East Fortune 2024
It was time for the annual pilgrimage North. With the van loaded and fully fuelled we headed up the A1 to East Fortune.
Once we got there we had a great success in finding parking on the concrete, and even more success with putting up the awning properly now that we had the instructions and knowledge from the supplier.
Scrutineering all passed it was soon time for first practice, which went well, and we felt the extra punch having dropped the final drive ratio as the circuit is short. We had a minor issue with the clutch dragging but it was adjusted. The other thing that was strange was the behaviour out of the hairpin, but a conversation was had over getting more weight onto the front of the bike so Mark had more control.
Next up was qualifying, with an internal goal set of knocking 9 seconds off the pace from last year (10%) which we did achieve, and were still experimenting with line and methods of working the track. With the weight being brought forward out of the hairpin, there was some excellent drive towards the chicane.
It was finally time for the race, with the sidecar 2 rows in front of us stalling on the grid I have no idea how we and everyone else missed them, even the start marshal was looking very worried, I’m sure I saw his hand twitch towards the red flag.
We zoomed off into the first corner catching back up with a few due to having to take the evasive actions. Powering out of the first corner the engine went to Deuggah duggah…. we promptly pulled over to the side off the track unsure what we had broken. After finally getting recovered and having to have the push of shame back to the pits we knew something was not right, all the gears still worked, the drive shaft wasn’t broken, but the engine would not turn over. The decision was made that it was time to put everything away and open a beer, something had gone inside the engine that we do not have a spare of. It turns out that if both pistons are on the same part of the cycle it is pretty terminal. (Anyone got an R75 crankshaft?).
Thank you to all the people who offered to help and support on Saturday afternoon, and also to those who when we went nope the crankshaft is snapped understood that we were not going to strip the bike at the trackside.
All in all not a great weekend, the search is on for a crankshaft, and if we can ever find a spare engine!
So what did we learn?
The lorry will do about 400 miles before it needs an LPG fill up.
It takes a loooooong time to fill the LPG tank from empty!
We can put the awning up and down quickly and finally know how to do it.
Lighting inside the awning is really nice!
How to keep the front end of the sidecar down.
Some days are just one of those days.
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Assen 2024
Finally we made our first race of the season. We unfortunately missed Hengelo, as Graeme had not finished his ear rebuild over the winter!
Talking of rebuilds we had many changes finalised on the sidecar, the oil tank finally moved out of the way, the new front end and brake changes, and a new race RV!
For once arriving early, part of the new keen way of doing things. With the goal of doing better than last year with a DNS in the end!
After finally passing scrutineering it was time for practice on Friday evening. We got ourselves 10 seconds faster than last year, with us both getting used to having more space and the tyres cleaning up from the modern rubber that had got stuck to them.
Saturday after lunch was the final practice. Sadly our time didn’t improve, and no we had not had the Frites by then (They were the post race reward!). We managed 22nd on the grid of 28.
Race 1 was our now becoming usual bad start due to having the wrong first still. Pretty soon though we did something that hadn’t occurred for us in the whole of last season, with having steering and brakes we caught the back of the field. Having caught them we had a big dice, and eventually ended up 17th of the 22 finishers 7th in class!
Much debate was had as to if we should change anything, the first time we had felt the need for more power AND wanted to change the final drive ratio but had not bought the taller gearing, so all was left as was bar changing the pads.
Sunday mornings race was soon upon us. Again we had the start issue with the too tall first gear. We made it back to Henk again (13 above) but this time got passed a lot quicker than on the Saturday. Unfortunately we chased hard to get to the next sidecar but they had made too big a gap (and we had made too many very minor mistakes). In a stroke of consistency 17th over all and 7th in class again. With the joys of the data we get at Assen our fastest lap was just 0.4 seconds off the theoretical fastest lap we could have achieved.
Yes we did celebrate with Frites! And collected our trophy very happily. A very successful weekend of experimentation and progress! The brakes worked for the whole race (just about on the 2nd race), the steering worked for the whole race, and the new RV worked too!
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Pre-season testing Val de Vienne
3 Days testing at Val de Vienne has been complete.
How did it go? The short version is that we knocked 14 seconds off the lap time last year down from a one off 2:59 last year to consistent 2:46 with a few 2:45s. Are we happy with the result? Yes and no.
This time using the testing as actual testing of a few things, not just trying to work out what we are doing!
Things that are great, the new front brake set up which has removed the fade and inconsistency, which means that we are hitting the brakes at the same spot each lap, not having to pump then hit the brakes.
Part way through day 2 Mark stripped the front end to try to resolve an issue that had been about since Oschersleben which was a high speed serious wobble. The hope had been that the new tyres would resolve the issue, but a full rebuilt of the front end resulted in the shaking being removed after a few minor issues had been found.
On the 2nd day we decided to attempt a different more relaxed riding style. With a concentration on Graeme getting over less, but the movement on the sidecar being much smoother. What was bizzar was that the first session felt slower out there, but looking at the times there was no difference bar Mark and Graeme both being less tired at the end of the session.
So what did this mean visually?
It is amazing to see the difference, which also resulted in less mistakes.
The other big change that Graeme noticed was that as we started to hit the throttle harder the new holder that we added in the middle of the bike got used a lot more.
So what do we still have to solve? The front end still has a quirk that it suddenly goes ridiculously tight making it nearly impossible to turn (with some tricks found by harsh movement of Graeme and Mark to get the bike to flick a bit more as a temporary solution). This will result in the headstock being re-worked again to hopefully resolve the issue. The other items outstanding are to move the huge oil reservoir to clear up more space on the sidecar, and adjust some of the bars after that so that the chair is more usable.
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