Flywheel is off

Just a quickie to say, that the flywheel is off and replaced with a locally bought second hand one. With all of the force I put in in removing the old one it had tightened the rivets and was no longer use, so I will keep it as a spare.

The "new" fibre reeds are in, and the engine is now closed - I just need to put back the carbs and fill her up with oil and I should be able to start running in.... if it all works!!

Mechanical Update

Well I have stripped off the head, barrels, engine covers, and as I think I mentioned the last time, the rotor (flywheel) was loose, I since have been through the local Yamaha shops drawer full of pullers, but only the two legged puller would do the job - or so I thought, unfortunately it didn't work, the rotor is on so solidly that I was actually damaging the edges of the rotor with the puller as I tightened it up! Still I have sourced another rotor (it needed changing anyway), and I have now bought a pattern tool from RDLCCRAZY in the UK, Norbo is great, always reactive, and cheap!

I quickly tried the tool last evening, however I think I will need to get the scaffold pole out, as even the well fitting tool is challenged. I hope no-one has glued this on or even worse welded on.....

Other updates, I have changed the main jets in the carbs (gone up to 260's), changed also the needles and the float needles and seats, this I hope, will get rid of my problem with the carb overflowing with fuel.

I have also taken a load of photos of my Stan Stephens barrels and head in order to copy his work on the old ones myself - this along with the rebuild will be my winter work. The work seems nice (I'm no expert!), and clean although some of the edges seem very sharp, I might get some emery cloth to the internal ports just to take the edge off them. The head has had 1 mm taken of it (more compression), the inlet ports enlarged by around 40%, and the exhaust raised I think, he has also modified some new power valves to meet the new profile of the exhaust ports. The transfer ports have been "sharpened" and a lot of material has been taken off.

I am also trying to get my head around making a new seat unit, using the one I have used this year as a "plug" (the basis of a mold). I am planning to do this in glass fibre, plus I may look at trying to protect my engine cases with some carbon fibre tape - I have never worked with carbon fibre before so this should be interesting.

I have been looking on E-bay for new (old) front disk calipers to replace the mono piston ones I have, but I may just bleed them, with Racing Brake fluid (Motul RBF) which may improve the performance considerably (or so I have been told!). The rear brake was rubbing and making an annoying noise, so that has been cleaned and bled (with standard fluid).

Speak to you soon, as soon as I get the rotor off!!

Final Postion 2007

Well, the final positions are posted on the proclassic web site, and I finished 12th out of 27 point scorers, in the "unlimited" category. This was helped by my 10 points gained at Croix-en-Ternois - a good weekend for points! I totaled 47 points, with only one race (my first) where I didn't score. I finished second RDLC. Not bad, but I know next year I can do better..... Oliver has bought me "A Twist of the Wrist" for my birthday. This is a book from the top American road race school, so I won't have any excuses next year!!

What is planned for the bike :-
1/. Tuned head and barrels
2/. Renewed carburetor jets, needles, o'rings etc.. (should cure the leaky float needle)
3/. Carbon reed valves
4/. New seat unit - I am going to attempt to make this myself
5/. Engine protectors
6/. Remove battery replace with capacitors
7/. Re paint the trailer and potentially decorate it...

I am sure with that lot to complete I will have a busy autumn/winter!

Clip from Race 4

I created this video clip, showing "my" race 4 where I came back from behind the safety car to my "normal" position.

Some video clips of "incidents" at Croix

Croix-En-Ternois

The weekend was the last in the pro-classic series for 2007. We were invited to participate in the "Chpt France Vitesse Motos Anciennes"! Because of the limited number of races we had the possibility of having two complete grids running. The split was "Unlimited & Post Unlimited" and "Classic", however due to the lack of classics to fill the grid we were also allowed to run in the classics just for the fun.

This is what I did, so I had 2 x free practises, 2 x timed practises, 2 x Unlimited races and 2 x Classic races - 8 sessions in the weekend!

The weekend was great, weather-wise and Libby was really pleased to see we had plenty of room in the pits (and loos!).

My first practise session started badly as I only finished 10 or so laps before the bike cut out! I pushed to the side, and then it started again no problem, going back to the pits did not identify where the breakdown was coming from, but a fresh set of plugs allowed me to participate in the second practise.

First timed practise went fine although I only managed a 1:10.410 - I had managed a 1:09 in the race at the begining of the season and I was really expecting to see 1:09's consistently, but this was only just the case, in the second practise session where I managed a 1:09.138! Enough to get me in the middle of the pack for the classics race and at the back for the unlimited's.

Race 1 (Classic)
I got a reasonable start, and had a relatively lonely race - I ended up roughly in my place at 11th position scratch - this didn't score me any points as of course my category is "unlimited". Best time during the race 1:09.314.....

Race 1 (Unlimited)
Didin't feel like a good race, my favourite opponents were in front, and I could not make much impact on them for a good part of the race. I finished with a best time of 1:08.946 - I really must concentrate on keeping my corner speed, I get the impression that I am braking too early down the long straight! I tried braking with my rear brake, but this did lead to a scary moment as I blocked the back wheel - I was convinced I had a puncture for at least 2-3 bends! Once I got used to using the rear brake, it did really help shorten my braking distances, although not making much (if any) difference on my lap times. I finished 11th of my category so scoring some useful points!

Race 2 (Classic)
A misty start to the day, but the track was completely dry - we were the first race on! I had a good race finishing in 10th position scratch with a best time of 1:08.962. Nothing to add.

Race 2 (Unlimited)
After a 40 minute wait around (after the previous race), we were called to the pre-grid. Unfortunately my bike refused to start! We changed the plugs, and eventually got it started by opening the throttle wide, and pushing, most spare hands were used to push me and whilst the bike started a couple of times it kept stalling almost straight away. We got the bike on a rolling road, and the guy was managing to 2.5K revs in first gear, but the bike refused to start, by this time my race had already done a warmup lap nd if I wanted to join it was now or never!

We were just giving up, when of course "old reliable" burst into song! I screamed it all the way to the pits (10K revs all the way) to keep the bike going. There was no-one on the gate so I took the bike out onto the track and completed a lap, however I had no idea of where in the proceedings we were, I was not sure if we were on the first, second warm up lap or even if the race had started, so I pulled back into the pit lane. The race director told me could start but behind the safety car!

Just to add to the stress the bike stalled!!!!.............. But started first kick!

I started behind the car, and he pulled wide to let me overtake on the second bend I was at least 200 yards behind the nearest rider! I suppose the red mist came down, and I decided that this would not be my final position on the final race of the year! I managed to get past Olivier (69), then Patrick (44), and then past Herve (13) to finish an honourable 12th position in my category, with a best lap time of 1:08.280, my personal best for this circuit! Someone in the pit lane even said I should start behind the car more often, as I was quicker catching up!

