Members racing thread

[graeme4130]

Gavia said:

moanthebairns said:

Thinking more for next year, am I right in saying the new comer series that NL run is that novice only, so orange bib wearers and only bib riders?

Newcomers is bin wearers only at the start of the season so if you lose your bin part way through the year then you're fine. You may as well enter Club1000 anyway as there's little to choose between the two series on times.

Yeah, there's a not a massive amount of difference between the two classes. The top 4 or 5 in Club are a bit faster than in Newcomers, and the lower 7 or 8 in newcomers are a lot slower than the bottom of Club
There's a bit less chance of getting knocked off by a wild rider in Club too, as most have a bit more experience
In club, you have an open tyre rule too, whereas in Newcomers, you have to run pirellis or Metzelers - Although I did hear a rumour that NLR won't have the tie in next year, so might become open tyres in all classes, not just club as the Endurance and the Super series are Pirelli/Metz too

[graeme4130]

Gavia said:

mckeann said:

I'd be well up for more endurance if they ditched Pirelli.

Don't get too excited by the rumours. There was a big debate on this at the end of the season before last and little came of it. The Pirelli / Metz tie in puts a fair bit of money in the pot for No Limits and keeps entry costs down, so it could be counterproductive to remove the tie in.

Be interesting to know just how much it puts in NLR's pocket, as Metz/Pirelli must do an awful lot of tyres through this series - I heard, as a complete rumour, from a BSB rider who boycotted NLR for this very reason, that is was around £30k/year
However, NLR grids are pretty low in comparison to other clubs like NG, Thundersport or Bemsee, so there must be some offset of not having a closed tyre rule against entry fees.
The Pirelli Super series grid is pretty low on numbers for example, and you can still enter the newcomers race right up to race weekend, same with Saturdays showcase 1000km endurance
Personally, I'd much rather use a Bridgestone or a Dunlop slick, but that's just me and others love Pirelli's

[graeme4130]

moanthebairns said:

If yous guys post your next dates up I might join one before the years out.

I think team 113 are going to do the last Endurance round on the Donington National circuit in Oct.
I have work on for both the Cadwell and Snetterton round weekends, which is a shame as I'd love to race at Snetterton

We're going to look to see if we can drum up some sponsorship pennies between us to do a whole season of endurance next year too, as I much prefer it over the sprint races

[graeme4130]

mckeann said:

I'm considering the Donny endurance event as well Graeme. A friend who is a little bit quicker than me is interested in a 2 man team for it but the Pirelli only rule is putting us both off a little

I'm not keen on them, and they just don't last. I destroyed a rear in one 50min stint on Saturday, and used 3 rears in 4 stints. Makes for an expensive day when I could have done 4 stints on one VO2 rear
The Oct race is 3hours, so we're thinking of going balls out for an hour each. It's on the National circuit, so with a bit of short shifting, I reckon I can make a tank last an hour as you don't have the low gear drives out of the Melbourne Loop or Goddards

[graeme4130]

Gavia said:

mckeann said:

Tech 5, team 448 or Is it FWR???

Errrrrrr no, and I'm glad, as those lads are genuinely fast lads. I'm just a slow old duffer and the only thing I'm doing quickly now is heading to 50!

It was a guy I shared a garage with on the trackday prior to the race. His other teammates seem to have called it quits and in the famous words of John Inman, I'm free, so decided to accept the offer.

We're planning on doing the whole season next year, so will be good to line up with you again

The photo's are up on the Alex James site now

[graeme4130]

Gavia said:

graeme4130 said:

We're planning on doing the whole season next year, so will be good to line up with you again

The photo's are up on the Alex James site now

This is for the rest of this season, yet to decide on next year.

Hopefully see you at one of this year's rounds then

[graeme4130]

Gavia said:

It's seriously important piece of info and one that I certainly need to know when trying (and usually failing) to hit an apex

That little snippet of informative gold will mean the difference between 1st and 21st
I hear Rossi has it engraved on the inside of his visor

Flipping ACU test is a bit of a joke. It's so simple, that when you finish your paper, you swap it with the person next to you to mark each others

The only thing you need to make sure you do before the test day is to get your opticians certificate/Stamp on the relevant bit of the application form

[graeme4130]

Fleegle said:

Is it still multiple choice?

