dadof2

Nice job, What do you think the total cost will be? Do you do the TIG welding yourself? Is it electronic ignition or points, If its points its well worth checking for camshaft wear as this varies the points gap / timing and can cause a difficult to diagnose misfire. Cheers

In other posts / forums various comments about lack of entries (typically 60% of what they used to be), Fujinamis Honda problems causing a 5 and lack of bike sales. We are in a recession and disposable income for many is going to decline for some time, petroleum prices are going to rise (affecting rubber and plastics as well as gasoline). Against this background is restricting bike development to reduce costs a good idea? Following suggestions:- Ban titanium Ban chrome molybdenum - replace with CDS Ban magnesium - any alloy parts to be readily weldable grade of aluminium Clutch to be cable operated Brakes to be cable operated and single "piston" callipers only Brake discs to be plain - no drilling or corrugation Rear sprocket plain - drilling for bolt holes only Ban fuel injection Ban complex ignition systems - lawmower type only - linked to this the cooling fan would be water impeller driven and engine temp controlled by waxstat. Put maximum price controls on items, say £15 for a mudguard and £40 for a Tyre. Increase minimum weight limit to say 70 / 75 Kgs I reckon that lot would knock £1000 to £1500 of a new bike, make it more reliable and cheaper to run without detracting from the enjoyment of the sport. Cheers

Entries in Cumbria, N Yorks and Co Durham seem to be holding up well. Alan Trophy was a bit disappointing though at only 58. This used to be full to the 120 limit. Cheers

Quite enjoyed the programme despite some of the "factual" content about trials bikes not being accurate. cheers

Set the screw 1.5 to 1.75 turns out. Warm the bike up well then set a slightly fast tick over this the slide stop screw. if any adjustment of the air screw slows the engine it is already correct. If adjusting the screw increases tickover adjust it to the fastest, if necessary unscrewing the slide stop so it is not too fast. If with tickover fastest the screw is between 1 and 2.5 turns out jetting is near enough. At low speed these bikes run best with a thick oil like Silkoline classic 2T sae 40 at 30:1. These air cooled engines have quite a bit of piston clearance and a thick oil reduces blowby which at low revs can contaminate the fresh mixture in the crankcase and inlet tract making a steady idle virtually impossible to achieve. Persevere and these engines can be made to run really smoothly and pick up cleanly from near zero revs. Cheers

Very difficult to diagnose over the internet but sounds like a mix of bearing wear and piston clearance to me. Hopefully your dealer will sort it. An easy check is to take your exhaust off, put your finger in the exhaust port and try rocking the piston. With piston just below TDC try putting a 0.0015" feeler gauge between the piston and the bore above and below exhaust port. If it slips in easily there is excess clearance between piston and bore. What oil are you using and at what mix ratio? Many synthetics only have a viscosity of only 5 to 8 cSt when hot and a very thin oil film. Try something like Castrol A747 at 30 :1 that has a viscosity in excess of 20 cSt when hot, This may quieten it. I would not run the bike much until you know what the fault is. It may be the bore has a lip at the top and the new upper ring is striking it. Cheers

What was I trying to say? Firstly I hope some of the errant riders will read the post and moderate their behaviour. Secondly I wondered if there were others who had seen what I had seen and maybe would comment. I know of a number of observers who have become reluctant to observe due to rider abuse and thought air would air the issue. Regarding the 4 occasions when I would have given a different mark:- A rider moved back twice about 6 inches with a foot down and was given a 1. The observer had a poor view from some distance directly behind. Others who had same view as me agreed it was a 5. The observer was awarding 5s for a similar or less backward movement when they happened where he had a good view. 2 other cases were where the riders hit steps, bounced (not intentionally) sideways or sort of upwards and may or may not stopped. I would have given a 0 and a 1, The observer gave 5s. I had a slightly better view than the observer but not much. The 4th case was where the rider crested a step and both feet came off the footrests and the rider was sat on the saddle. I had a slightly more distant view than the observer but from the same angle. I would have given a 3 as I felt both feet were down and dragged. The observer (at least initially) gave a 2. As I said previously it is what the observer sees that counts. I have ridden at Richmond trials for near on 40 years and never had cause to disagree with the scores given to me. Cheers

