It failed as expected, but nothing too horrific to fix... - here's a quick summary of today...

Getting into the car at 7am this morning in the twilight to drive an untested car i'd built myself was nerve racking to say the least...

Checked everything over one last time and pulled off the drive, up to 2nd gear - so far so good... Out of the village into the NSL and put the hammer down in 2nd, that just resulted in bags of wheel spin so ease off and all the way up to 5th - so far so good... She's well behaved, with VERY sensitive steering

Made the turn off the A5 onto the country road to leighton buzzard, whoops there's some sideways action - but easily caught, crawled through the villages at 30mph, water temperature good, hovering about 80 degrees in the cold air - engine is purring away... and the seat is warm! thanks to the exhaust based heating - lovely

Out onto the NSL and a T junction - and whoops again some huge sideways action, it doesn't take much in 1st or 2nd . Arrived safely at the test centre with 45mins to spare

Met the tester Doug, and his trainee Andy who seemed genuinely interested in the car - and feeling confident onto the first test!

fail.

whoops - they couldn't get up the baffled/steel wooled exhaust with the tester probe - so that was it, she'd failed in the first 10seconds of the test... A note to those of your thinking of using DB killers in your cans! This in hindsight made what followed less stressful so not too bad...

Then all the measurements and levels were checked, pass on all those.. Headlight alignment fine, and all electrics fine.

Then the projections - this failed in many places as I knew it would, but I wanted to know where specifically was tested before making covers willy-nilly.

At this point we noticed a leak from the front brake switch, which I was allowed to nip up - no more leaking, all seemed well...

The sidelights and indicators failed on side visibility, which is easily fixed with a modified bracket, I checked this - so I must have mismeasured.

Onto the ramps and no problems with brake hoses, hose routing, brake lines, bolts and wiring - That was a relief!

Onto the brake test, everything set up - here we go...

0 brake effort on the front wheels - what the ****? I knew the brakes worked as I brake tested several times on the way up locking the fronts easily... This meant the brake test had to be cancelled whilst I looked over the system in a panic - pedal movement was normal. At this point Doug told me I wouldn't be able to drive it home - this was bad, I knew I had incurred recovery costs...

Onto the speedo test, spot on - a few mph over at all speeds, as i'd deliberately set it a bit high, top marks to the KOSO dash.

Outside for the mirrors, they were all fine size and visibility, Doug even commented the chassis gave above average viewing angles.

Onto the noise tests, oh dear 109dB! Needs some serious work here, I need to find two super quiet replacement silencers that are a similar OD to borrow - any ideas anyone?

Self centering, andy took the car around the carpark and then gave Doug a go Self centering was fine, which was great news as this worried me, there is little weight over the front wheels.

To my happiness I was allowed to put the car back on the brake rollers after some tinkering, and we found that the second push would work fine, but not the first! It wasn't air in the system as there was no sponge, and the first push recorded literally no effort... It's either a dud MC, crap in the lines or the front splitter...

Had to get recovered at a cost of £70, which was a painful end to the day. Overall not too bad, had it not been for the brakes it would have been a good result.

Here are the pics:










[Edited on 27/2/09 by cloudy]

Stunning

Seems a pretty good result to me especially considering it's a totally unique build.

Plans to make a kit.....?

That car looks fast Seriously fast!!
Isn't it rather chilly?!?!

Not bad - wierd brake problem though!

Top effort! Get that retest booked.

Are you coming to the SG7s meet this Sunday lunchtime?

A quick observation.

Could you rotate the cycle wings back a bit? I think it might look better.

not really - for two reasons

a) the wing has to cover the tyre for SVA
b) rotating it back means wind gets under the wing and reduces downforce that you get, also puts stress on the bonds. These wings have an aero cut off to help the airflow break away from the back, further increasing downforce, this has to be horizontal...

James

Not a bad result at all!
I hope the brakes are easily sorted

Regards

Hugh

Looks exceptional.
Good fail though.
What does it weigh? What power?
Oil cooler might be a bit vulnerable?
Cheers, Pewe

[Edited on 27/2/09 by pewe]

I'm suprised by the amount of people questioning the oil cooler position It's MUCH better protected than most normal ones, and certainly better protected than the original bike one was... It's not in line with any tyre at any steering angle, and only has the seat in front of it....

James

Well done on the not-too-bad result.

I'll say again, I do like the look of the car. I actually much prefer it to an Atom

Sorry to hear about the fail you have made a very nice job i hope all goes well with the re- test
Graham

wounder ay james,still top looking car mate,could you book a re-test there and then?
wayne

Well fixed the brakes, the leaking brake switch got enough air in the system for the bias bar to lock up and stop providing force to the front brakes, the double press obviously built up just enough pressure to brake before this...

James

WOW well done james. you must be so proud!! i bet you were grinning all the way there. it looks absolutly stunning. will you be at stoneleigh?

rob

looks superb, well done on a not too bad fail

Looks like you used aftemarket bike mufflers - these are usually straight thru with just acoustic packing around a perf tube-

Standard bike mufflers have baffled gas path - much quieter - try something like a pair of Suzuki SV1000 mufflers - look similar size - I have a set here in Australia I can measure if you want sizes

Dave

How did you organise the trailering home? Something i've often wondered about. 70 quid seems okish price, i was thinking peeps would be aware you're at vosa and would charge double cause you where stuck.

I just called a local breakdown company...

I've bought a set of standard BT1100 exhausts to see how those fare... My retest is next weds! I figure best to have it soon so I don't forget anything or just put it to one side...


James

Digging out my old account from a good few years back!

As I said on DC - a damn impressive effort to fail on such little things.

so am i right in thinking that you can drive to your sva (or iva test) but if your fails on any points you can't drive it home, or does it have to fail on something like brakes/steering before your not allowed to drive it home???

forgot to say car looks ace dude, i bet it was the most adrenaline filled morning of your life driving to the test!

[Edited on 2/3/09 by pocket rocket]

quote:

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Originally posted by pocket rocket
so am i right in thinking that you can drive to your sva (or iva test) but if your fails on any points you can't drive it home, or does it have to fail on something like brakes/steering before your not allowed to drive it home???

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oh ok...its seems mad that with all the rules they have that they let you drive your car to sva and not use a trailer. obviously the majority of people will have checked, checked and checked again that everything is ok as the build goes along and cloudys car is a great example of this... great spanner skills and an amazingly built/crafted car but a tiny brake fluid leak has caused front break problems... not that im complaining... i can't wait to drive to sva