BSD News

 

It’s too early on a Monday morning but BSD Development’s Mark Brewin and Nigel Smith are already hard at it. Hanging from the workshop beams is a GSX-R 1000 chassis and engine. There are no wheels, no brakes, a bare white seat unit and a fuel tank with several large dents. It’s no wonder the pair are knuckling down, in four days this bike will be at Donington Park for the final round of British Superbikes. Gulp.

BSD’s usual tranquility had been disturbed a week previous by a phone call from the chaotic Performance Bikes office. You and Ronnie, ooh, Donington, came the garbled message. You’re racing in BSB! How cool is that? Very cool, no doubt, but it gave only two weeks to prep the bike. This would have been less of a problem had the Suzuki not been scattered about the workshop in its component parts.

Designed and built for the rigours of the TT, and achieving a stunning 122mph lap en route to eighth in the F1 race, the bike then saw duty at Scarborough. Mark explains what happened next: It was the Cock o’ the North road races. Ron was battling for fourth place when the rear came right round on the brakes. It gripped and threw him in the air, kicked and danced, cart wheeled clean over a fence and disappeared down an embankment. Ron broke a bone in his hand, two vertebra and was out cold.

Back in the present, our peroxide rider arrives at Mallory Park for the Wednesday practice session. He’s been back to Scarborough over the previous weekend (anyone could have passed me but I’ve got rid of me gremlins’) and with two days to go this is the first time the bike has turned a wheel.

Short circuit work is a completely different fishy kettle to the TT and BSD have made a host of changes. Not only that but Ron has been doing endurance events, where consistency and tyre management are more important than all-out speed. Is he nervous? ‘It’s impossible to tell. When I were doing Superstock I could look at differences in times and bikes, and hazard a guess. This is so different. I’ve no idea what’s going to happen.

The aim is to use Mallory for base settings then fine tune at Donington, but things aren’t going right. Ron complains the forks are too harsh and hit compression on the brakes, leaving no suspension travel. Each outing sees softer settings and new dog bones for the shock linkage to raise ride height to help it turn, but the front still needs to be more compliant.

Next morning Mark can’t believe what he’s found:

We took the forks to bits last night and rebuilt them. Back in the bike the suspension was still sticking. Compress the forks and they stayed compressed. We undid the bottom yoke and nothing happened, and checked everything we could think of. Then we undid the wheel spindle and bang! The forks shot back up. Having used OZ wheels for the Isle of Man, the boys are using 16.5 inch Dymags for Donington. Spacers are captive, but different bearings mean the spindle is pinching the forks together and literally holding the suspension solid. No wonder it felt funny.

Friday practice

Sorry, which class? The tattooed monkey on Donington’s paddock entrance either didn’t hear or doesn’t believe. Bemused, he waves BSD’s van to the next security check, where the pleasant lass on the gate asks the same question. We’re in Superbike, as a wildcard with Ronnie Smith,chirps Nigel with a grin. She steps back, takes in the proportions of the un-articulated van and starts to giggle. She manages to radio ahead with, ‘I’ve a Tranny here for Superbike, can we fit them in anywhere? before laughter gets the better of her.

Having erected the workshop (one borrowed tent) in the corner of the paddock, the bike is given a final once over for Ron’s first 50-minute practice. He cycles up on his Raleigh Chopper from the comfort of his luxury caravan and heads out. Two quick laps show gearing is too high, he’s only using fifth, managing 1m 40.5.

Bob’s feverishly working on 2D’s datalogging system to see what’s going on and where. Things aren’t helped when Ronnie returns from his second outing. Times are high 39s thanks to lower gearing, a harder rear spring and revised forks, but a datalog rod has been snapped and the bracket bent. “Don’t look at me, I just ride the thing” claims Ron.

Brembo’s GP calipers are good but eating pads, and the team only have one set of spares so more are chased up. Fork settings are changed to stop bottoming, reduce chatter and allow the suspension to move more on the brakes. By the end of play the team manage a 1:38.

Mark is upbeat his motor keeps up with the field on the straight bits despite being on the wrong gearing. Stealing a championship point for fifteenth would be the icing on his cake but Ron wants to be nearer midfield:

“We need two seconds. Fuckin’ hell, where are we going to find two seconds?”  Bob lifts his head from behind his laptop and, ever helpful, suggests Ron tries a shortcut, perhaps missing out the Loop. “Aye, that’s not a bad idea. Think Ill need to…”

Qualifying

Gearing is revised again for the first official session. Chatter is still stopping the bike turning in on the brakes but tweaks bring a best of 1:38.6 and 24th of 26 riders. Speeds on the straight are even more encouraging. BSD’s bike is only 3mph down on the GSX-R of John Reynolds.