I thought I would give it a day or two to see if anyone else posted on this. Firstly I would like to make it clear that in NO WAY is this post intended as a criticism of observers. During the day I probably saw about 300 rides through sections. On 4 of those occasions I would have awarded different marks to those given by the observer and had my marks counted there would have been a change of order within the top 5. 4/300 is 1.3% ie even if I was right on those 4 occasions the observer(s) were right 98.7% of the time - not bad for UNPAID VOLUNTEERS. Despite this high level of accuracy I saw 4 instances (not the same 4 as above) of observers being sworn at (F and B words) when the rider or their "minder" did not agree with the score given. Even if the observer had not seen exactly what the rider did there is no way they should be spoken to in that manner and the offenders should be ashamed of themselves. Remember this is primarily a sport for fun (even at BTC level) run almost exclusively by unpaid volunteers. A riders mark is what the OBSERVER SEES, Perhaps the unhappy riders will be willing to pay £1000 pound entry fees then all the sections can be videoed, goal line technology employed and the result announced several days later after a review of the tapes. On a more positive note it was good to see that riders were adapting to no stop and were able to hop sideways whist maintaining forward motion. No stop certainly won't put me off Nord Vue. As was noted on the WTC endurocross post the present marking system does not differentiate between a rider that makes a complete hash of the section and one that only stops for the briefest moment, possibly still feet up. I hesitate to propose a suggestion to alleviate this as no doubt some riders would still push the boundaries. Cheers

Don't just change the oil, flush the gearbox several times by filling with new oil, warming up the engine then draining it. The white stuff is water /oil emulsion and if you park the bike for a few days some of the water will settle out and could ruin your gearbox bearings etc. Cheers

Try this company http://www.poetonaptec.co.uk/ I have had good service off them. Larger gassers can blow a bit of coolant past the seals when subjected to sustained high revs / high load but this usually just blows a bit of water out of the radiator cap rather than drawing it into the cylinder. Cheers

This seems to be a fault on many betas and on quite a number of bikes which have cold start enrichment systems rather than chokes. Check your carb for seal condition on the enrichment system. At this time you will be able to identify the air inlet passage for the cold start. Then try reducing the diameter of this air inlet with a piece of pvc tubing or similar. Another trick is to get a friend to block / partially the exhaust until you turn off the cold start enrichment. large capacity (500 cc) 2 stroke motocrossers could be a pig to start cold then they revved too much. A fix was to make a removable reducer for the exhaust tail pipe outlet. in addition to preventing over revving of a cold engine this increased back pressure in the exhaust, increased pressure in the cylinder and made the engine fire up easier. cheers

I would agree with small end or piston is likely problem but don't rule out a loose part in water pump or kickstart mechanism either. Cheers

Following comment is based on my experience in northern England but I think getting more bums on seats is also behind ACU and FIM move towards no stop. modern bikes are too trials orientated, low (effectively useless), seats, small tanks, less than ideal reliability. Back in the 1970s and early 80s bikes were more versatile and could be used for local commuting, shepherding and general transport especially on hill farms. This meant many farmers and farm lads had them. It was quite easy for them to have a go in a trial. This ease of access and farmers familiarity with trials bikes was a big plus when looking for land for trials. Cheers

See if you can find someone with an M5 helicoil or V coil kit who can repair it for youhttp://www.engineering-supplies.com/cat/88/helicoil-v-coil-wire-inserts-taps-gauges-/ Alternatively if you can find someone good with a lathe they can make you a say M5.3 screw. Cheers

Remember trials started out as no stop - a test of the rider and machines ability to ascend a gradient. As reliability improved more emphasis was placed on keeping feet up. Then time trials where the emphasis was on speed split off and became Enduro. Sometime in the late 1970s or 1980s continental observers began to not award a 5 for stopping or reversing and stopping became accepted. It is a pity this form of stop permitted riding was allowed to hijack traditional no stop trials. Stop and hop should have been a separate discipline just as Enduro had become. Cheers

I remember I once had a five in a tight hop turn many years ago when stopping was just being allowed. I uttered the words "****ty death" in frustration. Not only did the observer give me a 5 (quite correctly) he also reprimanded me for using bad language in a family sport! Cheers

