Update 2002

After missing the remainder of the 2002 season after breaking my wrist I finally got out again on the Aprilia to instruct at a couple of track days with the Motorcycle Folly. It wasn't too much of a problem as it was no where near race pace, even in the fast group, but I found my wrist movement very limited due to the plate they had put in to hold it together.

After a couple of outings I came to the conclusion that if I was ever to go racing again I was going to have to get the plate removed :-( I went to see the consultant who had done the work originally and arranged to go in to hospital for the day to get the work done. You can see from the photo how much metalwork I had, especially considering how narrow my wrist is at that point.

My wrist is still very weak and I have yet to get back on a bike so I suspect it will hurt a lot when I start racing again but at least I can start making preparations for the 2003 season.

October 2002

Tim Jones, a friend and fellow track day instructor, has been riding a Suzuki SV650S on the road for a few years. He suggested that we start a series to race bikes like this which should provide a cheap entry level introduction to racing.

I started off by writing the rules whilst Tim contacted Bemsee to see if they would give us space to race if we got things off the ground. As there were no race prepared bikes available I then arranged discounts with various parts suppliers, suspension experts, etc. to help out the competitors. A full list of the rules and regulations, supplier discounts and frequently asked questions can be found here.

As much as we would have liked to set up a one make series around the SV650S we felt that was unfair to those that didn't have the budget for one and what would happen if next year someone else introduced a similar specification machine. In the end we opted to allow any four stroke, twin cylinder machine of under 650cc. We limited the possible modifications that could be made, banned engine tuning and added a horsepower limit of 72 bhp.

Bemsee agreed to give us space on the grid and all we had to do was provide at least twelve bikes for the season.

December 2002

Now that we had a series I needed a bike to ride. I felt that the SV650 was going to be the machine of choice but all the road bikes I could find where going to be out of my budget. In the end I found a bike at a salvage auction. It had been crashed and had a hole in the engine casing as well as having various bits broken or scuffed from the accident.

I think I paid a little over the odds for the bike but I did buy it and set about fixing it up. All I had to do was get together a few bits and pieces to turn it in to a proper race bike. Obviously that short list gradually became longer and longer. In the end I needed:

• Spare Wheels and Disks
• Race Bodywork
• Suspension Setup
• Ohlins Fork Internals and Rear Shock
• Race Tyres (Dry & Wets)
• Clip Ons
• Rear Sets
• Full Exhaust System
• Etc.

I dropped the bike off at MHP Exhausts where Mark Hill had agreed to make a full systems for me and started getting everything else ready

February 2003

Despite Mark being extremely busy he did manage to produce one of the nicest looking exhausts I have seen on a bike. We ended up spending a further 12 hours on the dyno setting it up the best we could, trying different jetting, different link pipes and different cans. It was all worthwhile as we ended up with 71.5 bhp which is just under the limit of 72 bhp :-)

I booked in to test the bike at Lydden on the 2nd March so I dropped the bike off with Mark Hammond at MH Racing to sort out the suspension and ordered some bodywork from Performance Techniques. Despite a few set backs I received the bodywork a few days before the test day and set about fitting everything to the bike.

The dyno graph shown here shows the power output from my Sany Honda CBR600 (2001), my Aprilia Mille RSV-R (2002) and my new Suzuki SV650S (2003). Not that the SV650S is in stock form in this graph. I will be getting a new dyno print out as soon as I can so we can compare things better.