Ok, been meaning to start this thread for ages to document where I go with this bike, so bear with me as the first couple of posts might be long!

Around mid-2010, I decided to stop racing supersport and switch race classes. I have always loved the RC30/NC30 and when I found out that the first 89 model was eligible for pre89 Post Classic racing, that was my mind made up! Still, in NZ, 89 models don't come up for sale that often, so it took me 5 months to find this:




Apart from the replaced front fairing it is all original and with only 25000 km on the clock, it is almost too nice to race!

I have a couple of months before round 1 of the winter series and my main plan is to work on the handling and weight of the bike, rather than chase power for now. I'm rapidly trying to strip bits off my 675 to sell, so I can buy new bits for the NC!

First on the list is suspension. I'm switching to 17" rears for a better choice of rubber and then order a new rear shock to suit the 17 and Ractech internals up front:


There is something pretty special about a box like this! I was just amazed by the attention to detail - Even the polystyrene box is stamped with the Ohlins logo!

The main weight saving I'm going for at the moment is losing the road gear, stock exhaust and subframe. I also give the brakes a 21 year overall with some new lines, pads, seal kit and a really good scrub!






Apart from that and rejetting to the UK spec bikes (plus the usual racebike tweaks) I chuck on some race fairing and load up for the test day before round 1:




I arrive late for the test day, so only get a few sessions in to bed brake and scrub tyres. The bike is running well and feels great. CKT are there to help out with some suspension setup, but with the weather looking great for the first round, it is game on!

NEXT: Round 1

Posties qualifying
Get to the track and it is wet. I have a set of wets but no spare rims until Dan Plaisted lends me a set which he randomly has in his boot! Sweet. I take it easy as it is already starting to dry out. End up 11th on the combined grid which is about the middle of the middle. Happy with that, but shocked at the time 1m33 I haven't been in that territory since my first ever race!

Race 1
The track is pretty much dry so I go for slicks. Get a crap start (story of the day for me) and slot in sort of around where I qualified for turn one. I pick off a couple of bikes through the infield. As soon as I hit the straight after the hairpin, the bikes in front just clear off I figure I just got crappy drive off the hairpin trying to go up the inside of someone but it happens again after Higgins and then the start/finish. Seems the little NC isn't as ponied up as the competition! I manage to catch and hang on to Eamon Timms in 4th until the last lap, turn 1, I am right on his tail. We catch up with some lapped traffic, I get a better line, open the gas and get nothing - I missed a gear change coming into T1. By this point it is almost game over, except I notice Steve Bagshaw going real slow coming out of dunlop and try to scalp him before the line but miss out but a couple of tenths. Finish 5th in pre-89jr which I was quite happy with on my first time out!

Race 2
More of the same, albeit a slightly better start. Have a really good dice with Tim Baker and manage to take the position a number of times only to get blasted past one the straights. The is also a guy on a FZR1000 who I must pass about 5 times though the corners only to get nailed on the straights. We aren't even racing for position, but it is still great fun. This is exactly the kind of racing I was hoping to get in Posties! Finish 6th with a new posties PB of 1m24.1 (lol!)

Race 3
Let the clutch out too early and bog off the line Spend the rest of the race catching and passing as many people as I can but somehow manage to get up to 5th again!

Overall, I had and awesome weekend. I love the post classic class and really felt like I gelled with the bike. There are a load of things I need to work on for next time (gearing more than anything) but now I'm trying to figure out how to make thing faster! Kind of funny because this is exactly what everyone told me would happen. I have had a look at the videos and I know of a few places where I can make up time, but interestingly comparing laptimes to my F2 times, I'm actually carrying more corner speed though a lot of the corners.

Big thanks to the Vic club for putting on a awesome show. Motorad for sorting us out with parts and tyres, Robert Taylor for the great suspension work, Dan Plaisted for use of his rims and all the people who came and helped/said hello over the weekend. It was all very appreciated.

Bring on round 2!

Here are the videos for anyone interested:

Race 1: http://vimeo.com/23716692
Race 2: http://vimeo.com/23716890
Race 3: http://vimeo.com/23717160

After the first round the main thing I need to fix is the gearing. I'm running the standard front/rear setup albeit in 520 pitch. Order a -1F and +2 rear setup which should be pretty lively, but by my calculations will have me just shy of the limiter in 6th at the end of the longest straight.

