My half arsed F400 nc30

[28hodge]

Yeah i know, its not great is it, that was with the old carb set up not the HRC set up its running now, ive not had the time to get the HRC set up on the dyno yet, it does feel a lot better with the hrc carbs on though.

Yep this will be my steed for Cadwell, im really pleased with how its come together and the spec of it to be honest, the only things id really like are a twinstack and a maxton rear shock, other than that theres not a whole lot id change!

I'll also be rocking in this as my weekend accomodation!!!




Bought the caravan awning off ebay for £32 and then butchered my roof rack to make it fit!!!

Lets hope its not a windy weekend!!!!!!!!

[28hodge]

Well last weekend went well, there is a report/write up of the day here
viewtopic.php?f=58&t=41812&start=10

The bike went great all weekend and the KR364's were the best move I made, by a long way!!

The weather was showery and the KR364's are good in the wet up to the point that your getting standing water, so the fact that it showered just before our last race wasnt a cause for panic for me, one less thing to stress about.

By the looks of the things tho, and the thing i was most pleased about, it seems I've got a competitive bike, I can take no massive credit for this as other than check the valve clearances I have done zip with the motor. Who ever had it built or built it to start with has done a good job on it as at no point all day was I out gunned, I was outbraked though after hilltop into hizzy's. This isnt a problem with the brakes as they are new pads seals and fluid and rebuilt calipers, its a problem with me not leaning on them enough so something to improve on.

The carbs just seem to get better there was no noticable flat spot from 6k right up through to 14500k according to my arse dyno, but I still want to get it on the dyno to see what I've gained with the HRC Carbs and if there is improvment to be had in there.

The most stressful part of the day and the bit I was most worried about was scruitineering, but it was fine it went through with no problem which was a relief. The only thing that got mentioned was my dog tag chain, not because it was'nt safe but becasue it was pretty homosexual, I'd had to nick one of my girlfriends gold lace chains as I'm a northerner and dont own any of my own jewellary!!!

All in all a good weekend!!

[28hodge]

So, since I have pretty much finished for this year I thought I would bring this thread back up to date and then keep it updated through winter with any bits and pieces that I amend on the bike.

After racing with Wirral100 at Oulton I had intended to carry on and do the majority of their events and essentially race at Anglesey for the remainder of the year. However due to date clashes with wedding’s & birthdays and the fact that I need to race on 3 different circuits to upgrade my licence, meant that I was having a rethink.

Looking at the proposed calendars of various clubs Bemsee looked the best and considering that they got damn near 40 bikes on the grid I decided I would try and do their northern rounds of Oulton, Donington and Cadwell. Oulton I knew and liked, Donington and Cadwell I wanted to ride regardless so added to the fact it would give me the required number of circuits for a licence upgrade when the time came I sent my Oulton entry off and away I went.

Oulton saw me take massive amounts of time off my previous best, and make big strides in my riding, all in, prior to this event I had done 2 trackday’s in 2012 and then a couple more trackdays at Oulton in March and April 2013, then two races with Wirral100, so I was very much still learning and making big improvements.

Oulton was a really good enjoyable weekend, I was in the garages with all the other 400’s all day Friday was a testday so I think we did 4x20 min sessions and then a 15min qualifying session on the Friday, I dropped my times from a 2.18 (Racechrono on a trackday) to a 2.11 with wirral100 and then down to 2.07, it was a full grid so I had people to race with regardless as to me being slow (was the only time all year I got lapped, albeit on the last corner) I slept in the back of my van, the weather was mega, a couple mates and the other half drove down to watch on Saturday and as we were the first group out all weekend I was packed up and home by 6.30. To really make it sweet, the race was on Saturday I could go out and have some pints to celebrate. I can’t remember all that much about the weekend, apart from I rode an awful lot better in race one than I did in race 2.

I do remember that I crossed the line in race two side by side with a zxr400 (Ray Petty) and missed out on passing him by a wheel, only to get the results and find he’d been given a 10 second penalty for a jump start, which I saw as I was gridded directly behind him. I’d phanny’d around on the first couple of laps and then spent the remaining 5 laps or so playing catch up, this kinda developed into a theme for the rest of the year, I have no confidence in the tyres on the first lap and a half, I think this is as a result of my total lack of road riding, my only road bike miles have all been done on track.

