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PLOP ENDURO 2018 Round 2 – Anglesey Circuit 15/09/2018

Posted: Sun Sep 09, 2018 11:18 am
by BB_158
As some of you will already know, a few of the 400GB lot have put together an endurance race team called THE JAP EYED P’’’’s. :grin:

The Plop Enduro is an 8 hour race with 100 teams on the starting grid racing Honda’s most successful bike in all of history, the C90 cub, or as some fondly call it the ‘Plastic Pig’ :stupid:

We are doing our second race of the season at Anglesey Circuit next Saturday 15th Sept 2018

If any of you fancy a great day out, then plop along to support The P’’’’s, the kettle is always on and there is plenty of cake.
bighug

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Re: PLOP ENDURO 2018 Round 2 – Anglesey Circuit 15/09/2018

Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2018 7:33 am
by mruehl34
Enjoy it

Michael

Re: PLOP ENDURO 2018 Round 2 – Anglesey Circuit 15/09/2018

Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2018 9:04 am
by tom4
go go go :)

tom4

Re: PLOP ENDURO 2018 Round 2 – Anglesey Circuit 15/09/2018

Posted: Mon Sep 17, 2018 11:01 am
by CRM
Well that didn't quite go to plan. i am sure Mike will be along shortly with an update (it may be a while as he types with 1 hand !!!!)

Re: PLOP ENDURO 2018 Round 2 – Anglesey Circuit 15/09/2018

Posted: Fri Sep 21, 2018 12:03 am
by BB_158
Despite good intentions, work & other commitments meant the JEP C90 prep for Anglesey was a tad rushed to put it mildly & the Plop ended up in pieces all over Mi’s dining room in order get stuff completed in time.

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Due to an advisory at Mallory on the front suspension leading arms, we fitted new genuine Honda collars & bushes which oddly seemed just as sloppy as the ones we took out. However, once wheel was fitted there was a noticeable improvement. A new OOR Stage III Red Tag Type E22 cylinder head was installed but had not been run yet. Ported & gas-flowed, stronger valve springs, camshaft running in roller bearings instead of bushes sounded great on paper however I wasn’t getting my hopes up too much that it would make a jot of difference to our 7.5HP other than a bigger hole in my pocket…

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The Kepspeed race parts had proved a bit of a ball ache to fit, no instructions at all & swingarm kit doesn’t actually fit a cub without modification. A last min order of a spare stub axle to chop up (so that we still had a route back to the old setup should this fail) & replacement of cush-drive bearing which we found to be completely foobarred, then the services of a good mate Andy and his lathe to alter the stub axle and make the “missing” spacer pieces to get it all to fit together. A revised exhaust bracket, longer drive chain were hastily sorted and we took an educated guess at the gearing required. The race seat was a combined design & build effort between Mi & myself at the eleventh hour – very pleased with the result & an awesome improvement over the honda barge.

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Test riding was all but non-existent, the engine was not running right for some reason. A problem with the new rearsets was chronic vibration, my feet were buzzing after just 5 min! Phil & I were still faffing with set up & carb tuning on the Fri morning before stuffing everything in the van.
Unfortunately Phil (Zippy’s replacement) had to cancel last min for personal reasons, so a plea for a replacement replacement & Paul managed to rope in his mate Steve. Mi was travelling up later, so I set off in the van on me tod into the simmering chaos of Fri pm traffic, looking forward to a rendezvous with Tony to set up w/e camp. Paul & Steve were to join us early on race day. Sunday would be TD at RAF Valley.

Enroute, some 3 hours behind schedule, I got a call from Tony stuck on the M25 having lost all gears on his van. Attempts to fix at the roadside proved futile & the only option was recovery. TotalLoss Tony was out of the game. And then there were three…
I was mindful that Paul was not at full fitness either. Oh crap, I pressed on arriving at 20:30, established camp in the dark, and installed the bike in pit garage 6. Then Mi rocked up and we did the mandatory lock-wiring and some panic thread-locking in a vain attempt to stop it vibrating to pieces, adorned our race number 31s (putting us in the first wave at race start) and mingled with our new garage neighbours over a couple of beers. I was well chuffed with how our ride had shaped up, with several favourable comments received from inspection by our fellow competitors. Secretly, I was bricking it as to whether the bike would hold together, run properly or even run at all?

Race day dawned soon enough, Paul & Steve arrived in good time and I presented them with Team JEP T-shirts, which were proudly donned, and we set about the completing registration / scrutineering processes then, oh cock, team JEP got rumbled for an illegal swingarm - Oops I didn’t read the regs fully [read: at all]. The race organiser was summoned to the scrutineering bay. After some stern looks & interrogation, we could remain in std class on proviso it was gone next meeting, phew that was lucky! Meanwhile, Mi stayed in base camp and expertly added sets of Nakano Eyes to the team helmets, she is such a star. Last minute addition of GoPro, handlebar mirror care of CRM, mmm pretty & surprisingly useful as it turns out. Now it was time for the safety briefing held in pit lane - Geez, that’s a lot of riders.

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Practice followed, I was first out & to my complete amazement the bike was pulling really strong it didn’t miss a beat, thankyou God. I found that it was possible to ride the whole circuit in 3rd gear (top). I was elated & couldn’t stop smiling with excitement in anticipation of the race. The peg vibration was still there but muted somewhat by the addition of butchered soft compound handlebar grips, sorry Renthal! Satisfied after 2 laps I came in, did a few basic checks that the new bits were still tight and gave rest of the 40min practise session over to the guys to get some laps in with their unfamiliar ride as the wallowy/vague handling does take some getting used to. A minor tweak to the gear linkage & we were fit to race.

