Pictures of the hack

Hello,

some pics about the hack. Last Thursday evening we did a training session in Riihimäki and we were very satisfied with our performance. Tomorrow, Saturday afternoon, we will start our trip to Cecis, Latvia. Our confidence is high again and we really want to prove something in the remaining races.

Greetings,
Stephan

Pictures of Karksi Nuia, Estonia, 26.05.2012

album Karksi Nuia, Estonia 26.05.2012

Added pictures made by Panu. Some rain shower that day ;-).

Greetings,
Stephan

Training sessions and our visit at Kiviöli, Estonia

Hi,

no races after Raahe for us and we've spend the time with training sessions and visited the Estonian GP in Kivöli.

We've been improving our speed and also the settings for the suspension and carburation. Especially the improved carburation makes a big difference, the engine is feeling much stronger now and running cleaner. After we made these changes the chain broke in two laps! First we thought that the extra power caused the fracture but after checking more carefully it had been a stone between the rear sprocket and chain that caused the failure.

Last weekend we visited Kiviöli in Estonia to watch the sidecar GP. Last year we participated in this event but due to the problems we had to work out first, we didn't apply this year.
Still Mikael was on the track but helping out Jarmo Lehtinen in the old stars class for 55+ sidecar veterans. They did besides their training session one heat of 10 minutes and 2 laps.
For many this was very demanding especially in combination with temperatures over thirty degrees Celsius.
With 35 entries in 2 classes, 45+ and 55+, they achieved a fourth position in the 55+ class and a twelfth position overall. A nice moment was the riders presentation, with 32 sidecars of the GP class and 35 sidecars of the veterans the track was completely covered from start to finish with sidecars during the parade lap.

Coming weekend we travel to Latvia, Cesis for the fifth round of the Latvian championship. We did miss some races in this competition but still we would like to get some good results.

Greetings,

Stephan

results sidecars veterans
Trip to Kiviöli, Estonia

Raahe, Finland 7.7

Hello for the third post in a row

As promised, I'll continue till the blog is up to date again. Friday afternoon we loaded the van and after lunch we started for the long trip to the North. Actually you're only half way up to the absolute North of Finland because there's still a long way to go to the most Northen border. This area is called Ostrobothnia or in Finnish Pohjanmaa. And there's South, Central and North Ostrobothnia.

We've never been that far up before and this would be an interesting trip, a little tourism let's say. We met the team of Lehtinen/Hietala half way in Jyväskylä and together we started driving for the second half of the trip. It was interesting to see the changes in the landscape and be able to locate places you hear normally only in the news.

We made it in time, about 600 kilometres, for the technical check and sound test. This means we didn't have to wake up very early the next morning ;-). Unfortunately only 6 side car teams could make it to this race. Mainly injuries kept some teams at home (probably watching MX1 and MX2 via the internet at their turn). There was a race in Latvia the same weekend and that restricts participation of teams with strong interests in that competition. Our hotel was in the centre of Raahe not far from the track.

The Raahe track was mainly deep soft sand and normally this would be disaster for side cars. But not here, the jumps were build with a perfect angle and landing area. Also by using different materials the surfaces of the jumps were made resistant against wear of the motocross tires. Especially the outer ring of the track was really fast with good jumps and lots of air for the hacks, even in the second heat.

There's plenty of space with only 6 hacks behind the gate but it doesn't lessen the thirst for performing well. We were third in the first corner and gave everything to hang on behind the Kunnas brothers and Lindgren/Sahanne. This time the side car was better than the crew. First Lehtinen/Hietala passed us and a little later Kokko/Tiilikainen did the same. The battery was empty again and we just hanged on to finish for the points. The weather was very hot, about 30 degrees Celsius and the track very demanding. I tried to save energy by crossing the solo classes lines but with this little number of side cars there's no optimal line and I wasted time by trying too much this way.

For the second heat we decided to forget all technical lines and just ride where the hack went. This time also Lehtinen/Hietala pressed through in the first corner and our place was fourth. We opened all our registers to hang on and try to do some havoc. But then I got in a wrong rut and stalled the engine, as last we continued and just enjoyed the big jumps at the outer ring of the track until the finish.

We stayed for the night at a hotel in Ylivieska and continued the next morning our trip back to Helsinki. It was a long trip and our results not exactly what we wanted but at the end we're satisfied because the hack functions very well. We'll continue with training sessions to work up more endurance so we can exploit the new possibilities.

Results: MXSV SM = side cars
Trip: http://goo.gl/maps/ML9U

Greetings,
Stephan

Training sessions and changes

Hi again,

when I've started to update I'll be updating the blog till it's current again. After we found out that the old settings didn't work either we needed to do something more drastic. A friend who had been involved with a lot of development work told me that when small changes, as is the normal procedure, do not give improvements you must do sometimes something very radical and change a lot of things to start from a very different new situation

And that's what I did at the end, installed the stiffer springs, fixed the rebound damping, turned the steering axle for less caster, turned the bar mounts and adjusted the bar in a different angle. This was giving a more rigid front end and a different position for my hands.

