My half arsed F400 nc30

[28hodge]

Cheers for that goulime I've spoken to two others who have done this and they are around 8-9 mm I run with the aprilia rs250 rear shock and modified bottom link so the rear is raised.

I also asked rick his advice, here's his response..........

Hi, Kurt -

Starting points - NC30 forks are 695mm from the centre of the spindle to the top surface of the flat outer portion of the top nut and as standard are fitted flush wit the top surface of the yoke. The NC35 headstock adaptor raises the top yoke by 18mm so your aim point for standard geometry is in fact 713mm from the spindle centre to the top surface of the top yoke.

Don`t waste your time trying to measure trail figures, that will sort itself out once you have the geometry right.

You don`t say whether you have any kind of jackup link or longer shock on the rear but the setup to aim for is a 10mm over stock length shock (or an 8mm shorter bottom link which comes to the same thing) and stock fork length as above. If that means you drop off the 50mm section of the fork don`t panic, I have 48mm clipons with around 20mm raise in stock.

Cheers,
Rick

I was going to try it as it was and how the two lads who I have spoken to run there's with 9mm and see but I may start with them flush and see how the rear feels and then adjust from there but I guess there is going to be a little trial and error!

[28hodge]

All on and done, eventually, had a bit of a mare trying to bleed up the radial m/c I couldn't get any fluid into the system or resistance at the lever, I had to walk away yesterday afternoon as I was getting nowhere and just getting frustrated with it.

Went back today and syringed some fluid into the system up from the caliper bleed nipples, then just kept bleeding the m/c master cylinder till it started to come to. Had to take the m/c off the bars and rotate and tap it and bugger around, then do the same with the calipers and push the pistons back to release any more trapped air.

Eventually got there but the lever still feels ever so slightly spongey, if I pump it, it seems to get ever so slightly firmer, normally I can bleed brakes up and get them bob on easy but these have me chasing myself a little bit.





However this has me a little concerned, I know the pads are not an perfect fit for the discs but I thought they just overhung the outer edge, is this right with them not being right in on the inside diameter of the disc?

[28hodge]

Thread catch up time,

The season finished I had sorted out my new front end but ran short on time to get a late end of season trackday in mainly as the van was out of mot and also brake pads, which I eventually got sorted once life had gotten out of the way and given me some free time.

With that done I decided I needed to get the bike set up 100% ready for next year where I am hoping to try and do most of the bemsee rounds especially seeing as my brother has sorted his fzr out and is booked onto the bemsee race school in February.

I bought my race bike off eBay whilst drunk, it had been in a garage unused for 10 years, not really having the mechanical ability to dismantle and more crucially correctly reassemble a fourstroke engine I decided to give it a miss and simply change the oil and filter checking the shims and spray some oil over the top end of the engine and then put a drop down each bore and hope the thing started.

It did, so we carried on for a year of (count 4) trackdays and then 2 seasons of racing (1/2 seasons really only managing 4 rounds each year).

I had changed the carb set up from a standard ish setup to a hrc stylee (nc30 race bike) and changed the shock forks etc, but I always felt that the engine had the potential to be a ticking time bomb, this coupled with the carb set up having never been tested on the dyno and the fact the bemsee compliance testers (I race in the sub64bhp capped category) used to tell me it was more than safe in term of bhp and also had many holes in the power led me to get it sorted this winter ready for a full season.

So I went to dynopro in Runcorn who builds very nice reliable fast motors for lads that do the roads (abr for one off here) and also operates a dynopro dyno as do bemsee.

A couple Fridays ago I went down and started getting a set up sorted, good news my engine was good, chris said he was impressed with it, it barely smoked on the overrun and was giving a pretty strong run on the dyno, but he didn't like the open carb set up as it allows muck in and leads to pitted valves and knackered rings/bores. So happy to take his advice I had a stock airbox and filter with me. So carbs off and chris was again pretty happy with the head porting and other bits that had been done prior to it coming into my ownership as it seemed to have been done by someone who knew their onions, it also banged out 62bhp on the dyno, this was with the HRC carbs so stock set up on with a educated guessed carb set up and he got 63bhp out of it, then fine tuned, last run on the dyno and it was looking spot on.

Then, right as it hit the rev limiter on the last run, it all made a bit of a funny noise, and pumped thick smoke out into the engine breather (lucozade) bottle. He killed it and whipped the clutch in, then started it back up, for it to rattle like a bag of spanners for a second before killing it again, prognosis, one dead crank.

It had had a fresh oil change prior to the dyno runs but it came to me with no oil pressure light and I'd never wired one up! So the engine builder suggested it had probably lost oil pressure and stuffed the crank.

I had raced it for two years and used it for three so I kinda decided that although it was a pain it had blown up, given I had no clue as to it's last rebuild, and how many miles had been on it prior to me getting it that I was due a rebuild anyway.

I have more engine spares than I ever need (4 engines in bits and 3 complete motors) so I had a mint crank which I had taken with me, so I left that with the engine builder dropped the motor out of the bike and left that there too, then drove home sulking!

Sooooooo, on Friday last week chris rung me and said he had found the cause of the blow up, a knackered crank is a lack of oil, he had assumed at the time that some shit had gone through the oil pump and either knackered that leading to a drop in oil pressure or gotten onto the shells and broken the oil film.

What had actually happened was a piece of blue garage paper rag had blocked the oil strainer, leading to mega oil starvation!!

