steve_earle

I'll second that Cope, I have a garage full of Snap Off gear and still used to go straight for the trusty old adjustable. I'm now cured of this as I have brought a nice anodised blue nut, the csp one the same size as the plug spanner, so I now put tape round the nut so I don't mark it and use a good 6 sided socket. Now I have to get in the habbit of using a plug spanner for the plug now instead of a pair of grips!! Back to the issue of people with smart a r s e d answers, Just ignore them, toetoe. I must admit sometimes I can't help taking the mick a bit but it's only a bit of funny banter and I always follow it up with some usefull input when I can.

Just take the tank to an automotive paint supplier, The ones the bodyshops use and they can match it and make you a rattle can. Please bear in mind that plastics need special etch primers if you rub back to the plastic. You best bet is getting in touch with some guys that do the mobile scuff repairs on cars as they are the best to do spot repairs and blend new paint to old etc. Or just get a sticker to cover it. My gut feeling, being in the buisness myself is that if you have to ask how to do it chances are you will make a hash of it. No offence on your skills and I take my hat of to people who are determined to have a go and take on a challenge but if you mess it up you will have to do the whole tank and source hard to get stickers.

Remember, If the spring is broken make sure you fish out all the broken parts before putting back together. Compare the broken bits to the new one to make sure you have got it all. Seen quite a few posts from people who have done this changing kick start and gear lever springs. Very Important so put a post it note on the bike to remind you!!! Good Luck.

Take the carb off again and re clean. You need to remove the mixture screw to properly clean the pilot circuit. Blast through with carb cleaner and blow through with an air line. If you don't have compressed air then take a short piece of fuel breather pipe and insert one end in your foot pump and hold the other piece over the parts of the carb you need to clear then get busy with your foot. It sounds like you have a carb blockage in the pilot circuit, It's easily caused by only half cleaning a carb and pushing dirt back through the system. Make sure you remove the choke plunger and give the circuit a good clean out as a blockage here will affect the bike even after it is warm and the choke is turned off. Secondly make sure you have re assembled the carb properly, even the experienced ones have been known to leave the pilot jet in a pot!

Nice looking bike so far. A cracked piston and bent con rod, Did It sucked in some water at high revs. Check the alloy spacers either side of the small end bearing for cracks. The old Jcm I rode in the 90's had one break and make a mess of the piston skirt. Be sure to post some pics of yours on here when Its finished. My Jcm Has seen better days with a bent swingarm and usual cracks in the frame but it has a quiet sounding engine and is complete minus one third of the rear mudguard. Im going to restore mine to ride for a bit of nostalga as I rode one very well in my youth years. I'll get some pics of mine up when I have made some progress on it.

The iridium plugs can stand higer temps which is good on high performance high reving bikes. On a trials bike, although they will not hurt it, are not much benefit vs cost. Infact a standard correct grade plug may be less affected by fouling due to more contact area of the electrodes so if a section fouls the spark can jump to a clean spot. I run an irriduim plug in my sons gas gas 50 and it will last over a year as it is a bit of a rev machine, However in the sherco I can run it richer without fowling issues as soon as I went back to the standard ngk plugs. Just look at what the factory bikes are running and go figure what is best. Also make sure your running a 0.6 to 0.7mm gap.

The 2012 on bike has the Hidria ignition with the box mounted in a different place so not an issue. Mine is running a factory version of the Leonelli cdi in the same place and it's the same size as the standard 2011 one. It was the same when I had an old 2011 airbox and inlet fitted also. My frame was done yellow after I repaired the cracks and reinforced it. It's 2011/2012 spec, a factory Bitsa so to speak.

Good idea, but on mine the choke button is ground flat on one side and it clears perfect or am I missing something?

Agreed, an additional filter isn't a must with a delorto on your age of bike, Just make sure your tank is clean. Your carb should be cleaned on a regular basis so the screen filter should be included with every clean. The newer bikes with the rear tank is a different story as they fill up with crud very easily, I run 2 filters on mine and havent changed them for a year, The tank gets flushed out every so often and it's always full of cr4p. It's more important to clean your carb and airbox after every muddy trial, People get too paranoid about fuel filters, The main problems are caused by crud and water entering through the inlet or letting the bike sit for weeks without draining the fuel. I clean my carb before every ride and have noticed since using Putoline oil that it seperates to gold sludge in the carb bowl after standing for 2 weeks, Never had this with shell of Ipone oils.

They started making the 2011 model in 2010 and the same for other years so hence the frame number. The 2011 had the fuel filler in the middle of the mudguard and the newer type engine with 1 less water hose. Check some pics of your engine with others as it's easy to change the colour and stickers to make a bike appear newer. Chances are yours is a 2011 and you have nothing to worry about.

