mr neutron

Hey, Ben!!! I think I saw your bike stand in that first picture, lol..... Those are good photos! But is it really warm enough to ride there in a short-sleeved shirt, or are you simply incredibly tough??? Jimmie

As long as we have a chainsaw, we'll always have somewhere to park our bikes, huh? Actually, I recently got a 5 gallon paint bucket from a home improvement store that works pretty well now..... And I like your wheelie pic, Ben!!! Jimmie

It's been trying to snow here today, but mostly just a cold rain. So, I cleaned the air filter. I replaced those cable ties for the rear fender that broke during my last ride. My bike gets chucked away a lot too, Shipdamite. Some days, I get more exercise picking the bike up than I do riding. Good thing they're light bikes, huh? Oiled the chain, cleaned a little here & there, and put more new zip-ties on the frame guards. Then, I put the air in the back tire at 5 lbs. and the front tire at almost 6 lbs., and did balancing practice inside my barn. The barn has decent lights with a concrete floor, so next practiced hopping the front wheel. Kinda like sex, I was tired after doing that for 5 minutes, & put everything away for the day...... Jimmie

Here's a pic of my 2010 back in May, when I first got it. Please notice the carefully crafted hand made stand I labored over for this bike...... Sadly, the stand didn't survive the woodstove, lol....... Here's a fuzzy/grainy one of the bike struggling to pull my bulk around in the rocks at Washougal, Washington a week or two ago...... Jimmie

Hi, Ben! Ben, on some Gas Gas models, I've read that the main bearings for the crankshaft are lubed by the tranny fluid. Your model may not be like that, but it's really not worth taking a chance, Because (as has been said already) ATF is cheap, and I don't want watered down oil lubing the crank, transmission, clutch, or anything else, I'd change the fluid again (and probably again after that, like Nigel Dabster said earlier). You probably could ride it, for a short while, going easy on it, but I've yet to see someone your age go easy on a dirt bike, hee hee...... Jimmie

It's always a good idea to seal up an airbox to keep junk from getting past the filter. But my experiences with various Kehin carbs goes right with what Sting32 said. I'd bet a bucket of donuts the fuel is the culprit. I don't know if you have ethanol or alcohol added to your fuel there in the UK, but fuel like that has always been a problem for my Keihin equipped bikes. it tends to plug up the pilot jets really quickly..... If possible, try some non-ethanol/alcohol fuel. Regardless of the fuel used, I would turn the gas off on your bike, and drain the float bowl after any ride where the bike will sit for more than a day. The crummy stuff that the petroleum companies try to pass for fuel nowadays causes multitudes of problems, and it actually does it fairly quickly...... Jimmie

I agree with tankygsy. The rocker switch on my 2010 280 Pro has a little picture of cloud, that I assume means you use it on wet, rainy days, and the other end has a "sun" picture. I'm going to assume this is meant for those sunny days of summer I miss so fondly right now (it's wet & cold outside here right now... I've been freezing my butt off trying to bleed the stinkin' rear brake......). Actually, I notice no difference regardless of what position that thng is in. The previous owner I bought the bike from said the same thing. I read on one internet message board that it's more noticeable in the upper rev range of the motor, a place where my motor seldom goes...... Jimmie

For a parts fiche manual, go to www.trialspartsusa.com , and click on "MANUALS" button up by the top, in the blue box with white letters. After you get to the manuals page, just scroll down until you find the year & model you're after. I went ahead & downloaded the thing to my computer, in a file on my desktop, so I always have it handy. Ryan Young products ( www.rypusa.com ) will be one source of parts near to you. I think you can buy from the trials parts link with the parts manuals I linked you to above. But honestly, one of the best guys I've dealt with yet is Stu at Jack's Cycles up in Maine. He's fantastic to do biz with. Adrian at www.lewisportusa.com is really good as well. Oh yeah..... Mike at The Tryals Shop ( http://www.tryalsshop.com/ is first rate as well. I'd think anyone of these places would help ya out for parts. I think there's a member here from Muskogee, OK (JSE) that would help out as well. His advice here has helped me out a lot of times, without him even knowing that...... Jimmie

Be sure you check the coolant level in your radiator, andybetaRev3. If you have milky colored tranny fluid, it's possible that you have engine coolant leaking into your transmission, and need to fix that problem first. If your coolant level is good, then I'd be a little confused (more than I normally am). I have gotten very lucky when my 2010 was leaking transmission oil from the clutch cover a few months back. All I needed to do was go around the clutch cover & torque all the bolts. The gasket was still alright in that case. Hope you get that lucky, Sir! Jimmie

Hee hee, Yes, You're right, Jan! I guess I can relax! Thank You for taking the time to look at that! I really appreciate you doing that! I actually looked at a friend's 2013 Raga 300 today, and his has similar spaces on each side as well. I've spoken to a dealer here in the States, and found out this is "perfectly normal", and actually engineered in. The swingarm is narrower (by about 4mm) than the width inside of the frame at the pivot point. The swingarm is essentially aligned by the engine cases. This is what controls any would-be side to side movement of the swingarm in that area...... I'm sorry for panicking. I thought I'd either lost some parts, or done something majorly wrong. All this affirms the need to keep up with the swingarm seals & maintanance of that area...... Thanks again! Jimmie

Hey, All!! I have a 2010 280 Pro TXT I've been working on. I just replaced the lower shock spherical bearing, along with all of the linkage bearings & seals. I also replaced the swingarm pivot seals, and greased the swingarm bushings. That part of the job went really well, but on reassembly, I found out something a little odd, & please forgive me, because I'm having a tough time writing what I feel is a decent verbal description here..... With the rear fender/airbox off, the fuel tank off, the muffler off, & the shock off, I have the swingarm back on the bike. The swingarm axle/pivot bolt is on, & tight. The swingarm itself pivots easily, and is nice & tight to the motor, or actually, to those stamped steel washers that fit on either side of the engine cases, where the pivot bolt/swingarm axle goes through. But on the outside of the swingarm, where the outer seals are, close to the inside of the frame, I have gaps on each side of around 2.5 mm or so. Between the inside of the frame, and the outer portion of the swingarm itself, where the outer seals are, is where these gaps are. It doesn't appear I can "compress" the frame together any more than it is, as the swingarm axle essentially "bottoms out" on the right inner side of the frame, and can't really "pull" or compress the frame together. I don't think the frame sprung out any on me. I'm wondering if the engine just sort of "centers itself" on the swingarm axle, and then hold itself there with the pinch bolts on the engine cases back there?? I didn't see any gaps there when I took the bike apart, but wasn't really looking for any. These spaces, or gaps, are where my mx bikes typically had a washer/radial needle bearing washer setup, but the Gas Gas has nothing like that. I haven't been able to take a good enough photo with my digital camera that would help out, so I apologize there.... And like I said above, I wouldn't have noticed this back when the bike was in one piece & rideable. You need to have the tank, airbox, muffler & shock off the bike to see it, unless it's noticeable from underneath. It does appear they might be visible from directly behind the kickstarter on the right side of the bike, and possibly just behind the countershaft sprocket on the left side. I simply never noticed this before, if it actually was there. If it's not normally there, I'm really perplexed about what to do about it.... Has anyone else noticed this, or does anyone know if this is "engineered" in? Thanks, Jimmie