Classic TT Start

'All In' getting away at 6:25. Love the comment in teh background "You can hear that...". You sure can :-) More glorious Duke sounds at 10:10

IOM 2014 Vids - Ducati 888

Kevan got a few little vids of the Ducati 888 at this year's Classic TT...

First Practice:

Formula 1 race - the flying lap:


Julie-Ann, my landlord on Bray Hill also got this one:

I've got a few on-boards (big files!) that I'll get published soon.

IOM 2014 Day 11 - Race Day: Formula 1

On Tuesday, despite early morning rain, the sun came out, the wind was blowing and the track was drying out quickly. We were going racing!

The postponed schedule was all happening a little later in the day with the Formula 1 race around 14h00. Alex had to return to London for work so I dropped her at the airport for the early morning flight. We were both disappointed that she couldn't be there in the pits for the race. When I got back to the house, I went straight back to bed for a few hours - I had been fighting a cold since the weekend and my body needed all the rest it could get.

Kevan getting the old girl through skrootineering

Another old Duke at skrootineering

Later that morning, we load the Ducati and up to skrootineering before the roads closed at 11h30. She flies through skrootineering - as she's done all week. We get her on warmers in Parc Firme, last check of everything and then back down to the van to load up the trolley with fuel, tools and pit-stop bits, a bite to eat and to get ready for the shortened 3-lap race.

Ian Gardner getting his beautiful Kawa through

I watch the start of the Classic 350cc race. Unfortunately, Mark Herbertson retires on the first lap. I lose interest and get back to the van to focus my thoughts on the race. Physically, I'm not feeling great. I eat my usual race lunch and focus on the job ahead as I get into my leathers and check my helmet over. All set, we head up to Parc Firme 45 minutes before the race to organise the pit crew. Big thanks to Mike Dickenson who stepped in to help with the pit-stop in Alex's absence.

Cleaning the leathers - got some greenery in the air vents when I brushed the hedges through Handley's during practice

Pretty soon we have the bike warmed up, and are on Glencrutchery Road awaiting our start. I hear the first seeded riders hoon off down the road and pretty soon the start queue is moving forward. Last minute 'Good Lucks', handshakes and fist-shakes all around and soon I'm into the pen just before the start line. Just me and the machine. We're ready.

Glencrutchery Road start queue

Just to keep things interesting, I stall as I roll up to the start line. But the bike fires right up again on the starter. "Phew!". The starter puts his hand on my shoulder, I watch the man in front with the little start flag. I hold the revs at 6000 rpm. Seconds later, he flicks the flag and I ease the clutch out as the starter taps my shoulder. We're away.

Off the line well... almost a wheelie there :-)

Thanks Samantha Herbertson for the pic!

The old Duke revs freely up to 10 000rpm in every gear. I hook 5th as I get to the turn-in point for St. Ninian's Crossroads - the tall hedge on the right side on the road. 6th just as I approach the crossroads - we're doing about 150mph as we hit the first jump across the crossroads. The old girl feels stable and planted as she lands and we hold her flat-out down Bray Hill. Through the bottom of Bray Hill - "Whump!" as she bottoms out and I keep her pinned with little wheelies over Ago's 1 and Ago's 2. What a rush!

Top of Barregarrow - one of my least liked corners on the course.

Thanks Keith Fothergill for the great pic!

The little tweaks we've made to the engine are working and we can run one tooth longer gearing, giving us a theoretical higher top speed of around 5mph more than last year. She also pulls well between 9000rpm and 10000rpm - she wants to just keep revving. I keep to the self imposed 10000rpm limit - reliability is key around the Isle of Man. Over-revving big twins is the kiss of death for the engine - I'm keen to see the finish line.

Down Bray Hill - Yep, that's how close up you can get to 150mph around here

Thanks Julie-Ann for the pic!

It's quite windy and blustery, but the sun is shining and the track is dry. The wind is tough to ride in. Headwinds slow the bike noticeably, tailwinds get her over-revving down some of the straights where I have to feather the throttle to try maintain reliability. The worst is getting blown off-line through corners - especially on the mountain where it is exposed and the wind buffets around. Tough conditions.

