Team 3UpRacing Blogs

Thundersport GB have scheduled their launch date for Friday, February 29th. The venue is Mallory Park. This is not a race day but rather a day to sort out any niggles, which I am sure we’ll need.

And, of course, we’ll be there with the 95Racer to make its track debut after a lot of hard work over the winter. Now that the engine has undergone more work, it will be interesting to see how if goes. Recent dyno work would suggest rather well, but you never know until you ride around a track.

If you happen to be there stop by and say hello. You’ll know the bike by now. We’ll post our experiences soon after.

June 20-22 marks the return of the world championship 125cc, 250cc, and MotoGP racing to this iconic circuit which is the only MotoGP championship stop on the British Isles.

Thundersport GB has just announced that one round of their GP2 and Aprilia Superteen classes will take place during the British MotoGP at Donington. And, it’s the GP2 class that we will be racing in this year!

More details here!

As you can imagine, we are quite excited about the prospect of sharing the same track during the same weekend with the world’s best motorcycle racing show. Let’s hope we don’t embarass ourselves too badly.

Look for a full race report shortly after the event. And, wish us luck! We’ll need it!

We have now finalised our 2008 race calendar. We will be racing with a new club that has now exactly the kind of class we’ve designed and built our 95Racer for. The club is Thundersport GB and the class is called GP2. Eligable machines are non-production 250 cc two-strokes, e.g. Honda RS250, Yamaha TZ250, Aprilia RSW, etc. as well as prototype 4-stroke up to 600 cc twin. It looks like the club racing scene has caught up with after 2 years. It’s certainly gratifying that we’ve got the formula exactly right and are now able to race in a class that was our aim all along.

The following dates are still provisional.

• 29 Feb: Pre Season Test & Launch Day - Mallory Park - Test Days
• 16 Mar: Spring Cup - Mallory Park - Championship Races
• 05 Apr: J&S Accessories Earl of Oulton - Oulton Park Championship Races
• 17 May - 18 May: King of the Mountain - Cadwell Park - Championship Races
• 31 May - 01 Jun: Race of the South - Brands Hatch - Championship Races
• 28 Jun - 29 Jun: Race for Aces - Snetterton - Championship Races
• 27 Jul: Summer Trophy Meeting - Mallory Park - Championship Races
• 23 Aug - 24 Aug: Celtic Cup Rounds 1 & 2 - Pembrey - Championship Races
• 13 Sep - 14 Sep: Celtic Cup Rounds 3 & 4

Launch day is leap day, 29th of February at Mallory park!

A few people asked for more details on the auxilliary starter we built after having a lot of difficulty using rear wheel roller type starters. For one, the slipper clutch does exactly what it’s supposed to do. It slips! A lot! Because it’s a wet clutch, it’s not easily modified to accept a lock-out pin like Ducati used to use on their WSBK bikes. Even with the standard clutch (non slipper) installed, it was still very hard to start with the rear wheel either slipping on the rollers or just not getting the cranking speed high enough to where the engine would ‘catch’.

So, instead, we decided to build a fairly rudimentary prototype to test the concept using all the standard starter system parts, i.e. the starter, the reduction gearing, and the sprague clutch. It also uses the original bike’s battery. Funily, it took us by surprise how easy the bike is to start now. The crank based starter easily deals with the high compression engine and fires up after cranking for only a fraction of a second. This is great new and we are now building a second, more refined version that provides for an on-board battery mount and encloses all the gears for safety. We also need to change the end-of-crank engagement mechanism, most likely to spline type, and finish it off with ‘top hat’ that slightly recesses the spinning parts.

Anyway, here is a picture of the initial prototype. I did warn you that it was rudimentary.

And here is a link to a short video where you can see it in action. As you’ll see, it is a truly one man operation and the starter is very portable.

Just in time for Christmas, we finished our own special Christmas surprise. Feast your eyes on our 95Racer in its full glory. Well, that’s glory at least in our eyes.

2007 was very much a year of development mainly focused on getting the most from the engine. This also required a complete redesign of the airbox system as the stock one is woefully inadequate as you pursue serious gains in horsepower. Some related work then provided further opportunities to reduce weight.

The initial goal and the reason for the 95 moniker was to get 95 rear wheel horsepower in a 250cc GP sized, 4-stroke engined motorcycle weighing 95kg has very nearly been accomplished. Unsurprisingly perhaps, everything hinges around the engine. We are now only a couple horsepower short of our goal and are confident that we can at least reach it by spring 2008. The weight goal is still a little further off and the obstacle is again the engine. Much work has gone into lightening it (and everything else) but it is still overweight in our view. We are not too far off the 95 kg but further reduction will get seriously expensive. It is likely that the weight will largely remain as is for at least 2008. Still, the performance of the 95Racer is already pretty spectacular and we don’t this as a serious limitation.

Now, without further ado, here are a few of our favourite pictures. Let us know what you think. All pictures are courtesy of Cope Images, www.copeimages.com