Honda's Help Wanted Ad

Remember Papa, you are talking about people who although brilliant in their chosen field, have very little common sense.

 

Coming from a guy who races his bike with no fork oil....

 

and losing the front while on the gas...

 

does anybody know what fuel they were running .....i know that the u4-1 was causing problems because it was being used up to quikly

 

I heard MR-10

 

Whether it was running out of gas or vapor lock or bad fuel pump, that was the only interesting thing about the 200.

Thumbs up to Kawasaki (Attack). It was good to see Barnes battling for a win.

 

But I knew about it (low on oil by about 100cc due to leaking; not completely out), and decided to compete and get as much points as I could before I have enough time to send the forks out for seal replacement...........

Entire pro team running out of fuel these days on the other hand...............is NOT acceptable!

 

What can I say? It is what it is and sometime we just can't explain everything that happened. Accept and move on..........

 

This was in the other thread about the 200:

Originally Posted by Sieg
Just got the scoop - '07 bikes have 19 litre tanks that sit lower in the chassis than the '06's.

Miguel, Jake, and Josh's bike had approximately 4 litres of fuel left when they experienced the stalling problem.

They ran VP MR9 fuel in practice Saturday and used VP MR10 on Sunday. MR10 makes more horsepower than MR9 but costs about $15 more per gallon.

VP didn't mention anything about MR10 having a 15* lower boiling point than MR9, so...................they had 4 litres of boiling fuel in the lower and hotter portion of the fuel tanks. Yes, the tanks had single layer foil/fabric insulation.

Expensive points for the riders.

No idea where the original quote or info came from, though.

Anybody comfirm this?

 

bad planning?

Maybe if they had a plan for situations like that ...

 

So the factory team was trying to save $50 per bike per practice with their million $$$ budget? LOL............. They must not follow the "use practice to simulate real race condition" philosphy.

I always run my practice sessions like I would for the actual race. This way I know exactly how the bike will act/perform during the race and hence can fix/repair/tune everything before the actual race (or at least try to and go race knowing what I couldn't fix/repair/tune).

 

It was back-to-back weekends........over night shipping both way will save some time but there is no guarantee I'll get them either (during the peak season, and over night will cost quite a bit), so I cleared up the slider parts and dust seals as good as I can to stop/minimize the leaking as per Max's direction, then proceed to race with caution. I sent the forks out right away afterward.

 

You practiced with the forks like that, too, right?

 

Yes. I did.........just so that I can up the fork damping setting some to compensate for less oil and change the shock setting to match the front end......... But I limited my laps to prevent losing mtoo much oil due to leaking (Max advised to put more oil back in the forks after leaking but I have no way of telling how much to replace at that point, so I didn't bother with it). I checked for leaking as soon as I get off bike each time, and re-cleaned the sliders though. The cleaning really helped to minimize the leaking. After a sprint race, the forks would only leak enough to coat the sliders (no dripping).

That was back in 2004. I only raced 2 events in 2005 due to schedule conflicts (work and family), and didn't have any leaking issue at all.

Last year (2006), I had the same leaking issue again after the first race of the season with new oil and fork seals. Apparently, my forks are in good shape (not bent; straightness is within the tolerance) and the fork seals looked good. Just can't seem to find the root cause of the leak as the problem is not consistent (I thought about faulty seals but Traxxion used the same ones for everyone, and no one else is having leak issue with new seals).

In case you'll be asking, yes, I always have my forks serviced (oil and seals) before the new season starts. I normally send my forks/shock out for the service early, like in November/December to avoid delay due to peak season demand (and the weather is still not too cold to be working in garage). Then the forks/shock are installed back to the bike, and the whole bike on stands (the front is on Pitbull NewFront stand so the forks are not compressed, the foot pegs are on jack stands so the shock is not compressed either) before the new season begins (~April). I doubt that the seals were damaged during the storage period as my garage never go below freezing point, and others are not having this issue. Just hope that I will not see the leak issue again this year.

 

Serious question:

Why would you even go on the track knowing you were leaking any fluids at all?

 

I'm wondering if the Mr-10 is following the same formula as the u4-1 in being more oxygenated

 

I found the leak after the race (first weekend). After cleaning, the leak seems to have stopped. Under actual riding/racing condition, the leak is still there but was very minimum and wasn't enough to be dripping within 20 minutes od riding/racing (why I limited my laps in practices in the 2nd weekend so that I can check often regarding whether I still have leaking forks and how bad they leak if still leaking). It seems safe enough to me to compete and not cause any trouble.

The 2 stroke smokers I raced with spilled more oil on the actual track from their exhaust pipes (evidented by my screen).

 

If the fuel did indeed boil it will obviously cavitate a lot more and fuel pumps don't like air in them. You can put boiling fuel through a rotor of a fuel pump for a limited period of time but they will not last long. As well the lubricity properties of the fuels these were validated to could be a lot different than MR-9/ 10. Without knowing the details of the system it is all speculation. I can tell you one thing, knowing how Honda works it will not happen again.

 

Apparently, Honda engineered a perfectly good bike. The aftermarket dry break system used by Erion team is determined to be the cause of the fuel starvation problem.

 

Oh God, the arrogance continues form the Honduh PR machine:

"In the 2007 Daytona 200 by Honda event the CBR600RR machines fielded by American Honda and Erion Racing all suffered fuel-related problems that affected the outcome of the race. "

How in the F*CK do they know that the outcome was affected????

Just *Maybe* they would have just been beaten by the Kaws and Yammies.

I know this is abstract thought for them.... Being beaten, ya know....

Just one more reason to hate them. :down:

Honduh sucks balls.