Leconfield - August 2001

Saturday 11th August 2001  

New Bridgestone tyres were necessary after Elvington and we'd put the 6 speed gear-box back into the bike, but quickly found that it was jumping out of gear, and occasionally dropping two gears at once. Straight away we decided to swap back to the reliable 5 speed box. The wind was stopping the bike revving hard in top gear along the straight, and the track was much shorter than Elvington. After swapping the bottom end of the engine we started enjoying riding around the new track.

By the end of the day we were happy with the set-up, the weather wasn't great and we felt sure that at some point it would rain! Several other 'groups' from various car clubs shared the campsite. There was one group of people with loud stereos, and disco lights in the back of their Mk3 Escorts who made a lot of noise but didn't do much. (What do they say about empty vessels). We also spoke to Kit car enthusiast and even the people supplying power for the event were camped by us.

Sunday 12th August 2001
A wet race from beginning to end. There was a spell when a dry line started to appear, but I'm sure that only the people out on the track for a short period of time saw it. It was unbelievable how well our bike was going, the new tyres were certainly paying dividends, no one fell of the bike all weekend and we were all enjoying riding the bike even though there was standing water on some of the bends. Much fun was to be had, riding smooth and trying to concentrate harder than normal get the best out of our bike. As the weather deteriorated we just kept going. Four of us rode the bike. I started the race, Lea was on second, Steve did the third stint and Ian had a go fourth.

One or two people in other teams had been having problems jetting their bikes, the weather had changed so much between Saturday morning and now with the torrential rain their bikes were running far two rich. Our bike was running better and better, however that was about to change. There was a big accident 4 hours into the race and a prolonged delay in getting the race started again, our bike wouldn't re-start from cold. We were now wet through and were unsure as to whether the electrics were water logged or whether the jetting was now way out. We called it a day! It's the first time this year that the bike has let us down. The surprising thing about this race was how the wet conditions did not stop us really enjoying racing. It's a pity that we couldn't get the bike going again and maybe if the red flags hadn't been out for so long we might have been able to keep going, but that's racing!

Class 2 looked quite competitive again and several bikes were going well. I'll post the results in the near future. 

Elvington - June 2001

Saturday 23rd June 2001

Initially we spent time learning the track dodging the cones, the weather was pleasant and we looked forward to a dry weekend. At first most of the bends were pretty tight, this suited our bike well, as the morning progressed the cones started to retreat and the speeds started to increase. For most of the weekend the track was getting wider and wider. It is impossible to check lap times when the track is changing all the time, so we didn't spend much time looking at the clock this weekend.

We were happy with the bike so we just enjoyed riding around a new track, by mid afternoon we decided to weaken the mixture, this did improve things a little but other than that we didn't touch the bike. By the end of the day we were happy, so stuck with the setting we'd used all day. Our tyres were taking a battering, Elvington certainly is grippy! We were still using the 5 speed gearbox, if we go back to Elvington we really need to use a 6 speed box! The bike was in top gear for a long time on the straight, but through the chicanes there was plenty of gear changing going on.

Sunday 24th June 2001

A good days racing, we kept the bike going all day, we did have several accidents, but managed to keep the bike on the track. It was disappointing that the track became so fast, by the end of the day both of the large chicanes were being taken flat out and the tightening bends after the left hander at the end of the straight could be straightened out without any difficulty. The track design was good, but care needed to be taken when overtaking, maybe it was safer that these bends had been widened. After the race we were gob smacked when looking at the tyres, our rear Bridgestone BT39SS was almost slick, there is hardly any tread left!

It was also interesting running the opposite direction to normal. Usually the left-hand side of our tyres wear slower that the right hand side, Elvington gave us an opportunity to balance the wear on our tyres. 

By the end of the day we were running 18th overall and 6th in class two. Altogeter we did 181 laps. We have had another great weekend and look forward to the next round in August. Even though Elvington is very flat and we're racing around cones we'd enjoy racing there again. (If the owners will let us!?!?!???!?). 

