My half arsed F400 nc30
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28hodge
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- Location: Kendal, Cumbria, Northwest
Re: My half arsed F400 nc30
Saturday Morning and It’s still raining and the wind is howling. I get out the van and walk to the pits, it’s definitely wet for the early quali sessions but it’s pretty bright and with the wind being so strong the clouds are flying past overhead so I am hoping our quali, which is quite late on in the quali schedule, may be dry or at the worst damp, as my wets are so shit I really hope I am right.
I do have inters, and despite falling off using these at Oulton I’d much rather use these than my wets so, stuck between a rock and a hard place, I stick the KR364’s into the warmers as the track is basically dry with the odd damp patch but pretty cold. I get them in the warmers good and early after my experiences at Oulton and when the warmers come off to go to the collecting area they are good and soft.
In the collecting area 90% are on dry’s with a couple on KR364’s and a couple on full wets. I take a slow lap to have a good look at everything and see if anywhere is holding any water from the overnight rain, its bone dry everywhere so dry’s would have been fine but given the low temp the KR364 inters will be just as good.
I spend the 7 or so laps just gradually trying to pick the pace up and try to ride the bike a bit more rather than just sitting on it. I’m still a long way off those that I was racing with at the end of last year which is frustrating, I manage a 1.28.134, to be with those I was racing with last year I need to be nearer a 1.25.500, although encouragingly every lap is better than the previous with my best coming on lap 7 of 7. I’m still just riding about though and don’t feel that positive on the bike.
I do have inters, and despite falling off using these at Oulton I’d much rather use these than my wets so, stuck between a rock and a hard place, I stick the KR364’s into the warmers as the track is basically dry with the odd damp patch but pretty cold. I get them in the warmers good and early after my experiences at Oulton and when the warmers come off to go to the collecting area they are good and soft.
In the collecting area 90% are on dry’s with a couple on KR364’s and a couple on full wets. I take a slow lap to have a good look at everything and see if anywhere is holding any water from the overnight rain, its bone dry everywhere so dry’s would have been fine but given the low temp the KR364 inters will be just as good.
I spend the 7 or so laps just gradually trying to pick the pace up and try to ride the bike a bit more rather than just sitting on it. I’m still a long way off those that I was racing with at the end of last year which is frustrating, I manage a 1.28.134, to be with those I was racing with last year I need to be nearer a 1.25.500, although encouragingly every lap is better than the previous with my best coming on lap 7 of 7. I’m still just riding about though and don’t feel that positive on the bike.
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28hodge
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Re: My half arsed F400 nc30
The rest of Silverstone isn’t that interesting to be honest, mainly as I was trying to get back to a position where I actually felt like I was riding the bike properly.
Race 2
I rode a little better stayed with the main group a bit better, I once again end up behind steve Young after a poor opening lap, however this race I push myself a bit harder and manage to use my good momentum around the link onto the hanger straight and outbrake steve into Stowe, its an easy pass. Louise Rout is at the front of our group with me and Steve at the back, annoyingly the 2 rider behind Louise get past her and pull away, these are two riders I was beating last year and I feel like I should be going with them. Instead I have a good battle with Louise and manage to get her coming out of the link and up the first half of hanger straight then try to ride a good clean last lap to stop her having a dig back at me. This was going well until the wind battered me just as I was tipping into Stowe. I briefly thought I was going to come off and the wide pushed me really wide. I managed to keep Louise behind me but she had caught up a lot. Luckily for me Bean had lost the front going into Vale so with Yellow flags out Louise couldn’t pass me back.
I finish in 25th place and again every lap is quicker than the one before apart from the last lap, I put that down to the wind in Stowe Corner. Best lap is a 1.25.699, another 1.700 secs quicker than my previous best. The lads I want to be with have also gone quicker again but encouragingly I am only 11 seconds down on them after 5 laps whereas after 4 laps in the first race I was 17seconds back. Most importantly I just feel like I am riding better.
Race 3
Started badly, we get called to parc ferme, where we sit for ages, as things start to get warm I have to stop the bike, then re-start it when we get called to the grid. Race start goes badly but then I ride pretty good on lap one, I feel a lot more with it today and as Bean makes a hash of the last corner I nip past him and ride 2 good laps as I also manage to pull the same move on Steve Young into stowe on lap 3, I should have done it on lap 2 but bottled out of it for no reason which annoyed me. Then starting the 4th lap we get red flagged. We get stopped on hanger straight and told to kill the engines. 10 mins later we are taken back to the grid and again kill our engines. Eventually we get told we will have 1 warm up and 4 race laps.
