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. :(

Fairing prep continued...

So, last weekend headed off to me mates to 'borrow' his garage to do some painting. Still got some work to do, spesh seeing as after I'd primed and coated the main fairing with matt black, I then preceeded to drop it and scrape it on the floor, thus reversing all my efforts! Bad times! Still got next weekend though before Cadwell.

J C Engineering goes live!

I've created a gig on fiverr.com.

http://www.fiverr.com/users/jcengineering

Check it out!

Painting new fairings

Hello, welcome to my blog. 


Tucann Design and Print is my dad's book publishing business. Without my dad and his business, I wouldn't have my race bike, I wouldn't have my computer to write this blog on, and without him might not even have this mental urge to ride anything with an engine and wheels! 


So a big thanks to Tom Cann at Tucann Design and Print, for all his help and support!  


I'd also like to take this opportunity to thank Richard 'Fletch' Fletcher for his track side support during my first race season of 2009. 

First blog: Its the start of the 2011 sea son and I'm already behind!  Don't have enough time to get the bike ready for the first meeting at Darley so rather than spending loads of money on race fees and risk not having the bike ready in time, I'm just going to have to settle for a trackday at Cadwell at the end of the month. Meh, could be worse. Cadwell's ace so looking forward to it! 

There's still loads of stuff to do on the bike before that. But for now, I'm painting a new seat unit I've bought off ebay.

These farings are awesome quality, best aftermarket race fairings i've ever seen. These have sprayed up real nice! And yes, they may be hanging from the ceiling light in the spare room/lil bro's mini art studio, but, needs must. 

The primer is on, pics don't show it well. The final colour will be matt black, with areas of grey and red. Final design yet to be finalised... poetic license and all that jazz!