Nifty Fifty report - requested by MTB
Discussion
So... as some of you may know, I posted a photo in the "it's the weekend" thread and MTB kindly asked me to do a write up on what I was doing.
What was I doing I hear you all cry. Well for the sharp folks it's in the title. The nifty fifty. Essentially 5 hours, a motocross track and 2 classes.
Class 1 is any 50cc twist and go, Class 2 is 50cc 2 stroke geared bikes or 90cc 4 stroke geared bikes. As long as the bikes, or the parts used on them were originally road going, or for road going bikes.
Our bike is a Honda MT50 with a C90 slotted in.
So cue Weds 21st and the bike looked a little like this.... 2 days before planning to pack the truck up and head over.
The wheel we had with the bike had broken it's hub internally at the event in July, naturally we left it to the last minute only to find out that the wheel was not an original MT50, meaning the drum assy we had didn't fit! A quick ebay panic and the drum wa son it's way to arrive on Friday morning! Eek!
Friday at 3pm, one of my work colleagues finished early and managed to have the bike prepped and ready to go... even if it did have 60psi in the front tyre to seal it to the rim
Arriving on Friday night we all got on the beers heavy (there are 3 teams from work plus plenty of friends tagging along) which means Saturday morning there were a couple of sore heads.
The guy with the worst hangover happened to be the rider with the most MX experience and in turn was starting.... Hmmm.
11am start after a quick briefing and a formation lap. On the start Tom signalled a problem, he shouted over there was no RH footpeg. It may have fallen out because somebody (I) forgot to put a split pin through the bottom. b
ks!
Tom managed to put in a stellar effort for his first stint, and came in to hand it over to Sam. A swift hand over saw us back out whilst me and Tom decided to go and codge a footpeg together.
Luckily we came prepared, a grinder, a generator, a welder and a bit of bar saw us ready!
Even more lucky there was a red flag due to a fallen rider just after we decided to pit to weld the "peg" in place meaning we didn't lose any laps to the other teams. RESULT!
Have some photos, these were taken about the same time somewhere near the 1-1.5 hour mark.
I don't really have much more to say or any more in action photos apart from Tom looking awesome and a couple of me looking not so awesome.
Tom achieving hero status.
Me not quite achieving hero status.
After 3.5 hours we were running in 6th position with approx 7 laps splitting the top 6. It was a 1:30 lap (ish) so it wasn't hard to lose places if there were any issues!
We had a couple of issues with the chain jumping off but a quick adjust and we were back out, we felt strong and hoped we would be contending for a top 5 position, out of 68 teams across the 2 classes mind, so were doing all we could.
Unfortunately 20 mins from the 5 hour mark, Tom returned, pushing the bike with a head that wouldn't stop shaking, followed by a cut throat sign. It seemed serious. The clutch cover was cracked by a bolt hole and pushing the kick starter over gently sounded like "cklerghhh-clkkk-clk-karrkkk" or not good in other words.
It seemed despite every effort we made through the day and leading up to the event (we had to fit a new crank due to snapping the last one at the event in July) it was all in vain. As thoughts slipped to what could have been or where we ended up, the cider came out to cheer us up and to congratulate our efforts.
Fast forward an hour or so and sitting at the presentation at the back, listening in to find out where are rivals came. Imagine our surprise when the following was announced, "and in 2nd place with 136 laps... 222 Sons of Rotron"
We even questioned one another if we had heard right. Ignoring the fact we trashed our bike we had won a trophy!!
More to the point we were only beaten by 4 laps and only had a 2 lap lead on 3rd even after 5 hours!
Juxtaposition of broken engine and trophy!
All the team, left to right Angus, Sam, Me and Tom.
I hope it was a good enough write up. Slighty rushed in my lunch but if anyone has any questions or I've not made sense the holla!
What was I doing I hear you all cry. Well for the sharp folks it's in the title. The nifty fifty. Essentially 5 hours, a motocross track and 2 classes.
Class 1 is any 50cc twist and go, Class 2 is 50cc 2 stroke geared bikes or 90cc 4 stroke geared bikes. As long as the bikes, or the parts used on them were originally road going, or for road going bikes.
Our bike is a Honda MT50 with a C90 slotted in.
So cue Weds 21st and the bike looked a little like this.... 2 days before planning to pack the truck up and head over.
The wheel we had with the bike had broken it's hub internally at the event in July, naturally we left it to the last minute only to find out that the wheel was not an original MT50, meaning the drum assy we had didn't fit! A quick ebay panic and the drum wa son it's way to arrive on Friday morning! Eek!
Friday at 3pm, one of my work colleagues finished early and managed to have the bike prepped and ready to go... even if it did have 60psi in the front tyre to seal it to the rim
Arriving on Friday night we all got on the beers heavy (there are 3 teams from work plus plenty of friends tagging along) which means Saturday morning there were a couple of sore heads.
The guy with the worst hangover happened to be the rider with the most MX experience and in turn was starting.... Hmmm.
11am start after a quick briefing and a formation lap. On the start Tom signalled a problem, he shouted over there was no RH footpeg. It may have fallen out because somebody (I) forgot to put a split pin through the bottom. b
ks!Tom managed to put in a stellar effort for his first stint, and came in to hand it over to Sam. A swift hand over saw us back out whilst me and Tom decided to go and codge a footpeg together.
Luckily we came prepared, a grinder, a generator, a welder and a bit of bar saw us ready!
Even more lucky there was a red flag due to a fallen rider just after we decided to pit to weld the "peg" in place meaning we didn't lose any laps to the other teams. RESULT!
Have some photos, these were taken about the same time somewhere near the 1-1.5 hour mark.
I don't really have much more to say or any more in action photos apart from Tom looking awesome and a couple of me looking not so awesome.
Tom achieving hero status.
Me not quite achieving hero status.
After 3.5 hours we were running in 6th position with approx 7 laps splitting the top 6. It was a 1:30 lap (ish) so it wasn't hard to lose places if there were any issues!
We had a couple of issues with the chain jumping off but a quick adjust and we were back out, we felt strong and hoped we would be contending for a top 5 position, out of 68 teams across the 2 classes mind, so were doing all we could.
Unfortunately 20 mins from the 5 hour mark, Tom returned, pushing the bike with a head that wouldn't stop shaking, followed by a cut throat sign. It seemed serious. The clutch cover was cracked by a bolt hole and pushing the kick starter over gently sounded like "cklerghhh-clkkk-clk-karrkkk" or not good in other words.
It seemed despite every effort we made through the day and leading up to the event (we had to fit a new crank due to snapping the last one at the event in July) it was all in vain. As thoughts slipped to what could have been or where we ended up, the cider came out to cheer us up and to congratulate our efforts.
Fast forward an hour or so and sitting at the presentation at the back, listening in to find out where are rivals came. Imagine our surprise when the following was announced, "and in 2nd place with 136 laps... 222 Sons of Rotron"
We even questioned one another if we had heard right. Ignoring the fact we trashed our bike we had won a trophy!!
More to the point we were only beaten by 4 laps and only had a 2 lap lead on 3rd even after 5 hours!
Juxtaposition of broken engine and trophy!
All the team, left to right Angus, Sam, Me and Tom.
I hope it was a good enough write up. Slighty rushed in my lunch but if anyone has any questions or I've not made sense the holla!
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