Bike started again for the 5th time, warm up done and then race start, the bike feels down on power, and I seem to be struggling to do much. Lap 2 and the clocks freeze coming down hanger straight, been here before, the batteries on its last legs!! I don’t come down pitlane hoping that I can sneak round and get a finish but it dies out of village and I pull over and get well off track. The battery was full but it had started the bike 5 times on total loss and run for 4 laps before the red flag.
Race 4
Battery full, I run the A123 cells out of a dewalt drill so I never like to leave them on charge but the charger I use is a bit shit and although the gauge says full on it the Volt reading can sometimes be misleading, I think this caught me out in race 3, the gauge said full but I think the battery maybe wasn’t, to ensure this does not happen again I just leave the battery on charge constantly between the two races.
The last race is by far my best race, I actually feel like I am racing now rather than riding around.
Warm up done, lights on lights off and I’m basically last on the grid due to the DNF, there are a few other DNF’ers behind me but they are all rapid and I am well not!
So they sod of into turn one and I nip past the 4 or 5 that are a chink slower than me. Then into turn two which is a fast sweeper before a hard braking zone into village chaos has started, bikes sit up and dart around as there is a crash in front, I think its as a result of those that DNF’d race one and started at the back with me trying to get forward as early as possible. I can’t be sure though.
It puts me off a little and buggers my line up into village and the link really as bikes are rejoining the track from the tarmac run off areas.
As we cross the line after lap one I’m behind Danielle Cooper who I nip past into turn one to be met with Steve Young again, deciding I’ll do the same pass on him as in the previous races I follow him round to Stowe. He badly holds me up in turn two and I think of a pass into village but decide against it thinking it’ll be easier and safer going into Stowe. That plans gets royally ballsed up as Emma Jarman comes past me out of the right onto hanger straight so I lose time all the way up hanger to Steve, so no opportunity to get past steve into Stowe.
Lap 3 and I follow Steve round, I don’t seem to be able to get a pass made and I’m now pissed off at myself for not going past at the start of lap 2 when he held me up round turn 2 farm. In fairness to Steve lap 2 and 3 of the last race are pretty much his best laps of the weekend, barr one stand out lap 1.5 seconds quicker than any of his others.
Start of lap 4 and I am on him as we cross the line, Steve goes into the right handed turn one faster than me and goes wider on the exit making the sweeping left of Farm which is turn two tighter. I go into one slower letting me open up turn 2 more and carry a lot more speed round turn 2, I come round turn on in 3rd nick 4th just as I get the bike flicked into the left of turn 2 and its pretty much flat for me in 4th it also puts me on the inside for the braking into the tight right hand village.
As Steve runs wide on his line out of turn 1 I get my line spot on and hold it flat and sweep round the outside of steve and have gotten the pass made before we are anywhere near the braking zone. It fires me up as I am slowly riding like I should be.
I get a good clear lap, there is a bike that I can see in front so I concentrate on trying to reduce the gap, it’s a good way in front of me though, but it’ll help me to keep my concentration to try to get to up. As it turns out it was Dan Hardy who has about 3 seconds on me, I have been nowhere near Dan all weekend, looking at his lap times he seems to have had a poor last race as he isn’t going as quick as he has earlier on.
We are scheduled for 8 lap races and as the laps go on I am getting closer and closer, but Dan must know I am gaining as he is also getting quicker or maybe he is just getting back into his groove. I am in a really good rhythm now and feeling a lot better on the bike, I must be riding better as my knee touches down through village lap after lap, as I don’t hang off as much as I should it’s not that common.
I am catching Dan and really pushing the braking into Village at the start of the lap and Val at the end. But I basically run out of laps, as we start the last lap I am within 1sec of Dan, not that know it’s the last lap, the flags at Silverstone have been crap all weekend as they are so far from the actual track, I genuinely have not seen the last lap pr chequered flag for a single race all weekend.
