16/10/2024
ONWARD AND UPWARD!
KARTING SALLENT BARCELONA
Surprisingly, the local kart tracks are often used for a "shake-down”.
So off we went, along with AGR crew chief/electronics specialist, Luis Borras who flew in from his home in Majorca and rider Alex Millan, up from Valencia. Thank you both!
It was a tough day in the office for Guy, under the hammer from Crew Chief Luis, experimenting with changes to pretty much everything as he hurried, in the limited time he could afford, to come to terms with the TS³ tech.
It was a valuable 2 day shake-down that’s for sure, as we dealt with a few minor issues that would have taken up valuable time at Aragon, and from that outing, we got clearer on what components and setup we needed to prepare for Aragon.
If ever we could have been prepared for Aragon! :-)
MOTORLAND ARAGON 2-3 OCTOBER
Thanks to Anscari Nadal and his AGR crew Luis Borras (AGR electronics/crew chief), mechanics Diego Aspar and David Plans. Thanks so much you guys, you were incredible!!
Playing with the ‘big kids’ we found out a lot about our bike!
We’ve always known it was ‘over-engineered’. It had to be at this stage. It’s a ‘prototype that we didn’t want to break. And although we’d weighed it back home we never imagined how heavy it was against the Kalex. ‘Quite a bit’ is all I’ll say for now. :-/ But we now know it can be made lighter while still retaining its strength.
And the old FTR fairing is very aero UNfriendly – at speed. It’s 12kph slower on the straight. And it struggles to turn into the corner under brakes.
However – even with those issues, the bike was less than 2 seconds slower than the AGR Kalex – both ridden by Nicholas Spinelli. (JuniorGP M2) Thanks Nicholas!!
Less than 2 seconds is very encouraging. Incredible really.
If it's 'only' 2 secs, obviously the bike is making up time around the corners – which is exactly what we’ve been saying! More stable, quicker through corners. Once we get it into the corner!
Importantly, AGR are also encouraged, and we reckon we can fix those issues by the end of October.
The push into the corners, we think, is from the very long, heavy, old (but cheap) FTR swing arm. It was always marked for replacement, so we’ll change the swing arm and fairing. That might help the straight-line speed some-what, and hopefully address the turn-in under brakes.
It’s surely not going to be as simple and straight forward as it sounds, so we have work to do, but are committed to losing those seconds ASAP!
Stand by!
With thanks to:
Qld Gov Ignite Ideas Fund
Co-Investors:
ACAC Innovation
Miller Ventures
Guy Williamson Chief Mechanic/Electronics Tech.
Jordan Carlsson Pilot
Mark Carlsson Technician
DCC Patent and Trade Mark Attorneys
‘Sir’ Alan Cathcart
Paul Morris Motorsport
Warren Willing (dec)
Chris Burnett
Zieco Pty Ltd CNC
Gibson Freight
Suncoast Powerhouse Dyno
HEL Performance Products (Qld)
Dynamoto motorcycle stands
ProBolt Australia
Steve McDowall
Gaven Dall'Osto
Dunlop/Ficeda Australia
LINK International (Vortex)
SAVIC Motorcycles
Dave Oliver Motorcycle Tyres
Control Connections
Rick Simpson
Brett Longhurst
Ross Wilson surfboard shaper
Cameron Donald
Jeff Ware
Glenn Allerton
AMCN
K-TECH