mr neutron

I always wanted one of these when I raced mx; don't know if they'd be too bulky for Trials or not: They're made for mountain bikers, by a company called "Rock Gardn". http://www.rockgardn.com/store.asp I'm hoping you're OK now, and ready to get back & ride, Westygas270? Jimmie

Agreed, and especially about Sergio's vdeo work! Jimmie

Soooo, yer sorta sayin' we can get more traction by consuming more beer? JImmie

Jeff, I use a small funnel that I think was made for Coleman stoves & lanterns, to put fuel (white gas) into their tanks, with the piece of hose mentioned above. The funnels are found at sporting goods stores in the backpacking/camping department, and hose at any hardware store..... There's some great suggestions here, fellas! Jimmie

Yes! Nicely edited! Thanks for putting this out! And it's very cool to see a person I know in there, as well!!! Jimmie Added in EDIT: I saw at the Vimeo website you wrote this vid was filmed with a DSLR. Very Cool! By any chance was it a Canon 7D???

Excellent Advice!!! Definitely be careful what you use to clean a jet with!!! When I was 16 or 17 yrs. old (in the middle/latter part of the last century, sorta), I cleaned the jets on a friend's XR75 with the first thing I could find at the time: my father's welding tip cleaner. Took us a while to figure out why we suddenly had a very rich running condition...... It was, however, a lesson I've never forgotten.... Jimmie

Out of curiosity, how long have some of y'all had the symptoms of Tennis Elbow (T/E)??? For those who have gotten over it, how long did it take? My own case of it has been bothering me since June or July, and it seems to be getting no better at all. Then again, I'm not being too good about icing it, taking anti-inflamms, & etc...... Jimmie

I have both of them (A Hebo flywheel weight, and the S3 low compression head insert) on my 2010 280 Pro. I like both of them a lot! I've got a broken right wrist (Nervicular Scaphoid bone) that never healed, and due to that, I have very limited flexibility of my right hand. A slow throttle won't really work for me, and after the fww & comp. lowering, don't feel it's needed. But the slow throttle is cheap & easy to do; I'd try it, were it not for my wrist deal...... Jimmie

Okay, thanks, I understand now! A good tip of the day for me might be to not get caught lookin' at those Brazillian women's parts you mentioned, hee hee..... Even if I claim "scientific research" on the tape deal, I'm certain Mrs. Neutron won't be too understanding about that.... Side note: to Bill: You think you or Barry will make the trial in OR City on the 10th? I'm hoping I can get a rear brake line in time to ride that one..... Jimmie

Man, you folks seriously crack me up!!! But I have to plead ignorance here (pretty easy thing to do for me.... shere's broccoli plants out there with higher IQs than I have.....)...... That's_a_five, what do you mean by "Brazillians"????? (I really don't smoke cigars, so have no real knowledge about them, if that's what was referred to.....) ( I also don't actually have a wife that is "domineering:" like I wrote about above, but it is fun to yak about.... She's actually a decent rider on her own CRF100.....) Jimmie

Well, Phooey! Now, I'm not sure I can totally commit to this Tip fo The Day! It works very well, and easily shortened the amount of tiime it takes to change my bike's oil. But my wife found out about this, and now has gleefully made plans for me & "My Time"!!!! Since It decreased my "Barn Time with My Bike", she feels that I now have more "free" time to mow the grass, help with laundry, paint the house, & other such chores I've dodged for years!! As such, I've become almost "domesticated"...... No more hours spent in the barn, pumping the clutch lever on my Gas Gas while pretending to do balance practice with the stand down, drinking the beer she didn't know I had, while smoking cigars and listening to classic rock...... My life is ruined now..... If you post any more Tips Mike, I may never have time to work on my bike again! Jimmie

Sacrilege, Ben!!! But Congrats on the new Bike!!! Jimmie

Thanks for that tip you passed on!!! That's much better than my normal "keep wiping it with a rag until this stupid last bit of metal comes off" method I use...... Jimmie

Dylan, Your riding is coming along really well! But the thing about you that simply amazes me is how you can get your kettle over the fire to hang horizontally? Now that, along with the fire on it's side, is simply amazing! Seriously, I hope your elbow heals quickly. I'm going nuts staying off my bike. We've been having fantastic, dry, kinda warm, sunny weather here (somewhat unusual for this part of the state, this time of year), and the only riding I've done is on my lawn mower! In the second/middle pic you post, it looks like you got some decent lift of your rear wheel up onto your tire! The stoppie/nose wheelie in the last one looks cool, and seems even neater after reading that you've "tightened up" your practice space a bit..... Great Work, Sir! Jimmie

