, injuries – hip and hands bearing the brunt of the impact. Unfortunately his long serving Arai splat-hat also took quite a battering as he slid face down along the track.

Having walked from the pit-lane over to the scene-of-the-crime, thinking that Andy might need a hand pushing the bike back to our camp, I saw him being whisked off towards the scrutineers shed. This walk across the Snetterton paddock was to be another feature of the weekend. When I finally got there the hobbling Andy and myself were directed towards the Senior Scrutineer as he wanted “to have a word with us”. He then produced a pink sheet that listed all the following faults likely to keep us off the grid the following day (this was in addition to what they might find during the real scrutineering – Merde!). Both fuel and oil tank (Monza) caps needed wire locking shut, steering lock was too limited, no lower rear chain guard, fairing oil trap too small, and a few other minor problems! It took us several hours to rectify all the problems as best we could, and we were still not certain that the bike would still be eligible. We also replaced the broken kill switch, which was to cause much grief later on.

Saturday morning was bright and breezy as we pushed the re-built bike to scrutineering. Much to our surprise the very helpful Senior Marshall gave us the green light. We walked back ready for the first practice. This was when the kill switch came back to haunt us. After only two laps Andy began suffering an intermittent electrical fault, only rectified by judicious waggling the kill switch with his thumb. This couldn't go on forever, and after a few threatening intermittant faults, eventually the bike stopped all together. This may have been a blessing in disguise as we also uncovered a few issues with the front brakes. The electrical fault was easily solved and a new brake lever bolt was installed. The next problem surfaced during Sunday practice; the re-jigged front brake locked itself on. Being stuck, unable to move, with racers passing either side at full-chat, must have been a brown-pants moment. Enter stage right the recovery van, again! Upon its return the brakes were finally sorted by replacing the master cylinder (Thanks Dave) and using new, not sludge brown, brake fluid. After all the traumas we did the only sensible thing and retired to the pub. We had a good laugh with Ash, Nick, Sam and Liam, mostly arsing about with our new, sponsor provided, Buffs, drinking beer and eating chips.

The race on Sunday, by comparison to the previous days disaster, was slightly anti-climactic as everything worked more or less as it should - no crashes, no breakdowns. Andy finished, albeit in a foul mood. The borrowed bike was still rather underpowered compared to the rest of the field (sixteenth out of twenty six starters is OK, isn’t it?). Perhaps our rather poor showing could also be attributed to a lack of confidence after a fairly fraught weekend. However, we are supremely grateful to Steve for his loaning us the bike. Thanks, you're a gent!

And very sorry for smashing it up! We promise it will be returned (more or less) as we got it!

When we next come out to play we should have the ‘real deal’ bike ready, and I think we will both be disappointed if times/positions don’t improve.

See you at Brand’s…………..in July!

Down... But Not Out!

2008-04-08T16:14:00.000-07:00

A team without a bike is like a Friday night without a kebab. Rubbish!

The Tigcraft is still in need of a bit more attention; the chilli sauce, if you will. However, the motor's in its final position, the controls are getting there, and some parts are winging there way in from far off lands with a good exchange rate. Not having the bike for this first Supermono weekend at Snetterton makes us Glum and Glummer; however our good chum SteveL has stepped into the breach to lend us his trusty track iron forthe weekend.

Hurrah!!

Moreover, he put a fair bit of graft in last week to get it back in one piece. Thanks a lot Steve, you're a gent. We are no longer glum, and Boyd will make you a cup of tea and a fresh cream canape over the weekend in the paddock.

To get it race legal, we needed only number boards, a bit of lockwiring, some attention to the fairing, a kill switch, and that's about it. We've changed the sprocket for Snetterton's long straights.

Like our Goode mate John, its a TZR250 chassis, with a 640 Yamaha motor. Its not the easiest to access the motor, so I am glad we didn't have to do any real work.

Steve reckons it was raced about 10 years ago in this class. Either way its a step up for me. Its got an ally tank (so it must be good), and I am finally dragged kicking and screaming into the 1980s with a monoshock rear end...

With a little paint and some stickers we reckon she looks so good that we've decided on just that colour for the Tigcraft when she finally graces a circuit near you (sometime!)

See you at Snetterton? We're #16, look for a non-beutiful ex-ambulance in the padoock. Boyd will be serving the cream teas in a french maid outfit...

Measure twice, cut once

2008-03-19T02:54:00.000-07:00

Well....! Back to work then.

Boyd came down on Saturday with more big lumps of carbon fibre, a pair of exhausts and more importantly his grinder! Thanks to Alan Stringer for his lovely job repairing the rather second hand pipes and the spring reatainer at the head. They're now good as new, and fit to carry fast, hot, high pressure gas from cylinder head to just in front of the back wheel.

The fabled British Motorcycle Industry was always quite good at building good-looking but non-running mock ups. Preserving this tradition, we checked out Boyd's nicely repaired carbon fibre seat unit and fairing. And yes, they look good, they fit, and are functional. The tank-cover needs a bit of relief at the front, but looks like it will work. Boyd is justifyably pleased!

Looking quite good I think....

...and it even seems to fit me!

So we stripped it off again (nice and quick, and quite robust which is good- much more so than my rather Heath-Robinson effort with the SRX), and set about removing the lower engine mount to fit the XTZ cases.

Before Boyd had arrived, I measured and marked up the frame, the numbers you can see here.

And then here's the lopped-off frame mount. However it STILL culdn't be persuaded in, so the GrinderMan trimmed it up a wee bit.

However, by nightfall, the motor still wasn't in. WHY NOT?!?

Well, I'm not sure, I'll have a think, and a jiggle, and a jack, and kick, and lever, and a swear, and see if it will go. It very nearly lines up, but not all bolts will go in. Well, they'll all go in, but they wont all go in at the one time!

As a plus, with the whole back of the lump moved over 7mm, the chain alignment looks much better, and shouldn't require too much more fiddling.

However, I think its fair to say, sadly, that Team Thumper is not goinng to be able to make the grid for Rounds One and Two of the British Supermono Cup at Snetterton on 11 & 12 April. There just isn't going to be time to build, finish, and more importantly test and set-up. Safety is paramount both for us and other riders, so I think we'll have to be realistic and not rush onto the grid half-arsed. We are gutted, but circumstances dictated that its not to be. Oh well, philosphical as ever, we'll just have to get on as best we can.

We'll go and support all the other teams however, and will post a bit of info here.

andy

David J Duncan 1936-2008

2008-03-12T11:54:00.000-07:00

Davie finished his last lap slightly unexpectedly on the 27th February. He is sadly missed by all who knew him. A first rate engineer, Manx GP and TT racer 1958-1966, father and husband, he lived life to the full until his very last day and was my inspiration. My father's determination and tenacity in all of his endevours have shown me what can be achieved in life, in racing, in engineering and even economics when conditions are less than ideal.

I cannot consider what my own life would be if I had not known him. Always family man (once he'd hung up his race leathers leathers!), I can hear one of his adages:

"Enjoy yersel' now son. You're young for a short time, auld for a long time, an deid for a helluva long time!". Quite.

See you in the paddock, Auld Yin!

