Pre - TT Classic 24-26 May 2024

Andy J said:
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.
Click to expand...
As Red said last week, shit happens, have a good time with the 668…👍
 
Bummer about the 840, Andy. A dodgy oil seal should be an easy fix, surely? But what do you do about the fuel cap and scrutineering? SFs might feel odd to the uninitiated first time on a track but once you're accustomed to them they are very surefooted and predictable ... and fast.

When I rode the Island last December I felt like I couldn't ride any more - took a few sessions to start warming into it.
 
New rules and standards being introduced in every level of life, it is an absolute pain and as you say fucking expensive and hard to keep up with. Maybe the idea is to get all the ragbags out of the game, people who don't want to buy new leathers every few years etc. Computer/app controlled built in airbag vests are on the horizon.
Maybe the bike needs the extra venting like what Toddy used. If the bores/rings aren't really good it could cause seals to leak. I am sure you can get the gear pedal adjusted in place, remember that if on a bush they need good greasing. Like Q said, once you gel with an SF they can really deliver, and I am sure you have lots of experience with setup. Hopefully you get to race it and it all looks up from here.
 
Thanks chaps for the encouragement, I’ll have to have a think where I go with the bike from here, but it won’t be out again at this event.
Fortunately no real issues with the 668, just a request to tighten up the lock wiring on the nut holding the blanking plate/oil strainer.
The main issue was brand spanking new tyres and a damp track, I slid sideways just getting out of the rain sodden paddock. A couple of little moments on the first couple of laps, but nothing really bum clenching, and I wasn’t going full bore as I was following a newcomer on a 250 and didn’t want to carve him up. I eventually passed him when he bogged down or possibly stopped coming out of Ballabeg on the second lap and then just started to build my speed. However, I was still riding a bit like a novice myself, plus the gearing probably needs to drop a couple of teeth on the rear as I don’t want to over rev the poor thing and risk blowing it up…..
As an aside, having had dry weather for about week, we had of course a storm during the week. It wreaked havoc at both the pre-TT and TT paddocks and has turned part of the paddock at Billown into a mud bath, which I found to my cost as I tried to leave yesterday evening and got the van stuck! A few willing pushers managed to get me free and I found an alternative route to escape. At least the sun is shining this morning.
 
Saturday was one of those days when the sun couldn’t quite make its mind up, so a right PITA for trying to decide which helmet visor to fit. Just when I was about to switch to the dark visor it clouded over a bit, so that solved that issue, plus was a relief that I wouldn’t be too hot in my nice new black leathers for the second qualifying session.
The bike had passed its inspection with no issues after I discovered the reason for the slack lock wiring on the blanking plate nut - it wasn’t attached to anything at the other end. It had obviously not been reconnected after the last oil change. On the face of it, a simple fix, but it required a lower fairing removal to sort it, which was also a bit of a pain. Unfortunately, despite the number of 650/668 rear wheels I have kicking around the workshop, not one had anything other than the standard 42 tooth rear sprocket, so that put paid to changing the gearing. I would just short shift and have a self-imposed rev limit of 9500/10000 rpm.
Unfortunately the qualifying session also didn’t go to plan, the out lap was an opportunity to check the tyres were behaving so I could have a bit more confidence through the faster bends, and on my first timed lap I wound it up a bit and a bit more for the second knocking 6 seconds off the Friday evening time. The intention was to go even harder over the next couple of laps but on the approach to Ballabeg on the third lap the red flags came out. Someone had piled into the wall at Ballawetstone, just a few hundred yards further on.
That meant the remaining part of our qualifying session was abandoned, with the result I was just short of the qualifying time set by some of the 600 steely missiles. However, I’m not too disappointed as the race was postponed as it pissed down in the evening, and then run a bit later than scheduled, but still in pretty wet conditions.
I’m in the combined consolation race this afternoon, and although the weather forecast is a bit mixed, there is a chance for slightly better weather later this afternoon, so it might work out okay. I’ll let you know later how I got on.
 
