Donington BSB Disappointment. Tough weekend for the Rapid Honda Superbike team

It's round 10 of BSB at Donington, Super stand in Tom Ward is back for the injured Franco Bourne, but it's a tough weekend at the Leicestershire circuit.
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[@merv690]

as an armchair spectator, who doesn't even own a bike, can I say a massive THANK YOU for making these videos, the technical information is incredible and you manage to make it understandable too, Tom is so level headed and chilled, but he can as they say peddle a bike , but the work that the whole team puts in is mind boggling, respect you all

[@obsession_engineering]

Thanks, and glad you like it

[@martynflynn8368]

The best superbike blog bar none. Hope Franco is on the road to full recovery, need to get him back on the bike. Give these guys A LIKE , it's the least they deserve.

[@ManxAndy]

Evening Dave….tough weekend….Tom and Team did awesome…👍👌👌😉🇮🇲

[@stevesanelli90]

Incredible insights champion Dave! I just love the realism, the humour, the frustrations, the fabulous teamwork & your presentation. All the best to Franco, Tom, Matt, Peter, Rob, the rest of the team & yourself Dave for all you do to give this season your very best! Any rider doing double duties is a champion. Tom is giving it all. Thanks

[@mattmid7012]

Love these videos Dave, it's fascinating to see the weekend unfold and all that goes into it. There's so many adjustments that can be made and all effecting something else it must be a bit of a nightmare, especially with so little time to test each change. I wonder, have you ever tried 'placebo' changes to see if the fact the rider just believes the bike has been made better actually translates into that?

[@obsession_engineering]

Some teams definitely do, I never have as I want the rider to trust I'm trying to give them what they need

[@GT380man]

@@obsession_engineeringI admire your honesty. I’d be the same (not that I know anything about bike racing, but as a manager). One way around that is to tell them that when changes are made, you’ll throw an exact number (like 1) of “placebo” changes. The goal as ever is to see whether changes (when made, which they usually will be) translate into rider feel and consequently performance. I can tell that you know what you’re doing, but I wasn’t so confident that the rider knew what ought to result from the changes. If so, that would surely mess with his head. If there’s anything in this, the learning might be, not to change things for the next session but to invite the rider to aim to adapt further to the bike as it is. It would be akin to having a system where the response is lagging the changes more than everyone imagines. That’s an impossible task for everyone. I’d want to eliminate that possibility. The default assumption is he doesn’t get much, if at all, faster in the second session on the same settings. If you do get surprising improvements, it tells us the riders rate of adaptation is relatively slow, and that there’s more to come merely from more seat time in any given configuration. He did say more than once that what he needed with the Superbike was more seat time. Ignore if total bollocks. Love the whole blog. Congratulations on the side hustle. Talented young man with confidence there.

[@ManxAndy]

Evening Dave….tough weekend….Tom and Team did awesome…as did everyone else….great.to see a fellow Manxie , Illiam calling in for a chat..👍👌👌😉🇮🇲

[@davidford2169]

Loved it wavy Dave,...from old bloke Dave in Narfuk 👍

[@jgsimons]

My favorite channel on KZbin. I club race so love the behind the scenes view and your personality makes the videos fun. Would definitely use your service if based in the States.

[@obsession_engineering]

Thanks 😊 always great to see such positive feedback

[@barry5138]

Rob "Hollyoaks" has a great attitude, top man.

[@obsession_engineering]

All the boys (and girl) are great, but I fully agree, Rob is great

[@curttabor2827]

Thank you Dave. Love watching and all the knowledge you share. Always knowledge will help the future , and we give up on the pass because it is unforgiving. Always looking forward never looking back. Cheers

[@jlore6344]

This was great as usual and even better because we got more Clair content.

[@martinowl]

Congratulations to Harley for some excellent race results. Must be so frustrating with the super bike to see almost every little adjustment causing an issue elsewhere. It’s all a learning curve.

[@bigal5895]

Excellent vlog Dave and a great sentiment to the hard work and effort you and the Rapid Honda Team put in each weekend. Its astounding how close the BSB times are, I think point nine of a second covered the first seventeen positions at Donington which is just mental particularly when you consider each adjustment is to gain a fraction of a second.

[@johnpatton1826]

DAVE outstanding

[@MichaelSmith-mc8bd]

Wow! What a weekend! Well done everyone, great effort from all. Dave your job is safe, I’m not going to apply for it! . Great video as ever, giving us a great insight into the relaxing world of BSB.