Hmmm, when I shim the engine I stuff the cam gears with blue tork roll to stop a shim dropping down into the engine, could I really have left this in last time I shimmed the engine? more worryingly the last time I shimmed the engine was before I went to do my final bemsee round at brands gp!

It looks like I may have driven over 6hrs to brands with this in the sump/tangled round the cam gears, so in essence I was mega lucky, imagine if it had gone pop on the first lap of quali after driving 6 hrs and paying all my entry fees etc!

The only other alternative is it's always been in there, the paper looks old and manky, but then you would if you had been whipping round an engine at 14krpm, so it could have been in there stuck to the bottom of the sump since before I got it and then gotten free when I did the last oil change and it was just bad luck, but the more I think about this the more unlikely it seems!

Dunno but basically my rushing and not being able to do a job from start to finish without getting interrupted has cost me a full engine rebuild. I remember when I shimmed it up last I needed a shim and had the strip the shims out of a spare engine to get the correct one, but being short on time I did this the morning after rather than carrying on and getting it all done in one sitting.

However the more I think about it the more I think that really I needed to be doing a full rebuild on it anyway and then it should last me 5 or 6 years no bother, so desperately trying to find a positive all it's cost me is a crank.

Also at the same time I can drop a nc35 box into it whilst it's apart.

I was told years ago to take the sump off any bike that had sat for ages and clean it out as all the oil will have congealed into sludge and would cause minor oil starvation as it'd get mixed in with all the new oil. I however never did this, which may also have been a mistake.

Oh well at least next year I will have a box fresh motor to go at, shame it'll probably cost me more than I paid for the bike in the first place!

[28hodge]

So, it's looking like spring is looming, which means race season is looming, thank god!

This year I am going to try and do as many rounds as I can before July, this is as we are expecting our first child on 4th July so I may have to pass on a couple rounds later on in the year.

Again I'll be with bemsee and it looks likely I'll be joined by my brother on his fzr 3tj. So it promises to be a fun year, however the first round is at brands Indy at the end of March, which leaves me a little short on time to get a couple trackdays in prior to the first race, and as I haven't ridden it since brands gp at the end of August 2014 I desperately need to get some laps in.

Last year before silverstone I'd done one trackday which I fell off during and then rode like a total lemon at silverstone and I'm keen not to repeat that this year.

So since I blew the engine up I've had a bit of work to get it all back together and ready to roll, so in the space of 2 weeks we have gone from this



To this



winter has seen some upgrades
675 front end
R6 radial calipers and m/c
Fully refreshed and rebuilt engine
Running a standard airbox and filter with the hrc setup ditching the open carbs showed no loss on the dyno and the filter will prolong the life of the valves and rings
Rain light as per new race regs



Hopefully get oulton with nolimits booked for the 27th February.

I'd like to go two weekends on the bounce but I am going to the bemsee race school this Sunday to help my brother out as he is doing his licence on this -




Brands Hatch and back in a day from the north of England, should be fun!

[benny]

See you Sunday! I'll be there on my NC30

[28hodge]

Bemsee have created an online booking system for this year and it is Mega.

This morning I booked the following
• Brands Indy Rd1 28th & 29th March
• Silverstone Rd3 9th & 10th May
• Oulton Rd4 29th & 30th May
• Cadwell Rd5 13th & 14th June
• Brans Hatch GP Rd7 8th & 9th Aug
• Cadwell Rd8 5th & 6th September

There is no better way to spend £1,880.00

I am missing Rd2 at Snett 300 as my GF’s family are over from Norway, so I still haven’t managed to get to Snetterton and wont again this year as the F400’s don’t go to the Snett 200 round later in the year.

I also miss Rd6 at Pembrey as the baby due date is the weekend before, so it’s a no go. Hoping Brands GP should be fine a month later as I desperately want to ride the GP circuit again, it is amazing.

I have entered the Thunderbikes class at most rounds as an extra class, as for an additional £50-£60 a round you get double tracktime.

Thanks to the CoW utter F*ck up Donington had to cancel our round with them as they needed the weekend to resurface the track, ready for MotoGP. This left Bemsee to quickly find somewhere to be able to host us which Cadwell very kindly stepped up and could accommodate, only for the CoW/Donington agreement to fall apart a week later.

Bemsee could have probably gone back and gotten the orig Donington date, however after Cadwell stepped in last minute to help them out with a last minute date it would be unfair to tell Cadwell we they are cancelling to go back to Donington.

As I missed Cadwell in 2014 due to moving house I am happy enough about this, although Donington was one of my most enjoyable weekends last year. It’s hardly a bad choice is it Cadwell or Donington.

[Drunkn Munky]

I shall come down and find you when at brands and lend a hand if need be, i see your bro is joining you on the FZR, always nice to see something other than NC's and ZXR's on the grid.

[28hodge]

If you remind me beforehand i'll sort you some tickets Tony as if we both enter we should have 4-5 spare tickets between us.

Yeah its always good to see a bit of diversity on the grid. It can feel a bit like the ZXR cup at times but it does allow for very good racing as it means its all very much a level playing field.

[benny]

Hey man, didn't spot your brother at the race school, everything ok?

[28hodge]

Hi Benny,

yeah we were in garage 26 I think. he got all sorted out and with a bit of luck he should be on the grid at brands but it kinda depends on him getting an aprillia rs125 sold to fund his season.

you got yours up and running?