Well, that was the most fun on a bike for awhile.
After a bit of a damp start to the afternoon, with light rain and drizzle, it stopped early enough to allow the roads to get reasonably dry by the time of my race in the mid-afternoon. However, the edge of the road was best avoided as that was definitely a bit damp and muddy in places.
Being a consolation race it was a real mixed bag of bikes, with big Suzuki’s, 250 strokes, 400 fours, and 500 twins among others and I had a third row start.
I didn’t get a particularly good start, which meant I ended up near the back of a queue for the first 90 degree bend at Ballakeighan and the bunch of about 4 or 5 riders then more or less blocked my way for the first lap as I was a bit wary of trying to pass them through the twisty bits, especially as there was a couple of newcomers amongst them, and I didn’t want to risk them pulling across the front of me. As it was, I was having to back off in a few places, to avoid running into the back of them. So I decided to bide my time and start to pick them off one by one on the long straights, or into some of the harder breaking points. I managed to out drag a VFR400Honda on the straight after Ballakeighan but he nipped back under me at the tight right hander before Iron Gates but I got him back again at Ballabeg hairpin and that was the last I saw of him.
I then got into a bit of a dice with a couple of guys, one on a 500 Honda and another on a Manx Norton. By the time I had got through, the next nearest rider, on an Aermacchi, had managed to pull out a bit too much of an advantage for me to be able to close him down. So it was more a case of keeping the other two bikes behind me. I made a bit of an effort on lap three, putting in a sub 3.13 lap, my quickest of the meeting, and a good 6 seconds quicker than practice, to gap them and give me a bit of breathing space.
On the fourth lap, I probably backed off a bit more than they did when the yellow flag came out at Ballabeg, and they were back snapping at my heals again. However, I managed to keep them behind even when the rain flags came out on the railway bridge at Castletown corner. A localised rain shower just caught the corner of the circuit from the Great Meadow to the start line for the last 3 laps. It wasn’t really enough to wet the road surface much but it was enough to put a distracting amount of drops on the visor. More of an issue though was a reoccurring, and highly irritating missed gear as I went up the box and then I started to suffer a momentary cut in the ignition at higher revs in top, especially over the rise/bump at Great Meadow.
This gave the chap on the Manx Norton the impetus he needed and he set his fastest lap on the 5th lap and he managed to nip back pass me after cross four ways. I chased after him but I had another cut out before Ballakeighan on the last lap. I backed off and decided to just nurse the bike home as it seemed okay at slightly lower revs, but in doing so it allowed the pesky 500 Honda to close right up and he managed to get his nose back in front momentarily. However, I was having none of that and made sure I was back ahead before Stadium corner, took a defensive line into Castletown corner and gunned it to the line a full two tenths ahead of him. I dropped around 6 seconds on that last lap, which was more or less the gap to the Norton. However, I was happy enough with a top ten finish and the bike and me still in one piece.
I think I will now retire the bike from racing and save it from any more abuse. I may covert it into something along the lines of the black strike, but we shall see. Whether or not I do another pre-TT also remains to be seen, but it was a bit of fun after 30 odd years away from racing the circuit. 🙂
Footnote
A couple of vids of the qualifying and races have already appeared on utube. Having looked, I’m so glad I wasn't out in the rain on the Saturday evening.
 
piranha-bro2 said:
How does the Pre-TT work, Andy? Do you ride part of the actual TT course, and if so, how much of it - the video shows some insanely high speeds!!
Click to expand...
The pre-TT is held on a course that is totally separate to the mountain course used for the TT and MGP. However, to complicate matters, a few years ago the organiser of the TT decided to run some ‘TT Races’ for small capacity bikes, e.g. 250 two strokes, on the Billown course although many of the TT purists didn’t consider them to be ‘proper’ TT races (including the TT Riders Association). But saying that, it was not really much different to the running of races on the Clypse course back in the 1950s, and if you won one of the races your name goes down in the record books as having won a TT whatever some people think or say.
As an aside, you mention the insane speeds, well you are right as the course has several long ‘straights’, and one very long straight, as well as the difficult twisty bits. I’m also told the course wouldn’t be allowed in Ireland, but I don’t know why looking at some of the ‘mad’ courses they race on over there.
www.racingcircuits.info

Billown Circuit

Castletown is host to the Isle of Man's other active road racing circuit, with events held continuously since 1955. Today the Billown Circuit is used several times a year and event includes events as part of the famous TT for sidecars and lightweight classes, alongside its own famed Southern 100...
www.racingcircuits.info www.racingcircuits.info
 
So proper mass starts, has the mountain TT ever been mass starts? For a tiny Island you have plenty of race curcits Andy. I just checked my pay TV, It's June soon but no TT is listed yet.
 
When they did the 10 lap proddy races in the 70’s they had mass starts. I think that was only twice as of course the races have always been Time Trials.
As for coverage of practise and racing* there quite a few websites offering video round ups of the days action. I think there should also be live feeds through the official TT website.
 
The TT telecast starts tonight on the Oz pay TV, BTW I saw the video of what happened to Michel in the Senior. I have issues installing my visor to my latest Shoei, fiddly and frustrating. Poor buggar.
 
Dellortoman said:
I'm guessing those belly pan mounting brackets were aluminium if they only lasted a few minutes. You'd be better off with mild steel for the brackets. It won't look as nice as aluminium or stainless, but it'll last longer before cracking. It might even get you through a whole race. I'd be taking some spare brackets to the track if I were you.
Click to expand...

I'm personnaly using hardened aluminium brackets .. coupled with 'quarter turn' Dzus fastners .. since the beginning of the 2023 season.
Front single bracket is kind of 'soft mounted' at the bottom of the exhaust ..
Rear ones are doubled .. see pics.

Proved very efficient and very light.
Made five races (Germany, Belgium, Italy and Spain) without any issues.

home made of course :)
 

Attachments

  • Resize_20240612_101615_5773.jpg
    Resize_20240612_101615_5773.jpg
    392.8 KB · Views: 40
  • Resize_20240612_101616_6651.jpg
    Resize_20240612_101616_6651.jpg
    321.9 KB · Views: 39
  • Resize_20240612_101617_7325.jpg
    Resize_20240612_101617_7325.jpg
    339 KB · Views: 41
  • Resize_20240612_101618_8048.jpg
    Resize_20240612_101618_8048.jpg
    444.1 KB · Views: 41
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top