Less than "super", this mono!
But she ran (quite well I'd say), and I got some practice laps, a dry race, and a wet race. The wet really makes you keep it smooth, and this is most certainly the steep part of the learning curve.
I jetted up to 130s, and will keep it like that. Easily revving to 8. Not good with a standard rod!
She looked (maybe not good, but) acceptible, after a bit of paint and some vinyls. Re. the latter, they worked out at 70p a letter. Web addresses x3 are not cheap, so I won't be doing that again out my own wallet. Turned out to be a hundred and forty notes, cash I'd much rather have put towards tyres!! And this had a 20% discount, as I spoke to the boy beforehand. It'll be #"16" only from here on in!! The shock when paying that bill was tangible...
And I found out about TC logo roundels. 20cm diameter logos in black are 70 quid. Ahem.... Thanks, but....
I was pleased to get thru scrutineering with no mishaps, just had to adjust the bars a little to clear the fairing.
I was really careful for a first few laps in parctice, given my dodgy wheel alignment. But it felt ok, just the same as always. So I felt confident enough to start trying. The difference between my "cruising" and "trying" (about 80%) was about 4 seconds. The time difference reflects nowhere near the difference in effort required!!
The oil cooler fractured after parctice, so I took it off and bypassed it. With the cooler it was running at about 125-130 degrees. Over 140 without it after 9 laps (about 18 miles). I'm hoping the thermometer is not too accurate.
Rolled in last in the sunday race, happy to get another signature, and reasonably pleased with the bike. There are two more road chassis in the class and no-one else with twinshocks!! However, mike e had a bit of bother on saturday testing, and subsequently his wheels (if he had any) are now further out than mine.
Weighing in after Race 1, Peds Manual (
www.g3racing.com) was given grief for being underweight (94.5Kg). I'm the fat boy of the group: the next guy down (Andy Driver on an MZ Skorpion) was 136Kg, but has 82 bhp on his side. My 150.5 Kg gave everyone a giggle!
Monday was wet, so was even slower (thats still over 100 down the back straight in the pissing rain). Glen english wasn't; and lapped me for the 2nd time as he took the chequered flag. But I did learn a lot about riding, weighting pegs, etc.
And they are thoroughly top blokes, incredibly encouraging and helpful! Not 1 but 2 Ducati Supermonos (it was a european round), jeesus they are pretty, and bloody quick. It was an expensive slip he had in the wet tho...
Next one is pembrey, look at
www.supermono.co.uk for details.
Cheers for now, thanks for info re wheel alignment, and especially to alan for the footrest plates: they're bluddy lovely mate!
a
