TerraRoot

Race Report, nifty fifty 2014 mondello

After an 8am start getting scrutineering and paper work done, we had a 30 min practice session. I went out just enough to figure out which way the track went (not been on the national circuit) and that it was make of soap, and broke the wee bike! poor alex braham and stephen never had a go, which is quite bad since they have never ridden a honda 90.

So we had to fix it, race was starting asap, bikes fucked, cutting out under load back firing, struggling to rev. Checked plug gap, wd 40 all over the HT lead, nope, dawning despair “are we gonna get out at all!?” We missed the le mans start. Tried to get out after cleaning the carb from a pit start starting 1 lap down, made it to the gravel turn the rally cars use, turned around and spluttered around the back and into the pits. We need a second hand coil, steve tobin knew a man, top job. Replaced coil bike started right up first prod SWEET! jam helmet on, we are down about 20mins 10laps 48th place, out i go, track is drying, Don’t end up on your arse tim, other people need to get a spin, dry track made it easier to get around i could just leave it in top and keep the corner speed up, get my head over the front of the bars, elbows up, everything running sweet, passing loads of people in the lower class’s. and team Manly (66) came by, the one with guy martin on the team. Get them. and so i did, another lap and team BikeWorld (3) also joined the battle, didn’t know at the time but they were in my class, at about this time i posted a 1:30.684 lap 7th fastest lap of the whole race. on my 24th lap. Taking it sensibly in the corners because i’d never hear the end of it if i broke the bike and nobody else got a go i got stuck behind some back markers and 66 and 3 pissed off. End of session came up and i had moved us up to 37th!

Alex went out next, two quite long full course cautions in his session, but he moved us up to 30th, had a great race with another team (haven’t got their number)
Braham got us up to 25, more full course cautions, everyone is having trouble with dunlop corner, the off camber entrance combined with trail braking mean the rear brake pedal would drag, dodgey situation. we decide to pull him in a 10 mins early, the timer board says their is about 55 mins left in the race.
Stephen goes out. Crashes on the fourth corner. Of his first lap. Luckily near the back pit entrance so he is back into the pit garage before even a lap is up. I’m up at the pit wall, turn away thinking “it’s his first lap be ages before he comes aro.. WTF!” zip over a scrutineer is doing his job well and spots a bent rear shock, i fix it with my mighty right arm, the mud is scrapped off and he’s out again. not too much time lost 
We look to be getting a top 20 finish, 4th in class, not bad, practically slapping each other on the backs at that point. They extend the race finish time, we worry have we enough fuel, people are pitting, stephen hasn’t a clue whats happening we’ve no pit board. we keep waving him onwards. don’t run out of fuel don’t run out of fuel. After extra half hour of racing we got 14th place and 3rd in class, I’m in awe of our selves, We did the fucking business

My pre race night bbq, best steak sandwich ever, van got a bit smokey tho…

 

Morning of the race, it’s a bit wet…

Alex and Stephen

Guy Martin and Stephen, poor guy 🙂

Next years targets

At this point i though we’d gotten 4th in class. but yellow flag infringements and penalty’s pushed us up!

Best fucking day ever, totally hooked, all ready booked for next year, will even finish putting the engine back together properly now. Gonna enter in the watergrasshill superpole if i can make it

An update!

Been a while eh? Kidney disease, very rare auto-immune Adult Minimal Change Disease, i’ve been in remission for a week, which is nice, so I got a haircut shaved my outa control beard.

Still off my face on steroids, having roid-rage at missing tea towels, eating everything (lost 17kg of water and fat, 72kg stickman now) but it’s time for an update, even half dead i managed to fix a few things 🙂

Teds new toy!, he wanted a GB500 for sometime, in the end he now has a GB400TT slighty tatty

Tatty is good because it will be getting the dominator 650 engine, then were gonna pop the 400 into the domi for the crack.

Cub90 longstoke racer head, really should have found an E22 head, but I’ll make it work, gonna raise the port to match the 22mm inlet i have, here I’ve finished lapping in the valves, there were well bad. actually the short side turn wasn’t so bad so once I’m done it should flow reasonably.

Nikki broke his car again 🙂

Noel Quinn top man, lent me this Chinese 110 just in case i blow the 90 racer, the other lads can still have ago.

Niall Mackenzie’s old yzf750r caburys boost race leathers, i fit in them now ‘coz I’m skinny.
likely to let me race in them? ha no.

And finally, over the last month and a half I couldn’t drive the bike, the poor landy never broke down! But it has been getting slower the poor thing. So a service, dad helped with all the bits that needed an arm (and not a wet noodle arm). We replaced the lift pump, fuel filter, oil + oil filter.
Cleaned out the mesh filter in the tank again too. The lift pump should have been replaced when i cleaned and sealed the tank. 1400 miles before i fecking changed the oil, really should have done when i got, lazy bastard.

Also a catch tank for the engine breather was zip tied into place, and some where along the way i replaced the rad cap and chucked the useless engine fan and duck taped up some internal hot air vents to try in vain to keep the windscreen demisted me vaguely warm. two coats, MX gloves, a hat and a full head scarf did most of the work 🙂

It’s all fast again, needs the correct gearbox oil to speed up the changes, then a longer ratio transfer box. still not enough boost, gonna play with pump setting but i still think it the crappy intercooler and pipe work. Later when I’m not so dependent on it.

Roll on summer, good kidneys and my bike!

more land rover rust

Paid to get the tracking set rather then messing about with string and finding a flat place

It was a bit out…

About 18mm toe out, should be 2mm toe in 🙂

While it was up on the ramp i had a wander about underneath, lots of rust, this out rigger someone gave up on.

