The next race meeting - the Summer Nationals, is now just a couple of weeks away. The entry list for all bike classes is quite impressive and just shows how many bikes there are out there in the wings.
The latest entry list has 9 in comp bike, which isn't bad at all but the real surprise is funny bike, which has come back from the brink of extinction in the middle of last year to 12 bikes at this one.
So whos new in comp? well.... the list looks like this:
1
Philip
Leamon
Suzuki
GSXR 750
1290cc
2
Harold
Wolfenden
Suzuki
Hayabusa
1299cc
3
Phil
Crossley
Suzuki
GSX
1500cc
4
Tony
Clark
Suzuki
GSX
1500cc
6
Jemma
Venables
Suzuki
Hayabusa
1300cc
7
Lizz
McCarthy
Suzuki
GSX
1428cc
24
Mick
Winyard
Suzuki
GSXR1100
1216cc
42
Alan
Davies
Suzuki
GSX
1428cc
627
Kevin
Osman
Suzuki
Turbo Busa
1300cc
Both Kevin Osman and Mick Winyard have previously been 8.50 bike racers. I've spoken to a few 8.50 racers recently who are planning the move to comp bike, so there may be even more entries to come later in the year. 8.50 is proving to be the stepping stone that it was intended to be.
Paintwork is 99% finished, it's certainly looking a lot less stealthy than the previous matt black affair.
Paintwork is making progress, it's about half done but I've run out of paint, one more can should do it but I'll have to get it mixed up one day this week. It's worked out cheaper to spray with cans than using the spray gun so that's what I've done. New vinyls are on order too and should be here before the end of the week. Here's a photo to be going on with... hopefully next weekend will see it finished other than cutting and polishing.
The bodyshell has seen better days, i should really use it to make a mould and make a new one as the gel coat has cracked all over and it's been repaired underneath several times and has become a fair bit heavier than it should be. But it'll look presentable enough and do another few seasons should it need to.
One rather obvious thing that's come to light recently is that the gearing on the bike is miles out. Why we haven't noticed this before seems a bit of a mystery but a larger front sprocket was fitted to the bike not long after i built it and since then i guess other things like broken engines have been the focus of our attention, and somehow this has escaped our attention. It's currently geared for over 190mph! so i've done some sums and ordered a larger rear sprocket and added a link to the drive chain.
It may help sort our still slightly off pace 60ft times and definitely gives an increase in torque so it'll be interesting to see what difference it makes.
And lastly, for those who don't do facebook, this was posted on our page after the last event. It's the shakey cup! the first cup/trophy thing we have won since the bopchop team started racing.
The last event was the nail in the coffin for the black paintwork. It does look cool in matt black, but it was only ever meant to be temporary, and there's quite simply far too many black bikes, you could say it's a bit oversubscribed. And anyway, one less will maybe help break the monotony?
The paint has been chosen and bought, it'll be similar'ish to last time really - suzuki white and blue but with a bit of red this time as well. The bodywork's been de-stickered, de fastenered, de-seated, cellulose putty'd and sanded down once again. We bought a spray gun a few months ago in readiness for painting but i worked out the cost of paint vs aerosols and it's cheaper to use aerosols, plus the cans come with rather good nozzles which can give a really good finish.
A couple of dry warm days and hopefully it'll be done, and this weekend looks promising weather wise but it'll not be happening, as a contingent of team bopchop is heading off to the main Event at Santa pod for a couple of days of European drag racing!
After all the ruined events due to rain last year, and the dry but freezing cold conditions at Easter, it was great to go racing and the conditions be perfect. Yes it did rain just one morning but the weather was warm and it dried up pretty quickly. We still made 2 rounds of qualifying that day, the first run we overpowered the track by miles and lit the tyre up
almost straight away, that was followed by a bit of grip, then tyre shake (which
made me shut it off as i was sure something had broke). The second run we turned it right down and it went much better. At the end of Saturday we were number one qualifier with an 8.11. The bike showing none of the running problems it had on every pass at Easter. When we ran the left lane it even went in a straight line!
Sundays qualifying went even better, using the same soft settings from the previous day we made an improvement on our best ever time, running a 7.85 (previous best was 7.87) and good incrementals too, but the Racepak shows i lifted the throttle slightly during the run and the shift points missed by ... well, miles! Room for improvement.
However, we were no longer number one qualifier, that went to Lizz McCarthy who made an amazing comeback after a proper encounter with the guardrail the previous day. And we finished in the number 2 position.
On to race day and the wind died down and the sun was shining. Round one saw us up against Phil Leamon who had qualified 5th with a slightly off pace 8.3, it could be guaranteed that he would run very close to that time, and always has good reactions. I left the settings unchanged from the 7.85 the previous day, and chose the now favorite left lane. It was a good run and we crossed the line first with an even better 7.83 at 166.96mph.