Anyway, a great end to a great weekend, and a fantastic season - thanks to all that have followed me electronically or in the flesh (yes my Dad, and brother were over for the weekend!).

I will post a couple of video clips and photos, but my blog will go into winter mode of preparing the bike - I still have some bits to fit!!!

Knee down

And I forgot to mention ---- I got my knee down on the off camber left hander at Ledenon. Just show's it can be done even with my style!! That wasn't the only thing that was touching the floor. My new pipes went down on both sides which really pissed me off. You pay for racing pipes and they have less ground clearance than the original exhausts... I feel there is room for some hammer work!!

Speak to you soon.

Video Clip

Ledenon

This weekends racing started on Friday - when we left the house. We arrived at Ledenon, which is almost my home circuit given that it is only 2.5 hours away, just before lunch. In fact we arrived just before a Proclassic training session, unfortunately it was not a "published" session, so I didn't manage to do it - because I didn't know about it!

The circuit is on a small hill in the middle of the Rhone valley, which if you remember my last rendition of Ledenon is subject to a bit of wind! Well the wind was forecasted for Friday and Saturday, and dying on Sunday. The forecast actually turned out right, on Friday and Saturday the wind was strong enough to blow you off line very easily, and in fact it may have been responsible for an accident on Thursday which ended up in the hospital with more than 7 ribs broken!

Anyway, Friday evening practise for me was reduced to one lap! I had fitted my expansion chambers, but I hadn't yet had the opportunity to check my carburation at maximum throttle opening (the most important setting!), so I completed a plug chop on the first lap, and took a look at the plugs, which although the insulation on the anode looked OK, the cathode (the bendy bit) was white, which led me to think that I was running too lean, so back to the pits, and off with the carbs and up to 250 main jets. Unfortunately the time to do this and you run out of the 20 minutes practise time!

Saturday morning timed qualification. Fortunately the bike was pulling well up to maximum throttle and revs, the pilot however was having trouble with the wind, the off camber bends and generally learning the circuit! I finished the session with a 2.01 minute best lap, which was pretty appauling, the fastest time in our series was 1.37 seconds ! This was set by a current European Champion (guest rider) on a prepared TZ350, but even still I was pretty crap! This put me on line 7 of the grid with surprisingly some bikes behind me!

Race 1
I got an excellent start, from line 7 I overtook a line at the start and another few guys in the first bend, I was in front of 44 and the 750 Honda of David Boisnard, and even dicing with the 1000 Kawa Martin of the Hugh Arnold, who despite getting past me on the straights was having difficulty on the twisty bits. Eventually he got clear of me, and I proceeded to have the same fight with David as his Honda was more powerful on the straights, but I was quicker around the bends. I was comfortably keeping both Claude and David behind me, when the BSA 750 came flying past, I kept my head down to follow, but he went straight on virtually at the next bend! I just managed to understand what he was doing, and managed to keep going although a little shaken by the experience.

On the second to last lap, I missed a gear going into the last bend, in fact I thought the engine had stopped, of course both David and Claude came flying through, and although I discovered my error quickly they were already long gone! The result was a 23 or 24th scratch, although I must be in the points in my category.

Race 2
The temperature had increased and the wind dropped completely for the second race. Thankfully the fan club was there to hold the umbrella (thanks Philippe) and Pascalle with the cold water to keep me alive on the pre-grid. My start was not good, I got boxed in in the first bend, and got stuck behind a 750 Honda it took me a couple of bends to get past him and by that time I was fighting to get back in the pack of 350's! By lap 4-5 I was catching Pierre Eline on his RD 350, but my bike started to cough and stutter - SHIT, I thought I was going to seize, one more lap, SHIT it's the petrol tap - I had forgotten to switch back to reserve after filling the tank! The bike only runs with about 5 litres of fuel for the race, and so this "went onto reserve" and I had lost at least half a lap on my group before realising my mistake.

Frustrated, I really tried to open her up on the last few laps to try and get back to them, but I couldn't get near them, and looking at my lap times I turned out being slower in the second race than the first! I must get some more practise on this circuit there are things I haven't yet understood.

Again, I got a few points, bringing the weekends tally up to 7 points due mainly to people breaking down. Anyway at least I improved my championship points, and I should have overtaken at least guy in the championship as he was not racing this weekend.
I had got my lap time down by 8 seconds in the first race to 1.53, but only managed a 1.54 in the second!

My thanks to all my team, officially now Da.R.T Daves race team. with the T shirts to match!! I am really looking forward to Croix-en-Ternois as I have already raced there, and I will have support from the English contingent!! Speak to you then.
Video to follow!

Video Clip from Le Vigeant

This is me in Race2 following Nr. 44 on a RD350, and Nr. 55 on a 750 Honda Martin. During the first part of the race I was happy following, but as the race came to a close I found I was close enough to get past both 55, & then 44. This clip is two seperate laps one with me following, and one with me having overtaken 55, and coming up to take 44 as he opens the door to let the race leaders through. I overtook him in a similar fashion in race 1!

Le Vigeant - Val de Vienne

Well, Monday 13th August, we arrived back from Le Vigeant yesterday, after a Saturday packed full of action!
We left for the circuit on Friday morning despite having drilled through the lighting cables on the trailer Thursday evening after Libby had bought me a new ramp. I had to drill holes for the ramp to fit through and in the process I drilled lightly into the cable. So Friday morning we left late after a hasty repair job on the the cable.

We arrived after 6.5 hours of driving, through the rain. The circuit itself is near Poitier and my parents were meeting us at the circuit on the start of their summer break in France. It is 3.7kms long, and very difficult to learn. We had a "proclassic" training time at 18:00 on Friday evening, and the bike ran perfectly. The driver however was having extreme difficulty finding his way around the circuit. I could only really remember about the first half of the circuit after the Friday practise. Much more difficult than Le Mans to learn, for example.

The Saturday started early with timed practise at 9:20 am, which went a little better but still only allowing me to access the last line of the grid - 2 mins 20 seconds - not good.

The first race, for a change, I got a great start, I overtook the line in front of me, and despite losing a few places down the straight I was feeling pretty confident. After the initial settling down - I am getting better at this - instead of following people around (easy to do) you really have to think, I am faster than this, and get to overtaking people!! My objective I had set myself for the weekend was to catch an RD350 typically in front of me in previous races, and I found myself following him round, and even being quicker than him at certain parts, there is a difficult bend after the back straight chicane which you enter really heavy on the front brakes and then it tightens up and you have to drop the brakes and heft it over to get round the bend. I was catching on this bend and also quicker on the bend after the start/finish straight. A plan was hatching!!