I push and push to get onto the back of Dan and make good time on him round the link and onto Hanger straight, I desperately try to stay in his slip stream but his ZXR is in the full f400 and gets away from my sub64 compliant nc30. As we go into Stowe I try to make anything I have lost and more back up on the brakes. But as I brake late I rattle down 1 gear too many, as I begin to release the clutch I sense I have done this so pull it back in and knock the lever down to go up a gear (I use race shift pattern) this loses me a fraction as my concentration is diverted from trying to pass dan to ot trying to grenade my bike!!
I’m still on him though, I stay on his left as we head into the left hander at Vale but he’s good on the brakes and I’m not going to get down the inside of him. Just club corner and I’m no Shakey Bryne so I don’t fancy my chances of a pass. Dan’s line is good we both drift right over to the outside kerb in the middle of the corner to slacken the final part of the turn which tightens. Hard on the gas we are both a bit to eager and both cross the line off track over the kerb and the astro turf onto the tarmac run off and then back across again to get back on track, and that’s our weekend done. Like I say I didn’t know that was the last lap and didn’t see the chequers but all the marshals waving and other riders cruising soon gives it away, we have had our race chopped by a lap due to time so only do 7 laps.
I give all the marshals a wave on the cool down lap as way of a thanks, and Dan a thumbs up. I really enjoyed the race and felt like I pushed on far more than any other race this weekend.
The lap times show this every single lap was faster than the lap with my fastest lap all weekend coming on the last lap of race 4. I finish 24 with a best lap of 1.24.871
What’s also impressive is that after quali I was 9.549secs behind the pole sitter after tha last race my fastest lap of the weekend and the f400 fastest lap of the weekend is separated by 9.150 seconds so I have made progress at the same rate as the leaders. Happy with that.
Race 2
I rode a little better stayed with the main group a bit better, I once again end up behind steve Young after a poor opening lap, however this race I push myself a bit harder and manage to use my good momentum around the link onto the hanger straight and outbrake steve into Stowe, its an easy pass. Louise Rout is at the front of our group with me and Steve at the back, annoyingly the 2 rider behind Louise get past her and pull away, these are two riders I was beating last year and I feel like I should be going with them. Instead I have a good battle with Louise and manage to get her coming out of the link and up the first half of hanger straight then try to ride a good clean last lap to stop her having a dig back at me. This was going well until the wind battered me just as I was tipping into Stowe. I briefly thought I was going to come off and the wide pushed me really wide. I managed to keep Louise behind me but she had caught up a lot. Luckily for me Bean had lost the front going into Vale so with Yellow flags out Louise couldn’t pass me back.
I finish in 25th place and again every lap is quicker than the one before apart from the last lap, I put that down to the wind in Stowe Corner. Best lap is a 1.25.699, another 1.700 secs quicker than my previous best. The lads I want to be with have also gone quicker again but encouragingly I am only 11 seconds down on them after 5 laps whereas after 4 laps in the first race I was 17seconds back. Most importantly I just feel like I am riding better.
Race 3
Started badly, we get called to parc ferme, where we sit for ages, as things start to get warm I have to stop the bike, then re-start it when we get called to the grid. Race start goes badly but then I ride pretty good on lap one, I feel a lot more with it today and as Bean makes a hash of the last corner I nip past him and ride 2 good laps as I also manage to pull the same move on Steve Young into stowe on lap 3, I should have done it on lap 2 but bottled out of it for no reason which annoyed me. Then starting the 4th lap we get red flagged. We get stopped on hanger straight and told to kill the engines. 10 mins later we are taken back to the grid and again kill our engines. Eventually we get told we will have 1 warm up and 4 race laps.
Bike started again for the 5th time, warm up done and then race start, the bike feels down on power, and I seem to be struggling to do much. Lap 2 and the clocks freeze coming down hanger straight, been here before, the batteries on its last legs!! I don’t come down pitlane hoping that I can sneak round and get a finish but it dies out of village and I pull over and get well off track. The battery was full but it had started the bike 5 times on total loss and run for 4 laps before the red flag.
Race 4
Battery full, I run the A123 cells out of a dewalt drill so I never like to leave them on charge but the charger I use is a bit shit and although the gauge says full on it the Volt reading can sometimes be misleading, I think this caught me out in race 3, the gauge said full but I think the battery maybe wasn’t, to ensure this does not happen again I just leave the battery on charge constantly between the two races.
The last race is by far my best race, I actually feel like I am racing now rather than riding around.
Warm up done, lights on lights off and I’m basically last on the grid due to the DNF, there are a few other DNF’ers behind me but they are all rapid and I am well not!