Rowrah - May 2001

Saturday 5th May 2001  
There were many things to try on the bike. We wanted to have a change so we'd altered the gearing on the back sprocket and used a 5-speed gearbox in place of the 6 speed that we'd used all last year. The carburettor had also been changed over winter, so we needed to make sure that this would work okay at the racetrack.

The carburettor was our first problem. Initially the power band was very small, the bike would rev hard but it easily dropped out of the power when changing gear. The plug colour looked fine so we weakened the mixture, the smaller jet made the bike run better, so we weakened it again and felt happy that it was not getting too hot. It's funny how the smaller jet gave us more bottom end power, maybe the bore on the new carburettor is too big or the needle height needs altering further. 



Next we had to get the gearing set-up, we weren't pulling top gear along the straight, so the new back sprocket was relegated to the subs bench and last years sprocket was bolted back onto the bike. Instantly it was transformed. We spent the rest of the day making sure that nothing nasty could spoil the rest of the weekend. This year we're not going to change things unless there is a problem, so we didn't put a new ring in the bike at the end of the day. 

Although water-cooled bikes could be used in practice they were few and far between. One of the RS framed water-cooled bikes was stunningly fast, but at the moment the jury is still out about whether it's a good or bad thing.


Sunday 6th May 2001
Sunny, calm weather for the first race of 2001. We got a reasonable start and settled into a rhythm. Steve was racing for the first time in 2 years, but he soon found his feet and started enjoying racing again, he got faster as the weekend went on, but didn't fall off (unlike Lea and me!). The bike was out on the track for the full 6 hours.

Everything was running fine, until 5 and half hours into the race. I was doing the final session on the bike, when at the bottom of the hill going into the right hand bend someone fell off right in front of me. I should have ignored them and watched what I was doing, but I panicked and touched the brake when leaning over too far, the end result - one bent handle bar and no front brake. I soon got used to riding with only the back brake, but I certainly wasn't going to start racing with people, so I just kept circulating until the end. Luckily we didn't get black flagged! I didn't have any 'dodgy moments' during the last half hour, but we did lose a bit of time.


After the race, I realised that I had done the right thing. We wouldn't have been able to mend the brake with only 30 minutes of the race left, one of the banjo bolts had moved and brake fluid was leaking from this.


By the end we'd done exactly 300 laps and ended up 4th in class! Our fastest lap was in the 1m 04s so we were pretty happy.



In the paddock we bled the brake, straightened the handle bar. Again we didn't touch the engine. Everything was ready for the 4 hour race.



Monday 7th May 2001
Another nice day, maybe the hottest so far. We had a pretty quiet 4 hour race. Lea dropped the bike twice mid hairpin, but didn't break anything. The bike was reliable, and we all had great fun battling with anyone and everyone. Steve was now head down arse up, knee out and going for it. So all three of us were keeping the bike circulating. At the end of the race we'd done 202 laps which put us in 4th again with a similar fastest lap to yesterdays race. Another great weekends racing!

The championship have us in 3rd place in class 2. Bike 123 was excluded due to an oversized engine. It's very rare for people to get caught cheating. Anyone can make a bigger engine go fast, it's much more difficult to make a 50cc engine go fast and be reliable!



The Championship looks like this.

1st	105	Mad Maxi	40
2nd	115	F U Cups	38
3rd	109	Team ARSE	34
4th	149	Bell End Racing	33
5th	135	Armageddon 1	32

See you at Elvington in June!

Anglesey - September 2000

Saturday 30th September 2000
Nice calm settled weather greeted us on Saturday morning we took the bike straight out onto the track and found out that we could easily ride it in top gear everywhere except the hairpin. We hadn't altered the gearing since Rowrah so it just shows how much faster Ty-Croes is! We put a 14-tooth sprocket on the bike and tried again. This time it was better but we felt the bike was running a little rich, so we put a smaller jet in and tried again. The bike now revved harder, we were lapping in the 1m 13s bracket which was similar to last year. It does seem funny that at Rowrah we have been getting faster and faster, however here at Ty-Croes the bike doesn't seem to improve in the same way.

