CBX Racing

[Warwick Biggs]

Thanks Nils. Perhaps you are right but I looked at the bore and it was neither visibly pitted nor stepped. Nor is it leaking any fluid which is what I would expect if it was beyond spec. Does anybody else have any suggestions? My stock 4 pot Prolink pistons pressing HH sintered pads against a cut down VTR 1000 stainless rotor thru' braided lines are pretty good altho' a Brembo radial master cylinder and cast iron rotor would no doubt improve things.

By the way and for the record, the final results of the four heats of the National Championships on points were as follows:- Period 5 Unlimited was won by Beau Beaton on the Irving Vincent with 100 points. Rick Biggs on the CBX 1170 was 10th outright out of 15 finishers on 48 points. My best lap was still a second off my PB. Period 6 500 was won by Lachlan Hill on a TZ350 Special with 100 points. Rick Biggs was 8th outright out of 17 finishers with 48 points and a new PB by over 2 seconds.

Considering my age, health history and that I was competing against some of the best riders on the fastest bikes in the country I guess I should be happy to just be there but they were certainly not the results I was hoping for. So we look ahead...

[Warwick Biggs]

When I started racing this guy was the be all and end all of racers. It has been claimed that he leaned the bikes of the day further than anybody without crashing. Mike Hailwood was also a big guy and in this the most iconic race pic of all time he can be seen on the Honda Six at the 1966 French GP at the original 8 kilometre Charade Circuit at Clermont Ferrand.

Check out his right boot and then his riding style. Hardly moving off the centre line of the bike and he obviously had clearance problems too! There is a pic of Bill Ivy at the same corner and in the same race hanging off in more modern style but I can't find it. Perhaps somebody else could post it? Sorry, I don't have the photographer's details either but it is now well and truly in the public domain.

[Warwick Biggs]

That was a public road circuit - you can see the dividing line in the background of the pic. It is still possible to ride parts of it right in the very middle of France up in the Central Massif in the Auvergne.

[Warwick Biggs]

Happy to report my final victory over the rear brake master cylinder. No, I didn't throw it in the bin. I persisted a bit longer with priming the mc by holding my thumb over the outlet and pumping until I had only fluid exiting. Then I reattached the banjo and put the vacuum pump on the bleed nipple and within 15 minutes all the air was out and the brake was working properly again. The moral of this story is to make sure the mc is thoroughly primed b4 attempting to bleed the circuit.

Harking back to riding style, here are a couple of shots taken in the Office corner. You can see that I have moved my body weight to the inside but I need to move further in and stand the bike up more. I have lifted it up a bit more and will see how that goes. I will be taking the Lump to the track in a weeks time for a testing session the week b4 the Seniors races to hopefully iron out any bugs.

[Warwick Biggs]

While I'm looking at these pics, I noticed this poor fellow on a nice looking ' Jaffa' Z1 in the original orange and brown colour scheme was constantly trying to pass me and he did each time I missed a gear or ran wide but no doubt to his great frustration, I just sat on his back wheel and motored past him down the straight, every time. That must hurt.

[Warwick Biggs]

Out at the track testing the changes today. Lifting the bike around 5mm at both ends and then running about 30 psi in the front forks certainly helped a lot. It tipped in nicely was not pogoing and I only touched terra firma once fleetingly. So, ground clearance is OK. Mind you I was not travelling at race pace so we will see come next w/e with the acid test during the Seniors.

I'm still having trouble changing down and more work is required on the idle jets and clutch adjustment. Just holding it on the rev limiter and avoiding going up a gear in a few places helped altho' it sounded a bit like a more modern bike.

A number of other racers were taking the opportunity to shakedown their bikes b4 next week, one of whom, Ivor Johnsons was next to me in the pits. Here is a pic of the Lump resting with Ivor in the background on his immaculate NSR250. Behind him in the shed is a red bike that was a rare bike 'shed find'. A Honda XR 600 super mono that was once raced by his neighbor Kevin Magee. MotoGP fans should recognise that name. It had been sitting under a tarp out in the weather unused for 10 years. Ivor discovered it and he brought it together with his NSR125 just to see how it would go, still shod with unused 10 year old tyres.

I helped him get it going and after a false start he had it really flying and what a weapon. So 'shed finds' of rare bikes do happen and it is not the first time for Ivor either.

[Warwick Biggs]

I have posted an enquiry in the brake category of the general index relating to front brake master cylinder options suitable for the Prolink calipers that I would appreciate help with please.

[Warwick Biggs]

What a difficult week end the Seniors races turned out to be. Heavy, at times torrential icy rain interspersed with quite warm sunshine breaks made for very tricky track conditions where tyre choice was a big gamble and changing wheels between sessions was a separate race against the clock.