But when I wanted to test this all it was Midsummer in Finland and that's almost holy with many tracks closed and a passenger who had other plans with friends and sister at some summer cottage. Nothing else to do then watching the MX1 and MX2 races via the Internet TV.

The next weekend Mikael got ill and Raahe was getting nearer. I needed a passenger to test at least if the new set up would work and called an old friend Jukka Hasari with who I had raced 16 or 17 years ago one season when I tried side car motocross for the first time. I phoned him when he was just coming home from a Classic side car race he is competing nowadays besides helping Aronen/Mantila. But he still had some energy left to transfer his riding gear to Jani's van and I could test my settings at the Vantaa track the next day.

The hack had changed dramatically in a very positive way, easy to steer, stable and no pain in my hands. A miracle but all these changes together did the magic I needed. Wednesday Mikael was okay again and we went together to a track located in Siuntio for more testing. I did also minor changes to the carburettor settings and everything felt good.

Technically we were ready to (re)start the season!

Greetings,
Stephan

Aravete, Estonia 17.6

Hi all,

it has been too long ago that I've updated the blog but it doesn't mean that we're just changed in sofa potatoes ;-). In my last post I  did mention to go back to the same front suspension settings as last year thinking to have a simple solution for our problems. But of course it wasn't that simple.
Probably because of the different weight and power curve of the 650 engine it didn't work out as expected. But first back to the trip to Aravete located about 60 kilometres from Tallinn. We took an almost empty Saturday evening ferry to Tallinn and checked in at our hotel situated at the out skirts of Tallinn. I've noticed that the prices for a stay at the hotels, especially in Tallinn, have increased remarkably. But with a little bit of internet shopping you still can get a room for a decent price. At the end it's only for a single night, no Hilton with our racing budget.

After breakfast we steered the van to Aravete's track. The track is situated to the West of the village and we had a short cut that saved about 20 kilometres, knowledge is power? 4 other teams from Finland had arrived the evening before, Aronen/Mantila, Lehtinen/Hietala, Lindgren/Sahane and the Kunnas brothers. Some burglary had happened during the night and from several teams some issues had been stolen. When you think that this track is located in the middle of nowhere its rather surprising when things like this happens.

The weather was not too good, hard wind and rain showers. When the side car class started their training sessions heaven opened all the gates it could open and in 15 minutes poured down more water than the Niagara waterfalls do in one hour. There's a video clip from a Latvian spectator at Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEraB6GOrJs .

We did 3 laps and both our goggles where completely unusable and that was our input at the training session, not a good time but we knew that we would end anyhow at the second row with over 15 entries. All the teams had the same problems and the track emptied before the training session was officially finished.

The start of the first heat showed a pile up in the first corner and we had to wait a few seconds to cruise around the wreck yard.We chased an Estonian team in front of us for 4 or 5 laps but didn't find the possibility to pass. Then my batteries went zero and we just drove the hack to the finish for points. The second heat was a copy of the first except that the same Estonian team was now at our back. We got rid of them but at the end of the race I stalled the engine, tired? Last place at the finish anyhow.

The last year front suspension set up didn't work out as expected, when we viewed the video made during the training session we noticed a very weird behaviour from our front forks, back to the workshop! We drove with all the teams from Finland together back to Tallinn. Some had the evening ferry, other the first morning ferry and we took the night ferry. We were happy that the ferry was going and even on time because the wind was very strong. Later in bed the ferry was moving that much I felt like laying on a water bed with waves.

Till next post,

Regards,
Stephan

A link to pictures:  http://www.snap.ee/user/milvipilvik/album/aravete__emv_iv_etapp
Our trip: http://goo.gl/maps/pa4x
Mylaps: KV = side cars

Training sessions and setting up the hack

Hi,

the weeks after Karksi-Nuia we've spend with training sessions to get all the problems with the hack sorted out. We had sessions at the Hyvinkää and Orimattila tracks. The carburettor settings have been changed drastically and now the engine starts to run as we hoped for. Due to all the rush during the weeks before our last race, we were forced to use slightly changed settings we used with the smaller engines. This didn't work out at all, that's clear now. We're still going to test smaller adjustments but its getting close now.

For our suspension issues I ordered new springs, the same as last season. I can't get even with the new stiffer set up we started to use and the old springs are sagging too much. Back to last good configuration, simple as that.

The coming weekend we're having a race for the Estonian championship in Aravete. A nice track with good grip. There we should have much profit of the new engine. After Aravete a long pause until Raahe for the second race of the Finnish championship. The races are concentrated this year at the start of the season and from the end of July till halfway September. During the Summer months only those 2 races as mentioned. I'm still waiting for Pictures from Karksi-Nuia, hope to upload them soon.

Till soon,
Stephan