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I can’t say I wasn’t nervous lining up for my first ever race start (Zippy did Mallory). So much so that I neglected to notice that the bike was still in second gear. The grid was set, a marshal left the front of field and in MotoGP stylee the red lights came on for 3 secs… went out and we were off in a roar of raging plops! Video footage confirms my start was undoubtedly too leisurely due to my cockup, but it was insignificant & I set about picking my way through the flurry of riders whilst trying to stay out of any early squabbles. The field spread out quite quickly & I settled into a rhythm, err flat out all of the time! Overtaking became easier as I found the bikes strengths, the key to getting the best out of it was carrying as much corner speed as one could stomach. On reflection one more tooth on the rear sprocket may make it easier to accelerate out of the corners. There were certainly a few dodgey moments on the limit of handling, overstepping the tyre grip, but I cracked on for almost an hour before pitting. I was pretty knackered & my feet were absolutely buzzing for ages afterwards.

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Fuel stop done, kitchen timer set & with a quick push (a new pit task since the race rearsets meant there was no longer a kickstart) & out went Paul for his 1st session. We popped over to check the electronic timing board & were pleasantly surprised to see that we were in 35th place overall. I was slightly concerned that with Paul’s left leg playing up, the peg vibration issue might limit his riding so we stayed on pit wall to monitor his progress. To his credit he stuck to his guns completing his stint as planned.

Next up Steve, he seemed very keen in the practise session. The GoPro was still running at this point but the battery would pack up during his session. He was straight back to it, riding with good pace & felt I could relax a little so rest of Team JEP went to take on some fluid and delicious cakes. I was very pleased with how things were going. Even the sun made an appearance. After a bit of chat I made my way back to the pit garage and readied myself for my next session. Steve pitted and we refuelled to half tank which is enough for 1hr riding, a bump and I was out on circuit again. Quickly, got back to it and was absolutely flying. Half way through my session I entered turn 2, a fast banked 180 degree right hander, tailgating another rider and lining up to overtake on the exit just as I had done many times before, when in a split second he lost the backend of his bike spinning out of control into my path, I had nowhere to go and no time to react, I clouted his bike (and him also as he was still holding onto the handlebars) and boff I hit the tarmac heavily with my left shoulder then slid onto the grass. I heard/felt something crack but thought nothing of it. I went to my bike which was still running, appeared in tact, and tried to pick it up but it was then that I realised there was something wrong with my shoulder. Bollocks I thought, game over, and it was. I went to the marshal post and within 2mins the ambulance arrived to cart the 2 of us to the medical centre. Unfortunately, Mi had gone for a walk around the circuit, had turned off her internet to conserve battery and was not responsive to texts. She did snap some nice scenery, a local art piece and ironically a great picture of the pace car that was deployed for my accident & recovery, unbeknown to her at the time.

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So a fractured collar bone, a visit to Bangor Hospital A&E, X-Ray confirmed a nasty mess, so no more riding this year. Urmph.
(Update: the picture is of x-ray taken locally yesterday and confirmed will need op next week)

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Despite the injury & DNF, it was still a great day, all credit goes to The Jap Eyed P’’’’s team, those present Mi, Paul & Steve were fabulous, recovery mode swung into action, bike recovered, everything packed up & van cwtched away. Sorry guys n gal for spoiling the party

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A thank you also goes out to Phil for his expert assistance with prepping the bike. Looking forward to racing with JEP again & hoping for better luck and greater success at Mallory at end of April 2019.

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I have uploaded some of our GoPro footage on my YouTube channel at
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfX6K- ... wBbPY0nMOw

Plop start
https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=zXWvhHqKFQY

Enjoy, yawn

Cheers
Mike
Chief Faffer

Re: PLOP ENDURO 2018 Round 2 – Anglesey Circuit 15/09/2018

Posted: Fri Sep 21, 2018 9:15 am
by CRM
Now that's a proper write up.
Bet you started it Monday if using your best typing finger

Re: PLOP ENDURO 2018 Round 2 – Anglesey Circuit 15/09/2018

Posted: Fri Sep 21, 2018 11:33 am
by CB1pod70
Ouch - it's always when you start playing around with these underpowered smaller bikes that you end up with the biggest injuries.

Hope you make a speedy recovery and if you need another team member/reserve for next year, let me know as I might have a bit more spare time in 2019

Re: PLOP ENDURO 2018 Round 2 – Anglesey Circuit 15/09/2018

Posted: Fri Sep 21, 2018 1:15 pm
by BB_158
@CRM - I had nothing but time bud, and in any case my best writing finger can keep up with my brain no probs ;)

@CB1pod70 - thanks, I will keep you in mind for 2019 races

Cheers

Re: PLOP ENDURO 2018 Round 2 – Anglesey Circuit 15/09/2018

Posted: Sat Sep 22, 2018 7:21 pm
by BB_158
Have op booked for Tues to plate my broken collar bone.

For those interested, here is link to the plop post on the C90Club website

http://www.c90club.co.uk/viewtopic.php? ... 67#p302036

and the plop official results

https://tinyurl.com/2018-Anglesey100-Results

Looking forward to racing again in 2019.

Re: PLOP ENDURO 2018 Round 2 – Anglesey Circuit 15/09/2018

Posted: Thu Sep 27, 2018 9:21 pm
by Variablevalves suck
Sorry to hear about the off, get well soon matey.
Would have come over if I’d seen this was on, better luck next year.