My half arsed F400 nc30

[28hodge]

After Cadwell I was in two minds whether to go to Brands Indy for the final round of the year.


Basically it’s a long way for a short lap on a track I am not that keen on and don’t go all that well on, also the bike needed work after Cadwell, although it had run and worked in the last F400 race at Cadwell it hadn’t felt 100% and it also hadn’t finished 90% of the races we started, after crashing!!

I was going to have little time to sort the bike or to really delve into any issues as we were mega busy at home what with a 4month old a house extension and general life getting in the way.

However I didn’t want Cadwell to be my last ride of the year as it was a disaster of a weekend and I didn’t want that to hang around over the winter break, also I was sitting 5th in sub64 championship even having missed 2 rounds (essentially 3 considering I only scored in one race at Cadwell) and I wanted to try to hang onto that and turning up at Brands should ensure that as long as it didn’t go as badly as Cadwell had!!

Added to this my mate was leading the sub64 championship and looking likely to be in a 3 way scrap for the title, so I wanted to go and either be there to see him win it or maybe if I was quick enough try and give him a hand if he needed it, only issue being I have been around a second off the leading 4 sub 64 bikes all year.

Then the final bit of persuasion I needed landed, my brother was entered and was going to do his first race, so with that I had to enter as I couldn’t have let him do that by himself. So I sorted the entry and tried to find some time to have a look at the bike.

I got a quick Saturday and checked all the basics, carbs off and re balanced sorted the high idling issue, I changed the oil to make sure nothing nasty was in it after it had run on its side and that was all good. The bike started and ran fine and I couldn’t get it to drop onto 3 or do anything silly so left it at that slung it in the van and went to Brands with it.


So the plan was, Brad my Brother was to do the test day with instruction as, other than riding during the licence course at the end of Feb he had never really ridden a road bike and this would be his first time on track in a race environment. As good as the licence course is, it was held in 2oc temps and was more a case of showing that you were not a danger to yourself or others.

I, as usual would travel down on the Friday pretty early and try and give him a hand in the afternoon sessions by watching and advising (as worringly I was the experienced one!!)

This plan went to shit pretty quickly, Brad had a lot of small issues with his bike in the week leading up to brands, this eventually ended up with him not making it to the testday, in fact despite him only living 45mins from brands and me living nigh on 5hours (on a good day) from brands, I beat him to the track on Friday, by about 4 hours!!

He eventually rocked up at 9pm, with a bike that still wanted to play silly buggers! We managed to sort the remaining issues but took the decision that racing was not a good plan. If this was round one

of the year it would have been OK, he and all the other rookies would be in their first race and would be on a separate grid with rookies of a similar ability/speed.

As it was the last round of the year the rookies were in with the main group and had all done a years worth of racing, basically no longer total rookies.


Added to this, the leading F400’s can lap indy in 50.000 flat, if Brad could do a 1.05 to 1.10 which was realistic in the first couple races, he would be getting lapped in 4 laps, the speed differential between him and the leaders would be pretty extreme, it basically was only ever going to do more harm than good. Better to sit and wait till round 1 next year.


So Sunday morning dawned, to the worst fog I have ever seen! From the back of the brands garages you look out towards Graham Hill bend, you couldn’t see it, the fog was that bad, we sat around for hours, I’d warmed the bike through first thing then went for some breakfast, then some lunch!


It was 12 before we managed to get on track for quali, I went to fire the bike up to warm through whilst I put my gloves and helmet on, and it wouldn’t start, it was turning over but wouldn’t fire, we tried all sorts and nothing worked. The battery went flat, thankfully it’s a lithium so recharged good and quick, and it eventually fired but was running on 3 then 4 then 3.

I went out to see if it would clear itself, it didn’t, instead it stopped exiting Druids on the opening lap, so I pulled off at Graham Hill, I checked it over and found the problem, some F***ing twit had turned the fuel off, and it wasn’t me!

I use a dry break in the fuel line so never touch the actual tap on the tank, but somehow it was in the off position! Once switched to on and given a min to let some fuel fill the carbs it fired up and ran, the marshalls let me back on track and I completed the lap I had started.


But thanks to all the turning over and buggering about, the battery was once again pretty flat, I didn’t want to stop out on track for 2nd time so pulled into the pits.


Because of this the only full lap I managed was the one where the bike stopped and I had to turn the fuel on at graham hill bend. This meant I qualified, with a 7.01.022 lap time!!! FFS!


I recharged the battery than sat and sulked, in truth I nearly went home, we have an air source heat pump at home that does all the hot water and central heating for the house, it had chosen this particular weekend to start tripping out, and with my gf and 3month old at home I kinda felt I should

head home and try and get it sorted, but a mate went round and I talked him through some bits and managed to sort a temp fix.

