sammyd173

This is what helped me with timing for double blips and zaps. Practice the technique where you loft the front wheel into an obstacle and stop with the front tire resting in place on the face. Once you learn how to loft and plop the front wheel down and keep your balance, then try this: Loft the front wheel to double blip/ zap but go to land it the gently the same way you do when you are trying to stuff and balance. When it lands softly and a micro-second before it bottoms out, THEN you pop the clutch to get the lift. I was stuffing it in way too hard (oh missus!). Tried to pop the clutch as the suspension was still compressing at speed to use the momentum. It's like the bike comes to a stop for a fraction of a second and then launches.

Hello! Just got a 2012/ 2013 20.0. Previous owner said the batteries are new. When I charge the bike the fan continually cycles up and down i.e. speeds then slows. Anyone know what this might mean? Seems to happen after the bike has been on the charger for 20 mins or so. I'm aware not to charege for more than 5 hours. Thank you!

Wondering why these are $2.5k cheaper than a regular bike? Any differences besides wheels and forks? I have a ‘14 factory edition that is getting a bit long in the tooth. Rode one of these 125’s and loved it. Quiet and fun. Could even get one and swap parts over and resell the 300 at a bit of a discount...

As stated you unfortunately have to loosen a ton if not all of the other spokes to allow the hub to move back enough for the new spike to be attached. For me that means getting the local dealer to do it. No way around it!

Thanks all for the replies. I ordered both sides of the short half of the spoke. They are different lengths and have a different bend on the head . There is no way to just screw the two halves together. I tried and loosened the other interfering spokes - no joy, no way. So I have to have a shop loosen all of them so the hub can move relative to the rim. I will start paying more attention to my spokes from here on out!

Thanks for the reply; if I did that and re-tightened everything my wheel would be out of alignment! Never been good at that. Any other ideas out there?

I broke a spoke on the back wheel of my 2015 260 Cota. I got a replacement - it was for the bottom part that attaches to the rim. I can barely get the silver adjuster in between the two spoke halves, and because i have to screw it all the way in to one half there is no adjustment left to bring it taught. Any ideas? Could my supplier have gotten a 300rr spoke instead which won't fit?

The secret with fakies is leaning the bike into the ground to speed up the rotation. The more you lean the bike, the faster the rotation will occur. So, endo, roll back, turn the front wheel to the right, bike will initiate fakie turn, then smoothly drop the bike down further to the right and you'll speed up the process. I hope that helps!

I would practice on that grass slope. It's steeper and would be my choice. First thing though is to grab your mountain bike and learn to hop on the rear wheel without moving forward. Lock the shock if its got one. This will teach you to hop without having to zap forward, and will also teach you how to shift your hips to the side as you hop off the ground to jump the bike to the side (and stop it falling over). You will also figure out how to hop backwards and not step back off the bike when the front wheel gets too high (you simply pull the pegs back with your legs). Also, experiment while hopping with the 'bars close to you chest and further away to control front wheel height. Move your knees forward and back too, like you see when people 'manual' bicycles. Got all that?! Next I practiced/ continue to practice on wheelies on the trials bike in first gear where you almost loop out, then lock the rear wheel, and as the front comes down wheelie off again, and repeat. This is also hard. Finally, to get the rear wheel off the ground for the trials bike, it's a very quick stab of the pegs to compress the shock and then a flick of the clutch to accompany the rebound. I practice this from a crawl on flat ground. A fun trick is to do one hop on to the rear wheel, rear wheel locked, and then jab the pegs and hop backwards about a foot and land on both wheels. It's honestly not that hard, unlike doing successive hops. Good luck!

I'm wondering about how moving the rear wheel forward and back in the swingarm can affect what the bike does, and how noticeable it might be? It seems that the further back the rear wheel is, the more lift you would get when trying to blast up a rock. The cantilever effect would be amplified the further back the rear wheel was. Imagine the rear wheel a foot back (for mental illustrative purposes), and how much more that would lift you up as the rear wheel shot forward, sending you up. I wonder if Bou runs his rear wheel further back to get that amazing lift. It would also make sense - maybe - that the further back your footpegs are, the less of a lift effect you would get. Imagine your pegs all the way back to the axle of the rear wheel - you'd get no lift at all. Conversely (if anyone is still reading this blather), the closer the rear wheel is to the front of the bike, the easier it should be to balance on the rear wheel as you are not lifted up as high. Think of trials bicycles. And the further back the pegs are, the easier to control the bike on the back wheel? Then there's all the other implications of increased/ decreased rear traction, softening of rear shock when the wheel goes further back, and lots of other things I haven't even considered. So my question is, do any of you actually set up the back of your bikes with these effects in mind?

