chris128

Well with a little help (ok a lot of help) from WalneyFrankie and others in the chat, I managed to get this fixed The garage had moved the thing that houses the start button and the kill switch on the bars (I think WF said the technical name for it is a switchgear) as they had to move a few things around to fit the brembo master cylinder on - the problem was that they had not screwed it back together tightly enough. I took the thing apart to look inside it and it looked like the garage had sprayed the inside with WD40 (which is why I had taken it apart) but when I put it back together I screwed it together really tight and as soon as I tried to start it after that it worked fine The start button sticks a bit like it used to now but I would rather that than it not starting at all. Still going to ring them tomorrow though and ask what really happened with my seat...

That was my thinking too - that they have done something that wrecked the seat (and also caused this problem with it not starting) which is why they replaced it. The police called me back today actually and left a voicemail saying that they need to know the names of the officers that came and whether they were from humberside police or lincolnshire police, so they suggested I ring the garage and ask them - not being funny but like the garage are going to know either of those things even if they are telling the truth! I dont really want to call the garage and ask them as I'd rather know for sure whether or not they are lying about the whole thing before I talk to them again. Might just ring the police back and say that the garage dont know the names of the officers etc as I'm pretty sure they wont... especially if they have made the whole thing up!

Cool I'll have to get my lazy ass out of lincolnshire some time soon to sample the delights of these other tracks Speaking of grip, they've just laid a load of new tarmac on the hairpin at Cadwell and the end of park straight - looks slippy as hell cos its all shiny but its a bit smoother and flatter than the old stuff

haha dont be silly no where is as good as Cadwell You get any good video?

Cool was this at Anglesey? Shame the second day was cancelled but sounds like you had a good time anyway!

Ah ok thanks, so is that just going to be under the seat near the battery then or do I need to start taking things apart to find it?

How do I find that? and how do I 'bridge the points' without electrocuting myself? Also, as mentioned in the other thread, there has been some dodgy business going on with my seat (long story short - the garage reckon the police took it but they have replaced it) so I'm wondering if that has anything to do with this, what with the battery being under the seat..

Well just got back from the TD... early, cos it was so boring on my road bike. Couldnt lean over much as the foot pegs kept scraping the floor and making me sh*t myself, and its pretty boring going round a track when you cant lean over as far as you want to. So all in all, the worst track day I've done. Just hope I can get my track bike fixed before the next one on the 14th..

Hi Guys, This is my track bike I'm talking about here, a Yamaha R6 (1999 - 2001) but its not a 'total loss' bike though, it does still have a normal battery/charging system in it. I already mentioned this in the racing section of the forum so I'll just copy and paste it into here: Well I picked my track bike up from Louth Bikes today (they were originally supposed to be delivering it to me but they forgot..) as they have fitted a new master cylinder and new brake pads and a few other things. Got the bike off the trailer when I got home (managed not to drop it this time) and thought I would have a ride up n down the drive to see what the new brakes were like but the bike wouldnt start. So I thought it must just be something daft like having it in gear, or having the kill switch on etc but no I checked everything like that and it still wouldnt start. So I called Louth Bikes and asked if they could think of anything they had done that would stop it from starting and all they could suggest was that the battery was dead - which I find hard to believe as they only had it 6 days and I've left it for over 2 weeks before without any problems. So anyway, I put the battery on charge (using an Optimate thingy ma bob that I got with the bike) and after 30 mins on charge tried it again - still nothing. Assumed I had not left it charging long enough to get any real kind of charge into it so left it charging for about 3 hours and tried again but still wont start. Checked the connections on the battery and all looks fine but unscrewed them and put them back on again just to make sure - didnt make any difference though, the thing still will not start. About 9 times out of 10 when you press the ignition button it does absolutely nothing, but occasionally it will try and turn the engine over but only for about 2 seconds then it goes back to being completely dead. Went to halfords to see if I could buy a new battery but they were shut. UPDATE - I've just been and checked and the Optimate charger now says the battery is fully charged and has a strong charge/current/whatever but still the bike does nothing when pressing the start button... apart from the odd time (now about 1 in 20) when it will crank over once or twice then stops again. Earlier it did actually crank over a few times and sounded like it had started properly but after about 10 seconds it stopped again, tried to start it straight after that and it was dead again. So any ideas what I can do next or what the problem could be? Unfortunately the garage (Louth Bikes) are not open tomorrow or Monday and I'm at work all week so not sure when I can next get it to them, and I'm sure they will say its nothing they have done and charge me for fixing it Thanks

lol thanks, yeah I will be taking it a bit easier - just hope I dont get carried away see you on the track soon I'm sure

I didnt know if they would be 'compatible' and didnt want to blow anything up... plus I dont even know how I would take it out of my road bike and put it into my track bike, I'm sure its real easy to you guys but to a mechanical novice like me its not so straight forward Oh and as for the police, no Louth Bikes say they just turned up to inspect all of their bikes. I phone the police earlier and they said they will have a look into it and get someone to call me back, so hopefully I'll find out what has really gone on. EDIT: Just been and had a look and the Optimate thing now shows the battery as being fully charged and being in good condition - the bike still does absolutely f*ck all when you try to start it though