I try to relax and settle into the race. I achieve this for a few miles, then make one or two mistakes and have to make a conscious effort to get settled again. I am struggling a bit. I have to keep reminding myself how awesome it is to ride a Ducati 888 flat-out on the best race track in the world. I take it all in (as much of it as I can) and savour the experience.

After lap 1, I head into the pits for a refuel. It's a quick pit-stop to just brim the tank again to get to the finish line in 2 laps. Slow-down to under 60kmh, rumble down pit-lane at this speed, find my pits right near the end of pit-lane. Find my pits. Hmmm... where the hell is it? Shit, we're running out of pit-lane here. Where are the guys? Just then, Steve jumps out in front of me. I hit the brakes and pull in next to our fuel bowser. Hit the kill switch, Steve pops the bike on the rear stand (new rules for 2014), Mike unscrews the fuel cap, Kevan starts refuelling. Visor spray, drink, screen clean. The stop goes well and the newly acquainted team do a brilliant job.Thanks Team!!!

Pit-stop done, I flick the kill switch back on, she fires up straight away and I'm outta there! Back down Glencrutchery Road, St. Ninian's and Bray Hill. On a 37.7 mile lap, I'll normally make 2 or 3 mistakes. But I am making more like 10 to 15 mistakes every lap during this race. I'm missing apexes and running wide on some corners. I'm struggling to find a rhythm.

Top of Barregarrow again...

Thanks Keith Fothergill for the pic

I stick with it, consciously make an effort to relax and enjoy it... and try not to make so many mistakes. Lap 3 is my only flying lap - I want to make it a good, clean lap to try better my personal best on the old Duke. Flat out down Bray Hill on a flying lap is just that bit quicker than a standing start. It's exhilarating!

I struggle to get into it and find a rhythm as with the previous 2 laps. I also start to feel tired. I dig in, get my head down and try make it a good one. I think there were 3 things contributing to why I was struggling:
1) I was physically not feeling the best
2) Windy/blustery conditions made it more difficult and harder work
3) I was pushing harder than I have before and as a result hitting corners faster and arriving at the next one sooner

Some Manx wildlife

One that last lap, as I go through the flat-out, bumpy right kink just after the jump at Glen Auldyn Bridge (after Miltown). The old girl gets herself into a big tank-slapper. "Whooooaaaah!". I keep on the power, but it get's worse, a second later, I roll the throttle and she settles down. Shit. I stamp down a gear and get her going again... seconds lost there :-(

TT Legend - Bruce Anstey

I am relieved to see the chequered flag at the end of lap 3. Man, I had to work hard for that one! When I get back to Parc Firme, there are not too many other bikes there... it looks to be a good result. The crew meet me there and there are high-fives, hand shakes and "Well done"s all around. Mike then says: "You've been a naughty boy." and hands me my misdemeanor. Speeding in pit-lane. Damn! 30 second penalty. Shit! My pit-box was so far at the end of pit-lane on a downhill, I must have crept over the 60kmh limit while looking for it. Crap!

Bad news :-(

The 30 second penalty drops me from 14th place to 16th place and from 6th Privateer to 8th Privateer. Oh well... I'm still super happy with the finish. More important, my race average was 109mph - 3mph up from last year and my last lap was a whisker off 112mph. Very happy with that. The competition was stronger this year with Bruce Anstey winning the race on the Padgett's 500cc Grand Prix bike and smashing the two-stroke lap record in the process. There were even more big teams with fancy (and very expensive) ex-factory race bikes ridden by TT pros this year. Very chuffed with our finish and personal bests on the stock, completely period, converted road bike that we only managed 5 practice laps on.

Home! Always awesome to to see the finish on the Isle of Man :-)

We also find that the steering damper has snapped the boss that it is bolted to clean off the frame. This would either have been the result of the tank slapper on the last lap, or the cause of it. I think it was the cause of it and that is had snapped off over the previous very bumpy miles from Ginger Hall. This place is hard on machinery.

