Dyno Day for the Beta EVO MK1

Dyno time!

With all the drama's of blown up engines behind us. We finally got the db1 Beta EVO onto the Dyno. A call to Motorcycle Weaponry at Mona Vale got me hooked up with one of my old racing mates, Roger Quinlen. I had raced against Roger back with PCRA in 1997 1998. A quick base line showed we had 72HP at the rear wheel. With the Nemisis onboard we set about dialing in the fueling, it took a while to get a nice smooth AFR, it was worth it with the engine picking up 4 HP for 74.

We tried unsuccessfully to remove the big dip you can see in the power curve at 5800rpm. Adding and removing fuel and advance to the rear cylinder which was showing a rich condition during this range. Nothing would fix it. And we can came to the conclusion that it was suffering from the short header on the rear cylinder which was a pretty standard design for a lot of Ducati engines.

Once we had a clean map we tried some of the Elf fuel I had been advised to try. The results were very impressive! The bike picked up 4 peak HP, and 4 ft/lb of torque. Thats 5% power and 8% torque! WOW! Lovely if you can afford the $11.00 a litre price.

Roger also picked up that the bike's clutch was slipping. Dialing into a zoomed view on the dyno allowed him to show me the spikes and loops caused by the clutch slipping then hooking up. I ordered a new clutch on the way home. Thanks Roger!

If you want a good place to go and get your bike Dyno'ed call Arthur or Steve at Weaponry.
Motorcycle Weaponry
Unit 7, 8 Wilmette Place, Mona Vale 2103
ph 02 9979 4744

Round 3 National BEARS Morgan Park, QLD

The db1 Beta EVO in full flight!

Friday May 7: Practice

A new track beckoned for all but a scant few of the F3 field, Mike Coates was out before we'd turned a wheel with a practice injury. Leaving the title a three way fight between, myself, Glen and Deano. We were also joined by a bunch of very fast F3 locals aboard Supermotards. Friday practice was a bit of a strange one, with timing being provided for each session. Makes a change from NSW, were they bin you for having a lap timer on. The track is a total hoot, its tight, complex, and challenging. Half way through the day I had to replace the battery as the existing one was buggered. The DB-EVo was pinging on several parts of the track where I was getting the throttle open wide at high speed. If it was load or speed related I could not tell for sure. I dialed in 5 percent fuel to counter the detonation. The DB-EVo was also exhibiting the same rear suspension problems I'd had at Wakefield in high load corners. I dialed in another 6mm of preload on the rear spring, this stopped me bottoming out the shock.


Saturday May 8

Saturday was two qualifying sessions, followed by two races. Thankfully they had split the grid into F1/F2, and F3/F4/F5, otherwise the traffic would have been terrible. It was still bad enough, but I made the most of it post a 1:10.7 in Q1 for 5th, and a 1:09.7 for 3rd in Q2. Putting me 3rd on the grid, and best of the guys competing in the BEARS National Challenge. Just behind me was Deano, Glen was struggling a bit further back in the pack.


Race 1: Best lap 1:09.697 F3 2nd
Race one was perfect, I got away well with three Motards and Deano ahead of me. Deano did what I thought he would and race the Motards, this made him run wide on turn four and I slipped by him with ease. For the remainder of the race I chased the motards and set a new PB lap of 1:09.697 to come home fourth. Glen got Deano for fifth, the pair some ten seconds back.

Goose on his own in Race 1

Goose leading Glen

Race 2: Best lap "HA GOOD ONE" F3 9th
Race two was not so perfect. My start was not the best, but I used every ounce of cunning to get back past Glen and Deano before I crossed the line for the first time at pace in fourth. Unfortunately for me, an unnecessary yellow flag on turn three had me shutting the gas for the drive down to turn four. Turn three is a blind fourth gear sweeper so I was extremely slow under a caution, only to find no accident around the corner. In my haste to get away from the chasing pack I arrived to hot at the next bend and lost the front end. Data loggers do not lie, and I'd hit the apex 8km faster than ever before. Thankfully the DB-EVo crashes good, I picked her up, straighten the left bar and take off after the field. I cross the line in 19th! Lap three and I peg back two riders. Lap four according to my mates in the grandstand I overtake 5 people from the final corner to turn three. On the final two laps I muscle my way by two F3 competitors for some valuable points to come home outright 11th or 9th in F3. We throw a new handle bar on the bike and replace the brake pads as a precaution.

Goose post crash claws his way back through the field in race 2

Sunday May 9

Sundays dawned foggy and cold. In warm up I post a time four tenths of my best for the weekend and I was more than happy with the machine and me.

Race 3: Best lap 1:09.121 F3 2nd
Race three saw me start from 11th place on the grid due to my fall. Thankfully the guys ahead of me did as I expected, all crowding themselves on the apex of turn one so I could barrel past them all on the outside. 11th to 5th on two corners. Ahead of me Deano had broken clear with the leading three Motards. I spent two laps tracking him down, posting a 1:09.121 in the process. However once on Deano's tail the Triumph became extremely wide. We finished that way, Deano, Goose, Glen.

Race 4: Best lap 1:09.544 F3 2nd
The final race of the weekend had the same conclusion as race three, with me unable to get past Deano. Both of us circulated in mid 1:09's for the first half to the race but spent the second half tripping over each other. Once more both me and Deano scored points back against Glen who finished just behind us.

