Bling Bling!

Well, here’s the rather lovely R6 radial caliper mount. I’ve not seen it in the flesh, but Ash sent this from his mobile. Technology eh??

The bike’s at his place now, thank you matey. And to Mark at DBR for the beautiful looking chunk of ally on my forks! And if you need any more convincing of his prowess, I hadn’t realised, but it turns out that he also made the blanking plate for where the water pump used to be. He recognised it when we turned up with the bike. Small world, eh? I wonder if the nice swirl which has finished it off will make it any faster….?


And given the press fanfare of the recently re-anglified Norton Motorcycle Company, a name forever associated with single cylinder race bikes, we can hardly not wish them the very best of luck… Ok, so we’ve been here before, and the great name has had a rough time over the last decade or so (Norton Nemesis, anyone?) but if they can turn up beautifully engineered bits of kit as quickly as DBR then they’re half way there. Will the Crighton and Garner partnership result in new Nortons on the road in the next few years? Lets hope so. Now, could a single-rotor rotary motor ever be considered eligible for Supermono…?!

What News, Sire?

Well, this week has been relatively fruitful. Long, dark, cold nights are no better spent in the closed season than in a short, dark, cold garage.

The sloppy swingarm has been cured by using the correct spacers, and the bike now sports a single 320mm disk upfront. After a long day at work Wednesday, I got home, loaded up the van and completed a 200 mile round trip to deepest darkest Essex. After a couple of hours driving I met Ash Norrington at a layby off the A120, with him as ever grinning like a loon! I think he had been dogging, actually…

He took us (me and the bike) out to see Mark, who runs D.B. Racing in Thorpe-Le-Soken, specialising in CNC-machined bits and pieces for racers and roadbikes alike. His workshop was more like a lab (fastidiously clean, spacious, well lit, no sh*t lying around- clearly not MY lab!!), and I was impressed by both his facilities and his attitude. Nothing was too much of a problem, “Yes, we can do that”. Great!

Ash is still concerned about our rear shock keeping the back end rather low, but he may be able to help us out (again!) with something.

Will post some piccies of the bling-bling brakes when I pick up the bike.

***STOP PRESS!*** I just got a call from Ash. Its done! Will try to pick up asap and post a coupla photos.

A bit of video...

This is a bit old, but shows the first time running.

And how stupid we can be, trying to bump it in neutral!

I couldn't figure out how to flip it, so one of the videos is on its side. Just tilt your minitor to enjoy the buffoonery! :)

Nic says...

“Update yer blog!” So in answer…

The bike runs, its just about complete, electrics such as they are, are ready to be laid on, the bodywork fits, cables, levers, bars, steering damper, all good. Brakes… After our screwing around with the (knackered) KR1S callipers, and twin FZR400 300mm disks, Ash came up with a great solution, which suits the Scotsman’s wallet.

He has been an absolute diamond by sorting out Team-Thumper with an R6 calliper and RS125 master cylinder. And Supermono stalwart Nick Oliver also threw a 520 chain our way; top bloke, thanks Nick.

We caught up at the final round of the British Supermono Championship of 2008. Although we weren’t in a position to compete, we did witness to some great racing, and met up with old friends. Ash’s CRF450-based racer is a thing of beauty, and I’m looking forward to a bit of a scrap next season.

So now we need to get a calliper bracket machined up (probably CNC, from DB Racing). It’s a radial calliper, onto our distinctly 1990s fork legs. We also now have 320mm disks. One for our wets, one for the slicks, as we are now going to run a single large disk, saving a decent amount of (unsprung) weight, as opposed to twin 300mm disks.

The whole thing has been dragging on a bit, not helped by the van needing an MOT… So there’s been a month of hand-wringing, and head scratching, before finally forking out. Cos a race team without a van is like…. a chav without Burberry. Or Sovvy rings. Or a Staffie. Or something like that.

I thought that the swingarm needed some spacers turning up, but on tidying the garage last night, I found a suspiciously homeless looking ally spacer which I’m willing to bet takes up the play between frame and swingarm.

No photos on this post, cos nothings changed! But we won’t leave it so long next time- promise! Testing soon?? There’s really not too much in our way now….