CBX Racing

CBXs, new bikes, old bikes, cars, trucks, general chat, off topic, this is the place to post it.
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Syscrush
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Re: CBX Racing

Post by Syscrush »

Looking good! Good luck with that shoulder.

BTW - did you come to some agreement about the rotors? Did I miss an update on that?

As for ride height and ground clearance - it's hard to see how a change to the swingarm angle could "destroy" your handling - I'm no expert, but the most I'd expect is some rear end jacking up on corner exits - which might actually make it easier to keep from running wide when you get on the throttle. I think you're in the right to want to change it and see.
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Re: CBX Racing

Post by Warwick Biggs »

Sorry Phil, I made a fuss about the compliance of the rotors but given all the irregularities at the Island Classic, nobody at scrutineering seemed to notice my rotors. As usual they were distracted by the big six and concentrated on a slight oil leak from a crank end cap that was quickly rectified. I expect more scrutiny when I grid up at the races run by the Post Classic Racing Association, the next one being the International Festival of Speed at Eastern Creek in March.

This used to be known as 'the Barry Sheene' because he competed in it riding the Walmsley Manx Norton mainly and promoted it internationally after his retirement from GP's. Unfortunately the PCRA who are the organising body could not reach agreement with the lawyer for Sheene's estate and accordingly (and very sadly) his name can no longer be associated with one of the major international classic bike races. I'm confident Barry would have been disappointed with this proprietary impasse.

I won't be riding because I don't like the track. My next outing will probably be the Seniors at MacNamara Park in South Australia where the attention is more on the combined ages of bike and rider and where I won a trophy last year for a third place. Mac Park is a tight and technical track that I really enjoy on the big 6. It is owned by the local club and is a very attractive venue with great camping. Nearly all competitors do camp in the open forest surrounding the circuit - in the evening you can circulate around the many camp fires and catch up with old adversaries in a very relaxed and convivial atmosphere. In many respects its almost the antithesis of the Big Money Island Classic.

You can still get up well over 140mph on the straight but my under gearing at the Island will probably be just right for Mac Park so I won't change it. However, I will have a 19 tooth front sprocket made up to improve my options next time I am in Melbourne. Still stinking hot in the Hunter but Queensland is about to get battered by a tropical cyclone and that usually means we get some much needed rain down here.

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Re: CBX Racing

Post by Ringnalda »

Great posts, this is what it is all about. Hope you are healing up fast and I would dread to think what I would do with reversed gear pattern; in the heat of the moment I would forget too and shift down instead of up; wouldn't be able to trust myself. I'd change it back...
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Re: CBX Racing

Post by Rick Pope »

Ringnalda wrote:Great posts, this is what it is all about. Hope you are healing up fast and I would dread to think what I would do with reversed gear pattern; in the heat of the moment I would forget too and shift down instead of up; wouldn't be able to trust myself. I'd change it back...
I feel the same way about driving on the "wrong" side of the road...... :teasing-poke:
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Re: CBX Racing

Post by Ringnalda »

Rick Pope wrote:
Ringnalda wrote:Great posts, this is what it is all about. Hope you are healing up fast and I would dread to think what I would do with reversed gear pattern; in the heat of the moment I would forget too and shift down instead of up; wouldn't be able to trust myself. I'd change it back...
I feel the same way about driving on the "wrong" side of the road...... :teasing-poke:
No shit. When in a tricky situation instinct takes over and you veer into oncoming traffic. Has cost a few peoples lives on the Isle of Man for sure... and I'm from Holland where they drive on the right side of the road. :dance:
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Re: CBX Racing

Post by Warwick Biggs »

In my experience, the most common time for pulling out onto the wrong side of the road is after refueling and it usually takes me a second or 2 to figure out why everybody is on the 'wrong' side of the road and flashing their lights at me... It can happen to anybody who travels around a bit. Why we can't even figure out a common standard for which side of the road to drive on also explains why we have so much trouble resolving more complex religious and economic disputes.

At least with race pattern you get used to it quickly because it is so much more natural. I grew up riding pommy bikes that had the shift on the left and the only Harleys we saw in Oz in those days were pre war WLA's that had a hand shift. All my race bikes had race shift except the Jap proddy bikes. You had to be flexible. I have raced against very quick riders using hand shifts.

If you think about it, pushing down to go up is much easier than having to lift your foot, especially when you are at full throttle hanging on at high speed, not using the clutch with all the weight tending to slide back. Conversely, when you are hard on the brakes and changing down for the next bend using the clutch, all your weight is pressing forward and its easier to lift your foot up.

