On board video from Macpark 2011 Bridgestone BEARS National challenge race 3

Here is a video I have been working on for literally ages... Combining video from the ductail of Dave Clark's Triumph 675 and my helmet in the third race of the Bridgestone BEARs National Challenge at Macpark.

Clarkie gets a great up on me from the line, and leads the way.. I will leave the rest for you to watch!

Honda Rjays St George Race Series, Round 3 BEARS race 5

Here's my footage from non points scoring race at Eastern Creek on the 11th September.

Images of the DB1 Beta EVO from Eastern ceek 11 Sept 2011

Here are couple of great picks of the db1 Beta EVO at the exit of turn two. A huge thanks to Scotty from http://www.scottspics.com.au/  for the photos.

I always find images from the track very useful. These are no exception. Here are a couple of things from these.

1. Body position - I had been working very hard over this race weekend to keep my upper body relaxed and square to the front of the bike. The more I tense up my inside arm the more off square I become. Turn two had been a bug bear for me, crashing there three times in the last two years, always mid corner in transition from braking to throttle.  Something I have associated with weighting my inside arm to much. Hence my desire to be square on the bike and keep my arms loose.

2. Ground clearance - We made some changes to the Beta EVO to increase ground clearance on the left hand side after first practice. The belly pan is now mounted significantly more square on the bike. These pictures show we have plenty of room left, nice.

3. Swingarm angle - We had numerous problems last year with stance of the Beta EVO, with the swingarm angle being flat if not past flat mid corner and once on the throttle. These images and the lack of any understeer over the weekend validates our changes.

Thanks again to Scotty.

National BEARs Rd4 Race 4, Eastern creek

Final race from Eastern creek round on the 11 September. Including my best lap of the weekend with a 1:45.233.

National BEARS Round 4 race 3 video

Enjoy!

Eastern Creek National BEARS Challenge Rd4

Saturday 10 September 2011

A very cold day greeted the National BEARS circus at Eastern Creek, with a freezing southerly wind playing havoc with many riders, and keep us all cool!

Practice 1: Best lap. 1:47.875, ultimate lap: 1:47.218
With only 8 minutes of practice I was stoked to see a time only .3 of my best lap last year with the 800 engine aboard. The track was cold and a little slippery in places, overnight rain had left the track clear of any rubber.

Qualifying: Best lap 1:48.068, ultimate lap: 1:46.607
Again only 8 minutes to bank a lap. This time I was facing big problems in turns one, four, and twelve with wind, which had picked up considerably since practice. At several stages I found myself blown off line, scariest being in turn one with the light weight bimota moving six meters off the apex. Ahhhhh... Frustrated I could not got quicker, but happy to see my sector times where improving. Now to put them all together. My time put me 13th on the grid, with a favorable run toward the first turn.

Sorry here is the track map, in case you have not had the joy of seeing Eastern Creek. This is taken from my data logger.

Race 1 National BEARS- 5 laps
A fun race. I got baulked on the start, by a rider a head of me stalling his 1098 Ducati. Damn near rammed him, before dodging to the inside of the track toward the pit wall. This boxed me in a little, but I got a great mid corner run from turns one to two. I guess I was about 10th here. The faster guys on 1098 and Aprilia RSV4s all got away leaving me to play with Andrew Smart and Rick Fitzsimmons, 1198 and 1098 mounted respectively. This was great fun and encouraged me to try some different lines about the place to get past them at the back of the track. Andrew had an awesome line onto the front straight, which I followed, and could nearly hang in Ricks slipstream to the start/finish. As I said a fun race.
Result: First in F3, 10th outright, Fastest lap 1:46.712, Best rolling lap 1:46.679, Ultimate lap 1:45.458

Race 2 National BEARS - 5 laps
This race was much more fun. I got a blinder of a start, and got to sixth place into turn two. Ahead of me where Jon Riley and Bill Shanahan both 848 Duc pilots. I was seriously considering taking them both around turn four, but some part of me was saying "no you are not racing them!" so I gave them some room. Lap three I posted a 1:46.2, then both Smart and Fitzsimmons came past me on lap four. Pissed off I gave chase and managed to gather Rick up at turn two. I led all the way to the straight, where Rick used the 1098 grunt to run me down before the line. Great fun, and the last lap was a 1:45.980! Nice!
Result: First in F3, 10th outright, Fastest lap 1:45.980, Best rolling lap 1:45.617, Ultimate lap 1:45.043

More tomorrow I hope. Here is a quick comparison between my fastest 800cc lap and my 1070cc lap. I am being lazy in turns five, seven and nine. I would like to get these right.

Lap to lap comparison, Red line my best ever lap on the 800 engine in 2010, black my best so far on the 1070.

