IOM TT 2014: First test completed

Successful?

Depends what you class as that...

We only ran the superbike as Ricky @ RLR ideally wants a little more time to perfect the 600, i will however need to take a day off work some time this week to go and collect it.

The idea of the test was firstly get me out on the bike and get at least 1 of the 2 signatures i'll be needing to obtain this years Mountain Course licence.

So yes mission accomplished we acheived both of them.

But.... we had a lot of teething problems.

I'm still trying to find out where the chassis is sitting compared to a standard bike and we are going to spend some time tomorrow night finding out.

We think that the linkage thats in the bike at the moment has kicked the back end right up in the airvand to start with the bike was riding very all over the front and oversteering, to the point where i was running over inside kerbs.

As the ride height adjuster is already on its lowest setting the only thing we were able to do was raise the front of the bike 10mm.

Thankfully Ian Lougher was on hand to give advice on what he has found works and a good friend who seems to be in every Paddock, newly engaged Dave Hopkinson gave us a hand to raise the front end.

So we have perhaps improved the chassis a little but i'm not confident of the linkage thats currently in the bike so we'll be going to Cadwell next weekend with 3 different linkage options and we'll understand what linkage does what to the ride heights etc.

Thankfully Nick Morgan is being really supportive and has told me to email him the drawings off the links i have and he'll point me in the right direction.

Talking of Nick and MSS i have ordered a load of parts from him this last week, i've ordered a TT screen for each bike and also a Kit Loom and Ecu 😁😁

Its really smashing the budget but i believe its a sensible buy.

The bike essentially needs the kit stuff as the engine spec is designed to run at the higher revs that the kit ECU will allow and also will give us more traction maps.

But perhaps the best thing will be the reduction in loom size, the standard loom is a total pain in the arse and really crammed in on a ZX10.

We also had a lot of fuelling problems.

The first one was in free practice, one of the secondary injector wires had got trapped under the tank breather outlet and shorted to earth. This held the injector on fully open. I got 3 laps of practice in but the bike was running like a dog!

After a chat with Mr Kawasaki Mark Fisher he explained the theory of what eould of caused us to use 8 litres of fuel in 3 laps!

New plugs and re routing of the wires sorted that problem.

Bike ran great on the stand and revved up fine.

I then went out for the first race and as soon as i drove off the line it was just flat, like running on 50hp!

I pulled in after the first lap.

Kinked fuel line from the tank to the fuel rail.

I already knew these need to be routed spot on so they dont get kinks but i think this one has been routed incorrectly for a lot of its life and was always going to be prone to kinking.

What i should have done, if i'd new we were going to have these problems, is to have used the new fuel line off the new bike. But with the bike dynoing fine and running up and down the rod etc i never thought mich of it.

Neway that sorted, we got out for a full race starting from the back of thd grid, i think i got up to 14th ish. The engine felt fine, was running full power etc.

The chassis was lairy but it was my first ever ride in anger on this bike.

We then had the tank off again to try and change the ride height. Put it all back together properly to take care of the fuel line.

Next race, running like a dog again, felt like a kinked fuel line but not as bad, wouldnt drive out of corners, was coming into its power at random and going flat at high revs. A nightmare to ride but i finished the race, and to be fair i was onto the back of the leading pack by the end of the race, i opted for slicks in a drying track and it was the right choice.

I think i could have won that one if it wasnt for the bike playing up.

We got back neway and again with Mine, Ians and Daves knowledge we all agreed that it could be the notorious fuel pump tea bag filter getting clogged and affecting fuel pressure.

It was indeed blocked and i got it blown out with a compressor. The tank was full of shit where it had had a repair in the past, metal shavings floating around. The frustrations of buying a second hand bike and its teething problems 😁 even if i'd had more time perhaps i could have been more thorough in this temporary build.

Anyway its all in the name of progress!

last race it still ran like shit although not as bad as before. I think i finished 9th from around the back of the grid.

I managed a 1.45 which is shameful for me and the bike. My best lap time in a stocker is high 1.40 on a Superbike on Slicks i should be capable of 1.38's!

We will be going back once we're sorted.

I want to Thank all my Team, Sponsors and supporters for Saturday.

It was great to get a few members of the team such as Charlie and Lisa together with the other sponsors such as Kevin of Delph control systems and the Thompsons.

I think we were all also appreciative and grateful to Ian Lougher for being around to help out too.

I'm about to get busy this next week, works getting behind and race bikes are going to need a lot of work!

The old engines got to stay in for now but the throttle bodys, fuel pump, airbox and fuel lines are all being changed for next weekends racing at Cadwell.