Test Day 2012: Mallory Park

Over two years since the start of this blog, god knows how many man hours and a few thousand of the Queens notes later and I had arrived at my goal.  The test day was the mental and physical crossroads that I needed to enable me to answer a few questions I had for myself. For a start: Would I enjoy it? Would the bike perform as I expected? Had this all been a waste of time, effort and money? The chances of my failure were higher than usual though as I was a novice novice! I had only ever ridden a Lambretta for about 400m let alone a race scooter producing over 3x its original power.

Waking up rather early and arriving in plenty of time in the Mazda Bongo, by 07:30 we were at the trackside and by 08:00 we were pretty much set up for the day ahead. After a few nervous pictures and a bit of tinkering, I was comfortable and ready for everything to be checked over. Race Scooter and protective clothing checked, I signed on and was ready for what the day had to offer.

Prior to the first session, I had to adjust my carburettor needle as we wanted to go for a safer, richer mix due to the results from the dyno session. I rode around a little in the paddock before the first session to get used to the clutch, gears and handling but it didn’t turn out to be much preparation in the grand scheme of things. It wasn’t long before the first event was upon me and out we went.

After a few laps, getting used to the machine and myself, I started to feel okay. My worst part was coming out of Edwina’s where I couldn’t quite get the knack of getting into third gear in a smooth fashion. After what I think was three (maybe four or even two) laps, I had a larger issue out of Edwina’s...

The symptoms were that the bike just died on me; luckily I was pretty much opposite the track exit so luck was on my side a bit. I suspected a snapped throttle cable and on arriving back to the paddock, it turned out to be less serious; carb needle retaining bolt on the slide had vibrated loose. I was completely to blame for this as I had messed about with it that very morning when richenin her up. Oops. This issue fixed, I waited for the next session, planning a plug chop to see how the carburetion was doing.

At first, when the engine was started, I was having misfires but just before I went to ride back to the camp, the issue cleared and I went out for what turned out to be the best 15 minutes I have ever had on two wheels. It took me a few laps to get used to but by the end of the session, I felt I had mastered the Edwina’s gear change and my worst part had changed to the Gerrard’s entry which gave me a few wobbles. Plug chop done at the end of the race and the colour was perfect for a running-in day.

That however, is where the good news stopped. On the next session, the same misfiring was back and this time, it didn’t clear. I came back in puzzled, hoping it was the spark plug but after a few plugs we gave up for that session and started to look at the electrics. The main hope was it was the stator, which would have been a straight swap-and-go job. On removing the flywheel weight though, things became a little clearer.

The flywheel weight, which didn’t have the best taper fit , had loosened slightly, “fret welding” itself to the crank. This was down to a poor fitting taper and bad preparation by myself. Even after this issue though I was grinning and still am while I write this. Something to fix from a test day isn’t ideal but that is what the day was for.

Even better news that I forgot to mention was that I grounded the exhaust, proving the added plate worked well at protecting the exhaust. The tyres seemed to work well too, even though I wouldn’t know, and the chicken strips aren’t too wide.

 

I spent the rest of the day spectating and it turned out to be a really good laugh. I met some more great, interesting people and rode alongside some that I have been watching for years. I’ll make a few thankyous as usual and not surprisingly, Chalkie and Ciro of Replay Scooters and everyone at DKS are there having been a big help in setting me up for 2012. The biggest thankyou I can give though is to my Dad, who has helped me through all weather, gave me the inspiration to want to give it a go and for spectating on this special day.

Race Scooter: All events occurred 22nd March 2012