10-time US trials champion Pat Smage giving his all in Europe. Good reminder of just how good the boys from the "continent" are. Nice to hear how humble he is, but wow, what a brave young man he is to even show up! Great job Pat.
We in the US have very little to celebrate these days, but Pat Smage always brings a smile to my face. Making Fat Bikes cool. See BMX bicycle training for 2018 Trials Season for further evidence of the beneficial results from getting off your moto trials bike once in awhile!
Need a little help, one of the "pins" for the power valve came loose and worked its way into the cylinder — no catastrophic damage ... just a long push out! I've pulled everything apart and have the engine sitting on a table with the head off. No visible damage to the piston or the cylinder walls. Rings look fine when examining from that exhaust port. The "pin" is a lost cause. I do have a spare bike that I can scavenge a replacement off of, but I'd like to seal off the power valve ports and not worry about this in the future. Any ideas, or advice?
I practice on a trials bicycle and unicycle too. I am 57 years-old, and learning new skills on the bicycle really helps with my motorcycle skills, albeit at a very-slow pace! Here's a recent video of one of the best trials riders in the USA using all three forms to stay sharp during the winter.
Thanks for the info. I believe that you are most-likely right and the shock has been modified. I'll see if Kelsey is up for the challenge of bringing it back to stock. He was pretty disappointed that he could not see more results from adjustment. Might be something TRS wants to warn people about when they buy discounted bikes at these premier events. Only takes a few p****d-off customers to cause a lot to trouble these days. Jim Snell at TRS Motorcycles USA may want to chime in on this topic.
Kelsey bought this bike at the TrialGP in Arizona weekend before last. It was Luca Petrella's minder's bike. But the rear shock had been swapped to Luca's bike for the competition. I was riding with Kelsey when he was trying to figure out the pre-load and the rebound. Pre-load was almost all-the-way to the max when we started, so we backed that off, and after several tries of turning the rebound screw to full-stop in both directions, we could not really detect any difference in rebound rate. Can anyone share their own experience with this shock as to whether there is a very-noticible difference in rebound from full-stop to full-stop? I'm wondering whether the shock is defective.
I recently took the highest score for all classes at an event in Wyoming. Three out of four of our group were in that "embarrassing" score scene. The fourth, well, he's really good ... and a bit-of-dick about it. But he puts up with the rest of us and tries to drag us along on our learning curve.
The other 50-plus (age, not points) rider and I, that scored so high, suffered greatly from taking wrong turns. We rode "intermediate" and did find the technical aspects challenging enough, but what crushed both of us was our lack of ability to remember the sections. It was only the second competition either of us had entered, and although we practice like heck on obstacles, it's obvious we need to practice way more on training our minds to remember complicated routes.
It was a two-day event, but the two of us could only ride the first day, so when one of the registrars saw us the morning of the second-day and asked if we were entering that day, after our answer responded that it was probably for the best, because we had already gotten plenty of points for both days. We laughed as hard as everyone else, and left with the knowledge that we had stood out from the crowd at least!
You'll have to navigate to Sections, but they have expanded parts lists and seem to still have a pretty good supply of section parts available. I'd repeat my earlier post that Mike at tryalsshop.com has sources to get much of what you need. He is in the USA though, so between his fairly-relaxed view of business (which I share whole-heartedly), and the shipping time to Australia, you may be in for quite a wait. But he did send me a brand new carb to air box rubber, and many other, hard-to-find Fantic parts. Good luck, and enjoy!
Looks like a lot of fun. My group of buddies (four of us) went to the Limestone Mountain event in Wyoming a couple of weeks ago. With all of us trespassers from neighboring states crashing the party, we had 54 riders enter for the Saturday event. Not sure on the count for Sunday, I had to hoof it back to Utah to milk cows and what-not on Sunday. Once I find someone crazy enough to buy this place from us, I hope to wander into northern New Mexico ... I have some very fond memories of the Chama Valley and some fairly-blurred memories of some 1980's experiences in Taos.
