Crazy - amateur racing?!

[Slaninar]

A mate asked me to race for their club. He used to be a good racer, veteran now. Day before yesterday. He saw me ride, saw my one (and only so far)  track day and said I could do OK. It's old-timer bikes race. Sad he'd give me a 100bhp bike, with good brakes. "We don't expect you to win, just finish the race".  I did ask him about racing, but wanted to go for 125, or 250 cc. Really don't think I'm up for it after just one bloody track day.... but I'd rather die than miss a chance like this. Hope it turns out for the best. First race end of april, then one race every month. Medical exam is due in the next few weeks.

I get to ride a proper (25 year old) sportsbike, YAY!    :rollin

[stevierst]

Holy shit, what an opportunity! Grab it with both hands and enjoy, you lucky bugger.

Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2

[richfzs]

Jammy sod :thumbup

Sent from my HTC Desire S using Tapatalk 2

[Chris]

Awesome!! Go for it!!! What an experience!  8)

Enjoy yourself!

Chris

[bri h]

lucky buigger enjoy it.

[ChristoT]

You lucky sod!! Bike racing is a dream of mine, go and bloody well win it for the Foccers!!  :lol :lol

[slimwilly]

yeh, go and win it,,get some 125cc stickers and put them on  your Fazer, it will be ok :lol

[limax2]

If you were happy with the track day you will "love" the race day  . No body expects you to win first time out and nothing to prove so no worrys.
Just make full use of any available practice to get used to the bike as much as possible and keep to your own limits, not someone elses.
But be warned it can become addictive and take over your life.
Which club/meeting is it with? May come and watch.

Edit. Just noticed you're in Serbia so I guess I won't be coming  , but good luck.

[Kosmic Kartman]

Good luck with that Slaninar.You'll have to put your fixtures list up. Never know if I get a spare weekend off from random life duties I'll come and cheer.
What race series and bike?
ACU medical is piece of piss. If you can walk, see and shit down the right hole you'll pass it. The medical examiner might question your mentality as to why you want to go and race motorcycles.
:lol

[Slaninar]

After the first club meeting, I asked the director for a smaller bike - wouldn't want to start on a 1000 cc machine. So they said, they have an old, crashed, 125 cc 2 stroke. Can it be made to work? Yes, sure. OK.



It's an old Yamaha RD.

Here's the original:

http://www.bikez.com/motorcycles/yamaha_rd_125_1974.php


This is what it looks like froma a garbage can:



What did we have to fix?

- Bent forks - fucked up
- footpegs - rubish
- engine not working
- fairing carriers bent/broken
- cracked fairings
- bad carburators


Looked like a bad joke.

Day 1: washing old grease and dust, to see what we actualy have. Tank looked like a hardened elephant shit.



Fairings washed, glued, fixed:




Day 2 - epic story on getting 2nd hand forks. A fight flee market smuglers and wanabee racers who want to race on a tight budget.

Needed Tomos CTX forks, 30 mm diameter. Nowhere to be found. Eventualy, after some 70 km driven, 2 hours on the phone, several mates asked for favours, we found out that a flee market smugler can be the kindest, the most proffesional salesman in the whole northern hemisphere: the man brought 4 pairs of forks directly to my mate's shop to choose. All for 50 euros. Where he found the forks we didn't want to check ("got a cheap bike, just don't ride it around Peckham").



Day 3: footpegs

Footpegs were bad in bad places. Needed to fix it. 120x10 mm screws, some rubber around them and it's done. Carriers needed to be cut from some old sprockets, welded on.



Fairing carriers were also welded (wrongly as it turned out later).

CTX forks were cleaned and dissasembled.


Day 4: local shops


Rear wheel could be spun easily when in gear. Small compression. THe engine head (not sure about English term) needed to be filled a bit with some more metal, then drilled in shape. Also, spark plugs needed to go in a bit deeper. Done by some local people with correct tools - for 30 euros.

Forks also needed to be shortened, some threads cut in. 15 euros.



"They told me it can be fixed."



