September 2010

13^th September

Been a few months since I've written anything here. This summer has just flown by. Spend as much time as possible driving but also spent the best part of a month in Florida, hence the lack of diary entries.

The Fury has been running really well. Took the airbox off and decided that car is just too loud, so that went back on again. Have been tidying up chips in the chassis powder coat. The Bilthamber Hydrate 80 has worked really well. Left some of it exposed to see how it stood up to the weather and been pleased with the results.

I'm now looking at other odd jobs that need doing over the winter:

In the last week the clutch has started to judder a bit more than usual, so I need to take a look at this.
While I'm at it, I'll also change the oil and get the sump off. I want to check the sump baffle to see how it is standing up to the abuse it has had over the last three and a half bit years.
I really need to find time to wire in the R1 clocks I bought, so that I can do some diagnostics testing.
Also need to do something with the Sierra diff. I swear its getting noisier. Very tempted to get internals changed out for LSD.
I fund a source for some headlight covers. More to follow.

14^th September

Popped in Orwell Motorcycles today to pick up a few parts; sump gasket, sump plug washer and set of new spark plugs. Interestingly they said they could service the engine in the car fr me if I wanted. I also mentioned the clutch judder and the advice to was to look at it as sooner as possible.

Spark Plugs

The spark plugs are NGK 'Laser Iridium' (part no. CR9EIE-9 6289) and expensive at £7.16 each. According to the Yamaha R1 service manual the spark plugs should be checked every 6000 months or 4000 miles and replace every 12 months and 8000 miles. Mine are 4 years old and have done 9000 miles, so probably due for replacement. The plug gap should be 0.8 to 0.9mm gap and the spark plugs are torqued to 13Nm.

20^th September

My 1mm thick race headlight covers arrived from Westgate Creations Ltd. These are over-size race covers and just touch the chrome trim on the headlight. My plan is to use these on track days only, to protect the lamps. Andy also sells 3mm thick road versions and I'll probably try these out too.

For more info contact Andy Westgate, Tel. 07733 282947.

Update: I've been told that Andy no longer makes and sells these headlight covers. The rusty chrome light surrounds pictured above have been replaced by stainless-steel items. (May 2014)

25^th September

Got some new AO48R's on order. Today's drive was a timely reminder of how they go off when they get close to the tread wear indicators and how little grip they have on cold days and cold tarmac. The temperature has dropped significantly in the last few days and just exiting our close onto the main road resulted in some serious rear wheel spin, without really any provocation. Only last weekend, there was plenty of grip available. My nearest tyre shop can no longer source these tyres so I'm using my local friendly Lotus independent again, Hangar 111 .

Ordered some more basalt to pack my exhuasts and some heat reflective mat from Merlin Motorsport.

Ordered some stainless steel headlight surrounds . As you can see from the above photo, mine have started to corrode.