Jen Crosby's Racing Blog

Sunday June 25, 2006

Pembrey trackday - my bike is broken!!! :o(

It's been a bit of a week of bad luck really. With only a few days to go until our two-dayer at Pembrey, our cat fell ill, meaning he needed frequent trips to the vet as well as needing antibiotics twice a day. Ultimately this meant that one of us would have to stay at home, for at least one of the days, possibly both. Greg arrived back from a working week in Paris on Thursday afternoon, and we decided that I would go to Pembrey, leaving him to look after the cat. I wasn't very happy about leaving him behind, but reluctantly we packed up and I set off on the long drive west.

Friday morning, at least the sun is shining, but I wasn't really 'feeling it' for some reason. I got signed on and briefed, and got myself ready to go out for the first session. In the same way as Cadwell a few weeks previously, Pembrey is somewhere I haven't been for a couple of years – in fact the last time I was there it was only my second ever track day, so going out was almost like riding the circuit for the first time again. The three sighting laps were very slow – although I needed to have a few no-pressure laps to get used to it, they were a bit too slow in my opinion – it made getting round the incredibly sharp hairpin very difficult! With the sighting laps over, the first session proper started, and I took it pretty easy, trying to get my lines and gears sorted out as soon as possible.

The first session for the fast group (I was in inters) continued the run of bad luck for our group. In the first lap after the sighting laps their session was red flagged – Conrad had crashed after his brakes stuck on. He was thankfully unhurt, but the bike wasn't so lucky. A bent left fork and a few other broken bits meant that was the end of the weekend's riding for him.

By the third session although I was slowly getting to grips with things, I was still feeling pretty low for some reason, just not really getting into it. The session after lunch was even worse – my concentration levels were low, and I even ended up having a bit of grass tracking on the exit of the hairpin (scary moment – I thought I was ending up on the floor!). After that, I gave myself a bit of a talking to. It seemed pointless to be just trailing round the track, with my head not really in it – it was time to get it together and put some effort in. So with a better attitude, out I went again, and really started to get my head down. It was feeling lots better; I knew what and where I needed to work on, and could feel my focus coming back. Then, about half way through the session, the bike started to make a loud tapping noise. I was half expecting the engine to seize, and slowed down lots, clutch to the ready, but nothing happened – although the noise remained. I cruised round the remainder of the lap, and pulled back into the paddock. Once I got my lid off I could hear, as could everyone else, that the engine was sounding less than healthy  I don't know what the problem is, but it didn't sound good, and I didn't want to do any more damage than might already have occurred, so that was that really. No more riding for me for the weekend.

I called Dynotech, my tuner, to let them know I'd be bringing it in to them on Monday – I have to have the bike sorted ready for my next race in two weeks time. I must admit, I'm really glad it's happened now, and not at the Cadwell practice day which would have been it's next outing on track had I not gone to Pembrey. If it had happened at Cadwell I think I probably would have missed all of my races of the weekend – so I guess that's some small blessing.

The bad luck of our group didn't stop there. Towards the end of the day Loz pulled in after her bike lost power. Suspecting the carbs her and Nige spent some time stripping them down looking for problems. Loz resigned herself to no more riding for the day, but intended to go out for the sighting laps the next day to see if their work had improved things.

There was still a chance that Greg might be able to ride his SP2 up to get some track time on Saturday, so I didn't pack up and just spent the rest of the day relaxing. Around 5 o'clock the vet gave the cat the all clear and let him come home after an overnight stay in the animal hospital, so Greg decided to hop on the bike and ride over. I was really pleased – I'd felt so bad that he'd had to give up two days of track time, while I'd got to go. At least we both got one day on track in the end!

So Saturday morning I decided to give the bike a bit of a clean, and also take the front calipers off to give them a clean and check over. I've discovered that I have a piston sticking on each of the calipers! That might explain why my brakes aren't as good as they ought to be  So that's another job for this week – strip, clean and put new seals in the calipers. It would have been good if I could have done the work at the track, while I had lots of time to kill, but I didn't have the right parts to hand. Oh well...

Greg ended up having a really good day riding the SP2, as did Nige on his ZXR and Rich on his ZX10. Not such a brilliant day for Loz, Conrad and I, but I guess it can't be good all the time. So far for me I've had very few problems with my bike, so I guess I'm due some. So tomorrow it's off to Dynotech to get the bike fixed and sorted again before the racing at Cadwell. I'm a bit gutted – it's never a good time to get a big repair bill.

I'll update again soon, once I know what's wrong with my engine...

( Jun 25 2006, 02:29:33 PM GMT+00:00 )

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