In fact I overtook on the slowest bend of the circuit after we were lapped. My rival slowed, whilst the front guys went through and I made the most of an open door, that he left. I went through and then opened up a comfortable lead on him to finish the first race in 26th position (stratch), with 9 people behind me - not bad, but still not exactly great.

Race 2
Started one line up after my Race 1 result, and again a reasonable start. I found myself once again behind the green RD350 and no. 55 on a 750 Honda. I was behind both of them for the most part of the race, although I really started to discover the circuit and where I could start going a lot quicker, I even experienced a couple of rear wheel slides which I think is an indication of my limits being reached. Anyway, I got past No. 55, and then I flew past the RD again, not leaving them any time to catch up again. I finished a couple of seconds away from the guy in front and was catching fast. I was really pleased that I had managed to get past these guys as these are two bikes that are "normally" in front of me.
I finished in 20th position and had bettered my lap time by 3 seconds again (!).

From the qualifying time of 2:20, I had got it down to 2:14, although I am still 4 seconds off the quickest LC, but I am getting closer!

The Saturday evening was spent celebrating results, birthdays etc.. and we packed up Sunday morning for what turned out to be a 7 hour drive home. But it was worth it!

Next race is Ledenon (nearly my home circuit!) on the 1st and 2nd September. I am hoping to be able to fit my expansion chambers and newly tuned barrels and head for the next race - we will see if I can run it in or not.

Despite being happy with my result I only finished 14th in my category which is worse than Le Mans, but still, I scored some points which is good.

Photos and video soon!

Nice photo from Le Mans

Video from Le Mans

Le Mans

Sorry it's been a long time since an update - I know how you miss my tales from the track!

Well this weekend we "did" Le Mans - FANTASTIC! We were four to travel up to Le Mans on Friday morning as both the kids decided to come aswell as Libby. The trip was OK, although long we only arrived at the track 40 minutes before practise, so as normal it was panic stations to get the bike out, leather up and get it started!! The bike is becoming a notorious traveller - it never wants to start after a trip in the trailer! This time it was missing some 12 volts. Don't ask me why but the battery seemed dead. The only reason I can think of is that someone must have left the ignition on and drained the battery during the trip....Anyway a quick bump start and out to discover the historical Le Mans Bugatti circuit. For some of you, who watch too much telly, this is not the 24 hour circuit that the cars take, this is the short track area which does make up part of the 24 hour circuit, but does not take any of the public roads, as does the official 24 hour track. All the same the start finish straight is a top speed (10k rpm in 6th - for me) straight with a nasty right hand curve in it, which lightened up the steering considerably and made for some "white knuckle" moments as you hang on round the curve. This is followed by a left right chicane, with the initial left hander being a common place for a straight-on, as you try to outbrake your mates! After the chicane it hard acceleration downhill towards "La Chapelle: a sweeping off camber right hander which really was a case of "go as fast as your courage will let you...", down a small straight and a left hander (La Musee), follwed by a nice double right hander and then along the back straight towards another chicane (left , right again), along to a nice right hander followed by another left, then down to the final double right to rejoin the start finish straight.

My favourite parts of the circuit, and where I felt the best, were basically in all the right hand bends... Strange really I have nothing against left handers in general, but all the left handers were not my fatest areas! The Friday practise went well, no problems.

Official timed practise wasn't until Saturday afternoon, so we had lots of time to take in the other races and practise sessions from the promosport series. The quickest guys were lapping in 1 minute 45 seconds (Yamaha R1, GSXR 1000 etc..).

My best lap in timed practise was ..... 2 minutes 20 seconds! This put me on line 6 of the grid - 24th position out of the total grid of 40 bikes - not bad. I was in front of some much bigger bikes, so fairly happy. Saturday night was party night with the "Arnold" families - 3 brothers and friends, wives etc.. made a great group, and we finally went to bed around midnight, whilst another group were going for a walk around the circuit (which didn't happen as it was closed).

Race 1
I got a bad start, and a couple of people went past, as we raced up to the first corner, everyone was through, and after a lap or two I found myself in a group of 5 bikes :- another RD 350, a Kawa 250, a Z650, and a Honda 750. Surprisingly the 250 had great top end, and managed to take us all on the straights but took a long time to wind up, which gave us the opportunity to get some space. He overcooked it up the start finish straight and lost the front end trying to turn in on the dirty part of the track - a nasty fall, which finished at the hospital (broken collar bone), meanwhile in a faster group Patrice Guilhemjouan had gone down in "La Chapelle", which looked nasty judging by the scrape marks. Our group of 4 continued to battle it out, swapping places regularly until Philippe Desmarais on the Z650 got a good lead and dropped us, leaving me, the other 350 and the Honda 750, who could easily out gun us on the straights but we were certainly quicker in the bends. The race finished with me behind the 750, and the other 350 behind me...Phew... I finished 23rd (scratch) in the first final. This was really my first taste of hard racing, with bikes everywhere, a fantastic if somewhat chaotic experience!!

Race 2
Some technical problems, and drop outs left me starting further up the grid, next to the same trouble makers as the last time - should be a close race!! My start was better, and I managed to slipstream up the start finish straight, behind a quicker bike, and after the initial first bend tustles, I found myself with the other RD 350 pilot, we proceeded to do 10 laps with him in front for one lap, then I overtook, then he came back, for 4 laps, in the end I managed to keep him back for the last 3 laps, and finished a decent 19th position (scratch). I was pretty happy as we had managed to pull ourselves in front of some quicker guys, because we were really pulling all the stops out!! The other 2 guys we had battled with in the first race both had some technical issues which prevented them from getting to us.

Results
I managed to get some great points during the weekend and finished up 8th in my category with 13 points! I was really chuffed with the result, because not only can I see progress in my technique(!) but also I am gradually moving up the places, I only hope I can keep going at the next venue in 3 weeks time!

In the photos you can see the five way battle in the first race, and me taking the chequered flag!

Bike Status

Just a quick update before everyone leaves for summer holidays.
I stripped the barrels and head off last weekend, because my homemade base gaskets had changed significantly in colour, and I was worried that they maybe leaking either water or gas. Good news the pistons are in perfect condition, and the barrels are showing signs of use, but nothing else - I think it is getting reliable!!
I noticed when reconnecting the power valves that they don't move at the same time due to some slack in the connector - I will take a look at shimming this up at the weekend.

I replace the gaskets and refitted everything, all OK.

I had also received a new rev. counter cable I ordered (12 cms longer) in order to reach the instrument panel I have been making, this has now been fitted, although I may have broken my temperature gauge, as I miss connected it.... We will have to see when I start it up.

I now drain the tank and carbs. after each time I use the bike, because the mixed fuel is not stable, and everyone advises only using it for a couple of weeks in the tank - I now have a large jerry can full of premix for the lawn mower - it smells like a fish & chip shop when I mow the lawn (it is a four stroke).