Mokwepa, Anti-inflammatory pills were another thing my dr. recommended that I forgot to mention earlier (I just saw him last week for this deal). He said to take "over-the-counter" NSAIDs ("Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs"). Here in the states, we have these you can get w/o a dr. prescription called Aleve, or Advil, or Ibuprofen, & such. I'm not keen on taking pills, but may have to start. This has been lingering on for awhile now. I'm actually typing this with my elbow resting on an ice pack, something else I haven't been too good about doing...... And like Jimmyl said, the bandages that go around your upper forearm/below the elbow area and apply pressure where the tendon is sore were recommended to me by a physical thereapist friend of mine. It does seem to help somewhat........ Ya know, I almost wonder if it couldn't have something to do with the the handlebars on our trials motorcycles, or the angle we have them adjusted at, or the levers/angle, or even the width of the bars. Or maybe front suspension setup??? (did someone mention this already?) I dunno..... I rode mx & offroad for years, quitting those to take up trials last year when I was 56 years old, and never had this problem. Arm pump never was much of a problem for me, and still isn't. I'd thought it could be an "old age" thing, but we have older guys than myself in our club with no such problems, and then we have Dylan and others who are younger than myself (everybody is younger than me, my kids tell me.....) who are bothered by this, Curious..... Jimmie

My left elbow has been like that for at least 3 months. Mine coincided with an increase in the amount of pushups I was doing, in an effort to get in shape & lose weight.... Evidentally, I've put on enough weight where it's more of a strain for my arms than it used to be....... 0007, or others here, did you stay completely off your bike for a couple of months, or just "modify" what & how you rode? I have been to the Dr., and his diagnosis was indeed a case of tennis elbow (inflamed tendon?). Ice & rest were his recommendation, but I really don't want stop riding for that long, or not until the weather gets really lousy..... Mokwepa, I hope yours heals fast, along with everyone else here that's plagued with this..... Jimmie

True! Humans are marvelously adaptable! Having had a right-side knee replacement in January, I'm as likely to start my Gas Gas with my left foot as my right. I've put the S3 "Low Compression head insert" on my 280 to help with starting it, but my rt. knee still gets fairly sore at the end of a day's event, from starting the bike..... I've got friends that have allowed me to start & ride their late model (or new) Sherco & Beta. Personally, I feel both of these bikes start considerably easier than my Gas Gas, regardless of which leg I use. And I do try them with each leg, as I will probably need a new left-side knee in a couple of years......I'm beginning to look seriously at the Gas Gas Electric model, if available here in the States, just so I can continue to ride into my 60s...... Jimmie.

I have one of these exercise balls here at home. I'm fairly content to just sit on it, and shovel food down my gullet..... I do like to practice balancing & hopping out in my barn on the bike, w/o it running. I also have a board that is about 8" wide, and 18" long. I rest this board on a piece of pipe about 3" in diameter, and then try to balance on it. It's way harder than you'd think..... Jimmie

You can also make intermittent Vroom noises, or the sound you make when you blow air out of your mouth with your tongue stuck out, to simulate a loaded up motor, or starting, & etc....... Seriously, maybe this??? Jimmie

Bruno, Maybe you simply need to get your levers adjusted correctly, first, before you think about shortening them.... When I first started riding trials a little under 2 years ago, I thought the Trials Folks were nuts the way they said to have the levers set up. I was used to the conventional way of my mx bike setup, and (wrongly) thought I could/should transfer that same setup over to my trials bike. It did not work out too well..... I also needed to learn to ride with a finger on the clutch lever & brake lever, and it just didn't work while riding in a trials stance. I had the levers set up pointing too far downward, as well as having the pivot point out too far towards the end of the bars . I now have my pivot perch moved in farther than I used to with my mx bike, and the plane the levers move inward/outwards is probably just a few degrees from level, if that makes sense. It works out much better tor trials riding. If you can, set your bike on the stand, and have it as level as you can get it. Now stand off to one side, and look at the angle your lever is pointing at. It works out best for me if I have set it level/parallel with the ground, and then downwards just a few degrees. I'd bet it will be pretty similar for you, if your levers aren't that way already..... The pivots on my bike are moved inwards quite a ways; almost to the downwards bend of the bars. My first finger tends to get pretty good leverage on the lever moved in this far, and when I fall (not IF I fall......), they don't tend to break. I also do set the lever perches just tight enough so they will rotate on the the bars in a crash, and this helps keep 'em in one piece during a crash..... Hope this helps some! Jimmie Added in EDIT: It sounds like you already have your levers set up. Sorry about my long post; I need to read your posts better before I write mine....

