GSX1500 Dragbike

Instant mess

2012-01-16T21:03:00.004Z

It seems that my plan not to have a plan for 2012 has progressed very smoothly, formulating itself into something closely resembling a plan without actually being one! The big two changes for this year will be the addition of the previously mentioned Racepak, and a switch from a lock up clutch to a slider.
The lockup has been in the bike since the beginning, and we had a few good results from it on the small tyre bike. But since building the new bike weve struggled to get good 60ft times out of it. It's been so soft the bike has hardly moved, to so hard it's stalled off the line. And still runs 1.3-1.4 second 60ft's. I noticed recently the lockup arm pivots are quite badly worn too so rather than replace them or the lockup, it's been decided - with the persuasive help of Stu Crane to change to a slider.

The picture shows a warpspeed racing slider for a GSXR

A slider is a different animal to a lockup, it has many advantages but the downside is it will slow reaction times. I figured if it can make it a tenth faster on the quarter mile then i'll have to just pull my finger out and try not to loose that on reaction times, so i may as well just go for it and get one.
When i had the basket made last year it was made to be futureproof so i could use a slider with it, so i only need the slider hat, the clutch cover and a few small parts.
It should be ready in time for Easter, so in the meantime i need to get rid of the clutch lever or swap it for a rear brake lever and wire a momentary switch for the 2step.

I took a day trip upto Scotland at the weekend to buy a bike. Of course, it had to be a GSX1100 and the only reason for doing so was to add the engine to my collection of spares. The motor had the top end removed due to camshaft damage, but is otherwise ok.

The engine came out yesterday and today i set it on the bench and took the oil filter cover off so i could leave the oil draining out. What i found was almost certainly the cause for the camshaft failure, someone had used half a tube of instant gasket on the filter housing, (and who knows where else!), great globs of the stuff has squeezed out into the engine, it would only have taken one bit to break off and get wedged in an oil passageway to cause the damage. It's the most likely scenario.

In an attempt to assimilate useful engine parts into my collection i discovered i had a lot more bits than i thought i had, many of them of no use either, such as starter motors, stater clutches etc. Plus, i'm not sure i will ever use 6 cylinder heads!
So i've listed a few bits on eBay, plus the rest of the bike which i'll try and pass on as a complete rolling chassis.
It was tempting to keep it as a road bike project for my old 1260 barrels and head, but i thought better of it......

Telemetry boots

2012-01-04T20:34:00.002Z

After a cellar dwelling drought due to van conversion shenanigans, I've now been to the cellar twice in one week! I decided to tackle one of the little problems thats always bugged me and thats the rubber carb boots, which also double as holders for the nitrous foggers.

The boots were made up with small aluminum rings that went in insde them - sandwiched between the carb and the head, and tapped so they held the foggers. The problem with them is when you tighten the hose clamps the rubber would just squeeze out and you end up with the carb being squeezed away from the head and gaps forming between the carb and the ring and the engine and the ring. These wouldn't have made for smooth flow at all.
I'd thought about making a bracket to hold the carbs to the engine but before getting carried away i thought i'd try changing the rubber radiator hose for some good quality silicone hose, and while i was at it reducing the rings to be as short as possible, and bring the carbs as close as possible to the head.
The result is that the silicone hose is much nicer to work with and doesn't move at all. So that's that little issue sorted.

A few days ago i purchased teh long awaited Datalogger. No messing with second hand ones and waiting for sellers to figure out what they have for it and don't have for it. I bought a brand new Racepak 'Sportsman' which is one of the more affordable models racepak do, but still does everything i could think of ever wanting to log. Out of the box it comes with the ability to log, engine RPM, Output shaft RPM (via hall sensor and drive shaft collar) 2 axis G meter, Voltage and a 12volt event such as nitrous activation, full throttle switch etc, all at 100Hz.
It uses the same V-net technology as the more expensive models and uses the same sensors and software, but just has less channels.
I just need to wait for it to arrive now ....

Other news, i have renewed my ACU and SPRC membership for 2012 and surprisingly got my license already. Plus i took my leathers for a new Zip fitting as it was doing my head in. It's done and i'll get them at the weekend.

Race dates for the ACU rounds in 2012 are as follows:
6 - 9 April - Easter Thunderball @ Santa Pod Raceway
5 - 7 May - Springspeed Nationls @ Shakespeare County Raceway
23 -24 June - Summer Nationals @ Santa Pod Raceway
25 - 27 August - Open Sport nationals @ Shakespeare County Raceway
22 - 23 September - National Finals @ Santa Pod Raceway
6 - 7 October - Extreme Bike Weekend @ Santa Pod Raceway

2011 Final standings

2011-12-11T23:44:00.004Z

I've taken it upon myself to calculate the final standings for Competition bike as they have as yet not been made available. They've now been verified by someone else (of far greater points calculating prowess than my own!) so they should be correct, and i'm happy to post them up here.

The 2011 racing season was never going to be great in championship points terms, as we completely missed 2 races and only made the first day of qualifying at another. Yet somehow we've come away from it in 4th place overall!
The good news is i don't need a new number decal for next year and i get to give CB4 another shot. Next year is suddenly just weeks away and the usual club membership and ACU license renewals have been dealt with and sent away, it will be Easter before i know it!

Competition Bike 2011 Final standings

Stuart Crane	2510
Harold Wolfenden	2305
Phil Leamon	1600
Phil Crossley	930
Dale Leeks	830
Al Young	730
Dave Peters	620
Nick Milburn	540
Tony Clark	530
Nick Daniels	480
Paul Wing	450
Mike Chislett	380
Dave Bailey	330
Gary Jones	280
Steve French	250
Bob Brooks	220
Kev Charman	215
John Hunt	150
Maarten Zilstra	140
Roland Chaplain	130

Van conversion is starting to get a bit boring now, although it's 75% done, so the end is in sight. Instead i've found myself suddenly thinking about bike stuff, and a whole pile of things/modifications i want to do for next year. So, more on that when I've done some measuring and some thinking, and re-measuring, and harassed a few people with my ideas!

Lastly, a few pics of the van conversion. There's not really a lot to see and it's rather difficult taking pictures inside a van.

It's not like nowts been happenin.

2011-12-04T22:06:00.004Z

On the contrary, I've been busier than ever but not with the bike. It's tucked away under blankets awaiting the next move ......

I've always used eBay to get hold dragbike parts but at the minute my watch list has no nitrous components on it, no GSX engines or parts, no fuel pumps switches or relays. In fact the only drag racing paraphernalia on my watch list at all, is a Racepak datalogger which has been there for 12 months now (Back then the dollar was weaker too and it's gone from £400 to over £500).
So, a clue as to what I've been upto is the following items on my watch list:
Shurflo water pumps, filler hose, LED downlights, gas fittings, pressure switches, rooflights, and van lining carpet! (oh .... and some milling collets and rotary tables)
Van conversion has been progressing at a fair pace, it's been a lot more work than first anticipated but it's more than halfway there i reckon, and as soon as i remember i'll take some pictures to show whats been happening. It's engineering but in wood!

I figured it's been so long since i last posted that even a post without pictures was better than nothing. As soon as the motorhome conversion is out of the way things will return to normal.
I've started a fund for the logger, and am chasing a few people regarding secondhand ones. Hopefully something will work out.

The landscape has changed

2011-10-25T22:33:00.003+01:00

There's not a lot happened to the bike since the last race. I've drained the oil out and covered it up with a sheet but literally that's it. I've been busy transforming the new van into a camper of sorts, lots still to do there.
I'm not sure what to do to the bike, the plan so far is to leave the engine in the frame and just take the head off and inspect the valves, as it's only done 12 or so runs since the last rebuild. And i absolutely must buy and fit a datalogger before the start of the season. It will help with getting the 60ft times down as we are still throwing 2 tenths away on the launch. There was some contemplation regarding getting a different clutch, but it's time to prioritize resources and go for the logger. The Racepak 'Sportsman' is the hot favorite. Just need either the funds, or a cheap secondhand one.

The ACU drag racing rules forum met recently and there have been changes to the rules for Competition bike for the 2012 season. They are to impose a maximum tyre size of 10" wide. This doesn't affect us as we use a 10" tyre anyway. But it will mean some of the comp bike regulars have to race elsewhere. It would seem it's aimed at increasing the number of bikes in the Funny bike class, but i hope it 's not at the expense of Comp bike which has been a great class the last few years.
The entry lists were increasing as the year went on and there were lots of new people, making excellent progress on new bikes and setups, so next year there should still be lots of enthusiastic racers wanting to carry on where they left off.
Thats enuff drag racing politics. ..... note to rule makers, don't make me have reason to dirty my blog with politics ever again. yuk yuk yuk.

Bit of a late update

2011-10-14T21:56:00.008+01:00

The extreme bike weekend then .......

Thanks to Sam who has updated her Photobucket site with 2 galleries that can be viewed here - COMP BIKE , and here - FUNNY BIKE

Saturday was windy and the track not as good as was hoped. I didn't get one clean run, and had 2 that were quite lively. Initial checks on arrival revealed a nitrous controller that wasn't coming on with the ignition. I went though the connectors and fuses checking them, and found nothing wrong. And when i tried it again it decided to work. So i put that down to a poor connection somewhere...... i should have known better.
The first run was a bit of a novelty as we were paired up with kev Charman on the Top Fuel bike. It was quite amusing to not be able to hear my own bike and i had to presume it was still running as the bike made a move towards the wall, i feathered the throttle until it started to move away, but when i managed to give it full throttle it was bouncing around and the front end flapping unnervingly. The time was only a 9.4 and checks back in the pits revealed I'd not set the wheel alignment after adjusting the chain last, so that explained the move toward the wall. Why it was bouncing around so much was a mystery though.
The first 30 or 40 feet were ok then it suddenly lost power, an instant later it suddenly engaged warp speed and took off again, only i wasn't expecting that and had the handlebars wrenched from my grip! Once i had a hold again i just ran slowly up the track wondering what the heck had just happened.
Finding nothing wrong we went out for what was to be the final qualifyer. This time it ran relatively normal but seemed to be lacking in power at the top end, teh result was an 8.4 and placed us number 6.
The planned Sunday morning 4th round was abandoned as it took the track crew all morning to get the track dry after a night of rain. So in the first round i was against Harold Wolfenden, Harold needed go through the first round and meet and beat Stu Crane to win the comp bike championship. If he didn't make the first round and Stu did then it was game over. I left the line first and wasn't having a great run with the bike lacking in power once again, but neither was Harold who thinks he missed a gearchange instead hitting the limiter.
Stu Crane - 2011 Comp bike Winner

The result was i got there first with another 8.4 vs his 8.7. Unfortunately that was the end of his championship hopes. But the good news for Stu Crane was he was now 2011 Comp bike champion.
It meant some bad news for me too as it was Stu we had to race next round. Back in the pits i discovered the Nitrous controller not switching on again. Realizing that there was definitely something wrong we pulled the fuses out again and this time discovered the culprit. The fuse for the controller had a broken terminal and was causing intermittent activation of the gas. Which explains all the dodgy runs and the lack of power on other runs. Cursing the last minute discovery it was replaced, and we went out to race Stu in the semi finals with hopes of actually making a good clean run .... and maybe even making the elusive 7 second pass we were hoping for.
Of course, that's not the way it turned out. Firstly - we both were caught snoozing on the line with .5 and .6 reaction times, Stu had a poor run and only went 8.0, whereas i had a bike that span, gripped, shot wildly to the right, broke a rose joint on the wheely bars and tried to take off! And that was the end of our weekend.

The 7 second barrier has eluded us .......... for this year at least!

The final round

2011-10-04T17:54:00.008+01:00

Coming up this weekend is the final round in the ACU drag racing championship. The Extreme Performance bike weekend at Santa pod is the last chance to race in 2011 and traditionally is where a lot of people have run personal bests and broke records.

The Comp bike title is still up for grabs and could belong to either Harold Wolfenden or Stu Crane. According to todays news from eurodragster, Stu is only 20 points ahead of Harold, so it's likely to be entertaining.

We completely missed getting any points at 2 rounds this year and only got the points for signing on at Easter due to endlessly breaking stuff, so i'm not expecting to improve on the 4th place from last year.

Despite the exodus of many racers to funny bike there's still 8 bikes on the entry list so far (and 7 in funny bike too).

COMP BIKE

3 Stuart Crane Bintree Suzuki GSX 1640cc
4 Phil Crossley Lancaster Suzuki GSX 1500cc
6 Philip Leamon Wokingham Suzuki GSXR 1290cc
7 Paul Wing Knockholt Suzuki EFE 1327cc
17 Harold Wolfenden Manchester Suzuki Hayabusa 1299cc
19 Dale Leeks Colchester Suzuki GSXR 1500cc
21 Nick Milburn Halstead Suzuki GSXR 1405cc
46 Tony Clark Maidenhead Suzuki GSXR 1500cc

Santa Pod have a page dedicated to this event, it can be found here: http://www.extremebike.co.uk/

Eurodragster will be covering the event with live updates and webcam, all of which can be found here: http://www.eurodragster.com/santapod/live/2011extremeperformancebikeweekend/default.asp

There's a first time for everything

2011-09-29T23:18:00.005+01:00

Last weekends meeting at Santa Pod was a good one, and had a few surprises in store.
There were 3 qualifying sessions on Saturday, the first run was messy as the bike lost traction off the line and headed right so i had to roll the throttle for a large part of the track until it was headed back in the right direction and it crossed the line with a time of 8.8 seconds. At the time that was good enough to qualify 5th or thereabouts.
Oddly i discovered the main switch had suffered the same fate as the one that let me down at the last meeting, so a new switch was fitted and it was encased in the sponge from a washing up scourer pad, and covered in tape as a preventative measure. needless to say it's still in tact so that works well!
The next run was not a proper one, as i knew the bike wasn't running properly after the burnout so rather than break something i just trundled up the track.
Back in the pits we started looking for the cause of poor running. The plugs were changed, wiring, coils and leads checked. Valve clearances - all sorts but to no avail, it still sounded wrong.
Then i remembered the missing epoxy episode that we had recently and shining a torch down the intake revealed the problem. Another piece of epoxy (at the opposite side of the engine this time) had fallen out leaving a hole to the outside world and letting air in. Knowing we would be called for the 3rd run any minute i cleaned the area as best as i could and mixed up some epoxy putty. The instructions said to leave it an hour but we didn't have that long and we ran about 40 minutes later. The run was nice and clean but the top speed was down and i noticed I'd only selected 5th gear just before the finish, normally I'm into 5th much sooner. The result however was a great 8.04 which bumped us up to number 3 qualifier, our best qualifying position so far!

Race day then and we were against Dutch racer Maarten Zilstra, Maarten had been running well but had changed to a different type of tyre after his had started disintegrating and it gripped harder than expected and his bike nearly stalled. Whilst i had a pretty good run and crossed the line ahead of him and ran an 8.1. Once again the top speed was way down at just 155mph.
Back in the pits an on to the next round then, and i discovered the routing of my clutch cable altered when the bodywork went on, the effect of this was all the freeplay in the cable was taken up, and instantly i knew this was the cause of the top speed problem. The clutch had been slipping the whole length of the track! It took at least 6 turns on the adjuster to get any freeplay.

With that sorted i thought surely we are going to run faster in the next race and there's a chance if i cut a good light we could win against Harold wolfenden, who was running very consistent 7.8's. The outcome however was very different. I staged, opened the throttle to the stop bringing the engine onto the 2step, and i threw the clutch away as usual. Only the light hadn't changed yet and i immediately saw the redlight on the tree. I wasn't the only one misbehaving though, several other racers also redlit during that round, plus the split pin fell out of my airshifter partway down the track so it didn't change gear anyway.
I knew straight away taht all this time I've been anticipating the starter without realizing it, he normally doesn't wait but drops the tree very quickly. It was a different starter. That is the first genuine redlight i have ever pulled, and I've now made approx 120 runs. So that's not too bad ....