Life, however, goes on. Thus Team Thumper will endevour to get to the grid for the first two rounds at Snetterton, but we're now way behind schedule. Boyd is coming down on Saturday for a bit of head scratching, measuring, cutting and tea drinking. So after our enforced hiatus, we'll keep you posted on how its going.

Crisis, What crisis?

2008-02-27T04:52:00.000-08:00

ONLY six weekends left before the first SuperMono Round at Snetterton, and the bike is still in large chunks. In the next fortnight we need to have it up on its wheels and running. This will give us just enough time for a practice session at Mallory and any insuing remedial fettling.

GOD HELP US

Uncle Boyd

No Woe!

2008-02-20T07:21:00.000-08:00

So we are idiots. The frame's not twisted, just my dour Scottish outlook always expects the worst. One is rarely, in such cases, disappointed...

However, I think the motor's mounts are not where we want them to be... Or rather the lugs on the frame are for a differernt motor. Possibly an XT? I know that it previously held an SRX lump, the current cases are XTZ.

Anyway, here are some pics for the anoraks to show what I mean.

These were posted further to a bit of discussion on the forum of the ThumperClub.

From above. You can see that the head mount is central, but the centre of the cases is offset to the left (look at the mating surface cf the rear shock mount)

The rear of the engine has 2 mounts, upper and lower. The upper mount requires spacers to me made up, so is currently a (laterally) sliding fit. The lower mounts (left one is the ally "tab" you can see here) is a welded piece which locates the motor, each side of a boss cast into the rear of the cases.

And here's the one on the right hand side of the motor...

From underneath, it looks something like this:

The right of this picture is the rear of the bike. The motor is to the left of the image. Centrally, (vertical in the image) is the lower frame tube, running between the left and right "spars" of the frame. The two mounts to our right are for the rear shock linkage (the pivot of the rocker). These are central to the frame. This illustrates nicely the offset nature of the two "tabs" I described above. I am presuming that these should be central (ie each equidistant from the left and right rocker mounts). Are you with me??

I haven't yet measured up what I think the offset is, but I'll get the vernier (or the "very near" out and get some figures tonight. I do know that the cylinder head mount is central...

andy

Oh Woe!

2008-02-17T06:09:00.000-08:00

Boyd arrived bright and early yesterday morning. Bringing with him such goodies as a frame, front end, pipes, cans, and our little ally fuel tank.

After I had lightly bolted down the head and cambox, we had a motor-shaped object. It will take a bit of time to get the valves sorted, but the motor is certainly getting close to Team Thumper’s exacting standards. We are professionals, after all…

In a jiffy, Boyd had assembled the front end (one nut and bolt!!) and slipped the rear spindle thru so she was on her own 2 wheels again.

First thing we noticed was that the front engine mount was fouling the XT barrel fins.

So a little judicious use of the cheap n nasty £15 Aldi Dremel-copy reduced the bottom fin to allow the ally mount to bolt onto the two front mounts.

All good so far! And without too much further ado, we soon had the engine in the frame, resting against the cylinder head mount, supported by the lower rear mount.

Interestingly, the lump is off-centre in the frame , it appears to sit closer to the left spar than the right.

After some recreational sawing…

…I put the carbs on, while Boyd tried to hide convince me that “hide-and-go-seek-seek” was more fun. Silly man!!

I found him easily! We sized up the tank against the frame

and made sure it cleared the carbs.

And although appears small, it actually holds over 5 litres.

However, whether or not this is enough remains to be seen. UK Supermono races are approx 20 miles, so maybe we’ll have to weld an extra box onto it. We also talked about the possibility of making a still air box. We’ll need to make up a support for the rear of the tank, so maybe this could somehow the tank could rest on to top of an airbox?? Despite Boyd trying to chat up the pretty 3rd member of Team Thumper and her playing all coy, we soon got back to work. However, it wasn’t too long before our dreams of victory dissolved into despair.

We couldn’t get any more engine mount bolts in. Despite giggling, pushing pulling, and modifying the front mount, we started to suspect that the engine wasn’t going to bolt up after all. To our untrained eyes, it would appear that the frame may be twisted… Which would explain why we cant get any more than 2 mounts secured at any one time. This is a definite blow to Team Thumper’s schedule to get the bike built by mid march and tested by the end of that month for the first race at snetterton . I’ll try to get it to the Maidstone Motoliner asap, and get their opinion…

The clock’s definitely ticking pretty loudly now. I thought I had my work cut out to get the head built up and bolted down. Now its become a lot more complicated for a number of reasons. Ally frames are a pain to straighten. Especially slightly fragile 17 year old ones which have housed tuned large capacity singles. And in order to straighten the frame, ideally the motor should be bolted up. But we cant do that yet. And I can’t get on with finishing the head until it (goes to and) comes back from the motoliner man.

I will give him a call on Monday, and see what he advises. Either way, this isn’t going to be cheap. Or easy. Is it ever??! Will we be racing in april? Here’s hoping.

Andy n Boyd

A litle more progress (snail's pace!)

2008-02-16T12:47:00.001-08:00

Last week, I received a parcel from a new friend in the States. Chris Hunsicker shipped me some springs, collets, Ti retainers and bottom cups; thanks also to Bill Jurgenson for his help with this. I also took advantage of a favourable exchange rate and bought a DID cam chain.

As Boyd was due down on Saturday morning, for a “dry-fit” I thought I had better try to get the motor together.

The RD springs came with a bit of paperwork specifying the Installed Height, and how to obtain it. The correct height of the spring retainer to the bottom cup; this can be decreased if necessary with the shims supplied to place UNDER the bottom cup. However, my installed height is between 1.5mm and 2mm greater than the specified limits. I have 4 shims, each of 0.34 mm. I’m unsure on how to proceed with this and will try to ask those who have played this game before…

Anyway, it did mean that when Boyd arrived on Saturday morning, the head still wasn’t on! No problem, I quickly assembled the “empty” head and cambox on top of the barrel…

…and he seemed pleased to see me anyway. What a handsome pair!

New piston

2008-02-16T12:31:00.000-08:00

It’s a Wiseco item, brand new, and its on the Carillo rod now. It’s a flat top, 98mm bore, so it won’t be a brutally high compression, but if the motor is good we can up the performance a little later in the season. I used 3 Bond from Rex Caunt Racing (look thru their site, some lovely classics...) on the new genuine Yamaha base gasket. And then torqued down the new nuts onto new studs, with new washers from Slipstream and Kedo.

I also blocked off the oilway from the cases to the barrel, with one of the little plugs Alain made for me.

No piccies here, simply too boring!!

The Devil is in the Detail...

2008-02-16T12:15:00.000-08:00

…and that is why I have cleaned up the new valves. I’m not sure if it will really make any difference, but in theory its got to be better. Not least because A. Graham Bell reckons it’s the thing to do (according to “Performance Tuning in Theory and Practice”)

So I dropped in on Alain Antoinette, who runs Spacesavers Plus in East Finchley. Specialising in light engineering, engraving, signmaking and CNC laser cutting in various media he’s been a great source of advice. He let me use his lathe and tools to remove the sharp edges from the valves, clean up the surface, and give them a little polish. What a guy, thanks Alain!