So they sod of into turn one and I nip past the 4 or 5 that are a chink slower than me. Then into turn two which is a fast sweeper before a hard braking zone into village chaos has started, bikes sit up and dart around as there is a crash in front, I think its as a result of those that DNF’d race one and started at the back with me trying to get forward as early as possible. I can’t be sure though.
It puts me off a little and buggers my line up into village and the link really as bikes are rejoining the track from the tarmac run off areas.
As we cross the line after lap one I’m behind Danielle Cooper who I nip past into turn one to be met with Steve Young again, deciding I’ll do the same pass on him as in the previous races I follow him round to Stowe. He badly holds me up in turn two and I think of a pass into village but decide against it thinking it’ll be easier and safer going into Stowe. That plans gets royally ballsed up as Emma Jarman comes past me out of the right onto hanger straight so I lose time all the way up hanger to Steve, so no opportunity to get past steve into Stowe.
Lap 3 and I follow Steve round, I don’t seem to be able to get a pass made and I’m now pissed off at myself for not going past at the start of lap 2 when he held me up round turn 2 farm. In fairness to Steve lap 2 and 3 of the last race are pretty much his best laps of the weekend, barr one stand out lap 1.5 seconds quicker than any of his others.
Start of lap 4 and I am on him as we cross the line, Steve goes into the right handed turn one faster than me and goes wider on the exit making the sweeping left of Farm which is turn two tighter. I go into one slower letting me open up turn 2 more and carry a lot more speed round turn 2, I come round turn on in 3rd nick 4th just as I get the bike flicked into the left of turn 2 and its pretty much flat for me in 4th it also puts me on the inside for the braking into the tight right hand village.
As Steve runs wide on his line out of turn 1 I get my line spot on and hold it flat and sweep round the outside of steve and have gotten the pass made before we are anywhere near the braking zone. It fires me up as I am slowly riding like I should be.
I get a good clear lap, there is a bike that I can see in front so I concentrate on trying to reduce the gap, it’s a good way in front of me though, but it’ll help me to keep my concentration to try to get to up. As it turns out it was Dan Hardy who has about 3 seconds on me, I have been nowhere near Dan all weekend, looking at his lap times he seems to have had a poor last race as he isn’t going as quick as he has earlier on.
We are scheduled for 8 lap races and as the laps go on I am getting closer and closer, but Dan must know I am gaining as he is also getting quicker or maybe he is just getting back into his groove. I am in a really good rhythm now and feeling a lot better on the bike, I must be riding better as my knee touches down through village lap after lap, as I don’t hang off as much as I should it’s not that common.
I am catching Dan and really pushing the braking into Village at the start of the lap and Val at the end. But I basically run out of laps, as we start the last lap I am within 1sec of Dan, not that know it’s the last lap, the flags at Silverstone have been crap all weekend as they are so far from the actual track, I genuinely have not seen the last lap pr chequered flag for a single race all weekend.
I push and push to get onto the back of Dan and make good time on him round the link and onto Hanger straight, I desperately try to stay in his slip stream but his ZXR is in the full f400 and gets away from my sub64 compliant nc30. As we go into Stowe I try to make anything I have lost and more back up on the brakes. But as I brake late I rattle down 1 gear too many, as I begin to release the clutch I sense I have done this so pull it back in and knock the lever down to go up a gear (I use race shift pattern) this loses me a fraction as my concentration is diverted from trying to pass dan to ot trying to grenade my bike!!
I’m still on him though, I stay on his left as we head into the left hander at Vale but he’s good on the brakes and I’m not going to get down the inside of him. Just club corner and I’m no Shakey Bryne so I don’t fancy my chances of a pass. Dan’s line is good we both drift right over to the outside kerb in the middle of the corner to slacken the final part of the turn which tightens. Hard on the gas we are both a bit to eager and both cross the line off track over the kerb and the astro turf onto the tarmac run off and then back across again to get back on track, and that’s our weekend done. Like I say I didn’t know that was the last lap and didn’t see the chequers but all the marshals waving and other riders cruising soon gives it away, we have had our race chopped by a lap due to time so only do 7 laps.
I give all the marshals a wave on the cool down lap as way of a thanks, and Dan a thumbs up. I really enjoyed the race and felt like I pushed on far more than any other race this weekend.
