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RG Racers: Malcolm England
Australian hard case, still racing an RG!
My love affair of RG's came from watching guys racing the bikes thru the 80's. A mate lobbed at my place one day, threw me the keys to have a ride of his latest purchase, an RG500. Out of town I head for a few miles to get a feel for the bike, do a u turn and hop into it. 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and I'm already doing 160 kph and thinking YAHOO, this is the closest thing to A TZ that I ever ridin and it's Road registered, gotta get one of these. I end up purchasing a real tidy one for about 3 1/2k, road registered. My thoughts are Nah, can't race this one it's too tidy.
Move interstate get a notable engineer to add an extra brace to the swing arm and fit the rear MARVIC mag wheel, which I had recently purchased. This same guy knows of an RG500, which has been raced, and he has done some work on it: disc timing, widened the rear standard wheel and he has the guys number. I arranged a viewing of the bike and a deal done.
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The bike has been stripped of road going gear, has a white power stock, the widened original rear wheel 4.5width, 4 x 34mm tm, Mickey Rooney's (No tmxs around then) and a fibreglass fairing off a MK4 GP Rg500.
More mods ensue, fit some upside down forks, sling original front end into a cupboard, fit RGV discs, calipers and braided lines and a coat of white paint. Join a new club, licence etc and enter my first club meeting at a local track, {Lakeside} in SE Queensland, which is 2 ½ klms of bumpy, undulating roller coaster ride of a track, 20 minutes from home.
Practice Saturday, racing Sunday, two 2nd hand sets of slicks fitted 185 section rear, 120 section front, different brand to what I am used to: tyre pressures? No tyre warmers in 1994. On the Saturday practice,, first time on a road race bike in 2 years and I thinking miles too rich, fork springs to soft, rears to firm, wallows, tank slaps and shakes and I'm thinking this is gunna be interesting tomorrow, keep winding the steering damper up tighter and hang on for grim life with my knees and elbows locked.
After practice there was a guy in the pits promoting his new trailer mounted dyno jet. Me thinks why not get in line, waited my turn, wheel her in strap her down, stand aside and let the operator do his thing. He only takes her to 9 ½ k that gives 85RWHP, engine runs out to 11k's, so I guess at around 90ish RWHP as it is running rich.
Saturday night back home, pop the fork springs out, rummage thru what I got ... find something firmer, guesstimate oil quantity, got no 10 weight oil, so I make a shandy ½ 5 weight half 15 weight, that's the best I can do for tomorrow! Front end feels firmer.
Sunday race day, I've entered 1000's C Grade and 600cc Super sport, 2 classes 4 races in total. No precious racing form in Queensland so, I'm last row of grid, 30 something grid position, 8 rows from the front, which means plenty of traffic, smoke, congestion and a first lap which is going to take 3-4 secs longer as I am so far back.
Flag drops and I am riding like there is no tomorrow. The bike is slow turning, brakes like a Harley Davidson, handles like a shopping trolley with one seized wheel! But, Holly shit goes like a cat out of a bag, that's had Tabasco sauce smeared on its arse. Inside, outside under brakes and down the straight, rear tyre rubbing on the rear exhaust, giving off plumes of smoke through the kink in the straight at 200kph every lap.
Chequered flag out and I've finished 16th, top 15 into the final, bummer, however I am in pole position for the B final. Between races, the fairing is on off, on off, like a bride's nightie. We make her as lean on the needle as we can, same as the main jets 170's.
Final race times come, waiting in the dummy grid, marshalling area and it's a mixture of nervousness, excitement, sweating, dry mouth, something similar I imagine like riding a wild bull at a rodeo, because that is what my RG was like to race first time out. Understeering through the right hander down the hill onto the main straight at 140k's per hour which was lined with ARMCO fencing, no air fence in those days. “ACTUALLY AN AUSTRALIAN INVENTION”.
Final time comes, warm up lap, flag drops and I am off. Get rolling in first (standard gear box) snick into 2nd, otherwise when the power comes in hard with that low 1st gear, you could flip it right over and I'm into it, 1st lap, 2nd lap 3rd lap and I'm thinking SHIT no one's passed me yet, can't hear any other bikes, glance over my shoulder out of one of the slower corners and me thinks I'm comfortably in front, ease off and don't throw it down the road. Keep CONCENTRATING. I win by 150 metres and thinking SHIT not a bad result first time out on a new bike, undeveloped and three kids in tow and making a comeback at 36 years old.
That night, beers, BBQ and more beers at my place, with my pit crew and already planning mods to improve the bike for the next time around.
PROBLEMS/FINDINGS: Front brakes purchased 2nd hand from a wrecking yard, 4 out of the 8 pistons seized, easy fix. Buy a few sets of smaller main and needle jets, send the shock out to be serviced. Understeering!! It's got a long wheel base 1455mm as raced(57 inches), the bikes originally built around a 16” front wheel. Fitting that 17” Marvic wheel increases the rake and trail, slows the steering. I can already hear u guys saying put an adjustable dog link in the rear end, which it had, but winding that up till it starts to steer quicker raises the centre of gravity. Rear exhausts don't clear tyres and are continually shaking loose, every race, and what a work of ART they are not. MR DENT would cringe or roll around laughing if he saw these pipes. Check the photos. Magnesium wheels reduced the weight by 6 kg and its unsprung weight, so they are staying on, and there was no decent 16” rubber by then anyway, standard brakes are crap for racing purposes.
Check out “LAKESIDE” track “Youtube “ 1989 ARRC 250cc and see a young Mr Beattie in action and the track layout.
Cheers
Mal Function
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A set of Very Ugly Pipes. Made from old Armco, we're told. ;-)
Tech tidbits with Mal:
My tz mate was using 50/50 mix Av gas and 98Bp pump gas, cold morning race day, castor oil wouldn’t mix temps below 10 degrees C.
Did a jar test using different ratios and found the more 98 octane used the better the solubility of the oil, now uses 60/40 ratio 60 being the 98 octane and the bike is making more power.
I tried power jets years ago on my rg couldn’t get them to work, spoke to Ian Williams recently (Mota software fellow - and he said waste of time using Pjs unless ur mainjets are larger than 300s ,engine must not draw hard enough, Don't mix different brands of M.Jets either)
I synchronise carbs at low speed around 3k with Egt gauges i have a 4 pull throttle, sight them initially.
Notable tuners use burn back on spark plugs to check ignition timing.
Hoping this may help u from sleeping soundly Lol like me (haha, Thanks Mal! - RN ) I presently have 30 pilot jets in my 34 tm carbs