On the left is the untouched valve, on the right one of the inlets after our attention.

And here is a close up. You can see both the smoother profile and the polish on the surface. I used Scotchbrite, then fine Wet n Dry (first dry, then polished wet)

The polish had touched the seating area of the valves, so I very lightly lapped the valves in again, just to be sure! Boring? Pedantic?? ME???!

andy

Return of the Anorak

2008-02-03T03:26:00.000-08:00

I have just forked out a big wodge of hard-earned for 4 Yamaha valves. I had received some pattern ones, but I thought them a little suspect- heavier than standard, tighter radii, and rather prominent “corners” where its been machined.

So I got my precious treasure home. And compared it to the standard valves. I have it on hearsay that this head was built for the Singles TT, and is a little bit special (or was at one point).
Anyway, that was many moons ago, the exhaust valves had been replaced quite recently, and the inlets much longer ago. The (recently replaced) exhaust valves were standard. However, I noticed that the inlets (possibly quite old) had had all of the edges close to the seat machined off…

You can see the difference between the new Yamaha valve on the right, and the valve which came out on the left.

Edges have been removed (arrowed) and I also think the seat is a little thinner. I haven’t weighed them, but I am certain that the old valve will not only allow better flow; it will also be lighter.

The photo on the right attempts to show the thinner seat of the modified inlet valve which was in the engine. So I have decided to grind in the new valves, (so we know where it actually seats) then take them for some light "recontouring"- both on the inlets and the exhaust. If a job’s worth doing….

Valve grinding- a Great, British, Sunday pass-time. When you missus is away… The "Chemico" paste looks like its come right out the 1950's, and would be more use lapping in valves on a Manx! Ahhh, to dream!

andy

I'm as excited as a VERY excited thing, me!!!

2008-01-29T04:54:00.000-08:00

I can sense a David Attenborough moment coming, ie. the mounting of one part with another!

I'll get my coat...............
Boyd

Notes from the Solar Shed

2008-01-28T15:09:00.000-08:00

Boyd has obviously been running around like the proverbial insect with a colourful bottom, so here's a little update on the motor:

I've got the new tappets, 4 new valves (at great expense for a scotsman), and a whole load of stuff from the lovely folks at Kedo .

Plugs, gaskets, a cam-chain, studs, seals, o-rings and various other essentials for the build.

Just like christmas. But better, as there is no hideous mariah carey or cliff oozing out of every speaker in the land...

Some vinyls I do like though are those I received in the post courtesy of motorbike-crazy.com. These will look great on the fairing.

Team Thumper is ever-grateful for their support!

Chatting to Bill , I've decided to plumb the top end oil line up the outside like the XTZ motor. The XT/SRX aircooled motor has a passageway up inside the barrel and head castings.

He very kindly supplied me with a beautifully made camshaft endplate, which has been tapped to accept an M10x1 banjo bolt. In this case a nice ally Poggipolini item. They also supply the reduced head ally allen screw.

Apologies for the very poor image- it doesn't do it any justice.

And as I am not using the internal oilways, I've had plugs made up in stainless. Thanks to local guys SpacesaversPlus for their help with them.

In the middle is the hollow Yamaha tube which sits between the cases and the barrel, and the barrel and the head. This forms the oilway, with a rubber gasket round the outside. Either side are the blanks, which will plug the obselete oilway. I'm hoping this will keep the oil where its mean to be, and not smeared over the outside of the motor.

Which will look like this:

Its just placed together so I could get an idea of how I could route the oilway. This will be replaced by a goodridge line before the start of the season. However, its unlikey to run without a piston, valves, cam or.... a chassis. So we're looking at a beautiful union sometime mid February.

Watch this space!

What doesn't kill you makes you stronger?

2008-01-28T03:43:00.000-08:00

Another weekend of pi**ing about, but thankfully with some positive results. The rear wheel business, ie. two similar wheels but with different positioning for the brake disc, has finally been resolved. They are the same wheel, FZR400RR, but one has been machined to move the disc inboard of the wheel rim. This obviously meant that when the need arose to swop quickly from wets to slicks it was going to be a right pain, what with different spacers etc. It now seems, after much careful measuring, that is I get some spacers made to move the disc back to its original position we can swap wheels relatively easily. This is one major problem solved.

Next item was the fuel tank. As far as I was concerned we didn't have a tank to fit under the dummy tank. I therefore set-out to source a suitable tank from a KR1S or RGV as they, superficially, looked as if they would fit. I took careful measurements, made paper templates, bought a KR1S tank locally, and we still didn't have a tank. The fit between the tank, chassis rails and seat unit was just not close enough, so it was back to the drawing board (and this was on top of breaking down on the first attempt to collect the tank and being recovered by the AA, and then sitting in a massive tail-back due to and accident at the second attempt - I should have seen the omens!). After much head scratching and advanced looking I realised that the battered old alloy tank, that I thought a) was an oil tank, and b) was too big to fit under the dummy cover, was in fact the fuel tank I was seeking. What a numpty!?! It sort of fits, in places, and will need some brackets making, but we finally have a tank - which fits, and utilises the nice dummy cover. My only concern is if it has a large enough capacity. I think we will struggle to get more than one and a half gallons of fuel into it yet the races are now over twenty five five laps of circuits that can be up to three miles long. As I have no idea what the mpg of a Tigcraft/SRX hybrid is likely to be we may not be out to the woods yet. As I've said previously two steps forward, one step back, again!

Boyd

T(h)anks!

2008-01-22T06:06:00.000-08:00

Have been offered a KR1S tank for £30, which I'm picking up at the weekend. It will probably need some percussive engineering to make it fit perfectly as it will need to accommodate the Tigcraft's oil-in-frame filler. Will try and post some before and after pictures.

BBB

Two steps forward, one step back.........

2008-01-21T01:40:00.000-08:00

Another slightly frustrating weekend. Off-side front brake caliper decided not to play ball as the pistons of one half refused to come out. Tried all sorts of cunning manoeuvres, and even resorted to impact engineering at one point, but sadly to no avail. A quick scout around on eBay soon located a guy in Stoke selling two race preped. KR1S with a shed load of spares. Spoke to him on the phone and he was able to find a replacement caliper and a left handlebar for £30, which I collected on Saturday morning. Whilst I was there I took the opportunity to measure the KR1S tank to see if it was a possibility for our tank less chassis. Having taken a template with me it appears to be a usable alternative. He had one in his eBay haul that, if the winner didn't want, he would get back to me about. Haven't heard anything yet so that's another item to add to the list.

So having acquired a replacement caliper I decided to force the calipers out using hydraulic pressure. That was the plan anyway! So now it's the turn of front master cylinder not to play ball - I'm detecting a trend here. Started to strip the master cylinder, but couldn't find anything amiss; piston seemed free, fluid was moving in and out of the reservoir holes, it just wasn't coming through into the brake hose. Eventually, after much blood, sweat and tears, and needing to drill-out the bolt holding the lever in place, I decided that it was also f**cked. If I charged myself out at £10 and hour it was an expensive way of getting nowhere fast. Admitted defeat and e-mailed John Goode to see if his auto-jumble like garages could provide an alternative. Luckily he thinks we should be able to find something suitable, which hopefully means the front end can get finished.