As I did not have wets and was running full slicks on the CBX I only did one lap of practice on the Friday just to make sure it was all working. Then Qualifying on Saturday was also wet so the CBX did not get much of a guernsey but I did fit wets to the NC30 and qualified well with P3. Finally, a front row start.

As it turned out that was the bike on which I had my closest race in the Over 100 years (bike and rider ages combined) Lightweight (under 500) Cup. And what a cracker it was with multiple passes and re-passes sometimes in the same corner with 4 of us battling for a podium and separated by tenths across the line. I had a few opportunities but discretion out weighed valor and I just missed out on a trophy but really, the race was fantastic. We all had a ball. Here I'm shaking hands with Robin who was riding one of a pair of LC's that kept harrying me as I chased the leaders. Every time I was setting up a pass they would sneak in and I'd have to struggle past them again. It is very hard to ride aggressively when you have to defend from the rear as well and it was great the way the 4 of us were responding to constant changes in strategy. It really was more like a dance than a race!

The winner 74 year old Mick normally rides an ancient MV and had never ridden his bike, a Yamaha FZR400 b4 the weekend. He had just picked it up for a few grand with a box load of spares and a heap of things to fix over the week end so he was absolutely chuffed and declared it his best race in years. Toe to toe racing amongst experienced competitors is what it is all about at the Seniors and the camaraderie and generosity in the paddock at these meetings restores your faith in humanity.

The other pic is of a T shirt seen in my garage worn by another lawyer of all people, Manx Norton racing Geoff who won the Period 3 championship without having to employ any treachery at all.

The Lump did get to run on the Sunday which was largely dry and finished all it's sessions with only one minor drama. Because grid positions were constantly changing I had a memory lapse and went to the wrong side in one race while lining up. I had to effect a sharp right turn to cross to the correct side and of course I tripped and nearly dropped the bloody thing as well as stalling. Right in front of the main spectator area under the tower! So there I am holding the weight of the bike stuck on one shaking leg and unable to get enuf' leverage to pick it up. The flag marshal ignored my pleas for help (was he thinking about the rules or what?) until a female flaggie came up and got me back up with a gentle push and we were able to resume the start.

I spent a large part of the races on the rev limiter in an effort to avoid having to change gear because of the lack of inertia in the crank and the difficulties that created matching engine and gear speeds. I now have to ride it like a 2 stroke and as a consequence more changes are in the pipeline over the winter months. The extra power is fantastic but makes it very hard to ride smoothly and the slightest throttle has it lurching violently when you least want it, coming off a closed throttle to drive thru' the apex. I was losing heaps of time especially in the tighter corners getting passed by all and sundry only to blitz them all down the straight with sometimes enormous speed differences.

So altho' we did not score any flash results we had some great races and kept the spectators entertained plus there were the usual compliments from other competitors and spectators for fielding the icon of excess against pukka racing bikes. The usual distractions with spectators wanting to reminisce about their mate who had a CBX back in the day, etc. I try to be polite but I have heard it all too many times b4 and with 2 old bikes to keep at their peak you have too much on your mind to give them anything but cursory attention so I hope I wasn't too rude or abrupt.

[Warwick Biggs]

Age shall not weary them...

[Warwick Biggs]

Here are some pics of the racing posted by photographer Tony Lees. Of course he recorded my embarrassment for posterity as I dropped the big 6 on the starting grid. Merde Allors!

[Warwick Biggs]

But then once righted we got down to business.

[Warwick Biggs]

It stopped raining briefly for this pic that shows how far you can lean on wets. In fact you can go much further but at various times it was micturating down madly and you could barely see the bikes in front much less where the track went.

Then it would be starting to develop a dry line so if you were still on wets you had to aim for the wet bits while avoiding the deeper puddles because the wets will shred on a dry surface.

[Warwick Biggs]

Always time for a chat...

[Warwick Biggs]

The speed differentials in this class of racing can be high. Here I'm passing Dan on his Atlas with double the power and twice his speed but he is a good rider and could claw a fair bit back in the corners.

[Warwick Biggs]

I've included this pic to illustrate the extreme difficulty of Turn 1 at Mac Park.

Only 300 metres from the start you drag race up a slight rise before it drops down sharply into a 180 degree corner with heavy braking ripples going into the apex to test your trail braking skills and suspension set up. Because it completely doubles back on itself you cannot see the corner exit making it difficult to judge speed and line.

Altho' the track is reasonably wide and banked nicely you have 20 or 30 riders literally elbowing their way thru' and moving every which way. It can be quite scary and to prove the point a few weeks earlier one of the senior Club coaches, long time A grader Darren shattered his pelvis, broke most of his ribs and ended up on a plane to intensive care in Adelaide after a first corner pile up in the Easter Cup.

Mac Park is considered to be an extremely technical and challenging racing circuit as well as the spiritual home of historic road racing in Oz.