There have been some spectacular crashes caused by the accidental contact of the front brake lever with another bike. So much so, that the fitment of front brake lever guards is now mandatory for racing at world championship and british championship level. So, we thought we'd join the party and fit one of the Rizoma Proguards to reduce (or hopefully prevent!) the possibility of this type of accident happening to us.

The Rizoma Proguard comes nicely packaged (highly irrelevant but nice nevertheless!), is adjustable and also includes two guards - a long and a short - so that the brake protector can be situated in exactly the right place. The fitment kit also included a variety of spacers, that were not required to fit into our clipon tubes, but its nice that Rizoma catered for all eventualities.

Removal of the existing plastic bar end & fitment of the new Rizoma Proguard was a simple task, with the majority of the time spent getting the placement millimetre perfect before loctiting all screws securely into place.

It looks trick & its safer too! Lovely...  :-)

4 videos from Darley Moor Round 3, showing onboard footage from the Kawasaki ER650 Supertwin, are now available via the Two Daves Racing YouTube channel - http://www.youtube.com/user/dsc88dsc88/videos?view=0&flow=grid

We set off for Round 3 of the Darley Moor championships on Sunday 5th May (which was Lorna's birthday - but I can't remember how old she is!) ;-)

When we arrived at the circuit, the weather was beautiful and the mountains of snow that were present at the first round(s) had melted away. Better still, the forecast for the Monday race day was even better at 21 degrees and dry!

On the Sunday evening, we connected Tim Poole's laptop to the Power Commander on the Kawasaki ER650 Supertwin in an attempt to see why the quickshifter was not working. An error message of "Configuration error: Minimum RPM not set" (or similar!) was stored in the memory, so this software configuration issue was resolved but we had to wait until the qualifying session to see whether everything was working correctly.

As usual, I was entered into 3 race classes (Formula Darley, Mini Sound of Thunder & the 'open capacity' Peak Cup class) which gave me 3 qualifying sessions on the Monday. By (bad) luck, these qualifying sessions were back-to-back-to-back, so a pitstop strategy was devised and agreed with Lorna stepping up to the plate (as Dave Carson Snr was busy being collected from east midlands airport after spending the weekend watching the MotoGP races in spain, before joining us later on in the day).

The first qualifying session was for the Formula Darley class. From the start it was clear that the quickshifter was still not correctly configured; the expected full-throttle clutchless upshifts were not possible as the ignition was not being cut at the correct time, meaning that the clutch needed to be used for upshifts. But when the 'clutched upshift' had been made, the quickshifter would cut the ignition after the successful gearchange had been made, making for a very jerky ride! During the session, the bike (with the new radiator fitted) was running at 55 degrees, which is a little too cool. So there were a few issues, but at the end of the session I had put in a time good enough to put me 4th on the grid for the two Formula Darley races.

I has pulled off the track slightly early in order to make some quick changes before the Peak Cup qualifying session. Two strips of duct tape were applied to the radiator to reduce the efficiency of the radiator and a quick change to the gear change mechanism was made before heading back out on track. The bike was now running at 74 degrees (ideal!) but the same gearchange issues were being experienced, so after a few laps I pulled in to make some more changes.

Before the Mini Sound of Thunder qualifying session, we quickly added 2 litres of fuel and unplugged the quickshifter. Out on circuit, the bike felt much better to ride and soon my lap times started to tumble. At the end of the session I had managed to qualify 3rd in class (7th on the combined grid) with a respectable time of 1'04.1. Due to the race scheduling, I took the decision to only complete in the Formula Darley and Mini Sound of Thunder races.

Formula Darley Race 1 - After a average/poor start, I chased down and passed Graham Oakley on a Suzuki SV650, Tim Sayers on another ER650 and eventually bridged the gap to Keenan Armstrong on an Aprilia RRV450 to take 4th place at the end of the 8-lap race. The race was dominated by Ross Richards, with Tim Poole putting in an impressive race to finish in 2nd place.

Mini Sound of Thunder Race 1 - After another poor start (which was the unfortunate recurring theme for the day & is now a primary area of focus for improvement!), I ended up spending most of the race battling with Paul Martin on his Aprilia 1000 (who is in a different championship class); which although entertaining & made some good video footage, was not conducive to setting fast laps. At the end of the race, I'd picked up another 4th place.

Formula Darley Race 2 - The race started with an average start, but was then similar to the first race with me catching and passing Graham Oakley and Tim Sayers, but due to lost time caused by catching a backmarker at the back esses on lap 4, I was not able to catch Keenan Armstrong despite putting in some faster laps. At the end of the race, I had another 4th place to my credit.

Mini Sound of Thunder Race 2 - Onto the final race of the day & cue my worst race start of the day! I like to think that I am a calm & patient man, but even I was pissed off with myself for the mess I'd made of the race start... I had my work cut out for me but after a few laps I caught Keenan Armstrong and Paul Martin and, after a few more laps, I managed to pass both of them and break free in 2nd place. In the final 3 laps, I was able to put in some good and (fairly) clean laps which, on the final lap, resulted in me setting a new personal best lap of 1'03.19 - which was also the fastest lap of the race!

This race meeting has highlighted some important areas of improvement that I will try to address over the coming months, but has also provided a lot of positive aspects that I will also gladly take away! As it currently stands, I am sitting in 3rd place in both of the 650cc championship classes after 3 of 8 championship rounds.


FORMULA DARLEY CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS
1st - Brad Vicars  33 
2nd - Gary Dangerfield  27 
3rd - David Carson  22 
4th= - Joshua Dransfield  15 
4th= - Tim Poole  15 
6th= - Phil Johnson  9 
6th= - Ross Richards  9 
8th= - Jordan Rushby  6 
8th= - Keenan Armstrong  6 
10th - Tim Sayers  3 

MINI SOUND OF THUNDER CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS
1st - Brad Vicars  40 
2nd - Gary Dangerfield  30 
3rd - David Carson  22 
4th - Joshua Dransfield  17 
5th - Ross Richards  9 
6th - Keenan Armstrong  8
7th - Jordan Rushby  7
8th= - Tim Sayers  2
8th= - Lewis Beamwell  2

With the first couple of race meetings at Brands Hatch & Darley Moor under our belt, we were able to monitor how the Kawasaki ER650 Supertwin was behaving and noticed that the bike was maintaining the correct water temperature during the races. This is a good thing – but as the spring weather conditions were much more akin to being winter weather conditions, we were slightly concerned that when the weather starts getting warmer, that the water temperature may creep outside of the optimal temperature range.

Tuned Kawasaki ER650’s are notorious for running hot due to their thin water jacket; so to combat this, we sourced a larger race radiator from Radicool that was originally designed for Maria Costello’s ER650 Supertwin.

Suffice to say that when it arrived after a 4-week wait, it didn’t fit! Due to the larger diameter of the Quill exhaust downpipes and the large intake for the Dynopro airbox that we are using, there were clearance issues that needed addressing. Cue the creation of a couple of bespoke brackets (along with some mesh stone protection that now also has the air filter element incorporated into it), and it fits nicely!

At the same time, the previous race radiator has also been treated to the same mesh stone protection (also with incorporated air filter element), and will be kept as a spare in case the winter weather decides to return!

Next stop
Darley Moor Round 3 on Bank Holiday Monday 6th May!!