The CBX has shifted 2,000 klms south and hopefully its master will soon be following suit as I have finally relinquished my much loved property 'St Yves' after a domicile of over 30 years and purchased an easier to manage property over looking the wild southern ocean coast where I am only 15 minutes from my favourite track and within a half day drive of half a dozen of the best race tracks in Oz. :sad-roulette:

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Re: CBX Racing

Post by Syscrush »

I hope that the move proves to be a positive one for you.

Do you have a timeline for when you'll change the ride height and let us know how it feels? I spend altogether too much time thinking about your bike and racing, I'm always happy for an update. :)

BTW - I didn't take note of this before, but:
nobody at scrutineering seemed to notice my rotors. As usual they were distracted by the big six and concentrated on a slight oil leak from a crank end cap that was quickly rectified
That could be a great strategy for you in scrutineering - it reminds me of the "The Duck Technique":
http://pud.com/post/59851751577/the-duck-technique

Leave something obviously wrong but easily addressed as low-hanging fruit for them, then resolve it and race. :)
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Re: CBX Racing

Post by Warwick Biggs »

Well Phil, that technique worked for me when I was a young traveller in the East. I carried a 5" witch blade made from a truck spring in Sinkiang. It was a vicious looking thing and I always declared it at customs points and before boarding planes. That is how I first became aware of the extent of arms that people do carry after giving my knife to the purser on a 747 and seeing the array of sub-machine guns and small arms hanging in his cabinet. In any event I was never searched for drugs or other contraband because the knife attracted so much attention. I only ever drew it in defence once in the back streets of a dingy suburb of Peshawar and it worked a treat then too in scaring off my would be attackers - lucky for me because I did not really know how to use it.

I convinced Marcus De Caux, our Motorcycling Australia chief scrutineer to update my Logbook at the International Festival of Speed and he commented on the rotors "They look like RG500 rotors to me". He looked at it in the confined space of my trailer and obviously didn't look too closely. I had my laptop full of period rotor pics but I didn't need it in the end. The disguised VTR rotors were acceptable.

I ended up having a barney with Maria Costello in the media room tho'. She was one of the visiting internationals riding a Vincent for Moto Gallur. As well as being the fastest woman around the IOM TT course she is also an FIM Commissioner with a special interest in increasing female participation in the sport and she was waxing lyrically about this in an interview. So, getting a bit bored with the politically correct conversation and feeling mischievous, I made the mistake of telling the story about the pretty sidecar lass who stripped down to a thong in the pits at the Island Classic and the intended effect it had on 60 or so blokes. "Why did you tell that story?" she demanded, obviously offended. 'Because at the end of the day, no matter how you dress it up, you will have to allow for the differences between the sexes' and vive la difference!', I replied. This went down like the proverbial lead balloon but I could not help noticing her checking out Frankie Chili as he wandered past and vice versa. I would like to see more women racing and there should be but no amount of stern lecturing about how men treat women is going to change how women themselves treat each other.

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Re: CBX Racing

Post by Syscrush »

From rotors to weaponry to vigorously-defended sexism in one post...

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Re: CBX Racing

Post by wyly »

Warwick Biggs wrote: I ended up having a barney with Maria Costello in the media room tho'. She was one of the visiting internationals riding a Vincent for Moto Gallur. As well as being the fastest woman around the IOM TT course she is also an FIM Commissioner with a special interest in increasing female participation in the sport and she was waxing lyrically about this in an interview. So, getting a bit bored with the politically correct conversation and feeling mischievous, I made the mistake of telling the story about the pretty sidecar lass who stripped down to a thong in the pits at the Island Classic and the intended effect it had on 60 or so blokes. "Why did you tell that story?" she demanded, obviously offended. 'Because at the end of the day, no matter how you dress it up, you will have to allow for the differences between the sexes' and vive la difference!', I replied. This went down like the proverbial lead balloon but I could not help noticing her checking out Frankie Chili as he wandered past and vice versa. I would like to see more women racing and there should be but no amount of stern lecturing about how men treat women is going to change how women themselves treat each other.
women need to be treated as our equals but at the same time they're women and "different" than we are...women often forget this about us too, we can't turn off our little brains whenever we want we'll always still be men :D 8) ...I can't not see a thong! it's just impossible!
CBX a work in progress, still improving...GS1150EFE completed and awaiting modifications.....RD350, remnants in boxes scattered throughout the garage

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Re: CBX Racing

Post by Warwick Biggs »

Me too???

OK, I admit to dragging girlfiends around on the back of bikes for over 50 years, Mea culpa! Some even ended up addicted, riding their very own over powered DANGEROUS motorcycles. But in my defence, nobody died. OK, a few ended up on the road side occasionally with torn pants/jackets/gravel rash and we even had to pull a country doctor off the golf course one Sunday after a crash on a slimey 'summer track only'.