We were happy with how the bike was going so we spent the afternoon scratch racing and enjoying the nice weather. After practising had finished we replaced the Piston ring as normal ready for the last race of 2000.

Sunday 1st October 2000

The weather was quite different. There was a stiff breeze and it was cloudy. I thought that it was going to start raining all day as the clouds were quite low and grey. We were lucky to make the start, everything happened very quickly. We hadn't got the transponder so I had to run and sign for it while most bikes were already lined up on the grid, we'd just got the bike to the line when the flag dropped and we were off! Unfortunately the bike didn't last long! I did 5 laps and the bike went pop. Going up the hill the engine started to tighten and at the top it made 'the rattle of death'. I pushed it back to the paddock, we looked at the plug, it had melted. We took the head off and found a nice neat hole in the middle of the piston.

Plan B - The bottom end of the engine was full of alloy, the barrel had survived the abuse. We decided to swap the bottom end of the engine, use a spare piston and ring. We also decided to go back to the original jetting (Make the wholething richer) The only draw back was the spare bottom end had only 5 gears. After doing only 5 laps I had realised that the wind meant that the gearing was too tall, so we also decided to put the 13-tooth sprocket back on the bike. This took about 50 minutes, I went back out for a shake down. The bike would only run with the choke on. I brought the bike off the track again and we put an even bigger jet in the bike. After doing this we'd lost about 1 hour. However the bike was now running okay. Both me and Lea were really surprised, the bike would now go flat out in top gear all the way around the track, but to do this meant that you were on the limit at both the right hander half way up the hill and through the chicane.


Occasionally rain started to fall but we just kept going. I had one or two 'moments' but the weather soon changed again and the rain held off.

Our fastest lap was 1m 11.8s which was pretty reasonable considering all the changes we'd had to make. (It is about a second quicker than last year). By the end of the race we'd done 209 laps. We've blown it for the championship but that's racing! We ended up 15th in class and scored 6 points! Here is the class 2 championship at the end of 2000.

1st Brew X1	78 Points
2nd Noisy B's	75 Points
3rd F U Cups	66 Points
4th Armageddon	62 Points
5th Team ARSE	58 Points

So this year we've kept the bike out on the track all year. Altogether we did 956 laps, that works out at 44p per competition lap. The only disaster was today, but we couldn't ask for more. No one got hurt, the bike has been faster than last year and we're still finding more power, little by little, roll on 2001.

Rowrah - June 2000

We have had a real struggle to get the bike ready for the June race at Rowrah. After a bit more filing in the barrel no matter what jets we put in the carburettor we were still getting a weak mixture. There was several things that could have been going on, did we have an air leak somewhere? Were the crank seals leaking? Was the carburettor now causing problems that we hadn't seen before? In the end Lea got to the bottom of this whole thing by putting another carburettor on the bike which solved the problem, we now believe that (maybe) the air jet in the original carburettor wasn't able to work correctly now the engine has been tuned that bit further. So with the new carburettor in place we headed for Rowrah.

Saturday 24th June 2000
The bike initially was fine, we ran rich to feel safe, after all the problems mentioned above we didn't want to knacker up the engine straight away. We decided to weaken the mixture mid morning so put a smaller jet in the carburettor, Lea also moved the needle higher in the carburettor to see if this made any difference, as it was the first time we had used this carburettor anything was worth a try!

We were now happy with the engine, but by lunchtime I had started noticing a strange vibration through the bike when going through the chicane at the far end of the circuit, the whole bike vibrated mid corner when it was changing direction. I came into the pits but we couldn't see anything, nothing was loose or hanging off the bike, Lea took it out and had the same problem. Over lunch we had a brainstorm but couldn't fathom what was going on, by early afternoon it was getting worse and in most braking areas the bike was now vibrating badly! There was definitely nothing wrong with the running gear on the bike, wheel bearing were fine, the headstock and shock linkages had no play in them, the brakes weren't binding and the pads looked fine! We decided to swap the bottom end of the engine, this at least would prove that the vibration wasn't coming from the engine. As we started to undo the engine bolts Lea noticed that the front engine bolt was already loose, we decided to tighten everything up and try the bike again, it did look a bit like clutching at straws, only the front engine bolt was loose the other two were tight. However on the track the bike was transformed back to it's former glory! One loose engine bolt and the whole bike felt like a complete bag of nails!