My dad was really into flat track in the 70's. He dragged me to both the mile at Springfield, IL and the 1/2 mile at Joliet, as well as the weekly quarters at Granite City. But my favorite sound memories were from the mile at Springfield. I believe the chest thumping sound led to my future love of listening to music really-loud while laying on my back on our 1930's Brunswick slate pool table! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PgRuK1gGgQ
I just bought one from Mike at the Tryals Shop (www.tryalsshop.com) in upper New York state, USA a month or two ago. Small and light enough, shipping would probably be affordable.
Only issue I've heard of with 97 frames is motor mounts cracking , from vibration . But if you check all the mount bolts regularly for correct torque , it wasn't a issue ...!
Glenn
Glenn,
I just welded the left-top tab that the head bolts to. So even the molly frames suffered from engine mount cracking. The first two-years seemed to have some problems around the top, rear-shock mount, foot-peg/skid-plate mount areas as well as the head-stock.
On another note, do you remember where the two leads coming from the computer connected to? I've got a working computer, but I don't have any idea how to wire it.
On another note, went riding with a nice group today on the same ground with all the flowers, and our youngest member (the most ambitious and risk-taking) ended up like this more than once.
Nice practice session with my buddy Tod on his family's 360 acres bordering the national forest. It's a nice, diverse section of ground with a lot of challenging rocks, stream-beds, down-fall trees, steep hill-sides and some really nice, but rock-infested fields of flowers. Any one remember where the two leads from the Section's computer run to?
could have been a good bike, but build quality was rubbish when new, was glad to get rid of of it after 9 months of problems.
Agree to a certain extent. From the numbers of repairs made to both frames of the bikes I have, it is obvious that the first two-years of production lacked any engineering on the frame. I'd like to hear from owners of the '97 (alloy frame) as to whether the frame problems were cured.
And the fit/looks and quality of the plastics left a lot to be desired. I do think that the engine/gearbox was quite well-built—albeit heavy as a sack of cement! Never have seen anything in these forums about Gas Gas-like problems with gear box or start gear, etc.
I do really like the geometry of the bike. It's very easy to balance, and full-lock turning radius is impressive. And, of course the throttle response and power are quite impressive. One of my riding buddies just got a 2016 Scorpa 300 and I don't find it to be noticeably more powerful than the Section.
So, I think that those of us who love Fantics are like Alfa R owners ... maybe a bit dim-witted, but romantics to the end!
Sorry to start a new thread, but I did come across a '95 section last summer, and the same good friend that found that for me, just delivered a trashed, but sound '96 as a parts bike. Here's a photo of my two dinosaurs in the shop.
I have a TY350 and a Fantic Section, so I'm not the best person to give you advice ... but I have friends with both 315r's and SY250's. I'd choose the Scorpa. Yamaha engine (the years you are looking at), steeper steering angle/tighter full-lock turns. A bit lighter, and just plain nice to ride ... a bit weird-looking though.
Now it is, but I was able to watch the whole 50-plus minutes of professional, well-done, floor-level video they put up this morning U.S. MST and again early this afternoon after a search on a friend's computer using youtube. But this evening, there is no hint that it was ever available.
FIM, are you really interested in expanding interest in the sport? Your youtube channel is full of videos of "plenary sessions" and other nonsense.
In the north, we are approaching the shortest day of the year. Perhaps we should all look at adjusting our meds a bit. Geez, let's lighten this up a bit.
Before giving up beer or pies, I'd recommend working on making sure you flex those legs of yours until your butt hits the mud guard. We have the best shocks ever made connected to our feet!
Pat Smage
in General Trials Talk
Posted
10-time US trials champion Pat Smage giving his all in Europe. Good reminder of just how good the boys from the "continent" are. Nice to hear how humble he is, but wow, what a brave young man he is to even show up! Great job Pat.
https://youtu.be/fDOtelRNhUc