The lap times show this every single lap was faster than the lap with my fastest lap all weekend coming on the last lap of race 4. I finish 24 with a best lap of 1.24.871
What’s also impressive is that after quali I was 9.549secs behind the pole sitter after tha last race my fastest lap of the weekend and the f400 fastest lap of the weekend is separated by 9.150 seconds so I have made progress at the same rate as the leaders. Happy with that.
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CMSMJ1
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Re: My half arsed F400 nc30
Living the dream mate.
I'm not even slightly envious of all that ballache and stress - well, I am. I miss it terribly.
Your write ups are spot on - keeping F400 and active,. as I do worry that by the time I get back racing (and I fucking will!! ) it will be dead and gone!
I'm not even slightly envious of all that ballache and stress - well, I am. I miss it terribly.
Your write ups are spot on - keeping F400 and active,. as I do worry that by the time I get back racing (and I fucking will!! ) it will be dead and gone!
IMPERATOR REX ANGLORUM
The V4 is the law..
NC30 - No9 - my old mate
The V4 is the law..
NC30 - No9 - my old mate
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28hodge
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Re: My half arsed F400 nc30
Waking up at 4 in the morning as it's raining and my van is leaking in and it's dripping on my head doesn't feel like living the dream!
But every single drive home on a Sunday after racing is done with a big fuck off smile on my face, and every single Monday in work after a weekend away racing is twice as shit as any other Monday simply as I know it's at least 3 weeks before I have a race meeting again!!!
Was at oulton on bank holiday weekend and I had a mega mega weekend, write up is in progress as I have actually been choka at work this last week and a half!!
Get racing again, it'll never be cheap but it can be done on the cheap!! The bemsee f400 class is going from strength to strength, it has to have a separate class for the rookies this year as there are more than 40 entries, and Barr 2 or 3 on 250's every single one of them is on a 400.
I'll give you a shout when we are at cadwell and you can have my tickets as I'll be there on my todd.
But every single drive home on a Sunday after racing is done with a big fuck off smile on my face, and every single Monday in work after a weekend away racing is twice as shit as any other Monday simply as I know it's at least 3 weeks before I have a race meeting again!!!
Was at oulton on bank holiday weekend and I had a mega mega weekend, write up is in progress as I have actually been choka at work this last week and a half!!
Get racing again, it'll never be cheap but it can be done on the cheap!! The bemsee f400 class is going from strength to strength, it has to have a separate class for the rookies this year as there are more than 40 entries, and Barr 2 or 3 on 250's every single one of them is on a 400.
I'll give you a shout when we are at cadwell and you can have my tickets as I'll be there on my todd.
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reverse cylinder jim
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Re: My half arsed F400 nc30
Will you be racing at Donington at the weekend?
Think I'm off over to see the lad who bought my NC track bike as he is racing and also want to watch the MZ series.
James.
Think I'm off over to see the lad who bought my NC track bike as he is racing and also want to watch the MZ series.
James.
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28hodge
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Re: My half arsed F400 nc30
Hi Jim,
Yeah I am entered for Donnington on the 21st & 22nd so all things being well I will be there, I will be booking a garage so will let you know which one I am in when the list gets released.
Who was it that bought your bike? Has he been out on it with Bemsee this year on it?
The MZ's look really cool, proper home brew engineering race bikes. you thinking of having a go? they do a race experience weekend much the same as the YPM's do!
Yeah I am entered for Donnington on the 21st & 22nd so all things being well I will be there, I will be booking a garage so will let you know which one I am in when the list gets released.
Who was it that bought your bike? Has he been out on it with Bemsee this year on it?
The MZ's look really cool, proper home brew engineering race bikes. you thinking of having a go? they do a race experience weekend much the same as the YPM's do!
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reverse cylinder jim
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Re: My half arsed F400 nc30
Sorry yes the 21st and 22nd.
Think this will be the first meeting he has done with the Bemsee club but has ridden with other clubs earlier in the year. Yeah race MZ's are a strange contraption but it looks good fun. Have one sat in garage but circumstances have meant its gathering dust instead of being used.
Let me know which garage your in and if I go will bob in and say hello.
Think this will be the first meeting he has done with the Bemsee club but has ridden with other clubs earlier in the year. Yeah race MZ's are a strange contraption but it looks good fun. Have one sat in garage but circumstances have meant its gathering dust instead of being used.