At the end of the day we put a new ring in the engine and had a few laps to make sure the bike was now running okay. The weather had been dry all day, there was a breeze but it wasn't windy. The day got better and better, by evening it was sunny and settled. 

Sunday 25th June 2000
There had been showers over night but by the morning everything was dry and settled. The race started and we soon got into the rhythm, the bike was running fine and straight away I was lapping in the 1m 4s. The bike was faster that the May meeting, but the real benefit from the changes were in the versatility, we now have more mid range and can use this in traffic without losing quite as much time.After about an hour someone dumped oil everywhere and the race had to be stopped. To say how dodgy it looked the marshals soon had everything under control, the race was restarted behind a 'pace moped!' It did look very dangerous, concrete dust was everywhere and certain places were either slippery from the oil or dusty from the concrete. I was taking it well easy, to be honest most people adapted very well, there was very few people crashing because of the oil, this did surprise me!

As the race went on the track got better and better, our bike was running fine, both Lea and me could keep doing 1m 4s laps so we were happy. I had a few near misses and did touch one or two bikes (I'm sorry if I got tangled with anyone who's reading this THE DEVIL MADE ME DO IT! I apologised to Ape Racing for bashing into them at one point!) 

About four hours into the race Lea had an accident at the right hand hairpin, he'd exited the bend and was looking forward when he caught the kerb which sent him lock to lock and over the top! The tank flew off the bike and Lea did a somersault down the tarmac, however he was soon back on his feet, he came straight into the pits, the bike looked fine so I took it out while Lea collected his thoughts. He'd banged his shoulder but hadn't done anything too serious. In my last stint I got a faster lap that before but it was still in the low 1m 4s we were running 13th or 14th overall and 3rd or 4th in class by the end. Again we didn't look at how many laps we'd done. The bike had been reliable again and we'd had another great race.

The results confirmed a 3rd place we did 255 laps and scored 18 points. We were 7 laps behind the class 2 winner Brew X1 and 5 laps behind Noisy B's. We only need 1 lap per hour challenge for a class win! Our fastest lap of the race was 1m 04.18s the bike was over 1 second per lap quicker than the May meeting. In the championship were 3rd place it looks like this :-

The Class 2 championship looks like this :-
1st Brew X1 (130) 59 points
2nd Noisy B's (123) 57 points
3rd Team Arse (109) 52 points

4rd F U Cups (115) 50 points

5th Armageddon (147) 49 points

One round to go. Will everything be reliable at Anglesey at the beginning of October?

Rowrah - May 2000

Saturday 29th April 2000

We didn't want the same problems that affected out first race last year, so this year we haven't done anything radical with the engine. Straightaway in the bike settled down and we were lapping 1m 8s. We used the same gearing as last year and the bike worked well especially down the hill through the right, left combination.

The new front forks now give us more feel than the old 'bodged' front end so we were happy about the improvement. We decided to weaken the mixture and this improved lap times down to 1m 7s.

It started raining in the afternoon so we didn't bother doing much in the wet. We were happy that the bike would be reliable and hoped for better weather for tomorrow.

Sunday 30th April 2000
A good day! The track was dry and the weather got better as the day went on. The bike ran fine, we were doing 1m 7s and 1m 6s consistently. We did have two accidents. I fell off at the end of the straight trying to outbrake someone and lost the front! Lea did exactly the same thing at the next right hand hairpin. Both accidents didn't damage the bike so we only lost a few seconds on each one. The new paint got scratched on both side, so the bike now looks used (a good thing in my opinion!).

One of our friends had a go on the bike mid race, he was lapping at 1m16s but was being sensible. Ian was chuffed that we'd let him have a go on the bike. After the race we were chuffed that the bike had gone so well and didn't care too much about our position, we couldn't have done much more. We had a talk after the race and decided to put a new ring in the engine and weaken the mixture a bit more for the 4 hour race tomorrow.