Prior to that run I'd overheard Tony Clark talking about how (jokingly) he may end up fitting wheelie bars to his bike trying to run his first 7 second run, he'd run close so many times and put such a lot of time and effort into it. I watched him go up the track before me in his race against Alan Davis, both had good runs and it was a close finish but Tony made it first and the time that flashed on the board began with that elusive 7. To say he was overjoyed was an understatement. Possibly highlight of the weekend really.
The downside was that Tony was on a roll, and i faced him in the next round. I went for the same lane and the same settings, it left well, started off nice and straight but around the 660ft mark the bike began to drift towards the guardrail, i held in as long as i could and tried to steer it away but it just responds so slowly and eventually i had to roll the throttle to get it to come back, at that point Tony came flying past and crossed the line 0.16 seconds before me.
The final then was made up of Tony Clark and Lizz McCarthy, it was a close one but Lizzy's bike seemed to have problems off the line letting tony get slightly ahead and it was tony who held it there winning the event with another 7.9.
Sam will have some pictures from the weekend on her Photobucket page shortly, not as many as usual as she spent most of the time getting slow motion video footage of my runs. When i have time to edit them down i'll post a couple on here.
All in all it was the best event in a long time - and not just for team bopchop!
This week we will mostly be .......
Heading to Shakespeare County Raceway for the 2nd round of the ACU championship - the Springspeed Nationals.
The number of entries in all the bike classes is surprisingly low, but entries stay open right up to the event so they may improve. However Comp bike is currently on 6 entries, Tony Clark is back after missing the Easter event, but so far Gemma Venables is not on the entry list. A full field would be a more interesting prospect but still ....... 6 will do!
We will be heading down to Stratford-upon-avon on Friday, qualifying is on Saturday and Sunday, and coverage of the whole event can be found on the eurodragster.com event page HERE
The webcam will also feature live commentary whilst the track is open.
Trying to diagnose what was the cause of the problems we had at the last meeting is proving to be tricky. As mentioned, the battery voltage dropping so low was cause for some thought, it's possible that the nitrous solenoid wouldn't pulse properly with such a low voltage, or indeed the ignition may not function correctly either. The battery is currently being cycled a few times to see if it improves, but it's difficult to tell without running it. It may be a case of taking a cheapo spare battery to try, just in case the problem persists at the next round.
On every run - bar the one with no nitrous, the Racepak shows a spike on the trace for wide open throttle at the same moment as the misfire. The logger picks up the feed to the schnitz as the WOT signal, so it's possible one of the 2 microswitches involved in that circuit is dodgy. Replacing relatively cheap stuff in the hope it cures the problem is a large part of the plan!
Improvements are also underway to make the rear brake more effective, the pivot point has been moved further back to allow a longer lever, and the pivot for the master cylinder pushrod has been brought in a lot closer to the pivot point, effectively increasing the power - which previously was very very weedy.
I designed a lever and associated bracketry on the computer and had them cut using waterjet. It means a lot less sawing and filing for me, and a much more intricate design is possible.
V1.2 wheelie bars are underway too, some subtle mods to the steel crossbracing should sort the problem of them moving, and without adding much weight either. The bars by the way, came in 1kg heavier than the previous - all ally ones. Not bad at all considering the ally tube itself is a fair bit thicker.
Well here we are, home from the first event of 2013. It didn't really go terribly well, but of course we had a good time and it certainly could've been much much worse!
On the plus side, it didn't rain one drop in 4 days! Nor were any parts damaged and no cases cracked.
The event also ran to conclusion which last year was a rarity. Lizz McCarthy was the worthy winner, number one qualifier (by miles), and ran too many PB's for me to keep track of. My new camera made itself invaluable, between the slow motion footage that Sam took, and the information the racepak supplies, there really isn't a lot left to the imagination. It's definitely a must have at all future events, especially when trying new things or when runs are problematic.
The new racing surface at Santa Pod was really very good too, the racepak picked out no real bumps at all and the grip was good considering the amount of preparation it's had. Oh, and my new wheelie bars didn't snap.... they didn't work terribly well either - and i guess that can lead me onto the down side of the event, which I'll attempt to keep brief.
The new bars were largely a failure, the sliding joints were the problem, they simply rode further and further up the bars, pulling them out of shape as they went, and flexing far too much to be acceptable. The fix was simple but may affect the integrity after a while, and it was simply to pop rivet each joint so they couldn't slide. And hey presto they worked absolutely fine after that.
The bike didn't run too well either, the problem was a misfire just after launch, it would just get up on the bars, then misfire a few times, crash back down, then come back to life ... usually rearing off in whichever direction it fancied. The cause is still under investigation, but the new battery is having a finger pointed at it in the meantime .... the logger shows the voltage dropping to just 10volts when the nitrous comes on.
Oh, and lastly, it was the coldest event we have ever been to, BRRRRRR.
Because Sam was on slow-mo video duty she didn't get chance to take many pictures, so there's no gallery of shots like usual. Instead we have the video and a couple of burnout pics. But that's all folks!
