| Author | Message | ||
     Trojan |
Musings from Mallory Park The second round of the Bemsee/MRO UK Thunderbike championship took place at the Mallory Park circuit in rural Leicestershire on the bank holiday weekend of 30th April/1st May 2006. Dubbed the 'friendly Circuit' we were certainly hoping that it would be a lot friendlier than the first round at Snetterton had been for us. For those who don't know, we suffered a catastrophic engine failure in first practice at Snetterton, caused by a broken oil line between the swingarm oil tank and the oil pump. This ended the weekend for us before it had even begun. An engine strip in the weeks following showed not only the usual damage to the pistons and barrels, but also both cylinder liners had cracks running along the bases. A frantic search for a set of barrels before the next round came up with a set of Harley Sportster 883 barrels that had been bored to 0.005" over the stock 1200cc bore. Not ideal for the stock Ulysses pistons that we had left but it would have to do for this round until we could take delivery of a replacement set of high compression Wiseco pistons. We knew that we would be considerably down on power, but needed to score some points in the series to get us off the mark, and at least we knew that there was little chance of the engine seizing with such large piston/bore clearances. The rebuild was completed just in time for Mallory, meaning that yet again no testing was possible. Just a week before the second round another bombshell was dropped when our regular rider Jonathan Harrison told us that regretfully he would not be able to ride the Buell for the rest of the season, as he wanted to concentrate on the Minitwins series with his SV Suzuki. This left us in a predicament over the choice of a competitive rider at such short notice. We knew that there would be no shortage of volunteers, although we also had commercial considerations and commitments to existing sponsors to consider, so wanted to field the best and highest profile team that we could. With this in mind we contacted the guys at Performance Bikes magazine and asked if they would be interested in providing a rider for the bike for the remainder of the season. We had spoken to Gary Inman at PB on a number of occasions regarding the Thunderbike formula, and knew that they were very keen to follow and possibly feature the series in the magazine. They are also very Buell friendly and have recently featured reports on the Buell XB-RR at Daytona and an interview with Erik Buell, so this seemed like the ideal opportunity for both of us. A short while later we had a call from Tim Thompson at PB confirming that they would be delighted to supply a rider, and that rider would be none other than Phil Read, son of the multi world champion of the same name. Phil is a very experienced rider who has raced a variety of bikes over the years, and has recently competed in the Classic Bol D'or in France. Now it seemed as though things were definitely looking up, and with the bike loaded up we headed off to Mallory Park hoping for some solid results from the weekend. Sunday 30 April - Practice Phil hadn't even seen the bike until the morning of race day, let alone ridden it, so we knew that there was going to be a steep learning curve to contend with over the weekend, and with just 12 minutes of practice scheduled for Sunday morning he wasn't going to have much time to get dialled in before the first race. In addition to this he also had to learn the new circuit layout, as he hadn't ridded the track since the new and controversial chicane was added this year. Phil went out and managed to get just 6 laps of practice completed before a softening brake lever forced him to come back into the paddock. This was traced to a slightly leaking bleed nipple on the right front calliper and was soon sorted. Phil seemed to be a very analytical rider and even after such a short time on the bike was able to offer some suggestions for improving the suspension settings, so after some minor tweaks and adjusting controls slightly to suit his 6' 2" frame we were ready to go for race 1. Race 1 With no timed qualifying for Thunderbikes, grid positions for the first race are determined firstly by championship position and then by order of when the rider's entry was received by the organisers. As Phil's entry was only confirmed on the Friday he took up position in a lonely 17th place and a long way from the front. As the lights went out he made a good start and had already overtaken a number of bikes into Gerards. At the end of lap one he had moved up into a solid 8th place and his lap time improved by a full 3 seconds. He continued to chase down the group ahead, visibly gaining on them at the new chicane and out of the hairpin into Devils Elbow and onto the start/finish straight, and lapping around a second a lap faster than the guy in front. Unfortunately on lap 4 the hinged left side footrest rotated on it's mounting, resulting in Phil being unable to place any weight on the peg and change gear (Note to self- Fit solid pegs!). An unhappy retirement but we were satisfied that improvements could be made in time for race 2. Phil was very impressed with the handling and torque of the bike, and felt that the brakes were the best he'd used for years! Once back in the paddock we noticed an oil leak from the rear rocker cover, so a quick engine drop was called for to resolve this problem before race 2. Race 2 Phil once more lined up at the back of the grid for race 2 following his retirement from the first race, but yet again got a blinding start to put him into 9th place on at the end of the first lap. He set off in pursuit of Julian Holmes in 8th, and after being held up for a couple of laps managed to pass him into the Edwina's chicane on lap4. By this time a sizeable gap had opened up in front of him, but Phil got his head down and started reeling in the group of three riders ahead of