My half arsed F400 nc30

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28hodge
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Re: My half arsed F400 nc30

Post by 28hodge » Thu Jul 13, 2017 3:35 pm

Race two was a good race, I was again to hesitant and soft in the opening lap but not as bad as race one, missing a gear exiting the old hairpin on lap 1 wasn’t ideal mind. But after that we went forward well and was in a good dice most of the race. Lydia Thompson and I changed places quite a few times, shes a full power bike so had the legs on me down the back straight but I was able to get her back into the braking zones mainly into turn 1 redgate.

Our battle was cut short when Lydia’s bike totally cut out on her exiting the final chicane which was a little close for comfort.

I keep my head down but Andy Moxon comes past with another in toe, who tried to pass a few times into the chicane but couldn’t without going in way deep. This goes on for a couple laps, then I manage to get to have a stab at Andy into Redgate but can’t quite get it done, so get back in behind him going down craner, hoping I can stay close and try to have another go at him into the last chicane.

When out of nowhere I get hit from behind on the left hander at the end of craner, which sits me up and sends me straight on over the grass, then gravel, straight over the track after the old hairpin at 90 degrees to the rest of the field and into the gravel again finally managing to get it all stopped before the tyre wall. 25 years of MX has just come in very useful, but I am raging, as I couldn’t see the bike from out of my peripheral vision, it wasn’t along side in the slightest so the move was never on, it was in my view just dangerous. If I’d have done that to someone I’d have gone and found them, held my hands up and apologised, that’s the truth.

The other guy when confronted claimed it was my fault for turning across him and changing lines. We disagreed and I still maintain that he was nowhere near close enough to make that move. I’d have been ok if he’d have held his hands up and said yeah sorry made a mistake, I’m ok with that, we all make mistakes, but to try to blame me and also claim he was alongside is utter bull.

Still it’s done, so that’s that. It was a shame though as I lost a shed load of places thanks to it. The sub64 class this year is a big class, in fact most of the bikes seem to be subs and those at the front are quick, so getting a top 10 in the subs is currently a good result.

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lukemillar
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Re: My half arsed F400 nc30

Post by lukemillar » Thu Jul 20, 2017 10:46 am

Awesome read Kurt! I never realised you had this thread. I took a look at your vids - man, those are large grids! I'm pretty envious - Donnington looks epic. Great racing dude

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Re: My half arsed F400 nc30

Post by CB1pod70 » Thu Jul 20, 2017 11:55 am

Kurt's about halfway up the grid, they looked even bigger from where I was sat :grin: Typically we get about 30 bikes on the grid from most meets.

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Re: My half arsed F400 nc30

Post by 28hodge » Tue Feb 13, 2018 3:08 pm

I've gotten very lazy with this, However here are the vids from Dono from way back in June. As you can imagine after last year, going back to Dono wasn't the most exciting prospect, but mega weather and the fact that i really like donington helped.

So here's race 1 from Saturday


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28hodge
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Re: My half arsed F400 nc30

Post by 28hodge » Tue Feb 13, 2018 3:10 pm

Race 2 on Sunday Morning, had some fun and games in this one thanks to a dumbass move heading down craner!!!!

[youtube]7qgsSbURN7k&t[/youtube]



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qgsSbURN7k&t=477s
Last edited by 28hodge on Tue Feb 13, 2018 3:15 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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28hodge
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Re: My half arsed F400 nc30

Post by 28hodge » Tue Feb 13, 2018 3:11 pm

race 3



I'll do a catch up with the thoughts after dono, Brands GP and Oulton and then thoughts for this year.

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Re: My half arsed F400 nc30

Post by 28hodge » Tue Feb 13, 2018 3:21 pm

Race 1 Brands GP



Race 2 Brands GP




I managed to forget to put the camera on for Race 3

Race 4 Brands GP


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Re: My half arsed F400 nc30

Post by 28hodge » Mon May 27, 2019 12:48 am

I have been riding this again, so this thread is due an update. There is a long and expensive story as to why its sat in a shed for the best part of 2 years till April 2019. But safe to say now its back working again I remember why I enjoy it so much.

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Re: My half arsed F400 nc30

Post by 28hodge » Mon May 27, 2019 10:40 pm

Image

Sooooooo, after Brands GP videos above, we wnt off to Oulton about 6 weeks later. I was due to have the metal plates out of my Leg some time after Oulton so it was likely to be my last round I was going to be able to do in 2017.

Now on the Video above there is a whirring noise to the bike, its mild and nearly unnoticeable, but it is there. I thought when I was atching the vids back it was just the quality of my cheap Chinese gopro copies coming through. However after a day of practice and qualifying and 2 races at Oulton, in the third race of the day after posting my outright PB the motor let go heading into T1 and sending me straight on.

