Lasted updates appear from the top and more images can be found in my gallery

October 17th
Right, it's all over. Thank Christ! Only joking but it has been a long and expensive year. I'm glad the numpties at Eurosport saw fit to ignore our final race on the highlights package last night. The "Home of Motorbikes" or whatever bollocks it claims seemed a bit hollow when they edit us out of the show.

It may be just as well – I'd been worried they'd show my little anti-SuperDuke outburst as I crossed the line. I had a good race, I rode really well and was pleased with getting my oh-so-important lap times down to a respectable low 50second mark. Crucially that put me a lot closer to the top three than I had been before.

The difference between riding half a second quicker around Brands Indy shouldn't be under-estimated mind. On the same bikes on the same tyres it takes a good deal of effort to shave those margins – which makes the times of Dave Wood, Richard Cooper and Melvin Reilly all the more impressive.

But just as I dared think I could get past Ed Smith and possibly even a nervous-looking Dave Heal (the two of them were battling for third spot in the championship) I began to hit false neutrals when changing down gears.

When it happened one last time into Druids on the last lap and I lost sixth to James Edmeades I'm afraid my emotions got the better of me and I gave my bike a bit of a kicking on the warm-down lap. I was a bit emotional, I didn't mean it really honest. Thankfully it wasn't on tv!

September 28th
After a few adjudicator interjections (KTM got all official on some of our asses at Cadwell) I've had to remove the Venhill hoses. Shame really as they looked good and were a far more simplistic design than the stockers. Although the standard front lines come down as one and split neatly into two, the Venhill ones screw onto the banjo bolts and looked loads better.

Anyway, they're gone thanks to "rules being rules" and a threat by a.n.other team threatening a protest for me running non-standard parts.

September 5th (my Nan's birthday by the way)
Gutted was the only word to describe how I felt after my Cadwell Park race. Racing is full of ifs and buts I know, but sometimes, just sometimes they're not just bullshit.

Cadwell Park is my favourite track and for a change this year a circuit which I know well and crucially have raced at before. With Knockhill, Snetterton and Thruxton as new tracks under my belt this year the subtleties of track knowledge have been drummed home to me. I know where the bumps are at Cadwell, even the new ones freshly created by the “new surface” around Chris curve and into Gooseneck. That means I know how a bike behaves all around the circuit, I know where I can push a bit harder and where not to.
All this confidence was backed up as soon as we arrived where I quickly established myself at the top of the sheets. Kelvin Reilly and the curiously fast Dave Wood were away but I knew pretty much straight away I was well clear of the rest in a solid third. Lap times proved it and anytime I got anywhere near the other riders it was clear.

What no-one watching the races will know is my ninth place qualifying was a result of a broken exhaust and not a lack of speed. The Akrapovic race pipes drop slightly on the bracket just in front of the shock which, as it turns out places undue stress on the rear header pipe. Why Akrapovic don't use springs on that part of the system is a mystery. The rules state we can't use any other exhaust system otherwise I would be testing others at this point for sure.
It cracked one lap into qualifying leaving Dave and Fowlers/KTM technician Jude to burn their fingers for twenty minutes trying to get it changed. They couldn't and ninth was eventually gained on the very kind loan of Matt Walker's bike (road gearshift, less ground clearance and softer suspension) for three laps as the clock ticked down.

So ninth on the grid behind four very hard to pass racers was the downfall for the rest of the weekend. As if that wasn't enough the second race quickly unfolded in much the same way but from the outset the bike was clearly down on power. As the race went on I tried harder and harder to make up the difference with corner speed, to the point of crashing about twice a lap. But it was clear from the amount of throttle I could suddenly use that my 130bhp was slipping away. By the time we rolled off the track and into the pits it sounded like it was running on one cylinder, started smoking and I was ready to throw the twatting thing in the skip.

KTM UK have it now, which is probably for the best given how I feel about it currently. At the time of writing you know as much as me. Sure, racing a bike puts extra stresses on components but this is an R1 model and I haven't done but Akrapovic is not short of race experience so exhausts shouldn't be breaking like that.


August
I'm fresh back from trip to sunny Dorking, home of Venhill Engineering ltd. I had no idea Venhill were so close to us here in Surrey.

Perhaps better known as off-road component manufacturer, Venhill have been around for years and have powered the brakes, throttles and clutches of more race winners than you'd imagine. Best known usage in the sportsbike world is perhaps the Hydrex Honda crew, including Guy Martin's great efforts at the TT.

I took the Duke R down there to be measured because neither Venhill nor I were sure if the lines were the same as standard SuperDukes. They are it turns out so all KTM SuperDukes have the same length brake lines and set-up should you be thinking about replacing them.