Oh no you don't have the adjustable back wheel do you? Only kidding mate, They all are, How else doy you tension the chain? Unless you refering to some other type of adjustment that I can't picture in my head at the moment. Remember theres no silly questions just silly answers or people who don't answer because they think it's a silly question!!!

It should be grey, If the bike runs ok don't get paranoid about it. If It has problems it could be that its been siliconed up instead of fitting new o rings, It could be the black you are describing at the joint!

They do run hot with a high comp head, I'm going to have to fit the uprated water pump to mine when the weather heats up.

One more thing, check it's not overheating, Sherco's hate being hot at the best of times and a failing waterpump or bad impellor will make it run hot. It can get hot quite quickly and that will affect idle and make it seem to run lean, been down that road myself!

Hi, Could be a possible air leak, Check the intake manifold. The connection for the fuel pump vacum tube can leak around the rubber, Superglue will seal it from the inside where it meets the alloy nipple. could be a crank seal, they are less noticable from cold, It could be slightly burning gear oil when it heats up and thins the oil and that will affect idle by leaning the fuel ratio with too much oil. They don't always smoke excessive when the seal 1st starts to go. Ignition side crank seal will cause problems too. Plugs will also foul when riding around at low revs also. When you blip the throttle does it return to idle quickly or take a while to die down. If it seems to hang then it is very likely you have an air leak on the manifold or the flywheel side. I dont want to scare you but a stator starting to fail will give similar symptoms The triggers go down and give a intermitent signal at low revs, I had to fix mine about 6 months ago, Costs about 2 quid for the hall sensors if you are good with a soldering iron. Do a search for air leak on the forum, Sherco's around that year are prone for it, best to check this as a first point of call. I'm local if you get stuck give me a shout if you need help.

The front pipe will not affect jetting (unless you flatten it on a rock). Is you bike running o.k at the moment?, If so count the number of turns by screwing it in all the way (only so it just touches, dont screw it in hard or you can damage the seat). When you know the number of turns it runs right at you can experiment either way slightly and see if it runs better. Also when stripping and cleaning the carb you have somewhere to start with setting the screw when you put it back in. The delorto carb doesn't usualy go out of tune as long as it's clean, just set and forget. Some people get all paranoid about mixture and jetting, If it works o.k and you have limited knowlege about carbs leave it alone, Ride it and have fun!

If it's a sound bike it's a bargain, wave 850 under his nose and take it home, be quick before someone else does!

If it has built up enough pressure to pop a hose off and the relief valve didn't relese then I would certainly change the valve to be on the safe side. Presuming the hoses were secure in the 1st place. The problem you may have is the the new owner doesn't know too much about bikes and the original cause needs to be determined 1st. You need to know if the fan was working and the waterpump is operating properly. Another cause of head gasket failure especially with a high comp head is reving the nuts out of it can pop the inner o ring but I doubt it will be admitted if that was the cause, If so a cheap fix just half an hour and 2 o rings. I would reccomend the bike is looked at by someone who knows exactly what they are doing otherwise you will end up keep giving them parts untill they accidently fix it. Good Luck.

Some more from the museum.

Thanks for the info woody, I will email Joel & give the others a call. Found This when scanning the web along with other air cooled mono tests.