Let me know which garage your in and if I go will bob in and say hello.
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28hodge
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Re: My half arsed F400 nc30
Awesome stuff Jim I should know this time next week so will update the thread!
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28hodge
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Re: My half arsed F400 nc30
Oulton Park 23rd – 26th May
I Love Oulton,
It’s by far my favourite circuit, I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that it’s the circuit I have ridden more than once, it’s the closest track to me so if I go do a trackday it’ll be at Oulton. It’s also just a really good track, being an ex motocrosser, I like the undulations and blind flat out crests that Oulton, or any of the parkland circuits, possess. The airfield based circuit and Silverstone was a bit stale for me really, still enjoyable and still worth the visit, but given the choice I’d take a parkland circuit.
I did bugger all to the bike after Silverstone before Oulton, if we had another race at Silverstone the bike would have been fine, so other than a clean of the fairings with some brake cleaner and a general once over the bike was good to go, the most complicated thing was trying to figure out when to charge the transponder, as we were racing on Saturday, then had Sunday off and were back on the Bank Holiday Monday.
The transponder will last 3 days but takes 14hrs to charge, and don’t like to be left on charge when full or charged mid-way through discharging! I won’t bore you but it felt weird putting my transponder on charge on Tuesday Night!
I was going to do the test day on Friday but events at work meant I needed to be in a meeting till 12ish, and the weather for the test day was poor so I decided I’d save the cash and a day’s holiday at work.
I’d again packed the Van up the weekend before and locked it away in a secure building so all I had to do was jump in the van and get off to Oulton, I wasn’t in a massive rush, Oulton is only just over 1hr 30mins away, but I wanted to get the bike through scruitineering on Friday night so needed to be there before 5.30ish, which I was well on course for till I hit bad traffic about 10mins from Oulton, delaying me by about 30mins!!
As it was when I got there I dumped the van somewhere near my garage and pulled the bike out and shot up to the scruits and was the last bike through for the evening, I’d have to nip back and get my gear scruitineered the following morning.
I was in a garage as usual, but this time I was on my own as the 3 lads I was meant to be sharing with had all been unable to turn up, But as some of the other garages were quite over crowded Gary Jarman & Dan Hardy came and joined me in my empty pit.
Pit sorted out for the evening, Van sorted out for the evening and bed blown up, I made a brew and then headed out for the track walk, first time I have done it, it was taken and led by 2 of the top f400 guys (yeurman off here was one) and was really really helpful, although I can’t understand why some people went on the track walk and spent the entire time talking and ignoring the two guys explaining the lines and traps and explaining the focus points they use which is particularly relevant at Oulton.
There are a lot of blind corners at Oulton, and a lot of them are not only blind but also fast. For example exiting druids, a double apex 4th gear corner, midway round the corner, to get you onto the correct apex point for the corner exit (the 2nd apex) the focus point to aim at is the bridge parapet wall on the left hand side of the circuit half way down the next straight, sounds ridiculous to aim at a wall but its spot on and drags you around the corner over the blind crest an lets you use all the available road on the left!!
Anyway I really found the track walk useful and will aim to do as many of them as I can. Now that I am a bit more organised on Fridays it does make it a bit easier to be at the circuit on time for the track walk which starts at 6ish.
I Love Oulton,
It’s by far my favourite circuit, I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that it’s the circuit I have ridden more than once, it’s the closest track to me so if I go do a trackday it’ll be at Oulton. It’s also just a really good track, being an ex motocrosser, I like the undulations and blind flat out crests that Oulton, or any of the parkland circuits, possess. The airfield based circuit and Silverstone was a bit stale for me really, still enjoyable and still worth the visit, but given the choice I’d take a parkland circuit.
I did bugger all to the bike after Silverstone before Oulton, if we had another race at Silverstone the bike would have been fine, so other than a clean of the fairings with some brake cleaner and a general once over the bike was good to go, the most complicated thing was trying to figure out when to charge the transponder, as we were racing on Saturday, then had Sunday off and were back on the Bank Holiday Monday.
The transponder will last 3 days but takes 14hrs to charge, and don’t like to be left on charge when full or charged mid-way through discharging! I won’t bore you but it felt weird putting my transponder on charge on Tuesday Night!
I was going to do the test day on Friday but events at work meant I needed to be in a meeting till 12ish, and the weather for the test day was poor so I decided I’d save the cash and a day’s holiday at work.