Here's what a chipped Idler gear looks like (as said, from the the back side of the gear as it gets installed on the bike): Here's what the kickstarter pawl gear looks like when it gets boogered up: Hope this helps some. This is a pretty common problem when the correct starting procedure isn't used...... I *think* it's mostly caused from just stabbing at the lever, instead of slowly engaging the k/s pawl gear by slow rotation of the kick start lever, then pushing it (the lever) through with your weight...... You'll hear quite a bit of clicking/clattering gear noise at idle when the gear looks like this. Jimmie

Okay. Nevermind. I found out the answer. The actual adjuster itself is indeed part of the damper rod, where it mates up into the fork cap. Evidentally, Gas Gas doesn't sell only the adjuster alone (which is what's broken on my bike), but it comes as part of the damper rod/cartridge assembly. The price for that little cartridge unit is quite high, so Jimmie won't be worrying about that adjuster any more...... I'll just change the oil & be happy with whatever adjustments I can do with that. Realistically, unless I suddenly develop Adam Raga-like skills, I'll probably never notice any difference anyway...... Thanks, Jimmie

Does anyone here know a bit about the 40mm Marzocchi forks on the 2010 models? My 2010 280 Pro TxT has had a broken rebound adjuster since the first week I've owned it. I finally got around to ordering a new rebound-side fork cap, thinking that the adjuster was part of the cap "assembly". That's how it seemed to appear in the parts diagram at www.trialspartsusa.com . I got the new cap today, but it doesn't have the brass adjuster part of the assembly in it. It does have the little brass air bleeder screw, but no "clicker" at all. I'm wondering if the broken adjuster/clicker is part of the fork cap, or possibly part of the cartridge rod somehow? Added in EDIT: Is there possibly some sort of an "adjuster assembly" that screws into the end of the damping rod, and then slides up into the fork cap, and seals with o-rings? I'm really grasping at straws here. I have not had these forks apart, and it's been a few years since Iowned my '98 KTM 300, which had conventional forks with one side adjusting the compression, and the other side handling rebound chores, Would anyone have any idea about this? I've been told this is a fairly common problem for bikes in this model year range....... Thanks! Jimmie

Okay..... On further review, I went back & watched the video, numerous times. I'm fairly certain the problem is: The shorts he's wearing don't match the bike at all. Defintely a fashion faux paux, or whatever that word is for " fashion mistake"..... Actually, I stopped the vid at the 3 second mark, and saw that you do have good compression of the rear suspension, D-man. But the front forks hardly compressed at all, as well as I am able to tell. I'd think it would help some to hit the tire/obstacle a little bit lower, bend you knees into it more, and then an aggressive unweight....... Like Zippy & Rob have said, the timing, the clutch deal, and probably as important as almost any of it, the "leap/unweighting" done correctly and at the right time. I fully know that's my problem on these types of deals, along with hitting the obstacle too high most times. But knowing that, and making myself correct it have been the tough part. Hope you have better luck than I, Mokewepa!!! I hope this helps, but please listen to these other guys, Dylan. I'm not that great at it myself. And I really want a big tire to practice on, like you have there. Or maybe the Bouncy House, hee hee.... FWIW, here's a link to a video done by a fellow that frequents the Thumpertalk Trials Forum (username "2Ply"). I thought he did a great job of expaining the lift "principle" while filming the rider's 6 progressively better leaps over a log up here in the wet NW part of the country..... To me, it seems like the rider wheelies into the log, maybe even dropping the wheel slightly down onto the log? Jimmie

Dylan, I am by no means an Expert here, so you can take what I say with a grain of sand. I'm still struggling to accomplish the same things as you. But I've been told that by much better riders that I'm doing the same thing wrong when I attempt these things. I htink you've sorta figured it out, from the sound of your last post...... To me, (remember, I'm not the Expert here), it looks as if your front tire does indeed kinda skim off of the corner of the obstacle (the big tire), and doesn't give your suspension much chance to load up/compress. Hitting the tire with your front wheel a few inches lower would help you get that extra lift by loading your suspensension, especially the rear end. It would likely help your rear tire hit a bit higher up, and in an "upwards direction", instead of slamming into the side of the obstacle..... This is my inexperienced voice saying this, Dylan, so don't take it as "The Gospel" here. Like I said, I'm struggling with the same thing, and can't get my timing & technique down yet, so I'm no authority on the matter. But to me, your timing & everything else looks good. Hopefully, someone who knows how to ride better than I will be along and can help...... I think the big tires like you're going up are tough. They tend to absorb energy from when the front wheel hits them, and this keeps your suspension from loading up for the lift you need from the rear end. Hope this is of some small amount of help, Jimmie