It’s only just occurred to me that the 2012 season was bracketed by two trips to Silverstone. The first, back in March, was the start of the RGB season and the last was the final race of the season, the annual Birkett relay.
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Season’s end
And so it comes to a sputtering end. It’s not been a great season, to be honest. I don’t seem to have been focussed enough and there’s been a lot of other things going on that have rather taken my eyes off the ball. Still, the last meeting of the season was reasonably good, almost a race…
A tardy Caddington Park
As seems usual these days, I start with an apology. Since the last post I’ve been racing at both Cadwell and Doningon. It’s the usual excuse, I’ve just been too busy, although I did spend a welcome weekend tramping around the Peak District. All the same, despite the tardiness, I did go to Cadwell and Donington and completed four races without major mishap.
Wasn’t quick enough though…
Boating at Brands
It was Brands time again. One of the best circuits on the calendar and a real challenge for a driver. Problem was, the weather forecast was pretty poor. I’d booked a half day testing on the Friday before the race and we went down on the Thursday evening and set up camp in the burgeoning RGB village in the middle of the outer paddock. On the Friday morning we seemed to be just about the only people there. The clouds were lowering above us threatening us with doom and despondancy.
Dynomomomometer
Rather amazingly, I seem to have reached the end of the winter mods and reconstruction of the car. I’ve done all the suspension setup, although as usual I might do it again. I’ve also done the corner weighting.
So, all that’s left before the start of the season is to test the thing.I did drive it from the garage onto the drive again which worked. I then used the reverse to get back into the garage, which didn’t work. However, I’ve now fixed that. (Some dozy pillock had wired the motor wrongly.)
To get myself finally set up I trudged up to Harrogate today to get the car dynoed. This is the same place I took the J15 in its earlier CBR1000RR07 incarnation so, even though the actual numbers from the dyno are not relevant, the comparisons are.
Running again
Back again, although still with little to report. What’s worse is that I’ve got some exams to mark this week so that’s going to make progress even slower than usual.
All the same, after putting the new engine in I put all the wiring back. Of course, this was a lot quicker than last time as everything was cut to the right length. You can see some of the wiring in the photo on the right. Not really very interesting though, being the same as before.
Pressies…
Look at that. I bet you wish you’d got your own twinkly bar stool for Christmas too, don’t you? For some time I’ve wanted one of these in the garage and Anthea bought me one for Christmas, which I think came from that purveyor of fine quality garage items known as Argos.
Carnage exposed
Finally, I was getting to the root of the problem. And, indeed, demonstrating that it really was a problem. First thing, though, was to close up the top of the engine. So, I took off all the cams and drive gubbins, put the followers somewhere neat and tidy and put the cam cover back on. All this so I I could up-end the engine without the followers falling out. What’s more, with the cams out I can twizzle the crank around as I want without worrying about the pistons bashing into any valves.
Millions of itty-bitty parts
So, I took the engine out, intending to get to the bottom of the oil pressure issue. I’m getting reasonably good at taking the engine out of this car, but as usual you always end up with a quantity of fluids falling out and making a real mess of the floor.
Upgradeitis
It’s coming up to the final on-track extravaganza of the season in the shape of the annual 6-hour Birkett relay. This is a huge race at Silverstone with about 60 teams each with 5 or 6 cars. Luckily not all trying to get on track at once. Once that’s out of the way—and assuming I don’t bend the car too seriously—it’ll be time for putting car away and retiring in front of the TV with a cup of hot cocoa.