We made a few small adjustments for final qualifying but no major steps. We kept improving the bike to suit me up until a certain point and then progress seemed to slow up a bit and we were now just looking for small things. I was quite happy with the bike, I was still not feeling totally at home with it but considering I’d only had 30 laps on it I was feeling much more positive. I continued going faster throughout the session and ended up in 16th on a 1min 46.1. I was looking to get in the 45s but made a small mistake at the last of the quick rights on my fastest lap where I lost the front and cost me a couple of tenths, but still I was reasonably happy.
After the improvements that I had made in about 30 laps total from my bike to Taro’s bike, I am now blaming the chassis as a reason why I cannot get to grips with my normal bike. The forks were definitely an issue, which have now been fixed, but that didn’t get rid of the nervousness and we think that the chassis has some off-balanced tension in it. When I get on the curbs on either corner entry or exit the bike really snaps which is a sign of odd tension in the chassis.
The difference between the two bikes is this: My normal bike has a standard chassis whereas Taro’s has a 2003 factory chassis, the same one as I used last year. For the engine, as far as I know there are no great differences. Both are standard kit bikes, completely different to the LE model that we were both supposed to be having. Taro’s bike has a set of exhausts which used to be only available to factory bikes in 2003 but are now available as an extra ’kit’ part to buy. I have the standard exhausts on my bike which lack a bit of mid-range compared to these other ones. As far as I know that is the only difference between the two bikes.