Steering damper snapped off

My objectives were to: make the start of practice - done. Qualify - done. Finish the race - done. Up my fastest lap from 109 to 112mph - done. Get a TT silver replica - done! A great start to the racing for the IOM 2014 Campaign.

Receiving the TT Silver Replica from the legend himself - John McGuinness

A special mention for Stafford Evans, Stuart Rayner and the Celeres Racing Team who built the other Ducati 888 that was in the race - they finished too! Read all about it: Celeres Racing blog.

The bike worked flawlessly. We could have got her handling a bit better given time, but we rode her best we could. Big Thanks to Steve Hillary at Redmax Ducati for building such a strong, reliable engine. Who would have thought a stock SP would conquer the TT Mountain Course... twice!  Peter Oronero for those beautiful carbon bits and perfect race loom - we were 12 kg lighter than last year! Mark Lumb at MADASL Racing for the exhausts, vernier pullies, belly-pan and loan of the slipper-clutch. Steve Bailey of BBB Fabrications for the subframe and custom exhaust link pipes. Steve Mann at MTS Classics for helping me with all those little bits n pieces, teaching me stuff and fabrication. And big thanks to Clinique for the soap that stopped the fuel tank leak!

With Brett, the best landlord on the Isle!

Thanks Kevan!

Besides my speeding, the pit-stop was also flawless. Big thanks to Kevan Flanagan for refuelling, spannering and generally helping out for the fortnight - a massive help! Steve Mann for operating the paddock stand and drinks and to Mike Dickenson for the slick fuel-cap operation and visor/screen cleaning and help with setup during practice. Thanks to Brett and Julie-Ann, my Isle of Man landlords. Thanks to Alan Birtwhistle for bringing the toolbox over that we forgot. And... thank you to my beautiful wife for your love and support. Couldn't have done it without any of you!

We had another cart blow-out after the F1 race...

...National Tyre to the rescue!

Hard-working!

They think we're barmy!

One race done, two to go...

IOM 2014 - Day 3 - A Good Start

The whole day was sunny and dry but with a cold wind. Temp hovered around 13 degrees all day. All looked good for first practice. Unfortunately, all three of my classes were in the same practice session - we should be able to get 2 laps per session. Kevan and I got the old Duke and Aprilia through skrootineering with the plan to get one lap in on each.

Up to pit-lane for the start... a little nervous and just keen to get the first lap under our belt. This year the first 16 seeded bike go first, followed by the next seeded group of 17 to 40. With the Ducati and Suzuki I'm in the second seeded group. This is a big help - I get to start with riders that will run similar lap-times. Less traffic which equates to faster laptimes :-)

We start 10 minutes late after they do the Newcomers speed controlled lap for Newcomers that missed Saturday's lap. This leaves it too tight to do lap on the Duke, come in after 1 lap and then head out on the Aprilia for another lap. We decide to get 2 laps in on the Duke. Tank brimmed, engine warmed up, we stare down Glencrutchery road eager the get going. Revvs up to five and a half grand... tap on the shoulder and I ease her away. As the clutch grabs, she does a little six inch hovering wheelie and in seconds we're hammering through the gears toward St. Ninians traffic lights.

The old girl is feeling sweet. Revving up really quickly and pulling like a train from 8000 rpm. I found myself revving her over the imposed 10 000rpm limit  2 or 3 times during the lap, much easier to do with the lightened engine components. Something to watch. Down past the Highlander pub she's pulling just over 10 000rpm... this is on the longer gearing we used for last year's practice to try give the engine an easier time. She's definitely got a few more ponies at the top end - she was a few hundred rpm short of this last year.

I wore my new wedding ring on a chain around my neck. Lying on the tank, it dug into my sternum nicely. Yeouch! I tried to keep my chest off the tank, but every big bump would hammer the sharp edges of the ring into my bone. A bit uncomfortable!

I did away with my usual Pin-lock on the inside of my visor and tried an anti-fog coating. The Pin-lock restricts my vision a bit. Around Glen Helen it seemed as if my visor was steaming up. I tried to direct my breath downwards, but continued to have this fogging. I had to slow down some sections just because I couldn't see properly. During teh laps, my eyes were stinging and started watering. I screwed my eyes up to try clear my vision. So, not sure it my vision was blurred because of a fogging visor or because my eyes were watering.