So ended a frustrating, but perversely enjoyable, spannering weekend!

Spring has sprung! Hasn't it?

2008-01-13T08:05:00.001-08:00

How dare you? I'll have you know that mechanical work needs a lot of thinking about. My perceived meditative condition was actually an advanced thinking state. Now that the parts have arrived from Alan Stringer* I've swung into action.

Front and rear suspension fitted to chassis, footrests sorted, wheels on and front brakes refurbished.

I 've even worked out how the front engine hanger works, and its very different from any of the other Tigcraft/SRX combo's that I've seen. That's all the good news!

The less happy (so not REALLY bad) news is that we have three 'pairs' of wheels, all the fronts are the same but all the rears are different. Will have to either source another wheel to match the rear we already have, or produce a different set of spacers fro each wheel. For ease of wheel changes during a race meeting I would prefer the former. Also don't have a suitable rear brake hanger and this will be dictated by which wheel(s) we go for. Not really any insurmountable problem but just little jobs which need sorting.

And whilst all this fervent tinkering was going on I nearly burnt the house down, having stupidly used a wooden lintel above the wood burning stove. Right bl**dy mess, but lucky SWMBO noticed the flames before they took hold. Mostly cosmetic damage but could have been much worse!!!!

Ah, Happy Days.............................

Boyd

* Thanks Alan, they fitted perfectly!

Begged, borrowed..... no theft yet!

2008-01-08T16:46:00.000-08:00

Well, seeing as Boyd has clearly been lazing around having a nice break, I thought I'd finally get round to updating from my end.

The (unconfirmed) 2008 race dates are out : here This means that we need to be ready for April. Testing in March. Engine in by early February...

However, I've been getting loads of help- must be the festive spirit! First of all, Bill Jurgenson has been giving me loads of advice. More than that however, he has kindly loaned me a Silent Hektik ignition system, meaning I can ditch the OEM rotor. He's also included a beautifully made, CNC-milled engine cover. And some plugs, a coil and new HT lead. So the motor will have a top ignition system giving good sparks, should spin up quicker, and really looks the business! (Although I am trying not to get too concerned with cosmetics). I'll post a link to his blog here when I get it: He's also on the case sourcing me some valve springs. Cheers Bill.

I went out to see my good friends Mike Avery and Barry Johnson in Slough at the weekend. It was well worth the ride (even if the DR wasn't happy in the cold weather).

One of the M6 threads had stripped out in the head and we (ie. Mike!) put in a helicoil. He then helped me clean up the threads, take off any highpoints, and generally flowed forth with his engineering pearls of wisdom. Cheers Mike, you've saved me some good cash there! Thanks too for the bed, and the beer. Unfortunately, Mike also laughed at my flattened tappets, so any saving has been gobbled up by 4 new tappets and locknuts. Back on the interweb to Kedo then...

Then on Sunday Barry took pity on me and lent me his impact gun. I had been swithering on buying one, but he's come good again and saved me more cash, which can go on things like gaskets, valves, tappets, oil, entries.....

Another thing I didn't fancy buying was a rotor puller. So I called on Bill Rayner, a ThumperClub regular, who very kindly sorted me out with his puller. Being a gent, he wouldn't even accept the postage. Thanks to another Bill!

In two flicks of a Lam's tail, the rotor nut was off, my itty-bitty trigger was on, and just for effect, so was the bling of the ally engine cover.

Isn't it just a thing of beauty??

Now I've also got other barrrel studs out, and cleaned up the threads. So, hopefully, I'll get some gaskets and the like from Kedo and I can get on with getting the piston and barrel on.

Then the head.

Then I can go see Boyd, and we can get the engine into his BEAUTIFULLY PREPARED CHASSIS!!! Ahem!!

Will get some more photos soon, cheers for now, and thanks a lot to everyone who has helped out, not all of whom are named here.

andy

HAPPY NEW YEAR?

2008-01-07T00:38:00.000-08:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL OF OUR READERS!

I think for both myself and Andy it's been a few weeks off from the Team Thumper project. I have to admit to not doing much at all with the chassis, apart from moving bits around the garage and 'thinking' about things a lot. All the major components are in-hand and as soon as some spacers I'm having made (by Alan Stringer) arrive the bike should start to take shape fairly quickly.

The British SuperMono Championship has, after much negotiation with different race organisers, got dates for the 2008 season. The first race will be at Cadwell Park in early April, so at least we start at a circuit Andy already knows! All we need now is the bike.

Boyd

Decisions, Decisions

2007-12-16T14:28:00.000-08:00

Its been a time of head scratching and fact finding of late.

I've finally solved the problem of finding out what studs I need for the crankcase to bolt the aircooled barrel onto the watercooled cases. The XT600 used a few, of varying lengths which complicated matters.

And I'm working on a way of getting rid of this big rotor on the end of the crankshaft.

Can't imagine its doing much to help the motor pick up speed....

And up top, I've stripped the valves out. Both the inlets were a bit hammered, and one was "mushroomed" such that it couldn't slide out through the guide. The offending article:

I had to very gently hacksaw the top off of it, and dress it so that I didn't wreck the guide. I found out that the guides have been shortened to allow the cam clearance.

The latter is a Megacycle Stage 4 item, and looks good. It has nearly 0.500" lift! However, this makes it hard to find springs. So I've opted for RD items with Ti tops, as recommended by Megacycle. The ones I took out had flats on the inside of the outer springs, and the outside of the inners, possibly suggesting that they'd been closing up...

The ports look good:

I think this is Martin Sweet's work at Slipstream

However, there appears to be a bit of a "step" where the inlet manifold bolts to the head:

You can just see it here on the right hand side, the little white ridge inside the inlet tract. I think I'll have to smooth that out....

I'll be getting an order off to Kedo soon for new valves, seals, some gaskets, a box of plugs, a cam chain.... and those studs which caused so much puzzlement!

And then in the New Year I can get it built, and take it up to Boyd asap to see how its going to go into the chassis!

andy

Small steps for an anorak...

2007-12-02T05:11:00.000-08:00

I went out to see my old mate (and Team Thumper supporter) Barry Johnson at the weekend. He plied me with beer on friday night, and we talked a load of old rubbish! Cheers Baz!

However, come Saturday, after a fry up, I had a look at a couple of XT600 motors he has. I wanted to measure the length of the studs in his crankcases.

The 34K motor (Jap import) has 4 studs of 31mm (case surface to top-of-thread)

The 3AJ motor (ie. "my" barrel) has 2 left hand studs of 41mm, and the RHS ("inside" the barrel) are 31mm

My 660 cases have 3x 31mm and 1x 36mm stud!

All barrel flanges are in the region of 19.5-20.5 mm deep.

The fixings for the RHS of my motor use a 12mm deep M10 nut (14mm head) and 2.2mm washer. Total depth = 20mm barrel depth + 12mm nut + 2.2 mm washer = 34-35mm

So on the RHS, I'll need studs of at least 36mm. This corresponds to the one stud which looks ok on that side.