[28hodge]

Donington

I made hard work for myself really, I took Friday off to travel down and get sorted out, I kidded myself that I was ready and organised when I massively wasn’t. After 3 false starts and 3 return visits to the house, I left the house for the last time travelled down in a van that was pissing diesel out of itself over the inlet manifold, which caused a bit of stress, the only upshot was it was a very sunny clear day. I found my garage and unloaded etc etc by the time I’d had some tea it was late and I felt a bit stressed and wound up, I had gone on my own and it does make it 100% harder as you obviously have to do everything, if I had a helper then I could unload whilst they sorted something else.

Anyway Saturday morning came, we were second to last out at this round which would mean a long day and our first and only race of the day (Bemsee had not been to Donington before so were running 15min practice followd by 15 min quali and then a single race on Saturday) would be around 3pm ish.

With about 30 mins till our practice was due out I installed the battery to warm the bike through (I stupidly read an article about the TT legends endurance race team where they said to get the bike up to temp about 30 mins before you want it, then turn it off and let the heat soak through the engine, I am sure on a tuned race endurance engine this is beneficial, I doubt it is the case on my road bike, but ever since reading it I can’t help doing it myself, still, every little helps I guess and if it means I get an extra season out of it before having to do a major overhaul then great)

As I went to start it though the starter clutch wouldn’t engage it was just spinning. I’d never ridden Donington before, I knew where it went but I still desperately needed the 15min practice before the 15min qualifying and the single race that was scheduled for the Saturday.

I quickly whipped the crash bungs off and then the lower fairing, removed the clutch cover, trying not to nick or break the gasket to see what was going on. Nothing looked or appeared broken or out of place, I had someone spin the starter whilst I had a look, erm, is that starter motor spinning the correct way??? Check he battery lead, numb nuts here has only put the leads on the wrong f ing way round!!!

Sling everything back together quickly, never a good thing, connect battery up correctly, and she fires straight up, I’ve got about 5 mins to get changed and to the collecting area.

I leave the bike running do my best superman change impression warmers off, bike off stands and get to the collecting area just in time and roll out with everyone else.

I take an easy lap and then start to go a little quicker on lap two. I get some movement that I’m not used to, however I am on Supercorsas for the first time having previously only run on Dunlop KR364’s, so I put it down to them being a little cold still, having not had that long in the warmers really.

Round the Melbourne loop, and something seems a bit odd and vauge like the entire bike is squirming, and its not as though I am on record pace! going round Goddards all seems ok.

Ohhh what’s that flag? Ahhh!!

I get a black and orange flag so I pull up at the track exit that we are using for the weekend at the entrance to Redgate, the lad in orange lets me know that there seems to smoking coming from the bike that suggests its leaking oil onto an exhaust. Reckon I know where that’s coming from!!

Back to the pits and sure enough there is oil dribbling from the clutch case cover onto the exhaust and more worryingly onto the right hand shoulder of the rear tyre, my arse falls out and I thank Christ that I hadn’t turned into Redgate and the top of Craner curves on it!!

I grab some instant gasket and set too dismantling everything again and clean all the escaped oil off the bike. I then smear the rest of the bike with instant gasket.

By the time I’ve gotten all this done we are fast approaching qualifying. All I’ve done is fcuk my bike up an do a lap and a half, hardly ideal prep for qualifying!! Definitely not my finest hour!

I am suddenly aware that this isn’t Oulton that I know pretty well, it’s a completely new to me race track where I have no references or markers, and I now need to go out and try to put some half decent laps together. Bemsee got a bit of a slating for giving us a practice session rather than an extra race on Saturday. I suddenly think what a smart decision it was to give us practice, I am not confident as I trundle out for quali.

Qualifying actually goes pretty good considering it was my first laps really, I manage 6 laps with a best of 2.02.124 and my last 3 laps are each quicker than the last. I am still slow, and my lack of track knowledge is showing, big style, Oulton was a lot easier for me as 90% of my riding had been done there whereas 0% had been done at Donington, I qualify 38th out 43!