him by around a second a lap. By the last lap he was only around 5 yards behind the modified Suzuki SV700 of Sarah Jordan and looked to be ready to take both her and the rider in front on the last lap. Just as he was about to make the move he got the bike stuck in 4th gear on the run into the Edwina's complex, and had to settle for a solid 8th place finish and another 1.7 second improvement in lap time. Inspection following the race revealed that the gear linkage was binding slightly and had caused the gear change problem. Overall we were very happy with the first day and knew that the problems we had encountered were just the normal teething problems that we had to expect due to of the lack of opportunity to test the bike. Sunday evening was spent modifying the gear change mechanism, and changing the gearbox oil 'just in case'. As we are running the new and very effective Free Spirits belt drive primary and dry clutch, this job now entails refilling the gearbox oil through the gearbox breather pipe whilst using the speedo sensor hole as a vent. After a final check of the bike it was locked away for an early night ready for battle on Monday morning. Monday 1st May - Warm up The weather turned against us on Sunday night with some fierce rainstorms and high winds, which hadn't abated by the time racing got underway on Monday morning. Warm up was held in damp and very slippery conditions, although just not quite wet enough for full wet tyres to be used. Time was allowed for just four laps for riders to acclimatise themselves with the conditions before the first race, which was number 5 on the morning programme. Race 1 By the time the Thunderbikes lined up on the grid there was a dry line appearing all around the circuit, helped I am sure by a full field of sidecars in the previous race, and dry tyres were definitely the order of the day. Grid positions for today were calculated from the results of the previous race, so Phil started in 8th position and in sight of the front of the pack. At the lights Phil got yet another good start and had gained a position into turn one, then another exiting the new chicane along the short Stebbe straight. By the end of the lap he was into fifth place and rapidly closing down the group ahead. By now the rain had started to fall yet again and conditions became incredibly slippery, resulting in a faller and some near misses at the Edwina's chicane. This didn't seem to faze Phil though, and he rapidly despatched Ben Palmer from fourth place and Paul Barlow in third place on lap two. For the next six laps Phil ate away at the gap between him and the second place rider and championship leader Rob Wittey on his immaculate and very trick SV700 Suzuki, closing the gap by around half a second per lap until he was right on his tail. Try as hard as he could though he just couldn't get past Rob and at the line was just three tenths of a second behind and in a brilliant third place for our first trophy of the year.  A quick check of the bike after the race revealed nothing major, just a slight oil leak from a front pushrod tube O-ring. We discussed this with Phil and he was happy to continue with the bike as it was for the final race of the day, just making a few minor adjustments to the compression damping at the rear. Helped by the stiff northerly wind the weather was changing literally by the minute, with heavy clouds scudding over delivering sudden and heavy showers followed by bright sunshine. This posed a problem with tyre choice, exacerbated by the fact that our tyre change would take longer than most due to having to swap over the final belt pulley onto the new wheels. This meant that we had to try and guess the weather in advance rather than leave it until the last minute. With a bright sky appearing on the horizon just 3 races before our final outing, and with the front wheel already out, we took the decision to stick with the Metzeler Racetec dry weather tyres. This of course turned out to be the wrong decision and the heavens opened once more just before our race. With no time to change wheels before the start I told Phil not to feel under any pressure and to take it easy. If the oil leak seemed to get worse or the track conditions more slippery then just bring the bike back in if he wanted to. To his credit Phil worked hard all race, with the bike visibly sliding and bucking beneath him, to finish the day with another eighth place and the only bike out there on dry tyres. An achievement in itself, especially as when he did return to the paddock there was oil on the tyre and belt drive! Overall we are extremely happy with the weekend's work. There are a few issues already in hand regarding tyre changing, and we have an engine strip to carry out to fit new high compression pistons ready for Brands Hatch, so that will sort the oil leak issues as well. From the excellent feedback given to us by Phil we are very happy with the handling, suspension and brakes of the bike, so now we need to concentrate on getting the chain drive kit fitted to allow us more gearing options and looking at shedding some weight from the bike to enable us to do Phil Read's talents justice at Brands Hatch on 11/12 May.  Phil Read tackles a very greasy hairpin at Mallory. Thanks must go to Glyn for his tireless spannering on Monday in the face of adversity (hope your hand doesn't hurt too much after I hit it with a hammer!), and to the guys at PB for agreeing to feature the bike and supply the rider. Thanks as always goes to our sponsors, without whom we wouldn't be out there racing at all: Free Spirits, Hal's Harley-Davidson, Hot Performance Exhausts,AST Shock Absorbers, Ilmberger Carbon Parts, Reactive Suspension, Nimbus Motorsport and Torco Oil, R&R Customizing, Motogadget, Airow-Safe, Paint my Ride, Reality Motor Works, Bell Helmets (Fowlers of Bristol), John Warrington Motorcycles (Rapid Bike ECU) | ||
| Trojan |
A couple more pictures of the weekend:    | ||
