Oschersleben 2023

Finally back racing again for the final round of the season.

During the gap a few things have occurred! The sidecar got completely stripped down, the frame re-welded on many of the joints, new shocks fitted, gearbox changed, brakes tweaked, electrics re-visited, and a whole load more!

Having arrived at Oschersleben nearly a day early due to the timings of boats a relaxed day was spent getting set up and ready for the meeting.

All too soon it was Friday, time for scrutineering which all went well and drivers briefing (which was very strange as the sidecar world championship was practicing in the background!).

Saturday rose with use being out in the morning, practice went OK there was something not right with the outfit, so for Qualifying 1 Mark swapped one of the front shocks and dropped the ride height back down. Things where still not great after a couple of laps, Mark noticed that the headstock bearing was just catching slightly so these were removed, re-packed and spacered, and the new shocks put back on. The few laps that where managed in the session all seemed OK, and it felt like we had our bike not a bucking bronco back.

For Race 1 it was clear something wasn’t right again after a few laps suddenly the steering went heavy, times slowed and the sidecar misbehaved again. After the prize giving all seemed better again, so the assumption was made that the spacing on the headstock needed checking and changing again for race 2.

This worked very well, with the sidecar behaving wonderfully for 5 laps. Sadly it was an 8 lap race, with the final 3 laps being a fight between a misbehaving sidecar and crew. We thrashed out a 7th place finish in our class somehow.

For the season we got 8th in class overall.

Now just to work out the winter works… First thing will be to replace the headstock bearing with taper bearings (which was on the to do list) and look at changing the ratio on 1st gear so that we can pull away from the line.


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