I try to spend the time between quali and the race double checking the bike and making sure the sealant isn’t allowing any oil to dribble, it all seems fine. The rest of the waiting time is spent chatting and collecting my mate who’s come down with his 2 year old lad and cousin to watch.

Our first race is the second to last on the programme, it’s been good weather all day but you can tell that the weather is turning and rain is imminent. The Sidecars have an issue and take 3 attempts to get going, which means that when we go to the grid it is clear its going to rain very soon.

We set off, and its dry, but on the warm up lap it was pretty clear over the back of the circuit it’s getting very dark and raining only a couple miles away.

We grid up and get ready to go, the start isn’t one of my best, I’m on the left of the grid so stay wide and try to run around the outside of Redgate, its going well and as I get on the gas to drive round the outside of 2 or 3 there is a large crash in turn one, just in front of me on my inside, then suddenly there is a spinning bike and rider going down the road in front of me I have to sit upand after a bit of swerving I eventually manage to miss everything, but I am dead last!
Head down and away I go as best I can, I manage to get past a few before the red flags come out as I’m heading into Goddards, they wave us straight through at the finish line and we essentially do a warm up lap and get re gridded.

Start number two sees us running for 2 laps before the rain starts and we get red flagged again, back to the pits and we have 10mins to change to wets, thank Christ and all his mates in that fairy tale book that’s written about him that I have a NC30 so single sided swing arm. A guy from powerbikes that was in the garage next to me changes the rear whilst I do the front.

My mate also gets himself to the garage in time to give me a hand. It was still tough getting it changed and ready to go in the time though. Back onto the grid, warm up lap and I am calling myself a gent, its barely damp, I have KR364’s sat in the pits on a set of wheels ready to go, but was too chicken to put them on instead of the wets that everyone else was changing onto. The entire reason I have 3 sets of wheels is out on the track now and they are sat in the garage. Sometimes I make myself very cross, gent!

Race starts for the third time and we get to the old Hairpin before a nasty crash happens, someone highsides then gets run over, we get to Mcleans and get red flagged again, this time we are ushered down pit lane and that’s it for our day, our race will be run first thing Sunday morn, and the BMZRC’s head out for the last race of the day.

[ChowderV4]

Great thread! Will you be racing next year? Im racing with NG in my second year next year, will you be staying with bemsee?

[alexwitham]

Following with interest.

Good luck mate.

[28hodge]

Yeah looking at the calenders I'll prob stick with Bemsee sub64 class. I've looked at other clubs abd calenders but I hate being on split grids, Bemsee normally have reserves on the grid so always 40 400's they also have a sub class limited to 64BHP so great for nc30's.

Realistically in f400 you need a zxr400 or fzr400 to be competitive, and although I like them i have no real desire to own one.

Hoping to do the following Bemsee rounds next year, though i would imagine the final snett round my get dropped due to cash and also possibly silverstone, as much as I want to ride it, it'd be 2 rounds in May which may hurt my bank account a lot. I dont want to miss Oulton, all day friday is a test day then racing saturday, rest day sunday then racing again bank holiday monday, Should be awesome!

19-20th Apr Bemsee 2 Snett 300

10th-11th May Bemsee 3 Silverstone

24th-26th May Bemsee 4 Oulton

21-22th June Bemsee 5 Dono

19-20th July Bemsee 6 Cadwell

9-10th Aug Bemsee 7 Brands GP

6-7th Sept Bemsee 8 Snett 300

[ChowderV4]

Ive seen Bemsee has huge grids which does look extremely tempting but as i live so so far away from any track NG is the best for me as it does Castle Combe and Thruxton, and also Anglesey which is just a great track.

Ive seen a few stock vfr's fighting up the front at thruxton and i was fighting for a podium at Anglesey on a bog stock engine zxr.
Well good luck with next year, and if i come into some cash i may try enter a bemsee round :D

[Drunkn Munky]

Hodge, give me a shout if you do end up doing brands and i'll come be your spanner monkey and hopefully take some of the stress off you.

Great write up BTW

[28hodge]

Cheers Tony much appreciated, I really want to do brands GP its a long drive for me but my bro lives in London so I'm hoping I can come down a couple days early and stay with him to make it a bit easier.

I'll drop you a PM nearer the time as that is pretty much one of the 4 rounds that i should definitely be at.