The most asked topic on the forum!!! Get your reading glasses on, This is a copy and paste NOT written by me. The lubrication requirements of a 2T trials bike are quite different to those of much more highly strung road race and MX machines! There appears to be a good deal of confusion related to this subject, as well as the selection of appropriate oils and correct fuel-oil mixing ratios, so hopefully this page will make things a little more clear, and reduce the amount of widespread myth-information relating to 2T lubrication for Trials!In regard to older machinery manufactured when the relatively basic 2T oils then available effectively dictated rather oily fuel-oil mixtures, riders need to be aware of the fact that modern synthetic oils are a great deal more effective than those used in the 70's and 80's. In real terms this means that a modern fully synthetic oil mixed at 80:1 will provide far better lubrication performance and engine protection than old style oils mixed at 40:1! In testing modern synthetic oils have been run at ratios of up to 160:1, with no problems, which is a measure of just how very effective they are! On all 2T motors a relatively large proportion of the intake charge of fuel/air finds it way out of the exhaust port, not having been burned in the combustion process. This is the main reason selection of an appropriate fuel/oil ratio is important, as very oily unburnt fuel tends to clog things up much faster than fuel with less oil added. Essentially low heat/rpm Trials motors do not run hot enough to need the old style fuel-oil mixing ratios, when modern synthetic oils are being used. Using overly large amounts of oil is not likely to cause damage, but will slow the combustion process, reduce EGT (exhaust gas temperature), and clog absorption type exhausts much more quickly. The main reason road race and MX bikes require more oil, is to help with dissipating the far higher levels of heat generated by these motors. The main effect of using overly large amounts of oil for Trials is that motors will be noticeably less responsive than those running on a more appropriate fuel/oil mix ratio. This lack of responsiveness will become more evident over a period of time as exhaust ducts become clogged with carbon and residues of oil not burnt in the combustion process. If you choose to use old style fuel-oil ratios, then its best to use a mineral or semi-synthetic oil, as these will burn more readily than fully synthetic lubricants, and this will reduce the effects of clogging. In terms of mix ratios using fully synthetic oils, 80:1 is fine for modern water-cooled trials machines, and taking into account the slightly higher running temperatures of air cooled motors 70:1 for these bikes. However for Trials applications we would strongly recommend the use of a fully synthetic race type 2T oil such as Castrol XR77, which is specifically designed for competition use. We would advise seeking advice from oil producers on mix ratios, if you chose to use low smoke road type lubricants, some of which are of very low viscosity due to the amount of kerosene added. Use of 2T lubricants containing vegetable oils is not advisable for Trials machines, as while castor based vegetable products perform very well in high rpm/heat race engines, they are simply not required for Trials machines. Use of such oils can lead to problems with gumming up internal parts, fuel oil separation, as well as not providing the type of corrosion protection afforded by a good synthetic lubricant. Oils made using synthetic base with a small proportion of vegetable oil (such as Castrol 747) are more appropriate, but are better suited for use with leaded race fuels. A common fallacy relating to 2T lubrication is that machines with “steel” cylinder liners, require far more oil than those with Nikasil type cylinders. In point of fact the material a cylinder is made from has nothing to do with the amount or the type of oil required. However if a cylinder has been poorly finished, bore clearance is not correct, or low quality pattern pistons are being used, then using excessive amounts of oil may possibly help to prevent engine damage. Finally in regard to the use of current alcohol enhanced unleaded fuels, it is very difficult to get any real idea of how a motor is running by recourse to checking the spark plug colour. This means that it's only too easy to have problems when attempting to set up carburetion (especially the main jet size). Working in conjunction with Honda HRC, Castrol have managed to overcome these difficulties through the introduction of XR77, which is specially formulated to work with modern unleaded fuels, and will also provide accurate plug colour readings.

As others have covered here, Make sure carb is clean and the needle is on the right clip position and installed correctly, Check ignition timing. Normally a bike that is weak off the bottom then takes off is a sign of a lean condition. Could also be an air leak, This would make the revs slower to drop down to idle and make the bike slow to initially pick up from idle then of sort of make the bike want to run away when reved. Have you ridden another 250 to compare it with? Does yours have a flywheel weight?, Could be that your mates are used to a bigger engined bike.

I have searched the forum but all posts relating to parts are years old, I have found Joel's site but it's in French. Before I embarass myself with emailing them, does anyone know if they reply in English. I'm mainly trying to track down a rear mudguard and perhaps a set of rings. I only have half of the Mudguard as it has been trimmed short but I could re build the missing part then prep it and take a mould so I can replicate some in grp but I would rather have a good plastic one also. I have googled till my fingeres are sore, I did find them on a french site but they are no longer in stock but they do have usefull other Jcm parts. Here's the link if it helps anyone else out: http://translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl=en&sl=fr&u=http://www.bmz.fr/boutique/achat/cat-pieces-jcm-1727.html&prev=/search%3Fq%3Djcm%2B240%2Btrial%26start%3D10%26sa%3DN%26biw%3D1280%26bih%3D603 Also found this pic of engine if anyone finds it usefull: The good old Jcm is in a sorry state but it was cheap and complete so I'm going to have to get my finger out if I want to ride it this year.

Youv'e got a point Marky Boy, Fair play to Vertigo at having a go. To be honest all modern bikes pretty much the same in standard form, It's the buyers perspective that sells bikes. A lot is down to advertising, marketing and who is winning on them. Some People buy 4rt's because they see what Bou can do on one but in reality Bou's bike is a space age exotic 5 million yen bike that only shares the same stickers as a repsol production one. In reality the 4 rt is a good solid heavy clubman bike. Same goes for all the other brands when people are buying new, I rode some of the new ones at the test day this year and they are much the same as the last 2 years, The only bike that had the fueling sorted was the gas gas racing with sherco suprisingly a close second but not perfect. The ossa needed a re map and the jotagas 300 is spoiled by a budget delorto. If Vertigo can match the ride of a gas gas with a light, proper running bike with decent components and a good solid company background as 5 and a half grand is not a gamble for us poor folk then I would be interested.

Hi mate, Pads may not be to blame just yet then. I would do a complete strip and thoroughly clean the master cylinder and the caliper. It could be crap or corrosion under the caliper seals or a knackered master cylinder seal. Has the brake always been spongy or only after the fluid change? I think the formulas had an update on the push rod pivots, Give Splat Shop a call.