NBT- I'm going racing 😳

[Supermofo]

F900s were available at ridiculously cheap PCP deals a little while back around £65 a month I think my brother showed me, at 0%, but I think up to £90 odd quid now. Just get creative with spare lockwired parts and you'd be under warranty and give it back after 3 seasons. One careful owner

[crust]

Nice. You scrub up well.

Top end to a brilliant seasons racing, talent will out.

Tuono for next year gets my vote, you know you love them.

[Tricky]

Time for an update I guess

Well, I’ve decided to stick with the Bandits for one more season, it is of course the easiest option, but that’s not the only reason, although they are very basic, heavy and pretty slow all considered , they are surprisingly good fun (very, to me) on track with a half decent rear shock and a bit of fettling, and I just have a feeling that I still have unfinished business in the class...

Although I of course won the Seniors class very convincingly, the reality is that I didn’t have that much consistent competition, and to date, although last season I had a couple of 3rds if you counted me as a non-Senior, that’s as good as it got in 20-odd races
Until towards the very end of the season generally speaking I would typically be 5th to 7th over the line overall, so although, that mattered not a jot to my championship points or trophy collecting, those couple of 3rds were so satisfying, and I would absolutely love to win one of the races outright, so that’s the target this season

And to that end, as I’m definitely not naturally talented like some definitely are, I’ve decided to take it a bit more seriously, which basically means dropping 9 or 10 Kg in bodyweight ( which I’m well on the way to having dropped 6kg in the last 5 weeks just by cutting out 95% of my previously regular alcohol and any chocolate / crisps etc consumption, although TBH that’s a small part and I generally eat healthily anyway), having a no-beer rule until Sunday nights from the beginning of a race week , and what I hope is crucially, investing in and using a lap-timer, which I’ve fitted with a bracket I’ve fabricated from the remains of a damaged mudguard stay from a 1948 Sunbeam S7, which definitely would have made my old Dad smile I reckon



The reality of all this may be absolutely bugger all difference to my pace, but, well, I am certain it ain’t going to to make me slower, and it’s something to aim for eh

As for the bikes, TB has had a full engine service with the first thing being a compression check which showed all was well, so new plugs, oil, filters etc and valve clearances. The inlets had closed up enough to need adjusting on two cylinders, but all exhausts hadn't moved all season.





I was also getting a bit of clutch slip at the last round, so out it came for inspection.



All the plates looked good an well within tolerance with no visible signs of wear,



So the plates went back in, with some new (slightly longer and stronger) HD springs

Old springs


New ones


It’s also had some other ( top secret but all within the rules ) fine tuning to optimise engine performance and although unfortunately it wasn’t possible to run it on my benchmark dyno at MSG racing as Gav’s ageing Dynojet Dyno is broken and he currently can’t get the bits to fix it as it’s too old, we performed very well on PDQ’s with good numbers, no hint of clutch slip, near perfect AF and my fine tuning on the day netting me a clear 2HP and 2.5 lb/ft of torque pretty much all the way from 7k to the limiter at 12k- the actual numbers on any dyno other than the club one at the circuits are arguably irrelevant, but suffice to say I'm as happy as I can be with the results



Apart from that, I’ve also made some brackets to fit the only form of fairing I’m allowed on it, which is either the original plastic from the “W” model Bandits, or an identical silhouette pattern one which is what I’ve got.

This was first fit, I’m currently half-way through rattle-canning it to try and make it look at least half presentable from a distance




And that’s where we currently are- the original old girl is now on the bench and having the same engine service treatment and check-over, and I still need to properly sort the rear ride height with some different dogbones to try and settle the handling on wets, and we should then be hopefully all set to go get em!

