mr neutron

I hope it's okay to dig up this old thread. I didn't feel it was necessary to start a new thread, so thought I would ask what I hope is a relevant question. And I apologize if it is a "thread hijack"..... 0007 said In my barn (concrete floor), when I practice balancing & then hopping, I find it nearly impossible to balance with the front wheel straight. I can balance with the wheels turned (when I'm having a "Good Day" balancing.... ) for a pretty good length of time. But the instant I begin to turn the front wheel straight, I'll normally need to dab before I can even begin compressing the forks. I've had afternoons in my barn where I've literally soaked my shirt with sweat from all my attempts at trying to pick a foot up with the wheel straight, and begin hopping. I've begun to view it as part of my exercise/weight loss program. But I really don't want to allow bad to technique to become so ingrained in my riding that I can't break a bad habit..... Does anyone ever begin hopping with the front wheel turned in either direction, and then turn it straight? And is it normal for someone new at this to have an easier time going in one direction (to my left, or counter clockwise) than the other? The few times I've been able to hop my front wheel, say, 4-5 hops before I dab, I've always rotated to my left...... Thanks for any help y'all may have, Jimmie

Hi, Mowen123! If your '09 is the least bit like my 2010 model, it's reallydifficult to tell the difference anyway..... I've read somewhere that it only makes a difference in the part of the ignition curve in the upper rpm range. Which my bike seldom sees; only when I try to "clean it out" by revving the crap out of it will it ever get revved that high. I definitely don't ride it in the upper rpm zone much..... Jimmie

Be certain you do a "SEARCH" here for an older thread from a year or two ago about "Linkage Bearings", or something along those lines. I'm at work now, and don't have a bunch of time for a long reply. But one of those threads had a number for a very good bearing that has the seals "built in" to the ends. It should work out much, much better than the stock separate seal/bearing setup. That thrread explains it better than I can right now..... Jimmie

I think it involves a lot of really good balance, really good clutch, throttle, & brake coordination/control, and a metric ton of leg effort/weight shifts. And those guys make it look so easy....... Jimmie

Neat video, Lewis! Great editing job, and some nice music to go with it! Jimmie

Who hoo, Ben! How cool is that? Did you get rid of the 125? Any pics? Jimmie

I have the "low compression" insert in the head of my 2010 280 PRO, along with a Hebo flywheel weight. I like both of them on my bike. I guess this falls within the relam of "personal philosophy", but I felt in the long run, the S3 low compression insert in the head would possibly be more reliable, or rather, less prone to leak past the o-rings. I can't really prove that it's more reliable than a head spacer, but it just seems that the way it's engineered, it would work more reliably. But I'm betting most folks with the spacers have little to no problems at all. It is the more expensive of the two compression lowering options (head spacer versus the S3 insert), so that may factor in a decision....... I did this to make my bike easier to kick over, and maybe a little smoother acceleration & such. The 2 mods did this reasonably well, and now, I can run 92 octane (US) non-ethanol pump gas, without having to mix in some very expensive race gas..... Jimmie

I'll second that. She was a very tough, remarkabale lady. Our friends in the UK lost a great one, in my opinion. Jimmie

I left mine out when I was doing the work on my kickstarter's pawl gear & idler gear. I think yould have to somehow lose your clutch cover for it to ever be a problem..... I know so far, there's been no problem on my bike running without the washer & bolt..... Jimmie added in EDIT: I might add this:After working on my K/S pawl gear & replacing the idler gear like mentioned above, I left that washer & bolt out. Put the bike back together, and realized I did something minor wrong. I can't recall what it was; i just recall that it wasn't major, but required me to pull the clutch off again to rectify the situation. Even with no washer or bolt, that clutch was stuck on the mainshaft as well as it was when the bolt had been used.... I had to pry the clutch off the mainshaft I after I removed that hollow bolt the first time I removed the clutch. And had to do that again even though I didn't use that bolt....

Really good point about the curb/rock comparison, Copemech! Really Good Point! Thanks! Is "Diet Beer" alright? Trying to lose some weight here..... Jimmie

My Advanced buddy here at work keeps telling me I need to do what you said, Triple-0 Seven. Bend more at the knees, & keep 'em out,,,,, It's a hard thing for my old arthritic knees (well, technically "KNEE"; I had one replaced recently....) to want to do for an entire trial. And I truly wish I had the ability to analyze & diagnose my shortcomings & mistakes after a dab, a Five, or whatever. The ability to figure out what you've done wrong, and then to be able to correct it, would be great to have....... In the meantime, that's why this forum is here, and I truly appreciate that. Jimmie