I’d again packed the Van up the weekend before and locked it away in a secure building so all I had to do was jump in the van and get off to Oulton, I wasn’t in a massive rush, Oulton is only just over 1hr 30mins away, but I wanted to get the bike through scruitineering on Friday night so needed to be there before 5.30ish, which I was well on course for till I hit bad traffic about 10mins from Oulton, delaying me by about 30mins!!
As it was when I got there I dumped the van somewhere near my garage and pulled the bike out and shot up to the scruits and was the last bike through for the evening, I’d have to nip back and get my gear scruitineered the following morning.
I was in a garage as usual, but this time I was on my own as the 3 lads I was meant to be sharing with had all been unable to turn up, But as some of the other garages were quite over crowded Gary Jarman & Dan Hardy came and joined me in my empty pit.
Pit sorted out for the evening, Van sorted out for the evening and bed blown up, I made a brew and then headed out for the track walk, first time I have done it, it was taken and led by 2 of the top f400 guys (yeurman off here was one) and was really really helpful, although I can’t understand why some people went on the track walk and spent the entire time talking and ignoring the two guys explaining the lines and traps and explaining the focus points they use which is particularly relevant at Oulton.
There are a lot of blind corners at Oulton, and a lot of them are not only blind but also fast. For example exiting druids, a double apex 4th gear corner, midway round the corner, to get you onto the correct apex point for the corner exit (the 2nd apex) the focus point to aim at is the bridge parapet wall on the left hand side of the circuit half way down the next straight, sounds ridiculous to aim at a wall but its spot on and drags you around the corner over the blind crest an lets you use all the available road on the left!!
Anyway I really found the track walk useful and will aim to do as many of them as I can. Now that I am a bit more organised on Fridays it does make it a bit easier to be at the circuit on time for the track walk which starts at 6ish.
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28hodge
- Site Supporter
- Posts: 650
- Joined: Tue May 17, 2011 4:26 pm
- Bike owned: nc30 (track) Yam YZ250 (MX)2st
- Location: Kendal, Cumbria, Northwest
Re: My half arsed F400 nc30
I was on my own for this round, my brother was going to come up to help again which is a fair trek from Landan but he got so excited at Silverstone that he went out and bought a FZR400 which he is going to prep ready for next year! So he couldn’t make it as he needed to take delivery of that.
I went to bed early as I was knackered having been up for work in the morning, and as usual had a good nights kip till I was woken by rain at 4ish. Saturday morning was wet from overnight rain but it was actually a dry clear morning weather wise, we were a late qualifying group, and the track was drying nicely, I had left the supercorsa’s on from Silverstone, but swapped them for the KR364’s about an hour before our sessions as there was still damp patches about.
Out for qualifying and it was 90% dry with damp patches but a dry tyre was needed, wets would have been chewed up and ruined in a couple laps. Those with inters used them so it seemed like I was on the right tyre. Quali seemed pretty busy, I get a clear first 2 laps but they aren’t much use as I need a couple laps to figure out where its damp and get into the swing of things, I do instantly feel more at home than I did at Silverstone though which is good.
Lap 3 I start to push but hit traffic coming out of druids, this buggers up my next two laps really, I finally get some space on lap 5 & 6 and these feel a lot smoother and faster, the 7th lap I make a bit of a mistake coming out of hizzy’s and miss the apex which buggers up all my speed up round clay hill and into druids, this turns out to be the last lap, out of the 7 laps each was slightly quicker apart from the last one due to the error at hizzy’s.
I qualify 19th out of 39 with a 2.09.051, this is a little slower than my best ever lap round Oulton which was a 2.07.692 which I did at the Bemsee meeting last year. At first I am a bit disappointed with this, Oulton is my first chance to gauge my progress since I started last year, but as per Silverstone I seem to have gone backwards a little.
However between quali and race 1 I have a think about it and realise that the 2.07 came after a full Friday test day, then a day’s racing in, all in glorious sunshine. The 2.09 I have just done is after only 7 laps on a partially damp and cold track, so in reality to be within 1.5 seconds already is encouraging.
What is less encouraging is the sodding weather! The blue sky and wispy white clouds are growing ever more dark and eminent! We are late in the programme and it’s looking likely to be wet, it is forecast to be but I was hoping we’d get one dry race.
