It was fairly eventful too, with numerous problems setting up the new carbs which ended in a small fire/explosion on the bike, but then we recovered
to qualify 7th and then make it through the semi finals for the first time ever into the quarter finals to finish effectively 3rd!Sam has now updated her Photobucket page with over 250 shots from the weekend.
We made 3 runs in total during Fridays test day, not enough really and it wouldn't have been difficult to get twice as many in as it was pretty quiet. But with one thing or another that's all we managed. The first run with the new Lectron carbs and it did a burnout ok but upon leaving the line it just bogged down until it almost stalled. I slipped the clutch to keep it going and it made reasonable progress down the track. the spark plugs showed a very rich condition so we made half turn adjustments to each metering rod and went out again. This time i remembered to switch on the LM-1 and press record before the run too. I slipped the clutch right from the start this time which helped it make better progress and it ran a pretty normal no nitrous time of 9.6, only a tenth off the best time on the old carbs. However it should be better. LM-1 data and the plug colour showed it to be still quite rich, so more adjustments required.
Dave Beck was very helpful as usual and offered to set the lectron metering rods using the proper tool. With this done we went out for another pass, this time it did seem to be running better and during the burnout it felt stronger. However .... when i left the line it bogged down once again and almost stalled, so i pulled the clutch got it revving again and carried on but it was making a very unusual noise and didn't sound well so i just used enough throttle to get me to the end of the track. Which is a very long way when your only going 60mph!
This run also marked the first successful attempt at using the onboard camera, the previous 2 attempts saw the battery run flat before i even made it out of the pairing lanes. I mounted it close to the end of the wheelie bars looking forward, the video is pretty good despite it being onboard the slowest pass we have ever made at 16 seconds/65mph.
The warpage on the screen does capture the effect of what it's like riding it however!!
Once back in the pits it became apparent what had happened. One of the throttle cables had become disconnected so one throttle slide simply wasn't opening. I suspect it jumped out as the cable passes the hole where the nitrous activation switch is mounted. A slight problem that i have no solution to as yet. I might just have to hope it was a one off.
The plan for the following days qualification round was to try the carbs once more but this time go for it and have the nitrous switched on as well. Once again however it bogged off the line but this time with a bit of an explosion which sprang the startline fire marshals into life as they appeared at my side with extinguishers pointed at the bike! The fire had gone out though so i wheeled it away and back to the pits once more.
Sam caught the explosion with her camera from the banking.Sharp shooter!
That was the final chance for them and i decided to go back to the mikunis just to get a qualifying time. And what a good decision that was, as once i got the lectrons off i realised what had caused the fire. One of the foggers was pointing the wrong way!!
incompetence isn't really an adequate enough term.Some of the evidence of burning!
In the end we qualified 7th with an 8.6 and in the first round we met Stuart Crane. Stuart had been running PB's of 7.5's all weekend so it didn't fancy my chances. However, Stuart shut his bike off before getting into stage so i took what is known as a bye run into the next round. Not the way i wanted to make it through a round but that's drag racing as they say.
In the quarter finals then, i raced Dave Peters, who ran a 7.9 and i had trouble selecting 5th gear (a problem it had at the same event last year) and crossed the line with a pretty poor 9.0.
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