My half arsed F400 nc30

This section is reserved for members on the SITE SUPPORTERS group only. Each supporter can post pics of their bikes for all to view. Standard members can read and reply, but the post author has full control over his thread and can edit, delete & lock at will
Post Reply
User avatar
28hodge
Site Supporter
Site Supporter
Reactions:
Posts: 1204
Joined: Tue May 17, 2011 4:26 pm
Bike owned: nc30 (track) Yam YZ250 (MX)2st
Location: Kendal, Cumbria, Northwest
Re: My half arsed F400 nc30

Post by 28hodge » Fri Mar 18, 2016 11:57 am

So Brands Indy Rd 1 of the 2016 season

I had not ridden a bike since the last round of 2015 which was at Brands Indy in October, but this year I was approaching things differently.

We were booked onto the test day on Friday, all day! I normally do a trackday before the race season starts but simply have not had time this year to do that, and decided the testday was better use than a track day were over taking is frowned on!

Anyway to go with this we also had a brand new set of tyres to use on saturday morning, I bought the Avon 3d ultra extreme for 215 delivered and was looking forward to seeing how we got on with them over the weekend.

Friday went OK, to get to Brands in time for the test so I wasn’t mega rushed, I set off at 2am, and apart from a few 2 lane night closures on the M6 we got down OK, well I say this the m6 was shut at J36 which is where I get on so that wasn’t a great start but, we got to brands at about 6.30am..........busting for a piss.

But this meant I had time to get unloaded and sorted out ready for the testday. This was also the first time my brother was racing after his failed attempt at the last round in 2015 he was all sorted and organised'ish. He still managed to turn up at Brands after me though, AGAIN. Despite this we both were ready for the first test sessions, despite my bike failing noise testing, That'll teach me for repacking the exhaust with Accoustafil and then not warming it up and letting the exhaust get hot enough to allow for the accoustafil to expand.

Test day went well, first couple sessions I went steady to get back into the swing of things I was still on the supercorsa's that I raced on at the end of last year so pushing was not really an option, plus it’s a test day, so going flat out isnt really the plan, I wanted to play with the rear shock settings, I went out as it came set to all the original std settings when it was first built in 1990. I felt a tad soft, it actually felt very similar to me rs250 shock it had replace3d.

Now I am not sure if that was a good or a bad thing, it either meant my RS250 shock was quite good really (which is also a bad thing, as I cant look at it as being the culprit for my 1 sec deficit to the leaders) or that the Ohlins sping was way too soft for me and I'd have to get another one.

Still I had a lot of adjustment available so wound on 4 clicks of compression and went out again, it felt better but really I need to just keep clicking around and see what feels better and what feel worse.

I ballsed up a little as I forgot to play with the rear ride height, the ohlins as std is set to 307mm I was going to set the hub up at 6 oclock position, then wind the shock up 3mm ( a maxton shock raises the rear ride height by 35mm, so through the linkage ration this means it is 10mm longer than a stock shock) so set my ohlins to 310mm and see where this put the ride height. Then put the chain back on and tension it correctly, the hub would move to the 5oclock position , roughly.

Re measure the ride height and see what we had lost and regain it by adjusting the ride height on the shock. I worked out last year I think I needed a shock length ideally of 312.5mm but I'll use the maxton setting to start with and go from there.

Anyway I forgot to do all this as, the bike started running badly, it would rev out in the 3rd session. I popped the carbs between sessions to clean them up and have a look, and low and behold I found a hair stuck down the middle of one of the main jets. Problem solved I got it back together and went out in the 4th session. No different. Bugger.

I went in search of some jets in the paddock and found one size up. I was running 125 front and 127.5 rear so swapped the 127.5's into the front and put a set of 130's in the rear, but wouldn’t be able to test it before quali on sat morn. I was pretty confident it would be fine though. I had put a fresh air filter in over winter and guessed that was allowing better airflow and so required a jet size up.

Friday night I spent buggering around achieving very little but it was good to be back in the paddock chatting away. However it was not nice getting into the van to go to bed with ice not only on the outside but also the inside!!

Sat morn dawned cold, and foggy but bright so with luck it would burn the mist and fog off and we wouldn’t be delayed. I went for a shower to get warm as much as anything else then got my new Avons mounted pressures set, warmers on and waited for quali.

Quali was shocking, the bike ran well but other than that it was awful, the rookies and full f400 class were all out to quali together, so about 50 bikes of varying speeds all out on a 55second a lap circuit, it was manic, I didn’t get one clear lap where I wasn’t held up or baulked somewhere. I even came down pitlane to try and find some clear track aftyer being 6 a breast exiting graham hill.

So we qualified pretty shit, with a 58.728, over 3.500 secs slower than my PB of a 55.228 set in the last race of 2015. So plenty to do off the line in race 1.

Image

User avatar
28hodge
Site Supporter
Site Supporter
Reactions:
Posts: 1204
Joined: Tue May 17, 2011 4:26 pm
Bike owned: nc30 (track) Yam YZ250 (MX)2st
Location: Kendal, Cumbria, Northwest
Re: My half arsed F400 nc30

Post by 28hodge » Thu Mar 24, 2016 3:50 pm


sleepyboy
NWAA Supporter
NWAA Supporter
Reactions:
Posts: 101
Joined: Wed Mar 09, 2016 5:52 pm
Bike owned: Too many to list
Location: Lancashire
Re: My half arsed F400 nc30

Post by sleepyboy » Thu Mar 24, 2016 4:15 pm

Loved it , I wish I was a third of my age, but then again I never did have any talent , hope you post the next one. :smile:

User avatar
28hodge
Site Supporter
Site Supporter
Reactions:
Posts: 1204
Joined: Tue May 17, 2011 4:26 pm
Bike owned: nc30 (track) Yam YZ250 (MX)2st
Location: Kendal, Cumbria, Northwest
Re: My half arsed F400 nc30

Post by 28hodge » Thu Mar 24, 2016 4:45 pm

So, Race 1,

Not my best ride, good start and then struggled to get through slower riders quick enough really, Once Kieran came past me I made a couple moves but didn’t have his pace, Missing gears was also causing my grief. Not sure whats happened but I did move the shifter clamp a little between race 1 and 2 and it was a little better but still not as silky as I'd like.

