Testes

Hello Tightwad worshipers, Last time we met I had just put the bike back together after the outing to the dyno. The 23rd July came along and off i went to Mallory park to give it a good run. The practice sessions start at 1-30pm and you get quite a bit of testing time for only 49quid.

I managed to get a lift with fellow racer Steve Conneely even though he was not taking his bike along, he just thought it would be funny to watch my budget build blow up on the first lap.

There were a small contingent of scooters there, Paul Green, Scotty, Chris Taylor and I made a nice little group in one corner of the paddock. Much interest was taken in the Tightwad racer and most were interested in the fact that it has a bit of chrome on it. Now Chris Taylor had taken his sidecar as well and on closer inspection we noticed it had no engine. On even closer inspection we noticed that the engine for it was not in one piece either. So while he set about putting it together I set out for the first session.

The paddock was quite full for a Wednesday and the first session was for the smaller slower bikes. Now there were not many slower than me there so i went out in that group. As i exited the pit lane onto the track the bike felt good from the word go. No wobbles or vibrations and it felt tight and positive. The engine of extreme hope seemed to pull quite well and i set about putting in five laps and then back in to inspect any issues. A quick look round and everything looked good. By this time Paul green was ready to go out and so i tagged onto the back of him for another few laps and then back into the paddock to let it cool down and put some fuel in. It was good to pace myself against paul as his power output is not too far above mine and he was running on unleaded as well.

The second session saw me push the bike a bit harder and try and get comfortable on the corners. I thought i was cornering like a demon until a kid on a 125 blasted past me up the inside of the hairpin. I was following Paul around for a while and then i pushed on for a bit to work on some of the corners. Now this was not easy as i spent half the time diving out of the way of some battling bikes that thought it was a race and not a practice. I managed about 8 laps and then went back in to get a drink.(it was a very hot day)

The third session i spent riding round with Paul again who is struggling with Gerards bend. It would seem that slower, tighter corners are what he is experienced with but long flowing fast corners are a bit of an issue. I thought i would try and help out by cruising around the outside of him and see if he tries to beat me out of the bend. This seemed to work and he got faster and faster and of course his lap times got quicker. Over the rest of the lap the two bikes were pretty evenly matched and this was great fun trying to race each other. Before we knew it we had done 15 laps and the session had finished.

After the bike had cooled down i found i had sprung an oil leak. The chaincasing had been welded years ago and not very well and had fractured. No matter i will sort it out and be ready for Anglesey. A good days testing And had a lot of fun as well. I am surprised that none of the other racers came along. Its better value than a track day.

The bike was brilliant and the spectators all thought that is seemed fast enough to race. Some lap times were taken when i had a clear track and i think it should be quick enough to not get left too far behind. The jetting was not altered yet so it will get faster over the race weekend as i start tweeking it.

So there you are all in one piece and no blow ups.

Let do a quick.....

TightWads Alternative Tuning (T.W.A.T)

Increase your speed by waiting for someone faster to come past you and then grab hold of the back of him. This will speed you up and slow him down. (footballers do it all the time)

Tune in next week when i will be selling pieces of Weston pier to American tourists. (got to be worth a few quid)

On Inspection

Hello my tightfisted bretheren, Last time we met I had just finished on the dyno and had given it some death on a road test. I was very pleased with the build so far but the power curve was bothering me a bit. The shape of it meant that it was running lean at low revs and rich at high revs. I need to consult a tuning Guru at some point as to why this should happen as it is more usual to run rich at the bottom end and lean at the top.

Still not to worry yet, it was more important to dive into the gearbox and have a look at the issues in there. I needed to re-shim the end float and see what was causing the rattling noise as you change down. It will not come as much of a surprise to you say that i had knocked a tooth off third gear. I was taking a risk with an early pacemaker box which are renowned for a weak third gear but i did not think i was making enough power to bother it too much. I was obviously wrong and so replaced it with a li150 box which i had for a rainy day. I then re-shimed the box from a 1.67mm shim to a 2.25mm one which meant that it was a little on the tight side but it turned fairly freely and would bed in as i used the engine a bit.

Now while i am tinkering about with the gearbox, fellow blogger Paul Green is trying to put together a practice session for us poor scooter riders as the BSSO are on a months summer break and he was not very pleased with his last race times. So i have messaged him and think i will take the bike along and try it out. Roll on the 23rd of july.

Woof ya kipper its.......

TightWads Alternative Tuning (T.W.A.T)

Not much to put in this week as the bike is pretty much finished so we are going to tune the riding tactics. When racing into a head wind, simply turn around on the bike and you will have the wind behind you.

That's it for now, so tune in next week when i will be stealing 50 drain covers and selling them for scrap so i can pay for a litre of petrol.

Setting up

Hello devoted henchmen, Last time we spoke i had just started the engine up and checked it all worked ok. This episode we are visiting the dyno to see if we can get any power out of it and see if it will stay together.

So off i went to Clockhill scooters owned by Paddy O'conner (I think thats his surname) who not only has his own dyno but is a racer himself and as such gives you a very sympathetic go on his machine for not alot of notes. We strapped the bike to the roller and started it up to warm the engine and do a test run. This saves a lot of messing about as if your engine is set a long way out you can use this first run to see if it is too rich or lean before you open it up fully.

1st run, using a 290 main jet and needle set to its leanest. The bike started ok and pulled at bottom end but it was very clear that it was too rich.

2nd run, using a 260 main jet and no alteration to the needle and a new plug fitted. This run was better and it started to rev a bit but not fully. The carb was blowing out vapour like mad and a lot of exhaust smoke coupled with fourstroking at revs meant that it was still too rich.

3rd run using a 260 main and on the warm up run it sounded much cleaner and was revving out fully but a bit woolly at the top end. We decided to do four power runs at this setting and it gave a peak reading of 19.3hp at the wheel.

As it was now a bit hot we let the bike cool a bit and i went round it to check for loose bolts. It had only shaken one out of the head cowling so not too bad.

4th run using 240 main. This sounded much better right from the start and again it was given four power runs giving a peak of 19.61 and holding power for longer. We were getting very close to finding the correct jetting until we found that a 240 is the smallest jet we had. It could do with coming down a couple of sizes yet as the dyno reading is very messy at revs which is a sign of running a bit rich.

The next thing to do was take it onto a private road and run it through the box and see if it will pull ok. The bike is woolly as you burble it along. Then screams off like a nutter and then drops power as you get into high revs. The bike does seem fast though and will pop a wheelie quite easily in first as it hits the power. It is much quicker than most road TS1's and it will get quicker as i play with the setup over the next few weeks, so i will be looking forward to that.

So let's recap on what the engine is. Second hand spanish (repaired) casing, Indian cast iron barrel. Indian crank, second hand ASSO piston, Indian electronic ignition, side spark (standard) head, Li150gearbox, borrowed carb and exhaust and only a mild race tune on the ports. Not a bad result really as it was taken up to 9grand every run and did not seize or blow up.

Now it was not all good news, there is too much end float on the gearbox, too much play in the gear hand control and the back brake is shit. But on the lighter side the bike goes well, is still in one piece and the front (drum) brake is shit hot.

Aye up son its,

TightWads Alternative Tuning (T.W.A.T)

This week we are looking at getting a better dyno reading. Lift the back of the dyno up so the bike is facing down hill.This will make it faster as it is rolling down hill.

Tune in next week when i will be visiting a race track test session and shouting at all the bikes "slow down. You'll have someones eye out with that".