First outing is an official test day at Castle Combe in 2 weeks time, with first races being at Brands two weeks after that.
I’m planning on doing all the NG rounds, and have also joined Darley Moor club and entered their first meeting on weekend on 11/12th April, it will be my first time ever there so that should be interesting, and depending on how I like it I my also try and do some more there, although at least a couple of the rounds clash with NG meetings.
And at the NG meetings, I’m also planning to ride in the PI600 class at most, if not all rounds- the poor old Bandit will be a good 30+ HP down on the front running bikes in this class, and be on worse suspension and tyres so I’m not going to be troubling too many I suspect, but I’m not planning on being last either - my view is it’s more seat time which is always a good thing.
On top of that, as I now have my National licence I’ll be doing Aberdare this year, and if I can might try and fit in one of two Aintree rounds too, whilst you can still race there.

Anyway, that’s it for the moment, more to follow as the season progresses! (non alcoholic ones during race weekends though )

[weeksy]

Top post. Living the dream mate

[Rockburner]

Excellent, looking forward to the reports!

[Dodgy69]

Always remember, beer is your friend.

[Buckaroo]

What more can one ask for?

WSBK, MotoGP, BSB and @Tricky racing.

Bloody brilliant !!

[Taipan]

Epic thread! Keep the updates as regular as the trophies!

[Supermofo]

Nice bit of prep work there matey. Good luck with the season and I've got the weekend of 21st March in my calendar so if it's not pissing down, for a change, I'll be along to cheer you on.

[Tricky]

It seems like it’s been a long time coming, but at last we’re off and running with the first meeting behind us, which was this weekend just gone at Brands, and it wasn’t a bad one at all!

Prior to that, two weeks ago I had what was to be my first outing(s) on the bikes at the official NG test day at Castle Combe, albeit it turned out to be a total washout- literally.
It pissed down all day, which in itself wasn’t necessarily a bad thing as I could do with more wet practice, but two sessions in,a Ducati dropped it’s oil for a complete lap



The wet track apparently didn’t help matters and long story short, the mess was so substantial, they ran out of detergent with the end result that it took from 11am until gone 3pm to get the track in a suitable condition to be able to ride on.
On top of that, there were a record number (36!) newbies doing their ACU CTC that day, and they of course had to take priority so 3 to 4 pm was taken up with them doing their practical on-track stuff meaning that racer sessions didn’t get underway again to well gone 4pm, by which time many had given up waiting and gone home.
Looking on the positive side though, I got a bit more tracktime than most, as I was roped in as an instructor to look after and lead a newbie group around on their practical assessments although we could hardly call it practice as it was sloooow- there were ( understandably) some very nervous wannabe racers there and it was still peeing down- but at least it was some laps I guess, albeit on the old (wet) bike, TB never made it out of the van.



Anyway, on to last weekend at Brands….
I like the Brands round as although the Indy circuit is dead short, it’s still fun, and we stay on-site in the Mercure hotel at the circuit entrance- for the majority of competitors who always stay at the circuit in their motorhomes/ caravans/vans etc I know it’s no biggie, but for me it’s nice not having to drive to and from a local hotel .

So we did the usual, drove down on Thursday afternoon, set up in the garage (sharing with one fellow Banditeer and a ZXR400 rider who’d done the Manx/TT 5 times) , and retired back to the hotel for a hotel room picnic, a bit of TV and bed- spookily, we were given the exact same room that we had last year- 105 if you’re interested



Friday morning came, and it was bleddy freezing! Just on the cycle ride ( I’ve recently bought a bargain very lightly used 8-speed Dahon fold-up bike just for this sort of ocassion ) from the hotel at the circuit entrance to pit lane my hands turned to blocks of ice, but at least it was dry.



I (as one of the Bandits), along with the Minitwins, 400s and Desmo was in group3, so by the time our first session came around the sun was trying to break through , and it was great to be out on the bike.
It was the first time I’d been out on TB since Oulton in October last year, we now of course have a nose fairing, I’m 9-10Kg lighter than I was back then, and although I was definitely rusty, the bike felt good and I was feeling my way in gently.
And it was good that I did, as I spent most of the day chasing down a couple of oil leaks- one from a sealing washer on one of the rocker spindles behind the cylinder head protectors – these things


And the other, which took a bit more sorting out, was from the ignition pick-up cover- it took a bit of a whack at my little off at the Anglesey TD with @dodgy last year meaning that one of the bolts into the crankcase is now an M8 rather than the standard M6, and the spacers on the (compulsory) GB racing cover seemed to be causing an issue now.
I replaced the gasket, and went out again, that didn’t fix it , and after that replaced the GB Racing cover with a new one and all new bolts, and that did, so the next few sessions were uneventful.