Yeah, really silly options too

[graeme4130]

mckeann said:

Ah see I passed the far superior and much better SACU license. The S stands for super, special, sexy and superfast

Sausagefest ?

[graeme4130]

That's a cracking pic

[graeme4130]

Gavia said:

Just spent all day prepping my bike for the weekend. Test day on Friday and then races both days on Sat / Sun. Endurance and sprint races this time so should be interesting.

Oh and a very, very long way from home so Motel Vito lives again aka my awesome camper van

Best of luck mate. Wish I was there racing, but working this weekend

[graeme4130]

They're great pics

[graeme4130]

Fleegle said:

stew-S160 said:

. I didn't crash. I had fun.

They are the 2 main things your first races should be about.

Well done bud, First race is always a baptism of fire. You had rain, I had snow and hail.

Get used to having no money!

Exactly that, you didn't crash and you had fun
I was the same when I first raced. Thought i had decent pace for a track day rider, and suddenly was at the back of the pack.
Racing has pulled my pace along massively though, and I can just about hold my own now, although unless it's wet, I'm not near the sharp end yet
You'll learn a lot, you'll spend a lot, and you'll meet a lot of great people

[graeme4130]

Gavia said:

Both bikes are ready for the weekend. One to race and one to try to get a set up on, but won't be raced this weekend.

Bring on Croft, another of my bogey tracks.

I'm going to show my wife this picture every time she says I have two bikes that are too similar and tells me to sell one
Good luck this weekend

[graeme4130]

MotorsportTom said:

A new post about the pit bike racing I'm doing is now up here if anybody wants to read it?

https://www.ilikemotorbikes.com/single-post/2017/1...

Have a photo too

Me and my 11 year old have just got pit bikes and have been messing around at Swindon Karting. I might try and get along to some of the BMB winter series races as I think my bike eligible in the 140 class

[graeme4130]

George29 said:

Is anyone doing the Donington 8 hour? I’m thinking of entering a team but don’t know much about the endurance thing.

Is there a minimum pit stop time to try and even out between the people using one bike vs people using 3-4? Also what happens if one rider crashes? Can you get back on the bike and ride back to the pits, or is it race over for everyone? Do they do blue flags too?

We're doing it as team 113 again this year, and a couple of other rounds too.
Basically, you can have anywhere between 1 and 4 riders, but most teams will have 3 or 4, and there was only 1 team I believe at the 1000km race that all used the same bike.
There's a minimum split that every rider has to ride, so you roughly have to do fairly equal shares (although you can drop a rider out your team if they crash)
The batton is the timing transponder, which you swap outside your garage during pitstops. If a rider crashes, you lose the laps until the rider can struggle the bike back to the pits to swap, or the marshals bring the bike back to the paddock. If you can't get the transponder back, you can swap transponders with race control, and you get penalised 10 laps I think. We lost an engine in a team mates bike, and you lose around 7-8 laps anyway for the time it takes to get the transponder back to the paddock.
They don't use blue flags as there's so many riders on the track, it'd be constantly waved

There's a full set of endurance regs here - https://storage.googleapis.com/wzukusers/user-1873...

[graeme4130]

George29 said:

graeme4130 said:

We're doing it as team 113 again this year, and a couple of other rounds too.
Basically, you can have anywhere between 1 and 4 riders, but most teams will have 3 or 4, and there was only 1 team I believe at the 1000km race that all used the same bike.
There's a minimum split that every rider has to ride, so you roughly have to do fairly equal shares (although you can drop a rider out your team if they crash)
The batton is the timing transponder, which you swap outside your garage during pitstops. If a rider crashes, you lose the laps until the rider can struggle the bike back to the pits to swap, or the marshals bring the bike back to the paddock. If you can't get the transponder back, you can swap transponders with race control, and you get penalised 10 laps I think. We lost an engine in a team mates bike, and you lose around 7-8 laps anyway for the time it takes to get the transponder back to the paddock.
They don't use blue flags as there's so many riders on the track, it'd be constantly waved

There's a full set of endurance regs here - https://storage.googleapis.com/wzukusers/user-1873...