Since i did so well on the xtdr sub frame, decided to do a small patch on the LR. cornflakes box to the rescue!

Just doing this side first, other patch can wait.

Neatly made 3.0mm patch placed.

Got a spot weld or two done, and ran out of wire!

Queue much running about for new wire. the welding didn’t go so well, bit too much rust. The underside was easier because i was welding to the nice thick weld seem running along the chassis.

Tidy up with the angle grinder, then hammered off the drum, brakes are good!

Then went and changed the water for coolant. knew the cap was bad, already have one on order, didn’t think it was this bad.

Welded it up for the crack anyway

two two strokes.

Got the rover started, small leak from the copper washer on the drain bung. also the flapper on the exhaust was open the whole month or so it was off the road, queue buckets of black sooty water splattered everywhere, excellent.

obama agrees. awesome tzr250 oil pump which i have spent forever looking for.

So awesome i fitted it straight away, god i love ebay.

so next up was some welding to the xtdr, front mount was started and tak welded in place.

Chopped out a rusty bit of the rear grab rail.

then chopped out a replacement bit of rail from a tdr 125.

Fitted in ok, but the rot was further along the rail then i though, so instead of cutting it out (no time) i plated it, not so nice but at least it’s strong.

Even managed to bolt on one of the pipe, it’ll be running in no time (ha!)

tanks

blasted thing is in, face is full of rust and my forehead is marked where i held the tank up!

Phone software is so annoying, pita just finding my photos

pray for a diesel leak free tank on monday!

cbr, bloody valves

So the other day after i changed the front tyre, the rear went flat while i was speeding to work, que two days of driving the chromtastic cb550 before i got the spare time for cbr6 shenanigans.

ted got the supermoto wheels off the dominator,

Apart the obvious chain chewing, it not a street tyre, not much point in putting it on when it’ll be ripped up too quickly.

Luckily, it was only the valve, stupid thing is too long and the metal neck flops about the place.

So what else is buggered up? the carrier bearing AGAIN and my underused rear brake rusted up in pretty much every fucking place.

Probably need a new one of these…

Ah feckit, often do i use the rear brake anywho?

Cleaned, greased and ready to roll for just until i get the yzf on the road which right after i will chop the shit outa the poor cbr. i mean it this time!

mechanics work out

changing tyres, whole lotta grunting going on. you can’t see it but the tyre is cracked as well as worn.

Newish michelin pilot power, and some front wheel bearings.

Painted the tank badly, but that’s ok, you can’t see it under the truck 🙂

bit of this, bit of that.

yz250f in the garage, shock has a good 4 inchs of travel (without the bump stop, nearly 5 inchs), since then i’ve dropped the idea of using a mx damper, found a qa1 59 series shock, 9″ travel, shock valving to suit me and €48 a corner.

Wanted to know what year yz i had, left the pic here, because of just how sharp it is, really get the hang of my phone + focal app.

Gotta repair the land rover tank, gave it a massive power washing, found tiny hole by the drain hole.

so for the price of some two pack epxoy, i tried to seal the bash plate to the tank, cost about €30. worth a shot i thought.

tommorow this seam will be dry, and i’ll give the tank a coat of paint then see if it will keep diesel in it.

After that i still hadn’t enough exercise, (new job , sitting on my butt, loads of spare time + money!) so to help getting on with the yzf i slapped on a new tyre we had lying around.

eek! rim has been welded, possibly why the front tyre is always flat. may have to sort that later with a can of tyre weld.

Done!, also had to replace the tyre valve.

michelin pilot sport hpx, should suit the weight of the yzf. tomorrow more work.

cheap land rover parts

well managed to change the track rod end, easy peasy with the proper sized hammer. cheap ass track rod, it’s own grease nipple didn’t even fit!

To better suit the plus 2″ shock (the parabolics don’t lift it as far as the internet suggests) i got military shackles! the two on the left are genuine, the rest britpart, quality’s all over the place.

Got the rear shocks fitted anyway, just cut off the bit at the end + two threads so it won’t rub on the spring. think a spacer between axle and leaves may be removed as evidenced by the spacers used on the ubolts.

on the other hand been proved pretty inexperienced by this fecking land rover, more then once again.

need another track rod, they all seemed fine a while ago! feck sacks

Dampers

So picture this, i drive over to lee radiators, to ask him if he can have a quick look at my leaking tank and let me know if its fixable. he can’t be bothered to look and says we can repair any small leak.

so i got the tank off and brought it down, i’m not even in the door and he says he can’t do it! used to do loads for the military, the tank is rotten behind the (welded on) bash plate, Well fuck that for not coming out and having a look at it the first time i came over! W**KER.

Been off the road now a couple of week.

I ordered a new tank, four shocks and a track rod end.

After a week, they figured out that the tank won’t fit on a pallet and therefore can’t deliver it, should have cancelled the whole order their and then.

Front has 6 inchs of travel, all ok, apart from it only has 6 inchs.

Rear shocks have 8 inches of travel, but have a different closed length. fuckity fuck.

so despondent, pure shite, shocks bottom out before bumpstops, the rear shocks rub the leaves AND more importantly the valving is just non-existent, what’s the point of having dampers with the same rebound and bump rate?, gonna try and find some long MX shocks (5″ of stroke?) and put them on a bellcrank to up the travel

and just what is with the stem on the end of these shocks? it’s a stock land rover setup, but when do you stop winding on the nut? there is no stem/collar like on the stock

on yeah and the track rod end won’t come out! Fail day.

have a huge dr750 piston.