The journey home wasn't without it's incidents either, shortly after joining the M6 near coventry the oil light came on on the van, it went off again shortly afterwards but it was odd as I'd checked the levels recently. Then a few miles further i could smell burning oil slightly, this descended into definite smoke in the cab and required the windows winding down. It was just a couple of miles to the next services so i carried on slowly. But the last mile the van was now smoking heavily and we could see it in our mirrors, it made it down the slip road and cut out completely so i pulled the clutch and stopped in a handy lay by, smoke pouring from the engine. It was very close to bursting into flames so i grabbed a fire extinguisher ready. It wasn't needed and an hour later it had almost stopped. No compression from the engine though. The Vito was finally dead.
Not having relay on my AA cover meant no tow home so instead we got them to tow us to a quiet residential area, meanwhile Sam and Stuart drove back to Manchester where Sam emptied her transit and headed off back to rescue us. We swapped the bike and everything over and siphoned most of the fuel from the Vito too (I'd just filled it!). It was gone 2am before we were home. The Vito will get scrapped next week when i go down the the extreme bike weekend. I'll meet the scrap guy there and grab the tax disk out of it too.
Fortunately 'd been looking at vans recently and had made an offer (pending a test drive) on a Long wheelbase high top Citroen relay just a few days before. So Mondays activity was getting a new van! as it happens the van drove ok and i bought it, fingers crossed it's a good un. The plan is to convert it into a motorhome over the winter so we no longer need the trailer tent.

The extreme bike weekend is a week on Saturday and is the last race of the year. The entry list hasn't been updated yet but i would imagine a similar number of entries.

The essential selection

2011-09-21T22:31:00.003+01:00

A quick update with all the essential links for anyone wishing to check out the weekends action at the National Finals.

All of this, is of course only possible thanks to the hard work of the folks at eurodragster.com

Links for Live updates, the live webcam and audio stream/Nitro FM can be found here:
http://www.eurodragster.com/santapod/live/2011vpracingfuelsnationalfinals/default.asp

The final entry list can also be found at the top of that page. There remains just 8 bikes in Competition bike.

The plan for the weekend remains the same really - don't break it. It's got to stay in one piece - at least until the extreme bike weekend!

Have a break

2011-09-12T21:28:00.003+01:00

The next race on the ACU calendar - The National Finals at Santa Pod, is just over a week away.
There have been a number of deserters from Competition bike for this race, and for a good reason - they are all aspiring bounty hunters, and fancy a pop at the large prize fund that has been raised for the winner of the Funny Bike class at this event. The fund, which currently stands at £1300 has been put forward by various companies and has certaily secured the class at this event. There haven't been enough entries to run the class recently so this has come not a moment too late.

For anyone who doesn't know what Funny bike is, it's meant to be the equivalent of the funny car class for bikes. In that they are supposed to resemble a particular bike but have been taken to extremes. They must also carry a manufacturers logo and have wheelybars and a slick tyre.
The class is generally considered the next step after comp bike, and the fastest class other than Top fuel bike. Most funnybikes are capable of running well into the 6 second zone.

The mass exodus hasn't left Comp bike short of entries, the lastest entry list shows 8 in comp, and 9 in funny bike.

COMPETITION BIKE
3 Stuart Crane 1640cc
4 Phil Crossley 1500cc
6 Philip Leamon 1290cc
7 Paul Wing 1327cc
8 Sandra Chaplain 1327cc
17 Harold Wolfenden 1299cc
23 Klaus Brinkmann 1500cc
46 Tony Clark 1500cc

FUNNY BIKE (comp bike desertees are in bold)

1 Steve French 1500cc
6 Tim Blakemore 1400cc
14 Bob Brooks 1300cc
15 Mike Chislett 1327cc
16 Nick Daniels 1327cc
17 Dave Peters 1327cc
18 Alan Young 1640cc
19 Thomas Joswig 1327cc
20 Ken Cooper 1100cc

It's not like i wasn't tempted to run the class either, I've no points to speak of in comp bike and the prize fun is significant, but there are a good number of entries in each now and my entry was already in.
I've been having a break from doing stuff on the bike recently, this weekend i didn't venture to the cellar at all. For the first time all year there's no engine rebuild to do, no mad rush trying to put it back together, no urgent improvements to make!
So instead i went looking for a new van.

Next weekend i'll do some checks like valve clearances, put a slightly softer clutch setting in, and replace 2 fuel filters which leaked .... oh and replace the broken toggle switch with a new one.
Otherwise, fingers crossed it ready to go.

As close as it gets

2011-08-30T19:59:00.015+01:00

It was a pretty good weekend at Shakespeare County Raceway considering the weather played a large part in the proceedings. Intermittent rain, thunder, sun, rain and sun again meant most classes only got one qualifying run per day. Only raceday itself remained largely unaffected by the wet stuff.
The first run was a little daunting, as i was so convinced that the engine was going to break again.
I'd taken steps to slow the bike down in that i'd fitted smaller nitrous jets and taken static timing out, dropping it from 34 to 31 degrees. I wanted to change the 2 step rev limit too but the MC4 ignition was not communicating with the laptop so i couldn't log in and change it.
On the first run the bike drifted left quite a bit and i had to roll the throttle more than once to bring it back and i crossed the line in 4th gear. To my amazement though the cases were still in one piece and it ran an 8.8
The second run was better with no changes other than a shorter nitrous build time, and it went straight and managed an 8.3.... still with no problems. On the tow back to the pits, just 10 meters from our gazebo there was a big bang and we skidded to a halt with the back wheel locked solid. It seemed it had dropped into gear on its own and we were going to have to remove bent bits from the gearbox.
I've not had to make shift fork or shaft changes before so it was a new experience. Not particularly fun, with hot clutch parts and oil everywhere. One of the shift fork shafts was the offending item and it took some real hammering to drift it out from the opposite side. Luckily i'd already drilled holes in the blind side of the cases to aid in this scenario.
With the shaft out and new forks etc in place it went back together quite smoothly and the box seemed to be working ok. While all this was going on Comp bike were called again for the 3rd round of qualifying. We would have missed it but to our advantage it started to rain which gave us more time, and eventually racing was called for the day anyway.
The major problem really was getting the bike in a position to access the sump. Leaning it on it's side worked best but i may have to make some sort of stand for it incase we have to do it again.

Raceday then and we were qualified 5th and would be against Phil Leamon in the first round.
Al Young - Competition Bike

We were having major problems with very poor 60ft times, running 1.5 sec on one run, so in an attempt to make it stick i took a gamble and took an extra 1.25psi out of the back tyre.

Mike Chislett - Competition Bike

I dropped the nitrous build time some more too down to 3.2 secs and a 50% start. The tyre does seem to like being so soft and it left the line a lot better. Phil Leamon got away first with a tenth of a sec advantage, but i'd passed him by 330ft and crossed the line still ahead with an incredible 8.027, a personal best and about as close as it gets to a 7 second run.

The next round was going to be a lot more difficult as we had Stu Crane who runs regular sub 7.5 second times. The race never happened though as my bike cut out just as i was about to do the burnout. Not the cases this time! but a £2 toggle switch, which decided it was time to fail when a terminal broke off the back. And that was the end of that!
Stu went on to take the event win with 2 bye runs. Well done Stu

Last minute update

2011-08-25T23:51:00.003+01:00

The entry list for Competition bike at this weekends Open sport nationals has now increased to 12 bikes:
CB2 Dave Peters
CB3 Stuart Crane
CB4 Phil Crossley
CB6 Phil Leamon
CB10 Alan Young
CB16 Nick Daniels
CB17 Harold Wolfenden
CB19 Dale Leeks
CB20 Dave Bailey
CB21 Nick Milburn
CB22 Mike Chislett
CB46 Tony Clark

A great entry, and at least one rider who isn't a regular comp bike rider. His is entry was initially for Funny bike but there were not enough numbers to run the class. It' a real shame in my opinion as it's a class i've always enjoyed watching.

I doubt there will be a realtime webcam this weekend but the fab folk at eurodragster.com will be covering the event as usual with live updates and end of day galleries. All of which can be found here:
http://www.eurodragster.com/shakespearecountyraceway/live/2011opensportnationals/default.asp

Phew! .... it's just a hole in the engine.

2011-08-23T22:17:00.003+01:00

Yesterday was the first opportunity to fire up the bike and check that everything was ok. For the first time ever it wasn't so keen on starting, and it sounded just plain wrong. It wasn't running on all 4 cylinders so a fresh set of plugs and try again. Same thing, we tried quite a few things but couldn't suss it out and eventually after checking ignition and cam timing and finding nothing wrong, i gave up deciding I'd had enough.
After all the hours spent being meticulous and checking everything goes back together properly, its a bitter disappointment when it doesn't even run properly. And as a wind up when i got home my tickets for Shakespeare county raceway had arrived. I thought at that point i wasn't going!

This evening was time for some more investigation. There was compression on each cylinder but i noticed yesterday when i ran the bike out of fuel before putting it away that one carb still had a lot of fuel in the floatbowl. Lectron carbs don't really suffer from blocked jets (they don't have any) so i knew it wasn't the carb. So i checked to see if there was a good vacuum on that cylinder whilst turning the engine over. The result was nothing! Immediately i suspected a valve not closing , perhaps bent even so the head was removed.
And the culprit revealed itself! A piece of epoxy on the outside of number 3 intake was missing and a decent size hole was left in its place, letting air straight through into the intake.
I cleaned it up and re-epoxied it, and tomorrow i'll refit the head once again. It might be ready after all!

2011 Open Sport Nationals

2011-08-21T22:25:00.002+01:00

The Open Sport Nationals at Shakespeare county raceway is the 4th round in the ACU dragbike championship and is held over the August bank holiday weekend (27th-29th), which is in less than a weeks time! So far this year team bopchop have been to 2 races, only qualified for one of those and not actually raced in any. Oh ... and we missed one event completely. Needless to say we don't have many points so far!
Many hours have been spent in the cellar putting the engine and the rest of the bike back together after i stripped it just after the Summer Nationals. It is pretty much ready, with just some settings to put into it, and it'll need valve clearances rechecking after I've done a run test on it - which will probably happen one evening this week.

The entry list for next weekend stands at 9 but Stu Crane is missing so i suspect there will be 10 altogether.
They are:
CB2 Dave Peters
CB4 Phil Crossley
CB6 Phil Leamon
CB10 Alan Young
CB16 Nick Daniels
CB17 Harold Wolfenden
CB20 Dave Bailey
CB21 Nick Milburn
CB46 Tony Clark

The NOS twins

2011-08-13T20:21:00.006+01:00

I can't remember how many times i've messed with the fuel system on both dragbikes, it seems to be a perpetual problem! It's nearly always been run with 2 fuel pumps - one for the nitrous side and one to feed the carbs. The reason gravity feed or a pressurised tank hasn't been used is it's difficult to get a fuel tap in a convenient place as per the ACU rulebook. The carb side used a pulse type pump off a VFR750, it needs regulating too or the Lectrons will flood 1 - 1.5psi is the limit.

A couple of weeks ago i rigged up a test system to measure how much fuel the VFR pump with regulator and fuel filter could actually pump in 8 seconds. The results showed a fairly poor 220-250ml. Without the regulator and filters it went up a bit to 280-300ml.
I tried a NOS fuel pump instead, and it would easily pump 330ml without the reg and 280-300 with.
The bike uses approx 800 -1000ml in a run (warmup, burnout and run) so 220ml seemed a bit marginal for supplying the carbs properly during the run itself. The float bowls were always full after a run but i don't turn the pump off till partway - or further down the shutdown area.
So i decided to use a spare NOS pump to replace the VFR one, and I've changed the cheap regulator for a better one that flows more. The single filter has been dumped too in favour of individual ones for each carb hose.
A couple of hours were spent today making up a new distribution block which is fed with bigger bore hoses. In fact all the hoses and fitting from the tank onwards have been replaced with 10mm ones.

There are only 2 weeks to go to the next race at Shakespeare county raceway. As yet the engine and frame are still in pieces. The bottom end is together at least - i made a few changes to the clutch which should make a difference and help with the plainly rubbish 60ft times it keep running regardless of the setting.
Next weekend i have 3 days off so that's my chance to get the top end back together, the engine in and all the plumbing etc finished.
The plan is to ride it real slow and try not to break it. Instead we can revel in the novelty of completing an event, and perhaps even go home with a bike that still runs and doesn't require the attention of Mr Upperton once again!

New horizons in dragbikes

2011-08-06T20:53:00.003+01:00

It must be 12 months ago when i first started looking for a milling machine, and finally - Yesterday i travelled to Warrington to look at a Draper mill and after a bit of measuring and deliberation i bought it.
It's very similar to a lot of the Chinese mills a that are around, except this one is Taiwanese and has rack and pinion rise and fall to the head, which cannot rotate whilst being adjusted. I was impressed with how sturdy its is, i was really expecting it to be flimsy but it's not.
This morning was spent modifying its stand so it would fit in a certain corner of the cellar, and thsi afternoon i reassembled it and it's now ready for action. Or rather it would be if i had some tool holders! It's actually a bit of a relief to finally get buying a mill out of the way. It means one less bunch of items on my eBay watch list. I can return to looking for a datalogger instead!

So..... what do i plan to make with said mill? i've no idea really! But it was the same when i bought the lathe a couple of years ago, and now it's utterly invaluable.

Back in business

2011-08-01T22:11:00.002+01:00

It's August already and suddenly it ain't too far off the next race, only 3 weekends to get things sorted. One good thing is that all the engine parts have been modified, bored, relieved, fettled and tweaked and a start has been made on reassembly of the fourth generation of bopchop engine.
The cases i'm using this time are from a later EFE model, and have numerous small differences so transplanting parts such as gearbox, case studs etc has not been straightforward. The bottom end is partly done and next weekend i should get it finished.
The cellar is still rather busy with cases and other bits all over the place, i have a lot of parts on eBay at the moment, partly because i need the room, and partly because i need the money. Dataloggers still need to be bought, and I'm on the lookout for a smallish milling machine.
And last weekend i acquired a very cheap, but fully functional and rather ancient bullows Hydrovane compressor. I didn't want a normal compressor as they are large and usually pretty noisy but this produces 35psi continuously, with no tank and almost no noise at all. It's both fab and unusual!

Wot no Logger?

2011-07-20T22:03:00.004+01:00

The recent purchase of a Racepack Logger has now done an about turn and it's been 'un-purchased'. It turns out that there were parts missing, and the cost of parts off Racepak aren't cheap. For not a lot more money a brand new Racepak logger could have been purchased, so it's been abandoned. The lookout for another one has begun!

More GSX's and Engine mounts have been on the agenda recently. I bought a complete GSX in bits from a guy near Tyne and wear. The engine was advertised as a runner, the rest of the bike didn't look so clever but in similar condition to the last couple i bought. The plan was to strip the engine, keep the cases and crank, and sell the rest. However the engine was found to have been left full of water and almost nothing in it is usable, I've even thrown the cases in the scrap pile as they have a pretty large welded repair right on the front of the block. Useless basically.

New engine mounts have been water cut, and today i fitted each bracket individually and stamped them to identify where they go. All that's left to do is final polishing. The almost complete lack of spindle bolts going to make removal and fitting of the engine a lot easier, and the fit is a lot better than the old ones.

On the case

2011-07-08T17:54:00.003+01:00

The cellar is looking rather full at the moment, there are bits of bike everywhere, the frame is bare so all the parts for it are piled up, plus ive stripped 2 engines in the past week - one is a standard GSX engine thats donating it's cases to the cause, and the other my main engine with cracked cases.
The new cases have been cleaned and de-studded ready for modifications that need to be made to fit the 1500 barrels, and trapdoor mods for the gearbox. Plus i've modified 3 of the 4 engine mounting holes by threading them with an M12 tap. After looking at a few other bikes i noticed that seems to be a common way of fastening the engine in, plus it's bound to make engine removal quicker and easier as there are no tricky fasteners (like the bottom mounts which use teardrop shaped nuts that are a pain to get lined up).
I've thrown 2 sets of engine mounting brackets away too as i'm making new and improved versions that should be stronger. The front mounts have been tweaked too, the holes were slightly too big for the bolts so i've cut the holes a bit bigger and made up inserts to reduce the size. The lower and back mounts will be water cut when i find some thick enough ally and whenever i get chance to call round with the design.

As for the thoughts on why the cases have cracked ..... there are a couple of ideas, and hopefully it will become more apparent this weekend. But neither of them now concern the frame, which may well get a reprieve!

Summer Nationals update

2011-06-28T23:31:00.003+01:00

Comp bike offered some great racing over the weekend, despite my obvious lack of participation.
There were a couple of non entries - one of which was Kev Charman on the fuel bike, but otherwise there were quite a few 7 second runners, Steve French who qualified number 1 with a 7.2, Dave peters and Stu Crane. The second round elimination race between Stu Crane and Dave peters was particularly good, Stu Took the win and went on to win the event in the final against Al Young.

