aswracing
6th October 2007, 16:06
Well, I just got home from World Finals 2007. The meet was supposed to run through today, but it got canceled yesterday at 12:30pm due to high winds and deteriorating weather in general.
I didn't give reports from the event as I did with the others because, well, we were struggling a bit and my mind was on that, instead of on taking pictures and reporting on things. I figured if we got it sorted out and put up a big number I'd have something to report, but I had to focus on first things first.
Put simply, the bike was slow. Out of the box, on the morning of the first day, we could only muster 199 and change (which is way slow for that bike) and we hurt the front piston doing it, as evidenced by a whole lot of blow-by and a loss of about 40psi of compression. This on the best course and best weather of the year. Grrr.
So we spent most of the first day swapping out the front cylinder and piston and scratching our heads trying to understand why we hurt it. With no ideas, we made a jet change and then ran it again late in the day. A minor problem with the throttle linkage forced me to abort that pass early. Damn, things weren't going well.
So the morning of the second day, we go back out. Again, the bike just didn't feel like itself. Normally it can reach it's terminal speed within a couple miles no problem. I ran the full length of the long course (2 mile run-up followed by 3 timed miles) and it was slowly building speed the whole way (which is why I stayed in it) and it managed a 205 pass in the final mile. Not a terrible number, but still well, well below it's capabilities, and the length of time it took to get there concerned me. It was down on power.
But the number was above the existing class record of 202.6, which I set a couple weeks ago at World of Speed. So we took it to impound and claimed the pass. In impound you're allowed 4 hours to work on the bike and then they do backup passes the next morning. If the average of your two passes is above the existing record, the new record is yours.
In impound, we saw that we again had all kinds of blow-by and the front hole was down on compression again, but only about 10psi this time. Damn. This is getting old.
We brainstormed some more, and came up with some ideas. Rather than fix the front hole, we decided to spend the time implementing some changes. Forgive me if I don't get more specific than that.
The weather forecast was bad, with a front coming in, and it was starting to get windy. The event organizers told us to be ready by 4:00, because they were going to do backup passes then rather than wait for the next morning.
We got our work done and went out for our backup pass at 4:00. We were going straight into a 9mph headwind by then though. The bike was slow again, only running in the mid 190s into that wind. However, the symptoms changed radically. We had no blow by to speak of. There were some other indicators, too, that we had touched the problem.
We went ahead and got the bike ready again and made one more change, to complement the other changes. Again, I apologize for not giving more details. This stuff can be hard to figure out sometimes and I'd just as soon not give my competition any help.
Our next chance to run came at about 11:00am on the third day. The wind was blowing hard, dark clouds were swirling all around us, and we were feeling occasional drops of rain. Terrible conditions. The starter told me no long course runs, I was only allowed to run through the first timed mile, because conditions were so bad at the far end of the course and a car had spun down there.
So I launched the bike into a 22mph headwind and I could immediately tell it was a whole different machine. It just flat ripped, it was a monster again. I had no trouble at all getting it up to it's terminal speed, other than controlling the wheelspin. The thing just wanted to go.
It went 201mph in one timed mile, spinning the back tire fighting that 22mph wind. That was pretty remarkable. Without that wind, that was an easy 210+ pass, probably 215.
An hour later, with the weather getting worse, they canceled the meet. So we figured out the problem, we were just too late. Oh well. You've got to be patient to do this salt flats racing stuff.
I didn't take any pics, but here's a few from my good friend Jon Amo who runs landracing.com ...
http://www.landracing.com/gallery/albums/World%20Finals/2007/October%202%2C%202007/IMG_6227.jpg
Here we are getting tech'ed. I'm telling Jon I think he's #1. On the left is my good friend and superb mechanic Len Havens, he came with me to help out. Big burly biker dude and all-around great guy.
http://www.landracing.com/gallery/albums/World%20Finals/2007/October%202%2C%202007/IMG_6233.jpg
There's a lot of plumbing and wiring and pumps and valves and so forth to support the nitro fuel system. You can't hardly see this side of the motor anymore due to all the nitro stuff. Notice the straps holding the heads on. One tuning mistake or procedural mistake can blow a cylinder head right off a nitro bike. I don't particularly want one of those heads coming up through my chest.
http://www.landracing.com/gallery/albums/World%20Finals/2007/October%203%2C%202007/IMG_6340.jpg
At the start line getting ready to launch, in the morning.