In truth I wasn't I needed new hoses, there's nothing really wrong with the stock ones. But I did like the idea of some orange brake hoses and I also liked the idea of trying something different to see if it works better. All being well the hoses should be with me in time to be tried out at Cadwell BSB meeting this coming weekend.

More Venhill info can be found here

August 6th
It's back at last. The good burghers of Brackley (KTM UK) tell me the head gaskets were most likely the problem. Not too much trace of leakage there but a small amount – which is enough. They didn't run the bike at a track or in any anger, only up and down its heat cycle in the workshop. But the signs point towards a complete recovery. We'll see in a couple of days time then when Knockhill circuit greets us.

I've been down in our workshop here just giving it a once over. There was nothing to do really since it's been dismantled and re-assembled by a fully qualified KTM technician but they are not trained to operate outside the remit. The BSB scrutineers do operate outside that KTM remit though which is why the overflow bottle needed putting back and all the lock-wiring needed checking.

There were no obvious reasons for the problem in the first place – the pipe sneeking off its mounting early on is most likely the cause. A couple of the hose clips around the cooling system were also a little loose, or at least not quite nipped up tight enough, which they claim could possibly have caused a problem, but probably not.

Other than that job's a good 'un and I'm looking forward (God willing) to actually turning up at a race meeting with the bike ready to go and in perfect running order.

Got a SuperDuke? Got something to say about it? Drop me a line at jon_pearson@ipcmedia.com

July 17th
Less of an update and more of a very short story. The Duke R is firmly ensconced in the KTM UK workshop having it's head examined. King of KTMs Andy Clues is the specialist consultant doctor performing the surgery and I'm sitting here awaiting the prognosis. I'm sure she'll pull through.

June 19th
Slight delay in posting a webstory following last weekend's Snetterton race meeting. I've been doing that other thing I'm supposed to do – getting the magazine out – so the web update has fallen by the way-side.

The thing about racing is it's all peaks and troughs they tell me, “you keep that in mind and you'll not be too disappointed son.” That's the theory. The reality is that's an utter lie. You put a lot of effort in, you spend a lot of money, you have certain expectations of yourself and when it all goes to shit who could blame me for not being disappointed?

The “up” of Donington was balanced out quite nicely by the “down” of Snetterton last weekend. A 2nd and 5th turned into an 11th and an 8th. A dry tyre gamble on a drying track in race one didn't pay off at all as I watched the whole field disappear in front of me. A dry line began to appear eventually but only in places and never really enough to make the difference. 18th place at one point became 11th eventually but when you know you can ride with the top men in the rain it is disheartening to miss the chance.

But that wasn't really the crux of the matter as Sunday's dry and sunny race showed I simply couldn't get my head together and ride fast enough. For once I couldn't work out where I was losing time. Usually even if I can't make myself actually do it I can at least see where the others are faster. Not this time.

I'm glad to say we have a SuperBike trackday at Brands Hatch on Monday which I'm hoping to use as practice. The theme of our race weekends is re-occurring – everytime I go out on the bike it feels different and so far that 'feeling' still hasn't been ideal. So practicing on Monday will definitely be concentrating on getting a good “base setting”. It's the kind of phrase you hear proper racers say but there's something in it I'm beginning to understand. I reckon I must get to the end of the weekend and be at the point where the front guys are half way through free practice on the Friday. By then it's too late of course.

The water system leak problem continues – current thinking is the head gasket might be the problem. During qualifying at Thruxton one of the hoses began to pop-off the under the airbox and because I didn't stop soon enough it overheated badly.

Spanner man Dave thinks this has caused the head gasket to leak a touch. The symptoms are water being pushed out of the radiator into the header tank and also into the catch bottle (fitted on the left side of the engine as per BSB rules). The water is sucked back in a little when the engine cools again but not all of it and it cannot return back from the catch bottle in any case. Before you ask we have tried replacing the rad cap, and have bled the coolant system, endlessly in fact. So it's neither of those two more obvious things.




28th May

As you might guess from this excellent Joe Dick/2Snap image the weekend's race meeting at Donington Park was a slippery one and a non-too-shy test of nerve. But with the surpreme skills of one David Smith on the spanners we had a good weekend, with a second (in the wet) and fifth (in the dry) places to show for our efforts.

The good news is the postal service managed to find the shock, it was in a church hall in Coalville! The suspension is, still, the main pre-occupation with Dave and I, as I come to terms with setting up a race bike rather than the road bike(s) I'm so used to. It's quite different it turns out and while it would be easier to set the bike up how I'm comfortable with it I wouldn't be as fast. Saturday free practice showed the new shock settings were much harder than the forks making it too front bias almost everywhere. We now have 3mm more ride height than standard too which needed compensating for at the front.

