Summer Progress... or lack of :(

So, its been a while, and not really much has happened. Le Mans happened, but aboard a Vauxhall Corsa VXR rather than the motor bikes as planned! Oh well, there always next year.

I've tried selling the BMW due to a change of circumstances, but after a bit of interest I really don't want to sell it. Its far too much fun! But this means delaying ever getting the race bike up and running again. Oh who am I kidding, i've ridden that thing in anger for 2 years! 'Frustrating' doesn't come close.

So for now, I have an awesome road bike which saps any money I have left to try and spend on the race bike. I'm moving out, which will cost even more. And my girlfriend lives 90 mins away in London, which means shit loads of travel money and pricey drinks when I get there.

Pretty sure, a proper race season is still a very long way away...

Le Mans Fail!

So after 3-4 months of slowy building my mates NC30 back up to road standard, then a final 2 week rush to get it MOT ready (which it passed 1st time, a thank you!), getting my mate rushed through his CBT, which he passed. getting him some new head gear and jackets n boots etc, then rushing him thorough his Module 1 (1st half of proper bike test here in the UK, for you Yanks!) which he passed, booking all the ferries, me making panniers for my Dakar.... then what does he do! Fail his Module 2! Gutted!

But, what-ya-gonna-do! Never mind, we all tried our best, and there's always next time. That's the whole point of Le Mans, for us anyway. Its always been a bit of a last minute affair. This being the most last minute compared to the last 3 times we've been.

Well, the point of this post was not to concentrate of what we're not gonna do, but to concentrate on what we are gonna do.... we're still gonna drive to Barcelona, get some beach drinkin action on the go, see some of them bitchin tunnels throuygh the alps, hopefully stop off at the old German sub pens on the French west coast, and then end up in Le Mans for the week and have a fuckin awesome time as usual!

Also, when I get back I still plan on selling the Dakar, giving me much needed funds to try and do at least 1 or 2 race events before the year is up.

So here is some inspiration for myself... some pics of my 1st season. (2009)

Ignition Problems Cont...

OK, 3rd night on the bike last night and it did the same. thing. again! Cleaned the carbs, started her up perfectly, idled for a bit, steadily idled worse and worse, then she cut out, then cant start agen!

All we've adjusted is the idle screw, (sounds obvious that that's the problem???) however that is now in the same place it was before we started messing with it? So I cant work out why it wont idle properly?

Unless when I 1st screwed them all the way in they've been damaged slightly? they didnt seem to screw in very nicely? and maybe even thou the idle screw is turned out 2 1/4 turns like it should be, its actually broken n still running lean???

NC30 Ignition problems....

Me mates NC30 was thrown together a few months ago to try and build her up for this trip to Le Mans. When we put her back together there were certain things we did along the way that were gonna be properly sorted later. For example, we opened up the carbs, cleaned and air blew them out, and when putting the pilot jets back in we screwed them all the way in and reassembled them onto the bike (thinking we were gonna get them tuned properly later). Anyway, even in her 'lean' state (pilot jets all the way in) she has been running and starting reasonably well, with obvious flaws in low down pick up (once she's on the main jet no problem). 

We took her out for a final shakedown before the MOT and we noticed a tapping sound coming from the engine at idle. Thought Id mention it to the MOT garage, they suggested after MOTing it, that the right rear cylinder (no. 3) was misfiring due to. Perhaps due to running lean? - we guessed. (seeing as we knew we'd turned the pilot jets all the way in). 

So took her home, carbs off, pilot jets out from bottom by 2.25 turns, put them back on and she ran but still with the misfire. We were looking for air leaks as the carb/cylinder head rubber tubes are a bastard to get on properly, when me mate noticed that the wires goin to the coil packs could have been the wrong way round? we checked the Haynes and apparently they were.... and as were the front pack??? However, due to how the coil pack works, the engine would have never run with them the wrong way round??? so we swopped them for what looks like the correct way round  (Haynes wiring diagram), and it wouldn't start, so we swopped them back to apparently the wrong way round but was how it was working before and now it wont work in that way either! 

Very frustrating, especially when you've got a 2000 mile euro trip planned for the end of the week! 

Building me some Dakar panniers!

Right, so we're off to Le Mans on the bikes. Me mates got some soft sporty throw over panniers for his NC30, so I need some hard alu panniers for the Dakar. Ive got a massive piece of 3mm thick alu kick plate which used to be the floor of my late Tranny Van (1995 - 2010, R.I.P.), so that will be the panniers.

Started out by cutting up the kick plate flooring into 40x45 panels, for the sides of the panniers. Then a load of 23x40 for the front and back panels, and 23x45 for the bottom panel. 

Once I had all the panels, I cut up a load of pre-drilled 'L' section for the corners. Bit o' no more nails lathered on stuck the l section to the panels no problem, let that dry for a day and then drilled them.

Once the basic parts were assembled and was in a box shape for the first time, I strapped it to the bike to see what the shape would look like. It does look pretty big but compared to stuff on the net, the overall dims are about correct, and there are some others that look ever bigger than these!

This is pretty much one finished, apart from the lid! and oh wait, i still need to make the other one! I am goin to be busy!

Sortin me mates NC30 for Le Mans 2011 trip!

Just a couple of pics from some of the times when me n me mate have been spending time on his bike, getting it painted, attaching the fairings, basically building it from a bit of a pile! (It wasn't me - in the voice of Shaggy) shes looking pretty good now though...

strapped in for its trip back to Lincoln for some MOT action!

