Winton Historic Racing, May 2021 Luis Gallur
- Thread starter davidd
- Start date
Thanks David, it was an awesome weekend, I have only just joined the team, literally a couple of weeks ago, after Luis contacted me and asked if I would be interested in helping out........Distance is the issue, as the Bike lives in Sydney and I am 900 Km north on the Gold Coast. Anyway Luis had the bike delivered to me the week beforehand for a quick check over.......A few minor items sorted out, and replace the rear chain, took the bike for a spin around the block and all seemed to be ok.....We had a couple of glitches on the Friday afternoon soon after we arrived at the track, but it seemed to be more false alarms and the first outing on Saturday morning showed the bike to be fine. Cam is such a professional rider, he is excellent to work with.......On returning he would quickly advise of any issues or changes needed which we got onto straight away........The Horner brothers were there with their families, this was mostly to test the 2 outfits and a solo bike that they have changed over to mechanical fuel injection........This seemed to work out ok on both sidecars, but the solo was not so happy.........the injection being very much like an ''on/off" switch, this made riding out of corners too difficult according to Cam. Amazingly Cam's lovely wife Kaz who I believe is a champion motox rider herself was passenger with Cam, and they looked spectacular racing together........They too won on the sidecar in that class........not too difficult on that machine, but just showed how versatile a rider cam is to pilot on solo's and outfits very competitively. In the pictures you see Cam with his 2 gorgeous young girls 2 and 7 years old, enjoying the moment with mum and dad. Luis was over the moon at the result, the next outing will be the National titles at Mac park in South Australia in late October........There are a few changes to be made to the bike, this will improve things all over, but generally the bike is amazing, the handling is superb, slightly down on power over the other Norton's in the race. It tips the scales at the moment at 124 kg's which is quite light.........we will get that figure down lower, and make some good changes before the October meeting.
What a fantastic day, and what a fantastic shot of Cam and Flash at full tilt and bore, on a bike where every gram counts I wonder why the friction damper and other surplus brackets on the rear frame member have been left in situ.
I have seen the RFM brackets removed, and not damaging at all, but probably not an absolute necessity. In fact there is not much that can be trimmed off the bike........We do plan on changing the head stock to an alloy one, this will save some weight for sure........ To watch Cam throw the bike through the corners was amazing..........I felt that on my twin racer with all the mods to the suspension that I could out turn others with featherbed framed bikes.........Phil Canning who owns the bike now has said the same..........Looking at the Flash in the corners against very skilled riders, I would say that is strong evidence of same. I would be interested to take that bike and mine to a track day and test the bikes back to back to see what differences exist.........This will almost certainly happen at some point. Like I said, the bike will be coming up here for a thorough going over........There seems to be little info out there on the Godet machines, I'm not sure these are trade secrets......The engines do have many upgrades from a normal Comet engine, I think the bottom end is quite bullet proof........The top end could be an area for some upgrades, as I believe they still use a hemispherical combustion chamber........That alone is a bit antiquated from a power perspective.
The RFM can be lightened quite a bit. I get them down to 12 lbs. bare. Patrick uses Plastic in the RFM pivot. The taper rollers are strong, but they are very heavy. Ceramic hybrids for the wheel bearings will cut some weight, also and the rolling resistance is very low.
The aluminum steering head cuts the weight in half, but it tends to require the FT1/4 style of connection to the head lug, which is probably the weakest. If you cnc the headstock the rake can be steepened and the connection to the head can be strengthened considerably with an improved connection.
Chrome molly can be used for the headstock instead. It is strong and about the same weight as aluminum because the aluminum needs a sturdy design to deal with the bending forces.
Dave Tompkin's bike lost quite a bit of weight this winter. It is down to 265 lbs., but he uses a lot of titanium. I hope to get mine down to 270 lbs. with no titanium. Most of the weight loss on Dave's came from getting rid of the fuel tank and its capacity. I ran a 1.25 gal. tank, which would do any race on the schedule. You can't do that at the TT, but on these short races, it saves about 15 lbs. The seat is another heavy component when you add in the metal tube supporting it. Mine is about 2 lbs.
I mentioned to Dave that he should cut off the ends of his fork spindles as Patrick does. He resisted, at first, but the lure of "lightweight" got to him.
David
The aluminum steering head cuts the weight in half, but it tends to require the FT1/4 style of connection to the head lug, which is probably the weakest. If you cnc the headstock the rake can be steepened and the connection to the head can be strengthened considerably with an improved connection.
Chrome molly can be used for the headstock instead. It is strong and about the same weight as aluminum because the aluminum needs a sturdy design to deal with the bending forces.
Dave Tompkin's bike lost quite a bit of weight this winter. It is down to 265 lbs., but he uses a lot of titanium. I hope to get mine down to 270 lbs. with no titanium. Most of the weight loss on Dave's came from getting rid of the fuel tank and its capacity. I ran a 1.25 gal. tank, which would do any race on the schedule. You can't do that at the TT, but on these short races, it saves about 15 lbs. The seat is another heavy component when you add in the metal tube supporting it. Mine is about 2 lbs.
I mentioned to Dave that he should cut off the ends of his fork spindles as Patrick does. He resisted, at first, but the lure of "lightweight" got to him.
David
Fuel injection! Our UK regs keep the bikes more to the manufactured year. GP2 carbs are pushing the boundary my fingers are crossed that the "series D" at the Olympia Exibition in 1954 will get the rear AVO coil over through inspection. Even our revcounters should be mechanical. Meanwhile many of the Manx Nortons were made after the milenium I like the plastic RFM bearings the scrutineers cant see them I must investigate
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Looks great Dave, But your a braver man than me...........
Probably stronger than it looks, you can’t see it but there is a cross tube where the down tubes hit what looks like the perforated plate and it’s all gusseted underneath, no noticeable flex when pushed and seven pounds is substantial.