I have sent some second hand barrels and head to Stan (the man) Stephens in the UK for tuning, and I have ordered some expansion chambers from Gibsons in the UK, I hope they will be ready for the end of the season - I can't wait!!

The next race is at "Le Mans" - should be excellent if the weather gets a bit better.

Speak to you all soon, and have great summer holidays!

Some fun...

Had some fun with the video camera this weekend... Play the following video with the sound.

Video of Race 2 Croix en Ternois

The quality is pretty crap, but anyway it gives you some idea. Look out for number 62!

Croix en Ternois

Croix en Ternois
The race weekend started on Thursday evening, packing the trailer and car and trying not to forget any essentials, and some non essentials too.
Friday morning, and we dropped Carly off at her train, and set off on the long road to the North of France. Croix en Ternois is about 90kms before Calais, so approximately an eight hour drive.

We found the circuit fairly easily, although we did make a small diversion around a couple of nearby fields in search of a second entrance to the circuit, but after disturbing a couple in the back of their car, we came to a conclusion that we would have to make a U turn and go in the main entrance.

Proclassic had a rather small portion of the car park allotted to the 30 or so bikes being run, so space was tight, we didn’t even get to put up our awning, making the most of the trailer door to shelter from the wind and occasional shower.

Friday at 17:45 we had an allotted free practice period of 20 minutes, so I was out there learning the circuit as fast as possible. The circuit is basically a long straight, followed by an “S” and then another couple of faster bends before a tight hairpin back onto the straight. It was quite easy to learn but the final hairpin was the most difficult bend to learn, as very heavy braking followed by hard acceleration onto the straight caused a number of difficulties for more than one. One of my fairing brackets broke on this practice session, so back at the pits it was out with the tools and some bodgery to “fix” it. A part from that the bike seemed to be running well.

The rest of the proclassic teams arrived late into the night, and I had my first personal spectator arrive, my brother Chris had driven his bike down to meet us and turned up around 19:30, just in time for dinner. He slept in the trailer!

On the Saturday, we had just one session of timed practice which left plenty of time for polishing, or fixing, or modifying the bikes, which a number of the others were doing. Having full confidence in my superbly prepared bike, I spent the time watching the racing, mostly practice. The other categories running were :-

Promosport – 600 & 1000
Monobikes
CB500 cup
ER600 Kawasaki cup

My timed practice ended up with a best time of 1 minute 10 seconds, not bad I thought, until you see the times of the others! 1:12 put me on the second to last row of the grid, the front runners were doing 1:01, humm that means we will be lapped in 5 – 6 laps, I will have to be careful not to get lapped more than twice!!

Race One
Sunday morning at 10:55 we were sitting on the pre-grid, waiting for the 500’s to finish, After about a 20 minute wait in the sunshine (hot and sweaty), we were given the order to start engines, unfortunately mine wouldn’t! Chris and Libby, eventually managed to push me to start the bike, I think I probably flooded it after the first couple of kicks, but anyway, an uneventful setup lap and then 2 warm up laps, and into our grid positions. Red light, green and we are off. I got a good start, and managed to overtake a couple of guys going up to the first bend, my race tactic was to stick with Sylvain Gaigeard who was 0.7 second per lap faster than me, and just starting in front of me. This I managed to do quite well, after having a couple of overtakes with a Green Moto Guzzi (Poireaux Un team), Sylvain Gaigeard was trying to get past Hervé Lion (900 Honda) at any opportunity. I am sure with a few more laps I would have got past Sylvain, but I just wasn’t close enough… anyhow, my best lap was down to a 1 minute 9 seconds, which I was pretty chuffed about. The tactic obviously worked a little!

Race Two
No problems starting this time, the grid positions were based on our finishes in the first race, and I had moved up into the same row as Sylvain. Same tactics as before, a good start and I was in the thick of it at the first bend – very heavy traffic, I got overtaken and I took back a couple, all in all, I don’t think I lost any positions, there were some of the bigger four strokes who came through fast. I was happy to get through the first couple of bends with no incidents! I was going well through the twisties, and getting burnt on the long straight in front of the stands, I really need to get some more horse power from the 350! Daniel Cusimano came through after me giving him a hard time to pass. He started from the pit lane after he had forgotten to remove some rag from his bell mouths! I had a fairly quiet race – I am sure I can go faster around here. Final time showed I had not improved my personal best only managing a 1 minute 10 – almost a second slower….

Anyway overall I managed 18th position (13th in my class – 3 points) and a 17th position (14th in my class – 2 points). A total of 5 points to add !

Once again a great weekend, this time no-one fell, and the rain held off all weekend.

I will post a couple of clips, when I have had the time to download from the video camera…. Speak to you soon. In case you were wondering the second photo is the eventual winner of the Unlimited category - Patrick Rigaud (Kawa 1166), going past Franck Arnold (750 Honda).

Video Carole

Just to add a video of the 2nd race at Carole - I was going a bit better, and the bike aswell, lots of people fell off, hence the first few seconds....

Race day!

Alarm at 6:30 am, but I can't move... too tired.... 7:00 am that's better, people are moving. Libby makes breakfast, and we eat before I risk disappointment (starting the bike).

Well it start's relatively easily, it seems very sensitive to choke, to much and it floods... anyway I put on my jacket and gloves, and go out for a test. I am up with the rabbits, hundreds that are cutting the grass around the circuit. Somewhat surreal, I am on my race bike in the middle of Paris, waking the rabbits up with the noise! And the bike is......suspense....... working fine! Phew....

After another 20 or so laps, my instruments are coming a bit loose, after another ten, they have fallen from their support, so back to the pits. I am generally happy the bike is going great, and I have pretty much finished running in!

I bodge the instruments, with the ever useful jubilee clips and tie wraps (collier Rislan), and we are READY! Timed practice for grid position in the morning! I am still keeping it to about 8K rpm, but the engine is running fine, and when I get my "special" oil I can start to open her up! My times as you can imagine don't put me at the front of the grid, I am running around 1:24 which is about 14 seconds slower than the quick boys, but I am not last which is important for my moral!

The super singles, are getting around in 1 minute 9 seconds which is pretty quick. Most of the RDLC's (4 of us), are around the same with a guy way out in front. I must go and see what he's got in his fuel tank!

First Race
Setup lap, warm up lap, red light, GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I am near the back, into the first left hander which is a difficult bend, I get around 3 abreast with other guys, everyone is taking it a little easy until things string out, which they do pretty rapidly. The fast guys are gone! Let's not forget that some of these machines are kicking out 130 bhp, against the RD which is at best pushing 59 bhp. I am having a good race with a couple of guys on a Kawasaki 1000, (I overtake on the bends and he gets me on the straight), and another guy on a Martin Kawa.

