I'm glad I didn't drive to Pembrey

Team's on it's way home. I expect the full story will appear here when
they get home.

Sad.
--

Paul.

Ooh look, bikes and numbers and stuff!
CBR1100XX SuperBlackbird
VTR1000 Firestorm
RGV 250
BOTAFOT #4
BOTAFOF #30
MRO #24

 

Oh dear.

Champ's going to go bankrupt trying to get that bike running.

As Darsy says, I do wonder if a stock CBR600 might not have done a little
bit better all things considered

That is assuming it's broken down, rather then somone doing a Porl.

 

I keep telling them they need a nice reliable Honda, and none of this
kawacrapi shite...

 

Not the cams? :-/

 

It's a trade-off between reliability and speed, as ever.

Ducatis have never won a 24-hour race because they ain't reliable
enough. A stock ZX7R wouldn't because it's not quick enough.

I think Suzuki have built the only endurance bikes that have ever been
near-competitive in stock trim - early GSXR750s, and GSXR1000s in their
class today, come to mind.

 

It might. ISTR they run a BSB spec close ratio gearbox in place of the
standard one.

 

The Older Gentleman :

http://www.semi-evolved.org/tmp/engine2.html

 

That's dreadful news.

Last year's bike was very reliable, it was us riders that caused the
problems.

 

You need to be competitive and there's little doubt that last year's
bike was being left behind a bi, however, it was very reliable.

It wouldn't IMO. However, it would need some modifications to do
endurance racing.

 

I'll share in their disappointment. I'd like to see the team do well.
Seeing, reading and hearing about the effort that goes in is inspiring.

Yep - but there can't be much else that can go wrong. It's got to be
mostly fixed/replaced by now, so roll on Oulton.

 

Wow.

So the question is:

How did the camchain tensioner manage to extend itself to nearly-max,
when we compressed it, bolted it in, and then inserted the tensioner rod
and spring????

Alternatively, of course, when the broken cam end jumped out of
position, that would have put more slack in the chain and the tensioner
would have extended then.

So we still don't know if the tensioner was at fault....

<Goes away to have another think>

 

Yes, I was thinking of the later oilcooled Slingshots.

The 1985-era bikes used to let go catastrophically (especially for the
field following them as the very high-flow oil system dumped the entire
sump contents in a nanosecond).

 

Someone's glass is half empty

--
cane [at] ukrm.org ¦ fireblade, r30
botafo t#50 f#03 YTC #15 bbb #6 pm #6 apostle [kotl]
New? http://www.ukrm.net/faq/ukrmscbt.html
Rideout? http://www.horrible.demon.co.uk/botafof/
"What was your crime Spazpecker?"

 

They could always go back to crashing.

 

Absolutely.

One good point if the bike's broke you can't crash it.

 

Not really, but then again I'm not pushing Zimmer-owning age.

Oh yes, I realise this. I thought a bit of blind optimism might help
out when they get back and get round to reading ukrm, but you've gone
and blown that one...

....with a cracking story.

 

But mechanical failure seems to be the in-thing this season, and as
they're doing so well why go retro?

 

I didn't realize that the end of the cam shaft was supported in a ball
bearing, maybe it's just that the ball bearing cage broke up, letting the
end of the shaft waggle about until it whent and broke?

 

The part of the cam chain between the exhaust cam and the crank would be
under tension, yes true.

You've pretty much ruled out anything that you did. All by the book, which
is all you can do.

It's seeming more and more like a case of shit happening[1].

[1]Although that was my first thought and my current thinking also.

 

Maybe they've just run out of ideas on that theme, Sweedy.