Catch up time again

Well, winter has been and gone and the birds are singing of warmer weather and sunshine. So it was time to roll out the bike today for the first ride of the year.

I've done a few odds and sods type of jobs over the winter ... but never seem to have the enthusiasm when I'm working all the hours, and can't ride the bike if I do make changes.

So not much happened since last October. The bike has been cleaned and polished and fettled yet again. We've dropped the seat back just a tad, and we've relocated the battery to the rear of the bike. I've bought a bit of electrical jigermepockery that *should* mean my tacho will finally work, but of course it remains unfitted, right now I have no idea which of the countless wires Kevin added to the bike is the sender for the tacho ... so until I finally talk it through with him, it will be tacho-less. I bought a second hand AP master cylinder off a mate, and purchase of the century I bought a gearbox .. one of these in fact ... it should be fitted before the end of the month - so stay tuned.

April 22nd

I'm between contracts, and when I got a phone call from one of the other riders I've met with a 4 cylinder 2 stroke special, I couldn't resist a trackday for the 28th April at Cadwell ... so I thought I better get the suspension sorted. Last time out I wasn't happy with the font end at all, and the rear just didn't feel quite right.

I was all day in Camb m/c yesterday fiddling with suspension. I've come to the conclusion that if suspension even mentions "road" in it's title (e.g. Ohlin road/race) avoid it like the plague. Corporate being what they are obviously worry too much about over adjustability of suspension - they must coz that Ohlin shock I bought appears to have no compression adjustment at all .. Well not that I can discern.

I have a simple requirement .. Suspension that is not over or under sprung, compression damping that actually damps, and rebound damping that's working range does not include a one second return when zero rebound is dialled in.

Much fiddling, and messing with fork springs and oil height has hugely improved suspension ride quality. We had very few shims to play with, which meant that the damping rates could only be affected with what we had, and while we've increased compression damping in the forks, I could do with more yet. It's better for sure, just not there. I current have rebound perfect, and compression on full and feeling about half of what I want.

The Ohlin rear shock is on maximum compression, and even with 5 mm sag, it still feels under damped and under sprung.

The front will now bottom out, not a good thing per se, but a little more oil or perhaps a swap from 2 x 0.725 springs to one 0.85 and one 0.725 may help. Compression is OK, but it seems to be all high speed. Slow speed (like braking dive) is alarmingly non existent, so I'll raise the oil height to ensure we hit the oil as a stop (not the spring). I'll have to order up some shims to increase compression.

On the very positive side, we've cured the rebound issue - essentially I can have just a tad, which is desirable on a light bike with lighter wheels. Before it was all or lots and no further option to reduce.

On the road, apart from a slightly soggy feel to the back, and over diving on the brakes, the bike feels way better - planted - this is a Good Thing (Tm) in the fens with it's subsided roads, and tendency to throw the rider out of the seat.

The engine is as sweet as ever, and if anything felt quicker - well it would after the winter break - it's been a while since I rode her. It's impossible not to twist the throttle to full just outside of the powerband and giggle inanely as the bike squats under load and the power comes on strong with that exhaust note changing to that GP style Bwaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrggggh.

In third gear it's absolutely addictive. I so want to do it in second, but until the new gearbox is in situ I'll be taking it easy with the weak second gear. Scott's in for a pleasant surprise the weekend after next. I'll be in Dent Engineering and I'll let him have a quick ride so he can post his impressions.

I did however make one mistake - I used 95 Ron fuel rather than 98 Ron super-unleaded. The bike will run fine on the cheaper fuel, but super does make the bike feel stronger at the top end. So over the course of today the bike did start to feel less willing to rev.

So back into the garage tonight I may even have a look/see about that tacho interface module I bought.

28th April

Hurray another fun day at Cadwell ....... NOT! I did get one dry (sic) session doing about 5 mph everywhere trying to warm up BT010 road based tyres on a damp track. The photo still came out rather nice all said and done and it is the first photo of the bike I have with me riding her. the bike in the background is a Yam V4 :0P

It's such a shame the day didn't go well on the weather front - Stamford Superbikes did a great job in trying to make the day a little different from the other trackdays by inviting along John Reynolds, Steve Plater, Ian Lougher, Scott Smart, and Cal Crutchlow. If only I'd taken the motard with me! Hind sight is such a wonderful thing. While I did have the opportunity to shoot the breeze with one of my personal racing heros (who shall remain nameless), all I really wanted to do was thrash the RS500 mercilessly. So in that respect the motard probably wouldn't have helped anyway.

Oh well ... maybe next time. Hey at least the new gearbox will be in by then :o)

Ash (Gamma List) decided to pop by, "between jobs", so it was great to catch up there, and it was good to see Jeremy Boulter and his Yam V4 again. He arrived with a couple of his mates who also turned up on tricked out RD500LCs. Jezza has promised to turn up to Oulton in July where finally we can re-live Suzuki/Yamaha past rivalry on the track in the sunshine.