rhaines

I am looking at buying a bike rack for the car and wanted to find out who make them, which ones are the best made etc. The only one I have seen is the dave cooper one but im sure there must be more companies make them.I preferably want one that is coated with something so it doesnt rust so let me know what experiences you have had. Thanks rich

Good analagy ham2, I think most of the trials riders are very opinionated(though not as much as jez clarkson on top gear) and biased towards the bikes they ride so the best advice is to disregard what people tell you, try them all and go with what you feel comfortable with. There is in my mind, no such thing as a bad manufacture of trials bike, just careless owners!!

hi sherco 125 What do you mean by not strong? I know raga is like a spelk but he can throw the bike around more than most and Ive never seen him break one yet!

I've had no problems with either of my gasgas pro's with reliability or build quality. It depends on what you want to do with it and how well you look after it. The gasgas, sherco and scorpa frames are all steel and will all rust if you scape the coating off then leave it untreated so if you dont want that to worry about buy a beta or a 4rt(alloy frame). If you keep on top of it they are fine, I just make sure after washing mine I give it a spraying of wd40 to stop the rust. The bikes are much of a muchness in the respect that they ALL without exception have their bad points, and my opinion is that the reliablity is directly affected by how much maintenance you do on the bike to keep it running sweet. The bikes take a lot of punishment and I find a lot of people just ride them until somthing breaks then whine saying it is unreliable, rather than doing regular preventative checks to stop things happening in the first place (remember-at the end of the day a worn bearing is cheaper to replace than rebuilding an engine after it self destructs after the bearing fails at full chat!!!). It is not hard or time consuming to do a complete inspection/ service every 6 months or so to check hard to get at items like the engine internals, suspension linkages etc,and to give you an idea I can do a knickers off stripdown on my gasgaspro nearly to the bare frame in about 1-1.5hrs. I hope this helps. rich

send a message to daggs888 and tell him rich sent you. He has just bought a 4rt so I know he has a top yoke with riser spacers he will sell for a sherco so all you have to buy is the bars and clamps.

Hi gasgasssser, Yes, this is the bike that was on ebay. It is in brilliant condition apart from a few scratches here and there, it looks like it has been only ridden on rock because it is spotless. The only things I have done to it is intalled a new yahoo switch for the ignition mapping that was missing and replaced the front mudguard which had a quite deep gauge in it from some rockery so it looks like a new bike now!! very happy with it, even more since I read on the gasgas (sp) website that there is not going to be a raga replica this year. There is one just come onto ebay if you still want one raga replica

I assume they just mean the raggy edges from the castings but not 100%.I looked again for the article last night but couldnt find it, but Im sure it was on one of the american sites.

I have read somewhere that the gearbox clunks because of the design of the new four/ six pro gearbox(uses less cogs and still gets six gears). I will try to attach a piccy to this post which shows the inside of the gearbox and there is one on the web somewhere of this photo but with lines on showing how it mixes and matches the cogs to get the six gears. In the article that I read it said the gear changes could be improved by de-burring all the edges of the gear selector drum etc. hope this helps

clickyHere is something to keep you all occupied when you are bored!!

Hi ned1, Ive got my 03 in bits at the moment. It is easy to get apart if you have got a decent tool box. Remove the rear guard and the seat/airbox. Remove the header pipe from exhaust, rear can and then the centre section. Remove back wheel and chain. Take out bolt from top of rear shocker and unclip the rear brake resevoir,remove the bolts holding the rear brake pump in place. Remove the long bolt that goes through the swingarm and rear of engine and the whole swingarm with rear brake system should come away from the bike with the rear shocker still attached. You can then service the rear linkages and clean everything up including all the nooks and crannys at the back of the frame that is prone to rusting where mud and stuff builds up wher it is very hard to jet wash or get your hand in to clean normally. You can also clean and tighten the rear brake lever and bolt while the swingarm is off as it is a pain in the a*** to get to normally. I did this the other day and it took me about an hour to get it apart(ive done it a few times now though so it may take a bit longer). Have fun.....

I just use silkolene racing grease, the red stuff. bought it from bvm and seems to do the job fine.

Thanks for the info jools. Bit pricey at

Hi urbaxer, If it a tubeless tyre have look at this link. You should find all you need on there. looky

Yes, 03 was making a kind of ticking noise as the spring fingers were rattling in and out as the clutch revolved and the raga was making a grumbling noise which sounded like a knackered bearing. On the tranny oil subject use dexron 3 grade atf fluid. You can get it from halford as a last resort but far cheaper bought from a motor factors....you being a student and all.

I agree with JTT. Make sure are attentive to the swingarm assembley. when I got my 03 pro the previous owner had not serviced it and I had to remove the bolts in the dogbones with an angle grinder and hammer out the bearings.

Who makes the carbon light and how much do they cost. does it come complete or do you have to cannibalize the standard light for fittings etc

robrob, There are three on ebay at the moment red one, blue one and yellow one.

Magicmat, Both of my bikes did this. I found on the 03 that the clutch piston was not resting against the clutch release arms(springy fingers) so they were rattling around when the clutch was disengaged. I cured it by bleeding the clutch again. The 05 did this too and I found out the cltch bearing plate (pushes the springs)was the wrong way round and the collar was against the roller bearing instead of the flat.

Hi magicmat, happy birthday for the other day and congrats on the new bike, Im sure you will love it. Just a bit more info for you. I have an 03 280 pro and an 05 300 raga and I used to run the mix at 50:1 on the 280. I found that I got a lot of build up of goo in the exhaust system so I run the raga on 75:1 mix and it runs fine with very little build up of oil in the system. I am told it is safe to do it as long as you use good quality oil (I use castrol TTS ) and you dont work the bike hard or do a lot of road work, which you will not as a beginner.Also I would say to you, think about getting a fly wheel weight or head gasket spacer or maybe both if you are just learning as the 280 is the 'liveliest' of the gasgas engines with very snappy power delivery. Good luck on sunday.

Thanks for the info. In the manual it says to use the cr6 plug as standard and cr5 for cold weather(hotter plug.what are your experiences and preferences for uk weather.

Very nice. I like the sherco style anodized wheels. Does anyone know where you can get the lever adjusters and the carbon fibre headlight from in the uk

Thats what it was.Tried 2 different plugs and sparks on both looked the same but one worked and the other didnt( maybe arcing or something) Thanks for the info munster man.

Hi everyone. I desparately need some help before a trip is needed to the dealer.My mate has just bought an 05 4rt and took it for its first outing today. Kicked over first time at the start, rode it fine for about half an hour, stopped for 5 mins for a drink and now it just will not start. We have now been trying for a good few hours to get it going but it does not want to know. I have taken the plug out and it is very slightly wet which I expected with kicking it over for so long without it firing, but it is in good nick with a good spark. I have cleaned and reseated all the connectors I can see but I dont know where to start now as I know nothing about 4 stoke bikes. can anyone help.... Oh, have tried kickin it with just a very small amount of throttle for a couple of mins then the rest of the time no throttle at all... cheers rich

Give the local farmer a backhander and have 2 tons of horse**** dumped on their front lawn!!!!

AND it cost