Sam has updated her photobucket site with a couple of pages of shots, the first featuring just comp bike can be seem HERE and the rest HERE

Now i have the bike back in the cellar I've removed the engine and stripped the frame completely too. I'm not sure what the plan is just yet but it's likely i'll make a few modifications to the frame, and i may even run the old bike - the original bopchop, when i get the engine rebuilt, just to see if the case cracking problem continues.

It's not really funny anymore

2011-06-24T19:55:00.002+01:00

Unbeliveably, on the very first run at todays peak performance day i had another set of engine cases break . Something is fundamentally wrong, but what? Barely any of the parts in this engine are the same as the last one, and it's not like we are pushing the limits of what the GSX is capable of as we certainly arent. The run was with a slow nitrous build and there are no signs of detonation at all.
There is so much work goes into a set of cases and it's a terrible waste when it ends after - or rather, during the very first run.

It's raining at the minute but hopefully if the weather improves the rest of the weekend will be spent watching some good drag racing, which will make up for it anyway!

Variety is the spice of life!

2011-06-22T23:08:00.004+01:00

The bike has been fired up, valve clearances rechecked and head re torqued, it sounded as good as ever and is finally ready for this weekends race - the 2011 Summer Nationals at Santa Pod.
We are still hoping to run at Fridays test day so we will be leaving early on Friday morning.

The entry list is a bumper one with 13 riders, however there are a couple of unusual entries....
Kev Charman makes a return to comp bike after a number of years riding in funny bike, he will be riding the Top Fuel bike of Vene van deburg, which he has been campaigning all year, and Steve French who normally runs in Funny bike but due to a lack of entries he has made the move once again into Comp bike for the weekend. It all adds up to what has to be the most varied class ever, and should provide some good racing.

The objective for the weekend? - well, of course we wanna have a good time, and we want to improve our times, but after the destruction of the last event I'll be happy if the bike runs well and comes home in one piece!

Eurodragster.com will be covering the event and the new live webcam will be broadcasting all three days. The entry list, running order and links to the webcam & Nitro Fm can all be found on their event coverage page HERE

A degree of good timing

2011-06-18T19:24:00.003+01:00

The last parts to complete the rebuilt engine were fitted this afternoon. New valves went in the repaired cylinder head, and the head was fitted. The rocker arms were changed for a set of GSXR ones as they have a better profile with longer contact pad for the high lift cams.
However, with the lash caps on the valves there was not enough clearance for the adjuster screws so, they were swapped back out for the originals. I'm guessing the easiest way round hat problem will be to grind the unthreaded portion of the adjuster screw down a little, but for now the GSX ones will do.
Tomorrows task is to degree the cams and set ignition timing, fill the engine with oil and fire it up.
If there are no issues then we will be heading down to Santa Pod for fridays test day ahead of the event itself which is on the Saturday and Sunday.

All systems are not quite go

2011-06-11T22:04:00.003+01:00

The next event is looming - the Summer nationals at Santa Pod is just 2 weeks away and the bopchop is still not ready. I'm awaiting 4 valves for the Star Racing head, other than that however the engine is back in the frame and i've done as much as i can.
The entry list for this event is very good with 12 bikes so far and it would be more if Bob Brooks had his bike ready. Comp bike is really gathering momentum this year! The entry list can be found HERE

One of the things that would be useful on the bike is a datalogger, it would mean we can see exactly what is happening with the clutch, revs and tyre during a run rather than guessing. The past 6 months have been spent keeping an eye out for a suitable used logger, and it looks like finally one has been secured. It's a Racepak SC1000 which is a fairly old model but does everything that's required and has good resolution - that's the number of samples per second, which is important in drag racing where the race is over in just a few seconds.
The logger is in the process of being checked over and once confirmed it'll be winging it's way over from the states. It'll not be fitted in time for the next race but should be for the Open sport nationals in August.

It just rattles on and on

2011-05-31T21:31:00.004+01:00

Last weekend we went to watch European Drag racing at the Main event at Santa Pod. The Day before we set off the Fuel pump on the Transit decided to pack in so we had to take the Vito.

Which isn't very well at the moment either with a blowing exhaust and a badly leaking Fuel injector seal. However it runs just fine, but sounds just awful, and of course it got us there and back no problems!
The transit fuel pump is an expensive repair but there really isn't a cheap option.

the Main event wasn't up to last years standards as the weather played a big part. Mondays eliminations were called off due to rain, and sundays qualifying was affected by a strong headwind.

That doesn't mean it wasn't good as there were some great runs in several classes, including a side by side 300mph+ top Fuel Dragster run, 315mph in one lane and 317mph in the other.

Earlier this evening i made the new oil seal holder for the crankshaft oil seal. It's nearly finished, other than some polishing, and it solves the problem i had quite neatly.

Can't say we didn't try

2011-05-22T22:54:00.004+01:00

We completely missed last weekends race meeting at Shakespeare County Raceway, but it wasn't for lack of trying.....
The master plan was - that on Friday, i would take all the engine stuff with me to Rogers in Leeds, and start assembling the bottom part of engine whilst Roger finished off the cylinder head. And with any luck it would come together not too late in the day and I'd go and fit it to the bike and go racing.
However, a few problems arose that didn't become apparent until it started to come together, and by mid afternoon it became obvious that it wasn't going to happen. It's the first race event missed since we started racing 3 yrs ago, hopefully there won't be many more!
The good news of course, is that all this means that the repairs from the engine destruction of the last event are almost complete. There is a fresh and super duper finest ever crank in there, with many modifications and improvements over the last one. A properly fettled set of crankcases with big mouths for the barrels, shift fork trap door mod, and many more tweaks. The barrels themselves have a new sleeve to replace the trashed one, new piston, pin and rings.
And the cylinder head has also returned from the dead ..... Rog has done a great job and fitted 2 new valve seats and replaced the damaged epoxy.
The clutch basket has been fixed with a hammer, it looks terrible but works fine!
In fact, the only things left to done is 4 valves sorting out and the head reassembling and fitting. There are 4 weeks to go till the Summer Nationals at Santa Pod. that should be enough time to get it finished and fitted in the frame.
The only real worry is that no definite cause for the destruction has been found. Lots of ideas and theory's but nothing for sure. Which doesn't help in ensuring it doesn't happen again!
One million thanks go to Roger Upperton for repair work on the engine, it's nearly all been done in less than 2 weeks and can't be faulted. If you want any info, his site can be found here Uppertonracing.com

One of the minor problems encountered during the rebuild - the crank is the later type which has a larger taper on the left side. It means the crank seal i had no longer fits, and the hole is too small to use another. The solution is to make a seal holder that bolts to the plate.

Poor old effie has now gone to a new home, and parts of effies engine have been sold too. All i really require is the crank and cases. The head might stay too, and instead I'll sell some of the excess ET heads i have.... i counted 6 the other day!

Next weekend is the Main Event at Santa Pod. Sam, her nephew Tom and myself, are going for a couple of days to hopefully watch some fantastic european drag racing.

Poor old effie

2011-05-11T19:58:00.000+01:00

This weekend is the second round in the ACU championship at Shakespeare county raceway. The Springspeed Nationals has 8 bikes entered in Competition bike, one of those is me. It would seem a tad optimistic that I'll be there, or rather that I'll be racing, seeing as how i don't have an engine of any description in the bike.
A lots been happening in the last couple of weeks, I've been to Roger Uppertons Twice to ferry cranks over, it was the very last one - a rather rusty looking affair that turned out to save the day! But not only have i been trying to get things repaired, but also I've been restocking on spares, especially cranks as my collection has been seriously depleted in the quest to put together a fresh one. It took 5 cranks to find enough good sections for a new one!

Anyway, this was purchased at the weekend and sold again a couple of days later minus it's engine, which i have removed, partially stripped, and stashed away under my workbench.

It did seem far too good to take to bits, but the addiction needs to be fed! It's an EFE model, the newer version of the GSX engine which has - so I've been told, stronger cases. That's a good thing.

We might go to the springspeed event as spectators, I've booked the days either side of the weekend off work anyway so it's a possibility.

Is it a disease?

2011-04-30T21:16:00.004+01:00

Thinking back, I'd started contemplating how i could fix whatever was wrong with it before I'd even turned off the dragstrip at the first exit. It's ridiculous really that so much time and effort goes into something that lasts such a short period, I've only done 8 full passes since the last set of cases broke at the springspeed nationals last year. Yet getting it fixed and back down the quarter mile is top of the agenda.
Luckily I've been collecting GSX engines since the last set broke, so i do have some of the parts but none of them are much good for going quick without a fair bit of modification. The cases for example, I've spent at least 3 hours already removing all the standard case studs, degreasing, cleaning gasket surfaces and getting them ready for painting, plus they will need the case mouths boring to fit the barrels (that's if the barrels are repairable), then all the threads will need cleaning, studs installing etc.

At the minute there's not a lot i can do so today i made up a new bearing carrier for the offset sprocket. I noticed after the first run that the grease in the bearing had melted and been spat out all round the sprocket area, after investigating it felt very rough and i thought the brand new bearing had probably failed. However i removed it and it seems that because it's such a slim bearing it needs a bit more clearance than usual and it was simply too tight. The new carrier has a fairly loose fit and is stronger than the last one. There is also enough metal to take it out a lot bigger and accommodate a larger bearing should it not be up to the task.

Drag racing is most certainly a disease. For which the cure is simple ...... run out of GSX cases and money.

Appetite for destruction

2011-04-24T20:28:00.004+01:00

The Easter Thunderball ended a little prematurely for us. In fact we only made the 3 qualifying rounds on the first day before things went a bit wrong.
The good bit was the very first pass, ran a PB straight out of the van and went 8.10 at 166mph, thats 8mph faster than my previous best. The bike had very soft settings too - with 25% start on the nitrous and a huge 7 second build time. Plus the 60ft time was miles off the mark, so a fairly certain 7 second run seemed to be on the agenda if we could get it right.
The second run i set the clutch too hard and it bogged off the line, didn't sound right so i shut it off.`
The 3rd run and a softer clutch setting, it still didn't leave very cleanly but picked up and went well till just after half track when there was a bit of a pop a grumble and then a death drone.

Back at the pits it soon became apparent we would not be running again this weekend. One of the spark plugs was flattened and a peek down the plug hole showed a piston at the top but it wasn't attached to the rest of the engine. Looking round i spotted a crack in the crankcases too and it looks like detonation has destroyed it once again. The culprit was discovered under the ignition cover. One of the triggers had come loose and was hanging on by only one bolt. I suspect it's come loose and the ignition timing has altered causing detonation.
We stayed the next day and watched some great racing, and then packed up and came home. Today was spent taking it to bits and finding out whats broken. It would be easier to find out what isn't broken, but all these parts will now be required:
Crank
Cases
Clutch basket
Piston + rings etc
Barrels
2 valves
2 valve seats
Head repair work if possible, including a dent in the combustion chamber and the epoxy has melted out of the inlet tract.

Phew!

2011-04-19T21:42:00.002+01:00

A wave of relif washed over the entire bopchop operation on Sunday when we dragged it outside, stuck the starter on and it rumbled into life.
It took a lot of work to get it ready, Stuart was a big help coming up on Saturday and Sunday to give a hand. I got the Cylinder head back From Warpspeed racing on Thursday as planned, the repair is nice work, and it's very difficult to tell it's been repaired at all!
I worked late on Friday night honing the cam journals as the cams were pretty tight, this continued on Saturday morning, then the head went on, and i had to tweak the cam timing a fair bit - probably as a result of having the head skimmed ad it didn't need any adjustment when i did i dry build a couple of weeks ago. Then the engine went back in reattached everything, fitted the new carb boots, to which i have made and fitted integral fogger holders, plus the carbs and wiring etc.
Filled it with oil and fuel, checked for leaks and took it out for the fireup. No oil leaks, no funny noises, seems to run well and responds to the throttle nicely. It's a good job really as i didn't have any other time left to change anything else. I've spent the last two evenings getting everything packed and loaded into the van, arranging Fuel and supplies etc, and generally spending too much money.

Sam won't be joining us this weekend as she has to work, so we are manager-less once again. It'll be me and Stuart, plus cellar proprietors and sponsors Vik and Arge joining us on Friday for the day. We are heading down on Thursday and are hoping to be there early evening.

As mentioned in my last post the entry list is a good one. The complete list plus links to the race schedule, end of day reports and galleries plus a new and now realtime web cam and commentary are all provided by the excellent eurodragster.com and can be found HERE

Disaster management

2011-04-13T22:05:00.006+01:00

Ok, so the spate of things going terribly wrong has apparently subsided. Only lesser thing have gone wrong since then, and a recovery plan is in operation.
After checking things over after cracking the head i realized the head gasket and one of the power rings were doomed. being an unusual type of gasket i doubted being able to get one at short notice and set about producing a CAD drawing so i can have one water cut. However getting the right type of copper sheet in the right thickness's was going to be tricky and so i gave up, made a phone call and got hold of a gasket first time! With any luck it will be here before weekend.

Initial assessment of the cracked head turned into a plan to patch the crack on the outside with epoxy putty. But after speaking to a couple of people and a quick call to Stu Crane at warpspeedracng, the head was dispatched off to Norfolk for some welding. Stu got the head today and within a couple of hours it was welded, skimmed and put back in a box to be returned to me via courier. Top stuff!

Moving on to the cylinder head stud that pulled out along with a timesert....
Thanks to Bob Brooks for helping me out with this one. he very kindly loaned me some taps and dies, and pre -threaded a piece of steel bar to use as an insert and posted the lot off to me. I got those yesterday and spent several hours trying to make the repair as straight and clean as possible. I masked averything off thouroughly, stuck plasticine on the inside of the engine around the bottom of the stud hole just in case when i drilled it out i broke through anywhere and it would catch the swarf. I made a jig of sorts to keep the drill and tap straight and it was mostly quite successful. I made it adjustable by having bolts that grabbed the studs and gave a couple of mm of adjustment. The steel insert Bob made was going to double as a locating dowel, this meant i could gain several extra mm's of thread by having it threaded right up to the gasket face, and the insert itself could also be threaded to the top of the dowel. Overall the result should be effective but i won't be able to tell till the head is on and i try and torque it down.

Stuart is going to come up on Saturday and help me finish off the engine and get it back in the frame. plus there's everything else to refit like exhaust, carbs etc. Ideally i want to fire it up and check all is well too, so fingers crossed .

The Easter thunderball is just one week away now. There are an incredible 13 entries in comp bike so far, and there is a great variety of machines. If the recent good weather can make a return that weekend, and my bike is ready and stays that way it will make for a fab weekend!

And finally, I've all but finished the Back brake modifications with caliper bracket and wheel spindle spacers. Final finishing can wait!

It's a Disaster!

2011-04-08T20:58:00.004+01:00

The last two weeks were supposed to to have seen the engine come back together ready for a test fire-up this weekend. But instead the engine is now further apart than ever and it got worse today when i had to remove the engine from the frame altogether.

It started last weekend when i did a dry build and found out the pistons pockets weren't going to be big enough for the bigger valves this new head uses. A quick word with Roger Upperton, and he offered to sort them out for me if i brought the pistons over. So i removed them and took them over for some modification.
With that problem out of the way i went on to damage an oil ring when refitting the pistons. A new one was put in the post and this morning i fitted it, and the barrels successfully.
This afternoon i fitted the cylinder head and noticed one of the head nuts wasn't tightening properly, like it was pulling the thread. I tried some of he other studs and they were ok but suddenly there was a loud 'crack'. Wondering what the heck had happened i removed the head to discover it had a crack in it about 2 inches long that ran up the front of the cam chain tunnel.
I couldn't believe it... after all the work and money that had gone into that head.

I carried on taking it apart and removed the barrels to find the head stud that wouldn't torque down had pulled a timesert partially out of it's hole. I managed to remove the whole insert but now there is a gaping great hole where a head stud should be . At this point i unbolted the engine from the frame, put it on the bench and came home before i broke anything else.
With less than 2 weeks now till the first event it's going to be tough to get it ready. I need a solution for the pulled thread, and may have to refit my old cylinder head. Something i don't really want to do.

To add to the workload, the ACU rulebook came out recently and there have been some changes to the rules. I decided to try and make my bike comply and i fitted a different back brake disc. I collected a redesigned brake carrier from the water cutting place today. With so much engine work to do though i may not have time to finish it.