However, on the LHS (where the the nuts go down inside the barrel, its recommended to use Yamaha "thick" washers / spacers if possible. (I'll have to ask Martin Sweet why, I didn't question it at the time!) These are 5mm thick, so the total lenth of available stud necessary is 37-38mm

So I reckon I can use 2x 36mm (visible above case) studs on the RHS and 2x 41mm (visible above case) on the LHS, with the thick washers.

I've also just checked the squish and valve-pison clearances. I think I was worrying about nothing, there an easy 2mm on the exhaust valves, and the inlet valves didn't even touch the plasticine.

On the minus side, I think some of the rockerbox and camchain tensioner threads are getting a bit tired. Will have to be careful, but may end up helicoiling them...

I'm going to have to measure the valve srpings tho. I thought on removal that the inner and outer springs were touchiing/rubbing/ or with very little clearance. Now is the time to investigate!

However, its a fairly simple fix- I just need to spend some money!! Then we can start to think about actually building it.

(And sorry for the lack of photos, I left the camera at work...)

andy

Blu-Tak...

2007-11-29T14:43:00.000-08:00

...Its rubbish to check valve-piston clearances! Too sticky, and just adheres to the valves.

Try again with plasticene, Andy! You've learned from that mistake.

What a pain! Although, on the plus side, the valves didn't hit the piston...

andy

Crankcase Studs...

2007-11-28T03:49:00.000-08:00

They,re not long enough, see??

The one on the right of this pic, on the clutch side is ok (the stud is 5mm longer), and it uses a yamaha flat washer underneath.

However, you have to lift the barrel slightly to get the nut on, as its close to the 1st (full) fin on the barrel.

The left hand stud is a shorter version of the same. This is the SRX part number for the stud in that position. Maybe different as this head and barrel is actually XT600?

However, its too short: the threaded portion of the stud doesn't go all the way through the nut. A bad thing, so I'll have to use a longer one here too, as per the right hand one in this photo above.

However, on the other side (alternator side of the lump), Yamaha SRX part number suggests a thicker spacer rather than a washer. It also reckons the longer studs are the way to go. Again, possibly different on the XT (originally 595cc) motor...

You can see the thick spacer/washer here, and that even the long stud in this case is too short. 2 custom studs possibly?

Previously, this motor broke the barrel and sheared the studs, possibly due to a distinctly dodgy-looking 4-ply barrel gasket.

I don't want to take any unnecessary chances, but I suppose thats the problem mating together parts which weren't originally intended to go together.

Cheers for now, will post more after I've done a bit more thinking!

andy

Funny looking MZ!

2007-11-27T16:04:00.000-08:00

So I managed to guddle the cam-chain back onto the lower sprocket, got the barrel on, head, cam and rockerbox.

After lots of advice from learned men in The Thumper Club, I've now squished some blu-tak on the valve pockets to check the clearances. I'm hoping they should be fine on a flat-topped piston...

Annoyingly I couldn't reuse the old head gasket or barrel gasket I had, so the scotsman has had to sacrifice new ones. He's not happy about that, because they'll have to be replaced.

Next is to get the cam-chain tensioner on, speak to Martin or Roy at Slipstream about valve clearances, set 'em, and gently turn the motor over a couple of times...

Then strip it down again!

I may also transfer back into the Solar Shed (political move).

And then, I think we'll maybe try KEDO in Germany for some parts. They were kind enough to offer some sponsorship in the shape of discounted parts; hopefully it wont be countered by the cost of postage from Germany. I've downloaded their catalogue, time to brush up on the schoolboy german!

I've also noticed a few problems-

The crankcase studs aren't long enough- I may have to get some custom ones made up

The inner and outer valve springs actually touch

The cam runs very close to the rockerbox

I need a spring retaining hook welded on to the exhaust retainer

Bedtime again!

andy

Lord Of The (piston) Rings

2007-11-26T01:53:00.000-08:00

A little progress has been made on the motor. When buying a motor in big lumps, why oh why, do you convince yourself that its just a case of bolting it all together?!

I had conveniently overlooked the fact that valve-to-piston clearances and squish clearances would have to be checked, and then the motor taken down and built properly...

So this weekend I've been replacing the studs which had sheared on the old barrel (102mm; 690cc). I've carefully gapped the rings to the recommended clearance, and got the piston on and into the bore.

Can you believe this took 2 days??! My God, at this rate, we're not going to be running by February...

On the plus side, I did receive a special dispensation to work on the motor in the house, thus breaking:

Co-habiting rule 1.1

No motorbike bits in the house"

However, rather than cover myself in glory, I covered the carpet in oil. I managed to rescue it, but I'd rather not have had do. Dust sheets are now down, and I've cleared it so that the annexe to the Solar Shed takes up only half the dining table. Can't say fairer than that, can we?

I've been reading lots of tuning theory, and recommend A Graham Bell's "Performance Tuning in Theory and Practice".

I tried to impress she-of-the-soiled-carpet with this fabulous still-life. It didn't work! And yes, the flowers were a direct result of "Carpet-gate"

I've also noticed that the cam chain has come off the sprocket on the crankshaft. So I think tonight will be spent guddling about in the cam chain tunnel with a coathanger to try to persuade it back over the teeth. I'm trying to avoid taking the rotor off, but maybe its not such a bad idea... And thanks for all the advice I've received from the single-cylinder afficionados in The Thumper Club. Top blokes, who've played this game before. Cheers for now,

andy

Christmas come early

2007-11-17T05:51:00.000-08:00

As promised Andy duly arrived at my house on Friday bearing gifts. I was as excited as a very excited thing as we shifted all the parts and boxes into the garage. Below are pictures of the filling of the vacant garage space:

BEFORE

AFTER

So now, on top of the already impressive list of stuff, we have :- two sets of wheels (slicks and wets, with discs), a full exhaust system (with cut-down Hyabusa cans), spare discs for front and rear brakes, a lovely pair of rear-sets, spare brake calipers, complete set of body work (including dummy tank its actual alloy petrol tank), a lovely but unusable alloy petrol tank (the green one above soon on eBay), a selection of sprockets, a broken White Power rear shock and tons of other odds-and-ends. All-in-all a pretty fantastic amount of stuff, and a real treasure trove of racing booty!

Andy and I also had a long chat about the project, and although we thought we were making very good progress, we fully realised that time was not on our side. There was just so much to do before the February deadline. With that in mind I started straight away by taking our box of shocks, two salvageable KR1S's and the badly broken WP, to Racing Line in Derby for a service and set-up. I was pleasantly surprised by their enthusiasm for what we were doing and the fact that they gave very sound advice. The first bit being "Don't bother with the WP unit, as we're scared to even contact them let alone wait for the price!", and secondly that there they could make a pretty good shock from the KR1S bits. It will take a few weeks to get it back but will definitely be worth it, and all for seventy five pounds!

Won't get much done tonight as I'm off to see Bill Bailey in concert at the Nottingham Arena, but promise to roll my sleeves up tomorrow and crack on!

Boyd

Calm before the storm!