[28hodge]

Anyway race one,


As the club had lost so much time they abandoned a whole block of racing but extended the laps right out on the only race we would be having in the day so we were given a 14 lap race, and on lap one I knew we were in trouble!!

To start with my mate and sub64 championship leader got collected in a crash on the first lap exiting Druids putting a major dint in his championship aspirations!

And just to really rub salt in, my bike wouldn’t pick up or run 100% exiting druids, this then escalated to all right handers of which there are a lot at Brands, worse it was not constant, it would pick up then suddenly drop onto 3, I was still thinking about heading home after Saturday, and seeing as I could keep up with the lads and lasses at the back of the grid I decided to keep lapping bag some points to secure 5th in the championship and then go from there, if I couldn’t find something physically wrong with the bike after the race I’d load it in the van and head home.

After the race I put the bike on the stands grabbed something to eat and then ripped into it, I took most of the race loom off and inspected it tested the coils and found the issue!

The connector on the front coil was lose and rattling around on the coil, this was giving intermittent spark to the corresponding cylinder and causing the rough running, I rebuilt that section of loom and decided to stay on for the Sunday as I was there and the heat pump was working at home so I wasn’t needed urgently!


So Sunday dawned a lot nicer than Saturday, I went out for Morning Warm up for a change as I needed to make sure the bike was up and running, it felt ok and ran consistently for the 3 laps we got so fingers crossed we had sorted the issue.


I can't remember too much about either race to be honest, Race one I got a good start but was coming from the back of the grid, so was never going to get that far forward, I watched the video back the other day and I braked way to early for turn one and it took me 2 or 3 laps to get into the race, not surprising really as I was basically getting into the swing of things having not done any riding on Saturday of any worth, whereas most out there had the test day and a full days racing under their belts.


I got stuck behind a couple bikes and I could have forced the issue but the next sub was 4 seconds up the road so I decided that I best concentrate on finishing the race and bagging points. 5th in the

championship was pretty much secured but best to make sure, so I sat in behind and clicked the laps off.


I say this I was still riding well, this was only the second time I had ridden the indy circuit, the first time being in round 1 of the year, when the track conditions were nopt as good but weren't terrible for 2 of the races, even so from lap 3 onwards, every lap is quicker than my previous best from round 1.


Saying that, to be honest I'm just relieved to have completed the race with no major issues and it seemed we had gotten all the bugs out of the bike following slinging it down the road in race 1 at Cadwell. I end up 21st and 6th Sub which is pretty poor. But given that this was essentially my first ride of the weekend, I guess it was only to be expected.


I really needed a fresh rear tyre, when I say fresh I mean a fresh scrub, I could feel the bike moving round clearways and this was really effecting me, the bikes I got caught behind in race one were all on fresh rubber, something I have never had, I was almost passing them round clearways even with the lack of confidence the bike was giving me, but as it was the last round of the year I was buggered if I was going to get a fresh rear scrub.


The final race was much the same as race 1 I got a good start got messed up in turn one and was stuck behind the same couple bikes. I decided to play with my line round variuos bits of track and use the race as more of a test session than a race, I got the line into clearways a bit wrong one lap and nearly run off track, then got massively held up by a backmarker going round druids.


But the laptimes were again really good and really consistent, nearly all of them are faster than the best from the opening round, even the opening lap is only just slower than my previous best, I should have really been happy with the weekend but I really wasn’t. Its one of the first times I was glad to be loading up and heading home. All weekend I'd not really been that comfortable and was just glad to set off north.

[28hodge]

So that was the season finished, I had set PB's at every track, I had enjoyed it all year but there was a pert of me that was disappointed with the season as I hadn't progressed to were I thought I should have.

I am fairly competitive and I didn’t feel the results had improved nor my riding really. I was basically a second a lap away from where I needed to be to allow me to race with the leaders and battle for wins be with the leaders and to have a shot at a win in the sub64's.

I kinda knew that I needed to change something to get me closer and I felt like I was always a step behind those at the front all weekend. I improved from Saturday through to Sunday at every round, but so did those at the front, I improved at the same rate as them but always remained roughly that 1sec in arrears.

Part of the difference as I saw it came down to the fact that those at the front were not starting from zero on the Saturday for Quali. They had all done the test days as had most others in the class, another difference was they were on new rear supercorsa's for the weekend, whereas I was trying to get 2 meetings out of a set of Scrubs!!

Coupled to this I also felt the rear shock was starting to become a limiting factor, it was still good but I felt it was a bit soft and its essentially a road shock. It’s a modded RS250 aprillia shock, and although it’s a country mile better than the std NC30 shocks, its still a modded shock intended for the road. I needed a pukka race shock.

