Im still worrying

Our friendly fabricator turned up yesterday on his lovely new gsxr600,..nice bike Darren!, to take a look at the lardy old girl.
"No problem mucker. We'll just do....bla blah"
Excellent!
The top shock mount needs relocating to where, hopefully, it needs to be.
We know there is a big issue in getting it in the right place, I'm finding it rather worrying but Phil seems to be un-fazed by it and thinks it'll be ok, so I'll stop worrying then.....ahh...Im still worrying.



We think we can use differant length dogbones on the linkage to help get the shock performing it's stroke correctly and also a built in ride height adjuster on the shock would be a great help.

I have be talking to Jordan Motorcycles, near Leatherhead, about sorting the right shock for the job, and I'm hoping we'll have one soon.We are keen to use jordans as they are at all the Thunderbike races, with their race service.

Steve has been scouring e-bay for a decent seat unit and has come up with a nice ow01 unit that looks like it will be suited to the FZ looks and keep her looking like a Yamaha. It's a bit pricey, but we need to get it quick, so Darren can get on with the subframe.The same goes for the shock.
So by the time the subframe and shock are sorted, the valve clearances should be done.
I'm sure i can find time to give the motor a coat of paint to tidy her up and then it should be time to get it back in the frame.
I am due at Mallory park on February the 18th, to do the CTC course (competence to compete),
so time is getting short. I can see the RSV coming out of the shed for that, which should be ok for the course, but, it's only 3 weeks later, and the Thunderbikes first race.......not too confident we'll make it at the moment!
Ok, I'll stop being negative.... smile..

Daylight robbery!

spent the evening painting the wheels and weighing various stuff that has been taken off the bike.....A 22kg loss so far. I can't see too many more areas that we can loose weight so i sat myself on the scales....80 kg....what a fat git! I'm sure when i finally lay my hands on a new push bike I could loose a couple of kilos.

Phil was busy messing with the shims. After a hunt all over the Island motorbike shops, and no luck in finding any new shims, Phil "doctored" the shims himself. We could have ordered some from the local Yam dealer for the sum of £5.60p each!!!!!..... daylight robbery if you ask me!

what ever happened to the old days when you could exchange shims and they were about £1 each!?..

I will find out how Phil got on last night later today when we meet up with our fabricator.

Steve doing what we built the workshop for........ watching bike racing in peace!

The generator gets it!

Great!..... things are moving forward at last!

Phil has taken on the job of doing the valve clearance, and has found all the clearances, too tight.
So we are tracking down some shims.
In the quest for less weight continues and the generator gets it!
While Phil attacked the cams etc, I took on the enormous task of removing the monster.... 3 bolts later,..hard work.... i need a beer!.... the thing was on the floor.
I suspect Phil is thinking "bugger, more bloody work".
He says he can make a cover. I think I'll be buying the beers next season!
Haven't weighed it yet but it's got to be 4 kilos. Less engine resistance should give a small increase on bhp.
Meanwhile, Steve is busy getting various FZ parts ready to sell on the big bay, when he's not dribbling over his new high level cans for his raptor!
Oh and the state the workshop is in already..err, we won't go there, let's just say
we aim to get the neighbouring shed sorted for some more space this weekend.
Almost ready to paint the 3 wheels we have this weekend. Yamaha gold, i feel, is in keeping with the Yamaha racing tradition . It would be nice to keep the colours as an FZ, rather than a christmas tree for at least the first race.
The subframe, and the top shock mount will get an inspection this weekend by Darren,
who i have managed to persuade to help us out.He's a great fabricator and rather busy at the moment so thanks to him for giving us his time.


Parting shot... Stevie misbehaving,...as usual!

Slow motion

Things are a bit slow at the moment, as would be expected at this time of year. i've been scratching about in the workshop while Phil is taking care of several bits and pieces and sorting his Laverda. All i can do for now is clean and polish, mess about and tinker with things.





One job i decided to look at was the height and mounting of the tank. Packing up the front mounts have moved the tank back meaning we have to loose the heavily over weight rear mount assembly.... good!
We intend to try the YZF carbs and air box. The carbs seem like they will do the job but the YZF airbox is slightly taller. Hopefully raising the tank will help. We are going to look at ways of getting more air in the intake.

Coming up with a rear shock is the next major hurdle....finding the money is anyway!
as soon as that happens, we should be able to apply a bit more throttle to the project.
Hopefully this weekend will be productive!.... I'm keen to get moving!

dietry fibre

I just had to photo these lc's..... should have been us 20 years ago.

The fat old FZ really was alarmingly fat in road trim with loads of scope for weight loss.

looking at various data sources for the FZ, threw up varying results so i have decided to go for the most sensible looking one. 222kg wet sounds about right and feels about right compared to similar machines I am familiar with.

