My half arsed F400 nc30

[28hodge]

Race 3 was Ok, I was a little disappointed but I lost any chance of a better result at the start of lap 2 at Paddock hill bend.

I passed Adam on the same line I used on the last lap of race 2 on Saturday afternoon, but this time I’d had to go in a little bit faster, and ran a little wider than I wanted to, and also a little wider than I did the previous days race. This let Adam do what he had wanted to do in race 2, he squared the turn up and drove underneath me and out dragged me along the start finish straight, this put me a little wide into Paddock hill.

This would have been fine if there hadn’t been a lingering damp patch that I ran over, which caused a slide from the rear, and massively unnerved me, I thought at the time it was due to cold tyres and also assumed that this was the cause of James Robinsons crash just in front of me, watching the vid back shows it was actually a damp patch, and James took more of the damp patch than I did, only by a couple of inches but it was enough to pitch him off.

This let Mark Thompson, who was riding Colin Martins spare rocket ship as his bike had expired at the start of race one on Sunday, get past me and that bike must have 10-15 additioanl BHP to mine as he absoulutely left me down pilgrims drop despite me actually getting better drive out of surtees.

Next lap I went into Paddock hill so slow its embarrassing, this Let Harley Godzisz get by me into Druids, this again gave me the kick up the arse I needed to get moving, so I quickly got Harley back into Hawthornes and then stuck my head down to try and get to the group infront which were having a great battle. I didn’t lose any time to them but I couldn’t get to them either.

I end up finishing 3.5 seconds down to those in front and managed to put 4.5 seconds into Harley behind. It’s a shame I lost time on the 2nd and 3rd laps, they were both high 1.51’s and I lost 3 seconds to those in front on those 2 laps, once I got my head down I dropped my times to low to mid 1.49’s so 2 seconds quicker than laps 2 and 3.

Frustrating but explainable but the battle up ahead looked awesome and I was more disappointed with not being involved with it than the poor result.

Adam again got pipped to the line for 3rd place by an even smaller margin than I beat him by in race 2. He loses out on 3rd by 0.027!! and ends up 4th with me 5th.

[GeeTee]

Thanks GeeTee, appreciate the kind words, it makes it a bit easier now I have the camera.

I changed the front for a 15 but left the rear so ran with 15/42.

i think i could have gotten away with a 15/43 but I forgot I had one in the toolbox so left the rear as 42.

It wasnt revving out but was close.

I ran stock 15/40 gearing when I did Brands indy and Brands GP, and found it too tall - especially on the shorter indy track. When I went to cadwell in July I fitted a 14 tooth front, and this felt a lot better in low speed corners. I have a 42T rear now as well, so may give the 15/42 combination that you run a go when I ride Rockingham in a few weeks time

[28hodge]

As we are flagged off the circuit I get called into the tech bay for a compliance check, this is to make sure my bike is under the 64bhp limit. This is the third time this year I have been called. Once at silverstone which made sense as it was the first time bemsee had seen the bike this year, then again at donington and here at brands, the only round I avoided it was oulton.

It makes no odds the bike hasn't been touched and every time it's gone on the bemsee dyno it's be safely under, normally with comments that it's got holes in its power curve, which I know but they are all low down and aren't a problem on track.

This time is no different it's safe, the dyno says it's very safe, they won't tell you the exact bhp, but I ask if it's under 60bhp, which he says it is! The bemsee dyno is stingy, I know others get 4-5 more bhp on other dyno's compared to bemsee's but sub 60 does mean I could maybe have a little play with it and still be safe.

Fact is in race two it stuck with Adams zxr which got dyno'd before race one as he failed the dyno at donington so had to do a compliance check first thing before racing to allow him to enter in sub64. He managed to get the dyno guy to tell him what it made.

63.5bhp! Mine didn't seem to lose anything to his, part of me thinks this is down to the airflow with the hrc open carbs, on the dyno I bet it's over fuelling in the still air whereas when it's actually in use the carb tray helps funnel a bit more air in and give me a bit more power.

In the compliance check they also took a fuel sample, this was new, I wasn't worried as I always just use regular pump fuel not even super unleaded, my fuel came back pretty shit, they asked if it was cheap supermarket fuel it was that bad. It wasn't it was off a Texaco forecourt. The bike in front that also got a fuel check came back just legal, basically really good pump fuel from a bp garage, I'll be filling up the fuel cans elsewhere next time!!!!

It threw an almighty shower as all this was happening meaning a red flag to the race that went out after us and a bit of a delay.

