dan williams

The internals of the 2018s are different. Supposedly volume is now are the same for both legs. I changed the oil in mine and drained out roughly 300cc from each leg. manual says 297g. Replaced the 6.1wt with 2.5wt since the forks seemed far too sluggish in compression. Much cushier now. Don't try to drain forks with bottom screw. Remove them from the clamps and invert them. Yeah it's a pain. The screw on the bottom of the cartridge side doesn't come out properly on the new forks. It just gets loose but doesn't come out and then can't be tightened up again. I fought with mine for about two hours. Many bad words were said. I made a cartridge holder out of PVC pipe and it still wouldn't tighten. Finally resorted to tapping the top of the PVC while seated in the cartridge while turning the screw when it finally caught. The new forks look like the old Paiolis but they are made by Sachs. And after five rides on the new bike the oil that came out was full of aluminum in suspension. Much more than I would have expected. As if the sliders were not properly cleaned after being machined.

Cool, one more data point of clutch tuning. I think you're the first to go thinner plates on the 4T. On my 2Ts I do the clutch fix and run six of the thinner plates with 3mm step washers. That's my recipe and I'm sticking with it.

Since the 4t uses all 3mm “thick” plates you can use the kevlar plates from Barnett. 301-35-10012 Hey Billy, I have a set collecting dust. Wanna try them out?

Sigh

The 4t has all six of the thicker plates.

Finally got out on the new bike with tweaked suspension (heavier springs, 2.5wt fork oil) and not having a cold. Still lovin the VForce! Not a stall all day and this bike is geared up higher than the ‘13.

I had an awful time getting the screw to seat back in the bottom of the cartridge on my ‘18. I don’t know if your forks are the same but the Sachs assembled forks are not the same as the old Paiolis. To get the screw to seat I had to make a holder out of PVC to keep the cartridge from turning and tapped it with a plastic hammer to drive the assembly down to catch the threads on the screw. The whole time the screw would just stay in the fork leg and spin while weeping oil.

When you pull the carb off pull the reed block and have a look. You may have a broken reed.

This pretty much sums it up.

Basic diagnosing skills. You took the master cylinder apart and it looked OK. Reassemble and look elsewhere. Changing to an unknown master cylinder adds another variable that didn't need to be added. So assuming the master cylinder is OK you are left with the hose and the slave cylinder. If there is a leak further down the system you should lose fluid in the master cylinder every time you pump the lever. You should also see the fluid leaking unless it's the slave cylinder seal in which case it's just going to leak into the transmission. I have no idea of the effect of fork fluid in the hydraulics. It's not anything I'd do. If you don't see leakage along the hose I think your slave cylinder is probably compromised. Might also explain the variability in operation before.

Just FYI I went back to the 48 pilot as the 50 made the engine surge a bit rolling on power.

It's always possible the seal was damaged when replaced. It happens even to dealers. Has it leaked since it was replaced or did it just start some time after replacement? Typically a seal will be good for some time if the fork tubes are undamaged. A nick in the tube can damage a seal and will keep damaging seals until it's fixed. Sometimes dirt will get under a seal lip and hold it away from contact with the tube.

Where are you?

If it’s like the Beta it’s a cut allen key, pointy vise-grips many swear words routine. Immediately replaced by a bolt I can get a wrench on.

It’s all strategy. Experianced observers know this but you can only put up with so much abuse. This is where it’s critical to have the support of the sponsoring club. Before you can have a hard line on rules you have to know the trialsmaster will back you up. Nothing makes me less enthusiastic about observing than knowing if I make a hard call someone in the club organization will overturn it because a “top” rider whined until he got his way. If calling to the rules is not supported then it’s not worth the effort and everything is called like a beginner class. “Good job”, pat on the head, NEXT! Years ago I observed a US national and at the observers briefing the NATC rep went into a long diatribe about how everyone was there to have fun and not to be too strict on the rules. One of my buddies raised his hand and said, “So which rules do you want us to ignore?” Pretty much summed it up. Partial enforcement of any rule is how you end up keeping bad rules. It’s also the fastest way to make a sport unfair.

Stock is not a bad bike. The newer clutches are a lot better so plunking around on a stock bike for a while is OK. The 200 is such a sweet motor. You won’t even notice much difference between the stock clutch and the spacers immediately anyway. Where it becomes significant is end of an event after three-four hours on the bike that forearm fatigue makes the clutch finger weak. Then the lighter clutch pull helps. Get to know the bike first. Get some hours in and then you’ll know what you want to change to suit yourself. Maybe you’ll love it stock.

On bike. Does work but airbox still too close to open. Going to replace top bolt with small hex head so I can access from side.

Why?

Newest idea, I hate bleeding the rear brake since the high point of the system is the rear master cylinder. So I want to put a bleeder there. The problem is the airbox won’t allow a standard bleeder banjo. So I’m going to try this. I figure if I groove the threads for flow I can put a sealing washer on top and sneak in a cut off allen wrench to bleed when necessary. Titanium? Yup. Overkill? Well yeah! Would work better with the lower profile of a steel bleeder.

This is this forum at it’s best. Honestly sharing research and experience.

Close call then. Glad they can still put out bikes.

Todotrial and an enduro site had articles about a fire at the factory in Salt. Anybody know what’s up with that? I thought it was old news until I saw the Torrot logo on the building.

87 riders and perfect weather in the 70s with just a hint of sprinkles to keep the dust down. It doesn’t get any better than that.

On Board Diagnostic Computer port for reading out of an ECU Engine Control Unit. Cars all have a mandated OBDII port for monitoring sensors for emissions and programming updates into the fuel & ignition systems. Fundamentally useless on a carburated engine with no sensors unless you want to program ignition curve. Very useful if you have fuel injection though as you can program fuel curve and ignition curve like Vertigo and Honda.

Ah I just noticed the 2018 schematic has an OBD port. That’s new.