However, let's be fair here. I can't count the number of times I've heard, 'Go faster! YuHu!' from the pillion perch. True, there have been almost as many 'Slow Down's' sometimes accompanied by a fist in the ribs to emphasise the back seat rider's intention. So lets get real.

This is a CBX forum and whilst I have never, NEVER taken a female on the back of 'the lump', I have raced a few. Peggy Hyde I mentioned earlier in this blog. Proud to say I've raced her. She is a legend.

Then there are the grey areas. I've pleasantly chatted with Michele Duff, the only Canadian to win a GP and runner up in one of the 60's world championships who decided she was a she despite growing up as a man and having a famous family as a world champion motorcyclist. Where do you locate Michele in a world of hyper sexism? As a good bloke? As (still) a very fast rider? As an aberration? Or just another wonderful variation on the human condition? Go Michele!

At times we all suffer assaults to our person or our values. There are worse things in the world, much worse. Some assaults warrant a reaction. Sometimes the law intervenes if it is serious enuf' but ultimately it is all relative. How we relate, our mistakes and mis-communications are part and parcel of our life as a social creature. I think. And my rotors are fine, too.

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Re: CBX Racing

Post by Warwick Biggs »

Well, my reference to Mike/Michelle Duff certainly went down like a lead balloon. Or should that be a CBX? Both equally 'heavy'.

I'm suffering deprivation syndrome with the CBX sitting in a shed 1,500 klms away. We will miss the Mac Park Seniors because the move clashes. I had a realistic chance of winning the 100 plus Cup, too. Will have to wait 'till next year.

However, having convenient access to a very technical track (Mac Park) will enable me to fine tune the relatively stock suspension at minimal cost. And I can share the results. I can see lots of useful and relatively cheap improvements for CBX road riders to enable us to keep up with modern superbikes. Yes, it is possible for bikes built 35 years ago to perform competitively with the modern missiles.

Stay tuned.

R.

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Re: CBX Racing

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So I'm sitting in an empty echoing room surrounded by boxes waiting for the big move and I think, 'I wonder what is happening with ICOA?' I look. Zilch! Do I have any news?

Well, an A grader from Queensland is interested in buying 'the lump'. I suggested he test ride it first but he will have to travel down to Mac Park to do so. I hadn't had much interest since I posted my advert on Gumtree ages ago when I was feeling disillusioned, so I put the price up $10,000 and had an instant response from a well known tuner from the deep north. Maybe our performance at the International island Classic was noticed, too (b4 I fell off).

Now that the bike is running well and reliably I am enjoying it more and therefore less keen to sell. I am looking forward to being able to spend much more time at the track getting it set up exactly as I want it and improving my own riding. I have to change my technique to hang off more to stand the bike up a bit and keep the crankcases off the deck. This is not my normal syle of riding.

Anyhow, if the price is right I can always set up another one now I know what works on the track. Incidentally, the same tuner told me he had extracted 165hp from a 1300 CBX motor which would be something of a record, probably with a short life.

To go back to the issue of the race pattern shift, I was watching the last round of the Oz Superbikes at the brand new Tailem Bend circuit in South Australia and the points leader made a terrible start. Can you guess why? Yep, changed the gear shift pattern and put it into second instead of first.

The new race track is fantastic built to the latest FIM standards, 5 klm long, 18 technically challenging bends and minimum 15 metre width mean you can pass almost anywhere. All the riders were dripping and talking about how "physical" it is. Tight racing. Check it out on You Tube. Troy Bayliss at 49 was at the pointy end until he crashed his Panigale R at high speed at the end of the straight. Looks like it hurt, too.

I am looking forward to trying this track out as it is not too far from my new abode.

R.

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Re: CBX Racing

Post by Syscrush »

That's a great update, Rick.

Is the bike ready to go again? I had in mind that it needed some repairs after the off.
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Re: CBX Racing

Post by Warwick Biggs »

Bike is ready. Just needs an oil change and lube. I was hoping to do the Mac Park Seniors but this will be the weekend I actually arrive in Nelson and I will be unpacking the basics rather than racing.

I will have to find out from the Mount Gambier M/C club when they have their next club day. They are the only Oz bike club that own a road racing circuit so members can get plenty of track time. Then there are all the Victorian clubs and circuits so there will be plenty of opportunities to get out. That is why this little country club has produced so many pro racers. The club is so focused on road racing that they have decided to scrap the adjoining MX course to expand and improve the RR facilities so you can imagine that the competition is pretty strong.

R.

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