Fat Lazy Bastard Racing

Bucket of Bolts – The “It’s Broke, Guess I Should Fix It” Issue

Turn 8 Pacific Raceways

I’ve got to say.  I’m pretty confident when I get around to fixing things.  I will dive into a job, work on it, think I’ve got it done, and it usually works in the end.

The R6 is no different.  After the WMRRA Race Weekend, the next day I dove into the bike, and started tracking down the issues.

Since I was already aware of where to look, I went straight for the throttle bodies.  Now, this is something I have gotten extremely good at doing. Pulling the bike down to the throttle bodies.

Maybe it’s the fact I built my bike? Nah, this is the first time I’ve had the tank off since I put it together (Minus when I clean the Air Filter… Which I should probably do more often :p ).
Or it’s because Chris Sarbora always tends to give me a reason to pull his bike apart…

No, that’s not it either. The reason I’ve gotten so good at doing this, is my Street Bike, which I have pulled apart and put back together multiple times as well.  It is also an 07 R6.

Well, back to my Race Bike.

So I jumped into it, started running diagnostics, and found out the throttle side TPS was out of whack a little.

I adjusted it, started the bike, reved it up. All seemed to work.

Wednesday night, Troy, the Bridgestone dude, called me and told me to come down to Portland for the weekend.  After some thought, I went ahead, and signed up for the Cascade Track Time Friday Date, took the day off from work, loaded the bike, and down I went.  I had already planned to go down to Oregon that weekend, and without towing a trailer, my pickup gets the same fuel mileage with the bike in the bed of it.

So Friday, I get prepped, I get ready, and I go out, and……….

Bike ends up unresponsive….

It’s probably a good thing I ended up just buying a Half Day.

It wasn’t a complete waste though.  I ended up going out for 1 session on Troy’s bike… Then it started to rain buckets…

So back here at home, I pulled it apart again, and went back through the throttle bodies.  I put the DVM (Digital Volt Meter) on it, and started to check things over again.  Nope, everything checks out still.

This is when I started to realize, it is possible that it is something other than the throttle bodies. A thought that really started to scare me.

See, I started to realize, that there are 2 other things it could be. The wire Harness, or the ECU.  I can test the wire harness, and so I did.  Everything made it’s way back to the ECU.
I got scared… Realizing it may be the ECU, I also realized that would probably be the end of my season if it was.  I was depressed, and down.

Finally, while talking to Chris about it, he came up with a brilliant idea… Test the Throttle Bodies on his bike…  Errr, DUH!  Why didn’t I think of that!

And it was extremely easy to test as well, as I still have his bike torn down to the throttle bodies! (Putting the Bazzazz back on).

So I hooked them up, went into Diag mode, twisted the throttle…. And………. (Suspense, I know!)……. Nothing!

Never in my life, has nothing made me feel so good!

So let me take a moment to talk about why before I said everything checks out, and now nothing is happening.

See, before I put my throttle bodies on his bike, I tested his out in Diag Mode. Something I was not aware of prior (Since I’ve never messed with it in Diag Mode much, except when I built the bike), was that D01, actually allows the throttle bodies to be controlled. You can open and close them with the throttle like you would while out and about on it.

With this bit of knowledge now, and the fact that they did nothing when I hooked them up, I am extremely happy!

So home I came, ordered a new Throttle Body assembly off of Ebay, and it should be here on Friday!  Just in time for me to work on it over the weekend!

Hurray!

So even though something is broken, somewhere, I can’t figure it out. Both sensors test out.  Maybe one of these day’s, I’ll pull the sensors from both sets and test and see.  Maybe it’s the servo motor as well? Never know!

That’s my little update on things.  Later!

Bike Update – OMRRA Update

So Monday Night I tore into the bike.

First thing’s first. Pull Seat, Tank, Airbox.  Ok Great, can get to the throttle bodies now.

Check the connections?  All solid. Crap, not a “Click it and fix it” type of ordeal going on.
Start the bike up in Diagnostic Mode.  D-01 is reading 16 closed (12-21 is acceptable) and 87 open (97-106 is acceptable).

So TPS looks like it is either bad or needing adjustment.

While i’m in Diag I check the other TPS on D14 and D15. Both read within acceptable ranges.  13 closed, 102 open.  That’s what I want to see.

Yamaha in their complete greatness, decided to put 1 TPS on the throttle bodies, the right one, using security bit’s. This happens to be the TPS I need to get to.  So I had to ditch my efforts Monday Night, due to not knowing exactly where my Security Bit Set Is (I just recently moved, stuff is still packed away in places I have no clue about).

Yesterday (Tuesday), after work, I head down to my Storage Unit, and start digging through some box’s and finally come across my Security Bit Set.

Up to Tony’s I go, and get back to the Throttle Bodies.

I loosen up the TPS, put it in Diag Mode again, and move it a little.

Finally get it to settle at 20 closed, 98 open…

Hrmmmm Very close. I think I’ll need to change it eventually.

