The 2014 Season is almost upon us, the bikes have been built (or rebuilt) and its time to see where we are up to!
Testing at Donington Park
After five months we
finally got back out on circuit to test the two FZ 750’s which we are racing in
the 2014 season. We have done a lot of work in the off season, as well as rebuilding
last years bike which Nigel is going to be racing, I have also built a new bike
which I will campaign.
As well as all that,
we have also got ourselves an FZ 750 road bike which we have used for
development. This has been invaluable and been well worth the extra time and
effort, as we have managed to get a lot of the set up and development work done
on the roads in preparation for the upcoming year.
We arrived at Donington Park
Up at 6am we got
ourselves a garage on pit lane and unloaded the vans.
The rain had stopped
now, and although it was brightening up and a steady breeze, the track was
still extremely wet.
After doing the
paperwork and signing on, we eventually got out on track at 9.20am.
We fitted ‘wets’
which we haven’t used before (due to club rules) so with a new bike on new
tyres, we took to the track and started out steadily building up speed
throughout the session as confidence built!
At the end of the
first session, it was all smiles, evident that the road bike development had
been extremely successful, the bike was far better than last years with both
better handling and a lot more power with better delivery!
For the second
session, we continued with the wets, as the track was still wet but drying out.
We continued to improve on speed as the track was now starting to dry quite
quickly, by the end of this session both Nigel and I had done our fastest ever
laps around Donington in ‘Damp’ conditions.
The extra power that
we now have has brought some new issues, as we are both now suffering with
clutch slip, this is fairly easily remedied, with new slightly heavier clutch springs.
The third session was
totally dry, so we went back to dry tyres, (getting plenty of practice in
changing wheels!) I followed Nigel round, He is very quick and I have known all
along that it is going to be a tall order to actually beat him when it all gets
underway in just two weeks time. He was setting a blistering pace, but I
managed to keep with him ok, he would pull away on the straights as my clutch
slip was getting worse preventing me from getting good drive, but I was pulling
him back down Craner curves and the old haipin. The session got stopped due to
an incident, so we pulled into pit lane and lined up ready to go back out. This
time I led Nigel and knowing how fast he had been going, I set off like a
scalded cat! He didn’t manage to get passed me, and afterwards said he could
just about stay with me, so I was really pleased. I also had a few battles with
some guy’s on ‘Modern’ bikes! Had some good ding dongs, they would come past or
accelerate away down the straights, but I would catch them or pass them on the
brakes and through the corners. One guy in particular, riding a new R1, didn’t
seem happy as I went around the outside of him at Coppice, he then came back
past me down the back straight, but as he hit the brakes for the Foggarty esses,
I sailed back passed him again on the brakes. I don’t think he was very happy
being beaten by a 27 year old bike!
During the lunch
break we had a heavy storm, as we were second group out we waited to see if it
was going to dry up as the rain had now passed. The first session went out and
it was apparent that it was not drying, a mad wheel change back to wets,
finished just in time to get out for the start of the session. My front brake
didn’t feel very good, possibly down to the pads getting bedded in on the dry
wheels! In addition to this, the visibility was very pour, with a lot of spray
coming up. The clutch was now getting a little worse, so it ended up a steady
session.
The last session
ended with mixed results. The track still totally wet but with the sun out, I
lead Nigel out onto the circuit, He came past on the second lap and started to
gap me. As I started to get used to the conditions, my confidence grew along
with my pace. I could see Nigel about 200 metres in front and I started to reel
him in. After another two laps the gap had halved and I was really starting to
push.
Unfortunately I
pushed a little too hard and found ‘the limit!’ At the end of the back straight
I hit the brakes and the front tucked! It is slightly down hill and I was now
using my ‘dry braking marker’, so I had just braked to hard. It was my own
fault and far better to happen now than in a race!
Thankfully there was
very little damage, with the crash bug taking the brunt of the impact. Just a
broken handlebar and clutch lever / master cylinder!
Oh.. and I now need a
new helmet!
All in all, a very
good successful test day. We have a few minor things to address and I have my
paintwork to do, but otherwise we are now ready for 2014!
The first meeting is
at Mallory Park
I would like to take
this opportunity to thank our sponsors
Mid Norfolk
KJD Motorcycles
HiFlo filters
JT Chains and
Sprockets
And
Peels 4U
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.