Event Horizon

2011-03-23T22:51:00.002Z

This year will be season 4 for the bopchop team, and the start is just on the horizon. The Easter Thunderball is just 4 or 5 weeks away. Notorious for being affected by the weather, it does at least stand a better chance this year due to it being much later than usual. And it's also an event where track time can be minimal, despite being a 4 day engine driven extravaganza.
Version 3 of the entry list is now out and the closing date is a week on Friday. there are 6 so far in Competition bike and i can think of a few whose name hasn't appeared yet, so I'm taking a guess at there being 11 or so entries.
The bike ain't ready yet but work is in progress. Last weekend i went to see Roger Upperton again to get a few modifications to the Star head done, and Roger made me much needed and improved parts for the valve train. This weeks task is to measure valve spring pressure and set the installed height for the valves. Then it can go on for a dry build to check piston to valve clearance.
I need to have it done before too long so i can take it out and run it to test all is well. A lot has changed since last year and i'm concerned there may be teething troubles.

To add to the task list the van has had an ever increasing puddle underneath it everytime i stopped this week. The initial verdict is it's coolant, and it's dripping from the radiator area..... So i might have to find a bodge for that as i can't use Sams transit, a it's in the middle of a short- ford style premature life expectancy issue as well.

No particular reason

2011-03-16T23:30:00.009Z

A blog update for no particular reason. If nothing else i thought it would be a good opportunity to put up some pictures i don't think i've posted before...... and no these aren't recent pictures, the original bopchop has not been rebuilt.... yet.

A very shiny set of VM33 smoothbores. I still have them stashed away, ready for the second coming of the bopchop

Neon 'nightclub' mode
Outside for the first fireup
A friend of mines 'Big port AJS'
And this arrived in the post from the states, i now have a spare bottle which means less running around between races trying to get the only one i had refilled. No sooner had i bought it than one appeared secondhand on eBay...... typical.

High voltage

2011-03-07T00:07:00.005Z

I took the plunge and bought some MSD Superconductor spark plug wires to go with the rest of the ignition. They aren't cheap but then - they are good quality and contain enough different type fittings and boots to make another set if i need them, there's enough wire left over too.

They arrived along with the last three cylinder head studs that were needed to fit the Star head.
I can't actually fit that yet as some lash cap modifications are underway. But once completed i'll do a dry build just to check clearances and it'll be ready.

And lastly - today's task after fitting the ignition leads, was to soften the front forks slightly. With no adjustment available on the RG forks, i pulled the tops off and hacksawed 10mm off the spacer tube that preloads the spring. They are a bit softer and i'm hoping that it will alleviate the top end head shake that happened on several runs last time out.

Billet bullet

2011-02-26T21:58:00.004Z

The billet clutch basket arrived from Warpspeedracing this week. As part of the service, they also reattached it to my straight cut gear and fitted a new set of springs. The result is one very nicely made, perfectly priced and very strong basket!
It's been made future proof too, so if i decide to change my lock-up clutch for a slider type clutch, i'll be able to machine it down slightly and use it with the slider.

Also this week i took the barrels off to fit a second base gasket. I'd been putting it off as i remember it been a real nightmare getting all the piston and oil rings back into the barrels without breaking them. However, i'd forgotten that last year after i broke a set of cases i left them with Roger Upperton and he added a bit more of a lead-in to the sleeves and it's a lot easier than it used to be. It still requires patience however!
The reason for the extra gasket is simply to lower compression. The new head has been skimmed and has smaller combustion chambers so would have given slightly too high a compression ratio. There was a 1mm aluminium gasket under the barrels, and now I've added a standard paper gasket to it, making it 1.5mm in total.
The piston tops now sit 0.6mm down the bores and compression should be the same as it was with the old cylinder head .... 12 and a bit to 1

MC4 Puzzle

2011-02-16T23:01:00.005Z

There was some concern after the MC4 had been wired in, as i wasn't getting a spark when the engine was turned over. 2 evenings were used up going over and over the wiring checking all was well. The puzzle was particularly strange as the tests suggested in the manual worked fine, the LED indicator was flashing twice per revolution and when the right wires were grounded a spark was produced.
What i didn't know was that it it is designed not to spark at very low RPM, and as soon as i tried cranking it with the offboard starter it sparked away happily.

The counter shaft sprocket has arrived back, i had to tweak it slightly as i'd specified the wrong size for the nose bearing (by 0.05mm) I realized how rubbish my lathe was when i tried to do it as it simply couldn't cope with the weight of the sprocket spinning and the hardness of the material. The finish i got was rubbish but at least it does now fit the bearing.
I'm very pleased with the sprocket which was made to spec by Talon. I paid more for a secondhand one from the states last year, and this one is not welded either, it's a solid billet item.

This evening i finished some mods to the lockup clutch. One of the problems when making adjustments (which is done with shims to alter spring pressure) is getting all the bits to stay put while you refit them into the pressure plate. In the past I've just superglued them on whilst it's being assembled but this is a real hassle, and it doesn't promote experimentation between rounds, especially when time is short.
So i've altered the standoff spacer things so they are now pressed into the lockup ring and should not move. It should be possible to just stack shims over them as required and the whole lot bolted back on.

And lastly, the cylinder head has been removed in readiness for fitting the Star head. I fitted it temporarily to find out which of the head studs will need replacing with longer ones, 6 are ok and a further 6 will be required. I've managed to find all but 2 of them so far.

Post drought?

2011-02-08T22:01:00.006Z

It seems like ages since the last post, probably because i've been pretty busy and a lot has happened since then. Not all of it makes for a good blog post however and without a picture or two it's hard to make something of it.
I guess the general idea of a blog is it requires regular rolling updates, it seems - a pitiful waffle every 2 or 3 weeks is all i can manage!

Some cool cool stuff has happened, lets start with .....
New 15 tooth offset front sprocket arrived.
New 15 tooth offset front sprocket sent back.
Bought a complete GSX1100 in bits
Got the van (the Vito) through an MOT after 4 months of sat getting mouldy in the car park.
Star Racing cylinder head has been approved (many thanks to Roger for checking it over for me)
The bike has had all wiring removed.
The bike now has all new wiring in it's place and the MC4 ignition is wired up.
Replacement clutch basket is under way, and i removed the straight cut gear from the old basket.
Acquired (thanks to warpspeedracing) a rocker cover for the Star head, and spent ages reviving it's once shiny finish. And today the gasket arrived for it.
Much to my delight the gasket is idiot proof too - in that the cam end cap, half-moon seals are integrated into the gasket and so will not be misplaced by hapless bike builders (me) and end up getting wedged down the camchain tunnel necessitating a late night engine rebuild in the pits!

The GSX1100 i bought ain't as bad as the last one i acquired, in fact it's not bad at all really, the paintwork is rubbish but it's not rusty and all the ally bits are half decent. Plus the engine is in one piece and is clean.

Oh, and the new sprocket was returned for some final machining. It should be on it's way back in the next few days. I've gone for a 15 rather than 16 tooth, as it will still allow an extra 10+ mph and let me keep the chain and rear sprocket.

Clutch crumble

2011-01-22T20:15:00.003Z

It's uncanny that just a couple of weeks ago i started thinking about how i should replace my 'prone to explode' standard clutch basket with a billet one. And today i took the clutch cover off and discovered shrapnel in the casing.
It looked like the remains of a hardened steel washer with a bevelled edge, but i didn't recognise it at all. After further investigation and removal of the basket i spotted where it's come from.
Two of the basket backing plate springs have broken up into several pieces, luckily the bits are too big to escape or they could have made a mess.
I took the sump off looking for more bits but so far i've not discovered any.

I'll probably remove the gear from the hub and have it fitted to the new basket along with new backing plate and springs.

Can you tell what it is yet?

2011-01-17T23:47:00.008Z

I took some CAD files to be water cut during my lunch break today, for some reason my CAD software (which is open source and free - so i shouldn't complain) saves odd glitches into the files, usually odd loose ends and duplicate lines etc, but they weren't there last time i edited them. Anyway, they took some cleaning up before they could be cut and we had to temporarily abandon 2 others i had as they were so glitchy.

So here is the first file..... and as Rolf Harris would say, "Can you tell what it is yet?"

I'll give you a clue, it's to accommodate something I've acquired, and doubles as 2 other things at the same time.

Yes thats right! It's a new battery box complete with nitrous bottle bottom bracket, and air shift kill switch holder. Brill!

The reason for the new battery box is due to getting a new battery, which of course had to be a different size to the old battery, it's an Odyssey however and its got more UUMPFFH and they are supposed to be good and it was cheaper than most AGM batteries.
As the battery is bigger it also made the airshifter kill switch homeless so i incorporated a new mount for that too. And while i was at it the bottom bracket for the nitrous bottle needed modifying so i can fit a bigger bottle heater to the bottle.

2011 - welcome to the future

2011-01-08T21:20:00.004Z

A new year and a new racing season lies ahead! It'll be interesting to see how many Comp bikes enter the various rounds this year, as last year was down on entries compared to previous years.
I know there are a few people building new bikes, and others who are looking for riders, so we will have to wait and see.
Easter, and the start of the ACU season is fairly late this year (22-25th of April), but that's good as it gives the weather time to warm up a little more, and it's extra build time for bike building folks.

Recent ventures into the cellar have been spent modifying the front subframe to accommodate the MC4, it will live in the front fairing in the same spot the headlights would be on a road bike. It's been tricky getting it right as there's only a few mm in any direction to spare, but after several tacked up attempts it seems to be right. I've also been making brackets for the MSD coils as they have different mounts to the Dyna coils that were on it.

Having thoroughly abandoned the plan to not touch the bike over the winter, its now gone to the other extreme and it looks like I'll be changing quite a lot over the next few months. I've certainly spent more than i should and there's still a lot to do!

The agenda looks like this:
Star racing head needs rebuilding/inspecting closely
Set of heavy duty studs & a rocket cover gasket for the head needs purchasing.
Revised mounting method for nitrous foggers as this head doesn't have space on the inlet runners for them.
Head will need fitting, cams dialling in, piston to valve clearance checked etc etc
I need to gear the bike up further so i've been getting quotes and hunting round for a bigger front sprocket as i don't want to make the back one any smaller.
Bigger sprocket will likely require a longer chain too
MC4 still needs wiring in and some of the brackets to hold the bits need making.
I'd like to change the battery for a fresh one as it's done 3 seasons now. I'm considering either an odyssey or one of the new nano phosphate bike batteries that are becoming available, as they are very lightweight.
The standard Suzuki clutch basket has had it's day too, they are prone to giving up and shattering, so a billet replacement is in the pipeline to replace it.

Just in time for Christmas

2010-12-27T21:31:00.004Z

Due to my Sisters recent venture into dragbike sponsorship i now have the somewhat fab - MSD MC-4 ignition, which was delivered on Christmas eve. She bought the whole deal from the states secondhand, direct from NHRA prostock racer Steve Johnson. The wiring loom is the only part which hasn't arrived as it's coming in a separate package.

The MC4 really is the business when it comes to ignitions, it's fully programmable (via a laptop) with custom timing curves, burnout rev limit, launch rev limit, kill time, and built in support for my 123 auto.
It will replace my ageing MSD MC-1, which despite being very reliable - was lacking in features and meant i had to have an extra box for everything. A box with rpm pills for the 2 step rev limiter, a box with retard pills for the ignition retard, and a clever but relay happy and sometimes temperamental system for managing the ignition kill for use with the auto box.
I've done a new wiring diagram for the whole bike as most of the existing wiring will be redundant. It's a lot simpler, and hopefully more reliable as less relays are required. I've cut the number of relays down from 5 to 2 and one of those could easily be left out if necessary. Relays are notoriously unreliable in extreme environments like the vibe happy world of a GSX dragbike.

I'm hoping to move the ignitions location on the bike too, from under the seat to infront of the handlebars in the fairing nose. Space is a bit tight there but there's just enough room so long as i can modify the fairing bracket to accommodate it. The reasons for the move are to do with getting weight in right places, and simply because it saves running so many wires up and down the length of the bike.

It seems that suddenly there's quite a lot needs doing on the bike, i've not done much to the new head but have made up some spacers for the nitrous foggers, as there's nowhere for them otherwise. I'll need to order a new set of head studs as the 1150 head uses different lengths to my 1100 setup. And before i get carried away changing things i need to strip the head apart and inspect it all closely and hopefully ask someone who knows what he's doing - i.e. Roger Upperton to check it over for me.

It's all in your head

2010-12-15T21:49:00.002Z

Just acquired a Star racing cylinder head for the bike, it's been fairly heavily modified- with 31mm inlet & 26mm exhaust valves which are titanium, as are the retainers. Some fairly huge ports compared to my head and epoxied floors to reshape them. Seems to be in pretty good shape, it's supposed to be an older style prostock head. It's unlikely it's been used for nitrous anyway as there are no holes for the floggers.
It should provide a fair amount of extra HP, not sure if i need it just yet but it's come along at good price and it'd be silly to let it pass by.

So you want to go drag racing?

2010-12-14T22:49:00.008Z

It's fair to say the mini-bopchop tow bike gets more attention in the pits from passers by than my race bike, especially from kids. It is a funky machine, but it's also an uncomfortable wobbly contraption that Stuart has a particular dislike for. Seeing as it's he who has to ride it the most whilst on tow duty, i thought maybe it's time for him to have that deluxe quad with hot beverage holder he often talks about?
Then i remembered my bank balance ..... and so i interpreted that aspiration for him and came up with this:

Moving on .....

Christmas is just around the corner but pah!! there are more important things ..... It's the time of year for renewing my ACU license and Club membership, and whilst i was filling out forms and stuff i remembered how confusing it all seemed when i first started. And so i thought I'd put a brief guide together for anyone thinking of going racing in the ACU who doesn't know the ins and outs of the process.

Download THIS form, print it out, fill it in.
Go either HERE or HERE, download the membership form and fill it in.
Send both forms along with a stamped addressed envelope and 2 cheques, to whichever one of the 2 clubs you decided to join. They will stamp/sign the first form for you and forward it to the ACU.
Download THIS, read it & choose a class appropriate for your bike and build it to comply with the the rules.
Do observed runs, either at a RWYB or a race meeting & get your licence signed by an ACU clerk.
Go racing! Race entries will become available HERE or HERE early in 2011

And that is pretty much it. No excuses now eh.

The stuff you used to do

2010-11-29T23:02:00.010Z

I discovered and old sketch book in the attic yesterday, i used to spend a great deal of time drawing bikes, both real ones and imaginary types. I was quite surprised how timeless some of them look.

I had no intention (or money or skills) to make them, i just did it to get them out of my head and into the world.

I scanned a small selection and here are the first few, I can't be sure when they were drawn but they are about15 years old.
The flower power engine made me smile :)

The top one displays a recurring theme that many of them have, in that they never quite got finished, part drawn wheels seems to be common.

Back on its wheels

2010-11-27T16:56:00.005Z

The original bopchop is looking a bit less sad and pillaged now as it's back on its wheels rather than propped up with bricks. I refitted the front wheel and brake system after it's loan to the new bike, I also made a start on cleaning up my spare set of engine cases. It looks like chemical stripping or some kind of blasting will be required as they are pretty scabby and nitromors isn't doing the trick.
I don't have enough parts yet to assemble a second engine but thought i'd make a start anyway.

The new bike now sports a freshly powder coated RG125 front wheel with skinny Dunlop slick.
I also fitted a new wavy type disk and and rebuilt the calliper with polished pistons, new seals, braided hose, master cylinder and lever.

There really ain't a lot else happening with the bike at the minute. Instead I've been sorting out the persistent flooding problem that i have with the cellar (team bopchop HQ) whenever it rains heavily. A different type of pump and automatic float should hopefully have it sorted, but until it rains a lot there's no way of knowing.
The Goose has finally sold now too, i didn't get as much as i hoped for it but I'm not out of pocket and it sure was fun to ride while it lasted.

What's new pussycat

2010-11-07T19:09:00.006Z

Next year should - with any luck, see a new class running at the ACU events. 8.50 bike has been trialled for the last year and a bit, and this year saw it really take off with 13 or more entries at some rounds. For anyone who doesn't know, 8.50 is a time index class, so the idea is to run as close to but not faster than an 8.50 ET.
The rules have really helped to open the class up as they allow for pretty much any type of bike- Turbo, nitrous, both, street tyres, slicks, with wheely bars, without wheely bars.

My interest in this new class? Well, it's due to the fact that the original bopchop would make an ideal candidate for it. Not that i can afford to enter 2 bikes and 2 classes, but if i can set it up ready and put an 8.5 on it would make it either a desirable purchase for someone or I'll try to find a suitable pilot to race it.
I don't quite have enough parts to build the bike back up yet, but I'm working on it. The front wheel, brake and disc are about to be relieved of duty from the new bike, as a proper RG125 front wheel and brake are being fitted. The front calliper is being rebuilt as it certainly wasn't "in good working order" (eBay quote). Other bits required are engine parts such as heavy duty studs & valve springs, and possibly a crank and clutch with straight cut gear.
Once the new ignition arrives i'll also have enough spare electrics to wire it and add some gas to it too.
It'll be good to see it built up again as it looks in a sorry 'pillaged' state right now, plus i'll not get grief of all the people who keep telling me not to let it rot in a corner. .... as if i would.