2007-11-15T01:37:00.000-08:00

Awaiting Andy's arrival tomorrow. Not sure if my modest garage will be big enough for the 'tidal wave' of parts that is about desend on me. On the plus side I will now be able to get on with nearly everything that has come to a halt; with hopefully all the parts I need to complete the suspension and brakes being included.

I am especially keen to get on with having the rear shock re-built in order that I can re-assemble the rear linkage. This will mean taking a varied selection of dampers and springs to Racing Lines (Derby) and seeing if they can make a 'goodun' from them. They quote £75 for a re-build on their web site and I will try to extract as much as I can for the money. Obviously they may say that they are all c**p and that we should consider a new one, but don't think the budget can stretch that far. Once this is done I can then start puttin the whole rolling chassis back together, including the re-burbished brakes.

We have been blessed with an assortment of wheels and tyres, and it will be very interesting to see if Andy gets on with the slicks we will probably run at some point. Before we have the winfall from Ash we were intending to only use intermediates as it meant we were relatively set for both dry and wet conditions. Now that we have the possibility of slicks its a whole new ball game needing tyre warmers and a generator. More expense...........

Anyway after this weekend things should progress fairly quickly and I would hope to have it 'rolling' within three to four weeks. This is obviously dependent upon turn around times by suppliers, my motivation during the cold nights and how much of the rapidly vanishing budget is needed for unplanned outlay.

Will post a few images next time!

Boyd

Head-Ache!

2007-11-12T09:48:00.001-08:00

I've taken a bit of advice from Roy at Slipstream.

Clearance on the cam lobes to the inside of the rockerbox is really tight.

I measured it in the region of around 2 thou, maybe less. He reckoned 10 thou minimum to avoid scraping oil off the lobe. So thats a bit of "nibbling" with the Dremel to do.

I don't suppose you can really see too much in these lo res pictures, but I'm on dial-up, so you'll just have to imagine that they're decent!

Below you can see where its been relieved already, but I suppose there is a bit more to take off. I think the wall is pretty thick, so its not going to do too much harm.

It does mean stripping the head though, something I initially wasn't going to do! Lazy old Duncan?

And then an initial build with an old head gasket to check piston to valve clearances. Oh well, there goes my idea of "build once"!

For info, he reckons Yamabond gasket cement on the barrel and rockerbox, nothing on the head. As for the copper washers under the head-bolts some Yam heads had 'em some didn't.
Mine is a 2KF (Yamaha XT600) head and barrel.
No Loctite anywhere, and torque to factory specs. So I'll phone again once he's had a chance to check about the copper washers. Good bloke is Roy! I think him and Martin be getting a few stupid questions before this engine is up and running....

Andy

Think twice, Build once...

2007-11-11T15:55:00.000-08:00

Not lots of progress this weekend. Namely because this isn't an entirely straightforward build, and I don't want to have to take it down again if I don't have to.

So, I've cleaned it all up, got the gasket surfaces spotless, found the new gaskets, studs, nuts and headbolts and done a little thinking.

First off is to put the new studs in. Loctite?? What torque? And do we use Yamabond on the base gasket?

I have new studs for the head. Should I use new copper washers?

And the cam lobe seems mighty close to the rockerbox. How close can it be?

I think I'll have to get on the blower and bug Martin Sweet at Slipstream. He's always been really helpful in the past, having played this game before.

"Hi Martin, please help me I'm a buffoon....."

I'll let you know what he reckons!

andy

The Big Bang Motor

2007-11-04T13:03:00.000-08:00

Well, with the 2007 bike now effectively sold, I'd best get on with building the prototype motor. we'll have to mate it with the chassis around February, so time is becoming of the essence!

Here are a few piccies from the Team Thumper Solar Workshop (yes, it's totally self-sufficient, unlike our race Team!).

The Yamaha XTZ bottom end was originally water cooled, with a starter motor. Here you can see where the starter boss has been cut off and welded up.

On the other side, you can see the beautifully machined blanking plate where the water pump used to live. Going aircooled makes for a simpler build, and should mean that the engine doesn't "cook" as badly on the grid. It will also be lighter, and without the additional expense of a radiator. The latter is also an easily wrecked item, in event of the inevitable spills!

And here's the newly honed barrel, for the brand spankers 100mm (640cc) piston.

There's a bit of work with WD40 and a toothbrush there I think! Its an XT item I think, as is the head:

If you look closely you can see the spring clip retainers to hold the header pipes on, so we dont have to use the original Yamaha retainers, and makes it nice n easy to get the pipes on and off. However, I noticed today that the right hand one in the photo above has got one of the clips broken off. There's another job for Mr B! It came with stainless valves and springs, and a Yoshimura Stage 4 cam...

Looks happy, doesn't he? And so he should with such fetching headgear!

The motor came with a beautiful Carillo rod, and the crankcase mouth has been machined to accept a 690 104 piston. Thats on it just now, but I think its probably a bit much and may compromise reliability.

Size matters, apparently:

So the first job is to locate a new base gasket, get the 640 piston on and slot it into the bore. I'll let you know when its done and then get started on the head. I have to get a bit of advice on that, from some learned men, but in the meantime I can clean up mating surfaces etc, and think about what method I'm going to use to tie the barrel down. I'll be seeking advice on what barrel and head I actually have, and how best to go about things.

Cheers for now, Andy

Faster Pussycat!

2007-11-01T14:56:00.000-07:00

I just got some pictures of the last weeekend at Cawell Park from PLJ Photo. I'll put more up soon, but I like this:

I was leading Dave Bennet (#54), and this was just coming onto the start finish straight on a slight downhill. I knew he was there, though he hadn't passed me through Hall bends or the hairpin. The throttle was right on the stop, and I was really giving it the berries up through the gears. I remember wishing for more power, and urging the little SRX to get a move on! His faster machine did get me by the end of the straight, though! Thanks for a great race Dave!

Sorry

2007-10-28T12:15:00.000-07:00

In the previous post - ***** = Racing Lines, Derby

Post-modern Dog

2007-10-28T11:11:00.000-07:00

Sunday 28 October 2007
Exciting day today. Spent all morning stripping the chassis of the new bike down to its bare bones. As it has always been a race bike, as apposed to a converted road bike, there was not a lot of road grim and oil to deal with. The front forks had already been removed and stripped, so the main focus of todays exercise was the rear suspension and especially its linkage. I took plenty of pictures prior to starting the work as its very easy to get carried away and end up with a big pile of bits and no idea how to put them back together again. As I was only dealing with the beam frame and the swinging arm it was easier to work on by putting the whole lot on a bench, upside down. I didn't have any workshop manual to work from but it was a very logical layout, and as long as I keep all the bits in separate containers it should (famous last words) be easy to re-assemble. I was very pleased to find, after first testing for any obvious unwanted movement, that it was all very tight and un-molested. I had previously noticed a few rounded nuts and the use of inappropriate tools on other bits of the bike; but I suppose its to be expected on a sixteen year old bike thats been around the block a few times. All of the nuts, bolts, spacers and bearings were in very good condition. There was only one bolt that was slight problem to extract but the application of plenty of WD40 soon had it moving. So now I have a gleaming pile of alloy parts and the extracted suspension unit. The suspension unit, of unknown origin but having adjustment for damping, rebound and pre-load, is going to be refurbished by ******** and should do us for a while. That only left the removal of the swinging arm itself and the chassis was stripped down to its major components.
Upon inspection all of the suspension bearings were in very good condition, and although it had been my intention to replace them all I think I will just grease them and re-assemble.This will at least keep some money in the fast depleting bank balance, which I'm sure will soon disappear elsewhere.
I called this entry Post-modern Dog as I think the bare frame looks like a dog!