So this gives us an approximate starting point.... Thunderbikes rules ( www.thunderbikeuk.com )are formulated to give close racing, which certainly worked last season!.... one of the rules states a power to weight ratio limit of 1bhp per 1.814kg.

We estimate we can shed at least 20 kg, this will allow max bhp to be around 110.

Again, data sources are varied with the majority stating around 100. We think it's more likely to be a fair bit less, maybe as much as 80bhp, so there's plenty of room to shed as much weight as we can.

As far as the engine goes, we think that short of doing the valve clearances and filter, plugs and leads, we would be better off leaving any internal work for now and trying to gain bhp through pipes, airbox mods and we may try the YZF carbs. Early inspection indicates they will do the job.we would idealy aquire a second motor and work on that later in the year. Starting with the motor we have for now means less early expense and time. The money would be far better spent on a rear shock and any other suspension upgrades. Getting this beast to handle is going to be priority.

This place is gonna be busy, and Phil has the Laverda to sort yet!!

shocking trouble!

The front end is on with a longer steering stem, cut, sleaved and welded. The lock stops have been modified as they missed each other completely. The fork internals will be a case of wait and see but we think they may just do the job, at least for now.We are confident the front geometry is ok at this stage.

The rear thew up a few head scratchers. The swingarm goes in with a little messing with differant shims and spindles worked out by Phil.

The swing arm top rails were banging on the subframe, so this will be removed and a lighter alloy used.

The next problem is the shock. In order to keep the correct alighnment of the swingarm and shock, we have worked out that we will need to weld a new top shock mount and trim out around the hole in the swingarm where the shock routes. there's not a lot of room for a bottle so we will likely need a remote bottle.

Wheel alighnment and chain run both look good.....so not too shocking......untill it's time to fork out for a new shock.

THE SUB FRAME GETS IT!

I have been itching to cut it off!

Stuff in general is getting a polish and some paint here and there while we wait for santa to f*** off and then things will get going soon after that

dinosaurs

As you can see, the FZ is a bit ancient. How you may ask is this thing gonna compete with modern stuff? answer..... i don't care too much, it's more about actually having a battle with someone, anyone, just to be racing is enough and i'm getting too old to be able to take it all too seriously. The biggest challange for me is to get there in the first place. finacially more than anything.

So we take a crap old FZ and turn it into a racer. We started the bike a couple of weeks ago so i shall write to catch up and then post as things happen, or not.... i will introduce you to my friends and long time co loonies Phil and Steve, without whome i wouldn't be doing this.......they forced me to do it ! honest they did! That's Phil with the hat below, Steve on the right.

updating the story so far

Steve has been a good friend of mine for years.we have shared interests; lc's and 2 stroke yams, pink floyd, guitars, live music among other things.After riding together for years, and having a 4 year break from bikes, Steve helped bring out my longing for another bike and ultimately getting on track and having some fun. So when i finally decided to make an attempt to go racing, Steve quickly donated the use of his nice new workshop to build the bike.......the only condition was i had to build it for him first! :-)...... i was only too glad and as you can see from his grin, so was Steve.nice hat by the way!!....didn't it rain at Lydden hill !

Phil has been a friend of Steve's since they were kids and i have got to know him since i met steve in my late teens. Phil having already donated the FZ to the cause, then decided we could use anything from a spare YZF750 he has.... fantastic! the complete front and rear end minus the shock.... a good start.

Phil is the engineer among us and works for a very accomadating boss who donates the use of his extensive business premises. There's not much that can't be done by these guys so I am in good company to get the bike sorted.The need to strip right back and paint the frame was decided and with time on my hands while Phil messed about getting his head around fitting the YZF front and rear end, and with budget in mind, the old tin of hammerite came out of hibernation.

So with just a bear frame, freshly painted, and the front and rear end being in rehab for a while, attention was turned to things that would end up back on the bike.

Starting at the front, on went the clock and fairing mount from the YZF and the original FZ part weighing an alarming amount more. Only a temporary fitting for now, to get an idea for mounting clocks and fairing.The FZ clocks were severely over weight, being encased in cast and so were stripped completely. The bin saw the speedo and the temp/fuel gauge thrown in and the four idiot lights reduced to two to retain the oil and neutral lights. This has been test fitted against the rev counter which looses its cast casing. Must have saved a kilo just here!

lust

having tasted some private bike racing abroad with www.racedays.net and many other trackdays, on these two machines, the time has come to go racing for real in the uk. It's been a long time coming for me, since i was a small boy i guess.
So the forthcoming posts will record the metamorphosis of the tatty old Yamaha FZ750 that my good friend Phil has donated to my cause, and along side that, the path of my first year of British Club Racing. ... hopefully.
Bemsee is the club and Thunderbikes the series that i hope to compete in. i had better get on with applying for my licence etc....