We travelled up North, from Thursday evening, stopping at Troyes, and then onto Croix Friday morning, arriving just before lunch time at the circuit. Luckily the rain held off while we installed the tent, and got everything out of the van. I bought a couple of sessions initially just to test both bikes.
I went out on the 350 first, it started fine, and has a loud deep intake noise without the airbox ... yummmm. The new throttle control which is from a TZ gives about 90 degrees from closed to full open throttle, I nearly wheelied it the first time I opened it up! It was certainly pulling well, and with the bigger carbs I was expecting a more peaky performance, but it seemed to have a nice spread of additional torque when the powervalves started to open. Globally I was quite impressed with the power increase, although my front brake was not working well, and I needed to check the plugs (plug chop) to ensure the engine wasn't running lean. With the VM34 Carbs, I started running with pilot jets = 45, mains at 370, needles jet 159 P-6, jet needle 6F9, main air jet 2.0.
To be honest the engine sounded very crisp, and was running nicely, so I managed about 15 minutes of the session. Checking the plugs after pushing it back to the pit, the left hand cylinder was a dark grey (could be running hot), and the right hand cylinder was a nice chocolate brown, so nothing too catastrophic.
The next session with the RG, running with 4 degrees of advance compared with a standard ignition curve after max. torque, this should in theory give more power at the top end and increase the over rev possibility. I was also running a 14 tooth gearbox sprocket, all in all enough to make the thing wheelie everywhere!
I was also running in new EBC disks at the front, and a new Power One tyre. The track was pretty wet, with the RG, but at least it wasn't raining. I gingerly made my way around until the tyres got some sort of heat in them (not really), gunning it up the straight was cool, and I am impressed with the ignition, even if I still have a huge hole in the acceleration, just before the exhaust valve opens. I should be able to configure this out, by moving the point at which it opens with the programmable control box.
Again, after 15 mins of so, I came in to check the state of the plugs, which were a nice dark brown, so even in this rainy weekend, I was seemingly rich enough.
I had been planning to do another session with my wet weather tyres, however when I went to fit the wheels, I discovered the sprocket carrier was a couple of mms too big for the new wheel, so that wasn't going to work!
I set out to look after the front brake on the 350. Well would you believe it, in fitting the TZ throttle, and hence a new kill switch, the kill switch was actually acting as a stop, for the brake lever... d'errrrrr... Sack the mechanic!
Anyway a very quick fix, turning the kill switch around allowed the brake lever full travel!
Anyway after some epic weather including rain, hail and a few sunny intervals, I decided I was only going to run the RG500, as paying to ride in those conditions in both series would have been too masochistic.
Saturday timed practise was in a downpour, but unluckily for me the second session was on a drying track, so those guys got the good times, and the less fortunate were relegated to the "B" final, me included. To be honest I didn't really care, I just wanted to wobble round and try and finish unscathed.
The first race was also in a downpour, every time the bike got to exhaust valve open time, it would spin up the rear wheel, having dire effects on my confidence in the tyres, which were holding up pretty well, considering they are pretty much slicks with no where for the water to go! Some of the bends you had to circum navigate the sitting water, and puddles, and more than a few went down, being over enthusiastic with the use of the right hand, or trying to get the knee down in the wet!
The second race on Sunday morning, was on a soaked but drying track, I got a crap start as usual (with the RG clutch), but I was realatively confident, and the grip got better and better, and towards the end of the 20 laps, I can say that I did enjoy part of the race! I don't know where I finished, but no-where near the front, with my best lap time of the weekend being 20 seconds off my personal best, I can say that this was a weekend to forget.
Still at least the bikes are whole, and running well. Next time around we are at Nogaro, a track where I have seized 3 out of 4 times! Time to get out the big mains, just to be sure!
In our series along there were 7 bikes down, and 2 broken collar bones - more damage to the wallet than the riders!
Speak to you soon.