On a completely different subject, the Competition bike champion of the last 3 seasons - Ivan Birch, has decided to quit racing and has had his entire racing outfit up for sale recently. Not sure if he's got a buyer yet but either way he won't be racing next year. So good luck to Ivan and his team, hope to see them at some of the meetings supporting the class or maybe even the new bikes owner for a few meetings.
Anyway, here's a pic of most of team "Ignorance with conviction"

Gooses are go!

2010-10-30T19:33:00.004+01:00

The Goose is now taxed n tested and ready for action ..... for someone anyway. It's really not a bad bike at all, lacking in power a bit but the handling is real nice. It feels for all the world like a 125 but with a 350 engine.
The best bit is simply the styling, it's just a great looking bike and has loads of potential to build into something even more unusual.
I'm not going to keep it despite the fact i like it rather a lot. So before i go all gooey and keep it forever it's for sale immediately, and as soon as i get the log book back it'll be going on eBay if it ain't gone already.
The price .... £850 and well worth it.

The Goose

2010-10-27T21:48:00.002+01:00

A bit of a change from dragbikes ...... plus, it's the end of the season and I've barely touched the bike since i got back from the last race, and don't have anything to report anyway.

I've always had a thing for unusual bikes, and one such bike i spotted several years ago was the Suzuki Goose. It's an odd combination of 350cc single cylinder DR350 engine, in a tiny little metallic blue trellis frame, with skinny minimalist cafe racer styling, and a very odd name. Why it's called a goose i've no idea.
So when i came accross a one at a very reasonable price i couldn't refuse, and yesterday i went to pick it up. The picture isn't the actual bike as I've not had chance to photograph it yet. It's the same colour, is in pretty good condition, just needs tax n test and it's ready to roll. I'll take it for MOT on Saturday.

There have been some happenings where drag racing is concerned. A deal has been struck to buy a new/used ignition for the bike. It's a complete MSD setup including the latest MC-4 programmable ignition, red MSD coils, leads, RPM box, crank rotor and pickups.
The reason for the upgrade is to give more flexibility with ignition timing, and for simplicity. The MC-4 has everything built in that currently there are individual boxes for. 2 step. retard unit, kill switches and numerous relays to control the kill for the 1-2-3 auto.
It will simplify the wiring harness significantly and reduce the number of failure prone relays.

One year on

2010-10-12T21:01:00.008+01:00

The extreme bike weekend was undoubtedly the drag race meeting of the year. The weather was pretty much perfect, and at times it was too hot to be sat around in leathers.
Luckily we were never kept hanging around and were out on the track every couple of hours. Saturday there were 4 qualifying rounds and another was added on Sunday morning before eliminations started.
Normally at a busy race meeting you have lots of time between rounds to make changes but because you have so few runs there's a part of you doesn't want to change too much in case the run is a mess and you've waited so long for nothing. At this event it was fine to try stuff and at times i barely had enough time between rounds to make the changes required.
Round 1 i got no further than the burnout box as one of the engine mounting nuts fell off during the burnout so i shut off.
Round 2 then was the first chance to run with the softer clutch settings i'd put in before leaving home. The result was the bike barely moved when i dumped the clutch. It was at least half track before the lockup provided enough pressure to actually use full throttle so the run was a rather rubbish 11.3
Round 3 Back on the old clutch settings and i removed the lambda sensor and logger as the data is useless anyway. I put the nitrous on a soft setting, It ran a reasonable 8.5 but the 60ft was still awful and it felt like it was still spinning the tyre.
Round 4 And i decided to throw more nitrous at it off the line but still no different 60ft, but a best ET yet for this bike an 8.332 narrowly missing my PB time on last years bike.
Round 5 Last chance to try something to sort out the 60ft's so i put more base pressure in and more power. The result was hard to decipher as the bike went right and i spent most of the run off the throttle. It still went 8.8 however which was interesting.
First round of eliminations and it was against Stu Crane who had just run a PB time of 7.3. My hopes weren't high but both of us had rubbish runs and i made it across the line first with a 9 something.
Into the next round and this time another mountain to climb as it was Ivan Birch in the opposite lane and he too had been running very fast times. I'd made changes the the weights on the clutch lockup arms, and turned the power up to 80% nitrous off the line.
It still didn't leave well but i had 2 tenths on Ivan at the start and at half track i still couldn't see him. Now that's a first. The inevitable happened and he came flying past somewhere in the second half. So that's where the weekend ended.
The time for that run was very interesting, a new best of 8.137 and still with a poor 1.32 60ft. That would indicate that with a 1.20 or better 60ft time the bike would probably be running in the 7's
Not bad for a bike that this time last year it was just a sawn up rusty GSX frame.

Sam will be updating her Photobucket page in the next day or so, but for now here is a selection of her comp bike pics from the weekend.

Congratulations to all the riders who ran Personal bests, including Stuart Crane, Bob Brooks, Steve French and many more.

Stay where you are

2010-10-06T23:23:00.002+01:00

Last race of 2010 is coming up this weekend. It's a bike only event featuring all the ACU bike classes, Straightliners series and a bike only RWYB.
8 entries for Comp bike so down slightly on the last 2 events but still a full field. If the weather is good we should get 4 qualifying runs on the Saturday so there's a chance we'll get to try a few things out and improve on previous times, plus we will attempt to continue everyone's favourite trend of not breaking stuff.
Seeing as how it's the last race of the year I'll set out the goals ....
Run a quicker Elapsed time than my PB (from last years bike) of 8.3309
Run a faster terminal speed than my PB of 158.77mph
Improve on recent 60ft times and get back into the low 1.2 second or better zone
Remain in 4th position in the points!

Not a lot to ask surely?

If you fancy following the weekends proceedings you can do so via eurodragster.com and their excellent coverage.

Home in one piece

2010-09-30T22:21:00.006+01:00

Rained spoiled the fun at the Last weekends event at Santa Pod. A full day of qualifying was followed by a full day of just enough rain to stop racing taking place.
It hadn't gone too badly either, there was one small incident where - on the 2nd qualifier the bike popped an oil seal out during the burnout and leaked some oil into the burnout box necessitating my immediate removal from the track, but I'd not broken anything and in the other 2 qualifying runs the bike ran fairly faultless 8.4sec runs.
What is strange however is the general lack of performance increase i was expecting. I'd fitted the new cams which i thought were going to liven it up a fair bit. But on the track .... a barely noticeable difference. It does feel a little stronger in the first 330ft but the times say otherwise.

The next, and final race of the year is in a little over a weeks time, the Extreme Performance Bike weekend on 9-10th October is the last chance to try a few things and hopefully beat last years best time & speed. If the weather plays nice we should get plenty of qualifying runs as it's a bike only event and the bike classes are run pretty quickly compared to car classes. I'll be trying a few things over the weekend, mostly to do with getting this new chassis to 60ft properly. By that i mean get it off the line and to the 60ft timing beam in the low 1.2 second zone. Something it definitely should be doing but definitely isn't so far.
I've refitted the lambda sensor and logger too, i thought I'd give it another try and if it works it will let me know for sure how rich or lean it's actually running during a run. last time i tried it it recorded too much interference for the data to be useful. This time i shall wire it differently!

Sam has updated her photobucket page with pictures from the weekend. Her pages can be seen HERE

Ready or not

2010-09-22T23:27:00.002+01:00

It is ready, fingers crossed anyways!
There was a little panic this evening, i was just thinking everything was done and about to go home when i discovered it wouldn't go into gear .... no gears .... ooops.

I quickly realized what the problem was and removed the clutch basket to discover - predictably, that i hadn't aligned the shift mechanism up correctly. Once put right all was well once more.

As usual eurodragster.com will be covering the event with live updates and the webcam which should now be realtime. Their coverage & webcam etc can be viewed HERE

It's still the bopchop

2010-09-20T23:47:00.008+01:00

It's just a few days now till the next event, the 'National Finals' at Santa Pod. The entry list is the best so far this year with 11 bikes in total, the event is only a 2 day affair with qualifying Saturday and Eliminations Sunday. It will be crucial to get a good qualifying time posted.

However ...
It will be a close call as to whether the bopchop (i gave up trying to think of names so it's still the bopchop) will actually be ready at all. I only picked the cases up Friday evening and spent the whole weekend cleaning them up and reassembling the everything. Tonight i refitted the clutch, exhaust, carbs and set the ignition timing.
The close call will be with the cams. I fitted some new cams that i acquired at the last meeting, however- it became apparent when i came to set the valve clearances, that the adjuster screws weren't going to be long enough. I've had to go for extended tappet screws.
Luckily Roger Upperton has some in stock and is sending them to me. I must thank Roger loads for the help he's given me recently, especially sorting the new cases out at pretty short notice and doing such an excellent job.
If you require any parts or engine work carrying out Roger is the man. More info can be found on his website here http://www.uppertonracing.com

If the worst happens i can swap the cams for my old ones, but that's not really the desired result!

Anyway, we leave on Friday morning for the pod, this time we are properly managed and the usual crew of Sam and Stuart will be there, plus it's likely James will be coming as well as my Sister (long term supplier of cellars - Vikki) and possibly my other Sister Ju.

Definitely not a drag bike

2010-09-12T22:19:00.003+01:00

Two posts in one weekend, thats gotta be a first. Anyway - this one is a deviation from dragbikes because it's about this .... an Armstrong MT500 i bought today. I took out one months pay as you go insurance on it as it's going straight on eBay as soon as i get the log book back. It's been 18 months since i last rode a bike on the road so it was odd being out again, and having to shut the throttle off to change gear!
Front brake is a joke (they all are), other than that it's all good, new Mikuni carb, new chain 6 months tax n test. Complete with one tin of matt Nato green paint.

Poor old Vito

2010-09-11T22:05:00.010+01:00

Thanks to Peter Donaldson for letting me use this great shot from the last event.
It's now less than 2 weeks to the next event at Santa Pod - the National Finals. It's gonna be a bit of a rush to get the bike back together, it's still completely apart and the engine cases are with Roger Upperton who is very kindly sorting out my spare set in time for me to get the whole thing back together. He also checked the crank over for any damage, but all is pretty much fine in that department.

Another much needed part arrived today, a new custom made smaller rear sprocket. I've been running pretty much to the limiter in 5th gear since changing to a 14tooth front sprocket, so this one will allow a further 6 -8 mph at the top end before hitting the limiter which is set at a fairly conservative 10,000 rpm.
The sprocket was made by Douglas Anderson of Westgarage Engineering Services, and i must commend him on excellent service, price and turnaround time. The website can be found here: http://www.chaindrivediff.com/ and here http://www.westgarage.co.uk/

Generally it's been non stop since returning from the last event at shakey, i spent a couple of evenings getting the engine out and apart, a whole day cleaning, prepping and painting my spare cases as i had to modify the webbing in the sump for shift fork removal. And Sam and i have been van hunting for about a week as her trusty Vito is looking a bit tired now and the MOT is imminent. We went all over the Northwest looking mostly at MK6 transits but found nothing but depressing load of crud crud. Only a day later we found one less than 5 miles away on the outskirts of Lancaster, it looked better than any of the others so she bought it. It's a 100ps T260 Short wheebase.
The poor Vito failed it's MOT as predicted but nothing too expensive to repair so I'm going to see if I can get it sorted and I'll keep it for myself and sell my car (Toyota Celica GT ... if anyones interested).

Next weekend will be all hands to the pumps to get the engine reassembled, back into the frame and new sprocket fitted.

Thats gotta hurt

2010-09-02T21:27:00.005+01:00

I've never really hurt the bike before so wrecking a set of cases like we did is a new experience. It seems strange that just recently i acquired an extra set of cases and they are going to be needed so soon.

The initial theory as to what caused the damage was detonation, or small amounts of detonation culminating in the cases finally giving way. However i have the engine apart now and there are no signs whatsoever of detonation. Number 2 cylinder was definitely hotter than the others but it was number 1 where the damage occurred, plus the plug has a perfectly intact electrode, the valves look fine, the seats and head haven't cracked, and the ring lands are untouched too.
So now the theory has changed, and the damage a little more visible it seems obvious the barrels and head have attempted to exit the equation. One possibility is the reinforced by the fact i spent most runs last weekend suffering wheelspin off the line and having to short shift into second due to having the wrong settings for such a slippery track. The theory is that having changed gear early and thus reducing engine speed - that with all the nitrous and fuel going in during a prolonged intake it just couldn't cope when the ensuing cylinder pressure went a bit mental and so tried to blow the head off.

I need to examine the crank for any damage yet but fingers crossed it is ok as i simply cannot afford a new crank. If it's survived i'll have my spare cases machined out to accept the bigger barrels and try to get it rebuilt in the next 3 weeks ready for the National finals at the end of September.

The event at the weekend by the way went pretty well excluding the damage sustained. As i mentioned in the last post the hope was to go and run some consistent and hopefully fast runs. we certainly got consistent and the bike went faster than it's gone before in it's current guise.
We had none of the electrical problems that we traditionally have from time to time, and particularly at the last event. Plus we finished up with an overall 4th in the qualifying times.
The first 2 runs were 8.5's and the 3rd an 8.4 @158mph. even the engine wrecking run was a fairly good 8.7. It ended there though and we had packed up before the first round of eliminations and spent the day watching.

So now the rush is on to finish getting this engine apart, get the spare cases modded and transfer all the bits to them.

Un pimp my ride

2010-08-29T20:51:00.004+01:00

Very brief update ....
Basically the weekend was pretty successful until the last run today (Sunday) when i pulled up at the end of the track to find oil leaking out of the engine. On return to the pits we discovered the crankcases split in two.!
So that's the end of this race meeting for us.

Pimped

2010-08-26T22:03:00.004+01:00

Incredibly the paintwork on my bike is dry and finished, other than it will need a cut and polish when it's hardened a little. The number of spray cans required was more than estimated and it's a little rough round the edges due to time constraints, but the overall effect is pretty good for a 1 week £60 spray job.My prediction of more entries in Competition bike was poor. There are still only 6 entries on the final list. Why this year should be different to the last I'm not sure, but an 8 bike field would add a lot more to the competition.

A lot has changed since the last race where we were plagued by niggly problems. That seems to have been a theme this year. So the intention this weekend is to regain some reliability go faster and be consistently faster!

How hard can it be to go 1/4 mile???

If i get chance I'll update my blog over the weekend. But if not the results will be available via eurodragster.com

Pimp my Ride

2010-08-19T22:41:00.005+01:00

Just one week to go to the next race meeting which is the Open sport Nationals held at Shakespeare County Raceway, Stratford Upon Avon.Version 2 of the entry list is out and shows only 6 bikes in Competition bike. Entries are still open however so there may be one or two more.
The list looks like this:
CB1 Ivan Birch
CB3 Dave Peters
CB4 Phil Leamon
CB7 Me
CB9 Paul Wing
CB12 Alan Young

As usual, the action can be followed with the excellent live reports on eurodrgaster.com and the web cam may well be upgraded from the static shot variety to a real realtime one!
The link to the event coverage page is here http://www.eurodragster.com/shakespearecountyraceway/live/2010opensportnationals/default.asp

Due to our team manager Sam slacking off, once again we will be leaderless for this event. So any problems encountered can only be blamed on her absence.

Nothing left to do with the bike. It's currently in the middle of being painted, I'm doubtful it will be finished in time or even dry properly. But so far it's looking pretty good and definitely an improvement over purely stealthy matt black.

Location, location, location ....

2010-08-07T20:32:00.011+01:00

Mostly a picture post this one, i spent most of today just wiring so not a lot to see there. However i fitted the fuel pumps and got the remote Nitrous gauge fitted too.
I've re-employed the VFR fuel pump. It does carb supplying duties, and also double as fuel cutoff. The bracket was a bit unnecessary, a pair of cable ties would have done!

The Nitrous pressure gauge used to be mounted on the bottle. But it's now on a short hose and mounted on the left where it can be seen easily.

The new NOS fuel pump has been relocated to feed directly off the fuel tap, no hose - just outlet then pump. I tried to give it an downhill slant to let any air escape back up into the tank. The hose from the pump to the solenoid is now very short and incorporates a tee piece to which i can screw in a gauge.