So I get everything back together, take it outside, and start it up. Run it a bit, twist the throttle all the way, rev her up. Seems to be working.

Put it in gear on the Rear Stand, and do the same thing.

So it seems fixed…

However, I have made the overall decision, NOT to do OMRRA this weekend. Just too much at stake (money wise) to go down, get in a lap and have this happen again at practice, a track day, or in the race.

I want to get a track day in locally (Possibly Monday with NESBA) and test it out first before doing anything.  Also, I am going to ebay a throttle body assembly.  That way I have a spare laying around with a couple TPS’s on it.

Anyways… That’s my Update…

WMRRA Round 4 – 6/13 – 6/14 09 – The Go Go Go! Wait… No Go Issue!

Well, what an interesting weekend!

First off, Congratulations to both Ross Delong from taking the track record from Mike Macconaghy on Saturday, then Mike coming back with a vengeance on Sunday and blowing the record out of the water again!  1:24.062!!!!

Holy Shiznit! That’s one fast funny guy!

Now on to my race weekend!

Friday, AF – Played around, took it easy, had some fun. Nothing too exciting.

Saturday – Morning Practice, first one I missed (Changed tires) second one I went out on to scrub in new tires.

Saturday – Novice Race:  This was, by far the most fun I’ve had. This is my first time in a race since the gearing change on my bike. I geared it down some to give me more drive out of the corners.  Last week during 2 fast, I noticed that the gearing was working perfectly for me. I was topping out just coming out of turn 1, which is exactly where I wanted to be for that straight.

I was gridded in the 3rd row.  Had an excellent start!  Blew past a bunch of people, only had about 8 people in front of me.

The race was on! Passed a few people, Lap one down!

Second lap, went by, smoothly.  Got down the straight and realized I was still holding up towards the front!

Third Lap in, I started to battle it out with a couple guys.  Back and fourth, back and fourth we went amongst each other!

Forth Lap in, see the halfway marker. Everything still holding! Still back and fourth! Seriously I need to get some more oomph from my bike.  I could make the passes on these guys in the corners, but they would get me in the straights.  It was some real close racing. Excellent racing to be honest!

Fifth lap in, still back and forth!  Wow, this is really turning out to be a hell of a race!

Sixth Lap in! Same guys!

Seventh Lap in, I make the pass for fifth again in 2!!  Steady Steady, Turn 3, and….. fack

I crashed… Boooo!

Lesson Learned…    Final Verdict?  Don’t forget to get off your bike.  Going into Turn 3, I just didn’t get my self moved off enough, ended up dragging my exhaust, and pitching the rear up, and into a low side I went. Also learned that tires have my grip than exhausts… Who would have thunk it?

I can honestly say without a doubt though, the tires held like fricken glue right up until that point.

Minor Damage. Bent Clip-on, bent right pedal, and peg.

Gear Ok, Me Ok. Tiny raspberry on my left elbow from friction burn in my suit. Pride? Well, kinda cut down a bit…  Funny how that works. I’m perfectly ok, yet I still feel sick!

Walk over to Brent Prindle (MotoBits Dude!) and spend 68 bucks for my rearset parts (That’s why I have MotoBits! Easy to get parts!). Already had spare clip-on.  Had bike washed, and back together in an hour or so. Checked everything over on the outside.  VERY minor body damage. A couple separation cracks, nothing that can’t be fixed easily.

Sunday Practice – Went out, scrubbed tires back in, got the damned dirt off of them.

Parade Lap for Fallen Rider #138 Kurt Husted who was slain in the armored car robbery at the Wal-Mart.

Sunday Novice Race - Pre Grid, ready to go!

They release us for the Warm up Lap, get halfway into 2, and….

No throttle…

Twist it with all my might… Still no throttle…

Curse the blasted thing… Still no throttle

Tell it that I love it, and will treat it really nice… Still no throttle

I think my throttle hates me!

Turn off bike, look at Corner worker… Look at bike… Look at Corner worker… Restart… Throttle!!@!!

CW tells me go go go!

I  go go go! Halfway down the hill to 3… No Throttle! Error 15! FACK!!! I no Go Go Go! Error 15, my throttles way of saying “HA HA!”

I Park behind Crash Truck (Hey!) And load up bike before race even starts!

I got a great seat to watch the race though…  Feel sorry for the corner workers. They were out of water. They said they would offer me some if they had some. Luckily for me, it was overcast, and not to hot out. So I was fine!

My new saying… “Mechanicals… Gods way of saying “Seriously, didn’t you get the point yesterday?”

Overall, Crappy weekend on the race front =( Some awesome racing though from the other classes!
Hope to have the gremlins figured out tonight. Want to hit up OMRRA this weekend. We’ll see!

Special thanks to Troy McCrae of Pennell PowerSports of Medford Oregon for supplying an excellent set of rubbers! Stones Rock!

Thanks to those who showed up for support! (Jared, Marcus)  It gets lonely by yourself =(

Thanks to Tony and Heidi for always supporting me as well!

Stay Tuned!