It was rattling like a bag of nails so I pulled it onto the run off at the bottom of cascades and sat sulking waiting for the race to finish. The problem was to rebuild it meant all new shells and a crank plus all the gaskets etc etc. And with honda discontinuing shells getting Gforce shells ends up being very expensive. I just couldn’t be arsed to race and ride a bike knowing that parts were becoming scarce for them .

I stuck it in the van, brought it home dismantled it and confirmed it had done a rod bearing/journal on number 2 and then started to figure out what to do. Which was to leave it in pieces in the corner of the garage and buy a race ready 4/6 3tj. I’d always wanted to build one so was happy enough.

I got the plates out of my leg in sept 2017 and decided to ride the 3tj for the next year in bemsee thunderbikes, I did one round ONE. Which was at Cadwell in the middle of a tropical summer, god it was hot, disgustingly so. We went ok, apart from a clipon moving round hall bends leading to some grass tracking (scary as scary truth told) the bike rode great and it was nice to be back out, but I missed the 400’s.

So what to do, splurge £1500 on a full race engine rebuild? Sling in a stock motor that I had (I have 4 std engines sat as spares) or rebuild my old engine (prob getting on for £600 in bits alone and then also using up my last remaining spare crank without having to split an engine)

Then light at the end of the tunnel. I guy I knew and raced had come across the mother load of 2 containers full of NC30 race bits and bikes, there was a freshly rebuilt engine with RLR skimmed heads, the engine was less than the parts to rebuild my old engine so I bought it. One snag, I trusted the guy I bought it from, hes a good guy, and was straight with me, he told me what he had been told about the engine. It was rebuilt using heads skimmed by RLR. The engine was not rebuilt by RLR they just did the machine work, the engine had an old tattered invoice taped to it from RLR and it had skimmed heads on it, whether these were the heads that the invoice referred to was anyones guess. Also whether the engine was rebuilt by someone with the ability of say Tony Scott or the ability of someone with the ability of Scott Tony was also anyones guess!!

So I hesitated with putting the engine in, do I send it to be refreshed? And make sure its all put together properly? Do I put it in and take a chance? Hmmm. I shimmed it out of the bike (So, so much easier and pleasant) and when turning it over by hand it hand a stiction point that I wasn’t happy with, I really couldn’t make my mind up what was best to do.

Then randomly I was speaking to a mate and he mentions that it could just be a stiff starter motor, he said whip it off and see if its any different, low and behold it was, it turned over perfectly smooth.

I’d had this engine for 6months by now so thought balls to it lets wang it in the bike and fire it up, this would have been Feb this year, with the plan to go and race round 2 at Oulton with Bemsee in April.

I got it in and back together in a day or so and then cranked it with the switch to OFF to make sure it made oil pressure, which it did, and encouragingly quickly. So with nothing to lose, switch to on, and it fired straight up and settled into an, albeit noisy, steady idle, but with a noise that I didn’t have on my previous engines, like a rattley whirr. However I have never had a an NC30 with the quietening gears removed. I wasn’t 100% happy but decided that it was going to Oulton and that was that.

The Race weekend at Oulton is a little different to others as Oulton can only use the circuit on a limited number of Sundays, as such we have all day Friday as practice and then qualifying as the last session, followed by just 2 races on the Saturday. The first laps of Friday practice were a little tense but all seemed fine, I was reasonably nice to the engine initially, then as it was sunny and I had found some room with nobody around me, I got carried away, the motor was plenty strong and happy, loads of midrange pull from corner exit.

So quali and the race happened and all went ok, we had some nice battles but I was a little away from my times and PB from 2017, about 1.8 – 2 secs off which was a little frustrating. But in all honesty I've ridden once since May 2017, on a totally different bike. So I couldn’t expect too much, when I loaded the van and set off all I hoped was that I brought back and fully running and functioning bike on Saturday night. And that we did.

I didn’t take any video from Oulton as I didn’t want to get carried away reviewing it and then pushing my limits when I was so rusty, it was only asking for trouble. I simply wanted to have fun, and oulton in the sun is fun.

Next up was Cadwell however due to trying to complete an extension at home and some work related things I ended up cancelling my entry, the weather forecast was awful (and was true to form) and cadwell in marquees in the rain is trying at times as you seem to get wet on Friday setting everything up and then never get dry again till Sunday night at home.

Then we had donington last weekend, donington, despite everything that’s happened there, is, on a 400, one of my favourite tracks, I do miss the full GP circuit that we used to do as we know seem to run the international circuit (so no foggy esses , Melbourne loop or Goddards) but its still an amazing track on a 400.
I’ll do a bit of a better write up of that this week as it’s a bit fresher in my memory and I also put the camera on.

Image

Image

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Re: My half arsed F400 nc30

Post by Suzuki416 » Wed May 29, 2019 10:19 pm

Glad you are back & loving the write ups...


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