Post-Stafford

2007-10-26T00:25:00.000-07:00

Building the stand and looking after general stuff for the Stafford Show has taken up all my time recently. Just like Christmas and Birthdays its one of those things that seems to loom over the horizon for months and then whoosh its gone. After having had great success with our stands during the last three years this one was a bit of a damp squib really. This was a shame for Team Thumper as we had negotiated with The Thumper Club for a percentage of any winnings; as it turned out 25% 0f bugger all is still bugger all. Maybe we'll have better luck next year!

So now the prevaricating must stop, time to clear the garage and get the spanners moving. My major tasks for this weekend are to re-assemble the front forks, and strip the rear suspension linkage. If discussions go well with one of our supports, BTP, we should be good for all the bearings on the chassis - steering, suspension & wheels. I'm hoping that we now have two levers with which to extract something from them, namely Andy coming forth in the Air-Cooled Class and the fact that we might soon be a two bike team be-decked in their colours - yellow and red. Let battle commence!

So I need to do less talking, less navel and/or star gazing, and actually get on with some work. My next post will include some evidence of this - honest!

b

The "New" Frame

2007-10-23T04:09:00.001-07:00

Wiring the old SRX for road use isn't as simple as I'd hoped! I gave up last night, and will have to RTFM. Anyway, as this is a race team, I reckon we should shut up about road bikes,

So here are a couple of pics of the chassis for the 2008 bike.

Boyd has been cleaning it up, and hopefully we won't find too many horrors

It's a Tigcraft, dating from 1991, and I think Dave Pearce (who made it) told Boyd that it won the championship that year?? He'd know! Oil is carried in the left hand beam of the frame, so we wont need an oil tank as such. No guarentees that it will seal tho, having had a good few years of Big Vibe singles between its wheels. So we'll have to wait and see how that actually pans out. Fingers crossed!

With the bits I got from Ash Norrington, among other things I managed to prise a second carbon fibre self-supporting seat unit from him- its a bit smaller than the one you see here. I also now have a (small!) ally tank, and carbon fibre cover, and a fairing, etc.

Ash also sorted us out with some lovely ally rearsets, and two pairs of FZR400RR wheels with slicks and wets. I think the existing rear wheel is KR1S, but the front looks like FZR to me...

I'm not sure about the 41mm KR1S forks, but maybe they can be made to work ok. They'll do for now anyway.

So, to those geneous folks who have sorted us out with "the readies", this is where they've been going! Once I can get the SRX wired, road tested and finished, I'll start on the new 640 motor, and let you know whats happening there.

Andy

Problems solved

2007-10-22T13:17:00.001-07:00

Try as I may, I can't seem to find either the headlamp brackets, or the indicators. Maddening.

However, this is an excellent opportunity to plug one of Team Thumper's sponsors!

Shaun and Jayne at www.motorbike-crazy.com have agreed to give the Team a substantial discount on race consumables bought from their online store.

Not only are they nice folk, they also know their stuff when it comes to racing. Shaun rides with Phoenix Endurance , Winners of the 2007 Superstock Championship.

So, I'll buy the indicators and headlamp brackets from motorbike-crazy.com, supporting them, for supporting us.

I'll also also YOU to browse the store, and help US by giving your business to THEM.

Have a look, and bear them in mind for any bits and pieces you may need

Andy

Update?

2007-10-22T11:04:00.000-07:00

Not too much movement recently. Boyd has been having another sucessful weekend running the ThumperClub's stand at the Stafford Show, and I've been making the 2007 bike pretty over the last week, so that I can sell it.

Its been stripped, cleaned, polished, T-Cut, greased, WD-40'd, and is now on the way back up. I thought it was ok, but you know when you start polishing just a little bit, and then the rest looks rubbish?! I am not really that keen on polishing, as I think bikes are meant to be ridden, but I do admit, she's looking nice. I hope someone else agrees (and helps the Team-Thumper cause) by buying her.

I think I'll be putting the wiring loom back on it this evening.

Then I just need to find the headlamp brackets, raise the bars a bit, and... thats it!

Fellow ThumperClub member Rog has a nice race seat coming his way. This one:

for a (TZR-Rotax?) project he's working on. The seat's a little 2nd hand now, but he's contributed generously to the Team-Thumper coffers by buying my old kit! Thanks mate!

Try as I may, I dont have any other decent photos of the bike in road trim. And I've not had any daylight to take one of her as she is now. So as ever, I promise to post some photos before putting it on Ebay. I've never sold anything (but I have bought a lot of crap!), so i'm hoping Boyd can help me with this. Big Chap...?!

Cheers for now. Work has really ramped up recently, and is starting to get in the way of my motorcycle-based recreational pursuits! I'll have to start getting up earlier, and get into the garage with a bowl of cornflakes...

andy

Couple of nice Cadwell pics

2007-10-16T11:50:00.000-07:00

Rounding the left hander on the run up to the mountain on saturday. A kinked fuel line saw me in trouble later on!

Replacing the cursed fuel line! The Scotsman was NOT happy!

I may be a jockey, but surely thats not how to ride a bike! Doing a pretty good job of keeping the front on the deck over the mountain at Cadwell Park on Sunday morning. At least the bike was running better!

Also been busy.........

2007-10-16T02:18:00.000-07:00

Goodness me things are really starting to move now, and Team-Thumper will be ready to Rock'n'Roll for 2008! Andy has blown all the budget, and then some, on a too good to miss offer of an engine and loads of essential extras. I on the other hand have not had much spare time for the Tigcraft chassis as I've been busy building a stand for the Thumper Club's entry in the up-coming Classic Motorcycle Mechanics Show at Stafford. But, now that all thats finished with, I can put all my efforts back into the chassis.

I had previously stripped the front end in order to replace the steering bearings, and to work out what had been pilfered by the previous owner, the odd nut and bolt etc.. One of our supports BTP will be getting a call very soon! The front suspension, KR1S, looks to be in fairly good order, with no pitting or leaking at all. New fork oil is all thats needed at the moment and, with no adjustment except pre-load, they are pretty easy to work on. The rear suspension is an altogether different 'kettle-of-fish'. We now have three rather worn suspension units, two from unknown Kawasaki road bikes and a bent WP unit. I suspect another pile of cash, which we don't have at the moment, will soon be disappearing down that particular alley.

Initially we only had the FZR400RR wheels that came with the chassis - a rather sha**ed slick at the rear and a full wet on the front with no discs. Now, after Andy's 'trolley dash', we have have two more sets of the same wheels both with tyres - slicks and intermediates, and all have discs. As is often the case from famine to feast, but it now means we will have to buy a set of tyre warmers, and a generator.

