OZ BEARS nationals 2022

Ok there ya go 4 out of 4 now 64 points bra ahead Veloce did all the heavy lifting this weekend including setting a new bench mark lap record whilst her sibling worked on her tan out the back 😂👍
Good to see a host of nsw club LAVERDA guys hang around ti watch the last race and Tommy Boy too before ge headed back to Canverra
TC1000KM hung around and helped us load 👍
Guess who then gets them prized up front spot in the van fir the trip home 🏠 8FA9ABF3-C681-4152-BED4-18C45DFC55DA.jpegC6881D04-08FA-4FEF-9447-0796167A4096.jpeg24A43443-1B44-4EE2-9BF2-2EF830CFA54E.jpeg93B0B4B0-03EA-40F3-8D62-B5CFAF531586.jpegD3E583D1-E431-425D-ADDF-488378945699.jpegF8457116-2585-4D22-9BE7-6F6A6163A027.jpeg
 
How good was that, its was a bit of a rushed Breaky but pretty tasty before heading out to Eastern Creek. The weather was perfect, warm in the sun with a nice cool breeze off the Blue Mountains. Its been so long since we have been race bike watching, THE BUG , and it was so great to shoot the shit with the bike race blokes. On talking shit I just about did when Reds Orange beast fired up without warning. It's got a killer bark these days. So race one had a great dice between Matt on Reds bike and a Speed Triple with Matt saying he was tailing him for 3 or 4 laps gathering intel before pouncing and then pulling away to a great win. Race 2 had Matt starting in Position 1 and according to what he said after he got the usual clunk into 1st but no gear arrived resulting in a full blow bog and the whole field sailing past, Holy Crap it looked scary. Thankfully no contact was made but it resulted in him dead last heading to turn 1. The following laps were a sight to see, one orange Laverda carving through the field and eventually going after that same Speed Triple, fantastic to watch on seeing this full blow charge, and finally coming home behind that bike. BTW it's a much later spec and in a faster class so in the end, it didn't really matter. Bloody good fun watching it happen though. I had a ball spectating and catching up with lots of old fellows, most are going to the Snowy and Belengin runs as well.
 
The last race of the day for the LAV was just stunning.
As Vince has said, bogged down on the start and way down the field into turn 1.
From there it was just an amazing journey up into second, with phenominal corner speed in some corners, round the outside on others and way deep under brakes. That distinctive LAV triple sound was glorious.
The more modern bikes have the jump out of some corners, the tighter ones ones for sure, but on corners where higher speed is maintained, the LAV was a rocket ship. With Matt in the 'zone', the 1050 Speed Triple was being caught hand over fist, lap by lap.
Matt did a superb job, one he should be very proud of.
Red should be very proud of the bike, just a superb result for the whole weekend, not just the last race.
I know it made me very proud !

That last race was to me equal to Drmsby's run away triumph in the Ken Wotton Trophy way back on Batto's 917SLC twin. Very different races, but both equally memorable.

As for the sun baking Mule, well it was just plain tired of playing on the race track.
It sure enjoyed being the centre of attention as people walked by and gave it a second take. It also took pleasure in being surrounded late in the day Sunday by a 74 3c, 75 3c, and 2 120 JOTA's.

Roll on Broadford.
 
Sounds like a brilliant spectacle, huge congrats to Red, Matt and the crew.
Not sure if it had already been done at an earlier meeting, but that has beaten the 917's best time there by 0.4s. Really moving!
I had bikes to spanner on for upcoming rides so couldn't really make it, but hoping to be at Broadford if the Redax crew are going.
 
They are and it lines up with the 40th anniversary of the NSW club and who knows how many Snowy Rides. So that's causing some splitting of who and where which is a bit of a shame as both are big attractions.
 
Well done generally. Those tyres look pretty good too. The suspension would seem to be sorted.
nearly, we are missing edge grip, spinning up the rear really bad when leaned over especially at Eastern Creek
need to work on rear shock adjustment to increase rear grip, rest is working great
 
quick recap from Eastern Creek, broke one gearbox in practice so left us with one bike to do qualifying and the 4 races
fairly normal really this year, engines are being worked way harder than factory ever considered they would be

won 4 races from 4 in our F4 Class and lowered the track record for Formula 4 in BEARs, finally
to put that into perspective, we have broken the lap records for F4 at Mac Park, Morgan Park, Hidden Valley, Phillip Island and Broadford constantly over the last 5 years we have raced but never broke the EC record

That Eastern Creek F4 record has stood since 2003, set on a Ducati 900 Super Darmah which was a really special bike, hand built special that rarely comes out to play these days
Record stood at 1min, 44.25 secs, we ran 1min, 44.152secs in Race 3 on the weekend to finally break it

In doing so we broke 2 x cam chain tensioner blades, one in both engines, took out 2 piston liners, 1 piston, damaged 1 gearbox and seem to have damaged internals on 1 set of forks and that is only after stripping one engine