I think some riders would like the bottom end of a 300, and then then the mid-top of a 200. Lots of power off the bottom, no scary power when launching the bike with high revs. I think many of us (myself included) would do well to have some time on a 125 to get used to holding a bike pinned and then firing up things. Things would happen more slowly and be more predictable. It's taken me a while to get to this point on my Montesa 260. Hopefully I can transfer that over to my future 300 TRS!

So I have a 20" mod, 24" Inspired Skye and a 26" Ozonys. IMO, if you are at clubman level or below and you are trying to learn pivot turns, front hops, bunny hops, etc then you will do much better learning these techniques on a mountain bike with similar bar and pedal heights. If you've never been on a trials bicycle you will alarmed at the geometry, which is all based around being on the back wheel. This means pedals are very high up and 'bars are down low. They are also usually very far infront of the steering tube via a long stem which also makes the handling very awkward and further deviates from any similarity to a trials bike. I got trials bicycles because I like what people can do on them and I want to learn how to do stuff on the back wheel of my Cota, like hopping the bike sideways to keep balance at the top of a climb. If you can hop on the rear wheel or get close to it on a regular bicycle then give it a go. If you can't do any trick riding on a bicycle at all then this would be a big waste of money.

Interesting comments about the grooming. There was a situation at section 8 where Fuji and some other riders were grooming a kicker out of the dirt in front the biggest wall/rock. Checker came around the corner and stomped it out quite bravely and the crowd boo'd him, probably because the obstacle was so gigantic and impossible looking that they were just hoping to see riders get over. Then someone in the crowd yelled, 'it was already like that!' and so the checker let them rebuild it...! I think the sentiment was similar to the non-stop adherence or lack thereof. Who wants to stop a top rider from putting on a display? And the rocks were so big and dangerous in spots it almost seemed fair to let them do it. Almost.

Where was this taken?

Just thought I'd share something I was struggling with for a while and finally fixed. Front end would creak quite badly when turning the wheel from side to side, audible when the engine was off. Torqued head bearings - that wasn't it. Tightened the front mudguard - I was sure the fork brace had some play in it - that wasn't it. I turned out to be the allen head bolt under the right fork leg that clamps the axle tight. That was loose. Bit embarrassing really, I obviously forgot to tighten it after putting a new front tire on. That is all!

Nutter!

That's a lovely post Mr. Schrauber! Interesting to see how things are viewed by others in different countries. A couple of points - that's my garage, not my front entrance, that's a standard US gas can that I'm assuming you are seeing, we are in a perpetual drought in Southern CA so you'll have to forgive the fact that we have given up on landscaping. Also I'm British. Silly me though - and I'm not being sarcastic - I posted this question in the Vertigo board, so I assumed everyone would understand I was asking about how quiet a VERTIGO was and if the maps on IT make a difference. Not the Beta. The video was an example of the reason I need a quiet bike As far as the helmet - it's a downhill MTB helmet. Designed for crashes down a mountain at 40 mph. I'm ridng simple obstacles in my driveway and topping out at maybe 8 mph. I have a trials helmet for everywhere else I ride. Your statement about consideration for other board members shows a level of etiquette I can only hope to understand some day! Anyway, don't watch any older videos from the '80' of riders like Tarres riding helmet-less while practicing riding up obstacles mortals like us wouldn't even consider... Edit: the GoPro is on a chest mount, not the helmet.