Cheers, will have a read through them.

We will have 3 riders and 3 bikes which seems the better option.

Anyone know what the tyre prize is for winning it? Trying to work out if its worth running Pirelli’s or not

It won't be a great prize. Maybe a pair of tyres between the three of you, or something else not worth running pirellis for
If you're planning on winning club1000 class, then the winning team in that class at the 1000km were doing 1:37's.
The 1000km was a Pirelli control tyre race, whereas the 8hr isn't, so I'll be running Dunlops or Bridgestones as it'll mean I can get more than 1x 50min stint out of a rear. Running Pirelli's made for an expensive day out last July

[graeme4130]

George29 said:

graeme4130 said:

It won't be a great prize. Maybe a pair of tyres between the three of you, or something else not worth running pirellis for
If you're planning on winning club1000 class, then the winning team in that class at the 1000km were doing 1:37's.
The 1000km was a Pirelli control tyre race, whereas the 8hr isn't, so I'll be running Dunlops or Bridgestones as it'll mean I can get more than 1x 50min stint out of a rear. Running Pirelli's made for an expensive day out last July

I’ll stick with Dunlops then.

Hopefully going there to win the national 1000, mainly thanks to the other 2 riders as I’ll be the massive weak link! Hoping I can get down to consistent 1:38s and we should be ok based on the pace that people ran last year.

Do you do 50 min stints? Have you had an endurance fuel tank fitted for that?

You'll need a solid team to win that. The winners of the 1000km were all doing 45+min stints, and the trick to that is to keep smooth and know where to short shift to use the least amount fo fuel. You're only allowed to use a standard tank, so if I brim mine to the top, I can just about do 45-50mins. Phil Bevan, who's team wins most of the endurance races (including the 1000km) I've seen do 60min plus stints and still maintain 1:37-38 just by rolling off, being smooth and short shifting. Phil and one other member of his team run ZX10R's and after one of the endurance rounds last year, he had to have his tank displacement measured as one of the other teams lodged a complaint as he did an hour and 10 minute stint at one point.
Like everyone else says on here, the trick to winning (or at least doing well) is minimising pit stops as each pit stop equates to something like a lap or 3/4 of a lap, and keeping consistently going around rather than faffing about with mechanicals. Everyone starts off way to fast, and on the longer racers, the attrition level is high as people aren't just fit enough to keep going
There's been plenty of teams turn up with a BSB superstar or two and not do great, but the old endurance hats seem to win every time.
I had the offer to have Josh Day in my team, and he does 1:31's around there, but it'd just make the rest of us look st and we've had to race in the National rather than the club, and at least there, we can expect to get somewhere near the podium (we were in 3rd briefly at the 1000km until a team mates Aprilia went pop)

Edited by graeme4130 on Friday 26th January 12:24

[graeme4130]

mckeann said:

It's also about being able to stick at your pace for the full stint. Not getting slowed down by traffic, not taking a couple of laps to get into a rhythm, not falling away at the end of your stint.

I can manage a great pace for 30 mins, but the next 15 would be a killer.

By the last two stints, I was having to be peeled off my bike at the change over, and my bike fitness is pretty good. The trick is is just knowing where to relax and take a breather. Neither of the straights at Donington give you much of a chance of that, but the long left hander going up the hill is perfect just to flap your arms a bit and let the blood get back into your legs. Having a drinks straw in my leathers helped too for the couple of stints I used it

[graeme4130]

George29 said:

graeme4130 said:

By the last two stints, I was having to be peeled off my bike at the change over, and my bike fitness is pretty good. The trick is is just knowing where to relax and take a breather. Neither of the straights at Donington give you much of a chance of that, but the long left hander going up the hill is perfect just to flap your arms a bit and let the blood get back into your legs. Having a drinks straw in my leathers helped too for the couple of stints I used it

Donington is probably the best circuit for doing long stints on, would be better still if it was the national circuit but still not too bad. Would hate to do it somewhere like Oulton Park for example!

Yeah, that'd be hard work on the body around there, but you use much less fuel there do the less time you'd spend on the stop, so you could do even longer stints if fitness allowed