I managed to open my visor vents going over mountain and that seemed to help. Warren Verwey also had stinging/watering eyes... was it something in the air? Was it the anti-fog coating? Was it fogging up? I'll go back to the Pink-lock for next practice and see... yeah... hopefully we'll see ;-)

On the second lap there are lack of adhesion flags and then rain flags around Appledean. The track is wet all the way through to Ballacraine. I ease off and keep the bike upright. Up through Doran's bend and it's dry again and I get the hammer down.

The handling is a bit off. She turns in okay and is stable-ish. Hitting bumps with teh bike cranked over, she feels like she's wallowing around the center. It's a bit unsettling, but I can ride around it. She also does it when I'm heavy on the brakes. Brakes by the way are fantastic... serious bite and hold teh bike up quickly. All the lightness I've added will help a lot with this as well.

Twice I hit false neutral when going from 6th down to 5th. Heart-in-the-mouth moment when this happens at 140mph... I manage to stomp her down into gear as I'm tipping her in through the turn. Happened at Hilberry and on the mountain. Need to be more positive with my gear-change.

On lap two, there is an incident at the sharp left-hander just after Ginger Hall. Waved yellow flags and a group of 6 riders on Supersport and Supertwins are bunched up. Green flags are waved on the corner after and I fight my way through this pack all the way till Ramsay Hairpin.

I have a good run over the mountain, catching a Supersport machine that sailed past me down Sulby straight. He holds me up a bit but I bring the old girl home safely. Back in Parc Firme and I'm buzzing. I soak up the feeling and the privilege of being able to lap the best race track in the world. There is simply nothing like the TT Mountain Course on closed roads. Fuckin' awesome!

Laptimes: 102 and 105mph. Super happy with that start :-)

IOM 2014 - Day 0 - The Crossing and Keys

Yesterday our Manx Grand Prix / Classic TT got underway. Up early to finish off some work and try get those "Just before you go..." work requests done. Kevan, who will be helping me out and spannering for the fortnight, arrived around lunchtime and we got the van packed. Unusually, we leave on time and enjoy the stop start traffic jams and crap weather all the way up to Liverpool ferry terminal. A 2 1/2 hour journey that takes 4 1/2 hours - normal.

After a year of being cosseted in a warm garage, the old bikes are dragged through a typhoon :-(

We pull into the ferry terminal with an hour to spare. Off to a good start (we've missed this ferry a few times before!). Kevan casually asks "You got the bike keys, right?". "Yeah, sure. They're in the tooxbox.". Toolbox. Toolbox? Fuuuuuuuuuuuck! I get that sinking feeling. We left the toolbox in my garage... right near the door... so we wouldn't forget it. Oh bollocks!

Too late to go back, even if we can get a place on the next ferry.  Going back would mean missing first practice... would also mean paying another exorbitant ferry crossing. We go through the options. Flights and hire car, passenger ferry crossing and hire car, courier, help from others. We make some calls and start putting a plan together. Soon we're onboard the ferry and heading out of Liverpool. We put some posts on a few facebook groups and the word goes out during our crossing. As I'm finishing up some more work at the end of the sailing we already have a few folks willing to help.

Posh seats for the team!

The good news is that the Ducati 888 has a keylass start, so at least we'll be able to get out on her until we can get the toolbox and other bike keys.

The ferry has one engine broken, so the crossing takes longer than usual. At midnight we dock in Douglas - I'm knackered. We roll off the deck and within minutes we're on Bray Hill. Getting out of the van and standing on Bray Hill... I start to feel those familiar heebie-jeebies :-) Now I'm getting excited :-) The last few weeks have just been so manic that I haven;t had much time to get excited about it all. Now I feel it! :-)

We unhitch the bikes, park up and crash for the night. Tomorrow afternoon we head out for first practice - oh yeah!

Road Test!

On Sunday I managed to get out early on the 888 on damp roads for a wee test. I did a 50 mile loop with some bumpy twisties and dual-carriageway.