But Sunday qualifying dawned better and after some serous sitting down, head scratching, note taking on track maps and finally some getting busy with the tools from Dave, things are getting better. Once we did all that it rained of course and everything had to be softened-off but, Dave claims, that is easy once you're happy with a dry setting. I took his word for it!

Whatever he did clearly worked though and finding myself leading over the line on lap one, race one was a surprise I'll savour, as was this "moment" two laps later. Donington is a pig in the wet and while our Pirelli wet rain front tyres were gripping well, the rears were randonmly letting go, usually into corners. Which accounts for the number of slides I had each lap and number of crashes other people had.

Working out where the grip was (and wasn't) proved the key to staying on and going fast and once I figured that out second place was mine. While first looked a distinct possibility for a lap or two staying on suddenly seemed more of a priority and eventually the laps ran out. The biggest surprise was setting the fastest lap of the race, I'm almost more proud of that than the trophy and standing on the same podium as Valentino Rossi.

Race two on Monday, just before the opening BSB race, was very windy but thankfully dry. Fifth isn't as good as second of course but it felt like I was getting there amongst a group of far more experienced and serious racers, despite the front two pissing off out of sight.

The message is we're getting better which means faster but certainly a bit nearer where I hoped I would find myslef in the results. The next round is at Snetterton but I'm hoping to get some practice in before then.


22nd May

It's been nearly a month I know but time flies when you have three weeks off to trek around Peru. Coming back to the SB high-rise office in South London and peeking into the workshop to see the Duke was one hell of a contrast to stone huts and freerange Lamas.

That's probably more info than you care for so I'll get to the point of this up-date. The second round of the championship looms this weekend at Donington Park and the saga with suspension continues. Dave the Goat helpfully took the shock out and posted it off to K-Tech for further tweaks. The only problem being Parcelforce, in their great efficient wisdom, have lost the package. So at present I have no rear suspension, which would be funny if the race wasn't two days away. I feel a temporary loan from KTM UK coming on and a compensation claim with Parcelforce.

Other than that the bike needs a couple of problems fixing. The belly pan has very close tolerance with the fat Akrapovic header pipes, to the point of burning a hole. So I've been busy with the fibreglass repair kit this morning, re-sealing the belly-pan which has to act as a catch tank under BSB rules.

I've replaced the brake fluid which is always good practice after a race but I've swapped the stock oil for Rock Oil race brake fluid which has a higher boiling point and should provide more consistent performance. New pads are coming but haven't arrived yet.


28th April 2008

What actually went into my seventh place finish in the first round of the Focused Events KTM Super Duke Battle at Thruxton could easily keep you reading for the next two hours. But I won't bore you. The short story, and the moral of it, is be prepared.

I'd never been to the track before, the suspension was all over the place, I was all over the place. The only person not all over the place was chief tech Dave Smith, who spent much of his weekend in the KTM truck awning, spanners in hand.

Tip-toeing out onto Mallory Park's Wednesday afternoon test session on stone-cold road tyres was as much a realisation that my race head was still packed in a box as it was that the bike was fresh out the box. It was 23 miles old and still full of factory freshness.

Four laps later the tilt-sensor fell off, cutting the engine dead and nearly fetching me off at the Bus Stop chicane. The race nose cowl is, erm, slightly less than perfect in places, the mounting for the tilt sensor being on eof them. But we fixed and all was good from then on.

Until the next day at our Cadwell Park trackday when it cut out again half-way round turn one. Tilt sensor still firmly in place I made a quick call to KTM UK who pointed to another, infrequent, problem with the fuel pump (when you ride them hard and with not much fuel left, the sensor can get confused apparently). KTM replaced it, I fitted it and I haven't had a problem since.

The next time I rode the Duke R was in free practice at Thruxton British Superbike meeting. Make no mistake, competing at BSB level in any category is not something you can just turn up and 'have a go' at. Sure, the KTM class is as close as you'll come with its limited tuning regulations but even so, the level of rider at the front of this field is as forgiving as a pack of lads outside Croydon kebab shop on a Saturday night.

The British racing scene has a handful of specialist suspension companies, K-tech work with HM Plant Honda and NW200 Ducati to name two of the top three in BSB at Thruxton. Sending K-tech the suspension ten days before the meeting was my first mistake, taking damping out of the shock rather than adding it was theirs. The forks are mint but trying to learn a new track, one of the fastest in the UK, cope with some terrible weather and all with a pogo-stick for a shock was, shall we say, testing.

