totty79

Marquez left Rossi with no choice other than to try something unorthodox, he was then daft enough to ram his brake lever into Rossi's leg. Manipulating a championship should come with a harsher penalty than running someone wide, and I think that statement should stand regardless of any past examples.

Lookup a local spring winder and have them make new springs for you, it'll be far cheaper than replacing the forks and then fitting uprated springs.

My 2012 250 does not have them, I'd like to try them. There is a guide somewhere for setting up the 300 clutch in 5 or 6 ways. I hoped to follow it but found the washers were different.

The 250 has the lowest compression of the range, it's as easy to kick as the 125, I haven't tried a 300.

Thanks for offering me an excuse, but to be honest I've also ridden since about 10, been riding on the road for 12 years, bought a trials bike at 33, now 36. In reality I just don't invest enough time and effort to be any good at this sport, and that's because I don't want to. I don't aim to win I just want to enjoy riding, but practice alone in one location becomes boring and trials are set above my skill and fitness level. So in the short term I'm going to make more of an effort to improve, see if I can get to the point where bike and rider finish in one piece, if that fails I'll look for something else to do. I have a new high score at 113 (36 sections), only got 86 (40 sections) on the only other trial I completed when I first started just a couple of months after buying my first trials bike. My top excuses are: Prior to Sunday I've only ever ridden in a stream twice, only once was on this bike and that was 18 months ago. I ride on average two to three hours a month so will never be bike fit and I normally only ride at Warden Law which is very different terrain. I spent Tuesday on a 125 and it took a while to adjust back to a 250.

As far as the riding went I enjoyed some of lap 2. I enjoyed completing what felt like a major challenge, and the craic was good. I'm not sold on it to be honest. I had a lesson at Bumpy on Tuesday and I found it more enjoyable - once bike repairs are factored in it may also have been cheaper.

Yet again fatigue led to crashes, but I don't mind as much when it's mostly due to the sections, after all they're the bits that are meant to test you. It got to the point where rocks started to steer the bike for me I was almost just a passenger. I have a great list of excuses, but it'd take too long to type :-) I've only got a burn and some bruises, but the bike needs a rear mudguard.

Looks like I should be able to make it. I'll be in a white transit with a 2012 evo 250. slack, I'd like to take you up on the offer of a group to ride with, particularly for the first lap when I may need reminding of basics like flag colours.

Thanks for the recommendation and offer. I'll see if I can make it and post back tomorrow.

Looks to me like you might get away with it. Although I'd try to use any wheel as intended then squeeze in some tyre sealant if it didn't work.

I'm considering giving a trial another go. What trials are coming up in the north east that would be a good choice? Either this weekend or November. All I can see in the calender is a trial at Buttsfield Quarry but I think that's the last trial I entered. Two areas between sections were beyond me, fatigue was followed by crashes and the result was going home on lap 3 unfit ride for a month, that's really not what I'm looking for.

Please don't bodge it with silicone, yes will seal it, but the corrosion it causes will ruin the rim, it can also seize the nipples to the spokes so the rim can't be trued again even after removing the silicone. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has bought a used bike and found that a pervious owner has ruined the rim with silicone. If you can't get it to seal as intended use a comparatively harmless tyre sealant like slime or goop, or a non acidic sealant like some forms of sikaflex.

Wd40 swells some rubbers. Time to remove pistons and fit new seals.

Are you sure that they're seized? Have you disconnected the hose to confirm that it's not a hydraulic issue? If it is genuinely seized then I'd go with the method wakka describes.

Are you aiming for something comparable to classic trials, or pre65 trials? Modern trials would require a lot of custom work, but there was a one made in China called a Xispa. If you're more interested in using trials technique than building a bike, then you can use trials techniques on any bike, some people over here are using trials techniques on enduro bikes as part of their training. Spring rates and damping are easily changed so I wouldn't be too concerned about that. Provided you only use it over a very short distance then low gearing is easy using the sprockets, but trials bikes normally have one or two high ratio gears. Steering lock may need to be modified on some bikes, ideally steering geometry would also be changed. If you're going for the modern no seat look then it might be best to select the bike based how easily the frame could be modified. A two stroke motor would help with the weight but I don't recall seeing any in China, electric is also an option and they are widely available. Engine choice depends on the type of terrain/obstacle you want to ride. For an easy route I'd choose a motor that has low down torque and is hard to stall rather than a lively one, probably a 200/250. This could be an interesting project, please post some updates when you start building/riding. I have a Jincheng M50D on the road with a tuned Zongzsheng 125 motor in it - not suitable for trials but great fun.

The escaping air takes it with it. The product I used was called Goop, it's bright green with black flecks of rubber in it. I cleaned up the rim removing all old silicone and loose corrosion, fitted a rim band, checked that it leaked as expected, removed valve core, put in 1/2 bottle of Goop (a bit of a pain as valve kept blocking, used a foot pump to clear it each time). A bit leaked out around a few spokes and from a leak in the tyre that I hadn't previously spotted (which it leaked and resealed a couple of times when riding). It was fine like this for over a year.

You can also put slime or similar tyre sealant in it. It worked for me on a badly corroded gas gas rim that someone had ruined with silicone.

Hard to fault really. They have a few threads cut into the frame that previous owners may have crossed, but they can be fixed with inserts.

Hydraulics done properly are lower maintenance than cables - pistons that don't jam when the pads get low, bleed nipples and passages to them where the air naturally rises, dust seals etc.

Finally got back out on the bike yesterday, but after so long off it I took it easy. The change of foot position is going to take a bit of getting used to, the brake needs a service as well as it takes way too much force, the heating and soaking trick worked but not for long, time to order new pads.

The 250 has the lowest compression of the range at just 8.9:1, I wouldn't expect to be able to reduce this by enough to make a significant difference - although I've never tried. Not all evo's have the tophat clutch washers, I think it's only 300s, my 2012 250 does not have them. Swapping out the two thicker clutch plates did help smooth out clutch engagement on my 250, which does help make the bike feel less aggressive.

Fork springs, check for excessive static sag.

Custom made springs aren't very expensive, I've used springcoil.co.uk for fork springs but there are a few companies around so there may be one local to you. You may have to send them a standard spring as a sample.

The 250 has the lowest compression of the range at only 8.9:1, I wonder how low you can go. The 250 and 200 are the same stroke, maybe the top end can be swapped, although that won't be cheap.

The 250 evo isn't aggressive in the hill climb scenario you mentioned. The only times mine has caught me out is when I've had to be aggressive on the throttle, basically when riding above my ability. It's worth trying one of you haven't already. Hard to say if you should wait as I never found a 200 to try. The only trials bikes I've ridden are my old GG 321, a recent GG250 and 3x evo 250. The evo's being overall the least aggressive, 321 was very tame a gear or two higher riding on low down grunt, but the extra ccs were obvious if you opened it up.