When the rain lands its quite light and just dampens the track, I have a chat to Gary and we both think inters are still the way forward, as its not actually that wet, but about an hour later it really starts to get going, and it’s going to have to be full wets!!
Great, I may have mentioned how shit my wets are!!
I have a wonder up pitlane for no particular reason other to kill some time, as it has started raining they have broken for lunch so nobody has to do a frantic 5min wheel swap! I will have a couple hours before I am due out so go up to the f400 garage which James and Bean are in, chatting to Bean I mention how old my tyres are, Rikki Mcgovern’s dads hears me and starts laughing saying they swapped the front on Rikki's bike on the wet test day yesterday as they thought it was old being from 2007. He says I can borrow it if I want, along with the dymag it’s on, at first I agree but then remember I am not allowed dymags in the sub64. So ask if I can just buy it I need better wets. I pay £30 for it (Looking back I maybe should have haggled but I was just grateful to get a wet that was made less than a decade ago!!) and get it swapped onto my wheels.
They call us to the parc ferme and get us onto the grid without too much fuss, and I get my first look at the track, and my first go on wet race tyres, oh and the first time I have ridden a road bike in the wet!! Should be fun then!
I went to bed early as I was knackered having been up for work in the morning, and as usual had a good nights kip till I was woken by rain at 4ish. Saturday morning was wet from overnight rain but it was actually a dry clear morning weather wise, we were a late qualifying group, and the track was drying nicely, I had left the supercorsa’s on from Silverstone, but swapped them for the KR364’s about an hour before our sessions as there was still damp patches about.
Out for qualifying and it was 90% dry with damp patches but a dry tyre was needed, wets would have been chewed up and ruined in a couple laps. Those with inters used them so it seemed like I was on the right tyre. Quali seemed pretty busy, I get a clear first 2 laps but they aren’t much use as I need a couple laps to figure out where its damp and get into the swing of things, I do instantly feel more at home than I did at Silverstone though which is good.
Lap 3 I start to push but hit traffic coming out of druids, this buggers up my next two laps really, I finally get some space on lap 5 & 6 and these feel a lot smoother and faster, the 7th lap I make a bit of a mistake coming out of hizzy’s and miss the apex which buggers up all my speed up round clay hill and into druids, this turns out to be the last lap, out of the 7 laps each was slightly quicker apart from the last one due to the error at hizzy’s.
I qualify 19th out of 39 with a 2.09.051, this is a little slower than my best ever lap round Oulton which was a 2.07.692 which I did at the Bemsee meeting last year. At first I am a bit disappointed with this, Oulton is my first chance to gauge my progress since I started last year, but as per Silverstone I seem to have gone backwards a little.
However between quali and race 1 I have a think about it and realise that the 2.07 came after a full Friday test day, then a day’s racing in, all in glorious sunshine. The 2.09 I have just done is after only 7 laps on a partially damp and cold track, so in reality to be within 1.5 seconds already is encouraging.
What is less encouraging is the sodding weather! The blue sky and wispy white clouds are growing ever more dark and eminent! We are late in the programme and it’s looking likely to be wet, it is forecast to be but I was hoping we’d get one dry race.
When the rain lands its quite light and just dampens the track, I have a chat to Gary and we both think inters are still the way forward, as its not actually that wet, but about an hour later it really starts to get going, and it’s going to have to be full wets!!
Great, I may have mentioned how shit my wets are!!
I have a wonder up pitlane for no particular reason other to kill some time, as it has started raining they have broken for lunch so nobody has to do a frantic 5min wheel swap! I will have a couple hours before I am due out so go up to the f400 garage which James and Bean are in, chatting to Bean I mention how old my tyres are, Rikki Mcgovern’s dads hears me and starts laughing saying they swapped the front on Rikki's bike on the wet test day yesterday as they thought it was old being from 2007. He says I can borrow it if I want, along with the dymag it’s on, at first I agree but then remember I am not allowed dymags in the sub64. So ask if I can just buy it I need better wets. I pay £30 for it (Looking back I maybe should have haggled but I was just grateful to get a wet that was made less than a decade ago!!) and get it swapped onto my wheels.
They call us to the parc ferme and get us onto the grid without too much fuss, and I get my first look at the track, and my first go on wet race tyres, oh and the first time I have ridden a road bike in the wet!! Should be fun then!