The CRMC have had another race meeting and we are back to tell you about things in our sheds. As we continue with no official RAFMSA racing, we are again offering you an update with other goings on away from the race circuit regardless of what may or may not have been going on over there.
#14 Green
No Darley Moor for me as the family needed a holiday, however when back I decided I needed to put my RD250LC ck on the road. ‘500 miles in 20 years’ and taking up garage space was muttered by the wife, which has had the effect of me wanting to ride it again. So, not content with keeping the LC standard I decided to drop a 350 YPVS engine into it that I had already built and left on the shelf. Carbs, airbox and pipes went on quickly. Next an old LC2 ignition and CDi etc was fitted to find no spark. Parts came from an old box of bits, probably a good reason they were dumped into a box. Rather than mess with old electrics, a programmable ignition was ordered leaving me awaiting the Covid delayed postal service from overseas.
Whilst looking at the RD; I thought I would get a rear shock as it is 40 years old and it wasn’t that good when new. A quick call to my friends at K-tech and it was decided to build me a bespoke one for me to use and test prior to me launching a K-tech RD350LC shock to bring to market via Classic Racing Green.
In other goings on: there was also an attempt to take the Harris Rotax to Cadwell for an evening test session. Roy and I promptly left work as soon as possibly and headed over to get signed on and set-up. I know some GP Originals riders were there in the daytime. It wasn’t going well due to the rain being present all day. However the evening period was looking like the rain would subside. What we were not expecting was the development of high winds in such a short space. Sitting in the holding area waiting to go out the session was deemed too dangerous to let out. Credit note for an evening session was agreed and time to pack up and go home.
I was hoping to have a ride around before the engine came out. I have embarked on a project to have some cylinders made to suit my requirements. Firstly there are not many non-power valve cylinders around so i decided to make some. This is an ongoing project, next is to have a sanity check on the castings and have them machined. Then I will finalise the porting arrangement to suit the bike then start about designing an exhaust. The plan is to have it finished and ready for the 2022 season.
#51 Kirkby
I have however managed to fit in other two wheeled shenanigans in the meantime. Still quite a way off Dougie Lampkin standards, I have been dragging the trials bike out every so often to practice my static balancing and throttle control. It’s definitely not as easy as it looks and it’s amazing how fatigued you feel after practicing for only a short period of time. I have also managed to attend the Scottish Wheelie School at Crail recently in the hope of not feeling terrified every time I inadvertently end up with the front wheel lifting.
#74 Heggs
With work thin on the ground; when an opportunity to get the CBR400RR’s wheels powder coated, it was not missed as Andy was taking some of his own parts to classic coatings. Work continues on the little 400 as it dreams big with a classic Superstock/ TT-F3 future.
More excitingly (well for me anyway) I also took delivery of an R-tech mig 180 from our team sponsor.
This is mostly required to replace the large amounts of oxidised chassis on my race van but I’m sure it will get used to glue bit of bike back together too.
Mysteriously (for some of you at least) my VFR is now a bit cosmetically bruised on one side. It’s a bit like it had suffered a slow low side on the grass. Regardless, it should keep me quiet for a while.
#157 Woodward
It was a long drive home from Cadwell Park, not only had the new (for me) VFR400 continued to produce no power under load and a various intermittent collection of symptoms throughout the weekend, my 17 year old son Joe went on for the whole return journey about how I should retire and let him ride all of my bikes. This was due to his excellent debut, riding my 250 where he lost both races by a couple 1000s of a second to Andy Green.
We then had an opportunity for him to ride at a 2-stroke “Big Bang” event at Blyton. This went well except that he said it kept losing power on the long sweeping left-hander. I assumed he had been mercilessly over revving the bike until it fell off the drag curve, so I changed the pistons as the piston skirts are the engine’s weak points. Whilst fitting the new pistons I noticed part of the kill switch wire was bare and could earth out on the frame. Most probably the cause of the power failures, I quickly made a mental note and then deliberately forgot, to apologise to Joe for his over-revving lecture.
As for the VFR400, my planned FZ600 Killing, CRMC Production Class Champion, I bit the bullet and purchased a sonic bath so that I could give the 3 sets of carbs I’ve had on it some proper love. Whilst the carbs were out I went to do another compression check, mainly for my own peace of mind, only to find that one of the new spark plugs had failed due to being overtightened, leaving half in the head and the rest bouncing about with the plug lead. Luckily I managed to get the remains out but it required engine removal for access. Don’t you just love V4s?
So, with fully cleaned and serviced carburettors and a completely changed electrical system, I took it to Darley to give this potential giant killer its next test only to find it still had no power :-( . Back to the garage!!!!
A couple of months ago Andy Green and I were chatting about entering the Barry Sheene Memorial Races at Olivers’s Mount, we both had a choice of machines which were eligible, but mainly it was for the Aermacchi for Andy and I was going to race my newly built Superstock VFR750. We never entered at the time as over half of the entry fee was lost if the meeting was cancelled due to COVID19 etc. Unfortunately time caught up with us and before we knew it, the meeting had come and gone. I did however take a ride up to sample the track. It is pretty unique and is now on my bucket list.
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For our longer reads, you are already in the right place. THis is where we post our race reviews and other articles on Blogger.
If you want some nail biting viewing, we also have a YouTube channel. So far it is a list of videos gleaned from our various members and other racing disciplines in the RAFMSA but expect some original content soon.
The Classic Racing Motorcycle Club (CRMC) offer live timing and have race results going back years so if you can’t make it to come watch the action you can still stay up to date.
All serving RAF team members race under the banner of the Royal Air Force Motorsports Association (RAFMSA) or as associates for our Veterans. If you are serving and wish to get involved with motorsports you can find all the contact details you will need on the RAFMSA website or get in contact directly with us.
Finally special thanks go to the companies who continue to support us:
Royal Air Force Motorsports Association, Royal Air Force Central Fund,
EBC brakes UK, NGK spark plugs UK, Stahlwille UK, Classic Racing Green,
R-Tech Welding, Ragged edge racing, Talon Engineering, Forcefield body armour,
MCA Leicester, Spencer Racing, Tony Salt Tyres, Witham group Motul, PJMphotography, Speedsnap
and individual sponsors:
Symon Woodward: Mick Abbey tuning.
Andy Green: New Era Restorations
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