Well that's just being nasty now. Talking of mothers, what would yours say if she saw what a mean-spirited person you've become? I'm sure she'd be disappointed. She'd say, "b40rt, why are you being mean to the other grown-ups on your motorcycle forum? And you'd say, 'But mum, this man showed up and it was his first time in the forum and he posted a video of himself showing off riding around and it made me feel a bit jealous and angry, and he didn't even do the 'I'm a newb' thing or offer to put his flame suit on! And then the other men on there started being a bit mean and unfriendly and it made me want to join in with them.' And your mum would say, 'Now b40rt, and that's a silly screen name by the way, I agree that the video was a bit much for a first post, but really, asking him about his sexuality? How old are you now?" And you would just look down and the floor and feel like a bit of a c*nt. =)

Christ, what a right bunch of miserable *******s hang out on this forum, eh? 8 replies and only one worthy comment to address the question, is this what these forums are supposed to be about? One **** that keeps posting Blade Runner links, another who has issues with where I live, and now the wise old safety police shows up. Quality stuff lads. I'm guessing the only one that actually owns a Vertigo is the one with the good post. Hopefully you lot can take out your frustrations with some riding this weekend - assuming you still ride.

Thanks dadof2, great info. I bought that Beta since it was the quietest bike made. Replaced that with a Cota 260 which I have now. Living on the washed out hillside terrace that I do - the road to which is covered as I type with dirt that has been washed down by the rain - I only have two neighbors and they never complain about the noise, nor would they if I had the Vertigo. The real reason I need the bike to be quiet is for the hundreds of acres I poach in the canyons and mountains next to my house, where the tree hugging assholes would faint at the sight/ sound of a dirt bike crawling over the land, notwithstanding the fact that hundreds of tons of soil are being washed away by the rains. Anyway I didn't want to mention the real reason as I was sure I'd get jumped on for riding illegally. Not that I give a sh!t, quite frankly =)

Do these bike run quieter, i.e. with less 'popping', if run on richer or leaner maps? Or does the bike always sound the same at or near idle? I ride around my property sometimes and a quiet bike is preferred:

Use your knees to static balance. Bending your knees and squatting lower on the bike can stop it falling over. Also moving your knees from side to side across the tank is a great way to maintain balance, rather than using bar pressure. I find that going up obstacles with the knees in tight works better than flaring your legs out. You might think that having your knees pointing way out gives more stability, like a tight rope walker holding a pole, but for me the effect is the opposite. If you go up something with your knees closer together, or ride in a straight line with them in, then it's easier to flick one out for balance. If both knees are already out you've limited your correction options. Try both next time out and see what works for you!

This is great info. The bike tried to kill me on Sunday. I was up a ways in some rocks and popped the clutch to do a small wheelie accross a gap. Bike died and the front wheel disappeared into the gap and I went crashing down. Stock gearing is too high for that stuff for me. Fuel was boiling also so bike was probably running hot which I'm guessing didn't help. A few blips of the throttle to raise idle and charge system up will help. Not great for confidence!

Good question - I really liked 42/10 gearing on the Beta. So I wondered what the equivalent would be on the Montesa. Primary Reduction Beta - 63/18 = 3.5 Primary Reduction Montesa - 3.167 So Beta has a reduction effect that is 10.5% higher, meaning it will run 10.5% SLOWER than the Montesa with the same gearing. That's about the difference of one tooth less on the front sprocket. So 42/10 on the Beta is like 42/9 on the Montesa. I think. The Montesa has a lot more power than my Beta 300 4t, so I'm willing to run this bike with faster gearing. The only time I really want for lower gearing than stock on this bike is when I'm at a dead stop and in the middle of a pile or rock and am bouncing an clutch-flicking my way out, or when the front is very high on a tricky part of a hill, from a dead stop again. But when doing an event as opposed to pleasure riding, this scenario happens to me a lot .

Thanks everyone. I get the overall impression that expert/ pro riders tend to run higher/ faster gearing than lower grade riders. Also the more grip there is, the higher the gearing, generally. We now have 6 of us in San Diego running these bikes and riding together at the weekends. Three of those bikes materialized in the last couple of months. We seem to spend most of our time trying to scare each other riding up large rocks/ slabs. Everyone is running 41/10 gearing. An advantage of keeping stock gearing is knowing what gear others are using for various obstacles/ challenges. A bit like Motocross when you are trying to figure out whether to use second or third off a jump, and you can ask your buddy what he is using. I keep telling these guys, 'Rocks for show, corners for dough!' but they're a motley bunch, so splatters and zaps is where it's at. Last time they went out - I was on kid duty - one guy dislocated his shoulder off a drop-off, and another dude who is a novice looped out and dislocated his elbow and fractured his arm in three places. Both his bikes are up for sale. No idea what gearing he was running.