I am coming around for about my 5-6 lap, and I go to change up, and the knob of my gear lever has gone! F*?@ - won't things ever go right! My hand goes up and I slow, but hell the engine still going well, and I need the practise... I keep going changing up with my hand, changing down I can still use my foot on the lever - this is a bit dodgy, as you lose sight of braking points coming into the slower bends, which give me a couple of "moments".

Before you know it there is a red flag, and the race is stopped, someone is off at the hairpin before the pits straight, and he has left an oil slick in his wake, he is still on the ground as we go past. I park the bike in the pits and rush off to see if I can find a bolt to replace my "knob". Our pits are about 200 yards from the "real" pits, as there is an endurance race on Sunday. Anyway I sweat all the way there and back with a nut and bolt, and fix it finger tight into the gear lever. I am just back in time, and we are out again. The only problem is that the nut keeps loosening, and I have to tighten it up going down the straights, anyway I manage to overtake a couple of guys towards the end of the race, and we finish, again phew....

I bodge a gear knob, and we eat lunch while waiting for Race 2, we get the results, and I finished 2nd last of the bikes that were left standing! Lots of people had problems, so I am 23 bike out of 29. Oh well, I have some improvements to make!

Race 2
I start on line 7 (very near the front :-)) The red light goes out and we are off, I make a better start, and get quickly into a dice with another 350, we overtake a couple of times, and he has more power on the straights, but seems to be having some problems, I overtake and don't see him again. I overtake a TZ350, and a couple more fourstrokes, then the fast boys come to lap us! Boy it's pretty frightening having then come past inside, outside, anywhere and any time. I make the most of them to catch a lift past a guy that was bugging me in front. The bike is going great, and I am taking more risks, the knee is nearly down!

The tyres, grip, and power I am getting are great, this is it, I am racing!!

There are lots of bikes down, a big Kawa on the hairpin, another guy dumps it just behind me. Just as I am peeling into my bend I hear the crunch, and mettle to tarmac noise, that scared me! I hope it wasn't me that put him off. Still I kept my line - so no problems there. We don't get the chequered flag as one or two laps before the end, someone dumps it and leaves oil. As we have completed most of the race, we are directed back to our pits. I should have done better this race.

Effectively, I got into the points (5), I finished 13th in my category, which was 18th scratch - not bad, I was dissapointed in my race 2 result as I was second to last again, because so many people fell off. But at least racing is all about being consistant, and I at least finished 2 races!!

Video in a couple of days!

Preparation for Carole

So, it is now the 13th May, and I am back from my first race in Paris with the Proclassic series. An exciting and somewhat stressful weekend which started last Wednesday!

Wednesday, I worked from home, and good to their word my cylinders and new pistons were ready from the machine shop. I am now running pistons at 65.25, another complete rebore! Everything looked OK, and they had helicoiled my loose stud, and tested all the others.

Due to a cock up with the gasket order, Yam still hadn't received my gaskets, but they promised that Thursday they would be there. This was seriously compromising my running in time, as the plan was to leave for Paris on the Friday morning. Thursday afternoon came and went, with no news from Yam - shit! So Thursday evening Libby and I spent an hour making some base gaskets out of cornflake packets! This is OK as the originals are only paper gaskets, but you need to make sure they are the correct thickness as this can effect the combustion chamber volume, and hence cause detonation - dangerous!

Everything else went together OK, and come 11:00 pm we were ready for a quick test before loading up the trailer.... SHIT... it's leaking water.... from...... it appears that when I had replaced the clutch springs I had done something with a small "O" ring that seals a water hose going through the clutch case. Oh well, at least I have another one. So drain the gearbox, and water, remove the cluth cover, and yes effectively the diagnostic was accurate the 'O' ring had been munched... and SHIT the new one is not the right size. After some panic and digging around, I managed to find another one that was roughly right. Anyway at this time of night, we need to try something and go to bed.

This time, no water leak, and the bike started second kick. No time to try it and the neighbours are sleeping, so it's off to bed and we'll load the trailor in the morning.

6:30 am, after six hours sleep, we load up, and are off to Paris at around 7:15. The weather forecast for the weekend is not great, however it has been improving all week. We arrive at the Circuit de Carole at around 13:30, just in time to get in two free practise sessions at 15:00 and then 17:00. Fortunately there is a really nice little access road that goes completely around the circuit and should be perfect for running in!

We setup up the awning in 5 minutes, a great invention, although the wind is pretty strong, so we hold it down with large lumps of concrete that seem to have been left there for the purpose. With the trailer open and the awning and the car we have enough room, I park next to a guy with a very nice CBR1100 (air cooled) Franck Bachelet who introduces himself and gives me some advice for the concrete blocks, there are apparently lots of local Paris guys who will only be arriving on the Saturday.

The bike is going OK, although it seems to hesitate a little, but I am keeping to 6000 rpm, around the outside of the circuit. The first practice session on the circuit is OK. Everything is flashing past quickly, however I am learning the circuit, and getting the miles in, although I still have this hesitation. The second session, and there is definately a problem, it won't rev above 6K, and is hesitating badly....

After some interesting conversations and lots of discussion with some knowledgable folks, could be anything, from an air leak (oil seal on the crank) to bad oil (!). Anyway I go back to my old troubleshooting skills, and ask myself what has changed! The only thing that seems valid (and that I can do) is change back the main jets to a standard size, remember I have gone up a size to try and cure my recurrent seizes. Anyway that is what I do, so rip off the carbs, change the jets, and re-assemble everything. The plan is potentially to get a few more external laps in to finish the run in.

We can't start the bike, and it starts to rain.... A great weekend this is going to be! Libby and I pack up and go for a pizza - things will be better after a nights sleep.

Most people from out of town, are sleeping over in the pits, so there are people barbecuing, quietly talking and generally having a pleasant evening. We are sleeping in the back of the car, so we install ourselves confortabley in the back of the Espace, and "lights out".

More technical news

So the good news is that the fairing is being painted (as I speak), a very bright white, Pete has sent the number plates, and templates for them - Thanks Pete.

The bad news is that, the "rebore" guy, told me I definately need to change BOTH pistons again! One was too far gone (touched in four places), and apparently the other has deformed (although not touched). This is really strange and the guy doesn't really understand it, but at 100 Euros a piece this is getting serious! One train of thought, is that because I am running premix in the tank, the fueling is actually leaner in the cylinder, and this maybe creating excessive heat, causing the seizure. This is not really corroborated by the colour of the plugs that I was seeing, however upping the main jet size on the carbs isn't an issue so I will be starting there.

The real issue is maybe timing, I have first race at Carol (Paris) in under 10 days time, and we have a public holiday next Tuesday, which means I will probably not get the barrels back before next Wednesday, which means I will need to burn the midnight oil to get the bike ready to go to Paris next Friday. Running in the nex setup is going to be fun!! Proclassic are organising untimed practise on the Friday afternoon, so hopefully I will be able to run in (a bit!)