So this year I am going to try and do the testdays and use new tyres, however this isnt going to be cheap.
Testdays for the year will run up to an additional £1k

Tyres I simply can't afford, especially using supercorsa's at £300 odd a set! But there are alternatives, Conti race attacks are £250ish a set, & then there are the Avon 3d ultra extreme's these are £200 a set but are not available from the paddock suppliers so need to be delivered so another £15 plus fitting at £5 a wheel so £225 a set.
There are a couple people using the Avons and saying positive things so I don't think this is too much of a risk.

So I have, for the first time ever, a brand new set of tyres, plan is 2 rounds then get a fresh rear

Plan is to get a new set then change the rear for each round, about £120 fitted. The front should last 4 rounds although I think some last year did 7 plus rounds on the same front, and they were lapping quicker than I was!!

This will still cost an additional £1,100 for the year!!

The bike has gotten some treats over the winter, I managed to finally get my hands on a proper race shock rather than my aprillia rs modded shock, it’s a proper NC30 ohlins shock and I am hoping it’s the dogs so I cant wait to give that a run out at round 1. I have had it serviced and fettled as it need a couple bits internally, but best of all its got adjustable ride height.

I also got a new chain as when I removed the rear wheel I was surprised how far round the rear hub adjuster was to get the chain tension, it was getting on for being at the 9 oclock position basically losing me a shed load of rear ride height. So I bought a really long chain, way over the links I need and have marked the hub up so that I know where 5 6 & 7 o clock positions are I'll set the chain to the 5 o clock position for new and the initial stretch will hopefully let me adjust it up to 6 o clock, as soon as it stretches past 7 o clock its getting slung.

[royster81]

Fantastic. I look forward to next seasons racing.

[thmjo1]

Great write up and good luck for the up coming season.
Just a quick heads up I saw on another forum, 'Tyreleader' seem to be really good on price for your tyres. Not used them myself yet but folks who have say they are good.
All the best

[GeeTee]

I watched the 400's racing in the BEMSEE rookie class at Brands on Sunday. There was four or five NC30's out there doing pretty well, but the really quick riders were on ZXR400's. What class are you racing in this season?

[28hodge]

Great write up and good luck for the up coming season.
Just a quick heads up I saw on another forum, 'Tyreleader' seem to be really good on price for your tyres. Not used them myself yet but folks who have say they are good.
All the best

Cheers for that, I have had a look and they are pretty similar to what I am paying, they may be a couple £ cheaper but I buy mine from Dennis Trollope racing and I like to support the race suppliers so i'll probably stick with him.

However I do know some of the lads manage to buy them direct from Avon and are getting them at £180 a set ish so if I can get involved in that its a saving I can't really afford to miss out on!

[28hodge]

I watched the 400's racing in the BEMSEE rookie class at Brands on Sunday. There was four or five NC30's out there doing pretty well, but the really quick riders were on ZXR400's. What class are you racing in this season?

Hello mate, I was there racing but in the main F400 class, race 6 I think. My brother was doing his first meeting this weekend so was out in the rookie class on his 3tj.

ZXR's are the best choice to go racing on as they are cheap to get good power (Mid 70's) from. RMKD ram airbox beet exhaust and a 0.5 skim I think and away you go.

But it would be dull if we all rode ZXR's!

Let me know if you are coming to brands again and I can sort you out with tickets as I always have a few spare.

PS - your air filter caused me all sorts of problems on the test day. It must be free'er flowing than my old one as it wouldn't rev out, I had to go up a jet size all round haha

[28hodge]

So the bike was mechanically looking good for Rd1 at Brands Indy on the 11th 12th & 13th March. However, cosmetically it looked a mess, after crashing at Cadwell the fairings were toast down the left hand side, I have stopped using the crash protectors following that crash as all they do is bend round and take out the fairing lowers. And a half kit is £60 odd, so the second you crash it costs you an extra £60.

I have always wanted an RC30, I will never own one due to them being mega money now as it is and nly ever heading one way, so I decided to paint my NC30 in RC30 race colours. I was going to get the pukka colour matched paint from RS Paints but it was £20 a can delivered and it’s a race bike at the end of the day not a show bike, so I matched them up to RAL colours best I could and could get the white and red in the correct colour codes from our local paint supplier's.

I made a spray booth in the utility room at home with a oil filled rad in it, then when the GF and daughter were away in Norway visiting her parents, I spent the 5 days spraying, the neighbours must have thought I was mental!!







The Gf certainly didn't see the funny side of this pic!!

Still the results I think were worth it, for a rattle can job on a race bike I think its pretty good!!

[28hodge]

The lacquer was a bit of a let down as it didn’t seem to want to go on thick enough, but from 10 yards it looks good, which is the only requirement for a race bike in my eyes!!





Where the HONDA logo would go up the side of the fairing I was going to put my race logo on which I had gotten designed over winter



but brilliantly every vinyl graphic producer I have spoken to are utterly unreliable, so I never got them sorted in time for Brands Indy