Going Racing

I have decided that my weekends are not exciting enough and will be racing with the BHR this year on the Seeley.

For those that are interested, I will blog my progress here, warts and all.

I attended the Mallory test day last Friday just to get an idea of how a couple of changes I had made to the bike were going to perform, I have changed the fork springs for some lighter ones and fitted a full fairing and figured I should try them out before I arrive at my first ever race meet.

Just as well because test days are cheaper than race days.

Due to a cockup with the noise test I missed my first session and snuck out with the next group, don't know what they were but they didn't seem to be that fast so by the third lap I was with the guy at the front and on the top straight decided to go past him and push on a bit to test the new springs.

I had just closed the throttle for Gerard's and there was a strange crunchy scrapey noise (technical description for the wife) and when I got back on the throttle somebody had stolen my sparks.

This is my solution to getting sparks to the plugs.


And this is how that solution decided I was only doing 4 laps of Mallory for £105, Bugger.



Ah well lesson learned, the redesign will have weight added to the other side of the trigger bump for balance instead of holes in the bump.

I have a couple of circular blanks on order to remake the plate, I have ordered a couple of pickups from the Czech Republic and two new belts because the bit that made a bid for freedom managed to cut the belt. It let go at about 7000 rpm, I wonder how much the bump weighed at those revs! and what its speed was when it left the plate, might look into some kind of a guard. For anyone that can work that stuff out, the bit that broke off weighed 17 grams and left the edge of a 4" circle at 7000rpm.

If I get the bits in time, my first meeting will be at Mallory April 13/14th and my transponder will show up in the Mylaps webpage race number 123, so you can see how slow I am going, oh, and a big kiss and a like to the first piss take from the 961 crowd re my bike reliability.

Best of luck with your fix , and good on you for going racing !

Good luck with the racing venture, and please do keep us informed.

Ken

Brilliant.
Enjoy yourself.
Al was out on his Rickman Commando.
Thinks he's only doing BHR this season.
Chris

Might try to get to watch this if my own nonsense allows.
Martin

Better then than race day Ralph!

As your set up is all custom made, and thus time consuming to reproduce, might I suggest making two sets?

Good luck for race day!

See you at Mallory Storm

Hello
I,m very interested in your ignition system, who makes it ? where did you get it from? can you program it with different ignition curves? etc.
The reason for all the questions, I'm looking for a suitable crank mounted system for my DOHC engine project.
Many thanks for any advice.
Regards
Peter

Guessing the ignition unit is from

http://www.ignitech.cz/en/

Thanks guys, hopefully the racing will go better than the test day.

Nigel, the bits for two sets are on order, which of course means it will never go wrong again. (should I say things like that?) The belts I have ordered are Gates and it turns out that 40mm wide isn't a standard size in the HTD belt, but Gates cut them to size and they cost £34 each delivered, I thought that was reasonable.

Ashphalt Al, are you the Al that Chris mentioned? I had a look round the paddock but didn't notice a Rickman Norton. Have you heard anything about the guy on the Norton that caused the stoppage?

dobba99, I made the bits you see in the picture, but the pickup is from Ignitech.<- (clicky) they make a lot of different units and if you want programable they do them too. Incidentally they don't do pickups that run in oil but if the ignition unit is a replacement for your standard one they could most likely supply a unit to work with your pickup.

They are in the Czech Republic but answer emails in English.

Yes Ralph, making two does impact the ‘sods law’ somewhat in your favour.

And then saying that undoes it all again!

Racing made me into a proper superstitious old woman !!

Fast Eddie said:

Yes Ralph, making two does impact the ‘sods law’ somewhat in your favour.

And then saying that undoes it all again!

Racing made me into a proper superstitious old woman !!

Click to expand...

Ha, green underpants on order, maybe I should get one of those portaloo tents and turn it into a shrine to all the gods, I could fill it with crosses both the right way up and upside down, a small Buddha with a Nirvana record, and a gold plated AK47 for Islam.

storm42 said:

Thanks guys, hopefully the racing will go better than the test day.

