new GS racer

[Charlie G]

I have a used basket I'd part with.

cg

[patrino]

Start with the bad news, right?

july_trophies.jpg

The clutch popped during the second of third practice sessions on Saturday. I was accelerating hard out of turn nine, had just upshifted, when the engine hitched and made a sound like a handful of gravel had been dumped into the engine. I figured I had botched the manual cam chain adjustment and blown the top end. I pulled the valve cover gasket ... looked great. Next the clutch cover, where I found the damage in the earlier post.

About a month ago Dave Signs (Joe Signs' brother), good guy that he is, had donated a couple of spare clutches to the effort. I rode down to my shop at lunch, grabbed it, picked up some oil and a filter from Bridge City Cycles, and headed back to the track. At eight that night I fired her up, sounded good! (Though earlier I did find a nickel (5-cent piece) in the sump pan ... I know I didn't put it there! Charlie G, thanks for the clutch offer, I appreciate it!

Sunday I was able to get up on the podium a couple times, and also set a personal best laptime of 1:17.6. This week I'm going to change the oil and filter (as usual), put in a new set of friction plates, and clean out the sump pan again. Hopefully I won't find any more spare change. (Though finding a $100 bill wouldn't be bad!

I'll try to get some action shots up once the photographers get them posted online.

The next race weekend is VINTAGE DAY, so if you're in the Portland, Oregon area, be sure to be there on Saturday, 16 August! Joe Signs and Joe Pethoud should have their Vintage Superbikes out, and I'm working on wrassling up a couple more entries. There will be a bike show, parade laps, field games, etc., and camp out at the track on Saturday night! $10 at the gate.

P.S. Dropped off my Ohlins forks with the suspension shop at the track, they're looking to see if they can get longer fork tubes for them. Next year!

[patrino]

GregT, fibers had less than a season on them, and I believe were OEM Suzuki plates.

[GregT]

GregT, fibers had less than a season on them, and I believe were OEM Suzuki plates.

Interesting - we've been using EBC fibers quite happily for several seasons now. My guy's start technique is hold at 8 grand and dump the clutch...usually first into the first corner...and we've never broken a fiber (yet)

[patrino]

Tore into the "emergency" clutch I used that Sunday, and it's missing a few pieces of fiber plates, too.

I'm guessing that leftover debris from the 1st clutch explosion damaged them. I cleaned the sump pan, etc. as best I could but I reckon there were still a few pieces in there, enough to damage these fibers.

Hopefully.

I won't get all the bits out without a full teardown, but for now I recleaned the sump pan, hosed out the cases and clutch area. Going to put in a new EBC kit this weekend.

[patrino]

PL_and_JP.jpg

Race update soon! Fixed the clutch, bike ran great at OMRRA's Vintage Day.

The Vintage Superbike grid was tiny, but at least we had a grid! Here Joe P. is behind me in the chicane, on his CB900F. Andrew G. is just out-of-frame on his Moto Guzzi.

[steve murdoch]

Nice racing pic.
I bet there is a big grin behind the mirror shield.

[MK3Brent]

I'm definitely interested in more race photos.

[patrino]

Video this time (~30 seconds)! Thanks to Bob Edwards for uploading, I've put a bunch of his photos here too in previous posts.

Like I said, small grid, but at least we had one.

Final round is coming up in a few weeks. I'm swapping over the gearing (we ran the chicane the last round, as seen in the photo, but won't be for the final round) and putting on a new Pirelli rear slick. Currently sitting 3rd in both 450 Superbike and Middleweight Superbike. It'll be next to impossible to move to 2nd in these classes so I'm set on defending my current position.

[patrino]

Ran into a bit of trouble the last race weekend of the season:


Photo by Bob Edwards, you can see an 11-shot sequence of them here: http://bobedwards.smugmug.com/Motorc...MRRA/i-8Kn74BN

I walked away without so much as a bump, bruise, or scrape, but pretty much every part of the bike suffered some kind of damage: the frame, swingarm, forks, even the CR carbs got whanged.

Right now she's "resting" in the corner of the shop, not going to think about what's next for a couple weeks.

[patrino]

Bigger photo (I think):

gs_tumbling_large.jpg

[Charlie G]

You must have got away pretty early. Glad your ok.

[azr]

wow...glad you're in one piece. Sorry to see all the carnage.

[mmattockx]

Ouch! Glad to hear you are ok. Hopefully the bike is not as bad as it first appears and you can get it sorted again without major problems.


Mark

[Big T]

Ouch! Glad to hear you are ok. Hopefully the bike is not as bad as it first appears and you can get it sorted again without major problems.


Mark

I saw it after the ride on Sunday, it's badly bent