Also, after the usual winter series wet/dry affair, I buy a second set of rims in dayglo yellow off abrmoto from here! One day, I will get all the wheel powdercoated, but right now I need to concentrate my pennies on making the bike quicker!

In a bid for more power, and a chat with Cammo (cheers!) I read up on the HRC carb setup and start acquiring parts to begin working on this.

Last change is some go faster vinyl! Trying to keep the RWB colour scheme and go for the classic F3 look (except for those wheels! )

VMCC Winter Series - Round 2

Hadn't really done much to the NC30 since rnd 1 except change the gearing. I have all the bits I need to HRC spec the carbs, but no time to do it so they are still floating round my garage.

Arrive and pit up with the Moto Academy lot since I have taken up the training Steve offered at the start of the season. I had a real shitter of a round last year at the long circuit and was keen to exercise those demons. Unfortunately, just like last year it was a pretty damp track. I have clocked all of 1 race around the circuit, so was hoping to treat this as a learning experiece.

Qualifying
Attrition rate started here with the session being red flagged after 1 flying lap! We get sent back out again to get another flying lap in, but I end up 11th on the grid with a 2:31. Not fast, but happy with 11th!

Race 1
Get my usual bad start (Beginning to wonder if there might be something up with the clutch as I usually get 1 decent start in a few) however managed to pick a few place back through the infield. Coming out of Higgins and one rider puts his hand up. I take that position, get round the next corner and another rider sticks his hand up!? We are right over the back part of the circuit where there are fewer marshall points and I think I have missed a red flag so I slow up a little only to get overtaken by a couple of riders Pass a couple back and put in a PB of 2:23.0 (only ever ridden it wet remember!?). Finish 5th in pre89 jr which is better than I thought!

Rest of the day is called off after the oil spill, but a big thanks to VMCC and Manfeild for making the right call and doing an awesome clean up.

Race 2
Red Flagged after a couple of corners. Have a quick splash and dash and grid up for the restart. The start this time isn't too bad (still crap, but a paler shade of crap!). Tip in to turn 1 and then I hear a bike skidding along the track. I just know I'm toast before it hits and sure enough my back wheel is swiftly taken from under me. Annoyingly, my bike must have flipped at some point as all the damage is on the opposite side to where is should have been. Front end is pretty twisted and my LHS rearset is a mangled ball of scrap, so that is the end of my day.

Really sucks the big one as this was a 4 race weekend and 3 no scores has really killed me in the championship stakes. I know I can drop my worst score, but since I'm missing round 3, this will have to count. Nevermind. Gonna fix up the bike and fit some go faster bits and get back for round 4!

Big thanks to VMCC for great organisation, Motorad for parts and service, Steve B and the Moto Academy trainees for the help and company, Sam for sorting out my leathers and anyone else who came and said hello over the weekend.

No race videos as I forgot to empty the memory card and only have 1 min of me sitting on the dummy grid For all the damage, I was at least expecting a cool crash vid to see how it went down, but no

I missed round 3 because I was back in Europe getting married and have a holiday! However, one of the bonuses of going back to the UK was bringing and empty suitcase and stuffing it full of NC spares parts!

The main part needed to fix the bike was replacing the bent bottom yoke which could be picked up 15 quid in the UK, but non-existent here in NZ! I also bought a set of some SES rearsets as having both TYGA ones bend in a relatively slow speed crash wasn't that great.

Finally got round to modding the carbs to HRC spec (a couple of days before round 4!) So I had to trawl through the archives here to come up with a base setup:

MJ: 145F, 147.5R
PJ: #40 all round
Needles: 8ZF with 0.5mm washers
Pilot screws: 1.5 turns out



My dodgy velocity stacks and drilled bolt to restrict airflow:


New SES rearsets:

After a couple of months off the bike due to an early exit from Round 2 and being away getting married during Round 3, I was really looking forward to Round 4. Unfortunately, because work was so damn busy, all my plans of fettling my bike into mechanical perfection went out the window and I only finished getting the thing back together by lunchtime on Saturday! At least the thing was straight now!