As I was in a garage, the scrutineers come to us, which is nice, and this particular one really showed his worth.
So far in my two previous seasons, I’ve only failed scrutineering once, and that was my very first meeting (Oulton 2024), by having plastic rather than metal dust caps .
This time, the scrute detected some play in the rear wheel bearings of the main (blue painted) rear wheel of TB. Admittedly it was very slight, but stating the obvious, on a race bike particularly, any play is unacceptable.
It wasn’t going to be a show-stopper for me, because as well as having a complete spare bike, I also hasd a spare set of wheels in the van, but I ideally didn’t want different coloured wheels (yeah, tart, I know ), or the faff of swapping new tyres onto different wheels, so I whipped the wheel out and replaced the bearings ( it was just the one on the chain side in the wheel but I replaced all three) with some nice new Koyo ones, and dropped the wheels into DCM for a new pair of SportSmart TTs ready for Saturday morning qualifying, and retired back to the hotel.

Saturday morning, and as I’d also entered the pre-injection class , I had two qualifying sessions.
First up for me was PI600- I was the only Bandit entered in it, so fully expected to be pretty much last, as however hard I try, I simply don’t have anyhing like the talent required to make up for a 30-40HP deficit, slicks, lighter bike, better brakes etc…..
Anyway, excuses done- out I went, and although I and the bike felt good, the stopwatch confirmed a mediocre performance of mid 56secs qualification time, but excitingly for me, there were slower people than me out there- I’d qualified 13th out of a grid of 17, with two R6s, an R7 and a ZX6 behind me- Yay!- it looked like at least I’d have someone to race with, or beat , so I was happy with that, despite my slightly disappointing time

Next up was qualifying for the Lightweight Naked Streetbike (LNSB) class, my main event, and here we were sharing the grid with the Minitwins, which TBH is greatly preferable to the “Golden Era Superbikes” that we were sharing with for most of last season, as although a well-ridden decent Minitwin is significantly quicker than a Bandit over a lap, they are a lot closer, especially on the straights.
I felt that I was starting to get my eye in now, so this session went a bit better, with me qualifying in the 55s- still not quite equalled my previous Bandit PB but it was very cold out there, and putting it into perspective, that was 3rd fastest Bandit, 1st Vet and put me 8th on a grid of 28, so very happy with that

My first race (out with the PI600s) came around , and out I went.
I got a half-decent start, gaining a few places in the first 50 yards, but passed again by almost everyone as soon as they got into 2nd gear, and by the end of the first lap was on my own , with the four I’d out-qualified behind me.
And that’s how it stayed for the rest of the race, I was no where near fast or close enough to the guys in front to be able to catch and challenge any of them, and none of the four behind me were close enough to me to challenge me, so TBH it was one of the dullest races I’ve ever had, was sort of like being on a trackday again, just doing laps, with me crossing the line basically where I stated- 13th out of 18, but as I found out later, I was 2nd PI Vet, so FWIW, I got a trophy for my efforts, albeit the relative dullness of the race for me helped me decide not to bother with entering Sunday’s PI races, and just stick with my current Sunday entry of the two LNSB races.

I had a break for 30 mins or so, then I was back out for my first LNSB race, which I was much more looking forward to, starting 8th on the grid, and I had the camera on facing forward for this one.
And although I lost my way a bit for a lap or two half way through after a lost the front at Mclarens, it was a decent race for me- slightly frustrating in my lap-times in that I still hadn’t broken into the 54s, but I crossed the line 8th on the road, 1st Vet and 3rd Bandit with the next Bandit some 6 seconds behind me, so a decent result.

