OK time for another write up! SNETTERTON 300 ROUND 5 Where to begin!! Got to Snet thursday night and setup with the wedgemeister kicking the weekend off with a few beers in the norfolk sunset. Up friday and ready to crack on with the test day and learn the track. Went to see Pete at Actiforce (who is a top bloke btw) about a suspension setup. Left the bike with Pete and went for breakfast and came back to "so would you like the bad news, or the extremely shit news??" Turns out my forks since the "Ktec Upgrade" have had no compression or rebound damping whatsoever. He couldn't set them up at all, I obviously have F-all feel for what my bike is doing lol. The valves that had been replaced didn't have the shim stacks and the spring and have basically just been passing oil for the last 3 rounds. They were like pogosticks, basically running on springs and fork oil, and also with the wrong seals meaning the oil had been leaking out of one fork slowly and the new oil had gone black from being overworked after only 3 race meetings. To give an idea here's a pic, the gold compression valves are standard and the red is the ktec, you can see the difference. View attachment 24101 I had no choice but to have the forks rebuilt on Friday night, still did the full test day on the knackered forks as I needed to learn the track and managed to get to a 2.09. Pete rebuilt the forks Friday night with new oil, seals and my original standard compression valves. So all in all its cost me around £400 to go from standard, to worse, and back to standard again. Anyway he put some base settings in the front and rear for Saturday. Saturday morning went out in qualifying feeling quite up for it with my new standard r6 (yipee!!). Second lap out and the chain starts jumping rendering the bike unable to go much higher than around 6K rpm. I retired after the 3rd lap rather disgruntled with myself knowing I should have changed the rear sprocket when I changed the front. Qualied 24th on the grid with a 2.15. Here's the sprocket compared to the new one I bought- View attachment 24102 Anyway got away OK both races on the Saturday and got back around 10-12 places in both races recovering my time to a more respectable 2.06. Sunday go out for qualifying again and guess what... oh yes a slipping chain again! Came in after sticking with it and putting myself on p18 with a 2.08. Looked at the new sprocket that was only 20 laps old and it was gone again. Decided to change the whole lot, new chain and sprocket. With a mad dash to the nearest town to find a cashpoint and some great help from wedgie and some others we got it ready just in time for the first race. Race 1 was epic! Had some really good dicing off the start and was caught in a gaggle of about 5 bikes. Was riding a lot harder than usual and put a nice move on two quick lads into turn 1 before going into the hairpin sideways from the apex to the outside curb, thought I was grass fodder!! Managed to keep infront and finished the sweltering 12 lapper for a top ten finish. Race 2 was just as fun and I had a really good 8/9 lap battle with a lad on a kawasaki, another top ten finish. Best time for the weekend was a 2.03 which I was chuffed with considering the lads who were lapping me at cadwell were only 4 seconds quicker. Got back into the trophy area and looking around me realized that the kit everyone else is running is far superior to my standard setup. Everyone's running ohlins/ktec and slicks. I had some major problems with locking the back wheel all weekend, sounds cool when you're wheel spinning sideways into a corner but there's valuable seconds lost trying to settle the bike before the apex. Some money will be spent on a race slipper clutch and suspension setup this winter!! In the meantime I am going to do a little modification to the standard R6 clutch to allow for some more slippage. Great weekend again with wedgie as always just need to start bridging the 3 or 4 second gap to the front runners. Getting consistent top 10s now but always 8th/9th or 10th. Qualifying is key and as much as wanting to keep the bike in one piece for the weekend its gonna have to be go big or go home!! Will upload some pics later when rob has them up. Cheers guys! Roll on knockers!! Oh and I forgot to mention I have my 10 signatures and am now Clubman!!!
Great results and times considering the bike issues mate.... it's tough knowing the bike might be under spec'd but stick with it buddy, hardly embarrassing yourself and it'll come. By that point you will know the tracks and the crack so can really take it to them next year. and well done on loosing the bib! I cant wait for that either..... keep up the good work and great reading the positive results
You should be mate, top tens is great! And think how far away 8th seemed at the start of the year.... Keep it up fella.
Congrats YT! Sounds as though it's getting better and better! Imagine if you had the same spec hardware as some of the front runners and improved your qualifying sessions... you might be well up there very very soon!
Well done that man You may be doing 10's now, but once you iron out the issues and start season 2 I bet you're in line for few a podium finishes. Simon and I just came back from Snett today with No Limits. Looks like someone had dumped oil at Hamilton over the weekend
I was at snet today too. Got a 2:03 as well nearly 2:02's. Lots of traffic out there. U done v well to do that on a 6 mate and to have in your mind ur bike wasn't up to scratch. Doin the test day really helps. Not just turning up and expecting to be fast lol
May put a track day report up at some point then just for picture hore'ing on. Played with a few new GoPro mounting points too. Stay tuned