Well I picked my track bike up from Louth Bikes today (they were originally supposed to be delivering it to me but they forgot..) as they have fitted a new master cylinder and new brake pads and a few other things. Got the bike off the trailer when I got home (managed not to drop it this time) and thought I would have a ride up n down the drive to see what the new brakes were like but the bike wouldnt start. So I thought it must just be something daft like having it in gear, or having the kill switch on etc but no I checked everything like that and it still wouldnt start. So I called Louth Bikes and asked if they could think of anything they had done that would stop it from starting and all they could suggest was that the battery was dead - which I find hard to believe as they only had it 6 days and I've left it for over 2 weeks before without any problems. So anyway, I put the battery on charge (using an Optimate thingy ma bob that I got with the bike) and after 30 mins on charge tried it again - still nothing. Assumed I had not left it charging long enough to get any real kind of charge into it so left it charging for about 3 hours and tried again but still wont start. Checked the connections on the battery and all looks fine but unscrewed them and put them back on again just to make sure - didnt make any difference though, the thing still will not start. About 9 times out of 10 when you press the ignition button it does absolutely nothing, but occasionally it will try and turn the engine over but only for about 2 seconds then it goes back to being completely dead. Went to halfords to see if I could buy a new battery but they were shut So needless to say I'm pretty hacked off now and rather than getting the bike all loaded up on the trailer and taking it all the way to the track to find that no one there can get it started either, I think I'll just go and do the track day on my road bike. Oh and they (Louth Bikes) also told me that the police came and took my seat as it was a stolen seat :S they said the police came and confiscated one entire bike and the seats off 2 other bikes (mine being one of them) as they were data tagged and recorded as being stolen. Louth Bikes say they've replaced the seat at no cost to me but the whole thing sounds a bit odd to me... surely the police would contact the owners of the bikes not just take the seats off them and leave it at that. Might ring the police and see if they have any record of this... though I cant work out why on earth the garage would want to take my seat (possibly the least valuable part of the bike..) and pretend the police took it, which makes me think they are probably telling the truth.

Damn I am thinking of doing this and was going to try book the same day that you are doing Netmeister but looks like they are fully booked for May 10th (got spaces on May 11th though). The only thing that I'm wondering about is whether or not I need to do a track day at Brands first before doing the school there as I dont want to be wasting time that I could be learning just finding my way around the track..

Oh yeah so you did haha I just saw the "no good for you chris" bit and thought I couldnt go

Found that Club MSV are doing the evening on this date as well for just £59 - though with it being an evening you only get 4 sessions, but I'm still tempted for that price..

You know what, I've realised why I go to Cadwell so much: 1. Its very close - no getting up at stupid oclock or setting off the day before and sleeping in the car 2. There seems to be more track days there than most other circuits 3. The days are cheaper than pretty much every other circuit 4. According to a lot of people, its one of the best tracks in the country Loads of cadwell days over the next couple of months for £99 and even some for £85, where as at Oulton the cheaper ones are £125 with some being as much as £165. Cheaper ones at Brands are £140 but most are £155. So adding on the additional petrol costs of getting there it will probably cost me over £100 extra to do any track other than Cadwell, and I dont think I would enjoy it any more than I enjoy Cadwell so sod it I'm sticking to Cadwell for the time being!

So how did it go cleedubber? Guessing you got a bit wet?

haha I was looking at Oulton Park and Rockingham track days today! But there dont seem to be that many at either of them any time soon that I can do... the only ones I can do soon are all at Cadwell haha seriously. Going to have a good look now though and try book one somewhere else

Sell your kidneys

Have you guys actually booked these 2 dates yet? I'm guessing there will still be plenty of spaces left if I leave it until the end of April when I get paid again so might leave it until then.. PS I'm liking the ticker in your sig Phil

haha I cant help braking for coppice at the moment, its on my list of things to do though Oh and yeah I loved it when I managed pass people like that one that you mentioned out of the hairpin, feels like you just slingshot out of the corner and shoot past them especially great when they are on a faster bike As for trying to go round the outside of people, are you referring mostly to the second part of charlies that leads on to park straight? I dont intend to go round people there its just that a lot of people seem to go a bit slower than me at that part so I try to stick right to the outside and then square off the corner and get past them on the run out of the corner. Doesnt always work though Oh and I dont get held up that much, there's still a hell of a lot of people in inters that shoot past me and are gone in seconds... I just didnt bother putting all those bits in the video as thats not much fun to watch

haha thanks yeah it was only on the second day that I started to try blipping the throttle a lot more and think I pretty much got the hang of it For anyone else wanting to watch the video, here it is: ">

Ah I get ya, you mean treat it as a straight after you get past the apex rather than leaning it over round the corner. I'll give that a go next weekend and see how it feels

Huh, can you actually see that video? It keeps just telling me that it hasnt been processed yet and is not available PS thanks for the tip on Park not sure what you mean about Chris Curve tho - thats by far my fastest part of the track, overtook more people there than anywhere else and always catch people up round there I still absolutely suck at mansfield though, get overtaken pretty much every lap there!

Yeah I was gonna ask exactly that next time - £20 a day. Thing is though, I think they may have forgotten to charge me for last weekend so I'm keeping quiet about it at the mo