Nigel, the bits for two sets are on order, which of course means it will never go wrong again. (should I say things like that?) The belts I have ordered are Gates and it turns out that 40mm wide isn't a standard size in the HTD belt, but Gates cut them to size and they cost £34 each delivered, I thought that was reasonable.

Ashphalt Al, are you the Al that Chris mentioned? I had a look round the paddock but didn't notice a Rickman Norton. Have you heard anything about the guy on the Norton that caused the stoppage?

dobba99, I made the bits you see in the picture, but the pickup is from Ignitech.<- (clicky) they make a lot of different units and if you want programable they do them too. Incidentally they don't do pickups that run in oil but if the ignition unit is a replacement for your standard one they could most likely supply a unit to work with your pickup.

They are in the Czech Republic but answer emails in English.

Click to expand...

Yes Storm , we were down by the cafe area . I did not hear anymore on the chap who went down at the esses but the bike was a mess ...only managed to get out in two more sessions after that

storm42 said:

......

I had just closed the throttle for Gerard's and there was a strange crunchy scrapey noise (technical description for the wife) and when I got back on the throttle somebody had stolen my sparks.

This is my solution to getting sparks to the plugs.

View attachment 9364
And this is how that solution decided I was only doing 4 laps of Mallory for £105, Bugger.

View attachment 9365

Ah well lesson learned, the redesign will have weight added to the other side of the trigger bump for balance instead of holes in the bump.

I have a couple of circular blanks on order to remake the plate...................

Click to expand...

Ho Hum,

My crank triggered ignition worked fine at my first test day and broke on the second time out at Cadwell....it was standard Steve Maney stuff and I have been using cam triggered ever since it failed! Not beyond the wit of man to make it work and I am sure I will come back to it one day when someone else has a good design ....so good luck with that....

I'd like to have a crank-triggered ignition system, but I have a floating single row sprocket there. So I use an ordinary non-programmable Boyer. I feel for you having those sorts of problems. If that stuff ever happens to me, I get into re-engineering. Good luck with your racing - I am jealous. It all costs money.

Have you checked out RTD ignition. I am desperate to get onto the track with my bikes, work just seems to have gone crazy at the moment, why does that not happen in the winter!!

Derek Jones of RTD is a most helpful man who can and does make ignitions to fit all types, including cars. Located just outside of Towcester he's pretty convenient for the Silverstone based car teams, but does two and four stroke systems for bikes also, multi cylinders included. He was himself a former racer, so well understands the requirements of any would be racer.
Systems can be fixed ignition point or adjustable/programmable via a laptop link, if necessary with a handlebar switch that enables a choice of ignition advance curves to be selected while running.

Ashphalt Al said:

Yes Storm , we were down by the cafe area . I did not hear anymore on the chap who went down at the esses but the bike was a mess ...only managed to get out in two more sessions after that

Click to expand...

Ah, I did see you there. I was just by the scrutineering bay wall. Lets hope the faller will mend.

SteveA said:

Ho Hum,

My crank triggered ignition worked fine at my first test day and broke on the second time out at Cadwell....it was standard Steve Maney stuff and I have been using cam triggered ever since it failed! Not beyond the wit of man to make it work and I am sure I will come back to it one day when someone else has a good design ....so good luck with that....

Click to expand...

Thanks Steve, I have re-made the rotor but without the balancing slot which is where it failed, I am going to fit a bob weight opposite for balance. By my calculations (which might not mean much), the 15 gram lump on the rotor would weigh about 15KG at 7000rpm so coupled with the vibration the stress failure makes sense.

Steves said:

Have you checked out RTD ignition. I am desperate to get onto the track with my bikes, work just seems to have gone crazy at the moment, why does that not happen in the winter!!

Click to expand...

Welcome to the law of sod, The same law that made me miss the RTD products when searching for a suitable ignition.