Well, the rain held off for this afternoon, so I hit again. I managed to clean it once while going up. But I have to confess I'm not 100% sure what I did to get that clean..... If I recall correctly, I slowed down a bit (used 1st gear) so when I hit the ledges, it didn't seem to throw me around as much. I do recall making a concious effort to ride with my knees flexed more, and really tried to focus on the end of the board. I cleaned it once out of what I'd guess was 10-12 attempts..... And then I had struggles with going down the goofy thing, and with my rear wheel hop at the end while going down. Had a tough time focusing on the end this afternoon. Gave up on the steps, and went & practiced turning & floaters. I pretty much suck at all of this. Gave up for good, went and washed the bike, and hopped on my rowing machine. I think I did that correctly, hee hee..... Again, thanks for your help and advice here, Fellas! It's very much appreciated! Jimmie

Zippy, Our weather here in NW Oregon is just like what I'm told Britain's weather is like. I believe both countries are right at the 45th parallel, near an ocean, & blah, blah, blah. I can find two websites that have the annual average rainfall of Sandy, OR at 79-80" a year. Rain forest material. Two days of dry & summer sounds about right, sadly...... I don't fear riding in the rain at all. Like you said, if we don't do that here, we won't get to ride...... But, I do fear Mrs. Neutron if I mess up the yard around where that short video clip was filmed. I have "my own part" of our property, with a log, safety cones for marking corners, & stuff like that I can do whatever I want in that part of our little acreage. If I mess up the grass anywhere else, there's consequences, ya know??? So it may be a few days before I can get back on the steps, but I have other junk to practice. Corners need to be more of a priority anyway, but I do try to keep it fun........ Jimmie

First of all, Thank You to you folks that responded! Zippy, Axulsuv, & Pindie, your input is really helpful, and I'm grateful to you guys for that. For whatever reason, I'm not cerebral enough to analyze what I'm doing wrong, and then try to correct it (even with the video). It saves a lot of time when good riders like you men will say "Do this to correct that."..... Happier going down hills? I never thought about that; I just might be. It seems I can hold my line better on this particular deal. I just know that on these silly steps, all of 'em about 8" high or so, the very first ones when going up tend to make me go off my chosen course. If I get lucky, and we don't get the rain they say we are to get today, I'll make another stab at it. And I'll focus on riing "looser", and riding with my knees a little more bent/loose/flexed/whatever. Thanks Again! Jimmie

I dunno.... I know I need to be looser, and like you say, use my knees as suspension more. Zippy, in another thread, you mentioned that you'd narrowed your bars a slight bit. I know that won't accomplish what you're saying about higher bars, and that's something I've thought about, but did trimming your bars make (I guess I'd try to describe) the angle of your arms from the shoulder to the grips any better for you? I ran my mx bars at around 29" in width; enduro/off road slightly less, due to all the trees out here. These wide bars on my Gasser seem to make my wrists bend at an uncomfortable angle, and for the first time in years, I have a perpetual case of "Yama-thumb". Thinking trimming a half inch or so off each side of the bars would make things easier in that dept........ Jimmie

Hmmm, yeah, I do believe y'all may have hit on something there. I do look stiff as a board on the bike, particularly going down the r/r ties, and when screwing up my attempted front wheel hops. Okay, Good. Gives me something to focus & work on. Thanks, Fellas! (now to get these 57 yr. old knees to loosen up some....) Jimmie Added in EDIT: A buddy of mine here at work, who rides the "Advanced Level" class dropped by, and looked at this. He said pretty much what y'all said about flexing/bending my knees. He also thought I had too much weight on my bars and didn't have my weight far enough back, or centered better, from the very beginning. He seemed to think a more neutral stance would help, along with knees slightly more flexed. He thought maybe I could try a short, low wheelie until I get the front wheel over the last ledge, but thought I may not yet have the skills to pull that off.... I can wheelie up all of the steps, but have a tough time holding a controlled line while doing it.....

Hey, All!!! I've got kind of a weird question here. It involves my crummy attempts at riding along 8" wide railroad ties that I've used to make crude landscaping steps with. I decided to try riding up & down them this weekend. Having a tough time getting up the steps cleanly. Going down the steps seems to be a little better. It seems to be easier for me to focus on the end/"where I want to go" while riding down rather than up. As I begin to go up the steps, there's a point (you can see it in the video, at about the 5 second point in it....) where both tires are more or less climbing and getting bumped around at the same time, typically followed by a dab shortly after that, or uncontrolled riding off of the wood...... How's the best way to get up this silly thing? (And please ignore my feeble wheel hops. Like everything else involved with Trials, I seem to be perpetually learning and needing practice....) Thanks, Jimmie Added in EDIT: I also need to remember to turn my gas on before I take off also. That's why the vid ended so abruptly.....