Thruxton is very, very fast then, a man's circuit they say. When the track dried for the race I found myself lacking the right gearing for the straights and enough balls to tackle Church as fast as I should've been. By the time I sorted myself out the lead pack had long gone and <>

Ultimately ten points are in the bag and on reflection I did enjoy myself. So hats off to the winner and hopefully, next time we'll be better prepared.

<9th April>

A weekend poking and prodding about in my shed, getting acquainted with the R, taking things off for no real reason and putting them back on again left me itching to get out there and ride.

A very early start to get myself to a KTM UK dealer day at Silverstone didn't stop the itching either, if I mention the words "British weather" you'll get the idea. Dealers were still out getting a spin on the new RC8 and in between sessions some of the Focused Events KTM Super Duke R Battle (as it is officially coined now) were teetering round but I couldn't see the point myself so packed-up and drove home again all miserable.

A couple of days later and without actually having ridden the bike anywhere other than up and down the ramp into the van, SuperBike's chief tech (Dave) and I were sipping Mallory Park diner's finest tea on a Wednesday afternoon ACU test day.

Shake-down tests (rider and bike)
Winter can seem like a long time when you try and put your race head back on. Although I ride on tracks all the time, suddenly needing to be in race-mode came as a shock. A cold Wednesday afternoon at Mallory can be a bit grim at the best of times. Deciding to go out on the stock road Pirellis without tyre warmers made for some very widely-opened eyes very suddenly.

The extraordinary thing about Mallory's Wednesday test days is that you can be out on track with anyone. There are two solo groups so novices and classics are split up but the 'fast' group can be Joe Blogs racing a five year old CBR600 or, as in this day, former MotoGP racer Chris Burns doing a final shake-own test of his own on his BSB MV Agusta, not to mention the quick out the blocks Supersport racer Craig Fitzpatrick on his low-flying R6.

Tip-toeing out onto Gerrards on stone-cold road tyres with those two (at least) howling around the short, tight Leicestershire track quickly becomes a lesson in looking over your shoulder and blind-faith. Such is racing life.

Fortunately I wasn't baulking either of these quicker riders through the Bus Stop chicane four laps into the second session when the tilt-sensor in the nose fairing fell off its mounting, cutting the engine dead and leaving me sitting on the fence inside Devil's Elbow for 20 mins.

Suspension set-up
Dave being the professional he is he makes us keep suspension sheets to record what we did, when and why. SuperBike's first trackday of the year took us from Mallory straight up the Fosse to Cadwell Park where we spent much of the day sorting out what felt good and what didn't.

The biggest problem 'we' found was making 'me' feel happy, safe and still fast enough. Moving the bars forward (they have four possible positions on the top yoke) helps a lot in terms of feeling but it needs more to get the weight off the back end of the bike so much and onto the front.

The final settings sheet from the two days testing at Mallory and Cadwell make interesting reading…

Front suspension
preload = fully off, compression = 7 clicks off, rebound = full-on, spring = std

Rear suspension
Preload = wound on to reduce sag to 3mm, low-speed compression = 9 off, high-speed comp = half turn, rebound = 3 clicks off, spring = std

The solution to these problems doesn't need too much thought – get your self to a suspension specialist. Where better to call up than what many people consider the top of the tree in the UK, K-Tech.

The outcome of all of this is the R currently sits in the SB workshop looking pretty naked while the suspension wings its way to Coalville and K-Tech. Meanwhile Dave has been busy with his drill and lock-wire pliers making sure the bike makes it through scrutineering at the fast-approaching first round Thruxton.


March 2008
For better or for worse I'm fully signed up for a season of SuperDuke Battling. Somewhere along the line my plan to ditch this racing malarkey and get myself a trials bike again has gone out the window (roughly at the point when KTM UK phoned and said “yes, you can have a SuperDuke R long termer but we want you to race it in the championship”).

So here it is fresh out the box and 23 miles old. Among the bits already bolted on are some GB Racing crash bungs and engine covers. We've had some in the office before and I've raced with them on the Triumph Triple Challenge bikes and they're a good quality product.

The collection of bits littered around our studio floor are the kit parts for the race bikes. Spare Marchesini wheels, discs and sprockets and some Akrapovic cans to bolt on. There's map for the 990-specific cans which has yet to be released from the KTM factory but it's needed to sort the fuelling once the standard cans are off. Other than that the 990R is bog standard, just as the Battle rules dictate.

New Staff Bike blogs will be appearing somewhere on this cronky, old website soon but in the meantime I'll be updating on the main news pages.

The first round of the SuperDuke Battle is at Thruxton over the weekend of the 18,19 20th of April.