dan williams

There is a TINY hole in the bottom of the bore in line with the needle jet that sometimes gets plugged by water. Usually twice a year I disassemble my carb, including the stack in the float bowl that is held on with T20 security screws, and blow out all the passages. I agree it sounds like your jet assembly is put together a bit wrong. I think the main jet holder is supposed to hold the needle jet in place from the bottom. The PWK Keihin is quite a good carb but like any of them, get one bit a little out of place and the bike will run but run lousy.

Did you clean it out with compressed air. The Keihin has a tendency to get a water bubble in the tiny bleed hole in the throttle body. The only way to clear it is with compressed air. The vent tube is at an angle which makes putting the float bowl on a pain. The technique is to slide it on while holding the carb upside down. By needle seat do you mean the needle jet?

Great. It makes a load of difference at novice level. You can now feather the clutch and work throttle and clutch against back brake for really fine control. That's where the lower preload on the springs pays off in less fatigue at the end of the day. It may slip a little in sixth but nobody is scoring you when you're in sixth.

I feel like I just watched a documentary on the Canadian Civil War. Sorry but it is rather entertaining. Apology for being rude. Rudeness. Apology for upcoming insult. Mild insult. Apology for angry tone. Have a nice day. Canadians are so nice.

There are probably some ATAQ guys who would know what was happening and who to talk to in Montreal and possibly Ottawa. I'm not sure if Hugo Piche is still running the website but he's probably one to talk to. http://www.ataq.qc.ca/forum/portal.php Real good guys up there in Quebec. They're fond of nasty slippery events.

Hi Al, I've got a couple spare fibers in the garage I could send you one. Are you in the states?

Well we don't really need stands in New England since the trees are 6" apart. Throwing a bike on the ground intentionally is against my nature.

You lucky *******!

Titanium isn't stronger than steel for an equal amount of material. It is stronger as a strength to weight ratio. Depending on the alloy (titanium 6AL4V) is stiffer but will micro-fracture when flexed beyond its elastic limit. Like aluminum bending it back weakens it severely. Anyone who's had a street riding friend sit on their trials bike while the stand's down knows how easily they bend. Street riding friend is always shocked but never offers to pay for a replacement I've noticed.

I just put a bunch of titanium screws on my bike. I'm a big fan of the bling factor. Any effect on my riding? Nope. Sheer vanity. I will say the titanium pipe on my '08 gave it a lovely growl.

Only twice the price? You must have connections.

If you're new to trials bikes you may be unaccustomed to how much compression a trials bike actually has. It's not uncommon to be sitting in line at a section and be hit by a pulse of air from a bike some distance away. A healthy bike will sound poppy at low RPM.

It's all shape. The pipe material has no effect on engine characteristics. The main benefit is weight saving. One downside is the titanium header seems to be hotter near the exhaust port than a steel pipe. Possibly because titanium is not as good of a thermal conductor as steel so it doesn't distribute the heat as well. If you can find a copy of Gordon Jenning's book, "The Two-Stroke Tuner's Handbook" on-line (I've seen it as a PDF somewhere) it does an excellent job of explaining wave behavior in an exhaust system. As odd as it seems electrical signals behave in exactly the same way. When I started to get into laying out transmission lines on circuit boards it all seemed very familiar because of my understanding of expansion chambers.

Do you have an exhaust leak at the header?

I don't believe there is packing in the mid box, just baffles.

Haven't heard that one before but interesting.

Yes very common to roll them forward.

IKB replica washers installed. Now to just ride the beast and see what it's like.

Beta used the Mikuni from '86 to '94. Dellorto was only on the '95. I hated it because you couldn't get jets then. Swapped it out for a Mikuni. Ran much better. At the time the Delorto was a new design and had two piece pilot jet assembly. Beta went back to the Mikuni in '96 and stayed with the VM26-208 until 2008 when they switched to the Keihin PWK.

No reason you can't put one in parallel with a traditional push button. I also am not keen on the elastic as it seems like a stupid way to do things that it will smack you every time it comes off. The non-stretch lanyard from Microcenter fits the magnet. I think the better answer is something that senses RPM and whether both hands are on the bars and then limits the engine speed and then shuts down after 10 seconds. The elastic really doesn't seem like a well thought out "solution"

There's always bringing it to events. Not only trials as enduro riders are likely to buy one just for cross training if the price is reasonable.

YES! Good work sorting it out.

...and another thing, the failure isn't at the world level. The failure is local as that is where the sport grows from. People often bemoan the lack of competition at the top. Nobody starts at the top. Taking care of the beginners and newbys is what builds the sport. Unfortunately it's a process that takes decades to get a healthy crop of world riders and it starts with the beginners.

There's a niche sport and there's a dead or dying sport. There are fewer spectators because there are fewer riders. There are fewer riders because there are fewer spectators to say, "Hey that looks like fun. I think I'll try it." There are fewer dealers because there are fewer riders. There are fewer trials clubs because they can't make enough money to cover expenses. There are fewer places to ride because there are fewer clubs. The largest manufacturer of trials bikes just went belly up. This may not seem a big deal in England because there are so many clubs but it's coming. Here in the states we're slowly going back to an unknown sport as the best riders leave for X-games and Nuclear Cowboyz. No major press shows up to the nationals. Sponsorship is some local garage owned by a rider or a local deli. Dad's just making an observation. The knee jerk reaction is always the same and is the reason the sport is shrinking.

It occurred to me today that the calculated clutch preload is probably a bit different with the two thick friction plates on the new bikes. Anybody got one of them plates and a caliper handy? I gave mine away. Actually I gave my whole 2013 clutch pack away.