| Steve_mackay |
That ram air setup looks so cool  Congrats, and good luck on the rest of the season! | ||
| Diablobrian |
congrats on the podium finish! That's a great result with so many things going wrong this season. You guys are real troopers. | ||
| Gentleman_jon |
Well done! | ||
| Firebolteric_ma |
EXCELLENT! congratulations on the first trophy of the season\clipart {thumbsup3}(followed by many more i'm sure). bike looks great. that ram air is very slick looking. i like it!  good luck with your next race! me and the boys (6 & 10) are rooting for you! they think your bike is sswweeeeeet, and want me to get one.. | ||
| Bcordb3 |
Good job. Keep us posted! | ||
| Buelluk |
Well done guys, Mallory is an excellent track. | ||
| Diablobrian |
Just noticed how large and close to the track those curbs/walls are. Yikes!  | ||
| M1combat |
Good work  . | ||
| Trojan |
Just noticed how large and close to the track those curbs/walls are. This is the slow section of the course just past the hairpin into the third chicane of the 1.4 mile lap. From here it is down hill into a flat out left hander (Devil's Elbow) with the pit wall scarily close on the right and onto the start finish straight. Lovely place to watch from  Just to spoil the lap there is a new chicane at the exit of Gerards before the Stebbe straight. This was put in to make the lap 'safer', although it caused at least 12 accidents over the weekend I can't ever remember seeing an accident on the old course at that time. That's progress for you. Next round is on the Brands Hatch 'Indy' circuit, where thankfully there are no chicanes (yet). (Message edited by trojan on May 02, 2006) | ||
| Elff |
Wow 3 words to describe Phil U DA MAN Take about being thrown into the thick of things with no prep and just eating the competition alive. Sounds like the bailing of your original rider turned into a blessing in disguise. Good Luck and keep posting updates. I felt like I was watching from the sideline!!! | ||
| Cdn_bueller |
Congratulations! Keep us posted on the rest of the season. One question - what kind of front brakes are you using (obviously not the stock Buell rotors)? Thanks. | ||
| Trojan |
At the risk of upsetting certain people here, we are using a 2003 R1 Yamaha front end complete with R1 calipers, SBS dual carbon pads and an ISR radial master cylinder. Rotors and forged front wheel are from Braking in Italy. Phil has raced everything from Classic bikes to a Kawasaki ZX10 and reckons they are the best brakes he has used in years. | ||
| Skully |
Hey Matt, Thanks for the update. We are rooting for you guys! Keith DHM | ||
| M1combat |
"Phil has raced everything from Classic bikes to a Kawasaki ZX10 and reckons they are the best brakes he has used in years." Has he used the stock brakes but with an eight piston caliper yet? Sorry... I am curious though... | ||
| Trojan |
Has he used the stock brakes but with an eight piston caliper yet? Sorry... I am curious though. No he hasn't, but we can't get hold of those calipers anyway. He has used the stock Buell ZTL brake though. | ||
| U4euh |
Who wrote the article, Phil? Very well described. And I also am looking forward to hearing(reading) more from the future races. Way to go! | ||
| Trojan |
I do the race reports when we get home and recover. Phil will be doing an article in Performance Bikes magazine, and the bike will be a regular feature of the mag for the rest of the season, which is cool. Performance bikes is the most Pro-Buell of all the UK motorcycle press, and in the latest issue have full coverage of the Buell Daytona FX event plus an interview with Erik. They are also giving away a Buell in a competition soon (not ours though!)  (Message edited by trojan on May 03, 2006) | ||
| M1combat |
For some reason that bike looks like it has more than 21 degrees of rake... am I just seeing things? | ||
| Lpowel02 |
very cool...congrats on the good results. nice writeup too...a good read | ||
| Mutation_racer |
good luck the rest of the season from the liberty hd-buell race team | ||
| Trojan |
For some reason that bike looks like it has more than 21 degrees of rake... am I just seeing things? No you're not. The chassis is a Ulysses so the rake is 23.5 degrees. We went with the Uly because it has the longer/lighter/stronger swingarm and extra stability over the XBR (plus we had one sitting in the workshop). Handling is absolutely incredible, with no trace of head shake even over the notorious surface change at Mallory, which saw tank slappers galore over the weekend. Turn in and change of direction are excellent as well. We are using R1 forks fitted with Traxion dynamics cartridges and an AST fully adjustable rear shock. good luck the rest of the season from the liberty hd-buell race team Thanks guys Best of luck to you too. | ||
| Rocketman |
Land of the Giants...... Phil Read Jr is to tall for that racer. Should work wonders for air braking, never mind those fancy ZTL things. Rocket | ||
| Trojan |
Phil is only 6' 2". I always thought that was average height | ||
| M1combat |
Oh... I suppose I should have picked up on that seems how I knew it was a Uly frame. Didn't put two and two together for some reason... Thanks for the reply. In all of your messing around with stuff... Have you figured out whether the isolator on an '04 can be changed to the part from '06 so as to use the '06 swingarm on the older frames? | ||
| Trojan |
In all of your messing around with stuff... Have you figured out whether the isolator on an '04 can be changed to the part from '06 so as to use the '06 swingarm on the older frames? I haven't compared the two closely, but it looks as though they are the same part to me. | ||
| Diablobrian |
"it looks as though they are the same part to me." Those words should be very encouraging to several people on the board. | ||
| M1combat |
Agreed. Anyone know if there is more oil capacity in the newer swingarm? Matt... Would you mind taking a closer look for us? |
