revtothelimit - motorbike forum

I'm still a bit frustrated, as I'm still on light duties while the plastic meshes they put in my guts properly knit to the scar tissue of my stomach wall, so although I feel absolutely tip-top and have no funny bulges in my lower abdomen these days , it means that for the next couple of weeks until I am finally signed off I still have no gym, bike riding, heavy lifting or leaning ( too hard ) on spanners etc.

It doesn't mean that I can't do anything bike-related though, so to help alleviate some of the frustration, yesterday I took a drive up to that strange country called Yorkshire where people who talk funny live, and brought this beauty back with me
It means that we are now a two-Bandit family, or possibly even nearly three as I've got a spare frame with it amongst other bits, and already have two other Bandit engines in the garage,( albeit one will never even run again due to the fecking great big hole in the crankcases) but eh!

And here she is- arguably in far nicer nick than my No1 bike was when I first acquired it, I am sure you'll agree, particularly if you compare it with the pics on the first page of this thread....





The exciting news (if you're me) is that this means that I'll have a "wet" bike at every meeting a do this year, and if you've ever raced in iffy " is it or isn't it going to be wet for my next race" conditions, you will know what I faff that can be when you just have the one bike there and no team of mechanics to swap wheels in and out 4 or 5 times in the hour before your next race, and of course if one bike goes pop or you slip off, there should hopefully negate the need for frantic parts searches/spanner twirling

It's a fresh build, including, apparently the motor with new rings etc, it has some nice bits on it (including a brand new Hindle full system with MHP can & Ohlins rear shock) and although by and large it's a decent job, it's not been ridden since it was completed approx 12 months ago, and aside from a good going over as I would give any "new" bike before racing it, it also needs a few relatively minor things doing to get it how I want it.
A good few of these I can do over the next week or two whilst I'm still on light duties, but some will of course have to wait until I get that sign off on 12th March.

Anyway, this is the current list I've compiled, and as you may guess from the green shading , I've already completed some already.



First outing will be Anglesey with Wirral100 on the 21-23rd March before the NG Championship season opener at Cadwell on 12-13th April - wish me luck!

Bonne chance! Your Sum function in the sheet is missing some rows!

ChrisW wrote: Fri Feb 28, 2025 8:34 pm Bonne chance! Your Sum function in the sheet is missing some rows!

Cheers Chris and ah yes so it is ( it's cheaper that way though )

Sprockets. I don't know your situation with gearing for each Track, but you'll find that the sprocket you need, and need now, is on the other bike. When running 2 Bikes I would have 2 sets in the sizes required.
Tyre warmers. Some do and some don't have warmers on wets. If you do...........plus extension leads to be able to run both.
Take a little bit more fuel to each meeting, if you've been on both Bikes over the weekend, when you get to the last race you'll find the fuel you need will be in the "other" Bike.

Nobby wrote: Sat Mar 01, 2025 4:16 am Sprockets. I don't know your situation with gearing for each Track, but you'll find that the sprocket you need, and need now, is on the other bike. When running 2 Bikes I would have 2 sets in the sizes required.
Tyre warmers. Some do and some don't have warmers on wets. If you do...........plus extension leads to be able to run both.
Take a little bit more fuel to each meeting, if you've been on both Bikes over the weekend, when you get to the last race you'll find the fuel you need will be in the "other" Bike.

Cheers , and yep I'm on all that- I have 2 sets of sprockets so can have them both set up the same if I want- TBH with the Bandits, you can do pretty much all the circuits we go to on the same gearing, with just really Coombe and Snetterton (and depending on the day, possibly Pembrey ) needing something different.
As for warmers, I never use them on the Wets so I reckon I'm fine on that

And for anyone that's interested, have been doing some light fettling on it over the last few days- we now have my race number on

Before


After


Yeah, I know- eek - I fecking hate wrap, and am shit at applying it, so in time I'll be peeling it off , masking the seat up and painting on the backgrounds I think, although this will do for the moment.

Carbs are also now off and on the bench, nice and clean on the face of it but have a couple of the pilot mixture screws have half their heads snapped off meaning it's not possible to get any purchase on them, and even after soaking they are seized absolutely solid, so I've ordered some titchy easy-outs, and of course new jets and pilots screws etc to sort that



The screws in question look to be backed a fair way out so It does at least partially explain the shit running, although I'm not yet convinced that's the whole cause, and although it's not a real biggie, it is disappointing that people just lie- he seemed genuine too
Anyway, that'll be sorted in the next few days when the bits arrive, and in the meantime, I'm keeping busy with re-spraying the revcounter, making up a bracket to mount my (hopefully soon to arrive) DRE shift light, getting the rain light working and a few other little jobs