Vid of the race here- I also have an edit including the GPS stats which is quite cool to see top speeds, G force etc, I couldn’t do the 360 degree views with them enabled so you don’t get to see some of the stuff behind me, so I think this is the better vid- on this circuit, for this race, anyway. Actual race starts at 3min20sec.




The weather on Sunday was pretty much the same again- very cold (4-5 degrees) first thing and foggy, but it cleared later in the day and I had two great races, crossing the line 1st Vet /3rd Bandit/9th overall (only just though with 0.11 of a second covering 3 of us at the finish!) in the first race,(I put the camera on the back of the seat for this one)



And basically same again ( 1st Vet and 3rd Bandit) in the last race, albeit with a much bigger gap between me and the next Bandits.

And that wrapped up my weekend- maximum points in my class, so , as Borat would say, great success plenty of laughs with my two brothers who both came to watch / help, stayed in the hotel Saturday night and came out to dinner with us , and really good to catch up with a load of friends that I haven't seen since last year.



I’m definitely a bit rusty and tentative but it’s coming back, and is nothing bit more track time won’t solve.
One point that is interesting to me is that I expected my significantly reduced weight (10kg lighter than I was at the end of last season) to have an effect on my lap-times, but it hasn’t yet, albeit it has really reduced the amount I sweat- prior to this weekend, the inside of my lid would be dripping with sweat and I’d be red in the face at the end of every race, irrespective of the ambient temperature, but I barely broke a sweat at any point this weekend.

Anyway, something for me to ponder on, and take to the next round which is Cadwell in 3 weeks time, but the weekend before that I’ve got what will be my first ever visit to Darley Moor for the opening round of their championships- after speaking to a few at Brands this weekend, I have mixed feelings about it, and particularly as it will be my only meeting to date that Isabella won’t be with me, but I’m sure it will still be fun, and it's more seat time ahead of the next round at Cadwell- I’ll report back, whatever happens
Between now and then, TB will be getting the usual nut and bolt check, maybe a few stickers on the fairing and might see if I can chase down a few more horsepower, albeit short of a top-end refresh that's realistically unlikely to be successful, but we shall see.

Oh and a final note- all the Bandits got ushered into Parc fermé and dynoed at the end of LNSB race 1- mine wasn’t the fittest (5hp down on top bike), but not bad and pretty much in the middle of the pack at 74bhp , which for reference, was 80bhp on PDQ’s dyno a couple of weeks ago...

[Rockburner]

Nice!

Is it reasonable to assume that the difference in power readings is mostly down to the different dynos?

[mangocrazy]

Great write up! On the Dyno thing - is there a ceiling for power output and do you get DQ'd if you break the limit? If so, what is the max power an LNSB Bandit can make?

[Dodgy69]

It's a better read than MCN for sure. 2 great vids aswel, well done Tricky.

[Supermofo]

Well done Tricky, your usual top quality write up. Sorry I didn't make it down, ended up having to do some jobs for the folks Sunday morning which meant I'd have missed most the action. Wasn't a total write off though as managed to get out for a first ride of the year late afternoon. Was fairly chilly though though as you say.

Good luck for the next rounds, keep this up though and you'll need a trophy room!

[Tricky]

Cheers all!

Nice!

Is it reasonable to assume that the difference in power readings is mostly down to the different dynos?

Yup- they are both Dynojet dynos, and ambient temp used was pretty much the same, but I had been previously told by more than one person that PDQ's dyno tends to give high readings- I'm not sure whether that's due to correction factor, or some other aspect of operation, but am inclined to think it's the case, as 74HP is exactly the same as my bike made on the club dyno the last time it was dynoed, last season

Great write up! On the Dyno thing - is there a ceiling for power output and do you get DQ'd if you break the limit? If so, what is the max power an LNSB Bandit can make?