The time between races was spent taking the tent down and loading as much into the van as we could get away without for the next race. Basically I didn't stop until about an hour before race 4 was due to start, when I sat down and had a brew. Suddenly I was knackered, this was bad news, not only did I have a race to get on with I also had, at best, a 5 an a 1/2 hour drive home to deal with. Wonderful!

Race 4



I wasn't up for it, sounds daft but it had been a long weekend I'd had great rides and a really good time, all I wanted to do was get race 4 done and finish in one piece, I kinda told myself to not go mental and just take the race as it came.

That lasted till the end of the warm up lap, to be honest I do this a lot and used to do it all the time in mx, I'd not be up for the last race and then have a storming ride!

We lined up and I was in my lease favoured grid position, against the wall, however I felt in all the other races I'd suffered in turn one from being sat right out on the left of the grid.

They held us for a week before they turned the red lights off and got us underway, I made a shitty start really and popped two wheelies but everyone else also made shitty starts due to the lights so I managed to get away well and make up two positions on the initial jump. Until Mark Thompson gets Colin's bike up and running, that thing is quick!

Thanks to being on the inside I managed to fend Adam off, you can't see him on the video but he was right next to me all the way round paddock and up into Druids. However Harley makes a good start and gets round both of us into paddock.

I'm desperate to not get caught behind him for long and get separated from the group in front. Luckily he makes a mistake into graham hill and I know I have to get passed him, so I turn it tight and hammer the throttle as much as I dare, the bike squirms a bit but holds the line and we fire past, head down to stick with those in front, I do ok until sheenes where everyone slows more than I do, because of this I have to alter my line and this means I thump over the inside kerb which unsettles the bike a little, and loses me sometime.

I'm also crap out of clear ways and get gapped by those in front, I'm starting to lose their toe and I want to stay with them, Peter Thornton is the next bike in front and I think he will be 3rd in class, so I wanna get past him. I try to make some time round paddock on lap two and seem to get a little back, exiting Druids I can see the next 9 bikes lined up, I don't want to lose time on this group.

But I ride a crap lap, I only come back one gear going into hawthorns rather than two, so I'm a gear to high round there then come back one for Westfield which would have been fine if I'd been in the correct gear round hawthorns, but I wasn't so I run round the entire section a gear too high with a flat engine, and lose time.

Lap 3 I know I've gotta push and nail paddock Druids and graham hill, I seem good on the brakes going into and the gas coming outta Druids and then good on the brakes into graham hill, I manage to half the gap to Peter in this section alone, the rest of the lap I string together well and set my best lap of the weekend with a 1.47.830.

I cross the line less than 0.5secs behind Peter, I Make a bit of a mistake into druids but get good drive out and close up on the brakes into graham hill, where Peter must be a gear to high as he seems very slow off the corner and I manage to get round the outside of him then drop across his nose into surtees, but I’m a gear to high so have to try and slip the clutch a little as I pick the throttle up on the apex, to pick the revs up and get out onto pilgrims with decent speed, I watched this race back from Adams camera as he was a little behind us. Peter was very close to diving back underneath me into Hawthornes.

As it is i get round the rest of the lap ahead of Peter and take the last lap flag in third and just as I am thinking to myself all I need to do is put one good strong lap together Peter comes up the inside of me into paddock, then blocks my run into druids by going very defensive, this means I’m a lot quiker out of druids and better into Graham Hill bend, which works against me.

I’m not sure what I was doing into Graham Hill bend, my plan was to stay as close to Peter as I could then try the get him into Hawthornes and then gap him round Sheene and Stirlings as I was good through there, what I actually do is damn near run off track, I just couldn’t seem to get the bike to tip in, I manage to stay on the track just, but loose a shed load of time, I glance over my shoulder as I return to the racing line as I know Adam is going to be somewhere really close.

And he is, as I get back up to speed on the cooper straight he’s right on me. I ride a bit crap for the remainder of the lap as I can’t make my mind up whether to go defensive or just ride as quick as I can.

As the footage shows Adam could have gotten me into Westfield, I make sure I get through Sheene and Stirlings real fast to try and get some breathing space into Clearways, I go in as fast as I can but mindful that I don’t want to run wide and let Adam drive up the inside of me. He on the other hand decided to keep his speed up and try to go round the outside of me, And damn near does!

As we are approaching the line I can see Adams front wheel moving up beside me, as we cross the line his bars are level with my tank but we just hold onto 4th by 0.017secs.

