BACK ON TRACK (WELL, ALMOST)
The saying goes, “Good things come to those who wait” well, it’s been a long time coming for Ritchie to get himself back out on our Golden Era Superbike, but we got there in the end.
With the newly bored and skimmed engine assembled – nice new Wiseco pistons and Carrillo rods – we took the ZX7-R out to Brands Hatch to stretch its legs after a complete rebuild.
We’ve put quite a lot of effort into measuring clearances: main bearings, valves to pistons, valve timing and valve clearances. It all takes time, but we’re happy to report that it was all worth it.
Measuring the gap between the head and the top of the pistons requires patience and accuracy. Ritchie measures the “squish” with strips of soft solder taped to the top of the Wiseco pistons.
Valve timing is crucial for clearance after skimming the head…
We’re always anxious about our bike, and we can never really tell if it’s all OK until it runs. My fingernails are getting shorter and shorter!!
Going green for running in – handy having a ZX7-R road bike to stick a fresh engine in…
We put the motor through four, controlled 30-minute sessions to run it in gently, with mineral oil as suggested by our loyal sponsors, Opie, and all seemed fine. We’re getting used to all this now; we’ve done it so many times. In fact, Ritchie said that it seems to run with less vibration than previous engines. Looks like our mates at the engineering shop, Roland Alsop, made a good job of lightening and balancing the crank.
Press the pedal and away she goes. Making up this separate electric starter kit will save us time and energy.
Ritchie has made a complete starter-roller system from scratch. He designed the frame, welded and assembled the whole thing while we were rebuilding the bike. This shaves even more weight off the bike as we can now run it without a starter motor. We could push start it but with a higher compression it wants some doing. We still have to stick it in 3rd-gear for the rollers to turn it!
Warmers on for testing, things got warmer still when the motor started overheating…
So, we took the whole lot down to Brands Hatch for a day’s testing and a bit of a shakedown. After an anxious morning with the engine overheating we wondered what the hell was going on with our bike again… more nail-biting moments as we had to strip the bike down and swap the radiators over from our trusty spare bike – yet again, it came to the rescue. Indeed, the radiator was at fault and for some reason had become blocked. God knows how. Anyway, with a clean and clear rad the bike ran smashing in the afternoon with Ritchie soon getting on the pace again. The ZX7-R ran faultlessly for the rest of the day, at a nice even temperature.
Our second home…we’ll be back here again very soon..
So, what’s next? Well were all set for another track day on the Brands Hatch GP Circuit in June.
We can’t wait to get the ZX7-R back on a circuit and we’re hoping for some fine weather for Ritchie to put it through its paces again.
We’ve set a target though, for the ZX7-R to be unleashed in a race soon. We were hoping for a run out at Cadwell Park but were unable to find the time, so it will most likely be Bemsee’s round on the Brands Hatch GP Circuit in July. That’s if we can get in. After that, we might give it a run out at ThundersportGB’s round at Donington Park a couple of weeks later. It will be good to see all our old chums there again too.
But we’re still not finished with the bike: There are a few more additions we’ll be to adding to our Golden Era Superbike later after further testing. More factory parts! Yes, we’re getting closer to a factory machine now with a gear-driven oil pump and a lighter factory clutch basket. Ritchie managed to get the oil pump from his contact in Germany – where there tends to be quite a few of the original Eckl Engineering parts still knocking about.
This is completely new (old) stock and has been sitting in draw for about 20 years; now it’s going to do the job it was designed for in our ZX7-R Superbike.
The clutch drive has come from the USA, where our contact bought up nearly all of the Muzzy stuff when they sold up years ago. It’s turning into a really good Superbike project now; we build as we go along.
The factory clutch basket has the direct gear to drive the factory oil pump, we’ll be adding all this later, when we’ve completed further track tests.
That’s about it for now, if you want to see and hear our Kawasaki Superbike at Brands Hatch you can join Ritchie here…hang on to your hat!
Thanks to all sponsors once again for sticking with us, particularly Alan Garret at R&G Racing for sending us some nice new crash protectors, after last year the old ones were definitely looking a bit bruised.
See you all soon and we’ll let you know how we get on next time out.
Team 71