Oh yes, there are power ceilings- now it is absolute max of 80HP and 40lb/ft torque- it was raised to these last season with the demise of the "Bandit Challenge" as the Championship used to be called, when it morphed into LNSB - power limit until then was 78HP, I think the slight raise was just to give a little more leeway for the dyno conditions, as tech regs haven't changed- Pretty much everything engine-wise (even down to having the std gauze thing in the airbox) except exhaust and main jets has to remain stock, albeit that hasn't stopped people cheating over the years with different cams, ignition systems, skimmed heads etc, but the dyno makes it very obvious if someone is cheating, and the checks are never pre-announced to stop people being able to hobble their bikes between finishing a race and being checked

And yep, if you do exceed the power limits, or your bike is technically non-compliant in any other material way, you forfeit all points from that round

[IccyV2]

Looks like you're having a lot of fun and giving us some great reading material for the evenings.
Keep it up

[Tricky]

Looks like you're having a lot of fun and giving us some great reading material for the evenings.
Keep it up

Cheers and yep, I'm loving it and it's become really addictive- I honestly never thought that I'd get this much enjoyment from it this time around, but it's even better.

[Tricky]

Last weekend I took a trip up to Derbyshire and a track that I have heard lots about for many years, but never actually visited- Darley Moor.

As I mentioned above, at Brands I was chatting to some of the vastly more experienced racers than me about it , and the common themes seemed to be that it’s short, easy to learn and fun, but also a place you don’t definitely want to crash at.

And after my experiences this weekend, I completely agree, it’s definitely quite different to all the MSV tracks in the same way that , say, Pembrey or Lydden is, and despite it being one of the smaller and scruffier tracks that I’ve ever visited, I loved it!

The meetings there are run by the Darley Moor Sports Club only, and for me, compared to the typical current Bemsee or NG meetings, in some ways it really was like stepping back into the 1980s, but in a very good way – the facilities, however wasn’t one of the good ways



Anyway, I got set up in between rain-showers on some reasonabley flat hard-standing, fired the gennie up and was all set.



Although it’s in Derbyshire, if I didn’t know that and had to just guess from the people there and way it was run, , I would have said West Yorkshire or possibly West Lancs, as that’s where most of the people I met and spoke to, and the ladies running it seemed to hail from, well, going from their accents and mannerisms anyway
It's the sort of place I could imagine Yozza, KFB, or Iccy being at and in their element at , with a really nice family sort of feel about it.

And the rules- on the face of it, there seemed to be more than usual ( an example would be having to take your helmet to sign on, that was a new one to me and caught me out), strict gate entry protocol and regular re-enforcement of the ban on electric scooters, paddock bikes etc, but on the other side of the coin, you are allowed to bring your dogs along, whether you’re a spectator or competitor, which I must admit, I really liked as there were loads there, and I reckon there is a good chance that encourages people to visit.
Scrutineering was also very quick and efficient, for me anyway, they were very good at getting bikes out onto the grid and away and overall I thought it was all pretty well organised

As for the track, well, for anyone that doesn’t already know, it’s an ex-RAF airfield, and a pretty basic layout with relatively few corners- basically this.


As such it’s relatively quick and easy to learn compared to most other places IMO, but I guess like lots of other places, to really go fast, you need to really know it in a couple of places, and what that schematic doesn’t show is the detail of the Wilsons and Esses chicanes- both of them are three-way (left, right, and left again) , and TBH pretty much single file, f. fast and not somewhere you’d want to crash- this is a screengrab from my onboard going through one of the chicanes - it doesn’t really show how fast the side to side flicks are or how close the tyre walls are IMO but hopefully you get the idea



If you want to have a camera on your bike there, you have to have the (usual) tech sign off, but beyond that, you have to sign a form surrendering all rights to the ownership of any footage to the club and ACU, and a stipulation that you agree to never share any of the footage on YouTube or any other public social media site.
Not quite sure why they have that restriction nd the likes of MSV etc don’t, ( my guess is the potential for injury) , but it matters not- I signed it and have (some excellent) video, but of course won’t be sharing it publicly on here.

As for my experiences there?
Well, the weather was all over the place- we had plenty of rain, hail (one race had to be stopped because of it) and the temperature barely made it into double figures for most of the day, so definitely a place to take your big coat, as the northerners would say!