Not certain how long I am going to keep doing this, if I cannot solve this fucking cam chain tensioner blade issue then will give this racing caper a miss, is costing a lot of money and time rebuilding my engines after every meeting
 
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quick recap from Eastern Creek, broke one gearbox in practice so left us with one bike to do qualifying and the 4 races
fairly normal really this year, engines are being worked way harder than factory ever considered they would be

won 4 races from 4 in our F4 Class and lowered the track record for Formula 4 in BEARs, finally
to put that into perspective, we have broken the lap records for F4 at Mac Park, Morgan Park, Hidden Valley, Phillip Island and Broadford constantly over the last 5 years we have raced but never broke the EC record

That Eastern Creek F4 record has stood since 2003, set on a Ducati 900 Super Darmah which was a really special bike, hand built special that rarely comes out to play these days
Record stood at 1min, 44.25 secs, we ran 1min, 44.152secs in Race 3 on the weekend to finally break it

In doing so we broke 2 x cam chain tensioner blades, one in both engines, took out 2 piston liners, 1 piston, damaged 1 gearbox and seem to have damaged internals on 1 set of forks and that is only after stripping one engine

Not certain how long I am going to keep doing this, if I cannot solve this fucking cam chain tensioner blade issue then will give this racing caper a miss, is costing a lot of money and time rebuilding my engines after every meeting
Hi Red,
Well done to Yourself for setting up such a fantastic package to allow Matt to break the lap record at EC.
I was thinking what do the Japanese do in terms of cam chain tensioner? I checked out Yamaha R1 , and they appear , I dare say I'm wrong , to have designed a blade that absorbs the force rather like cars crumple zones. Its designed to move, without breaking, rather than a solid piece which once past a certain point will just break!
Andy
 

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Disagree. The tensioner blade on those is as stiff as f***. Note the deep section and reinforcing ribs. All the current big jap multis use very similar blades. Deep and stiff mouldings in a very strong material. Where they fall down in use is that the tension is provided by oil pressure. Pretty well universally when raced a manually adjustable tensioner goes in. Any grit or material in the tiny oil passge to the tensioner and tension is lost.
 
Im sure I am not alone in having wondered when Red will retire the race bikes, hopefully not for a little while longer.
To hear and see those two bikes in action is something else.
Especially now with Matt on board, that last race at EC was something else, last place to second place and pretty much all in view of the spectators, and the 180 roar blasting over all the other bikes. :love: :love:
And thats not taking anything away from the previous 3 races.

The race meetings are truly special, a great meeting of people and a huge injection of enthusiasm for our small Laverda community.

Im sure you can sort the cam chain issue Red, its just another in a long line of problems you have had to sort on these two girls.
The cost however is something else.
Would hate to think what the average cost of a race meet is.

Congratulations on the new race record Red,Matt and of coarse Brett.
Simply outstanding!!!

Long May the Redax girls be breaking records👍👍👍

So if you get the chance get out and see the Redax team in action it is amazing.

Cheers
Tom
Already missing Broadford:(
 
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Brilliant result Red and the team. I can only imagine your frustration at knowing you have the package of all packages there but the breakages hurt. The wins are surely massive consolation or justification. The thought of the costs scares the hell out of me! But we do all have enormous respect for you and the massive effort and moula you put into it. so where to next? Gear driven cams?!

Hope I can make it to Broady.
 
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I guess everyone that races goes through the same question on a regular basis - is it really worth it? If it’s someone else’s money, then as long as they happy to carry on shelling out it’s not so much a problem. But when it’s coming out of your own pocket and the cost/reward ratio starts to go steeply into negative territory then you’ve either got to be pretty well off or barking mad to carry on. This especially so if you are competing at a high level and wish to stay there. It would be fantastic to see the team continuing to be out there doing their stuff, but I know from the experience of other teams there is only so much you can do before you burn out. Sometimes it’s better to quit when you are at the top.
 
Heading south this morning to Bellingen to rendezvous with Bruce k . Tomorrow continue sth avoiding the m1 to meet up with the Sydney lads at Crookwell- hopefully a run over the western snowys and into broady to watch records tumble- catch yas there- you should’ve come with us mark- weather is awesome 😎
 
as the points stand in BEARs going into the last round, Matt is leading both the F1 and F4 championships
68 points in front in F1 and 64 points in front in F4
All going well this weekend he will be the first dual champion since Freddie Spencer :D :cool:

Looking like a wet weekend though, have 3 sets of wet tyres loaded for the Laverda's, 2 sets for the BMW
 
All the very best for you and Matt for the weekend Red.
May the Gods of lap records and Championship wins smile benignly down on you with much love and affection.
:) :)
 
as the points stand in BEARs going into the last round, Matt is leading both the F1 and F4 championships
68 points in front in F1 and 64 points in front in F4
All going well this weekend he will be the first dual champion since Freddie Spencer :D :cool:

Looking like a wet weekend though, have 3 sets of wet tyres loaded for the Laverda's, 2 sets for the BMW
I will follow the results in the forum good luck 👍Andre
 
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