CBX Racing

[Warwick Biggs]

Here is a link to a video guide of Phillip Island GP circuit. The presenter is a bit of a clown and the music is annoying but it does give a good sense of what the track is like to ride.

But you don't want to crash your CBX like I did in 2018 coming out of Siberia (so called because it is up on the top of the cliff overlooking the ocean and gets the wind off the sea) and heading into the Hayshed (fast, fast). Or anywhere of course because it is nearly all very high speed.

The video tends to flatten out the elevation changes for some reason but they are there, including up thru' the Hayshed (very fast) and up over Lukey Heights (a very fast blind lefthander that apexes out of sight just over the top of the hill) b4 dropping down sharply into MG, a tight 2nd gear right hander.

Check out the speed thru' T12 coming onto the straight. It is a long, long and fast left hander notorious for high sides because of the stresses on the rear tyre in particular, as the presenter says. That is what happened to Pridmore a few years ago leading to a pile up and spectacular rocket launch of the Irving Vincent.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nscJtaYr2A4

[Syscrush]

Rick, I wish you the best in living your Phillip Island dream on your amazing, well-sorted bike! I can't wait to hear how it goes.

Add me to the list of people who would really love to see some on-board footage.

[NobleHops]

+1,000 on both the good wishes and for the wish for footage. Have a ball, Rick.

[Jeff Bennetts]

We are rooting for you Rick!

[Warwick Biggs]

Thanks guys, I really appreciate the encouragement. Somebody on the Oz CBX site suggested a while ago that I was an embarrassment altho' it was not clear who was embarrassed or why.

It took a while to find a set of six #65 slow jets for the Lump after our Colortuning suggested my existing #62's were a bit lean. I was on the point of ordering a set from JB in Nippon when Roly came thru', bless his cotton socks! Now I have to pull the carbs off again to try the richer jets, a job I particularly loathe. I will need to do that b4 my next track test of the Lump later in January.

The purpose of changing the KTM for the Husqvarna was to provide me with a modern, easy to ride and maintain track bike on which to sharpen my riding skills. There is no point wearing out my historic race bikes while attempting to do so and the KTM is simply not suited to track work. Of course, no bike is perfect, and all require a certain amount of fiddling to get them setup for the individual rider. The 701 is no different and after another track session yesterday, again in pb territory, it became clear that more things require attention. The front end feels a bit vague, and I had one lurid high-speed slide that came with no warning. Plus, I am already wearing thru' the rhs rearset peg. So, it obviously needs significant lifting at the rear to put more load on the front and balance that fairly long swingarm (see attached pic). I also need to ditch the monster catalytic converter hanging under the motor. It weighs a ton and is surplus to requirements.

The change in gearing from 16/40 to 15/42 helped a bit around Mac Park but not as much as I expected and the tendency to slide without much warning seems to be a family trait inherited from the KTM. Sometimes a nip of the poison can cure the patient and I have a KTM 690 Duke rear shock that is an inch longer than the stock 701 White Power shock. I will retain the stiffer 701 spring (it will fit the KTM shock) which is also more adjustable for both preload, compression and rebound. Hopefully, that will go some way to sharpening up the steering and improving ground clearance. It is certainly a cheaper option than a Nitron R3 that most 701 track riders seem to prefer.

[Warwick Biggs]

Here are a few more pics by Fran from yesterday.

[Warwick Biggs]

I'm probably a bit big for it but it should be a cheap and easy practice bike. At this stage it is not a race bike.

I hope all CBX owners and followers of my adventures here have a safe and happy Yuletide and our world has a much better New Year after the horrors of '23.

[steve murdoch icoa #5322]

"a nip of the poison can cure the patient"....i will be borrowing that one.

Thanks for the best wishes on the Holiday Season, Rick.
I hope 2024 is a great year for you.

[Warwick Biggs]

I should not say 'it can't be any worse than 2023' Steve, because I guess it can

A slightly sour note when Roly's letter turned up minus the jets. Sadly, purloined by an Auspost employee as they had care of the letter the whole time. Somebody probably thought it contained valuables and while the jets are valuable to me and just about me alone, they are worthless to the thief who went to some trouble to re-seal the envelope. Why couldn't he/she/it put them back when they realised their mistake?

