Pre-season Testing Val De Vienne
Being as crazy as we are we have finally managed to go testing at Val De Vienne. A mere 1000kms from here!
Things went well with arriving early for the boat to Dieppe.
Some 8 hours after disembarkment we had finally arrived!
Having decided to go testing half way down France to get the good weather, we of course woke up to some serious rain!
But just before our first session it was nearly dry. We went out for a brief explore of the circuit and sidecar having not ridden it in anger. We can both confess to it feeling completely different from the F1 and F2 of the past!
By about the third session we roughly had the hang of it and worked out that Mark as driver had to lean a lot more, and Graeme was getting his head round leaning out the front! We must have been getting the idea better as we came in with steaming brakes! A brief investigation was held and they were found to be just bedding in. The fourth and fifth sessions saw some dramatic improvement in time as we both got more used to how to ride the beast! We both were very shocked by the punch out of the corners as long as the little 1971 BMW 750 was kept buzzing!
Numerous small improvements for comfort and accessibility of the controls where made, with the gear linkage and brake linkage being adjusted to suit Marks boots, then adjusted again when he changed boots!
At the end of Day 1 we were happy with the knowledge gained, learnt a lot about the sidecar, found a few faults and bits that need adjusting so a success.
Day 2 woke to more rain. The first session went very strange with the bike developing a misfire. Much head scratching, changing of plugs, coils etc followed. The issue was found to be a partially clogged jet, with one carb rebuilt before the second and the other before the thirds sessions of the day.
For the fourth session the sun just about broke through, and we pushed hard to get our fastest time of the test. The fifth session was interesting with intermittent showers resulting in a great deal of exploration of the stability in a slide of the sidecar, Graeme making the discovery that wet gloves and wet bars make for a near front exit of the outfit! Mark also discovering that the handle bar grip glue was water soluable!
Over all a great fun test with a lot learnt.
Items for the next test:
- Graeme to buy some new boots after his 15 year old pair cried enough
- Mark to buy some new boots after his 15 year old pair cried enough
- A minor weld to the frame due to a bit cracking
- Wash out the fuel tank, and replace the fuel lines to try to reduce the chance of more dirt in the carb
- Finish working out how to ride it!
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