The scooter oil will be fine. It will be less viscous than power 1 as scooter oil is pre diluted so it is fluid enough to be pumped through the oil pump on scooters. This pre dilution may be why Castrol suggest 50:1 rather than 66:1. Mixing ratios often causes quite a bit of disagreement. The fact is no mix ratio is ideal for all occasions. (that is one reason a pumped system Is preferred on road bikes). If all you do is potter about with the odd 2 second burst of revs up a climb then 80:1 may be OK. If you are going to thrash your bike round the Scott with a clogged radiator 25:1 is wiser. I would never go leaner (less oil) than either the bike manufacturers or oil manufacturers recommendation, whichever is the richer. Cheers

There is a lot of misunderstanding about ATF. As John Stoodley points out there are some you can use and some you should not. Putting it simply there is the old fashioned Dexron II, which is basically a SAE 10 monograde mineral oil with antifoaming additives so it works in the hydraulics that actuate gear changes in automatic car gearboxes. Next is Dexron III which has some multigrade properties but is still approximately SAE 10. It has higher film strength and gives better fuel consumption than Dexron II. The "newest" ATF is synthetic and designed for sealed for life automatic gearboxes. It is usually designated LT followed by about a 5 digit number. Car autoboxes are significantly different to trials bike gearboxes and are cushioned by fluid flywheels, jurid couplings, regulated clutch engagement etc. Why put ATF which is designed for such application in your trials bike gearbox? Surely far better to use Mobil 10W-40 which is specially formulated for the job. If you fancy something cheaper but still better than ATF try universal tractor oil which is designed for gears and wet clutches. Cheers

I agree with billyT. Mobil 1 is very good stuff, either the 10w-40 or the 0w-40. In my opinion ATF is just too thin when hot to provide smooth gearbox action. Gearbox failure is nearly always bearing wear caused by dirt in the oil or impact damage caused by hitting lever on rocks or poor shifting. I have seen gearbox failures by galling where steel cogs run on steel shafts and ATF has been used rather than the manufacturers recommendation of 10w-40 or light (SAE 75) gear oil. Cheers

#4 - not completely accurate, plenty of no stop trials have good entries and plenty of observers. Observing no stop does have issues at present which can put some off, The issue is riders who seem to think stopping and moving the bike back is not a stop then argue with the observer. I will miss seeing the top riders stop and hop at Nord View in a few weeks time, but I also know many riders who felt the sport at club / national level where they ride was spoiled by stop and hop. It would be very interesting if a few club secretaries were to have a verbal pole at signing on, asking riders if they prefer stop or no stop and publishing / posting the outcome. Perhaps the ACU should have an internet poll of all licence holders. Cheers

"price elasticity of demand" (look it up in an economics textbook) is the key but it needs to cover all aspects of the sport and be rigidly governed by rules. It is no good Yamaha say bringing out a good simple bike for £2500 only to have Beta bring out one that is marginally more competitive for £2600. Cheers

Try BG44K or Redline motorcycle fuel system cleaner. Use of the better grade petrol such as BP ultimate or Shell V power will help reduce (usually totally eliminate) carb deposits and reduce pinking. Cheers

Far better have someone do the crank who has done plenty before. To do it properly you need to check that the flywheels and bearing journals and shafts are running true with a DTI after assembly. If its only a fraction out your engine will be down on power, vibrate and quickly wear out the main and possibly other bearings. I think most engine tuners press big ends for between £30 and £60. Cheers

Following applies to UK Firstly - does the sport need to be more popular. If too many get involved there will be more pressure on land and ileagal practicing will increase. My view is that the sport should be fun for those that do want to do it. What is good or desireable in trials is a very subjective topic - following just my views. 1) Bikes are too expensive, unreliable and come with inbuilt faults (as leaking carbs in earlier posts) 2) Parts are too expensive 3) Tyres are too expensive and have too much grip rsulting in dangerous sections. Far better if there was a maximum tyre price of £35 (rear). A good quality 225/65 R16 for my car costs only about £50 4) Bikes are too light resulting in development of special riding techniques that many don't have time to practice and making bikes more vulnerable to crash damage and reliability issues. 5) Entry fees are too high. 6) Should club riders be using the same (roughly) equipment as those at the top of the sport - imagine the results on entry numbers at car club racing if the expectation was to run F1s instead of Formla Fords. Cheers

Similar topic but no for Bulto. In general ATF is too light for trial bike hearboxes - I know people use it but that does not mean it is right. ATF is about SAE 10 Most gerboxes need a SAE 20 or 40 when hot so use something like 10w40 or 20w-40 or a proper gear oil as recommended by Putoline. Cheers