[@rodbuchanan2687]

Brilliant pod as usual Dave. 👍

[@liamcase4140]

Love the videos Dave. Wouldn't mind some more in depth data reading videos. I'd like to understand my i2m suspension data better. Keep up the good work and good luck for brands 👍

[@JK-zx3go]

Love watching these vids.

[@yesterlife]

Unless I've missed something,is that a 1st speaking part for Claire ? 7:25 ! Not including the word she mouthed at Dave following her Duncan Vincent interview of course.😊

[@mayhemmayo]

THANK YOU. KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK

[@Jaded-Wanderer]

Another great video.

[@seankelleher5422]

Oh jesus. My head is melting from all the springy bouncy talk. The engine braking,gearie things ,move this,change that....ahhh. my head is melting. All I got from the video is no1...put petrol in bike and no2 is claire looks extra hot with the glasses...more of that please.😂😂😂. Love the videos dave. Keep them coming. Best of luck for the last round. Any news on plans for next year.??

[@obsession_engineering]

Lots of plans, non finalised yet!!

[@22onwheels12]

throwing out a crazy idea, if you guys need a wildcard F900 Cup rider in 2025 for any reason or know a team that does, consider me, ive run motoamerica super hooligans the past two seasons and itd be awesome to do a bsb round also

[@obsession_engineering]

Not something currently in our plans, but who knows what the future holds!!

[@topperharley6731]

Smuggling peanuts ...... haha never herd that one before 🤣🤣🤣

[@mikecain565]

Love the comment to Claire about smuggling peanuts ! Tom seems a great lad to work with, And dare i suggest a better fit than Franco, ( just my impressions folks, ) Better luck for Brands this weekend,

[@paulb2378]

Why does the shaft seal keep failing Dave? Seems odd that it would recur so often.

[@obsession_engineering]

Different engine this time! We're not sure yet why they fail, but I do know we're not the only ones with the issue

[@GT380man]

@@obsession_engineeringBound to be a different problem than when rebuilding 50 year old clunkers, but on our message board, the classic mistake gents make is not protecting seals when sliding them onto a splined shaft. In other words, I’m aware of multiple failures due to unintentional seal damage during installation. The avoidance tactic is a film of soft plastic like cling film on the end of the spline while sliding the new seal on. If utter nonsense, ignore. Properly made seals should not fail in service.

[@paulb2378]

@@GT380man prolapsing of the seal during installation is possible, as can happen with two stroke crank seals. Though i would think it more likely it’s a manufacturer part/tolerance defect. Rare, but these things do happen. Impossible to say without being in possession of all the facts.

[@paulb2378]

@@obsession_engineering Really enjoying the channel, fantastic insight. Thanks

[@firestorm755]

Would a longer swingarm help drive and grip? I've no idea if it's allowed though. At this level of racing solving problems becomes incredibly hard. As always a great vid, thank you👍

[@obsession_engineering]

Longer arm would reduce grip, as it moves the wheel further away from CoG

[@firestorm755]

@@obsession_engineering ah, no don't do that. Do you know I always thought that's why the R1 had a long arm. I stand corrected. I'll go sit in the corner now

[@flatbrokefrank6482]

Isn't life complicated!

[@stevenmarry212]

At what stage will it be relevant to set the bike up to X spec and let the rider get used to it, instead of fiddling or trying to engineer the way around a problem they may resolve themselves? That bike is like triggers broom, every time it comes in it goes out a different bike sure no man could get the hang of that

[@stewartgunter9878]

longer top out spring in shock

[@obsession_engineering]

We spoke to Ohlins, they'd tried that with another team without success

[@stewartgunter9878]

@@obsession_engineering Thats interesting....On a Honda?

[@embardio.londias]

Who thought that a super stiff rear and super soft front suspension was a good idea?

[@robacomb2781]

Too many changes of too many parts just impossible to know what direction to go in , should have gone out on the stocker

[@brianallan1036]

Boris is back.

[@JustBadly]

Since you are the children of the BSB paddock, do you have to mount a camera on the race bike?

[@obsession_engineering]

Unfortunately not, I'd love some onboards

[@cbr1928]

psst mapping b instead off mapping 8 😆

[@cbr1928]

mapping A to be fair hehe