Bit of a mixed bag mood-wise today for first qualifying session.
Most of my kit failed scrutineering the day before for not having the latest CE marking, so I am now several hundred pounds lighter having had to buy yet another new set of leathers, boots and chest protector. At least my helmet passed but with the new regs it’s got less than a year of life left, and I have barely worn it because of covid interruptions.
The 840 had a couple of issues picked up at scrutineering, a pin in one of the front calipers wasn’t seated properly so one pad wasn’t moving. That was easily resolved. On full left lock the lock stop wasn’t doing it’s job as well as it should, but they let that go on the basis it would be reinspected tomorrow. I had also overlooked they don’t like Monza type fuel caps anymore and require tanks to be vented via a tube and none return valve. They also let that go for this evening on the basis the cap was locked shut by a spring clip and it would be modified before the next qualifying session tomorrow.
By the time the bike got the all clear for qualifying, and I had more-or-less given up on getting out in the session, it became a bit of a rush to get ready as the 1100 session was out early doors. The bike then decided to be a total bitch to start, even with liberal amounts of easy start squirted down the inlets. It eventually decided to cough and splutter and show some signs of life, but not enough to keep going on more than one cylinder. A casual observer then remarked, it looks like one of the throttle cables is coming out, hence the running on only one cylinder. A bit of tape around the two cables solved that issue just in time to get the bike started and out of the gate and onto the dummy grid.
Given it’s nearly 40 years since I raced a bike around the Billown Circuit, I was on an unfamiliar bike, with the gear change on the wrong side, and the roads still damp in some dodgy places, I took it very steady to start with. I had a bit of difficulty hooking up the gears, and was having to slip the clutch a fair bit to get around Ballabeg hairpin, at crossfourways and the Douglas Road corner. However, after a couple of laps I started to feel a little bit more comfortable and began to open her up a bit. It’s certainly got a bit of stomp in it. unfortunately on about my fifth lap, going into Douglas Road corner my number was being shown and I was directed off the course. I toured back to the paddock through the back streets of Castletown wondering what the issue was, as looking around I couldn’t see anything falling off etc. Back at the paddock, from a cursory look around the bike I could see there were oil splatters on the exhaust, and it was confirmed by the scrutineers that I had been black flagged for excessive smoke. It looks like one or more of the right hand oil seals has failed again, so that’s a bummer.
So, i’ll just have to make do with the (supposedly more unreliable) 668.
A report on first qualifying with the 668 to follow.
