Mallory Test - March 2005

After last seasons disastrous start with the Rotax ceasing up at the first race meeting, we decided to have a run out at Mallory to shake down the newly acquired and extensively worked on Yamaha Supermono.

Brian Wyles of Rampisham Garage bought the Yamaha at the end of last season, for me to race in the ultra competitive Water-cooled class of the British Supermono Championship in 2005, having successfully ridden his Spondon Rotax over the past few seasons in the Air-cooled class.

However the bike was in quite a state of disrepair having been stood unused for a while and he worked tirelessly throughout the winter getting the bike functioning correctly. I made a trip down to Dorset after Christmas to lend a hand and came home with a list of things to make for the bike before a return trip in early March to fit them and give the bike a brief run.

We met at Mallory on the Wednesday afternoon in beautiful sunshine, we unloaded the bikes and warmed them up ready for the first session.

The intention wasn’t to break lap records on the bike but to ensure that the bike was fit for racing and with so much work done and changes made its essential to make sure that everything is fine and nothing has been missed.

I took it nice and steady in the first session having been bitten last year with a blown engine but all seemed well. After the session we took the fairings off and checked everything over, the only fault was a crankcase breather pipe that needed another clip to keep it secure, and a few suspect drips of oil in the belly pan were from a pipe that needed to be in a catch bottle as the oil needed to find its own level. I made a few suspension alterations and lowered the gear change lever, which was too high for me to reach comfortably.
 
I picked up the pace in the second session in order to get a feeling for the gearing on the bike, I decided I needed more drive for Mallory so when I came in I changed from a 38 rear sprocket to a 39. I also adjusted the angle of the handlebars a bit further back so I didn’t have to reach as far and to allow me to tuck in better. I then checked the bike over once more, which showed no further faults.
 
In the final session I did some laps closer to race speed and the gearing proved perfect. This will help a great deal when deciding what sprockets to fit for the other circuits we will visit with the new bike. I was also very happy with the suspension settings, both tyres were perfectly clean after the session, which is a good indicator that the suspension is working correctly and not tearing at the tyres due to being badly set up.

However I did move the handlebars a little too far in so I had to move them back a bit!! We stripped the bike down a bit further after the final session which uncovered a minor oil leak around the spark plug chamber, where the rocker cover seals to the head, this needed to be sorted before the first race meeting so Brian took the bike back with him.

I’m so glad we went testing, there’s nothing worse than going straight into your first race meeting only to face a weekend of faults, especially with an unfamiliar bike which has undergone a transformation.

But the afternoon was a great success with very little wrong with the bike, and the cobwebs blown off my leathers!!!