jesster

Hi. I'm a Canadian and later this year I will be staying in Stoke-on-Trent for about 3 or 4 weeks. I was wondering of any trials clubs in this area. Thanks

I've seen one of those torches in use before, they are pretty neat and quite comfortable to hold. Much nicer than the traditional torch set. Lloyd, if you have a connection to a welding shop, thats a great place to start. You might have to pay a bit of money for the use of their equipment but most tradespeople are great as far as lending a hand to teach after-hours. And HondaRS, the TIG is restricted for welding the super-light stuff. I'm not sure how exactly, but the machine we use can run very low voltage and amperage, and we use a different torch. I'm not sure if that is all you have to do, maybe a different gas as well? I'll find out.

I've done basically every type of welding, including forge welding, and i'd say that MIG is definitely the way to go. With a 210V MIG welder you can weld up to 1/2 inch fairly easily. To adapt a MIG welder for allu. requires a different gas and a spool attachment or different liner and wire. It takes a bit of work, but ts not too bad. Make sure you learn on mild steel before even thinking about attempting to weld allu. Another way to go is a gas welder. It wont weld yery thick metal (1/8" if you are patient) but it is a starter for TIG welding and its nice to have a torch around. Until you have mastered gas welding and understand properties of metal, dont bother with TIG. By far the hardest way to weld, and it costs far more to operate the machine, as you use up gas, filler rods and tungsen electrodes far faster than you use gas and wire on a MIG welder. And the added difficulty of TIG welding really takes away from the fun of it until you can actually do it wihout sticking your torch to the metal every 5 seconds. My final test for TIG welding is to weld 2 pieces of alluminum foil together, as well as steel, chrome-moly, titanium, tungsten and copper. At the rate im going though, that wont be for a while

I am currently in the transition stage from junior up to intermediate at my club. I basically get to choose when I want to. I am still young enough and inexperienced enough to ride junior, but I could move up to intermediate and do reasonably well. If the kids want to move up, practice a few sections of the next class at the next event. If they do ok, then moving up is probably the way to go, so that they don't lose interest.

You now, M4rt, you sure are quick to criticize Wallace for incorrectly typing words such as "don't" or "I'm." I was unaware that smilies were now considered punctuation in English, or, in fact, in any language. Even my next door neighbour, another recent Glaswegian immigrant, uses the little dots at the end of his sentences.

Thanks guys!! I'll definitley be looking for a pair in the near future. Before I switch over to some non padded gloves, however, I'll definitely switch my grips to some Renthal Mediums. My dad and brother both use these and they are quite a bit more cumfy than my stock Monty grips. And as far as warmth goes, we live in Canada's "Banana Belt" and only get about 1 snowy day a year, so I'm not too concerned with that. It does rain an awful lot here. we had some Brits come stay with us for almost 2 months. I asked if they ever got homsick. They said, "For What? Youve got the rain, and you've got the pubs. All you're missing are our jobs, bad drivers and pollution!!"

What is the difference between trials gloves and motocross gloves? I'd imagine they are lighter and provide better feel. My current gloves are MSR World Tour and are really nice but the seams cause big blisters and callises on my hands. What are some good trials gloves? Thanks!!

Well, you'll all be happy to hear that it didnt take me long to realize that I wouldnt last that long on a bike that was that fast. I did settle down after a while, but when you have that type of power its too easy to twist the throttle and go. So I sold it, but being a stupid child I spent the money on my race car rather than on a new Montesa like I want now. But once racing starts again and I cant ride the bike, I wont feel so bad. Besides, new trials bikes are too finnicky. Give me a TY 350 any day!!

My dad has a 2000 2.9 and he recently blew a set of fork seals. This is the second set of seals in the last year and we only ride 9 months of the year. They are really bad now. If he rides the bike it only takes about 1/2 hour of intermediate type riding to lose all the oil. Anybody else have this problem? Any suggestions to keep it from happening?

Boy, do I ever love living in Canada. Got my first road bike last year when I was 16. It was a 2003 Ninja 600, in full race trim. Mind you, I nearly killed my self more than once (4 times, to be exact) but it was great!! And it was free since I inherited it, so it was a match made in heaven!

I knew that a protruding electrode made a difference, but i didnt realize how much it would make. I guess my bike is just really finnicky. Probably because the jettijng is off. The theory ive always pracitced in my race cars is to get the plug electrodes as close to the piston as possible.

Annealing new lever sprobably wont hurt. If you crash hard and bend an annealed lever, your probably better off than if you break off the normalized lever. You can also have a broken lever welded, but it will "go soft" which is a bit softer than annealed aluminum. For cast alloy, you dont have to anneal it fully. To anneal properly, you have to get the metal to 800 degrees F. so even getting 600 degrees and then quenching with water will soften it a bit. The instructions charlie gave are good ones. Pretty failsafe.

I ran an NGK BPR6ES inmy monty for a long time, then switched to an NGK BR6ES as reccomended. It dint last as long and the bike ran realy poorly when it was cold and it loaded up easier. Went back to the BPR6ES, much nicer. Never tried other brands though. My dads trick for cleaning plugs (hes a mechanic) is a wire wheel, then a bit of carb clean, then heat up the threads with a lighter, but not the electrodes. He says it works about as good as sandblasting with zero risk of getting grit in the motor. Plus a little carb cean will help start the bike!!

Hey, events on the moon. What a great idea! Maybe less gravity will help stop my bad habit of lying on the ground midway through every section.

I've got a 99 315R and ive found that when i get down to about half a tank or so, the engine leans out when i am going down hill. It seems to me that the pickup in the tank is sucking air due to the low fuel level and the angle of the bike. But i shouldnt really have problems until i get really low on fuel. If anyone has any suggestions or has had this problem,let me know. It recently cost me a five at a local event when the bike leaned out and launched me out of the section.