Adam has again been beaten back a place by less than 0.100secs!!!

[28hodge]

I was happy with Brands, overall as a round it went well, I was most pleased with the fact that despite it was a new track to me I seemed to get onto the pace quite quickly, after race one I was happy I was consistent smooth and fast for me. Whereas at Silverstone I was total shite all weekend, I put this down mainly to it being a new track but looking back now I think it was more to do with the fact that I was bike rusty having not ridden it for months.

I was expecting Brands to be the same as it was a new track I was expecting to be rubbish again, but thankfully as I was a bit more bike sharp I got up to my pace real quick. I’d also not been able to run with Adam at Donington, he was always in the next group ahead of where I was so being able to run with him and Pete Thornton was encouraging and all progress.

Really that’s it for this year for me, as much as I’d like to have a run out with Wirral100 at Anglesey or Hottrax at Croft, my van is out of tax and needs MOT’ing. It also needs a set of brake pads prior to the MOT and I am short on time to change them what with holidays and general life getting in the way.

So with Season finished its time to get some winter upgrades sorted out.

[28hodge]

My forks are old early type damper rod forks they have been modified possibly by Maxton in the past, they have the original holes in the damper rod welded up and new holes drilled, they feel ok to me but as I have limited road bike experience and this is the only road bike/trackbike I have really ridden I know no different.

Sub64 is all about handling rather than power and so the main of the upgrades that are worthwhile are really suspension based ones. The rear has a modified and re sprung aprillia rs250 rear shock on it but really the front end wants upgrading.

For me the only worthwhile front end upgrade is triumph 675 forks which slot straight into the nc35 yokes. They are bang up to date modern forks with high and low speed compression rebound damping with radial caliper mounts.

I have been hunting around for some legs for a bit and finally managed to snag a pair from off the 675.cc forum freshly serviced by ohlins technicians and 100% straight. Only headache is that I also needed to get nc35 yokes and an adapter kit, which all adds to the cost. Anyway below is what I have spent so far on the front end upgrade, I have secured all the major items but still have some bits to find

NC35 spacer kit for 675 forks Facebook VFR group £70.00
675 Front spindle Ebay £25.00
R6 Front Radial M/C Ebay £85.00
R6 Front Radial calipers Ebay £101.10
Triumph 675 forks freshly serviced 675.cc forum £386.00
RVF Yokes Bought from a seller off Ebay, purchased outside of eBay £200.00
50mm clip ons x 2 motoforum £100.00

So £965 so far! And I still need the following

Wheel spacers ideally 3 sets
Possibly a radial brake line converter or fresh braided brake lines
And a mudguard
Brake pads for the R6 calipers

So it’s not cheap, although it is around £270 cheaper if you already have a NC35 so you don’t need the yokes and converter and you could do without the radial MC but I wanted one.





I am still waiting on the yokes and clip ons to be delivered but apparently there is a box with the calipers waiting for me at home.

Only slight problem/difficulty in doing the swap as far as I can see is pressing the bearings onto the new stem as I don’t have a small press, not keen on freezing the stem and heating the bearing so may have to see if a bike mechanic mate can do that for me.

I will also have to get a cheeky end of season trackday booked to give them a go.

[royster81]

Is it nc35 spacers you need ?

[28hodge]

Honestly I don't know, was going to put it all together minus the spacers and centre the wheel in the calipers then measure up the spacers from there, read that in another thread.

[skinnydog0_0]

Honestly I don't know, was going to put it all together minus the spacers and centre the wheel in the calipers then measure up the spacers from there, read that in another thread.

If you are running the nc35 yokes and the 675 forks, Rick O has some captive spacers already made up. i think they are £25 a set.

Your forks look like the later upgraded ones with high and low speed damping?

[28hodge]

Yeah I am pretty sure they are so I can fiddle with them to my hearts content, I'm using some nc35 yokes that I got off eBay from a guy that's works in the aircraft industry they look awesome but I need to drift the stem into the bottom yoke then fit the bearings etc. he says they are identical to the nc35 standard set in terms of offset and spacing so guessing that ricks spacers should work fine, I'll get it all bolted together and then confirm the spacers sizes with rick.

Mega excited to get it all put together and give it a run on a trackday!!!

[28hodge]

Mounted the gorks into the yokes, which look ace, managed to buy a 2013 675 spindle though which annoyingly won't fit my forks so gonna have to try and figure out which spindles from differing years fit what!