Best Lap Times & Gearing Chart

All about my 1984 Ex-Tony Head TZ350G,
it's history and modifications/crash repairs.

    
My TZ350G, was an Ex-Tony Head bike from 1986, that I bought from Alan Leighton who raced for a few years in the early 90's before putting into "Storage". It needed a lot of work to make it race ready again, including a full engine rebuild and chassis strip, new tyres, brakes, bodywork, in fact pretty much everything.

Initially it had a tuned Yamaha YPVS engine running TZ crank and rods,
with the Power Valves locked wide open and some racing expansion
pipes it was a hairy ride with a very narrow power band. A dry clutch conversion made maintenance a breeze but did sound awful most of the time. The mono-shock rear suspension was in desperate need of an overhaul but it was something I didn't really appreciate that year, too busy learning new tracks and trying to keep myself in one piece !
Awesome but what a hand full, demanding full commitment 
or it'd just dump you out of the power band and you were going no where !
 

Eventually the crank seized a main bearing and threw me off at Snetterton's Bomb Hole. A nice high speed highside, right over the top and into the straw. So it's time for a new engine and a new paint job !
     
Unfortunately this paint job lasted just long enough to do my first race without a Novice Jacket, Donington in June '97, but next time out at Mallory Park it popped the output shaft seal and dumped me over the highside coming out of the Bus Stop chicane. Ouch !
So yet again it was time for new bodywork and the chance to rethink the paint scheme to match my New TECHNIC racing leathers.
This paint job and engine went on to finish the season in one piece, Whew !
In the end I took enough points to hang onto 3rd overall in the "Forgotten Era" Championships and was over the moon with my first racing season trophy haul.
Lets not forget the LC350 which Russ bought for me, to keep me on track while the TZ was on and off ! This was a standard road bike when Russ bought it for me, we stripped and prepared it together, and I rode it in my last ever Novice race, Oulton Park, May '97. All thanks to Russ's generosity. We sold the bike to recover some of Russ's money at the end of the season and the bike went on racing for a couple more years before I lost track of it.

It never missed a beat, although to be fair it was so easy to ride I would have to be doing something really silly to have crashed it !

My best lap times on the TZ350 in 1997.

Circuit

Long/Short

Gear Ratio

Best Lap

Brands

"Old" Indy

15/38

0'55.90"

Cadwell

Full

14/35

1'47.75"

Combe

n/a

n/a

n/a

Croft

n/a

n/a

n/a

Donington

National

14/35

1'35.86"

I.o.M. TT

n/a

n/a

n/a

Lydden

n/a

n/a

n/a

Mallory

Bus Stop

15/38

0'57.84"

Oulton

Full

14/37

1'57.96"

Pembrey

n/a

n/a

n/a

Silverstone

n/a

n/a

n/a

Snetterton

Full

15/35

1'26.75"

Thruxton

n/a

n/a

n/a

All races done on Classic Dunlop tyres, Era Related.
No wets, No slicks.