And finally, here's the double kill switch i'll be trialling in an attempt to stop the nitrous pops!

Back to basics

2010-08-06T20:49:00.004+01:00

A couple of weeks ago i did some pressure tests on the old and the new fuel pumps. The idea was to check the pressure of the old NOS one and set the new Holley Blue to give the same pressure.
However, the tests showed that both pumps were poor at priming themselves (expelling the air and actually pumping fuel). The problem is made worse on my system in that the fuel system is the dead head type where there is no return for fuel back to the tank, so the air in the pump and lines has nowhere to go. This is the way i have always run it and the way NOS expected their pump to be used.
Once primed the small NOS pump works flawlessly, and without a regulator it produces a consistent 4.5psi. The Holley however seemed very finicky, it took just about forever to prime properly, even when not dead headed. Furthermore you can switch it on one time and get say 9psi. switch it off and immediately back on and it can make 1 or 2 psi different.
As a result i decided i liked the NOS pump better, it delivers more than enough fuel for my small nitrous system, is tiny and super lightweight compared to the Holley, and so i purchased a brand new one from Earls.
It will be relocated on the bike and be positioned in a way that will hopefully allow air to escape back up to the tank. Plus i'm adding a tee right in front of the solenoid so i can check the pressure to the solenoid before a run.

The RG125 forks are now rebuilt and back on the bike. It took some research to find forks from a bigger bike that would have springs the same diameter, there aren't many that use 39mm stanchions, but a pair of stuffed FZ750 forks were bought off eBay for £13 and finally i have springs of the perfect diameter.
I had to cut them down by quite a bit and adjusted the preload with sections of tube and guesswork. The result is a much stiffer set of forks and when the bike is at rest there is pretty much no compression of the forks, i reckon they will about right. Not like i'm a suspension expert but i've ridden a bike or 2 and you get a feel for these things!

As well as fitting the new pump i also have a new set of solenoids, and new Micro relays to fit, plus - thanks to Roger Upperton i also have a new double ignition shift kill switch to try, so a little bit of wiring modification is on the agenda for this coming weekend.
The kill switch features 2 microswitches that are activated one after the other. The theory is that the Nitrous will get a slightly longer kill than the ignition and is my second attempt at stopping the backfires that are a pain in the butt!

Thin springs & The replacement

2010-07-20T23:10:00.004+01:00

Ever since i bought a second set of RG125 forks I've been scouring the universe for a set of heavier fork springs to fit into them. I can't tell you how many people I've emailed via ebay to ask them the diameter of the springs for various models of bikes. The unanimous answer always seems to be 34mm diameter..... 1mm too big! I did buy a set just to find out and after removing a fair amount of metal from them using a flap disk they fitted but as soon as the forks are compressed they bind in the tube. And so the search continues for springs from a heavyweight bike that are 30 -33mm diameter. The length is not important as i can cut the spring or the tube to suit.
Strangely - despite the forks being identical on the outside they don't share one common part internally. However - they are in better condition, as in no pitting on the chrome and they aren't bent.

The replacement for the now gone VFR has arrived, and will be leaving again shortly in various sized packages.
I bought a GSX1100E in pieces. I only really want the parts that may come in useful as spares, like the engine cases, crank, gearbox and cylinder head. The rest of it is being listed bit by bit on eBay. If you need any GSX parts check out my eBay sales HERE, and remember - bid generously as all proceeds go to a good cause!

Stuart - who is my regular crew/starter guy has been sorting out the bad starter cart battery situation and has very kindly purchased a new one for me. It's a 60ah bosch the same as the other good one so there's a new matching pair in there now.
I bought a new Accumate maintenance charger too as the last 2 Oxford ones ( maximiser 360T which cost £60 each) have now died - well before the supposed guarantee runs out. Oxford are zero help in this regard and claim that they won't fix or replace them without a dealer stamped warranty card being posted in when purchased. Not really possible when bought off the Internet.
The worst thing about the second charger was it actually claimed to have been charging all my batteries when in reality it had been draining them!

I finished making the little aluminium inlet stubs that fit inside the carb rubbers. They make the run from carb to inlet tract much much smoother and I'm hoping they are worth a couple of HP. I may make make some more with a slightly longer taper that can run into the carb slightly and that will help them stay located centrally.

Still to sort out before the next meeting which is in approx 6 weeks time:

2 fuel pumps to fit and set up correct pressures (one to feed the carbs one for the Nitrous side)

Tyre for the mini bopchop as it's falling apart!

Lanyard kill and switches to replace.

Relays to replace and mount in a big foam block to minimise vibration.

Fork springs to find, leak proof seals to buy and forks to reassemble.

Sprocket support plate to take off and do final polishing.

On the maybe list:

Paint the bike

Refit the LM-1 wideband sensor and logger

Get a 2 tooth smaller rear sprocket made

That should keep me going for a while!

So long - VFR400 NC24

2010-07-07T21:36:00.007+01:00

Today was significant in that i actually sold the one bike i said I'd never sell - my VFR400.
I didn't get a great deal for it nor i did i get a tear in my eye as it disappeared down the road.
I bought it for £1450 way back in 1993 it was a great bike, nice handling, light weight, and a brilliant and indestructible engine. It did 120,000 miles in my hands.
I took it touring, to Santa Pod to watch drag Racing, scrambling in very odd places looking for somewhere to camp in the lake district, and it went to RWYB's at York raceway where it ran 12.88 @ 99mph.
I do however, know that I'd never have ridden it again, and it's been stood for 8 years as it is. So before it rots i've sold it. Adiós VFR400.

It leaves me with some space at last in the cellar, which is worth something in itself. Plus Sam's little RG125 has a buyer lined up and could also be gone in the next few weeks. The money will be going towards the 'new van fund', the space will be occupied by .... well, watch this space.

Back to the world of drag racing then - some changes are underway, at the moment the Cylinder head is off so i can drill holes to relocate the NX nitrous foggers. The old holes that were in the sides of the inlet manifolds have been epoxied up and new holes go directly underneath the port in the traditional place. I'd never done this before as it would have meant having the cooling fins machined off the block. But with the new block i noticed they will fit without any work at all. The advantage to this move is improved accessibility to the foggers for jet changing purposes, it also means i can use the same length lines to each one, plus i can get the carb manifolds a bit shorter and improve the flow into the engine. I've also been making tiny little aluminium reducers to put between the carb and inlet stub that will create a straight, smooth transfer from carb to inlet.

Tests on the nitrous systems fuel pump have been taking place too, the results are a bit odd. Once primed the pump works faultlessly and produces a constant 4.5psi. However on a couple of occasions it didn't fill with fuel properly could be heard making a swishing sound as air and fuel were being mixed up. The result was 1psi of pressure. Why it does this I'm not sure and it's hard to replicate but it did it twice whilst on test so the decision was to made to replace it with the Holley blue i bought a while back. Getting fittings for the Holley is a complete pain in the backside, and can easily end up costing more than the pump itself. However a source of 3/8npt fittings was found at a pressure washer supplies shop and cost more to post than to buy. We are ripped off in the motorsport world.

Who's is that gazebo?

2010-06-22T22:39:00.007+01:00

Pictures are courtesy of Sam, who is in the process of updating her Photobucket page with lots of shots of all the bike classes from last weekend.

Fridays test and tune got off to a bad start when we discovered one of the starter cart batteries was completely duff and the starter could hardly turn itself over never mind the bike. An odd scenario really as the batteries are always cycled on a maintenance charge and the charger detects if a battery is duff ..... well at least it's supposed to.
Anyway, a remedy was formulated using the good battery and the battery from the van. Because that battery is so big it won't fit in the cart so we had to ratchet strap the whole lot on top of it. It saved the day however and got us 2 runs down the track before the rain came in the middle of the afternoon.
Both runs netted some reasonable times with an 8.5 then an 8.7, both were messy runs with poor 60ft times and early shutoffs. It looked like a promising start but Saturdays qualifying would see the times going backward. The bike was still bogging slightly off the line despite some fuelling changes, plus we had a variety of electrical gremlins, one of which saw the bikes whole electrics flickering on and off all the way down the strip. In the end we qualified 6th with an 8.8 second pass.
After the last qualifier on Saturday, we returned to the pits to be greeted by the sight of someones gazebo completely upside down and looking rather broken in the middle of the pit lane. It quickly dawned on me that it was ours! some passers by were holding on to it to stop it going any further. Thankfully it hadn't hit anyone or damaged anything, and we were able to recover it and get it straightened out fairly easily. There was hardly any wind at all so it had come as a bit of a surprise. We made sure it was tied down more severely after that anyway.

In the first round of eliminations then, i was thoroughly beaten by Bob Brooks who ran a great personal best time of 7.2 vs my pitiful 9.2, once again the electrical fault spoiled the run, the bike cutting out and misfiring down the track till i just gave up. Chances are either the lanyard kill is faulty or corroded or the main power relay is stuffed or suffering from vibration and loosing contact.

No racing now till the end of august so plenty of time to hopefully eliminate the problem and there are a few other changes on the agenda too. It may even get painted before to long!

Coming up next

2010-06-05T10:44:00.006+01:00

The next round in the ACU season is the Summer Nationals at Santa Pod in 2 weeks time - Saturday 19th and Sunday 20th of June. In the past we've also attended the test and tune day the Friday before the race but this year it looks like we won't bother.
The entry list for this event is an improvement over the last two rounds - there are 9 entries so far. Unusually there is no entry from Phil Leamon, I've not heard what's happened to him hopefully he will make a late entry or will be back for the next round.
Bob Brooks is back for this round, and with the modifications he made to the Yellow Metal Racing bike over the winter and with him running personal best times at the recent Main event, he should be a real contender. The bike seems to have taken on a different level of seriousness, and it wouldn't surprise me if he runs a lot quicker than the 7.4 he ran last weekend.
We are also joined by a newcomer of sorts - Lizz McCarthy, who is normally seen as part of funny bike racer Kev Charmans crew, but she's been putting a bike together over the last year and should be licensed and ready to race in time for the event.

I could really do with the bike getting it's act together this time out, it's a long way to go for such a short event, and the chances are we will only get two qualifying runs which leaves little opportunity to try things, plus there's still been no major breakthrough in finding the reasons for the poor performance at the last round. It might be an idea to stop entering very expensive race meetings and instead go to RWYB events and get a lot more track time for a lot less money.

Rewiring is nearly finished, there are now 2 further relays involved to kill the nitrous during the 4th and 5th gearchange. Initially the idea was to simply remove 12v to the solenoids during the shifts, but instead I've used the 'activate' signal wire and I'll use the hold and wait option on the Schnitz controller. There's also a new back tyre waiting to be fitted and i have some new nitrous parts to put on. Other than that everything is ready to go.

This weekend we will mostly be ............

2010-05-28T18:16:00.004+01:00

This weekend we will mostly be watching European championship Drag Racing at Santa Pod!
In a last minute turn of events - and despite writing off the whole idea of going weeks ago, we will actually be going to do spectator duties at the Main event.
Last Monday I had and email from fellow racer - Bob Brooks, offering us a pair of crew tickets. So many thanks (once again) to Bob for those.
We will miss the first 2 days but will be there for Sundays qualifying and Mondays eliminations.

The entry list is pretty good, with 8 fuel cars, 15 Supertwins, 6 Fuel Bikes and 8 Funny bikes. This year they have split the fuel class and the funny bikes will now run on their own.

The highlights hopefully will be, Per Bengtsson with his particularly awesome sounding 'beast' supertwin, Dave Beck running the first 6 second Prostock bike run in Europe, and watching Bob Brooks run his Yellow Metal bike to a whole new level!

New Sponsor

2010-05-19T22:48:00.006+01:00

Nearly 3 weeks since the last update so this is a little overdue. The bike is currently undergoing a series of refinements, money is a big issue however after the hideous overspend getting the bike ready for the last meeting, and that was with financial assistance from my newly acquired sponsor - aka my mum, who gave me money towards the wheely bars. As it happens I'm really pleased with the bars Stuart Crane made for me, they are super lightweight,a clever design and well made. Hope my mum likes em too as they are half hers!

I've stripped the carbs down and had the nitrous system in bits, trying to find reasons for the running problems we experienced at the last round. I found a couple of problems but I'm not sure if they were substantial enough to cause the issues. Both really point back to the fact that the fuel tank - which is built into the frame had never had any fuel flow through it before, and there was bound to be some crud in there that came loose. There is of course fuel filters on the nitrous side but none to the carbs. I found a big chunk of rubber blocking the float needle in one carb and despite the filter i found a blocked nitrous jet.

Other mods include a proper mount for the chain guard, and it's all been polished too so looks rather blingy now. And I've made a holster of sorts for the bottom of the nitrous bottle so it's held more securely. I could do with a 12-18"long nitrous hose now the bottle is inside the frame as the old hose is way to long and has to be coiled up a couple of times. I'll keep looking on eBay.
The polishing has extended the back wheel spacers, which have now also been drilled to death to lighten them somewhat, and i made up one new spacer to allow the brake caliper mounting some freedom to rotate when adjusting the chain tension.

One part i can't afford to change just yet but will be done in the next week or two is the back tyre. I was given the current one as it had started 'chunking' slightly (the rubber was coming away in small chunks or blisters), it's done 7 more passes now on my bike and has got quite a lot worse so it's gotta go. I've been looking at the options and it looks like the car version of the Mickey Thompson tyre is cheaper to buy, lasts longer, and is preferred by some racers. It is 3lb heavier but that's the one I'm pretty sure I'll go for.

Wiring is next on the agenda, i have a plan to stop the nitrous explosions blowing the exhaust headers off all the time, I'll be wiring in one or two new relays when i create a fresh wiring harness hopefully in the next couple of weeks. If killing the fuel and nitrous with a relay doesn't work, I've welded the headers to the collector just in case.

The bike with no name

2010-05-04T17:28:00.009+01:00

A mixed bag of results from the weekends race at Shakespeare County Raceway. The first outing for the new bike (with no name) started off with a couple of no nitrous observed runs which went ok, the bike drifted a little to the left on both runs but everyone seemed to have the same issue. On the next run however it went right so it doesn't look like it has a tendency to go one way in particular.
The rest of the runs we had trouble with the bike bogging off the line. It would leave, then die a death. When i rolled the throttle off slightly it would take off once again and be ok for the rest of the run. Convinced it was something to do with the nitrous coming on either too rich or too lean, i made adjustments to the progressive controller to try and eliminate the problem. However no matter what i tried it kept doing it. Investigations into the cause are continuing!

The best time for the whole weekend was a very disappointing 9.2 at 149mph.

In eliminations we were more than fortunate to take the first round win against Stu Crane on his new Funny bike. In the race my bike bogged as usual whilst Stu disappeared into the future, my bike recovered as but a misfire had popped a couple of the exhaust headers off and the bike didn't sound well so I'd started to back off. At that point i think I'd completely forgotten it was a race but noticed Stu in the other lane had slowed down a lot and was desperately trying to engage another gear by hand. Seizing the opportunity i pinned it and the bike went onto the nitrous and by a few feet i just managed to get past him before the finish. Jammy basically!

The next round i had Steve French on his funny bike (he moved into comp bike due to him being the only entry in funny bike) Steve just disappeared off the line and I never even caught sight of him again.
The final would have been Steve vs Dave Peters but rain stopped that race ever taking place.

I'm disappointed with the times from the weekend but pleased that the frame and all the other bits appear to work well. Nothing broke and nothing but a small piece of foam fell off in 7 trips down the strip and the extra bumpy shutdown area.

Sam will no doubt update her Photobucket page later, with shots from the weekend.
Here's a few more in the meantime:

James who normally rides our towbike defected to the Leamon Brothers race team due to their lack of crew. As it turns out he quite enjoyed being chief starter.

The defecting thing must have been catching as Stuart also had a go - he loaned himself and the starter cart to the Dave Peters team when their starter let them down in qualifying.

Springspeed once again

2010-04-29T21:57:00.003+01:00

This coming weekends Springspeed nationals at Shakespeare county raceway, is the second round in the ACU dragbike championship. And for the second time there are only 6 bikes on the Competition bike entry list.
They are: Me, Stuart Crane, Paul Wing, Phil leamon, Ivan Birch, and Dave Peters.
I'm not the only one with a new bike either, as Stuart crane has a new machine for this year too. He made the first few passes on it at a RWYB last weekend and was on form straight away.