But on a more positive note, he's done a decent job of mounting the seat- no plywood and self-tappers on this one- he's made a nice solid ally base for it with M6 rivnuts, seat fits well and comes off in a minute when you want it to, how it should be done

Well, a few weeks have passed since my last post here, and during that time I reckon I've spent a good 20-30 man-hours on my "new" Bandit sorting things and trying to get the fucker to run right.
Probably less said the better about it, except the old adage "never buy a car/bike from Brum or Bradford rings true with this one- why the fuck some people blatantly lie when selling things escapes me, especially in relatively close communities like club racing , FB Groups or forums etc as word gets around- suffice to say the seller lied through his teeth, no way it could have even made 7HP on a dyno, or even 1, come to that , let alone the 78 he said it had done ( although he didn't have the print out ) with the bits it had missing, and that's not all of it....
Anyway, the details of the issues with it is maybe a story for another day, or maybe not.

On a more positive note, I'm pleased to report that despite the pretty new one being a complete let-down and non-starter at the first NG meeting of the season at Cadwell at the weekend just gone, not managing more than 3 or 4 laps practice, the old girl didn't let me down and did me proud come raceday

With the demise of the Formula ProStocks club and hence the Bandit specific series, it is a new(ish) class this season, now called the "Lightweight Naked Streetbike" series, has slightly relaxed rules over the old Bandit specific series and allows CB and GS500s in, but depite the rules being slightly relaxed, it's been made clear that there will be more enforcement, which is a good thing in my book;-this was proven at Cadwell by absolutely everyone in our class being diverted to parc ferme when they came off track from qualifying and dyno-ed before being allowed back to the paddock.
I'm confident that it will be a lot more consistently run by NG, and there are also some new faces out there, and of course a good few of the ones from last season too so it all bodes well for a decent season.

I did four races this weekend and certainly at least two of them were amongst the toughest and most physical races I've had yet, I knocked a clear second off my previous PB, and although I was still just about 2 secs off the best of the two or three boys at the front, which of course is pretty much a lifetime in real terms, but having said that, none of them are old feckers, so not in my class and in theory I don't need to worry about them, but I'm sure I can still go quicker and want to be up with them, but where I currently am isn't too bad a pace IMO.
Anyway, woffle- I ended up with three 2nds and and a 1st in the Veterans (50+ YO) sub-class, and was 4th over the line in the race I "won" so although it was frustrating at times, and I am still sure I can go faster at Cadwell, I was very happy to come away with that.

I'm sitting 2nd in the championship, know who I need to beat this year ( and have beat him once so I'll do it again ) and the camaraderie, piss-taking and laughs from other racers that are by now good mates , and Isabella and my two brothers who stayed up for the whole weekend was just brilliant- if there's a better way to spend a weekend, I haven't found it yet







Overall, a fabulous weekend, and a brilliant start to the season- Next round is Snetterton in 3 weeks time, which I haven't ridden since 1988 , and I know it's grown about 10 extra corners since then so I've just booked into a TD for a week on Monday (28/4) to hopefully give myself a fighting chance of being on the pace come raceday- who knows, I might even be on the new Bandit by then (either that or I'll have set it on fire )

Anyway, not long to wait , roll on Snetterton!

Snetterton isn't far from me and a decent ish ride pending route. Let us know when it is and I'll try and make it up if I'm about. I really like Snetterton as a circuit now, the old version was fast but a bit...straight, now it's pretty bloody good imo.

Top write up... i look forward to a beer and hearing about this other bike one day

Supermofo wrote: Thu Apr 17, 2025 4:41 pm Snetterton isn't far from me and a decent ish ride pending route. Let us know when it is and I'll try and make it up if I'm about. I really like Snetterton as a circuit now, the old version was fast but a bit...straight, now it's pretty bloody good imo.

It's Sat/Sun 10/11th May, ( quali Sat AM then racing PM Sat and all day Sun) , I'll be there on the Friday too for the test day

Will be great to see you if you do make it up there- give me a shout if you do decide to come in case I have a spare ticket, and I'll let you know what garage I'm in

Cracking stuff. Cheers & good luck with the next one.

At this rate you'll need a new shed for all those trophies.

Tricky wrote: Thu Apr 17, 2025 5:44 pm

Supermofo wrote: Thu Apr 17, 2025 4:41 pm Snetterton isn't far from me and a decent ish ride pending route. Let us know when it is and I'll try and make it up if I'm about. I really like Snetterton as a circuit now, the old version was fast but a bit...straight, now it's pretty bloody good imo.

