dadof2

The simple fact is that on average Bou and Raga are quite a step up from the rest, had Bou not had his pre season injury he may well have had the title tied up by now. The 3 laps of 12 sections format does not help, there is too little variety in obstacle type and severity. Suppose the format was 2 laps of 20 sections, 8 "easy sections", 6 medium and 6 hard. The sections could be eased considerably if 5 for a stop was properly applied, leniency in marking is leading to increasing section severity, disheartening for the lower ability riders. A few years ago I was talking to a pre stop era SSDT winner and he forecast the increasing incidence of knee injuries due to the hop and stop technique and just look at how many rider are or are have had their careers blighted by knee injury.

I have never ridden a 280 gasser but the old JTR 330s were pretty snappy and perhaps over powerful for the average rider. I often wonder how many riders ride a bike that is really too powerful. Loss of grip is perhaps the most frequent way of loosing marks, the more powerful the bike the harder you have to work to ride it to get a good result. It is pretty obvious when marks are lost due to lack of power. It is much less obvious the marks saved by less power and less rider fatigue. I suspect that 90% of riders would be better on softly tuned 200s or 250s.

See http://www.trialscentral.com/forums/topic/51776-2006-250-pro-rear-wheel/

If you don't mind risking having to buy a new carb slide try increasing the cut away your present one by about 0.4 to 0.5mm. It only takes a few minutes with a file. Do it by increasing the angle of the cut away, don't move the point at which the cut away meets the base of the slide.

I never had a 349 but I had a couple of 348s and plenty of experience of 200s. All were excellent starters even after being parked outside in the bitter 79/79 winter. What 2T oil are you using and what mix ratio?

I really do wish people would stop blaming observing discrepancies on the no stop rules. Some of the observing / scoring that went on under stop permitted was weird to say the least. I can recall events where if you put a foot down whilst stopped you could be awarded anything from a 1, 3 or 5 depending on the observer. I find it very difficult to criticise observers because they are just volunteers doing their best but clearly there is a problem with consistency. I feel that the only answer is to enforce the no stop rule to the letter of the law and award a five for even the slightest momentary stop. Earlier this year I was walking to some sections with an inexperienced observer (who thought I was new to the sport). He asked me if I knew how to observe to which I replied 1 for a dab, 2 for 2 dabs, 2 for 3 or more dabs and 5 for a stop. He then started telling me not to give a 5 for a brief stop, make it easy on the riders to encourage them. I will not go into detail but from then on things were a bit frosty. Clearly someone had given this observer verbal instructions that were contrary to the rules set out on the observing card. To reply to an earlier post, as far as I am aware Bradford Club do not decide who observes at Nord View, I don't know who choses the observers but I know a number of Cumbrian locals who have observed at Nord View previously were asked and declined.

Is spark plug sparking both outside and inside cylinder. Need for high RPM to keep engine running can be a sign of air leak or source coil failing.

Any spare money needs to be used for land purchase and effective political lobbying, not supporting riders. As for the low scores at the French round and the higher scores at other rounds that is just part of trialling, what is needed is a reduction in grip.

Why don't all the critical experts who post on here volunteer to observe at the British (or will it be English?) WTC round next year? Over the years I have seen some pretty diabolical observing, but looking back it just does not matter as its been outweighed by good observing probably a thousand times over. Its only a sport after all, not life and death.

I suspect you would struggle to sell enough to make it economically viable. Round here nobody buys TMX News anymore, most reckon it is no good and prefer mediums like Facebook, Youtube and Trials Central

Rig up a gravity feed fuel supply and see what happens

How do I know comparative spectator numbers when I did not attend Nord view? Feedback from those were there and videos / photos. I hope anyone who attended did enjoy it and wish Jarvis & co all the best, but from a personal point of view I have just seen enough of nord View for the time being at least. Its a pity Shirty did not expand further on MIchael Brown's disillusionment. I know some will contradict me when i say the sport has gone down a dead end with its lightweight fragile bikes and sections that verge on dangerous stunt riding but that is what the evidence suggests. How about a ban on minders and any outside assistance?