Once I have had a look at the laptimes on the results I was a little happier. As I kinda knew the opening laps were poor, opening lap is a couple seconds off where it should be and then the same for the first 5 laps, lap 2 was a mid 58, that's pretty slow. It takes me till lap 6 to get down to a mid 56, which is better but really I need to be hitting consistent 55's as a minimum.

The good news is that every lap is faster than the previous and the last 3 laps are my 3 quickest laps of the race, and non felt like I was living on the edge. Best lap of 55.867, which is OK for the opening race of the season after a winter of not riding.

So basically I chalk race 1 down to being race rusty and move on. There looks to be a really good fight with the sub65 bikes as well, from 3rd sub to 10th sub are all within 0.500sec laptimes of each other, so it looks promising for some tight racing over the weekend.

I think the rear shock could be a lot harder, I go round the various garages and have a bounce on some other vfr's they are all a lot firmer than mine, I give it another couple clicks of compression , but leave it alone other than that, I think when I go to the Donington testday I will see if Steve Jordan can set it up for me.

So with nothing else to do I Sit tight and wait for Race 2

User avatar
28hodge
Site Supporter
Site Supporter
Reactions:
Posts: 1204
Joined: Tue May 17, 2011 4:26 pm
Bike owned: nc30 (track) Yam YZ250 (MX)2st
Location: Kendal, Cumbria, Northwest
Re: My half arsed F400 nc30

Post by 28hodge » Thu Mar 24, 2016 4:46 pm

Race 2


sleepyboy
NWAA Supporter
NWAA Supporter
Reactions:
Posts: 101
Joined: Wed Mar 09, 2016 5:52 pm
Bike owned: Too many to list
Location: Lancashire
Re: My half arsed F400 nc30

Post by sleepyboy » Thu Mar 24, 2016 4:52 pm

Yes it did stand out in the video that you were going quicker towards the end and more fluent . Good luck with next race. :smile:

sleepyboy
NWAA Supporter
NWAA Supporter
Reactions:
Posts: 101
Joined: Wed Mar 09, 2016 5:52 pm
Bike owned: Too many to list
Location: Lancashire
Re: My half arsed F400 nc30

Post by sleepyboy » Thu Mar 24, 2016 5:07 pm

Was it my hearing or did the engine tone sound sweeter to the end of race 2

User avatar
28hodge
Site Supporter
Site Supporter
Reactions:
Posts: 1204
Joined: Tue May 17, 2011 4:26 pm
Bike owned: nc30 (track) Yam YZ250 (MX)2st
Location: Kendal, Cumbria, Northwest
Re: My half arsed F400 nc30

Post by 28hodge » Thu Mar 24, 2016 5:23 pm

Race 2 was better,

I knew that looking at how we all finished in Race 1 that a good start was mega important, as the 2 rows of bikes in front are all sub64 bikes.

I nailed the start, and then get spooked by the crasher at paddock on lap 1, The weather is nice but it is late in the day and it was really cold, probably no more than 5 degrees. The crash looked like a cold tyre that just folded with no warning, this buggers my run through turn 1 and then just to help matter, I miss a fucking gear recovering on the run to druids, this really messes me up.

The crash spooked me though and I ride a little hesitent for 2 laps really wanting to make sure the tyres have heat in them, after all I have spent ages painting my fairings so it'd be a shame to sling them at the tarmac in round 1 of the season. Knew I should never have painted the damn thing, I'm getting precious about it now!!

Andy Moxon came past and that Gee'd me up and got me going, I was a bit pissed off when he past me as he did it on the brakes into druids, where I've always felt I was reasonably strong. But he had better pace than me, and dragged me round.

I felt I rode pretty well and kinda expected a better laptime, but only managed a 55.714, which is ok but not great, and slower than my best from 2015.

But the consistancy in the laptime is really good a lot better than race 1 but still just a little slower than I was expecting.

I finish 16th in the full 400 class and 6th Sub.

User avatar
28hodge
Site Supporter
Site Supporter
Reactions:
Posts: 1204
Joined: Tue May 17, 2011 4:26 pm
Bike owned: nc30 (track) Yam YZ250 (MX)2st
Location: Kendal, Cumbria, Northwest
Re: My half arsed F400 nc30

Post by 28hodge » Thu Mar 24, 2016 5:24 pm

sleepyboy wrote:Loved it , I wish I was a third of my age, but then again I never did have any talent , hope you post the next one. :smile:
Haha trust me, I have little talent!!

User avatar
GeeTee
NWAA Supporter
NWAA Supporter
Reactions:
Posts: 282
Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2014 1:27 am
Bike owned: NC30 & GSXR750K4
Location: Dartford, Kent, United Kingdom
Re: My half arsed F400 nc30

Post by GeeTee » Sat Mar 26, 2016 1:31 am

we were watching you from the hospitality suite on main straight, got some complimentary tickets. Glad to be in the warm eating cake and drinking tea, as it was freezing outside. Sorry the filter caused you hassle - just a pattern one I had never run on my bike. New paintjob looks ace and great videos 8-)


Post Reply