Plop Enduro Part 2 - 1st Oct 22

Once again, Team Supercool was prepped to go into part two of the Plop Endro being held at Mallory Park 1st October 22. Full of high hopes and ambition, we felt this time we could secure a better finishing position.

The bike had been through a minor aesthetics make over with the yellow hand guards mainly due to my complaining about cold fingers and yes they worked a treat.

A little ergonomics tweak with padding on the handle bar grips, as the bike vibrates like you're holding onto a washing machine and its exhausting and numbing, this also worked beautifully.

And finally a little performance enhancement, sorting the jetting out in the carb as we were far to lean in the air fuel mix, fitting a half weight flywheel, a high gain stator with performance CDI unit and finally, a fancy new exhaust.

Testing showed that we had gained more torque and a higher top end giving us an additional 3mph! Staggering stuff. Armed with all the positive vibes we set out for our siting laps and immediately issues became apparent. Daniel returned to the pits being vocal about the lack of grip and how slippery it was, Dave set out and returned and said how slippery it was and also how hard it was to change gear, I set out on track and it was awful. Struggling to get it up and down the gears and felt like the back of the bike was detached there was so much movement from the tyres. I managed half a lap before returning to the pits where the following conversation happened,

Me: Have these tyre's been pumped up?

D: yes

I start checking swing arm and wheels and now have 4 mins until the start of the race and i cant find whats causing the issue.

Me: You sure the tyres are pumped up?

D: yes

Me: When did you do it?

D: A month ago.

Me: What did you use?

D: a bicycle pump

Me: Did it have a gauge?

D: No

Sourcing the tyre gauge and pump from the back of the van, and discovering the tyres where at half the pressure they where supposed to be, the tyres were pumped up with a few choice words and a quick sort of the over tightened clutch back into a manageable state set out to line up for the start. Flustered and hoping that was to be the end of the problems.

1st stint went well, but although we had gained our impressive 3mph extra, it was evident we were still lacking top end and even though the tyres were now at the correct pressure, it was clear they were past there best, combine that with the 18 teams with professional / semi pro racers a top 20 was out of the question.

2nd stint the fairing came loose giving us a black flag but relatively uneventful with some solid lap times and this good spell ran through until after lunch.

2nd run after lunch, things went wrong. Dave suffered a heavy crash after being run wide and trading paint with another racer. A brief red flag, ambulance out on track Dave came back to us nursing a black eye, a concussion with a lump on the side of his head the size of an egg and a few broken ribs, then a further 20 minuets for us to locate where the bike had been left before we could start repairs. Apart from a bent foot peg and handlebars it seemed OK. We managed another 2 hours before the crash showed its damage, the exhaust fell off, the suspension dampener collapsed, it sprung an oil leak and the clutch failed, with only an hour left of the race to run we were never going to manage all the repairs in time all resulting in our first DNF. Final positioning was a disappointing 46th, but once again i loved every second, Team Supercool performed fantastically and prepares for 2023. Dan has been removed from type pressure duties.