Diary of a (another) race mechanic

[slob]

Desmo Due Round 2, Brands Hatch 23/04/06
Well, Zimbo's away in Africa this month and lack of funds mean Lin is saving her money for our trip to Assen next month and another set of tyres.
Which leaves me writing the race report.
Doug(DRC) was still keen to have a go at Brands and Lin and Jason were good enough to lend us the #16 bike(Dessie) for the event, however neither myself or Doug owns a car, and while Brands Hatch is dead convenient for an East Londoner like me, the bike lives near Redditch and Doug lives near Brighton. Chas and Domski kindly agreed to pick up the bike for us and take it back afterwards, typical of the cameraderie in a race paddock... top chaps!
Lin called me on Friday to say the bike was on road gearing(15/45) which is
a bit high for Brands, where drive out of the corners and up the hills is more important than top speed on the straight. A couple of calls and a quick detour to Tecmoto http://www.tecmoto.co.uk/tecmoto.htm on the way to Benson's Southend chip-fest secured a good value, part used 14T front sprocket and we're ready. I also met Marky in Southend, who turns out to be Dessie's original owner... small world.
I arrived at the circuit around 6PM on Saturday to find Doug and Dessie already there. Doug had a hire-car with some tools and his kit and Chas had brought Dessie, a jerry-can of fuel and a paddock stand. Once the car racers from Saturday's events had left we moved into our pit garage and set to work cleaning and checking Dessie over.
We changed the front sprocket, however this involved removing the clutch slave cylinder, causing an air bubble to get up the hose and we have no clutch! Still we'd rather find out now than on track, this is duly bled and given a fairly full transfusion since the fluid doesn't look pretty. We also reduced the preload on the rear shock, since Doug weighs a bit less than Graeme, sorted out a couple of very minor oil leaks and re-fitted the belly-pan. We even had time for dinner, a swift beer and the riders' meeting.
After fueling the bike up ready for the morning, we were discussing fuel loads with our garage-neighbour when he shook the bike with the tank cap open and it promptly fell off the paddock stand(more the stand's fault than Phil's, it has to be said)
So Phil fits us a new front brake lever while I replace two bent footrest mounting bolts. It's now after 1AM but we're ready to check tyre pressures and get scrutineered first thing in the morning. We got five hours sleep on the garage floor, thanks for the kind loan of a kip-mat Phil!
Sunday is a miserable wet morning, it sound worse still under the tin roof of the garage. We get scrutineered without problem, Doug picks up his transponder from race control, final checks on the bike, drop the tyre pressures a bit from road settings but not much given the track conditions and wait for qualifying practice which is delayed by nearly an hour while the marshalls clean up an oil spill in the braking zone for Paddock Hill Bend.
Doug manages to qualify 16th out of 23 with a time of 1:15 on a wet track, pretty good since he's only ever ridden this bike round the block with a misfire before and it's only his third ever race meeting.
Doug feels the clip-ons are a little high so I set about dropping them a bit, clean and check the bike again, the oil leaks are now under control, all is good, we just hope for an improvement in the weather.

[slob]

By the time race 1 is called on the tannoy it's drying slightly so we drop the tyre pressures a bit and Doug brings it home in 13th with a best lap of 1:09... excellent!
Dessie gets cleaned and inspected again, chain lubed (sorry Lin) and tyre pressures rechecked.
By the time race 2 comes round it's absolutely tipping it down again. Doug managed 20th after a good scrap with Paul Martin, on CK&AK's classB bike(see photo in the gallery) and our garage-mate Phil Harris, who he just takes at the chequered flag.
I have the utmost respect for these guys and gals, I wasn't looking forward to riding home in the pouring rain, they were out there racing in it!
The bike is then cleaned, the bars re-adjusted to where they'd started and the whole shebang returned to Chas for the journey home. All in all a good weekend considering the weather.
Doug getting another signature on his race license plus 19 championship points, leaving him 1 point behind Zimbo and we still managed to return Dessie cleaner than we got it.
Nice to see Muttley, Scrumpster and Dibble in the pits, sorry for those of you we didn't see but we were a bit out of the way in the pit garages rather than the paddock.
Only two weeks to Assen, which makes the Desmo Due the only UK club championship that races on two Moto GP circuits, I can hardly wait.

Well done to both of you, I almost felt I was there, good report, and an excellent run by Doug.
I dont know if its any sort of comparison, but I was doing laps of approx 1.06 last year when I went on the ESS, and that was after 2 days of going round and round, the weather was dry and sunny, and I was on my own 900. I know Im not the fastest. but to do those times in the wet, on an unknown bike seems pretty impressive.
Well done indeed

Great write up Slobby. Thanks again for all your help over the weekend.Much appreciated. Thanks to Lin and Jason for lending me the bike. I just wish I wasn't so rubbish in the second race. I felt confident I could do better after a reasonable result in race one but the weather conspired against that and I while I was going round the track I was constantly thinking to myself "just bring the bike home in one piece because you can't afford to bend it".

Bring on Assen. I can't wait.

[CK & AK]

Originally Posted by DRC

Great write up Slobby.

Bring on Assen. I can't wait.

echo that man
cant wait to catch up with the whole of Ickle Pooh Race team again

[Albie]

Didnt even know you was there . I would have come and said hello. Well done to Doug anyway. Like you said the upmost respect to these guys and girls.

[CK & AK]

you dipstick Albie - I did tell you first thing in the morning...........

maybe i should have told Caroline - she seems to be the brains for the pair of you

[Albie]

I was too excited being there with all you racers.I was in race heaven and not listening. Will stand in corner of room for 10 minutes .

Great reading - and bloomin well done - as Slob said, most of us get tested on the roads in the wet but to ride Brands at those times is damn fine - well done and all the best for the rest of the season - I WILL get myself along to one of the meets this year honest!!!

[slob]

Originally Posted by CK & AK

you dipstick Albie - I did tell you first thing in the morning...........

maybe i should have told Caroline - she seems to be the brains for the pair of you

eek... does that mean Albie's 'the looks'?

[marchesini]

hey rob,

you not tempted into having a go. I seem to remember you are quite a fan of spirited riding or you sticking to the mending part rather than the bending part??

simon

[CK & AK]

Originally Posted by slob

eek... does that mean Albie's 'the looks'?

def not Slob, Carolines got the looks & the brains..

Albie has an S4

[Albie]

Originally Posted by CK & AK

def not Slob, Carolines got the looks & the brains..

Albie has an S4

Not in this pic

[slob]

Originally Posted by marchesini

hey rob,

you not tempted into having a go. I seem to remember you are quite a fan of spirited riding or you sticking to the mending part rather than the bending part??

simon

Don't feel I have enough experience yet, three trackdays last year and came off on number three, I put it down to my inexperience and moving out of the novice group before I was ready. Maybe in a year or two when I've joined the knee down brigade and got my confidence up a bit.

[marchesini]

Originally Posted by slob

Maybe in a year or two when I've joined the knee down brigade and got my confidence up a bit.

You still gonna be joining the next "boys day out" though - wherever that may be - Donnington, Lydden, Oulton, who knows but you will be there won't you?