Speed Week 2018 - Lake Gairdner

[Andy]

Zed and I have just arrived in Port Augusta with bike, camp gear and tons of tools, tyres and fuel on-board after a long drive from home.

Tonight we get some luxury accommodation in the caravan park (even get a shower in the morning!) before a week in a tent on red dirt.

Tomorrow morning we drive 7 hours of outback corrugations in the Snobs van to get to the lake then have a week odd of going too fast.

We have zero connectivity from tomorrow for the week, no phone, no internet so if you email and I don't answer I'm not being rude, I'm totally off-line. Monday is a public holiday but after that, Paula will ship green bean orders and and "ready to freight now"roasted bean orders.

I'll post up some stories and pictures when we get back to civilisation.

[Javaphile]

*ZZZZZZOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM*


Java "Gotta love it!" phile

[Andy]

Another week of eating, breathing, and living salt. Enjoy! *ZOOM* *ZOOM* *ZOOM*

Yeah, literally eating and breathing salt, flies and red dust but ohhh... the speed. Gotta love that bit!

I love the morning dawn drive to the lake. So cool and still. The sound of a wailing engine echoing off the distant hills. The engine fighting with traction as it pushes into the solid wall that is air at 200mph. Gives me chills.

...the same chills I got reading that.

The old '76 landrover and i wont be making the watchers list this year.

Sad. You will have to book next year instead.

This year is going to be nuts. Not only is Target 550 (yes, that's MPH) heading downunder for the a run on the good salt, we have the worlds fastest woman on a motorcycle hoping to reset her own world record and a pile of really fast things coming from all over the planet as well as the locals with the worlds fastest taxi and worlds fastest commodore. Should be a great week.
After Speedweek is a 3 day FIM meeting for motorcycle world records on the flying kilometre and flying mile (in both directions). I didn't enter that one (too expensive and too complicated a process) but Zed and I are hoping to see a couple of days of action before the long haul back to the roaster.

if you can post up some pictures and details of the new bike be interested to see the new beast

Here are a few pictures from tonight. Safety wiring all done, regulation chain-guard on and then had a quick blat up and down the street to make sure clutch, brakes and clearances (under power and under brakes) were all okay.

Bike all finished now (front guard is wet paint) only thing left is a trip to the dyno to make sure it runs okay at full noise, can't do full noise anywhere on a road, they don't make them long or flat enough to do what this bike can do.

[rusty888]

Good luck. The 200 is definitely going to be done this year.

[artman]

Good luck Andy, enjoyed your stories greatly from last year!

Cheers

[blonk]

Speed Week 2018 - Lake Gairdner

Maybe you could add some coffee to the bike as ballast, and sell them as Andy’s limited edition worlds fastest coffee!

[338]

Good luck!

[Mb21]

Good luck Andy hope it goes well.

if you can post up some pictures and details of the new bike be interested to see the new beast

[Javaphile]

Another week of eating, breathing, and living salt. Enjoy! *ZOOM* *ZOOM* *ZOOM*


Java "Go Andy Go!" phile

[Jackster]

Certainly sounds awesome!
I love the morning dawn drive to the lake. So cool and still. The sound of a wailing engine echoing off the distant hills. The engine fighting with traction as it pushes into the solid wall that is air at 200mph.
Gives me chills.

The old '76 landrover and i wont be making the watchers list this year.

[Andy]

The DLRA Speed Week 2018 is nearly here again, I can't believe it was 12 months ago that I attended my first one.

Those following the story last year would understand that I was always going to be going back, 198.238mph (319kmh) was cruelly close enough to 200mph and I couldn't leave it there.

So the last 9 months I have been building another bike to take to the salt. Bigger supercharger, longer, lower, forged pistons and rods, intercooler, bigger fuel system (injectors, pump and regulator) and a pile of data logging to keep track of pressures, temperatures and everything the engine is doing.

Output was way more horsepower than the previous bike and nearly 30% more torque. It was becoming quite a beast. Last week tuning on the dyno the dash "lit up" with error lights as the ECU dropped communication. Followed Kawasaki's diagnosis, checked resistance on the 2 pins at the ECU (passed), checked the continuity of the loom (passed) next step is replace the ECU. Contacted Kawasaki Australia who don't keep one in stock, "3 weeks from Japan" was the answer. UUGGHHH racing is 2 weeks away and they won't ship any faster. We share the same ECU with Europe and the UK. Rang Kawasaki UK (no stock) and Kawasaki Europe just sent me back to Kawasaki Australia.

I'm devastated at this point, looked like I wasn't racing this year. Then hit on the idea of taking last years bike instead so the last week has been full of near all nighters to get it ready along with Paula taking more load at the Snobbery to give me extra run-around time (bless her).

Last night I fired it up for the first time. It was sweet to hear it run again. It's not finished yet but I can at least see that it's going to make it.

What's different to last year?
I've moved the intercooler across, lowered the suspension, changed the sub-frame, changed to a billet rear hub (3 teeth lower gearing) and added a custom alloy tank. I'm also running different tyres and taking a second set of something else to try.

I'm optimistic that the aero and gearing changes are enough to find roughly 10% more speed (but who really knows till you do it!).
The record was reset last year to 203mph (327kmh) so I'm on target to nudge that hopefully.

Zed and I head off to speed week next Thursday 8th March and return on Monday 19th so there will be no roasting for that week and a half but Paula will still be shipping green orders.

I'll post up a pic when it's finished.