I also recently paid for a set of leathers that never arrived. The increasing levels of thievery can be slated home to 2 main drivers:- an inflationary economy based upon record levels of immigration from extremely low wage countries to artificially stimulate "growth" and disguise poor governance and the pernicious effects of privatising traditional government services and then de-regulating the market in the name of productivity. More economic mumbo jumbo. Even Adam Smith realised that for the capitalist system to work, it requires governments to referee the field. Oh yes, and the wild, wild world of the internet to supercharge the systemic failures.

Unfortunately, this setback throws my plans for Philip Island into some disarray because I won't have the jets in time.

I think I need of few nips of my own poison to regain my composure.

[Warwick Biggs]

No use crying over spilt milk or purloined jets. I've ordered a new set from JB's in Nippon.

[Warwick Biggs]

This time the jets managed to get thru' and now all I have to do is fit them. Well, not quite. First the carbs have to come off and I can tell you that with a bank of 6 that is much easier said than done. It actually requires a lot of muscle, a heat gun and firmly anchoring my bike stand because the rubbers become baked on from the heat the CBX engine generates.

Then fitting the jets on the bench is straight forward but refitting the bank back onto the head is another pain. Again, requiring a lot of muscle, a heat gun, copious amounts of rubber grease and a bit of technique. So OK, when they are back on I have to start tuning because both the air screws and the needles will have to be re-set. I will start with the stock setting, bearing in mind there are 9 possible needle settings, and then use the Colortune plug, cylinder by cylinder.

All this requires more patience than I can usually summon and if I can't get a better result than my current settings it will just be back to square 1 again and all for nought.

For light relief I have been playing around with a cheap secondhand glass fairing I picked up off an NC30. I'm not using it for my little V4 but rather to make up a fairing for the Vitpilen, mainly to protect it from the inevitable crashes. I can't fit the full fairing until I get rid of the catalytic converter but here are some pics with my attempts to make up a bikini fairing. This is really just an aesthetic exercise but I reckon it looks OK and enhances the 701 style.

[Warwick Biggs]

Why the site keeps putting my pics on their ear, I don't know.

[Warwick Biggs]

In that last pic you can see the original NC30 nose cone in the background. The contrast between a modern style and the original rules out the use of the new fairing for the historic class because it just looks way too modern.

However, the NC30 can still be raced in the modern Limited class where it remains competitive and there are still quite a few racing against modern bikes. In fact, it is a testament to Honda's 34 year old design that it remains competitive with modern fuel injected bikes up to and including the latest 650's like the SV Suzuki or even the latest 4 cylinder Kawasaki 400 RR. If you think about that it really is quite remarkable and I think raises some questions about the value for money of many modern bikes.

[Warwick Biggs]

The little Vitpilen continues to draw almost as much attention as the CBX. Most people have never seen one and are astonished at it's performance. The bikini fairing worked a treat and I was hitting the limiter in top
(with non standard 15/42 gearing) just b4 my braking spot at the end of the straight, so it does have more than an aesthetic function.

However, I've now put it way until I do the decat and have been checking over the Lump and the NC30 both of which are entered in the Classic Master of Mac Park on 1-3 March '24. The last outing with the Lump was frustrating with battery problems and lack of sparks at critical moments.

Prior to that my mate Mark Lithgow (another 72 year old & ex factory racer) had qualified us P2 behind a very fast and exotic Harris Kawasaki at the Southern Classic at Broadford. We were still ploughing with the Colin Marley billet crank end caps and only managed P5 on points over the w/e but I was really happy with that because it is not a track I much like and we were competitive against a solid field. Since then I've lifted it up to the max. The chain is clickety, click on the nylon guard on the swingarm when I wheel it around but it should be OK with my 82kgs sat on it. Will do a track day with the Lump the week b4 so only 3 weeks to get ready...

[Syscrush]

However, I've now put it way until I do the decat

I'm here to suggest you leave the cat on. On a modern bike, removing it gains you something like 2% in power, but increases nasty emissions of unburned HC more than 2,000%. If you're not racing it, there's no reason to make it so much dirtier while not making it measurably faster.

Good luck getting everything sorted out with the old Hondas!