I have painted the exhausts, and my home made fairing support, which looks good, and I have added the temperature gauge to my instruments, as temperature seems to be the key to my problems! This weekend's job will be putting the fairing back on, checking the thermostat is working, cutting out and fixing the number plates... Hopefully more positive news next Wednesday!

Stripping down

Hi All,
SO the left hand piston had definately touched the barrel! In four places, I can't feel any damage with my fingers, but you can certainly see it clearly. On the piston you can feel some scratching, but I think I will remove this with fine emery, and ignore this! A rebore at this stage is probably not worth it.

After looking around the web and various forums, I still don't understand what is happening. I found a really good website which describes different types of seize on two stroke engines here : http://www.pwab.org/PISTONDIAGNOSTICGUIDE.htm

My piston looked perfect from the top, as in image one, but had 4 corner seized! The guy's web site says : The main causes for this problem are too quick warm-up, too lean carb jetting (main jet), or too hot of a spark plug range.

The plugs were perfect colour throughout the weekend, a lovely "cafe au lait", the warm-up was OK, and the jetting on the carbs is normally measured by looking at the plus - so I am no farther forward... anyone any ideas?

I will ask the bloke at the rebore shop, what he thinks.........

Still the bike is in pieces again, the fairing is ready to be painted, Pete Mockler is helping out with the number plates, we just need to get the engine going again.

Speak to you soon.

Issoire - Track Day

Just a quick update after my track day at Issoire. In preparation to this day (Sunday 22nd April), I had put on my new racing tyres, and my first impressions of the bike were transformed. The tyres offer amazing grip, with confidence inspiring performance, even though I was "running in" the bike after the rebore, I enjoyed myself trying to get a maximum lean angle with the tyres. I felt like my elbows would touch the ground, however from the photos, I can see that I still have room for improvement (don't even touch my knees!). The engine felt fairly rough to start, and my rev. counter was playing up which made staying under 6K pretty difficult, however the first session (20 minutes) went off pretty well. Of course I am getting overtaken by pretty much everything, but considering I was almost the smallest bike, plus running in, this is hardly surprising. Half way through my second session, the engine started making a strange blowing sound, and I thought I had lost an exhaust baffle, however after a quick stop to inspect things, the right hand power valve cover had made an escape, oh dear!

I managed a slow return to the pits, and luckily for me, lunch was called, and I managed to walk around the circuit and find the missing cover, with that installed, I inspected for other loose bits, and tightened up all over, a good thing, as I had also lost a small clip from the same powervalve, not important but I need to replace it - must have been drunk when I put this thing together.

The first session after lunch went well, and then after 5 minutes into the second session I thought I felt the engine tighten up. I went straight for the clutch and rolled into the pits. After removing the exhausts, no signs of a seize, but something is not quite right.... I had been reving to about 7K and even 8K in some places. Perhaps I need to cool it a bit.

The bike started fine, although the next session I kept my hand over the clutch lever in readiness.... Nothing uptoward happened, and I had a good session bringing my slow lap times down, as I grew in confidence, although I once again stuck to around 6K.

The last session of the day was great, I lifted the rev limit a little, and had a scrap with a junior on a 125 (I think) - he was going great and my bike managed to keep up. Still if I want to be competitive I will seriously need more power, and above all a different riding technique! In the slow bends I was definately quicker than some of the "big guys", however I have difficulty moving on the bike, which gives me much more of a Mike Hailwood technique than Barry Sheene (if I can be so bold as to compare!). I have to work on this. I think maybe my rearsets are too high which cramps my legs and makes it difficult to move - I will try lowering them to give a bit more comfort. I say that, but moving about on the bike creates a good deal of shake, which I do not get when sitting relatively still, however given that most GP riders move about, this must be the direction to go! I was finding the bends really easy (to go fast) when I was completely off the brakes, so I really needed to get well setup for each bend and get some speed off BEFORE entering the bend to get maximum corner speed. If I kept the brakes on too long (through late braking) it pushed me much further into the bend with the corresponding edges coming up a little too quickly. The bike and overall the tyres really worked well even with the front brake partially on, although this is a habit, I should try to avoid!

Overall the days impressions were good, although still some uncertitude about the engine, I will restrip and get the stud fixed on the barrel, and have a closer look at the pistons to see if any damage occurred - I hope not! Take a look at the circuit on their web site - http://www.ceerta.com/ it was pretty in amongst the rape seed fields - fortunately I am not allergic to rape seed! There were however loads of flying insects - one guy got stung 3 times by an errant wasp.

I will try and post a couple of short video clips in a few days, however I now only have a few weeks before first race, so I need to concentrate on the remaining jobs :-
Painting fairing, make some numberplates for the sides of the bike etc... Plus stripping the head and cylinders down (one more time!).

Ledenon - Photos

A quick update, after the rebore had a real problem with a pattern head gasket, which leaked water no matter how tight the head was on. After changing for the real YAMAHA part, everything works fine and no leakage. After all the tightening of the head, I may have loosened one of the cylinder studs (no.9). It appears to tighten but I can not reach the required torque without getting that sensation that something is about to break, slip... Anyway I have a track day planned as Issoire this weekend (22 April), and we will see if it holds until the engine is run in completely again. It will be interesting running in the bike at a track day but I don't really have an alternative, as I can not put it on the road. In preparation for this weekend, I have put on my "real" racing tyres AVON AM20 and AM23 (I think), these are much narrower than the previousl Dunlops but should bring back the very sharp handling I remember of old. I have also short circuited the oil pump, in order to run a petrol/oil mixture directly from the fuel tank. This meant, cutting the oil supply to the pump, draining the oil tank, and connecting the carburetor oil feeds connections together, to avoid them sucking in air. We will see how this performs!

In principal the bike starts and runs well with these modifications in place. I am now using the empty oil tank (saved at least one kilogram of weight of the oil here!), as a catch bottle for the crankcase breather, battery overflow, and carb overflow pipes. I routed all of these into the hole left after removing the oil level indication sensor from the tank.

The next challenge after this weekends outing, will be get the fairing painted... some thought required here. I will probably go for a boring white, which matches the tank, and the old seat unit, however if I get imaginative, I may add some speed blocks in a true Yam tradition!

I received my track stand in the mean time, so I should be alright without the centre stand this time around. I am just praying for fine weather this weekend!! It is forecast!

A couple of piccies of me on the bike at Ledenon.