Race 3 National BEARS - 5 laps
The first race on Sunday was a ripper. I got a lightening start, and found myself in sixth place behind my garage mate Jon Riley and Bill Shanahan. I kept with them well around the back on the first lap. Coming out of turn nine Bills bike threw its chain, and both me and Jon dodged around him to carry on. The quicker bikes came past me on lap three, and I decided to keep back and watch the fun. I set a new top speed, of 233kph, assisted I am sure by a lack of wind today.
Result: First in F3, 10th outright, Fastest lap 1:45.777, Best rolling lap 1:45.126, Ultimate lap 1:44.564


Race 4 National BEARS - 5 laps
I was hopping to break into the 1:44 bracket in this race.  I got close but once the faster top speed bikes got past I was not prepared to dice hard with them. Several of them were lightening quick down the front straight, but slow around the back. Slow enough to be erratic in lines and track position. It was fun to watch from a distance, but I did not want to get tangled up in it. Lap three saw F1 points leader Marc Belestro fall in turn three, and Jon Riley fell on the final lap in turn three. Both unhurt thankfully. I set a PB on lap three, and a new top speed of 237kmh and a sustaining 190kmh around turn one. Happy to finish the race in 9th and take all my points for the nationals.
Result: First in F3, 9th outright, Fastest lap 1:45.250, Best rolling lap 1:45.048, Ultimate lap 1:44.217

A great weekend for me and Mike. The Beta EVO is finally where it should have been at race one this year. We will strip the bike down now and prepare it for Phillip Island in December.

Beta EVO MKIII dyno day 4! Microtec ECU testing

Today I visited Motorcycle Weaponry in Mona Vale for some dyno time with my old sparing partner in classic racing, Roger Quinlen. The first run showed that the Microtec has cured the engine misfire that has been plaguing us all year, and it was rich as heck, which I put down to my screwing about with the map provided by the Ducshop team. First run showed 85hp.

Before and after, 84hp vs 94hp. Nice

I am extremely annoyed that the Nemesis has decided to give up the ghost. Not sure just who I should throw it at!

Roger and I worked systematically, using the maps provide by Ducshop to tune the bike. Firstly tuning in the front cylinder and then the rear. The front cylinder took and hour to get right, but the rear took about 20 minutes. We struggled with the rear pot to remove some rich areas, even taking to the advance maps to see if we could remove them. They remained stubbornly in place, confounding both me and Roger.

The finished result was a awesome 94.4HP, right on target for our estimates when starting the 1100 build.

Big thanks to the boys at Weaponry, Roger, Steve, and Arthur

Microtec ECU up and running

We received the Mircotec ECU from Ducshop today. I carefully followed the instructions to calibrate the TPS. The bike strung to life! Here are a few pictures of the two units.

Microtec ECU on left and Nemesis on Right

Again, Mircotec on left and Nemesis on right. The Microtec is much smaller.

I love it when I see this on a product!

So here is a quick and dirty on my experience with the two units. So far.

Hardware: The Mircotec is smaller than the Nemesis and much more toward the size of the OEM Ducati units. I am guessing it makes it lighter. The Microtec also comes with the heat sink already attached which is handy, and its got Microtec machined into it, cool! Being smaller it will mean more air in the airbox where the ECU is located on the Beta EVO.

Connecting up: Pretty much the same, except the Mircotec does not have an extra screw hole for the heat sink to be grounded. I put the grounding wire under one of the mounting bolts. The USB wire on the Mirotec is pretty much the same with a smaller connector, but does not come with the neat flashing lights to show you its connected like the Nemesis.

Software: This is the deal breaker for me. Having used the Nemesis software for some time, I found the Mircotec version to be extremely similar. But is is infinately more polished. An example is the linear setting of the TPS, it was two button presses on the Microtec, rather than entering values corresponding to the settings on the Nemesis. Editing the map data proved easier with tabs for each of the maps (Fuel, advance etc). Also it puts you straight into edit mode rather than having to select it. Very nice.

Maps: Well I guess this is my only issue so far. The Nemesis map data I have is not compatible with the Microtec software, probably because the Mircotec is significantly newer. Bummer! I think there is an conversion program somewhere. I just lined up the two maps on the screen of my PC and changed a copy of the map provided by Ducshop to roughly reflect my settings from our last good run on the dyno, and with the lamba probes working.

Now can we get to a dyno before the weekend to find out if the whole exercise has been worth it!

A horse! A horsepower! My kindom for an ECU that works!

The db1 Beta EVO is now eagerly awaiting the delivery of a Microtec 197 ECU!

http://www.microtec.cc/cms/en/component/content/article/18

After talking to Mark Sutton at DucShop in the US, we have decided to go this way rather than replace the Nemesis with another one. Microtec actually assisted Nemesis with the development of there ECU offering in the early phase, then for some reason cut them off. The Mircotec unit can even import Nemesis tuning maps which will prove very useful to get the unit up and running before the races on the 11/12 September.

The Ducshop boys website is here, and both Mark and Jeff there have been very helpful, thanks guys.

http://www.ducshop.com/