Wot no racing?

That's it for 2013! Doing the flame and thunder show was a possibility, but really we've all had enough of travelling all that way for this year. And so it's time to strip the bike down, check everything over and make more changes than i really should.

A start has been made on wheely bars mk2, a few improvements over version 1 which required a couple of modifications during the season. Mk2 will no longer require the use of slightly "bodgy" pop rivets to hold the cross bracing still. Instead I've made the cross bracing to clamp onto the tubes with small pinch bolts. And the upright tubes will be replaced with bolt on flat ally bars, that can be changed.

The bars are in the middle of being Brazed at the moment, this weekend should see them finished.

It seems like a good idea as both sets have now failed in the same place and so may as well be easy to change. They will end up a fair bit heavier, I'll just have to lose some weight elsewhere (me)!


The engine is ready to come out of the frame too. One of the big changes I'm hoping to make is the fitting of a full 5 speed auto gearbox. Just to explain - in drag bike racing an auto box does not mean it changes gear on it's own. You still press the air shifter button to change gear, but it doesn't require an engine kill to allow the change to happen.
For the past 5 years the bike has been running whats known as a 1-2-3 auto. This is a modified but otherwise totally original Suzuki gearbox (designed for a bike that made less than 100hp). It's been faultless during that time, but there's only so much power you can put through those gears before something will give in. And rather than wait for it to fail and it damage lots of other parts in the process, I'm hoping to find an aftermarket gearbox to replace it. Luckily one has appeared for sale just as i started looking, so with any luck it will be perfect and will see us through another 5 years at least.