Hydrex Honda - Official Team Website - British Superbikes - Road Racing

Testing and ready for 09!!

Sunday, 15 March 2009

Hi everyone,

I just wanted to say welcome to the Hydrex Honda website! I will be posting on here during the season and I look forward to answering your questions about what we do and to try to show you what life in a BSB team is like.

As you probably already know, we have just returned from testing out in Spain. It was a really mixed bag as far as the weather went but overall the test went well. We arrived in Almeria to be greeted with fantastic sunshine and a spare day to sort things out. me and PJ got some of the computer things in order as well as getting a bit of a session at the local karting track. You can only imagine how competitive a dozen racers and team members can get! There were plenty of allegations of slow karts and dodgy moves but it was good to get some stress relief after the busy time we had getting ready for the test.

Set up day arrived and trust me, i would rather have been back in England! It was hurricane winds, pouring rain and six degrees. Fortunately the rain held off for the first day of testing and after getting through some basic setup with gear levers and handlebars as well as some shakedown problems that you get with a new bike, both Karl and Stuart got down to some good times despite the high winds.

Thursday gave me plenty of time to sort out new strategies for the engine management with Oli from Pectel as the winds were that high and the temperatures so cold it would have just made for dangerous running so we stayed off track all day. It wasnt what we had come for!

By Friday the weather had picked up and both guys were eager to get back on track. We made sure that we made the most of the available time and although fast we had a few problems with chatter that we needed to work on further. Unfortunately with the weather not being the best we looked forward to Guadix to do some more work.

Knowing that it had been snowing at the circuit the previous week, we travelled north and to a higher altitude wondering what the weather would bring. We couldnt have wished for better! The mountains around were covered with snow and we were at a circuit with sunshine and 20deg temperatures, it was perfect. To add to it all, we had arrived a day early to get into the circuit as a KTM corperate event was underway. A couple of cheeky questions by Carl Buckle and we were all lined up for laps in one of the new KTM X-bow cars. My driver was an ex A1GP Dutch driver and I have to say he was awesome, i cant believe how late you can brake with four wheels!

We had perfect conditions for the three days testing and got through a great deal, both with the chassis and electronics. It is amazing just how different Karl and Stuarts styles are and the different settings they need, it is also a lot different from James' setup from last year. Oli and I had a late night sorting some traction and anti wheelie stuff but it was all worthwhile as both guys felt it had a big improvement on the bike.

By the end both riders were lapping fast and consistent, with Stuart a bit faster than Karl. Both of them gave the thumbs up to the new bike and left the test happy with everything that we had achieved and are really looking forward to hitting the track at Brands.

Its back to the workshops now for some more development work after the information we have gained while we have been away and hopefully we can squeeze another test in before the start of the season.

Catch you soon,

Mick

 

Posted by Mick Shanley