Sat trackday
Bike finally starts just before lunch and I get it scruiteneered ready for my first session. The only thing bothering me was the new my open carb setup with jetting settings. The bike would stumble really badly between 3-7k, pretty much to the point of stalling. Then it did cut out coming into Higgins and so I had to park it . An hour of carb fiddling ensued and although it still had the overly rich stumble between 3-7k, beyond that it was running fairly well (as long as I kept it 8k+)!

Qualifying
Pretty cold so I'm not going banzai. Am behind Mike Webster when his Kwak lets go in a big way down th back straight. Luckily he realises and keeps well off the racing line (good man!) so although there is a clean up, it's not a big deal. End up 13th in the mixed class on the inside for a change with a slow 1:26 lap

Race 1
Get an average start. The engine stumble that I can avoid while lapping, can't be avoid on the starts and as soon as I launch there is a stutter before picking up speed. Lose a few places into T1, but make a few back though T2 and Splash. Things start to settle down and I get into a monster battle with a guy on an old beemer! He clearly has the legs on the straights, but hugs the inside on every turn, which hampers my roll-on. Eventually I get past and my laptimes drop 2 secs. I can see the group in front and I'm gaining rapidly, but run out of laps just 0.3 of a second behind the guy in front. Got into the 1:21s with a new PB of 1:21.5! Sweet. What was even more encouraging was my timer giving me an optimum lap of a 1:20.5, so I just need some consistency.8th in the class.
Video -> http://www.vimeo.com/28071812



Race 2
After some wise words from Steve, I go out in race 2 and try a few new things. I pick of a few people and catch a pass a couple of riders who finished ahead of me in race 1 but just get my ass handed back to me on the straights. Was getting a little frustrated having to work so hard in the corners only to have someone wind it open and pull straight back in front on the straights! Still had some great racing and applied some suggestions by Steve B, that definitely helped. Finished 7th with a best lap of 1:22 something
Video -> http://www.vimeo.com/28072022



Race 3
Same problems with the start again. (It's not just the carbs - I really need to practice these!) So spend the first part of the lap making back positions I lost off the start. Eventually get a bit of clear air and I'm not really catching the guy in front. End up a lonely 7th again with the slowest best lap of the day, but still happy.
Video -> http://www.vimeo.com/28072125



Overall, I had a great weekend! It was nice to take the bike home in one piece and hopefully by next time I'll be able to sort out the niggles. Got a few things to concentrate on and the main on is get a decent start and go hard on the first lap. Laptime-wise I can run the pace in front (well apart from maybe Eamon!), but by the time I'm there, everyone has cleared off.

Still, happy with knocking off 2.5 secs from my best from Rnd 1!

Big Thanks to Motorad for parts and service, Steve Bagshaw and Moto Academy, Robert Taylor at CKT and all the guys/girls I pitted with and people who came and said hello throughout the weekend.

Onto round 5!

Tweak the carbs to run the following setup:

MJ: 142.5F, 145R
PJ: #40 all round
Needles: 8ZG with no washers
Pilot screws: 2.0 turns out

And the bike is much happier throughout the whole midrange! Sweet. This is still ass dyno as I have good reason to hold off spending any coin on proper dyno tuning these carbs. Here is a clue, but more on that later:


Get some new EBC discs from Rick O as the originals are under the wear limit and have a pretty big lip:


I also managed to finish the fake vinyl paint job and switch race numbers to #24. Lot of dramas recently about number size with the club and MNZ, so I drop the 1 so I can fit the numbers to the NC's small frontage in regulation height. Can't seem to find any pics though...

Great write-up, mate!!! Now get these FCRs properly tuned, and then share the info with a poor fella up notrh, will ya..!

Nice, clean bike you got there! Good luck with the racing!

/Lasse

I enjoyed reading this thread mate, keep us updated ASAP!!

L.Svedberg wrote:Great write-up, mate!!! Now get these FCRs properly tuned, and then share the info with a poor fella up notrh, will ya..!

Haha! Unfortunately the earliest I can get the dyno booked for is Nov 15th, so until then I'll probably have to go back to the HRC spec CV carbs. I also have a second tuned engine in the pipeline, but I'll post more on that when I start work on it.