I didn't give reports from the event as I did with the others because, well, we were struggling a bit and my mind was on that, instead of on taking pictures and reporting on things. I figured if we got it sorted out and put up a big number I'd have something to report, but I had to focus on first things first.
Put simply, the bike was slow. Out of the box, on the morning of the first day, we could only muster 199 and change (which is way slow for that bike) and we hurt the front piston doing it, as evidenced by a whole lot of blow-by and a loss of about 40psi of compression. This on the best course and best weather of the year. Grrr.
So we spent most of the first day swapping out the front cylinder and piston and scratching our heads trying to understand why we hurt it. With no ideas, we made a jet change and then ran it again late in the day. A minor problem with the throttle linkage forced me to abort that pass early. Damn, things weren't going well.
So the morning of the second day, we go back out. Again, the bike just didn't feel like itself. Normally it can reach it's terminal speed within a couple miles no problem. I ran the full length of the long course (2 mile run-up followed by 3 timed miles) and it was slowly building speed the whole way (which is why I stayed in it) and it managed a 205 pass in the final mile. Not a terrible number, but still well, well below it's capabilities, and the length of time it took to get there concerned me. It was down on power.
But the number was above the existing class record of 202.6, which I set a couple weeks ago at World of Speed. So we took it to impound and claimed the pass. In impound you're allowed 4 hours to work on the bike and then they do backup passes the next morning. If the average of your two passes is above the existing record, the new record is yours.
In impound, we saw that we again had all kinds of blow-by and the front hole was down on compression again, but only about 10psi this time. Damn. This is getting old.
We brainstormed some more, and came up with some ideas. Rather than fix the front hole, we decided to spend the time implementing some changes. Forgive me if I don't get more specific than that.
The weather forecast was bad, with a front coming in, and it was starting to get windy. The event organizers told us to be ready by 4:00, because they were going to do backup passes then rather than wait for the next morning.
We got our work done and went out for our backup pass at 4:00. We were going straight into a 9mph headwind by then though. The bike was slow again, only running in the mid 190s into that wind. However, the symptoms changed radically. We had no blow by to speak of. There were some other indicators, too, that we had touched the problem.
We went ahead and got the bike ready again and made one more change, to complement the other changes. Again, I apologize for not giving more details. This stuff can be hard to figure out sometimes and I'd just as soon not give my competition any help.
Our next chance to run came at about 11:00am on the third day. The wind was blowing hard, dark clouds were swirling all around us, and we were feeling occasional drops of rain. Terrible conditions. The starter told me no long course runs, I was only allowed to run through the first timed mile, because conditions were so bad at the far end of the course and a car had spun down there.
So I launched the bike into a 22mph headwind and I could immediately tell it was a whole different machine. It just flat ripped, it was a monster again. I had no trouble at all getting it up to it's terminal speed, other than controlling the wheelspin. The thing just wanted to go.
It went 201mph in one timed mile, spinning the back tire fighting that 22mph wind. That was pretty remarkable. Without that wind, that was an easy 210+ pass, probably 215.
An hour later, with the weather getting worse, they canceled the meet. So we figured out the problem, we were just too late. Oh well. You've got to be patient to do this salt flats racing stuff.
I didn't take any pics, but here's a few from my good friend Jon Amo who runs landracing.com ...
http://www.landracing.com/gallery/albums/World%20Finals/2007/October%202%2C%202007/IMG_6227.jpg
Here we are getting tech'ed. I'm telling Jon I think he's #1. On the left is my good friend and superb mechanic Len Havens, he came with me to help out. Big burly biker dude and all-around great guy.
http://www.landracing.com/gallery/albums/World%20Finals/2007/October%202%2C%202007/IMG_6233.jpg
There's a lot of plumbing and wiring and pumps and valves and so forth to support the nitro fuel system. You can't hardly see this side of the motor anymore due to all the nitro stuff. Notice the straps holding the heads on. One tuning mistake or procedural mistake can blow a cylinder head right off a nitro bike. I don't particularly want one of those heads coming up through my chest.
http://www.landracing.com/gallery/albums/World%20Finals/2007/October%203%2C%202007/IMG_6340.jpg
At the start line getting ready to launch, in the morning.