Current Dates for Proclassic

CAROLE 12 May (Saturday only) - Unlimited, Post Unlimited 750.-
CROIX 9 & 10 June - Classic 500 et 750, Unlimited.-
CAROLE 30 June (Saturday only) - Classic 500 & 750, Post Unlimited 750.-
LE MANS 21 & 22 July - all classes-
LE VIGEANT 11 & 12 August - all classes-
LEDENON 1 & 2 September - all classes-
CROIX 22 & 23 September - classes to be confirmed

Rebuild

So, I received the barrels, and new Wiseco pistons, with rings, small end barings, gudgeon pins and circlips. With wiseco pistons you have two rings that are identical, the instructions for fitting are complete. You have to measure clearance between the power valve and the cylinder, plus measure the end gap on the rings by insrting them in the cylinders and measuring with a feeler gauge. Everything seemed within limits, and so the barrels, pistons, and head were rebuilt this morning, with no problems. New gaskets all around!!

Rebore

After having decided on the full strip down and rebore, I obviously needed to remove the head, barrels, and pistons etc.. This proved pretty easy (as I remembered from previous lives), I still managed to round off a couple of screws – one holding the two power valves together in between the cylinders – particularly difficult to get a drill to, and the second was holding the power valve pulley in place, this one slightly easier to drill out. Anyway only standard for a Jap bike of this age (even new for that matter!). After having seen the number on the tops of the pistons +25 I assumed that I had some rebores to go before renewing the sleeves, however I assumed wrongly as the +25 turned out to be +75 (really badly etched) after measuring. I was really lucky the guy in the rebore workshop measured this before ordering the pistons, otherwise I would be selling perfectly good pistons on Ebay! Interesting to note that Yam pistons only go up to +50, and yet Wiseco’s go up at least to +150. I am using +100's, I only hope the longevity of the sleeve is not effected by the extra amount taken from it.

Hopefully I will get time to order my seat unit from Poly26 this week, so I can get them all painted together. Which will be the next task.

First Test - Aftermath

Well I took the bike to Yam’s for them to check what I had done to the pump, effectively the guy left the engine running for at least 5 minutes, the time for the pump to fill the oil tubes, and reach the carbs – I of course had not left it long enough and hence starved the engine of oil! The puffs of smoke I had seen must have been oil already in the engine, having settled to the bottom! Although the bike was OK, I decided to take off the exhausts to get a look at the state of the pistons, and effectively the left hand piston was quite heavily marked, a full top end overhaul is required!

First Test- Ledenon

It was getting near the first race, and I had never used the bike OR been on a circuit for a number of years. Time to find a track day! The nearest circuit to Grenoble is in fact “le Circuit du Laquis” , however they do not allow motorcycles and therefore I needed to look further a field. The circuit de Ledenon, is situated about 11 kms north of Nimes, about 2.5 hours from my house, and so on a blustery March morning the family (yes my kids and wife) accompanied me to Ledenon. The circuit organizes training days which are relatively inexpensive (16 Euros per 20 minutes), organized by sessions depending on your level (beginner or experienced).

When we arrived in the pits car park, to say it was windy would be an understatement, people who had camped had their tents blown horizontally! People were arriving, and leaving just as quickly! I queued up to book my sessions, a total of 4 as a start!
We unloaded the bike, my son, Oliver removed the centre stand whilst I tried to get into my leathers (after a heavy Christmas – this was difficult!). We had difficulties starting the bike, which was strange, as I had charged the battery well the evening before, and I got busy checking that we hadn’t pulled anything loose when we tied the bike down! Eventually we managed to push start the bike, and I made it to the pit lane for the start of my first session.
You have to imagine the scene a little, with me on my 24 year bike, with brand new leathers, amongst a crazed band of youngsters on everything from race prepared Yamaha R1’s to Ducati 999’s etc… you get the picture. After a very quick look at me and the bike the starter allowed us through in small groups, and suddenly we were OFF, I was quite happy staying towards the back especially as the wind was blowing me off line (what line?) at every corner, well at least 2 corners……

Coming up to a heavy left hander the bike suddenly started making a funny noise…. Clutch where’s the clutch….. sssszzzzz. Shit I think it’s seized! The nearest marshal comes running up flapping his yellow flag. I try to start the bike again (mistake) and it starts so I make my way gingerly around the track road. It stalls again, and I get picked up by the track van, and taken back to the pits, where I sit waiting for my pit crew to come back. Obviously with no centre stand I can not `park` the bike, and with the wind I don’t trust leaning it up against the car!! I am really pissed off this is not how I imagined it!

After some checking, I of course (clues are above) discover that there is no oil getting to the carbs…. BOLLOCKS…. I can not understand what the pump is doing but it is not pumping that’s for sure! OK what to do next. Having some sense for money I send off my pit girls (Carly and Lib) to sell me 3 other sessions, whilst I sink into depression….. I then had a brilliant idea! What if we take some oil out of the oil tank and mix it with the petrol in the petrol tank and see if I can start it? Not having bought any scientific measuring containers, we siphon “enough” oil, out of the tank to add it to the petrol, yes but how much petrol is in the tank, and what mixture should it be? Theses are all very sensible questions, to which I had no answer. The team made the decision to add enough oil, ---- until it smokes!!

Funnily enough, we kept adding oil, and it never really smoked at all…. But we got well past 3% (at least I think).

I had already missed the next session, and so we had lunch whilst contemplating the team strategy!
Déjà vu… I ‘ve been here before, surrounded by huge bikes, with tyres a lot stickier than mine… here goes. FULL THROTTLE!
The two afternoon sessions were conclusive. First conclusion – there are a lot of people out there quicker than I. Second conclusion – The &*^^%$# wind is too strong. Every bend against the wind was fine as it would push you into the circuit, the other side however was a matter of hanging on for dear life as you were pushed nearer and nearer the gravel traps – no fun at all! Well OK, I did have fun, but I really hope that not all circuits are on top of small hills in the direct force of the Mistral wind blowing it’s hardest.

Equipment

In the mean time I had to be equipped with leathers (bought at Dianese – on sale!), boots (bought from M&P on the web), and gloves (a nice pair of YAMAHA R1 gloves that were also on sale – end of season). I decided to use my road helmet, as it was sufficiently new to meet the regulations, although I have an uncomfortable neck when I am in a racing crouch.

Administration

In France, you need to have Federation Francaise de Moto racing license category NAT A. In order to obtain this you need first to be a holder of a CASM (Certificat d’aptitude de Sport Mechanique). The CASM tests you on basic bike skills, plus the rules and regulations around a circuit – including flags. In order to apply to the CASM you need to get a local address of your regional representative, which for me was in the Dauphine. I phone this guy and he registered me for a CASM test, which I eventually took in a center in the nearby DROME area. Due to the fact that I had a current motorcycle road license I did not have to take the practical test, however it’s useful to know that if your kids want to take up racing of any sort they can go via this route.