Coverage of the weekend can be found on eurodragster.com with live reports, the webcam and end of day galleries. Check it all out HERE

The new bike is almost ready, i still have the wheely bars to fit when i collect them at the track, and some fork modifications to do (thanks a million to Bob Brooks for sending me some parts at the last minute) but that should be a straightforward job that i'll do tomorrow morning.

Rotting Carcass

2010-04-25T22:36:00.009+01:00

It's a miserable sight looking at the remains of the bopchop. The last 2 days have seen its carcass being picked at by vultures until just there's nothing left but bare bones.
Fortunately the vultures have been 'merely transplanting' parts from one motorcycle to the next!

The question could be asked is the new bike still the bopchop? what part constitutes the soul of a motorcycle, the frame or the engine?
Stuart came up on Saturday to help out and we made a lot of progress with new bike. The engine was first on the agenda, then getting carbs on, plus airshifter and bearing support, nitrous components located, chain and sprockets on, and trying to plan out where various electrical components would live.

Cavemen at work

Today i continued where we left off, making up brackets for switches and the exhaust. Making up preload spacers for the front forks, as it became apparent once the engine was in that they were simply way too soft.
The original idea was to wire it from scratch but due to lack of time i transplanted the harness from the bopchop. It looks messy but just before i left tonight everything was working perfectly.

There are lots of things that need finishing properly. this was always the intention so it could be completed as the season progresses. But for now it's looking like it should be ready for the next race which takes place over the coming bank holiday weekend at Shakespeare county raceway.

I had to give up any ideas i ad to make wheely bars and instead I've asked fellow racer Stu Crane to make me a set. He will be bringing them to the track with him.

There are only 6 bikes in comp bike so far, hopefully it will increase and we will at least get a full field.

Offset mind

2010-04-18T23:02:00.004+01:00

A quick update on progress so far.....

Work has proceeded with the frame now i have it back, the rolling chassis is now mostly back together. This was helped by the arrival of the offset sprocket and top end oiling kit i bought secondhand from the US.

Having the sprocket meant i could finish the bearing holder and support plate, get the chain guard fitted, and work out how to make the gear change shaft longer. Plus i could try and figure out where to mount the airshifter.

Most of that is now done, just the outer gear change lever to make up and one mounting for the chain guard.

Black powder

2010-04-14T21:41:00.004+01:00

Today marked a large step forward with the new bike build. I collected the frame from Shermaynes Engineering where it was being blasted and powder coated. The result is better than i expected, the colour as you can see is gloss black and it suddenly it just looks ten times more finished.

It also means that i can actually start putting parts on the bike knowing it doesn't have to come apart again any more. James did the modeling this evening when i did a bit of a mock up. The bodywork is now in primer and I'll paint it properly when i get the time.
The real dilemma is whether it can be made ready in the two weeks remaining till the next race at Shakespeare county raceway. It still needs wheely bars, wiring, chain, and a few other bits and pieces.

Wot no NOS

2010-04-07T22:26:00.004+01:00

I couldn't resist starting the bike when i got it out of the cellar, not sure why as there would be nothing i could do about it if there was something wrong. Anyway, it started straight away as usual and sounded spot on, a little adjustment of tickover, some oil circulation checks and it was ready to load up.
The first day was called off with regular downpours spoiling the action, the rest of the weekend was intermittently spoiled by the weather too, plus it was real cold. On the Saturday we got one qualifying run, i wanted to give the new engine parts a chance to bed in and intended to do a no nitrous run, however on the startline i changed my mind and flicked the nitrous on. Strangely though it didn't come on, at least the bike pulled pretty cleanly and every gear selected perfectly. The time was a rather poor 10 something, much slower than i was expecting, although it did wheelspin a little off the line and i had to back off slightly. The next 2 qualifying rounds on the Sunday were exactly the same with the nitrous just not coming on. In the pits there was no problem at all and it activated every single time. It was a bit of a mystery. The 3rd run was also spoiled when an air shifter hose popped out and i lost all air pressure leaving me stuck in 3rd gear.
On the Sunday evening I'd stripped the solenoids, changed every switch, checked every connection and found nothing wrong whatsoever, so i very much doubted the nitrous would come on, however in the first round against Dave Peters, it did actually work and it managed a half decent 8.5 second pass. Nowhere near enough to see off Dave who went 7.6 but it was a buzz to ride once again.
And that was that - we headed off home.

2010 Easter Thunderball

2010-03-31T19:50:00.005+01:00

Disappointed though i am not to be running the new bike at this weekends Easter Thunderball, i do at least get to give the newly improved engine a chance to stretch it's legs. I fitted the Top end oiler today but i still haven't had chance to start it, it looks like I'll just have to do it at the track and keep my fingers crossed that everything is ok.

We set off to Santa Pod tomorrow sometime and are hoping that the weather will be good as the forecast isn't. But then - we learned to ignore forecasts years ago.
Qualifying starts on Friday morning and as usual the action can be followed via eurodragster.com, with live reports and the 60 second webcam. I'm not sure if Nitro FM will be broadcasting the commentary on the net too, but feel free to try it!

Disconnnected stuff, loose stuff & stray rags.

2010-03-29T23:35:00.006+01:00

Easter is now looming somewhere very close indeed, so the weekend turned into a crack mission to throw the engine back together and get it back in the frame. Thanks (again) to Roger Upperton for calling me Saturday morning and reminding me to block the oilways in the cylinder head, he had mentioned doing this before but i had totally forgotten. So i set about tapping the holes and fitting grub screws in there. Then there was a dry build to check that nothing was hitting or close to hitting anything else. Everything checked out so it went together properly this time, the cams turned out to need a little tweaking as they were a couple of degrees out. It always seems to take me hours to degree cams, i don't know what the secret is but I seem to get different results every time it's done, so I counteract this by doing it a lot.

The nearly completed engine is now back in the frame and this evening i finished off plumbing the carbs up, checking the ignition timing, filled it with oil and refitted the exhaust. Then i went round and round it looking for disconnected stuff, loose stuff, rags in the intake ports, backward facing nitrous nozzles, things i may have partially removed or borrowed for the new bike and not put it back properly, etc etc.
There was even time for some sticker removal (I'm CB7 this year so the 6 has to go) and i made up some convincingly rubbish 7's out of insulation tape.
Tomorrow i should have the top end oiler which is the last part that needs fitting and I'll gather all the tools and stuff required for the weekend. We are travelling down to Santa Pod on Thursday afternoon, I'll have the usual Crew of Sam, Stuart and James.

Double identity

2010-03-26T19:56:00.003Z

I've been working on both bikes nearly every night this week. The bopchop is only really awaiting an engine, which is making good progress. And the new bike has made a few small steps forward in that I've had the bearing support plate cut from my CAD file, and it fits perfectly - much to my relief. The sprocket bearing holder that bolts to it also fits, but can't be finished until i have the sprocket here to get dimensions from.

It's looking like i should be able to at least run the new engine at the Thunderball. I was going to be short of a top end oiler but thanks to comp bike racer Nick "Shaggy" Daniels I'll have one as he was kind enough to lend me his for this event.
On Wednesday i checked the deck height on the new block and pistons and bought an 1mm thick aluminium base gasket/spacer to bring the pistons flush with the top of the block. That arrived yesterday and i fitted it earlier this evening, despite it being for a 1500 kit it still needed quite a lot of relieving to fit round the sleeves. The barrels went on too, which just leaves tomorrows task of fitting the power rings, head gasket and getting the head itself back on, degreeing the cams and checking the valves don't hit anything.

After getting the engine fitted it won't leave many opportunities before Thursday to get the bike out and try starting it. The first chance i get might well be at the track.

No longer a 1260cc dragbike?

2010-03-21T22:56:00.005Z

Today was the last chance i had to get over to Roger Upperton's and collect the engine parts I'd left with him. I'd left the top crankcase which has been bored to accept the bigger cylinder block, and the gearbox which needed a few tweaks, basically one of the gears had spun and moved on the shaft, and so needed a new gear pressing on. This was one of the reasons that I'd trouble with 5th gear last year, so hopefully that's the end of that problem.
I also collected the big block and pistons that Roger has very kindly sorted out for me, plus all the bits needed to assemble them.
The only problem now is the lack of top end oiler that i cannot be without, mines unlikely to make it here in time, so I've emailed a few people to try and borrow or buy one cheaply. If i absolutely cannot get one I'll just have to assemble it as a 1260 once again.

Anyway, the reassembly has begun, the bottom end is tomorrow evenings task and if i get time I'll check the deck height of the block and pistons so i can order the right thickness base gasket.

The little nugget of chance of having the new bike ready has now shrivelled to far less than nugget size. It's just an insignificant spec now..... nothing greater than an amoeba i would say.

Running out of time

2010-03-14T20:34:00.002Z

In the back of my mind resides a little nugget of a chance that the new bike could be ready in time for the Easter thunderball in less than 3 weeks time. Sat next to it is a slightly larger nugget of chance that any bike will be ready in time for the Easter thunderball in less than 3 weeks time. For either to happen there is a list as long as a really long thing, of things to do and buy.

For starters i don't have an engine ready, half of it is still over in Leeds at Roger Uppertons and some other much needed parts, namely a top end oiler kit and offset sprocket are a couple of thousand miles away in Florida USA.
The most likely scenario is that i wont have the parts in time so will have to go over to Leeds to collect the other half of my engine and spend a couple of nights reassembling it just the way it was last year. Then spend a further couple of nights putting it back in the old bike, giving it a clean up and checking everything is OK.
For the new bike to be ready involves all of the above plus completely building the bike, the frame for which isn't even finished, never mind painted or anything else. It will then need brackets making to mount everything, a sprocket support plate and bearing holder making, chain ordering, chainguard making, completely wiring from scratch, the bodywork filled repaired, sanded and painted, mounting points fabricating, and a set of wheely bars making for it.

Some of the above are in progress anyway, such as the sprocket support, and the bodywork has been partly filled and sanded.

The entry list for the first event of 2010 currently stands at 7, there may well be late entries but the fee will double so i don't expect many. Notable absentees from last year are Bob Brooks who I'm guessing doesn't have his bike ready in time as he was making some major changes to it over the off season, and Nick Daniels.

Lets elaborate

2010-02-28T22:06:00.006Z

Ok, i kinda missed a lot of detail out of the bike build recently, the way I've been working was that I'd done a lot of stuff that wasn't very visual but suddenly lots of things have come together and I've been able to put the rolling chassis together.
Having both wheels in meant that i could see if all my calculations and guesswork concerning ground clearance had worked out. For ACU purposes there has to be 2" clearance, there's out about 2.5" but with a fully built engine in and all the other bits and pieces it will sink on the suspension a little no doubt. The front forks seem to be spot on, i reduced them internally by 40 mm, Sawing a section out of the damper rod and welding it back together with a sleeve around it for added strength.
This weekend was spent making spacers for the wheels and lots of sitting on the bike trying to find the correct location for the footpegs. It's not easy as ideally i need to be able to have my feet on the pegs but still touch the ground with my toes. The problem is the exhaust gets in the way and locating the rear brake pedal where it can be reached becomes difficult.
Whilst on the subject of rear brake i managed (finally) to find a good method of mounting the master cylinder and mechanism. It took several aborted attempts before i came up with this ... hopefully the final one.

The bodywork sits nicely on the frame too, it's difficult to tell how it was going to look in the cellar, and I'd taken a large woodwork saw to the lower fairing and sawed half of it off - i wanted to see the engine rather than hide it so i went with the 3/4 fairing look.
I purchased it recently off a fellow racer, its a fibreglass GSXR750 SRAD style, they are very expensive to by new but I knew I needed new bodywork when I tried fitting the seat unit off the old bike on the new one .... I just laughed, it's wayyyy too small.
Anyway, I bought it fairly cheap, it looks really good on the pictures but up close it needs a bit of attention. The gelcoat has cracked and chipped a lot on the tail piece and there are a couple of large holes that need fibreglass repairs. The paintwork isn't staying despite it's eye candyness. I'll fill the gelcoat sand it flat and invent a whole new pain scheme as and when i have the time and money. It might have to be british racing primer for now.

Only 6 weeks to go

2010-02-27T23:01:00.005Z

The start of the 2010 ACU Dragbike racing season isn't too far away, Easter is the first round and my entry form is filled in ready to be posted. It's still looking like I'll be running the old bike despite quite a lot of progress with the new one. Thanks to Roger Upperton most of the parts needed to put the engine back together are on their way, some have yet to arrive from the US but it shouldn't be more than a couple of weeks.

For anyone who's not familiar with the ACU classes i thought I'd put a short guide together to explain what the various categories are:

SuperStreet Bike - No wheely bars, no slicks and the bikes mostly resemble street going bikes, just real low and long. The bikes makes good use of electronics to control power output and typically run 7's with 7.2's at 200mph the order of the day.

Competition Bike - Pretty much an anything goes class. Usually populated by turbo or nitrous wheely bar and slick bikes, but also joined by bikes which cannot enter any other class such as outlaw and methanol specials.Times vary from low 7's to 8's and speeds usually above 160mph.

ProStock Bike - wheely bar and slick bikes that loosely resemble a road going bike, they are not allowed any power adders so the engines are usually heavily tuned and large capacity. Times are low 7's and speeds above 170mph. 2010 could see the fastest bikes break into the 6 second zone.

Funny Bike - Similar to Competition bike but the rules state the bikes must carry a brand and a passing resemblance to a production vehicle. The top class for non nitro burning wheely bar and slick bikes. times are in the mid to high 6 second zone for the top runners and speeds approaching or above 200mph.

Top Fuel Bike - Theses are the fastest accelerating bikes on earth, huge slicks, long wheelbase and wheelybars, they burn nitromethane fuel which produces incredible horsepower. Bikes regularly run low 6 second elapsed times at speeds above 220mph

Additionally there is an 9.50 index class run at all the usual rounds, It's a club series only, not ACU. Also there's a series known as Supertwins which runs at some but not all ACU rounds. More information regarding those can be found on the supertwins website.

The last couple of weeks have been spent ordering parts needed to progress with the new bike. More steel tube, slabs of aluminium, fasteners etc. I also decided to buy a scratch start tig kit for my little DC welder. I had a practice today but I'm still far from getting the hang of it. I have a friend who is rather good at TIG welding so I'll be harassing him for advice.
The warped axle adjuster clamps have been cut off and replaced with new ones. they still need welding properly as do a few other small parts that have been added, like footpeg and rear brake master cylinder mounts. It's starting to come together though. Today for the first time the rolling chassis was complete enough for me to wheel it outside into the daylight. It's the first time I've been able to stand far enough away from it to see how it looks, but it's looking pretty good i think!

Bling bling

2010-02-14T20:47:00.003Z

It's taken a while to get completely completed but today i finished all the polishing, siliconed the parts together and bolted the whole thing up. The result - one perfectly formed and very blingy 10 inch wide back wheel.
I would happily avoid having to make one again, it's just so much work and they do crop up secondhand from time to time, in fact since i started making this one I've found 2 for sale that would have been perfect..... typical.

Until i have all the parts to start puttng the engine back together i've been polishing various bits and pieces for the new chassis. The top Yoke is in progress and the axle blocks will take a turn next.

And lastly, i modified my lathe by making a 4 bolt compound clamp to replace the spindly 2 bolt one. It's one of the recommended modifications to the 9x20 lathe, i've yet to notice any difference but I'm sure it will add some rigidity to it. The finish isn't quite up to the standard of the one on Steve Bedairs site where i took the design from, but my lathe is for making stuff not for admiring!

Bopchop rides again

2010-02-04T20:51:00.002Z

It's looking unlikely that the new frame will be ready in time for the first race of the year at Easter, I've not totally given up but a few setbacks and lack of funds is tempting me to just chill out a little and take my time to make sure it's right.
The upper engine case is at Roger Upperton's and has been bored ready for the big block, which is in itself receiving Rogers attention to remove some of the cooling fins to allow the nitrous nozzles to go in from the underside. In a few weeks i'll collect them and reassemble the engine and likely fit it to the old frame, which is just sat pretty much ready to go anyway. It could be a good opportunity to get the engine running right without also worrying about setting up a new chassis.

I managed to lay my hands on a secondhand Top end oiler kit from the states. It's a Vortex one and is an essential purchase rather than an optional one for the Orient Express big Block. It's not here yet but here's a piccy anyway.

The setbacks i mentioned are - other than lack of funds, problems with the frame. The front section is mostly ok, but the back half (which bolts on) has moved around a fair bit and is out of alignment. The plates that hold the axle blocks have warped all over the place and as yet i'm not sure they're recoverable. I might cut them off and replace with thicker section stuff.

