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June 2004 |
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I've been a busy little bee lately - not on the bike I may add - but there's few things I've organised for the bike.
The Ixion day is a regular yearly event. "Just a gentle ride in the Lincolnshire countryside with a few of my mates!" Something I just can't miss - been doing it for years, and have only missed one year so far when it clashed with race dates. The Focused events day will be attended by a gaggle of Gamma and RD500s, including one guy who is riding up from Greece (Rigas Chaloftis is obviously a committed gammaphile). I'm really looking forward to that day. The final day is the Speedfreaks day organised early September. Now that I *am* really looking forward to - Rand Norian of the Delta project fame is flying over with his wife. He'll be staying around Cambridge area where I'll give him a whistle stop tour before heading over to Cadwell to introduce him to Lincolnshire's finest. With all these days booked, I really must get at least one dry day ;o) I've treated myself to some Dunlop D208GPs in preparation for the upcoming trackdays. I just don't seem to be able to get 170 section tyres in a sticky fitment anymore. I knew the 180 tyre would be a tight squeeze, it just goes in there with about a 1mm space between the chain and the tyre. INitial impression with the tyres is that the bike is a lot less stable, doesn't seem to turn any quicker, but does have a lot more grip. I've a 120/170 set of part worn D207GPs to put on the bike if I don't get on with the 180s. Only time will tell. I'm a bit peeved! Suspension is one of those woes that all projects have problems with. I've mentioned it before, but we've messed with the suspension endlessly since I've got the bike on the road. I'm finally getting closer, and having stumped up for a Race tech goldline compression kit, Stage 1: Bike arrived with 120mm oil height, heavy oil, and 0.85kgs springs. No compression damping and felt over sprung at the front. Stage 2: We swopped the springs for 0.75kgs and messed with the standard valves to add more compression, and continued with 110mm height and heavy oil. The bike feels sprung OK, but there's just no slow speed compression (dives on the brakes) and too much high speed compression (kicks off bumps). Stage 3: Rachtech Goldline compression valves, 0.75kgs springs and their recommended light weight oil (2.5 to 5 weight) and 110mm. Max adjustment reached on the compression adjuster, and the bike feels a little under sprung. The slow speed damping feels OK but could still be better, but the high speed is about perfect. We're just about on max preloads to get 30mm sag so one of the 0.85kgs springs and one of the 0.75kgs springs should solve that. After a quick ride (need to do more) the bike feels slightly under sprung, the compression damping is working well and the action feels good but the bike is still bottoming out slightly on full compression adjustment. Perhaps a little more oil height will prevent bottoming out on the stop, and to improve the compression adjustment I could add a couple more valving shims or use heavier oil. The rebound adjustment with the light weight oil has enough adjustment to counter act any additional springing so perhaps starting with a spring change then the valve shims might be the best bet! Jeesh, another fork strip and re-build! If all that doesn't work we'll add heavier oil again. |
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