This is the first round of the club’s season, and just a single day meeting, which gives you two races per class, plus one timed practice (ie qualifying) session, and I was in the CB500/Bandit class (@KungFooBob that also includes GPZ500s and there were one or two (dreadfully shonky looking ones there ), and we were sharing the grid with the “Lightweight” class, which was basically ZXR/VFR/CBR400s and one or two TZRs
Qualifying for our class was actually dry, which was a big relief for me- I was on TB (is now my No1 bike) and fairly steady in it but starting to get the feel for it by the end of the session, and qualified 9th overall which was 4th in class but almost 3 secs off pole, which of course is a country mile , but reasonably encouraging as I knew where I was slow and not slow, and that more speed was definitely in me.

My first race came around and although the rain had just about stopped, it was very very wet so out I went on the old bike, which of course is now my wet bike.
The lights went out and off we went- the engine and brakes felt tip-top, but I still haven’t completely cracked this instability problem on the wets on this bike so it was wobbling like a bastid on the straights and not that pleasant to ride, but I had no dramas apart from a small foray onto the grass on the last lap after getting mugged and nerfed by two CBs at once when I picked the wrong side to get past a back-marker.
That was a shame, but still not the end of the world- I crossed the line 11th, which was 7th in class , with my fastest laps still approx 3 secs off the winner.
Definitely not one of my most enjoyable races , but absoloutely not my worst either, and I was gaining confidence- I just needed it to be dry for my second (and last) race of the day.
Unfortunately it didn’t look like that was gong to be the case, as following the hail, we had a monumental cloudburst two races before I was due to go out, and Slim (a fellow Bandit racer from NG, and a Darley local and expert) were watching the races together and looking at the sky trying to decide what to do, as although the rain stopped fairly quickly and the sun was trying to break through, the track was still soaking wet with some deep puddles all over the paddock.



It was one of those times when having a “wet” bike really comes into it’s own, as you can leave the decision to the very last minute, and that’s what I did. I had the tyre warmers on TB, both bikes fuelled and ticking over warming up and didn’t make the decision until final call for the race and gambled on dry tyres.
Although there were puddles everywhere ( this is a screengrab from me riding to the grid), the sun had well and truly broken through and it was pretty windy so as long as the rain held off, I knew it would dry quickly.



I must admit though, I was seriously wondering if I’d made the right choice when I rolled into the collecting area through, as Slim, and what looked like the majority of the rest of the grid were on wets. Hmmmm......
I needn’t have worried, though, as soon as I got half way around the sighting lap I was laughing to myself in my lid as although there was still a lot of damp patches, there was a dry line for most of the lap- game on!



The lights went out and I took it reasonably easy for the first lap so lost a few places, but then got my head down and started picking people off with relative ease, which felt so good.
I crossed the line 4th, which was 2nd in class, but the biggest bit for me was I (just) got fastest lap

I can’t tell you how good that felt after getting soaked through , nearly losing my gazebo in the fierce wind gusts and sitting in the van trying to stay warm for a lot of the day.



So, overall, another brilliant weekend for me, I now love Darley Moor, and if I can, I will get back there although most of the rest of the season’s dates clash either with NG/ other meetings I want to do, or one of our planned holidays etc.

And there is more to come this weekend- I’m writing this on Weds 15th ahead of finishing off the usual once-over and couple of little jobs on the bikes this afternoon, before loading up the van again and heading up to Cadwell tomorrow for the next round of the main NG Championships- For some reason, the Cadwell round is always one of the most attended for NG, usually with full grids, and I love the place despite it being another gazebo and gennie round, and one of my brothers is coming up and staying in Louth with us to help and cheer us all on so it'll be a good one- fingers crossed for some half-decent weather, I'll let you know next week

[weeksy]

I can’t tell you how good that felt after getting soaked through , nearly losing my gazebo in the fierce wind gusts and sitting in the van trying to stay warm for a lot of the day.

Character building i think they call it... it's a feeling i know well

[Rockburner]

– the facilities, however wasn’t one of the good ways

I've seen (and used) far, far worse!