CBX Racing

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

Post by Warwick Biggs »

STOP PRESS:
AUSTRALIA WINS ISLAND CLASSIC BY SLIM MARGIN OVER UK AMIDST CONTROVERSY STOP: BIGGS HIGH SIDES CBX EXITING SIBERIA AFTER RUNNING WITH FRONT RUNNERS STOP: DETAILS TO FOLLOW SOONEST STOP: RECORD NUMBER OF CRASHES IN 143 DEGREE HEAT STOP.

steve murdoch icoa #5322
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Re: CBX Racing

Post by steve murdoch icoa #5322 »

Rick, looking forward to hear about the weekend from your "insider" perspective.
Reports and photo galleries about the 4 Classic races can be found here. http://www.mcnews.com.au/motorcycle-racing/

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Syscrush
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Re: CBX Racing

Post by Syscrush »

Rick, there's basically no good way to highside - I really hope you weren't banged up too badly.

Looking forward to an update.
Phil in Toronto
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Re: CBX Racing

Post by Warwick Biggs »

I'm just bruised. Nothing broken and tendons seem OK.
Thursday practice was fine altho' I kept forgetting I had changed to a race shift and kept going up when I should have gone down. Friday qualifying was good where we placed on the 8th row of a 12 row grid in the so called minor class. Roughly half of the 100 or so unlimited Period 5 bikes were hot rod replicas (the major class) and the others were more original or just slower. The pic with me sandwiched between a Spondon TZ750 and one of the American TZ750's was taken at the very fast Turn 3.
The first race on Friday went well 'till I screwed up the gears again and nearly ran off but still finished ahead of the tail enders. The second race was a cracker after a poor start. I was steadily making my way thru' the field, passing a number of faster bikes. I had been scraping my right hand crank end cap all weekend and so I was being careful to try and keep the bike up on that side but in the heat of battle in the left hand turn known as Siberia I went in hot on the tail of another rider, lining him up for a pass in the super fast Hayshed confident I was quicker thru' there until I suddenly heard scraping and the front wheel lifted off the deck and washed out bringing me down hard on my shoulder. Luckily I rolled onto my back (destroying my helmet but sliding into the gravel rather than tumbling.
Overall I was satisfied but sore. My aim had been to get into the 1'50's and I managed a smidgin over 2' but am sure that had I not fallen off I would have achieved that goal in that last lap. To put that in context I was lapping only a few seconds slower than the guy who had pole and mine was the only close to stock genuine production road bike on the grid.
The controversy relates to the rules for the Island classic and I will explain this in my next post...
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Warwick Biggs
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Re: CBX Racing

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The rules for each country vary so the Classic has its own. That favours the poms who have a cut off date of 1984 whereas Oz is 1982 but that isn't the half of it.
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Re: CBX Racing

Post by Warwick Biggs »

The rules are only available to the country team competitors which is OK for them, they can build their bikes accordingly. But hardly fair to the rest of the field. Take the 2 Irving Vincents for example. These Daytona Twins winning specials only look like Vincents but are totally re-engineered and run 1.6 litre engine capacity when I am restricted to 1.3 under our rules. The poms mainly run Harris framed FJ1200 engined bikes. The FJ1200 was manufactured in the mid eighties. The Katana engines can still be purchased new from Hamamatsu altho' all anybody wants is the cases. I could go on.
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Re: CBX Racing

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Anyhow, the rules do not a level playing field make. We know that but go for the racing irrespective.
The real controversy started with members of the Oz team qualifying slow in the minor class. These were recent superbike champion pro riders on mega buck race bikes who were behind me on the grid. Hard to avoid the conclusion this was a stratagem so they could clean up in our races and increase the team's point tally. Fiendishly sneaky but it didn't really work because they underestimated the minors and couldn't cut thru' the field as quickly as they might have hoped.
Then things went from bad to worse when team captain Troy Corser was made to start his race from pit lane because he was late to the dummy grid. He totally lost it giving the finger to the clerk of the course in the control tower in front of the cameras. That cost him a $1,000 fine.
The track temperature was also rising to 143 degrees and when one of the sidecar swingers, a very attractive young lady, stripped out of her leathers after her race revealing a tiny thong, the 60 or so blokes in the shed could not avoid noticing. And then she bent over.
Meanwhile the points situation was totally confused and up until after the end of racing nobody was sure which team had prevailed.
So, a torrid Island Classic with more crashes than usual.
Mine was my own fault. I made a mistake. But the CBX demonstrated to anybody paying attention that as a roadbike it is still very fast on one of the fastest GP circuits. I was timed at around 140mph thru' the speed trap but had I been able to fit a 19 tooth countershaft sprocket it would have been faster because I was hitting redline well b4 the Melbourne sign with my 18/37 gearing.
I haven't opened my trailer yet to inspect the damage to the bike but I can't pull it out with my sore shoulder, anyway. But it is a machine and re-buildable.
So, sore but satisfied sums it up and a great event attracting top riders and machines from around the world.
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Re: CBX Racing

