dan williams

Oh you better believe the plow guys are dancing all the way to the bank. 27" then 17" now maybe 20" in less than two weeks. They can plow but the roads are getting really narrow and New England roads often started out as cow paths so they're not only curvy but meet at weird angles. And of course there are the legendary Massachusetts drivers.

I used to shorten my bars all the time until I got the '08 and decided to leave them stock length. Shortening the bars won't make the bike more twitchy but it will reduce your leverage so when you drop into something the front wheel will have a little more leverage on you and it's easier to "tuck under" If you are having a problem with feeling like you are too far forward roll your bars forward a bit. This is one of those counter intuitive things but it does work. Rolling the bars forward causes you to stick your, er, rear back as you drop your body position to compensate. You also gain forward and back leverage because your arms are more in-line with the bars. This will make the bike more twitchy and faster turning. You will definitely notice on the loop but it will also make the bike feel better on drop-offs as it will be easier to get your weight back and low and will help on uphills as you can pull harder on the bars to weight the back wheel. As for Renthal vs. stock I was always a big fan of Renthals. There are three main dimensions for bars. Height, sweep and rise. Height can be considered the distance from the triple clamp to the mid point of the grip location of the bars. Sweep is the angle the grips are bent back from the plane of the center of the bars. Rise is the angle the grips are bent up from the center of the bars. Much of this is personal preference but at 5'7" you are pretty much within the norm for the standard bars except for the difference in shoulder width/arm length/torso length because you are a woman. That fact alone can affect your perception of the bikes geometry. There is no one answer and the best recommendation is try different settings for bar position to find what works for you. There are also set back pegs and moving the forks up/down in the triple clamps to fine tune steering response. Play with it all. You seem pretty competent with a spanner. What bars did your friends' bikes have and did they have accessory pegs?

Seriously?

Careful with oil capacity because the cartridge forks don't drain completely. Refill measuring oil level from the top of the tube compressed.

Hello, My hovercraft is full of eels.

Should always support farmers! They get precious little help from anyone.

...but you can pump it up again yes? That sounds like a leak in the system. I'd try a rebuild kit for the master cylinder first. On an older bike they're usually due for replacement. Before you do though make sure your bleeder valve is snugged properly as that can bleed pressure too.

Another 12+ inches today. Gonna be a while before the Beta comes out of hibernation this year.

Hmmm is your rotor bent? A bent rotor will slowly push the caliper open so when you first pull the brake it has to take up the slack. A small leak will show up as braking pressure that slowly decreases while the lever is held. A worn seal in the master cylinder will feel similar. Air in the line will make the brake spongy. If you hold the lever in once pressure is built does it stay or does it slowly get mushy?

Just milking the thread.

I had a 2005 that sat for too long without being started and the main bearings sounded like they were crushing rocks. It ran great but I had the bearings replaced immediately because running great was not likely to continue. You have to start them once in a while just to keep things oiled. I like to start my bike at least once a month in the winter leaving the choke on until it starts to gag on the rich mixture just to keep the bottom end lubed.

Yeah the glue between the pads just fixes the cold stick. The filing and polish of the tabs is what gives the clutch a progressive engagement. I know it's a pain to do but well worth it. Being able to have the engine in the heart of the powerband while feeding just enough to the rear wheel makes all the difference. Especially on the smaller bikes.

Amen to that!

Also make sure your idle is high enough.

Did you just clean out the glue between the friction pads or did you do the whole mod filing and polishing the ends of the tabs? If there's a bike that would benefit most from a smooth clutch it's probably a little 125.

No mosquitoes though.

Sounds like they should make them Torx to begin with.

Heh heh Dad'O I just knew your posts screamed engineer. I'm even worse, a self taught engineer! And yes I can hold my own in a company full of MIT grads.

Yeah it's a gift in the form of cold air from the guys in Ontario. Drops down while warm wet air comes up the coast and they meet over Boston. Once it's all properly mixed we give it back to Nova Scotia. Sorry about that.

Will do boss. Someday I hope to visit the land down under where it's usually sunny and every thing is venomous.

Come on guys. Let's not bicker over who killed who. Clearly it's not in GasGas favor to give out information during difficult financial negotiations. Dad'O makes valid points though his delivery is a bit abrupt. Might simply be a matter of who has a dog in this fight vs those who are simply seeing data and analyzing. We do get attached to our bikes and manufacturers especially in a market so small many of us feel part of the team. I think for the good of GasGas we all, myself included, should probably back off a bit.

Not sure why it's sideways but still appropriately creepy.

Tell me Clarisse, do you still hear the screaming of the lambs? Gotta dress right for digging out.

First things first, when you snap the throttle closed can you hear the slide bottom out? A rev out shouldn't break the bike unless it's going for some time. It is possible to overheat the cylinder and mini-seize the piston smearing the aluminum and causing the rings to stick in their grooves but that is probably not what's going on in your case. Certainly not at 50:1. You can check your compression if you think that might have happened. Not trying to be a jerk but do you have fuel flow? I say that from experience, kicking only to find I left the tap off. You could have sucked in a reed. That would make it tough to start as there is no intake port to speak of and the crankcase charge would be insufficient at low starting RPM. Is your kill switch sticking? Common on a Beta. Actually I think it's mandatory on a Beta. The fact you could kill it with the switch is a good sign as it means the cylinder didn't get hot enough to go into pre-ignition. Did you try using the choke? Could you have reassembled the carb wrong? I have on occasion. I've also had dealers do it as well. I think you may be in for another disassemble and careful reassembly of the carb just to be sure. I'm sure it's something simple. It usually is for a drastic failure mode.

The float setting procedure is similar. A couple of things to look for is the condition of the valve seat as the Keihin doesn't have the nice machined brass seat the Mikuni has. The other thing is the floats can bind on the bowl gasket. This sounds like your problem. The gasket can be trimmed with an exacto knife to keep it from sticking out into the float bowl. I greatly enjoy the fight to get the float bowl back on the Keihin. Took me about an hour the first time to figure out I needed to turn the damn thing upside down to even make it possible.