In order to get the FFM license you need to be a member of a French Association affiliated with the FFM. The PROCLASSIC association is part of the FFM, and therefore they sent me all the necessary forms to fill in and the list of documents to provide. Basically you need to have, proof of identity, a CASM, proof of address, plus a document from your National Motorcycle racing association proving that you are allowed to hold a French license. To supply this, I needed to contact the ACU in the UK, and they faxed me the correct document basically stating that I had never been banned from having a racing license in the UK. I sent this lot off with the appropriate amount of cheques (!!), and I received my license a couple of weeks on.

The Fairing

I really wanted to go for a “classic” look, this to me means single seat, ducati 900ss half fairing and clipons. I sourced a racing fairing at POLY26, a relatively local fibre glass company, that makes everything plastic for thousands of different bikes. The guy who owns the place is really passionate about his business, and can talk for hours on the subject, I recommend it to anyone. That was the easy part, the difficult part was making a support for the fairing. I had to design and make fairing brackets, which were eventually achieved by using some local company welding skills, and my ingenuity with aluminium plating. The fairing comes in a rough grey colour “ready” for spraying, but this means that all the holes have to drilled not only in the fairing, but also in the visor – not for the feint hearted – one slip and you are doomed!!

What had I bought?

Before touching the bike, I ran it up the road a few times, just to make sure that there was nothing terminally wrong with it. It appeared that it worked well (just as I had remembered), although it had a small oil leak from the clutch cover, and a weepy oil seal from the left hand fork leg.
The next few weekends and evenings I spent stripping of all of the non essentials. The horrible road fairing went first, followed by the lights, indicators, mudguards etc…
I then got down to stripping the forks and replacing the oil seal in the left leg, I replaced the front brake lines with stainless braided lines (which were part of the spares, from the guys racing bike). I also changed the fork oil, and brake fluid, and finally bled the brakes. Up to this point no problems.

The second major task was to stop the oil leak. I stripped down the right hand engine cover, which involves draining the coolant, and gearbox oil. The gasket looked OK, but I replaced it anyway, thinking that this was the cause of my leak. Anyway to cut a long story short, after removing the cover and second and then third time, and replacing the oil (with a browner colour), I realized that my leak was not gearbox oil, but two stroke oil which was making it’s way from behind the oil pump, and dripping down to under the gearbox. The two stroke oil was red, and my new gearbox oil was light brown! The only choice was to replace the oil pump itself, as there are no serviceable parts in the oil pump itself. On replacing the oil pump, I bled the pump, and attached the oil lines to each carburetor, leaving the cover off, as you still need to prime the oil lines using a special procedure.

Whilst on the engine, I replaced the chain, and gearbox sprocket, the sprocket on the rear wheel looked fine, so I didn’t touch it.

I was planning to make myself some rearsets, however with time running a little short, I purchased rearsets, and a replacement rear shock from Hagon (UK), these went on and the bike was ready for a test. In order to prime the oil ways, you start the bike and then hold the pump open (with your fingers) to maximum, which I did. After a couple of seconds the bike started smoking, and I took this as a sign that all was well and the lines were filled, to my dismay this was not the case – but we’ll get to that.
I ran the bike up the road a couple of times and was well happy with my progress.

Choosing the bike

I was quickly set on the idea of getting a two stroke bike. The simplicity linked with the relatively strong performance were factors that pushed me in the direction of the YAM, the other criteria was the fact I had had both an RD400, and a RD250 YPVS, followed by an RD 350 F2, in my youth, and the excitement of hitting the powerband on these bikes was something I had always regretted, after having moved onto to four stroke bikes later on, even my current Triumph Daytona, although having more than enough power, can not beat a good old two stroke for excitement.

I started looking around the web sites in the “For Sale” categories, and soon came across Ebay, as the source for a good number of bikes. After bidding on a couple, I settled on a 1983 RD 350 YPVS with approximately 25K Kilometers on the clock, only problem was that I did not meet the sellers lowest price on my initial try. After some negotiation, which was difficult, as the seller was based in Stuttgart – Germany, and me in Grenoble France, we reached agreement, and I was all set.
The deed was done in a rural part of Stuttgart, me handing over 1050 Euros, to receive in exchange a car full of second hand spares, plus the road going bike itself. With my son we loaded the bike onto a trailer (I had borrowed for the weekend), and filled the car with all the spare, some rubbish, but a lot of useful parts aswell.

The German guy had obviously had a racing career with a similar bike, but the model he sold me was his road bike, he started the bike in front of me, and offered me a ride, which I turned down based on the fact, that having driven 5 hours, I was not going home without it. With hind site I made a good decision.

On arriving home, we un loaded the bike and parts, and I made an inventory of the parts and begged them up, and put them into storage above my garage. I had already negotiated with my wife the fact that she would not be able to get the car in the garage for the next few months!

Motorcycle Racing in France - Background

A bit of background first. I have had various motorbike since passing my test in the UK back in 1977, soon after my seventeenth birthday. I have always had a racing bug, which typically involved watching others race. When I was 21, my Dad, paid for my brother and I to do a track day with tuition at Brands Hatch, we raced around the Brands short circuit for 25 laps on stripped down Honda Super dream 400’s, I would fully recommend this to anyone thinking of taking the plunge.

In late 1986 I moved with my wife to France, and whilst continuing to ride bikes on the road, and watching racing at the trackside, and on TV, I never really did anything about my old childhood dream to race!

Now after another 20 years (yes!!), I have decided to do something about it, and hence the project that this site is mainly about.

Looking through the various websites in France about motorcycle racing you quickly understand that although the French have a great racing heritage, they are far from being extrovert about their accomplishments, and even worse there just don’t seem to be many related web pages to read through to get related information. After weeks of searching I decided to send of a quick email to Café Racer, a popular magazine, and miracles – they published my request, and gave me a couple of web sites and associations to investigate.

At my age (46 years old), I am not interested in becoming a MotoGP racer or killing myself on a hugely powerful road machine, and therefore I chose to look for the more “classic” oriented racing scene, which lucky for me, is alive and well, in the form of “proclassic racing” (proclassic.free.fr). in September 2006, I took my wife to one of the last races of the year on a small circuit “Le Vigeant” in the West of France. The weekend’s racing combines many different categories, from the SuperMono series, to the Roadster cup (mainly Hornets and Fazers), aswell as more classic racing with two series – the Proclassic series, and the Vitesse en Motos Anciennes series.

The Proclassic series has many categories, but largely these are bikes older than 1983, that can either be race bikes, or road bikes used on the track. There were a few entries with the type of bike I was contemplating, (Yamaha RD 350 YPVS) which seemed to fair reasonably well. The atmosphere in the pits was friendly, with complete freedom to wander around and chat to the participants, and their teams (mostly their wives, kids etc..). The weekend’s racing cost 10 Euros to watch, and to be honest was great value for money. I came back from the weekend excited at the prospect of being part of the scene, in the year to come.