Sneaked a bit of free time as I wasn't happy with the fairing lowers. They were secured with screen bolts and the rubber grommets associated, the bolts were made of Camembert and I wasn't entirely happy. I also got the bracket for the bolt behind the sidestand that secures the fairing lower to the back of the engine. So, I picked up some D-Zus fastner backing plates and with a bit of work the lowers were fitted. Sadly, it was also using the crappy screen bolts on the 3 that are the bellypan section and you had to be a 3 year old child to get them off too as you needed a short allen key... Not happy with that either, so a quick bit of drilling on them and they were also installed with 3 dzus fasteners. However these ones are the ring-pull type, so much easier to get off. I then had to do a bit of trimming on the fairing as the lower panel rubbed on the gear selector linkage, so that was trimmed neatly and re-painted with touchup paint. Looks good. All in all I now have a completely sectional fairing so can be removed piece by piece instead of 1 massive piece here and there, I can remove any section quickly and easily. Pretty happy with that actually... Looks good and very functional
Getting sadly quite close to end of Ducati season for me. One more trackday left at Pembrey on the 1/2 Aug, then I can't see any more opportunities to be getting out again this year. Mrs Weeksy is using it mostly at PEmbrey, i'll be on the little KTM, but I expect to put in 3-4 sessions over the course of the weekend on it at the very least. I'm then left with a bit of a dilemma on what to do over winter with it. Full stripdown at Louigimoto, belts and service etc Or, do oil, filters, plugs, fluids, brakes etc myself. The main difference is that taking it for full belts etc means I won't be able to afford Portimao/Aragon next year... If I do it all myself, well, I can do a Euro trackday. Decisions decisions.
So today was met with a nice dry morning, bit chilly but dry anyway. I was very much looking forward to Mallory, it's a place I've always loved. Great bunch of lads with Legion748 on his Big Bang R1, Couchie on his MV Agusta, RSVMAN on his MV Agusta, RP1 on his K8 1000 and Joe on his Blade. Another one of the non-regular TDer Terminator Pete turned up to play on his new (to him) 1000 K8 too. I was in Inters, Terminator in Nov and the rest in Fast group. The day for me went really well... The bike as always was impeccable and did everything I asked of it time and time again. Gerrards is possibly my favourite corner in the world today now, it's for me a 90-95mph corner, constant throttle with your knee on/near the floor, getting there and trying to wind it on for the shoot down to Edwinas... it takes balls. Corner entry is from the start finish straight which I was seeing 135mph on, before a bit of brake, back down into 4th and then throwing it into Gerrards. As always my corner entry speed was poor... I just can't get the speed right into corners like this, but mid-corner I was more than holding my own with guys who were lapping quicker than me. They've removed a tree which everyone used as a braking marker for the hairpin which completely threw me early on, so I struggled to find a decent marker for the hairpin, I pretty much ended the day without really getting the braking right into it and hard. Disappointing in honesty. Considering my brakes are very good I do feel I should be better on the brakes than I am, but it seems it's arguably one of my major weaknesses. The other was the Bus-stop chicane, jeez I was rubbish in there. It's basically the below, a tight nadgery left right left .. then on the power down through Devils Elbow. I couldn't get the change of direction right at all, people were massively gapping me in such a silly short section. ! ARGGGHHHHH. Due to technical issues I didn't bother with the lap times, at the end of the day they don't matter. LOL... (so all the slow people say). I also ride Legion748's Big Bang R1, It's a bike I've always sat and thought "damn that must be the IDEAL bike for me"... But you know what, it really really wasn't. Every sportsbike I sit on seems HUGE compared to the 848, just VAST in comparison, they also seem quite cramped in the leg/feet area. I didn't honestly get to try/test much of it as the session was red-flagged after 2.5 laps... but instead of carrying on riding it, I came back in and jumped on the 848. I was a happy bunny again. I think overall I held my own mostly in the group, I was happyish with my pace and performance, but as always a little disappointed in myself. There were a couple of proper quick guys destroying the group who seemed to be testing, but why they were not in Fast I have no idea as there was space and it must have been frustrating for them. RSVMAN rode the 848 and seemed to enjoy it, but noticed a few things like the throttle cables needing the free-play dialling out, which we took care of, also the gear selector was too low for him, but Mrs Weeksy has also reported a few minor issues with gear changes, so I've moved it down a little which will hopefully improve things. Once more.. I think this is the last one of the year I've said that more than once, but again I need a new rear tyre and unless the TRC massive are paying for it for the ongoing 848 updates, then I'm afraid I'm stuck not playing now till next year. It's been a tremendous year of trackdays that's for sure. I couldn't really have asked for more