Post by FalldownPhil »

Thank you sooooo much for the report. I have been following all this from here in the USA
as a few of the USA team, crew, and owners are friends of mine.
Very Best,
Phil
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to remember that your objective was to drain the swamp !!

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Re: CBX Racing

Post by steve murdoch icoa #5322 »

Sorry to hear about the crash.
Congrats on surviving the weekend.
Rick, you are doing a fantastic job of representing our beloved CBX.

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Re: CBX Racing

Post by Warwick Biggs »

Well Phil the Americans put up a stronger showing than in years past. From what I could gather over the noise in the pits, Jason Pridmore top scored over Colin Edwards and Jake Zemke but the team apparently had some terminal engine failures that meant that they could not contest all the races. From my observation this has become more of a problem as the state of tune becomes more extreme, so if you build a hot rod you need half a dozen spare engines to get you thru' half a dozen sessions. I think I mentioned this in an earlier post. Here is a pic of Colin's RC45 that he brought along as eye candy. Check out how much padding he uses on the seat. Mcwilliams who is also a small guy has an even more extreme seat so that his legs are almost straight when seated. This allows much more movement and leverage and is one of the things I am preparing to fix on the CBX when I mount the solo seat. The stock saddle and Raasq rear sets cramp my style and make it hard to easily move around, something I need to address because of the ground clearance issue..
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Re: CBX Racing

Post by Syscrush »

Thanks again for sharing all of this - I'm sure you know everyone here is pulling for you and enjoying your excellently-written insights and experiences.

I'm glad to hear that you weren't banged up worse. The great thing about bikes is that they're almost always repairable or replaceable - our body parts don't quite get as much latitude. :-)

The photos you shared look amazing - thanks again!
Phil in Toronto
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Pics of Perry, my '79.

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Re: CBX Racing

Post by Mouse »

:text-goodpost:
Canadian Amateur Radio Call sign VE6 VES

Warwick Biggs
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Re: CBX Racing

Post by Warwick Biggs »

IMG_4460.JPG
While I have been recovering I have started work on repairing the bike and here are some pics of the new Rickman style race seat.

I had to cut off the ends of the frame rails but they are easily welded back if we need to reverse the conversion. You can see I have used the stock (and crude) CBX side fixing bolts, a piece of alloy plate and 2 'P' clips at the front with wing nuts so that it is quick to pull off. The stock system is not very good as the seat can easily slide back if the bolts are not tight so I have modified it so that it can only move up. What you cannot see is the inch thick high density foam and hard rubber door stops that raise the seat height a bit. This will help me to move around. Once the seat is given its final paint job it will have at least another inch of foam glued on.

What I haven't been able to fix yet is the ground clearance. I have been engaged in a strenuous debate with Roly and Trevor about dropping the forks 20mm in the TC's and extending the length of the rear shock by the same amount. They are adamant that this will destroy the good handling that I currently enjoy because of the adverse effect on the swing arm angle. My inclination is to try it and see. The other option is to Computrack it again but that is $600 that I need to spend on a replacement helmet after my Kabuto was destroyed in the crash.

I should give a plug to Sue in Denver for the CSGMoto engine sliders that fit under the cam end cap screws. It took almost the full brunt of the crash and is barely marked. So, damage appears limited to some gravel rash and bent dash alloy altho' I haven't tested the motor yet to make sure it hasn't ingested any gravel.

Meanwhile the rider still cannot lie on his left side or do much with that arm. I was warned that it would take a while to recover my strength.
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Re: CBX Racing

Post by Warwick Biggs »

I have re-built the dash and it now has a neutral light because it can be hard to find after the warm up lap.
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Re: CBX Racing

Post by Warwick Biggs »

And this is what it looks like side on with the new seat. I like it. It tilts me down a bit more at the front pushing a bit of weight further forward.
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