It's Sat/Sun 10/11th May, ( quali Sat AM then racing PM Sat and all day Sun) , I'll be there on the Friday too for the test day

Will be great to see you if you do make it up there- give me a shout if you do decide to come in case I have a spare ticket, and I'll let you know what garage I'm in

What's the cost of each day for spectators and supporters? If I can get a chance, I'd be keen to come up.
Great post as always

Tricky wrote: Thu Apr 17, 2025 5:44 pm

Supermofo wrote: Thu Apr 17, 2025 4:41 pm Snetterton isn't far from me and a decent ish ride pending route. Let us know when it is and I'll try and make it up if I'm about. I really like Snetterton as a circuit now, the old version was fast but a bit...straight, now it's pretty bloody good imo.

It's Sat/Sun 10/11th May, ( quali Sat AM then racing PM Sat and all day Sun) , I'll be there on the Friday too for the test day

Will be great to see you if you do make it up there- give me a shout if you do decide to come in case I have a spare ticket, and I'll let you know what garage I'm in

Sounds like I'm free the Sunday might have the boy with me so might be in the car but still should be good to see some racing, you'd better win

I might be able to pop up to Snetterton on the 11th, I'll know nearer the time.

Buckaroo wrote: Thu Apr 17, 2025 10:48 pm

Tricky wrote: Thu Apr 17, 2025 5:44 pm

Supermofo wrote: Thu Apr 17, 2025 4:41 pm Snetterton isn't far from me and a decent ish ride pending route. Let us know when it is and I'll try and make it up if I'm about. I really like Snetterton as a circuit now, the old version was fast but a bit...straight, now it's pretty bloody good imo.

It's Sat/Sun 10/11th May, ( quali Sat AM then racing PM Sat and all day Sun) , I'll be there on the Friday too for the test day

Will be great to see you if you do make it up there- give me a shout if you do decide to come in case I have a spare ticket, and I'll let you know what garage I'm in

What's the cost of each day for spectators and supporters? If I can get a chance, I'd be keen to come up.
Great post as always

Cheers, TBH I'm not completely certain , but I do know there's no charge for spectators on the fiday test/practice days (they're dull for spectators though, no racing, and to the best of my knowledge, it's £10ish PP dependant on circuit for either Sat or Sun race days, and kids are free

Supermofo wrote: Fri Apr 18, 2025 5:37 am

Tricky wrote: Thu Apr 17, 2025 5:44 pm

Supermofo wrote: Thu Apr 17, 2025 4:41 pm Snetterton isn't far from me and a decent ish ride pending route. Let us know when it is and I'll try and make it up if I'm about. I really like Snetterton as a circuit now, the old version was fast but a bit...straight, now it's pretty bloody good imo.

It's Sat/Sun 10/11th May, ( quali Sat AM then racing PM Sat and all day Sun) , I'll be there on the Friday too for the test day

Will be great to see you if you do make it up there- give me a shout if you do decide to come in case I have a spare ticket, and I'll let you know what garage I'm in

Sounds like I'm free the Sunday might have the boy with me so might be in the car but still should be good to see some racing, you'd better win

Ex- can't guarantee that, unfortunately, but I absolutely guarantee that I'll be trying to!

Thanks @Tricky . I will do my best to come along on one of the days.

@Tricky Looks like you might have a fan club! As long as it ain't pissing down (and it's looking nice weather at the moment fingers crossed) I'll be coming with my son and a mate is bringing his boy along as well on the Sunday. I'll shake me pom poms on the finish line Although that might make you crash

I've got your number/whatsapp so will drop you a message once I'm there

Dunno if I'll be able to make it, my wife is recovering from a torn retina, so it depends how she is.

Le_Fromage_Grande wrote: Wed May 07, 2025 9:56 pm Dunno if I'll be able to make it, my wife is recovering from a torn retina, so it depends how she is.

Sorry to hear that, hope she recovers well. If you do come and wanna meet up drop me a message, although I'll have 2 13 year old boys with me so you might wanna give us a swerve

Just bought my tickets so definitely going.

Supermofo wrote: Thu May 08, 2025 9:43 am

Le_Fromage_Grande wrote: Wed May 07, 2025 9:56 pm Dunno if I'll be able to make it, my wife is recovering from a torn retina, so it depends how she is.

Sorry to hear that, hope she recovers well. If you do come and wanna meet up drop me a message, although I'll have 2 13 year old boys with me so you might wanna give us a swerve

Just bought my tickets so definitely going.

Yay! Excellent, and bollocks too- I've got a discount code ( use "NGRRC25" , think its 20 or 25% off), and potentially may have 1 free adult ticket too, albeit won't know on that until later today when I hear from my Bro. Anyway I'll ping you details of programme etc on WhatsApp in a bit- I'll be in garage #7

Le_Fromage_Grande wrote: Wed May 07, 2025 9:56 pm Dunno if I'll be able to make it, my wife is recovering from a torn retina, so it depends how she is.

Sounds nasty- all the best to her, and be good to meet you (mainly to see if you're really as curmudgeonly IRL as you are on-line ) - pls come and say hello if you do make it, we'll have biscuits and maybe cake