dan williams

Read the clutch fix pinned at the top of the forum.

...and I heard the suggestion last weekend of going to second only from third on an EVO. Considering mine has popped out of second a few times now with bad results I'm thinking I need to adopt this strategy.

Excellent. The clutch mod does a lot more than the deglazing of plates but whatever works... Hard shifting from clutch drag as you described can also be odd things like warped plates lined up just wrong in the clutch pack or plates not concentric due to the tabs being lumpy. Other guys on here like Billy Trainor have done really good work on sorting that stuff out. I suspect you shifted the alignment of the plates on reassembly and that may also have helped. I think you deserve a lot of credit for keeping at it until it worked. Not everyone has that patience. Keep an eye on the engagement point to make sure the hydraulics aren't weeping and it should be good for quite some time.

I like it. Still pulls like a locomotive but the sudden hit has been transformed into a nice linear curve.

Great shot. Love the smile but that four legged observer looks tough.

I'd love to. Looking at your area on Google Earth it looks like cracking good trials terrain and just plain pretty as well.

Well tooled around the yard with the new chamber. Easier to kick and a little mellower at the upper mid but still a 300. Event Sunday so I'll see if I've tamed the beast. Started first kick. Also installed the bigger impeller kit recommended by my dealer.

Hey 0007 that's brillant.

Just north of Boston USA

New bikes have a head that is a seperate combustion chamber inside a water jacket. Yeah it kind of weirds me out but that's the new normal.

OK I think there's something else going on. Is the clutch behaving properly as a clutch and just the gears are hard to change? Beta's are known to be notchy at best. I think a lot has to do with the long aluminum shifter but the gearbox is nowhere near Japanese MX bike smooth. How is the action of the shifter when done by hand? Does it shift hard in all gears? Worn pads would exhibit slip in the higher gears but won't affect shifting. We need more info.

You could also take some fine emery cloth to the steel plates just to deglaze the surface. I think when I've measured fiber plates they were always 2.7mm but not knowing if that was good or bad I just schlepped them back in.

When my club held events taking the beginners around was the most highly sought after job. It was great fun.

Yeah I thought of it but I like the grunt of the bigger motor. Part of the big power hit is ignition timing but I think the main difference is the compression ratio and not so much displacement. Speed of flame front sort of thing. I've already lowered the ratio with a 10 tooth sprocket. There are many options but like all tuning it's best done incrementally. As for the gasket my calculation showed just adding 1mm dropped the compression ratio from 10.2:1 8.9:1. Pretty significant. Of course I don't know what the stock gasket is.

I've been using Engine Ice in my Betas. It's propylene glycol so non-toxic and it's premixed to reduce the ionic contaminants that cause corrosion. NEVER use tap water. It's usually loaded with things that are bad for the metal in your cases. If you must mix water look for DI (deionized) water at the local drugstore.

The hole between the resevior and the piston chamber may be blocked or improperly drilled.

Well there are the two other causes of clunk I've experianced and one was a loose damper rod on a Zero which required the making of a special tool to stuff down into the fork to tighten and the other was the bearing seating issue which requires tighening the nut to reseat the bearings. For the teflon tape one or two layers only as more won't fit. Yeah it's a pain. Have you noticed most of my suggestions are? If it makes you feel any better last night I decided to swap out my combustion chamber. Bike is still in pieces. Bit more of a pain than I thought.

Removing springs is really not the core of the mod. It was done just as an experiment to make the pull lighter and some tried it and had slip in the higher gears. The real benefit comes from polishing the tabs (slip and lightswitch engagement) and cleaning the glue out between the pads (cold stick). I'd be really surprised if you need a new clutch pack. Try the mod first.

Ok so you probably have the old style 6 fiber plates all the same. If your bike was owned by an expert the plates could be worn from high RPM dumps. If it was owned by the typical rider your plates should be fine as far as wear. Try the mod. I think it will help.

New designs will work pretty much the same if they don't do the finish work to the pieces. Look at the trouble GasGas had with their new design until they got it sorted.

Yeah you gotta watch out out for your buddies while the bike is in surgery. The most frightening for me was when I was working on a friend's Subaru brakes with less than the proper safety gear. His wife, who is a sweetheart but rather, er, Rubinesque wandered over and said, "How's it going?" and leaned on the car with a thud. I never moved that fast in my life. Damn near peed myself.

As always check the clutch mod thread at the top. The EVO plates are much better gluewise but the tabs still need to be polished for smooth engagement and to reduce slip. Oh yeah and you could use less oil. Some recommend 500cc and filling to the top of the sight glass is probably 600cc plus. It won't hurt anything just gives a little more hydraulic drag. Edit just reread and noticed no year on thread. 2013 and after have two thicker plates so more spring preload. Makes slippage unlikely unless someone before you put in some superslicky oil not meant for clutches. I find it usually takes three or so changes to really get things back to normal in that case. Other possibility is something like slick50 or Prolong which can permanently affect the plates. If you do the clutch mod take the plates out and give them a good wash.

On mine the hole in the top triple clamp is slightly too big for the stem. Same on my '08. Lock the front brake and rock the bike forward and back and see if you can feel the stem moving independent from the top triple clamp by placing a finger on where the stem goes through the top clamp. If it does pull the top clamp off, wind some Teflon plumbers tape around the stem below the threads. Doesn't take much. Put it all back together and no more clunk. The other thing that happens with Betas is the head bearings initially don't seat properly but you've already tensioned the stem nut so you've pretty much eliminated that as the cause.

Mags you are already a champion in my eyes.

Talking to the new riders is something I do as much as possible. It's the best way to learn, for me. When the rules were changed here one of the points used to justify it was, "Adults don't want to ride with kids." I call bullocks! I've spent years talking to new riders young and old and the prevailing opinion was they loved it. The kids loved the encouragement and praise from the adults who were struggling with the same obstacles and they really loved it when they could beat the adults at their own game. The adults loved it because it's fun to watch the little guy improve and struggle and cry in frustration only to beam when they finally achieve. Lifelong friendships are made that way. I rode beginner class with Geoff Aaron. How cool is that. Later when Geoff or Ron Commo would take the beginners around I would often check in to see how things were going since I was a club officer. The look on the faces of the beginners both child and adult were priceless. Here's this guy they read about in magazines and see on TV holding their front wheel and teaching them how to balance and taking it every bit as seriously as the rider or cheering them on when they finally get around that tight corner. It was a magical time in New England. Greeni you started a good thread. For you new riders who are frustrated you have a voice. Get involved with the local club and push for the changes you need and if they don't happen then make your own club. Another of the things I pushed for when I was an officer of NETA was equality. From the top expert to the newest beginner you have a vote. It's your club. From that I believed in the wisdom of the membership. Several times there were proposed changes that marginalized new and young riders usually starting with something innocuous like only mailing a single copy of the newsletter to a family instead of one to each member. On the surface it again seems like a good way to save money but it starts the slippery slope of saying kids/wives/etc aren't members in full. If you are expected to pay membership dues and work and event for end of year credit you get all the benefits along with the responsibilities. Be wary of clubs that only listen to "wizened" old men. By all means learn from them and ask them why they do what they do. You may be surprised at the depth of their thought processes and how much they learned from those that went before them. But be wary of those who are not willing to accept the challenge of justifying their actions. If they blow you off with, "Because it's the best way" they are just afraid of change. One of the hallmarks of the NETA meetings was the give and take where you proposed a rule and really had to defend your reasons to show you had thought it out. Democracy in action, good stuff.