As I'd felt a few weeks earlier when taking her for an MOT, the combination of lightening the primary gear/flywheel/clutch basket, the close ration gearbox (tall first gear) and moving some of that mid-range torque/power to the top has made her an awful road bike :-(

She needs at least 5000rpm and a slipping clutch to get her going without stalling. Around town I use first gear... a lot. She's not the most comfortable to ride stop-start and under 40mph. But... get her wound up... and she flies! She is so sweet between 8 and 10k :-) She feels like she'll pull 10k on the gearing I'm running - last year she could only got up to around 9750rpm. We'll see what she does on the IOM through the fastest sections - past the Highlander pub (just after Wagon n Horses Leap and before Greeba Castle) and just before Brandish.

I also tested a data logger I'm borrowing - a Vbox Sport. More on that in another post.

Nothing broke or fell off :-) She worked well. I'd jacked up the front and rear to try give a bit more ground clearance - this has increased my swing-arm angle as well as my squat on acceleration so under power the forks are a steeper angle leading to less stability (one change affects all!). For a short circuit she'd be mint - turns in real easy :-) (higher c of g will help this too). A bit too flighty for IOM, so I lifted the front a bit more - the short test ride in the afternoon was more stable.

One thing that you can only start to get a feeling of on the roads it the sensation of very high speed just feet away from the road furniture. It gets scary pretty quickly. Because I hardly ride bikes, it's something I need to get used to quickly on the IOM. Looking forward to it!!

Loomed Up!

I've spent the last 2.5 weeks overseas for work - really crap timing with all the Classic TT/Manx GP prep that needs to be done. I was in China and a lot of websites are blocked - Facebook, YouTube, Google... and my blog, so I couldn't do any posts. Got back on Friday evening and had my nose to the grindstone since...

Front-mounted ECU

I worked many a late night in the week before my trip to just get things done. Got the Suzuk SV prepped and up to Alan Birtwhistle who then shipped her to the IOM for me - thanks Dude! This is a big help as my van 'n trailer really struggles with 3 bikes and all tools, spares, wheels, tyres, gear and crap I take with me.

While I was away, Oronero Peter finished up and installed a new race loom for the old girl. A few hours after I got home from my trip, Peter dropped the bike off. I spent yesterday securing the new wiring and checking everything.

Neat!

Proper suff

The 24 year old Italian electrics were always a risk that almost stopped us starting last year's race (starter solenoid connector failed 1 minute before the start - we were lucky to get her bump-started). Peter has built a beautiful, brand new loom with quality connectors and all the proper bits. This also allows me to mount the ECU and heat-sink up front, between the Oronero carbon air-runners. Proper Corse!

Peter wired in a neat little horn button and wiring that just plugs in for the MOT and road tests :-)

Start/kill switch - genuine Honda for reliability

This will help get the front to rear weight distribution which was 50/50 before closer to the theoretical ideal of 52/48. It also allows me to use Peter's beautiful under-seat Corse crank case breather box. 

More Oronero carbon lovliness

By moving the reed valve to after the breather box, it effectively increases to volume of the crank cases by a good few liters. This reduces the air pressure caused on the piston down-stroke. Less pressure = less resistance = more power. Apparently this only works at high rpm and the gains are small. But I figure if the Corse bikes all ran this setup for many years and Cosworth race engines of the era all had similar set-ups, there must be something in it.

Uber-light weight shock reservoir mounting and reed valve setup

Some advantages of the new loom: more reliable, lighter, less clutter, better weight distribution and use of the big volume crank breather :-)

Standard loom - 3.5 kg of wires, switches, relays and connectors. Race loom is saving at least 2kg!

With all the standard wiring gone, all is neat and tidy. Because I'm running with open velocity stacks this year, I fitted a stainless mesh over the front spars where the tons of cool Manx air is going to come rushing in. Flying stones are a hazard on the roads - even a small one being swallowed can ruin your day.

Next up - a road test!

This was from a few weeks ago, before the new loom. I strapped the ECU to the side of the bike to give her a daytime MOT.