Cartagena Test 2009
February for 5 days in the sun to get to know the Honda RS125 that I'll be racing in the Relentless GP125 British Championship.
Honda RS125
is being provided by Kinpac Racing.
The Story So Far...
Stuff from Superteens, Metrakit and Minimotos.
Niall's Blog
BSB, Silverstone, 25/26/27 Sep 2009
In an effort to improve the speed of the Honda, Tom Paulo kindly loaned us the use of his Luyten Kit for Silverstone. We booked an afternoon at Bob Grant’s Dyno at Knockhill to try and obtain a decent base setting before arriving at the track. The first run showed peak power of 38bhp. This was a little disappointing as we were hoping for 40+. A few runs later we managed to improve the power to 40bhp by leaning the main and needle jets and making slight adjustments to the ignition map. The top bikes in the championship are achieving in the region of 46bhp so we are still down by a fair margin. The only way to find out would be to try it on the track. This weekend Dad’s friend big John O was persuaded to help out which for me was great because he keeps everyone amused with his sense of humour.
We didn’t leave for Silverstone until Dad finished work on Thursday so it was quite late when we arrived at the track. It was more or less straight to bed as we had a lot to do in the morning before first practice. The Honda was more or less ready to go except for tyres, gearing, jetting and fuel. Doesn’t sound much but it all takes time but we were all set with an hour to go before our practice session. The tyre warmers went on and there was even time for some breakfast. The first practice went quite well and the Honda felt the best it had been all season. I even moved up to a giddy 24th place in one of the speed traps during the weekend so I was well happy with that.
Session two lasted only half a lap as the chain jumped off and broke the chain adjuster so that was another session wasted. Just when the bike is running much better something else decides to challenge your mettle! The qualifying sessions were much better and I moved up to 33rd on the grid from 41 starters. A quick check of the piston showed no problems, a new piston ring was fitted and we were all set for race day. Since we finished working on the bike quite early Dad, Tom and John O decided to go for a few relaxing beers and watch some live music at the paddock bar. Early night for me though as we were out on the track for morning warm up at 10:15am. I was looking forward to the race as I felt as if I had good pace for a change.
I got a reasonable start and was mixing it with a group of 6 riders for the first 7 laps. I felt comfortable with the pace but I was having problems keeping the bike from running wide out of the turns. This problem was not evident during qualifying so it was quite annoying. I then felt that the power was going off a shade as the bike wasn’t pulling as well as it did at the beginning of the race. I dropped off from the pack and finished in 25th place. When we got to parc ferme the problem was evident. The rear wheel was not spinning freely and for some reason the rear brake hanger had been grinding into the wheel. Not sure why this happened but another disappointing end to a weekend. Only one more round to go at Oulton so we are hoping for relatively trouble free weekend.
See ya.
Niall
