Wee Monster Revived

In five days the seasons' road racin starts.

In four years I've raced the Wee Monster a few times each season, never serviced her or changed any fluids... just few sets of tyres and given her a spaking on the British short circuits. Treat 'em mean and keep 'em keen. Years of hamering and slight neglect, she was always willing and normally brought home trophies when the weather was shit.

Ally swing-arm is more than 2kg lighter, cut 'n shut exhaust and new (non binding) rear-brake master cylinder. Marginal gains...

In the dry she'd be out of her league... I'd get passed on both sides simultaneously on the straights. She was old, tired, slow and overweight. But she cost me little and gave me the most success I've had on the roads. Last June I bagged two second places on her. Ah, it was sweet... but a bit annoying knowng that if I spent a bit of cash on her gave her some of the lovin' she's earned those would have been P1s.

Wafer-thin and superlight...

 

Her clutch was screwed from the last couple of race meetings - that cost me 8 to 10 places off the line on those two races. She was fat... and running on the same old oil that I bought her with. I her on a diet before Christmas and then dropped her off at Mike's (MD-Racing - the only place for fast Ducatis!) for some much needed training and TLC.

Nature's spray-booth

Basic service and check-up. Valves were leaking badly, rings leaking and compression was waaaay down. Some head clean-up and valves re-seated. Clutch was poked, she was coked and just generally worn out. I put my hand deeper into my pocket and fitted a Power Commander. I stopped short of an exhaust system... she already had some pipes (standard) and double cans so didn't figure the expense was worth the gain. So we did a cut 'n shut job on the left can - just to save weight.

Onto the Dyno for a toon-up. She came back with 59bhp. Still 6 shy of the class limit... but probably around 10 up on what she had before. Happy with that :-)

I picked her up on the weekend (delayed by illness), gave her a clean, some new brakes (pads were almost on the metal and discs were 3.2mm of the 3.6mm minimum thickness), fitted my home-brew belly-pan (0.5 kg lighter!) and she's just about good to go.

Not quite the 63bhp I'd hoped for... but she is standard, old and a bit tired...

Man, I haven't been looking forward to some short-circuit racing like this for many years. Hell... it's the first time in about five years that I've signed-up to race Saturday and Sunday.
The boy is keen! :-)

Big thanks to Mike at MD Racing for the help and sponsorship :-)

Back from the shop lookin' purdy as ever!