By the end of the day we'd done 302 laps, our best lap was 1m 6.26s. This got us to 4th in class, we were 21 laps behind the class winner Brew X1 (130) who managed 323 laps. Again our bike had a slower 'best lap time' than all the bike above and several that were below us in the results, this shows that by being consistent we're able to score more points that being fast but unreliable, either because other teams are breaking down or falling off and needing to repair their bikes! From this result we need to find 3.5 laps per hour. So the class winner was lapping us every 17 minutes. We're happy enough with the result.

Monday 1st May 2000

No accidents today. The weather was sunny the bike was running fine and we had another great day. Lap times were now down to 1m 5s or 1m 6s and we just kept going! Ian had another go on the bike and got down to 1m 12s, he was happy because he'd went faster than yesterday. We were all well chuffed.

No one on the track was giving an inch and overtaking was sometimes difficult, but both Lea and me had some great battles. Some you win some you lose but I was smiling all day! The results showed more good news we were 4th again!

The same three bikes as yesterday were in front of us but this time The Noisy B's won the race, their bike had been purring all weekend, how can a 50cc moped go so fast without revving hard? They did 203 laps we ended up 13 laps behind on 190. Our fastest lap was 1m 5.53s so weakening the mixture gained us about three quarters of a second a lap. This time we were being lapped by the winners every 18.5 minutes. 

Oveall we're 4th in the championship with 34 points, The Class 2 championship looks like this :-

1st Brew X1 (130) 39 points

2nd Noisy B's (123) 38 points

3rd F U Cups (115) 37 points

4th Team Arse (109) 34 points

5th Armageddon (147) 32 points

I don't think we're going to do anything radical for the next meeting but we will try and improve a little by making small changes. 

Rowrah - October 1999

Saturday 16th October 1999
The weather was amazing for mid October, we'd spent weeks talking about how cold and wet it was going to be, so sunshine and clear sky's were a real lift.
Initially the bike wasn't running properly, if the throttle was opened fully the engine bogged down. Looking at the plug helped, we were running far too rich! Down jetting sorted the problem although we had to progressively use smaller jets. Lea was 'going for it' straight away and fell off the bike 4 (yes four) times in the morning. This was like the old days where we first started racing but we've been doing this for 6 years. The bike was standing up to the abuse pretty well only peripheral parts were getting damaged. I don't know weather our tyres are getting knacked or maybe the cold track temperature was causing the accidents, but unless you got the tyres warmed up properly there was no warning before the tyres let go! All in all we were happy with the setup of the bike and didn't change the bike.


Sunday 17th October 1999
The bike ran faultless all day, we were the weak link. We all fell off once, luckily each time the bike wasn't damaged! Here's a picture of me on the deck! Rowrah suits our bike and we all thoroughly enjoyed the race. We did 261 laps and usually we were doing 1m 7s or 1m 8s this was better and more consistent than the May meeting. We finished 7th in class 1 which is our best result to date.
It was nice to see so many of the 'Fast' RS framed bikes having mechanical problems. Long live the 'Moped' aspect of Mayhem, some teams look to be taking it far too seriously. Keep it cheap and cheerful, if people want to throw £1000's at it let them, but make sure that these teams don't take over with rule changes etc. There's nothing better than a dodgy class 3 step through winning and getting their name on the trophy. The name of the game is (and should always be) 'Moped Mayhem' I think it's a mistake to start calling it '50cc Endurance Racing' If people are that serious about their racing get and ACU license and race RS125's (they've probably already got a frame!).


I took some photos here are a few of them :-

So at the end of 1999 we finished 16th in class 1, altogether we did 842 laps! The only disappointment was the first race at Rowrah in May when the bike wasn't running correctly, otherwise the bike has ran reliably and is getting faster.

In 1998 we finished 10th in class 1, the bike was slower back then but didn't break down. So all in all we're happy with 1999 and looking forward to 2000