Moving swiftly on

2010-01-17T21:22:00.010Z

With the frame now all but ready, a start has been made on the engine. It's been removed from the frame, stripped, completely degreased and this afternoon i removed all the crankcase studs ready to have the crankcases machined for the planned big block.
The standard Suzuki GSX barrels can only be bored (with the standard liners) to 1260cc - which the bike is already. To go any bigger really requires an aftermarket set of barrels, so that's the next step. And rather than a small increase I'm looking to go for a 1500cc set-up suited to nitrous.

There's the possibility that the 40mm Lectrons might be too small for 1500cc, but then again they were super rich for the 1260 motor so may be perfect for a bigger cc motor. The combustion chamber and exhaust ports are proof of just how rich it was running, everything was very oily black.

Interestingly, whilst examining gearbox parts in the hope of finding a reason for last years 5th gear problems, it turns out one of the shift fork shafts is a little bent as can be seen here.
Also the welding on the Pizza Cutter needs a little filing off as it's possible for it to foul the edge of the indented portion of the shift drum. I doubt it ever did but it needs sorting just in case.

The frame is going to a friend of mine for welding on Thursday. Mike Woods is a metal sculptor and runs Albion Ironwork in Lancaster. I've already apologised for the amount of work I'm asking him to do, there are somewhere in the region of 100 welds to do. Many of them need to be airtight too as air will be stored in the back half of the frame. In addition, some need to be fuel tight as the fuel tank is now in the frame as well. The only bits I've decided not to do just yet is the footpeg and rear brake master cylinder mounts. I thought it best to have the chassis built up with tyres on and off the jig so i can sit on it and find the best place for them that still allows clearance for the exhaust and brake lever.

And lastly, i pulled the forks apart a few days ago with the hope of shortening them as easily as i did the others. It's not going to be quite as easy but thanks to some advice off the oldskool Suzuki forum i at least have the easiest way sussed out. Unlike the last forks i won't be shortening the spring, instead the whole lot will be compressed in the hope of getting a decent amount of preload. Currently they are way too soft - as you would imagine off a 125.

Only Yoking

2010-01-07T21:25:00.003Z

I collected the top yoke from K-cut today, i was relieved to find all my measurements were spot on as it fits very nicely. I drilled and tapped the holes for the pinch bolts, and now all that's left is to give it a sand down, soften up the edges a little and polish it.

I've also discovered i'd not allowed enough room between one of the frame rails and the chain run, so i'll have to modify one of the tubes to fit around it. All that's left to do to the frame now is one more mount for the chainguard, a couple of 1/4" BSP threaded inserts making (for storing air in the frame) and a couple of mounts for the battery box and sprocket support plate.
with any luck it'll be ready for welding next week.

2010...... The year of the Tarantula?

2009-12-31T20:06:00.008Z

I did take a couple of days of my holiday off from playing with the bike. The rest were largely quite productive. I made up brackets for mounting the nitrous bottle which will now reside inside the frame rather than riding shotgun. And further bracketry for the solenoids, the coils and a proper frame for the headlight shell which will hold the schnitz nitrous controller once again.
The rear brake which is Aprillia RS now has a mounting bracket and i made up a torque arm using some m8 rose joints and ally bar.
I also decided that i wouldn't use traditional handlebars as i want them to ride quite low compared to the top yoke (which is awaiting water cutting once K-cut reopen in the new year) and it would have meant making large blocks to mount on the underside of the yoke. Instead i eBayed a set of GSXR1000 clip-on type handlebars. Compared to most clip-ons they don't have much of an angle to them, and they seem to be perfect for the job.

One much needed item making itself elusive was the offset countershaft sprocket. A new one has worked out too expensive but a secondhand one has now been found in the US. It's not exactly what i wanted as it's only 14 tooth rather than the 15 i was looking for but i can work around that with different rear sprockets. It is however the correct 3" offset and has the 45mm nose that i wanted too.
When it arrives i need to have another piece of ally water cut in the form of a sprocket support plate. I'll then turn up a bearing holder and crankshaft seal holder that will bolt onto it.

Anti crud flap

2009-12-19T19:30:00.007Z

There's still quite a bit to do but I'm off work for nearly 2 weeks over the festive period so I should get a fair bit done. I'm hoping to have the frame ready to go for welding in the next week or so.
This is how it looks so far....

I Made a mistake when machining the recess for the wheel bearing and cut it too big, but I've now put a sleeve in and it's perfect this time.

A top yoke is one of the next jobs to be water cut, i have a design ready and some 6082 ally on the way. I've added some mounting lugs to the headstock so i can make a proper front subframe to hold all the gadgets that sit up front.

The Forks are the RG125 ones i bought over a year ago. They will need the shortening and stiffening treatment of course!

I've bought a Fibreglass mudguard for the back wheel, hopefully it will stop all the burnout crud splattering all over the back of the bike.

A little bit of history

2009-12-11T21:22:00.004Z

I just picked up a video of drag bike racing from 1994, in the vague hope that it might feature the bopchop running, as I've never seen a video or even a picture of it in it's previous life.
It's footage of the MCN and ACU championship and 15mins in - there it is! Ridden by Pete Jones in the Super Street bike Class.
Bike looks a bit different with the mini fairing and no wheely bars, and the engine is a EF version of the GSX running a turbo and nitrous.

Hacked off

2009-12-07T23:52:00.004Z

I've now reached the hideous limit of how many tubes i can cut and file fit by hand. A tube notcher would've been handy but I'm not sure my sister and her neighbours would approve of any extra noise from the cellar. Luckily the end is in sight, there is only one more main frame tube to cut, then it's just the seat rails and bodywork mountings to fabricate out of easier 12mm stuff.
After that there's all the little brackets and mounting points to make up as i go along, a sprocket support plate to concoct, forks to shorten and fit and brakes, handlebar mounts and possibly top yoke and wheely bars and ... and .......and

One of the things i need to buy in the next few weeks that ain't cheap is a 15 tooth 3" offset sprocket. The offset is required to move the chain out far enough to clear the back tyre. A new chain will probably be a good idea too.

I'm fitting different forks in the form of some RG125 upside down items that have been sat in the cellar for over a year now. They weren't long enough to fit on the old bike but they should easy fit now. I'll have to see whats required to stiffen them a bit, possibly springs off a heavier bike and maybe heavier oil.

Shiny Nuts

2009-12-02T21:51:00.005Z

A busy week with a hacksaw and a bunch of files
has produced some results where the frame is concerned.
Keeping everything square while tacking tubes into place is quite tricky as each weld moves everything about. I'm only tacking things into place as i can't weld. A friend will hopefully be able to mig everything up for me when it's done. And mig being fairly cold should reduce the amount of movement as it's welded up, or at least that's the plan.

A parcel arrived from Bob Brooks of Yellow Metal Racing today. It contained a wheel spindle and nuts that he has made for me. I bought the specially selected Steel online, and sent it to Bob who offered to do the threading for me as my Lathe isn't long enough to do it myself. As you can see he also made a set of flanged nuts to go with it. Many many thanks go to Bob for doing it, the quality of his work is fantastic as usual.

How long, how long?

2009-11-23T22:01:00.011Z

Latest progress report:
The back wheel is pretty much finished other than polishing up and bolting back together.
The Disc is not the one off the old chassis but sourced off an Aprilia RS50, i have a caliper and master cylinder to go with it too.

The frame loop is finally happening too, the tubes that make up the back half of the loop have all been tacked into place and the temporary bracing removed.
I made a bit of a discovery when trying to fit the spare engine cases, as in - it wouldn't fit.
After removing the bottom engine mounts it has gone in but it's really tight, and it just means more work fabricating a new mount. What the frame is off I've no idea, a GSX750 maybe, it looks the same but is just different in the detail. Even the headstock is a different size as i fitted the forks to set up ride height and ground clearance only to find the bearings are totally different sizes and the main tube too long.
On the good side it looks like the 6 degrees of rake we added was just right. The forks can now be dropped right through the yokes until there is only 2" of travel and the ground clearance is spot on. So i went ahead and fitted the barrels, head and importantly the headers. And as if i had planned it, there is still enough clearance for the front wheel. Magic.
Next on the agenda is setting up the back wheel position and deciding how much longer to make the back end, one influence here is Sams van. There is only 4 inches spare any longer and it would have to go in diagonally. So it looks like a 68-70" wheelbase it is.

Boring

2009-11-15T19:18:00.006Z

It takes an incredible amount of time to create things on the lathe, i thought the wheel hubs were nearly done, but after more than 20 hours they are still some way off. Boring out the centers of the hub to accept the wheel spindle and center tube was a particularly slow as i cant support the tube over it's length, and must only remove a tiny bit at a time or it moves in the chuck and runs off center. I've ordered a new boring bar that I'll use to finish off the bearing surfaces as it's critical that they have an accurate finish and hold the bearings tight. Another 5 hours should see the wheel complete other than polishing.

The frame loop has now been tacked together. Tomorrow I'll put my spare set of cases in it, but first the jig mounts will have to move as they foul the sump. This will be a good opportunity however to set the frame height and ground clearance and then work can begin on the back half of the chassis.

Here's another pic of the axle adjuster blocks , now threaded and with M10 hardened adjuster bolts in place.

And finally, here's another of Dennis's clips. This one an 8.5 run at Shakespeare County Raceway

Expensive mistakes

2009-11-06T17:11:00.008Z

After the excitement of having the rear wheel cut last week, there's now some doubt over it and it looks like I'll have to have another made. I didn't realize the unsuitability of the material, and it was also pointed out by a friend that there are sharp corners on the outside of the spokes that could promote cracking. A redesign with radiused spokes has already happened but I'll now need a 330mm x 330mm slab of 6082 aluminium to cut it out of. Chances are it'll have to wait till more money is available, and I'll use the existing one for mock up purposes only.

I'm kinda hoping that's the end of wasting money and that the rest of the work that's been happening will be satisfactory. Yesterday i took a piece of ally and a CAD drawing of the axle adjuster blocks into K Cut. I collected them today and made a start on cutting the steel channels that hold them. They look good but i can't finish them properly until a new belt arrives for the lathe.

Jigsaw puzzle

2009-10-30T21:48:00.007Z

Apart from some major staring, lots of small things have been happening over the past 2 weeks. I've been buying tube, chunks of aluminium and lathe tools and to add to that i recently made a rather cool discovery.

To elaborate - i bought lots of 1" seamless tube for construction of the back half of the frame, it's quite thin but there will be a lot of cross bracing which should give it good overall strength.
I couldn't decide whether to go for rectangular section tube with built in axle adjusters at the back end of the frame or to use bolt on aluminium axle adjuster blocks.
The advantage with the blocks is it's very easy to adjust ride height, but to buy or have them made is very expensive. The afore mentioned recent discovery however has swayed me and I've now decided to make my own.

The back wheel has been progressing too, i bought some great chunks of aluminium bar to create a new wheel centre from. It will be almost an identical copy of the current bopchop wheel, but bigger (apart from thinner hub and spokes) and wider rims. It's in the lathe at the moment where most of the £50 worth of bar is being turned into swarf.

The hub section or spoked bit was being a bit problematic, at 13" diameter it was too big to get in my lathe to turn and i could do with milling the spokes out too. I got some quotes for people to do it but it was working out too expensive to be worth it. Then i thought about CNC water jet cutting.... the hub - after all, is just a flat plate of ally cut out into a desired shape. So i set about looking for more information and places that do it and discovered a place just round the corner from where i work.

I emailed John who is MD at K Cut on White Lund in Morecambe and after sending a CAD drawing of my design he gave me a price and a day or two later it was done, and all for a price that was less than i could buy the ally for.

Water cutting uses a super high pressure (60,000psi) focused jet of water that travels at 3 times the speed of sound and will cut through almost anything. Controlled by computer it will simply follow the lines of a CAD drawing with great accuracy. The finish of the cut surface is similar to 240 grit sandpaper so isn't going to be difficult to polish, and the cuts are very clean indeed. I even had the bolt holes cut rather than drilling them and they are spot on.

John showed me other motorcycle parts he was making for people, he is happy to take on small jobs and the service is very good. I'll definitely be using them again... particularly for the axle adjuster blocks and probably several other parts too!

Some Competition Bike video

2009-10-22T22:09:00.002+01:00

It's been posted on Youtube too.
Video Courtesy of Dennis from Leamon Bros race team.

Frame retardant

2009-10-19T21:31:00.005+01:00

Untouched for a few weeks now the new frame has been receiving some attention. Most of the material around the headstock had been removed but i was unable to get the headstock tube to bend back, today however i took it to see a man i know and we got it to play ball by taking the oxy torch to it and getting it real hot.
To ensure everything stayed straight the frame remained in the jig for this operation. A large snug fitting bar running straight through the head tube and down between the jig rails meant it would only bend in one direction. It still took quite some effort but we managed to move it back 6 and a bit degrees, the target was 7 so it's pretty close. This change of angle alone will lower the front of the bike by 2 inches, plus if needed there will now be enough space between the front wheel and exhaust to shorten the forks further still.

With this major task accomplished i made a start on fitting the replacement top tube which will double as the fuel tank. It's a touch wider than the headstock so is an odd fit at that end but i needed the diameter to ensure it will hold enough fuel to get down the track. Calculations have it at 1.1litres.

I picked up a wider back wheel at the last event too, I've now decided not to use it however so it will go on ebay soon. It did come with extra rims which I'm keeping and hopefully will be using to make a new wheel from scratch. I just need someone with a bigger lathe than mine to turn up the hub. The center piece with the bearings in I'll turn myself.

That's all folks

2009-10-15T22:28:00.003+01:00

In a way i'm glad that the 2009 season is over, travelling down to the pod and Shakey so many times in the past 2 months is not only expensive but become a bit tiring. We did think about running one last time at the Flame and Thunder show but instead decided to try and let funds recuperate in readiness for the expense of trying to put the new chassis together.

The Extreme bike event then was a mixed bag. Being bikes only the atmosphere was great, but it was held a month too late, the weather being just a tad too cold and damp for a perfect weekend racing recipe.
On both days the racing didn't start till later in the morning, the track wasn't as good as it had been at the last event either. Most people had problems with wheelspin, i found the bike moved either left or right when spinning and on the first qualifying run i had to back the throttle off to stop it crossing the line.
The second run was loose but straighter and we managed an 8.4 which qualified us in 5th place. because i knew the track was scold I'd backed off the nitrous down to 40% start and then 35% start. For the 3rd run i went back to 50% and it seemed to work, it just hits the tyre harder and seems to make it transfer weight quicker and makes it 'hook up'. It felt much quicker but was still drifting towards the centreline, i stayed on the throttle and it started to come back as i leaned but the bike started to get a bit 'flappety' and i decided it was time to get off the throttle and hold on. It calmed down pretty much immediately but the run was a pretty naff 8.9.
On raceday it all went a bit pete tong, it should have been a really good race as i was against Phil Leamon who runs times slightly faster than my own, but it would have been close. I was just about to go into stage and was told to shut down. A fuel line clip had broken and fuel was leaking out everywhere. In the other lane, Phil Leamon had problems too and so neither of us made it down the track.

Sam has now updated her Photobucket page with lots of shots from the weekend.
I'll hopefully have a few video clips to upload over the next few days, thanks to Dennis of the Leamon Bros comp bike team. He has compiled a video of bike runs over the season and handed me a copy. Cheers Dennis.

Last race of 2009

2009-10-07T23:19:00.003+01:00

This coming weekend is the last race weekend of the year. The Extreme Performance Bike weekend at Santa Pod is a bike only meeting that combines the ACU championship with a round of the Straightliner series and also a bike only RWYB.
My Crewman - Stuart is going on his road bike so will be doing some RWYB runs over the weekend.

I've made a few minor modifications to the bike over the last few days. Adding a second, much brighter shift kill status light to the dashboard in the hope i will remember to set it correctly more often. Plus i altered the location of the airshifter slightly hoping to get a better angle between it and the gear lever. I also bought some good secondhand air shifter parts off eBay and have checked and fitted the ones that were in better condition than mine. All this of course is in the hope that 5th gear will make a reappearance!

Eurodragster will be covering the event as usual and on Sunday only there will be a radio broadcast (not nitro FM) to add to the coverage.

The aim for the weekend is to qualify (there are 11 bikes entered so it will be difficult), to repeat or better the performances of the previous race and to cure the 5th gear problem.

SlowMo

2009-10-01T11:43:00.003+01:00

Due to the disappointment of having a flat battery on my onboard camera i splashed out and bought this little slow motion clip from Ian Blackett....

A better version is also available on Youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=499b-hzWNrg