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, Snetterton, 19/20/21 June 2009
The Honda arrived straight from the IOM TT so there was some work to do before free practice on Friday morning. The gearbox was removed to put it back to standard which meant that Dad and George were working on the bike until 2am. We were out for 1st practice so there was no time in the morning to mess around with gearboxes. The 125GP class was given three practice sessions because the control fuel was being changed from Snetterton onwards so the additional session would give some extra time to help with setup. My run of bad luck continued during the first session as the Honda stopped at the end of the Revett Straight after only 3 laps. We suddenly realised there was a pattern to these intermittent stoppages as they seemed to happen in top gear at the fastest part of the track. We experienced the same problem at Donington and Thruxton. We were running a total loss ignition system and suspected that the battery was not delivering enough juice when the bike was demanding power flat out in top under load. The generator was recovered from the spares box and the battery was ditched for the next session. It wasn’t a straight forward task as the wiring loom had to be replaced because the existing one was butchered to connect the battery. The bike ran sweetly during the next two sessions and I was fairly happy with my progress.
On hindsight it looks as though we should have charged the battery for much longer, although the indicator on the charger said it was good to go. With the battery problem behind us I was looking forward to qualifying only to suffer engine seizures in not one, but both sessions! I covered a total of 5 laps in qualifying which is really not what I needed. The first seizure tipped me off right at the end of the Revett Straight when the back wheel locked solid. I walked away from a rather scary crash but my new leathers were looking very second hand and I also put a deep scuff mark on the back of my Arai helmet. We took the helmet to the Arai service truck and fortunately the guys passed it fit to race.
The second seizure wasn’t as bad. I was able to feel the engine about to nip and I pulled the clutch in just in time. The cause of the seizures was a mystery but they may be related to the piston ring gap which was a little too small when we measured the culprit in situ in the barrel. We also ditched the premixed fuel just in case. Morning warm up didn’t start very well either as the quick shifter started to play up. Probably as a consequence of yesterdays crash. We took it apart and cleaned it up hoping it would ok for the race. We had a couple of hours before my race so we relaxed for a bit and watched the first few laps of the Superbikes. I was on the back row of the grid as I basically didn’t get a chance to put in a real qualifying lap.
I got off the line ok and stuck with the group for the first lap. The quick shifter was still not working which was a bit annoying but worse than that I overshot the chicane on lap 2 and lost the tow of the group in front. That was basically it for the race. I had a lonely ride until the leaders came past in the closing stages. Pete had another great ride to take 2nd in the Cup and 8th overall. We are going to try and find a practice day so that I can get some much needed laps on the bike and hopefully I can put on a better show at Knockhill in a couple of weeks.
See ya.
Niall