We always knew this project would be a 'money pit' but I'm not sure the bucket and rope we initially had will be strong enough, will need to get some heavy lifting gear at this rate!!!!

Will add a few photos asap.

Boyd

Transformation!

2007-10-14T02:08:00.001-07:00

Today I'll be turning the "Ugly Duckling":

Back into a beautiful swan !!

A friend has said he's possibly interested, so back to a road bike it goes!

It seems a bit of a shame, but i had great fun on it as a roadbike- a trip to France, used to commute round london, trackdays, races. a run up to Glasgow. Its never leaked a drop of oil- testament to Martin Sweet's fantastic build.

I think it looks great with the chunky FZR forks, big brakes and FZR wheels- (for grippy 17" rubber)

Although I may struggle to get the downpipes looking like that again!

Cadwell

2007-10-13T18:22:00.000-07:00

In t'paddock, before sunday's race.....

Gotta get rid of that orange bib!

New Toy

2007-10-13T17:33:00.000-07:00

I went over to fellow supermono racer Ash's place today. It was good to have a natter, and chew the cud in general, but really I went to pick up the "new" 2008 motor for the Tigcraft:

XTZ bottom end, with CR box, and carillo rod
Newly bored 640 XT top end
New 640 piston
nicely flowed head, with stainless springs and valves
2 CR carbs
2 pipes, and cans
Programmable ignition system and software

I also ended up with a tank, carbon fibre tank cover and seat unit
4 FZR400 wheels with wets and slicks
another 2 sets of XTZ cases
4 engine covers (2 each side for SRX/XT)
690 piston
spare XT head
XT ignition box
quarter turn throttle
clutch lever and 2 cables
shock for rebuilding
rear brake
rear sets, and levers
XTZ gearbox
Yoshi Cam,
Stage 2 cam
standard cam
cam wheels
valve springs
clutch spring
and various other bits and pieces

...and a whole lot of other stuff!

Ever get the impression he was having a clear out?!

Myself and boyd are really grateful for all the help we've had. It would really be an option without you guys (even then, I still owe him a big chunk of cash!!)

Will post some pics soon, and keep folks updated on the build. Some stuff will be going on Ebay, so let me know if need anything. I also have a complete SRX 608 motor, which I may be persuaded to part with...

Also have the fairing and a couple of seats from the 2007 bike if anyone's interested? I may have a buyer for the SRX as a sweet roadbike, so keep your fingers crossed!

Cheers for now!

andy

2007-10-09T12:02:00.000-07:00

Hello all!

Much fun was had at Cadwell!

Saturay was good, practice seemed fine, just a bit slow. Timed qualifying saw me about 7 secs quicker than Sam Gleeson (#24), and about 8 quicker than John Goode (sorry, dont have the time sheet to hand) but it was having trouble revving out up the hill to Park corner and down the start finish straight. Having not replaced the previously kinked fuel line, it kinked again- D'Oh!! But it was another finish, etc. JohnG couldn't make the race sadly and had to leave early. Sam on the RGV-Rotax managed to get ahead in the race (out-dragging me up the hill), and stay there, but we had a good bit of banter after the race. And a beer!

I changed the fuel line!!! A blatt round the pits made me suspect a slipping clutch, so I applied to practice on Sunday morning...

Sunday I went out in practice- no slipping clutch, just low gears!! I called it off after 2 or 3 laps- I was getting low on fuel, and didn't want anything else to go wrong!

The afternoon race was a blinder. I dunno what was happening at the front, but I got a good start, with 3 behind me, and pushed by a couple of folk for the first half lap. I hadn't seem Sam go by, but a quick look over my shoulder just after the mountain revealed a dark shape not too far away! Dave Bennet on the 640 Tigcraft had entered on the sunday only, and so started from the back of the grid. I had forgotten about him! The faster bike and better rider were really on my tail, but for about the first 3 or 4 laps I was leading 4 stragglers at the back:

Me-Dave-Sam-Nick Oliver (who started from the pits with a broken hand)

I heard dave on the start finish straight (he had better lines and better drive from the corner), and saw his front wheel on my RHS, and thought "Do I take the outside line into the left hander? And force hime to brake?". My balls were simply not big enough and I throttled off a little early, and in he went. Once he was in front, he disappeared round and up the hill. I instantly regretted bottling it. By Park straight he was about 5 bike lengths in front, and the distance was just getting bigger. Unknown to me, sam and nick were still on my tail.

On the next lap, sam got me on Park straight. I was catching him thru Hall bends, but never managed to pass him. He finished about 20 secs in front overall.

I traded places with Nick a few times, but he got me (again on Park) on the last lap. I was determined that I wasn't going to give in to him on the last quarter mile of the season. I stuffed it up the inside just after the hairpin, but my shocking line meant that he could get on the power earlier to cross the line just in front. Defeat from the Jaws of "Victory"

However, I hadn't realised that Nick was actually a lap behind, so that was a fairly futile bit of red mist!

Scott Richardson and Doc McCombe in the aircooled class went grasstracking, so Sam took 3rd, Dave 2nd and Laine Martin was 1st by miles. I got a fourth to Nick's fifth. Well done to the gong hunters!!

Mike Edwards had a bit of trouble with Gordon! Truely great riding, but the Gods conspired against him.

Look at Gordon's Blog at www.no1bloke.blogspot.com

It was a great end to my first (almost) full season. Time to sell the bike and concentrate on the Tigcraft for next season. I am thinking a XTZ bottom end with an aircooled 640 top end. Megacycle Stage 4 cam, stainless valves and springs, CR carbs, Gibson pipes, programmable ignition. Hopefully 60+ horses, and about 30 less kilos.

Roll on 2008. I'll get you yet, Sam Gleeson

Thanks to all those who have supported me in any way shape or form. Financial considerations are very much appreciated, friends, and if YOU want your name on the fabulous Team-Thumper machine for 2008 you can be part of the action for anything at all you wish to give us. www.team-thumper.wetpaint.com tells you how, or you can avoid Paypal fees, and drop Boyd a cheque in the post. Drop us a line from the wetpaint site for his address.

The 2007 machine (620 Slipstream motor, FZR 400 forks brakes, & wheels) is now for sale, either as a pretty road bike (MOT'd, original Yam sidepanels, seat, tail, airbox etc) or in its current state. We are desparate for new riders for the class, and it would be fine to cut your teeth on, or as a trackday machine. So do you fancy joining the British Supermono Association for 2008? You could buy the bike, have a bash, and if you dont like it, you can stick some lights back on it and still have really nice roadbike.

I'll post some pics on this site, and get the wetpaint site updated very soon. Amanda took some nice video of the hairpin, with me genuinely leading the 4 backmarkers. If this is how being crap feels, roll on the big time!!

Cheers for now,

andy

2007-10-05T09:56:00.000-07:00

Saturday 6 & Sunday 7 October 2007
This weekend we are off to Cadwell Park for the last round of the British SuperMono Motorcycle Championships. It will be the last outing for the old Slipstream SRX620, so lets hope that he doesn't blow the damn thing up! It should be a good weekend as the weather looks set to be fine and hopefully no rain.

Will post photos with the next Blog!