Dean and Goose at play in races 3 and 4!

Points after round 3
1. Glen Bauder 240
2. Phill Gray 219
3. Dean Holmes 212
4. John Price 182
5. Ben Gilbert 173

Changes to Beta EVO after round 2

Engine: Me and Mike King remove the borrowed engine, and install the original motor. The original engine was augmented with Pistal high compression pistons, and top ends from our internet engine. Internet heads got a bit of port work and we checked the squish was all good on assembly.

Suspension: The front soft springs we threw in at Mt Gambier were not installed correctly, a couple of sessions with forks and springs gave us a reasonably good setup, with both forks carrying .85kg springs for the next club round at Wakefield park.

Chassis: I ordered some special bits from around the world, and between them and taking some stuff off we lose 3.4kg from the bike.

Round 2 National BEARS Mac Park, SA

 Friday 2 April
Practice went well, and I got a full day on the bike to experiment. The only issue on the day was the inability to record speed, as my dataloggers speedo sensor failed. Still I got down to a flat 1:20. Which was just over a second off my best time here on the db1 in 2001.

Goose readies himself for action

Saturday 2 April
Today proved a lot of fun. I qualified the Beta EVO on the second row and second in F3 behind Dean by four tenths of a second. Race one had Dean do a bolter while I could not beat Glen into turn one, and the power of the 748 could hold me off from attacking in the tight stuff. Damn I was loosing seventy meters down the back straight to the more powerful F3 bikes (all of them four valve engines of course).  Race two was a repeat of the first race, Deano taking off and me unable to attack Glen through a pack of F2 bikes. My best lap time for the day was a 1:19.1, and I know I could go faster once clear of the bikes ahead of me.

Race 1: Fastest lap: 1:20.060
Race 2: Fastest lap: 1:19.757

Race 1 start

Tim West F2 leads Dean and Goose in Race1

Sunday 4 April
Today I threw some soft springs in the front end of the bike, seeking some more turn in at this tight, tight track. Race three saw me all over Glen, as we tussled early for second place behind Deano. This all changed on lap four at the old turn one as Deano got in their to hot and lost the front end, sliding uninjured into the dirt. I could not find a way past Glen for first, but came in stating I would have him in race four come what may.


Race 3: Fastest lap: 1:20.060

Race 3, Dean flogs Goose and Glen

 So, what do they say of best laid plans? It all came undone on the line for me so I thought, the bike slipped the clutch and I was left standing to watch most of the field dissapear into turn one. Lucky for me I ride better when I am pissed off. I quickly got the best of a bunch of F5 guys, staying just ahead of Deano who had to start rear of pack. My dashboard showed I was doing my best times of the weekend, 1:18's, as I mowed down the field. With two laps to run, I'd caught Glen running second in F3 and passed him with ease out of the pine tree? Problem or not I didn't care. Ahead of me in F3 was Mike Coates (Moto Guzzi MGS01), unfortunately for him my dander was still up. Mikes bike is so quick in a straight line, but no match for the DB-EVo as I closed down two hundred meters of gap in two corners to slide under him at the water tower. With an unobstructed final lap I set the fastest F3 time of the weekend (1:18.4)), and bar a missed shift out of the pine tree would have had the lap record on the way to winning F3 for the weekend!

Race 4, Goose passes Mike Coates

Race 4: Fastest lap: 1:18.636

The final race victory put me top F3 scorer, on 81 points equell with Glen. No points back on him, but moving myself into a clear second ahead of Deano for the title. My best lap time being 1.3 seconds better than my pervious PB in 2001.

Goose bores the crap out of everyone

Points after round 2
1. Glen Bauder 171
2. Phill Gray 147
3. Mike Coates 139
4. Peter Smith 136
5. Dean Holmes 135

F3 Podium, Glen, Goose, Coates

Something borrowed... something 800ish?

With the help of the BEARS club I found some prepared to lend me a Ducati 800 engine. John Clifton came to the rescue, a few sheckles changed hands and me and Mike got to install another engine into the Beta EVO.
Thanks John! Your a life saver.

Ebay to the rescue... maybe

Ebay yielded a 800M rear piston, barrel and head. The seller gave me a great deal, and shipped me the rest of the engine front and rear cylinder/ head and cases with internals for another $400! I guess no one in America wants 800M parts. Now if it turns up on time we might have a chance, it should arrive next monday. That will leave us a day to put the bike together, before I have to depart. I think I'll look around for some on to borrow one from.

After the first round I found the front .95kg springs way to hard. With all the preload off and the compression tightened as much as I dared I still had twenty millimetres of travel left. A call to Dr Nick from Teknick and I had three springs to try for round two.

Holy Mangled Piston Bat Man!

Mike called me up today to give me the good news on the engine. The good news is that only the rear head, piston, and barrel are total screwed. And here is why... it seems that an airbox tab came loose and got eaten up by the rear pot. Yay! A simple lesson, do not leave an unfitted fastener. If we'd had a dzus fastener in place it the entire tab could not have come away.

Both are Dzus clips. One is not quite right, can you tell?

Unfortunately for us the tab was made of lovely soft plastic from the airbox which got munched up, leaving only this Dzus clip to pound the crap out of the rear cylinder. A total disaster.
 

 =

Still it could have been worse. Now off to find a 800M rear cylinder head/barrel and piston!