In the UK there is legislation that allows for road closure for none motorised events such as the TDF. There is presently no such legislation for motorised events, but it looks like this will change in the next few years. Same discussion took place after Nordview last year - time for a change of venue but nowhere totally suitable to go.

After reading this I am pretty glad I did not waste my time and money attending Nord view. The crowd at a local evening hillclimb (Aysgarth / Bambridge AMCA) was at least as big as Nord View. I have observed quite a few trials over the past few months including a national championship round. This means I must have given several thousand scores. Only twice has my scoring been questioned and neither of those were whether it was a stop or not. I know of several other observers who have had similar positive experiences, however none of them will observe at WTC because of the antics of the riders, minders and the crowd. I agree with Woody that the problem was just as bad under stop permitted. My view of WTC in now pretty well "sod it" I can't be bothered with this pointless rule bending circus.

Yamaha engine parts are now very very expensive, over £500 for a clutch side case for example so if the bike is rough it could be very expensive to put right. I know of an SY 250 being scrapped recently because of the cost of parts, it would have been cheaper to buy a good 315R

Electrolytic and galvanic corrosion

If you find a welder get them to welds some bits of 1/4 inch plate in then drill and tap them M5. Fix with loctited domed socket head screws. This makes a sound job and makes future repacking easier.

Agree leaking crank seal could give those symptoms but why do you suggest replacing only primary drive side seal (well lubricated) and not the ignition side seal which is only lubed by the 2T oil? I nearly always find air ingress problems are caused by ignition side seal.

http://geocel.co.uk/catalogue/single-product/sealants/all-weather-roofing/trade-mate-lead-and-gutter-seal See above link - this is the stuff I used most recently on a 07 Beta rear wheel. Has been in since about February and the tyre pressure has not dropped at all. Make sure you have no loose spokes.

Fit a bolt in valve, or use the one from your old rim band with an O ring fitted. Seal the valve in the rim with Dow Corning lead and gutter seal (leadmate). Apply a coat of leadmate 2 to 3mm thick all round the rim well to seal all the spokes. When the leadmate is dry wrap on a couple of layers of PVC insulating tape. This prevents the leadmate being damaged when fitting the tyre. Make sure you have a hole through the sealant and tape (2 to 3 mm diameter) aligned with the hole in the valve. Sikaflex windscreen bonding sealant can also be used. Do not use silicone containing acetoxy / acetic acid or bad corrosion will occur.

I would be inclined to agree with lineaway regarding trials tyres. Pirelli Sandcross and some Dunlop road bike tyres can develop bad cracks after being left soft just over winter, but i have also see tyres including Dunlops still fine after well over 20 years in the same storage conditions.

The "complain to Koch" was intended as a bit of a Joke. But Their headquarters are in Wichita and they do have a fair bit to do with the oil / gas / ethanol industries and refining. http://www.holden.co.uk/displayproducts.asp?sg=3&agCode=0180 Shows the sort of stuff you can get in the UK and they do work in 1870s and 80s MX engines. TEL(Tetra Ethyl Lead) additive is probably getting hard to get hold of these days for health reasons. Retarding timing and lowering compression should work but will reduce power, I would try as copemech suggests, richening the mixture initially.

Get some octane booster additive by mail order. Quite a lot of companies supply it. Complain to Koch industries in Wichita, they have quite a bit to do with fuel refining.

A bit late for my post since you have now replaced the bearing but here goes anyway. I have seen quite a few bearings in a similar state to yours, and sometimes even nearly completely seized due to lack of frequent greasing or over zealous use of pressure washer. Quite often there is no need to replace them, just a good scrub with 2 stroke mix and a tooth brush, dry and repack with grease. Repeat this a couple of times at a few hours riding intervals and 90% of the time the bearings wear the rust off and work fine.

If you have dirt in fuel or carb it could partially block jets causing bike to run weak / lean which would cause overheating. Retarded ignition timing (worn points heel) will also cause overheating. Smoke will just be old oil / carbon being evaporated out of exhaust due to extra heat