HIGH MAINTENANCE

Aside from changing tyres and clicking suspension, we asked Chris about what else goes into maintaining a British Superbike.

“The bikes get taken back to the workshop and completely flattened. Not one nut and bolt is left unturned. It all gets washed, cleaned, dried and put back together, because when you’re stripping, that’s when you’re finding little cracks and stretched bolts – especially here at Cadwell with the jump.

“The forks come apart every weekend and the damping is changed, and we’ve got two shocks for each rider as we’ve always got something new to try in a session: damping settings, top-outs, spring combinations.

“When the motor is refreshed, everything is changed apart from the crank and camshafts. The crank will do a season, easily. The shells, valves, pistons and gaskets – everything is new and refreshed. We run the bikes in with a mineral oil and use a synthetic oil to stop the bores glazing. The clutch is out four or five times a weekend depending on how many starts we do,but we put new clutch plates in after every start.

“The brakes all depend on the circuit. With SBS as a sponsor, we do fire them in regularly. When they’ve got wet, they lose a bit of initial bite, so a new set goes in after every wet session. Michael is very hard on the rear brake, so probably uses a couple of sets every meeting, whereas James reckons he’s hard but never touches it.

“Air filters just get a real good clean. And with the control fuel, after every single session, the fuel pump comes out and it’sits cleaned and put back together, as it gets full of shit.”