Why steel valve caps?
The next race bike
- Thread starter Brian P
- Start date
Interesting. Thanks. I figured you had a good reason. I have alloy caps with the secondary seal, I don't know if I have ever actually handled steel caps.
Test weekend was a bust due to weather. (Actually tomorrow looks ok, but it's Easter and I have family stuff to do.) I rode it around the paddock, determined that some controls need minor adjustments, and realized that I forgot to safety wire the steering stem bolt.
First weekend is in the books. Random thoughts: Fun bike. The gearing guess was spot on. In the production class I have to start with the fuel tank at least 3/4 full to reach the weight limit post-race. Same class has a 42 hp limit, it's legal by a classified margin. (Hadn't done any dyno testing beforehand! Whew!) Suspension seems ok at base settings, I may play with this some. Rider needs more work than the bike does. I'll never be a front runner thanks to me being phat and olde but it will do for having some fun.
I just got back from the SOAR practice day at Grand Bend, which was awesome. The bike doesn't have the top end power that the FZR400 had, but it has suspension that works, and it's letting me do stuff that I couldn't get away with on the old bike. I can be in places on the track that the suspension on the old bike wouldn't let me go. Full throttle through the kink? No problem. Full throttle through the sweeper-chicane on technical track? No problem for the left, I'm close but not quite brave enough (yet) to go flat-out through the right, but the next corner comes up soon after that anyhow. Corner leading onto the main straight wants to be done in 4th gear!
Engineers are predisposed to ask "why" and put numbers to things to see if it tells us anything.
With the FZR, I took the corner going onto the main straight in 3rd and got into 6th on the straight but not quite at redline. In that transmission, 6th is 1.173:1 and 3rd is 1.714:1. The 6th gear ratio divided by the 3rd gear ratio = 0.684; i.e. at a given RPM in 3rd I'm going 68.4% of the road speed in 6th at that RPM.
With the R3 the upper ratios are further apart. 6th is 0.800:1 (overdrive!) and 4th is 1.087:1. 6th divided by 4th = 0.736. That makes some sense; by the numbers the R3 shouldn't have as much top-end speed at the end of the straight (although my gut feel is that it isn't much different).
If I were to try to take that corner in 3rd (which I did, the first couple of laps, until it was established that I needed to break that habit!), the 3rd ratio is 1.348, 6th ratio divided by 3rd ratio = 0.593. I'm going 59.3% of the road speed in 3rd at the same RPM compared to 6th. Given that the end-of-straight speed is surely a smidge lower and the cornering speed should be about the same, no wonder 3rd was too short. 4th it is.
Hmm, while we are at it. FZR overall drive ratio in 6th including the sprocket ratio 8.366, R3 overall drive ratio in 6th including the sprocket ratio 8.174. Not much different! Only about 2%. That didn't account for the difference in tire sizes ... and doing so almost exactly wipes that out. So the RPM to road speed relationship in 6th is almost identical between the two.
With the FZR, I took the corner going onto the main straight in 3rd and got into 6th on the straight but not quite at redline. In that transmission, 6th is 1.173:1 and 3rd is 1.714:1. The 6th gear ratio divided by the 3rd gear ratio = 0.684; i.e. at a given RPM in 3rd I'm going 68.4% of the road speed in 6th at that RPM.
With the R3 the upper ratios are further apart. 6th is 0.800:1 (overdrive!) and 4th is 1.087:1. 6th divided by 4th = 0.736. That makes some sense; by the numbers the R3 shouldn't have as much top-end speed at the end of the straight (although my gut feel is that it isn't much different).
If I were to try to take that corner in 3rd (which I did, the first couple of laps, until it was established that I needed to break that habit!), the 3rd ratio is 1.348, 6th ratio divided by 3rd ratio = 0.593. I'm going 59.3% of the road speed in 3rd at the same RPM compared to 6th. Given that the end-of-straight speed is surely a smidge lower and the cornering speed should be about the same, no wonder 3rd was too short. 4th it is.