"Whoever told you that, let THEM fix it!"


Compression is good now, but on high revs the left piston doesn't work. Probably carbs... or electricity.

About 100 hours of work, the same amount of beer drunk and the machine is still not working and looks like shit.

[Slaninar]

5th day, friday:

4 x 100 = 500 by grease monkey calculations.

Ran across whole town to get cheap seals:




Grease master Misika has totaly lost his nerves, from all my asking questions and fixing, so this day he just smiled. No more cursing my "bloody mother!?!".   20 hours till race, not a single bike finished yet!







Seals needed to be fited, then mounted:







Brake is cleaned and oiled not to squeel.   I can do a lot better, but time was tight.





Starting number was taken from mr. Adams:




Footpegs, better than factory ones!    :lol




Seet is surgically cut to shape and glued - a true work of art!






Liquid Japaneese compression added.    :rollin





In the end, after a lot of glue, zip ties, tape -  and Misi's nervous command, it is "done":




The bike is as ugly as hell. Sitting position is bad, but that will be changed for the next race (no time now, need to re-weld fairing holders). Engine still gets shut off to one piston in high revs - proooobably bad carbs (need to find bigger and working ones).

This morning practice, qualifications, race on sunday. Will see if it works and if I live.


Tight time, lots of other bikes and other jobs, lots of wasted time, bad organization, all done in the very last second - classical Serbian job!

Cheers!

[Chris]

Great project! Enjoy yourself and try not to crash that death trap! 

Chris

[bri h]

Good luck and stay safe. Like the man says to finish first first you have to finish

[Kosmic Kartman]

Good luck with that Slaninar. The medical examiner might question your mentality as to why you want to go and race motorcycles.
:lol

Or.... go and race such a pile if shite.  :eek :lol

Anyhow, the important things are:
Does it stop.
Does it go.
Will bits fall off.
Do you feel comfortable riding it.

The scrutineer will have the final say.

:book

:thumbup Stay safe.

[Pat]

Mate, I salute your have a go attitude, just goes to show you don't need to spend a fortune on a tricked up modern sportsbike to go racing, proper biking spirit.  :thumbup

Just tell me you're going to put some fresh tyres on it, those look as old as the bike itself!  :eek


Good luck for the season,  I'm looking forward to reading about your adventures on track.

[Slaninar]

We packed bikes in a van, after late night work. In the morning, I see a lovely new thing: my bike fell over and crashed visor/fairings. OK, drive on, we'll fix it.



Left cylinder wasn't working on high revs. Switched carbs to see if it was carbs, or something else:



After the switch, everything worked fine?!? Both cylinders.


Working evidence that everything can be fixed with tape and WD 40:



Cut some plexi to fix the fairings and off I went!

1st ride wasn't too nice. Clutch was hopeless (needs new cable and housing). Gear lever works reverse from usual, took some time getting used to. Too far away as well.




2nd training was better. The bike is planted in curves. We've done a spot on job with the forks - perfect angle and rebound-compression damping. Brakes are steady, but not nearly as good as the fazer. Acceleration is OK when I get the revs right. Starting to get the hang of it. They are no longer whizzing past me, I can hang on to others for a curve, or two - but hopeless on straights (big ass, little HP).

Getting fun, sweaty, smiling. Geting into a rhythm. Then I instinctively "upshifted" on a way out of a curve. Got relaxed for a moment and forgot the gear lever works opposite. So, when revs were peak, I shifted down. AAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO... busted. THat was it.



Around 200 euros for a "new" one piston 125cc engine.  This one is not worth fixing, since carbs are crap too. Will see if the club sponsors anything, I'm broke for now. It was fun though, can't wait to do it again.

[Kosmic Kartman]

First impression looks like that piston has been runing a bit hot  :lol

Thanks for sharing the write up and the pics.

[dBfazer600]

Slaninar

The smile on your face (is it you) says it all mate. Respect  un and keep us upto date with your adventures.

Daz

[slimwilly]

Excellent posting man !!


Good garden shed race team, i like it lots.