BMW F650 Dakar Screen

Right, for months now I've been looking for a new, taller more vertical screen for me Dakar, and cant find anything! It's a 54 plate GS Dakar, which requires the 4 hole front screen and there's nothing! There's loads of the old 3 hole screens, but no 4 hole! Even the Touratech website doesn't have anything!?!?!?!

Anyway, It's slightly frustrating to say the least, here a pic of the kind of thing I want if anyone has any more...

 This is taken off the www.touratech.co.uk website, (just so I don't get into trouble for breach of copyright :/ )

Racing in 2011

So, as you can see by my progress on here, things haven't really gone to plan with trying to compete in all of 2011's race fixtures up at Darley Moor. Our 4th annual trip to Le Mans, and trying to run a road bike along side the race bike has proven far too draining on the old bank account. So, to ensure that I do get some racing in later this year, I have decided to post a pic up of when I did manage to do some racing....

you know, to spur me on.

Dead Be-a-ter-rees

Left lights on, bike won't start. Shit.

Tried bumping it, and I dont know if anyone has ever tried bumpin a 650cc single on there own, wasnt happening!

So got the trusty Scotty C from work to push, still not enough. Even with jumpin on it when letting the clutch out the rear was just locking up every time, time for some jump leads.

Managed to find some, but couldnt find the negative point on the bike. The BMW F650 Dakar has its battery right up where the tank would normally be on a 'normal' bike, which means 3 panels have to come off to get to it. So BMW made a quick access point for the positive just underneath the seat, stuck the positive lead on there, put the negative on part of the chassis near it but that didn't work? Maybe the lead from the positive has corroded? Anyway, 3 panels were swiftly removed and the leads went on the battery terminal.

45mins and several pints of sweat later! (Did all this in thermal trousers and shirt and tie!) she was running.

Fact of the day: Always make sure your lights are off when parked up for the day! :)

Cadwell - 27/03/11

So, Saturday came, hungover to buggery I decided the bike needed some work, I had a track day the next day so obviously i started promptly. 4pm came and the shed doors were flung open for the first time that day. Got the new clip-ons on. Had to move the kill switch over to the other side as the wires coming out were getting in the way of the brake assembly.

Luckily me mates came over and the work pace quickened. Got the fairings attached, plus we/mainly me mate Jimbo manufactured a custom screen bracket...

As you can see, these brackets are of true British pride. Expertly bent, nay, crafted! by hand using only the most sophisticated hand tools and human skill! (Jimbo and a pair of pliers went at it with what we think was a bit of curtain rail and some 'L' shape brackets?) Still, it was proper sturdy and definately did the job!

So, this went on till after midnight, plus we had an early start, plus we lost an hour that night coz of daylight saving so proper tired come sunday morn!

Anyway, we got there, in a rush, bike off the trailer, signed on, first session. Felt proper weird, not been on the NC30 for about 18 months and after riding the Dakar for half a year this felt like a mini moto!

Came into the pits and was engulfed in a cloud of steam, not good! And this was the result.

Nasty looking coolant everywhere! One of the coolant housings that is attached to the crank case in-between the heads in the 'V' had a massive crack and almost split the thing in two!

She's bleeding!

But we managed to find some liquid metal, bodged the crack in the coolant housing.... and decided to take this opportunity to change the oil and wheels for fresh tyres.

(Here's camp Tucann Racing)

(It was cold, tyre warmers aren't :)

Eventually the bike was ready to try again and I made it out for the last 2 sessions!

And, a massive thanks to Dan and Jimbo as always for their help, couldn't have done it without them! :)

Beautiful specimens!

New BMW tyres

Got me new tyres, and new chain and sprockets. Nice! They handle so much better than the knobblys i had on before. Cant wait for the summer tour! and the daily commute.

Ive also just cleaned her, got all that nasty salt off. Would have taken a pic but its getting a bit dark now, plus, who wants to see a clean Dakar! 

Man these look good and they're light! Again, too dark to take pics, maybe next time...

New tools

I needs a new T45 star drive...

Came home with this!

Whatyagonnado!

BMW looses wheels

I need new tyres on the BMW, gonna go for some Metzeler Tourances, so not having any paddock stands, i had to attach it to the roof of the shed, worked quite well i think? two ratchet straps, one at either end and a proper old skule bottle jack underneath the belly pan to take a bit of strain off the rafters!

With tyres...

Without tyres...

Bang tidy!

The sheds tidy. After 3 hours, all four bikes are in there plus there is now space to move around and work on the bikes! :)

She's running! & fairing prep continued...

Very successful weekend just, got my race bike up and running after a long break off, cheers to MB for all his push starting efforts! who needs to go to a gym when you can help push start a race bike???

Here she is after we got her started...

This is shown with old rear fairings that will be replaced with new the black one, pics below. 

And also showing damage on the tank which still needs sorting :/

Anyway, she ran nicely, even took it out to some open space to give her a run before Cadwell this Sunday. 

And the carnage left in MB's garage! 

And this is MB's NC30 btw, not mine in strip down form. We also got this one running again this weekend, after it not running properly for a while. Or should I say, I got it running again while MB was gallivanting around with his girlfriend! 

And here are some pics which i should have included last time regarding painting the fairings...

Mandatory pin up...

So yeh, these are the fairings that are now black, but got dropped, as it explains below.

Might get some stickers for them, coz unfortunately, I don't think that's the last time they'll be dropped. :(