Hmm, while we are at it. FZR overall drive ratio in 6th including the sprocket ratio 8.366, R3 overall drive ratio in 6th including the sprocket ratio 8.174. Not much different! Only about 2%. That didn't account for the difference in tire sizes ... and doing so almost exactly wipes that out. So the RPM to road speed relationship in 6th is almost identical between the two.
I just got back from RACE round 2, which had nowhere near as many entries as round 1 (probably partly thanks to this round being sandwiched between CSBK round 2 at Grand Bend last weekend and CSBK round 3 at StEustache next weekend, possibly due to a crap weather forecast)
Saturday was meh. No grip in practice 1, much better in practice 2. Was not feeling it in qualifier 1, rear moving around. I opted to go up a couple clicks of both compression and rebound for the shock, and that helped a lot, the second qualifier was better but then the rain started.
Sunday practice 1 was good. Practice 2 was better and I knocked a second off the best lap time that I had done in round 1.
First race ... Lightweight Sportsman. Decent size grid. And the bike coughed and sputtered in the hairpin on the warmup lap, and a couple more times in the rest of the warmup lap. I stopped the engine on the grid and restarted in case something needed resetting. Didn't help. I rode the bucking bronco for a couple of laps but after this was threatening to make me crash, I pulled off. It still sputtered while riding around the paddock. Prime suspect ... Electrical. I knew the gauges stayed active, so it wouldn't be battery terminals, and they were secure. Quickshifter? The momentary cut-outs felt like quickshifter false-triggering. Wiring looked OK and the terminals at the PowerCommander were secure. I unplugged them and disabled the quickshifter in software and rode it around the paddock ... seemed fine. OK, no more quickshifter.
Second race ... Lightweight Production. The bike worked. I took another second off despite no quickshifter. I still have some time to find to get to the front runners but it's getting there.
Now let's see if they'll warranty that (expensive) quick-shift sensor and get me another one in a hurry ... I doubt if it will be sorted before next weekend (SOAR round 2).
Saturday was meh. No grip in practice 1, much better in practice 2. Was not feeling it in qualifier 1, rear moving around. I opted to go up a couple clicks of both compression and rebound for the shock, and that helped a lot, the second qualifier was better but then the rain started.
Sunday practice 1 was good. Practice 2 was better and I knocked a second off the best lap time that I had done in round 1.
First race ... Lightweight Sportsman. Decent size grid. And the bike coughed and sputtered in the hairpin on the warmup lap, and a couple more times in the rest of the warmup lap. I stopped the engine on the grid and restarted in case something needed resetting. Didn't help. I rode the bucking bronco for a couple of laps but after this was threatening to make me crash, I pulled off. It still sputtered while riding around the paddock. Prime suspect ... Electrical. I knew the gauges stayed active, so it wouldn't be battery terminals, and they were secure. Quickshifter? The momentary cut-outs felt like quickshifter false-triggering. Wiring looked OK and the terminals at the PowerCommander were secure. I unplugged them and disabled the quickshifter in software and rode it around the paddock ... seemed fine. OK, no more quickshifter.
Second race ... Lightweight Production. The bike worked. I took another second off despite no quickshifter. I still have some time to find to get to the front runners but it's getting there.
Now let's see if they'll warranty that (expensive) quick-shift sensor and get me another one in a hurry ... I doubt if it will be sorted before next weekend (SOAR round 2).
Why not? Its never been down, obviously defective. Its maybe got an hour of run time on it
Trials
Well-known member
In my experience repair costs assumed by a distributor on race bike stuff is usually at their grace,
competition bike parts generally have no original manufacturer expressed warranty,
would end up being more like a tax write-off sponsorship cost if it is covered.
... or is this a street bike that came equipped stock with a speed shift?
We all know its not a streetbike that came with the unit equipped as stock. I would assume that Dynojet has some kind of limited warranty and tech support. If I were Brian, I would contact the distributor, which in this case, I believe is Pro6 and go from there. Sandy may have already told him what to do, as he is at the track on RACE weekends, usually.
Trials
Well-known member
Couldn't assume it seeing as my MV F3 came with a quick shift stock and it had a warranty.
all my competition bikes said no warranty in the documentation.