Hi, Lee99780! You've been given some very good advice here. If I might add a little.... The "learning to relax" is very important. This simply comes by spending more time riding, either while practicing, or in sections. The relaxing will just come naturally after the nerves get accustomed to the riding. Smaller diameter grips helped me to beat arm pump when I rode mx. I had more problems with arm pump using the bigger diameter ones. But everyone is different in that respect. I could always do more pull ups (you folks call them "Press Ups", I think?) with a small diameter bar than I could with a bigger dia. one.... But the most important thing, to me, is that when my wrists hurt, it means my technique (if I actually have any) is wrong. Instead of keeping the majority of my weight on the pegs, where it should be, it means I've gotten tired/lazy/retarded, and am riding with a bunch of my weight being supported by my arms. And then the wrists ache a little..... It probably also lets me know that I need to spend more time working out, rather than on this computer typing, hee hee..... Since I consistently get a sore on the bottom knuckle of my right thumb (ride often w/o gloves) from my throttle, I'm going to try Zippy's suggestion, and narrow my bars by a very small amount, and see what that does......

Thanks, Jon! I looked for a place to buy the Silentsport packing. I found out after I'd already bought the FMF packing that the Silentsport packing is available from MSR here in the States. It might be available from other places, but I couldn't find any. So, I got the FMF, which was about half the price of the Silentsport. The FMF stuff seems to work, and definitely much better than the flat, mat type I tried (several times....). Jan, Sorry; I forgot about the new style end cap. Did it come apart simply by drilling out rivets, like the "old style" that I have? It seems like that end cap would be more difficult to re-pack effectively...... Jimmie

Hi, Jan!!! This is kinda "timely" in that I just did this job to my 2010, and then had to do it again...... The packing that came out of my 2010 was the flat, mat-type of packing that was wrapped around the core, and then had a few strips of masking tape around it. I thought I'd simply try to match the factory job, and that would be alright. But I never could get it right with that type of packing. I tried repacking it with this mat-type packing 3 times, and it was always noticeably louder than it was before I attempted to "fix it"..... I'm guessing some of the problem is the thin, oval cross section shape of the silencer? I then happened to stumble across a post from a rider here called "pumpkin trials" that helped a whole bunch: I bought a bag of the loose, shaggy type of packing from FMF. It took about 1/2 to 2/3 of the bag for my silencer. I packed it in with a piece of aluminum angle (structural L-shaped) I had laying around in the barn. I tried to get it along the sides well, and not too tight. It came out much better using this loose, stringy type of packing, and putting it in the way described by pumpkin trials. It's as quiet as it was when I bought the bike, which makes me happy.... FWIW, here's how Silentsport recommends packing a 2-stroke silencer with their packing (scroll down to the bottom of the page): http://www.silentspo...revpack_eng.pdf Jimmie

Section one, That "Swivl" deal is pretty cool! Does it sense motion & "follow" it somehow? Your practice area is Great! (nice riding, btw!) I'd like to have something similar, and maybe some skill to be able to use it..... Sting, you nailed it, lol. There's another episode where Mr. Neutron wants to run off with a cleaning lady that's pretty funny too..... Anyway, that's what my buddies tagged me with, and my wife (has her own screen printing biz) even prints it on my riding gear for me...... Jimmie

Is "Goddard" the dog-like thing in the Jimmie Neutron Show? I've actually never seen that show; my kids have seen it & told me enough about it so there was no need for me to see it..... Confession Time: My "Mr. Neutron" username comes from the old Monty Python bit with a character having that name. My real last name is "Newton" . Some of my mx riding buddies & I, back in the 70's, watched Monty Python regularly. When we saw the episode with Mr Neutron in it, they tagged me with that nickname. Not too much of a stretch to go from "Newton" to "Neutron", I guess.... It's stuck ever since...... Jimmie

It looks to me like you've got some pretty good riders in your group, Zippy! (my standards aren't super high anyway, but you guys ride much better than I do.... ) I envy ya gettin' to ride "inside" like that. I used to do that here, for mx, when I was sick of mud...... I've only been doing balancing & front wheel hop practice inside my barn. And maybe a little clutch squeezing now & then..... Jimmie

Agreed; that is a very nice video, peterschnecke!! You did a GREAT JOB of editing! I really liked the differing points of view, and all the short little clips all ran together. That must have taken some time to make, I'd think? Jimmie

Zippy, Your friend's skill is really good. but I'm betting the judges won't give him a very high score on that dive. The degree of difficulty was average, but he made a big splash on entry...... Sando994, I have an immense amount of respect for the unicycle crowd. But that just looks like it could flatten my nuts in a matter of seconds.....