New BEARS F5 donor bike

[Linden]

At Broadford
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At MacPark
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Well what can we say - MacPark over Easter

Friday was meant to be Suspension/Gearing setup with a couple of maintenance jobs for RatBear
BUT
1) LiFePo battery that fail at Broadford didn't come back to useful so swapped to spare lead acid ��
2) Tank quick fits failed when returning from practice session ... raw fuel pumping on to exhaust
3) fixed one but the other failed 3 corners out in next session - temp fixed both with cable ties - lasted weekend like that
4) While stuffing around with Franki we set the ride height on RatBear only to strip the top shock mount (BUGGER ALL TORQUE honestly) BIG thanks to Shorty from MacPark who remade the mount in 1 hour
5) First session out for RatBear turn 1 RH footpeg mount bolt sheared (HT)

WOW Friday over no setup and only a couple of serious laps - and this doesn't sound much but was asking around for spare bike at one stage

Saturday
Entered in C20 and BEARS F5 with RatBear as cover in Bears and in TwinSprints
We did all 6 quallies the fat bloke was stuffed and Franki had not beaten RatBear last year time (1:25) but was a touch quicker that RatBear (1:27 vs 1:28) on the day so RatBear was parked at lunch for the rest of the weekend
C20 r1 chased an MT09 (new to the track) and got consistancy and confidence
Bears r1 ran away with from ScottyB with a PB 1.26flatish on lap 2 settled for 3rd on lap 4 after spotting ScottyB across turn 1 and DeanY was pulling away (DavidA was a speck in the distance)
C20 r2 (and the rest just played around with stuff at the back of the grid and got track time)

Sunday
Bears r2 was to be first race of Sunday and so made the big mistake of the weekend and swapped rear tyre (and changed gearing 1 tooth at rear) - BUT had to go from 180/55 to a more std 160/60 - only a double lap warmup to the grid ... We felt horrid - tipping into the fast old turn one was yuck lost 1.5sec (best 1.27.3) and SB did a 1.24.9 PB so 4th - lots of head scratching RatBears was getting keen
Bears r3 same again - felt a bit better and a bit quicker (reversed gearing change) but still off the pace and SB blasted past on lap 4 and left me behind
Had some time over lunch and decided that we would do one of the experiments that DIDN'T happen Friday - so dropped forks 6mm - still hadn't clicked yet as to the issue just trying stuff
Yeah Har - SB got away better this time and for the first time was only 4th at 4 - BUT we were on it and could see spots we were faster stalked for 4 laps and on the 5 got the draft and passed into old turn 1 - on the 6 and final lap we went in to old turn 1 only 2m off inside of track to block any up the inside overtakes - claimed the 3rd and therefore 3rd for the round (70pt equal with SB; DY 80pt and DA 100pt) ��

After presentations we realized (this is despite fixing the exact same issue on RatBear) that the tyre change had dropped the rear about 1cm ... so maybe 6mm on the forks is NOT enough

Other issues
1) down changes sometimes missing lever (different offset to RatBear)
2) fuel surge (we think)/stutter off sharpish right handers - bloody annoying
3) Had to swap a warped disk
4) Lost chain C Clip
5) Missing some down changes due to differences in peg / lever offset between Franki and RatBear

Morgan Park here we come...