Ron has his race head on and the cheery air has taken a sober edge. Gearing goes back to how it was, head angle goes 1deg. steeper and rear sag is re-set after K-Tech put a new piston in the shock. Forks are further adjusted to ensure the stops aren’t clobbered under braking. Dunlop supply a rear with a sharper profile, and also a qualifying compound tyre to try for one fast lap. This is getting serious.

Instantly the times are better, and Ron rattles round to his fastest time so far at 38.4. Both sides of the fairing, the alternator cover and the rearsets are all grazing tarmac. With ten minutes to go he comes in for the soft rubber but it all goes wrong: there’s a spacer missing from the wheel, losing several minutes, then when the bike does get out times are 46.5 then 41. What happened, Ron?

“It went sideways in the first corner, then again on the overrun. Dunno if it was release agent or what, gave it an easy lap but it was still awfuL The bars and shock were all over t’place. What a waste of time.”

The slick appears to be splitting round the centre, so Nigel takes it back to Dunlop. Official word is that the out lap wasn’t fast enough, so the first fast lap was on a cold tyre. Then it was then too knackered for another. Nobody’s to blame, this special tyre lark is new to all.

Hislop heads the field with an amazing 1:31.457, faster than Rossi on his RCV. To qualify you have to be within a percentage of pole, and one of the two riders behind Ron doesn’t make it. The other, Nick Medd, isn’t well and calls it a day, so even though we weren’t slowest Ron is now last on the grid. At least we get to use Nick’s vacant garage for Sunday.

 

Race day

Warm up shows two things. The first is that Ron can wheelie the length of the start straight, the second is the forks are hitting the bump stops. Bob: “The logger shows full compression at Redgate, Esses and Melbourne Loop. When they’re like that you may as well replace the forks with solid bar, the tyre has to do all the work.”  Any movement we can give will let Ron trail the brake more and get the thing turned.

And corners are the place we’re losing out. Reynolds came round the outside of Ron at Coppice but BSD’s bike matched him all the way under the Dunlop bridge and on the brakes. With 9kg springs currently fitted, the decision is made to change to 9.2 5kg, with sag, rebound and compression

altered to suit. It’s a bit risky but the next – bike on the grid is 1.16 seconds ahead. Our Ronnie needs anything that’ll help.

With the forks stripped, it’s found that the preload pin hasn’t been locating properly in one leg and has slipped. It’s like having no preload in one side. K-Tech reckon some of the Superstock bikes have been suffering the same way too. The forks are then rebuilt with extreme care using the stronger springs. Pit lane is opened for spectators and Ron and the GSX-R pull a healthy crowd to our bare garage. Autographs are signed, pictures taken and it’s easy to forget there’s a race in an hour. Crowd gone, Ron pedals off to sort his head out while Mark and Nigel give things a final once over.

Sat aboard the big Suzuki on the back row, spectators shouting and brolly girl Kelly drawing photographers, Ron’s expression barely changes. His sight is focussed somewhere up front. The grid is cleared and this is it. It’s down to him.

Lap times are in the 1:37s from the off and Ron’s prediction of going faster in the race comes true. It’s a race- long battle with Gordon Blackley and times consistently high 37s/low 38s. The group ahead are being caught, too. Mark and I compare goose bumps every time Ron howls past, and 20 laps go in a flash. At the last corner of the last lap, Ron makes his pass stick and runs Blackley wide. Fifteenth place, a 1:37.65 best and a championship point. The team is ecstatic and nearly fall off the pit wall in excitement.

“Blimey, that was hard work,” says a red-faced Ron with massive grin. “I was trying to pass him everywhere. It was like a bucking bronco out of Redgate. We’ve probably reached the limits of the standard suspension but I can feel the front tyre more now, and it’s loads better on the brakes…

And we weren’t last!”

Race two sees a one tooth smaller rear sprocket along with new slicks. Ron again spends the race fighting with Blackley and at the line there’s only 0.04 seconds in it. Twentieth place and a best lap in the 37s. That’ll do nicely.

In the pits everyone’s buzzing. Fans linger for a snapshot and there’s an air of success. “We’ve come with a bike designed for real roads and scored a point,” grins Mark. “We’re running reworked stock suspension, no quickshifter, excess weight, and we can’t throw tyres and pads at it like the top teams. But we didn’t qualify last, weren’t last in the race, didn’t get lapped and the bike’s in one piece.

And where’s all this 180+bhp everyone talks about? We were only 3.5mph down on Reynolds through the trap with our genuine 165bh