dan williams

Ouch. Jon and Billy T have forgotten more then I'll ever know.

Heh heh you've never ridden in New England.

Carburation too lean (blocked jet, sticking float, air leak), ignition too advanced (set wrong, bad ignition, sheared woodruff key), blocked exhaust, no air flow through radiator, no coolant flow through radiator (low coolant level, bad impeller/water pump), Bad fan or thermo switch, air leaks in intake tract, pinhole in coolant system causing loss of pressure, bad radiator cap, leaking head gasket/o-ring forcing combustion gases into coolant system, the list goes on. Yeah you really should have stopped and baby'd the poor bike back to the garage. Once you get it back together, and the act of reassembly gives you a golden opportunity for an in-depth visual inspection, check each system off one at a time. Fluid level in radiator correct, filled with proper coolant so it has a higher boiling point then water. Hint: While filling pinch the hoses to chase out air bubbles. No visible leaks. Radiator cap on correctly. Exhaust system not gunked up. Timing checked with a timing light. Carburation - bike doesn't ping and runs clean. If it does ping or run lean put on choke to see if it helps. If it does carb off for cleaing and look for air leaks. Radiator clean, fins aren't packed with mud or debris. Fan comes on after a few minutes of running. Remember the cooling system has to be pressurized to work. That allows the coolant to be at a higher temperature without boiling. If the pressurization fails then the coolant boils and undergoes a

Kill switch is bad. Not properly isolating the hot wire from the bars. Replace with a good two-wire kill switch. The kill switch wire is usually about 400V so if the ground through the headstock is not great (it isn't) then there can be a couple hundred volts leaking onto the bars.

Mav TV is currently running day 1 of the RI national. Here's the schedualed airtimes and dates July 9 - 2:00 am EST - NATC Trials: Exeter (part 1 of 2) July 10 - 10:00 am EST - NATC Trials: Exeter (part 1 of 2) July 10 - 3:00 pm EST - NATC Trials: Exeter (part 1 of 2) July 11 - 12:00 pm EST - NATC Trials: Exeter (part 1 of 2) July 11 - 5:00 pm EST - NATC Trials: Exeter (part 1 of 2) July 15 - 8:00 pm EST - NATC Trials: Exeter (part 2 of 2) July 16 - 2:00 am EST - NATC Trials: Exeter (part 2 of 2) July 17 - 10:00 am EST - NATC Trials: Exeter (part 2 of 2) July 17 - 3:00 pm EST - NATC Trials: Exeter (part 2 of 2) July 18 - 12:00 pm EST - NATC Trials: Exeter (part 2 of 2) July 18 - 5:00 pm EST - NATC Trials: Exeter (part 2 of 2) July 22 - 8:00 pm EST - NATC Trials: Cayuta (part 1 of 2) July 23 - 2:00 am EST - NATC Trials: Cayuta (part 1 of 2) July 24 - 10:00 am EST - NATC Trials: Cayuta (part 1 of 2) July 24 - 3:00 pm EST - NATC Trials: Cayuta (part 1 of 2) July 25 - 12:00 pm EST - NATC Trials: Cayuta (part 1 of 2) July 25 - 5:00 pm EST - NATC Trials: Cayuta (part 1 of 2) July 29 - 8:00 pm EST - NATC Trials: Cayuta (part 2 of 2) July 30 - 2:00 am EST - NATC Trials: Cayuta (part 2 of 2) July 31 - 10:00 am EST - NATC Trials: Cayuta (part 2 of 2) July 31 - 3:00 pm EST - NATC Trials: Cayuta (part 2 of 2)

Can't beat "Bold new graphics"

Heh heh the timing error wasn't a little bit. When I revved the engine it just folded right over. It pulled OK off idle though and that was what threw me. Once I got the light on it the timing was clearly going the wrong way. My bike also ran sort of OK but there was no power and it would start pinging after a while even on VP race fuel. When the engine was cold it didn't ping or knock. I've always wondered if my bike was that unique "built on a Monday" machine. I'm really interested to find out if there were others. Maybe why the bikes didn't really catch on. Sprinkle a few of these out there and the bike gets a bad reputation that the factory never figures out.

This is a classic case of what happens when the rules are not enforced. The response is usually more rules that won't get enforced and so it goes. If you catch a minder gardening in the section an immediate five stops all that activity for the rest of the day for all minders. If they yell and scream they get the 25 point misconduct. That stops the yelling and screaming for all riders all day. The rules work if you use them. A couple friends of mine observed a world round many years back where a rider and minder started to get in the face of the guy with the punch. Bad idea. After yelling at him in French for a while and ignoring the order to step out of the section my other friend who was the chief observer for the section yelled, "Punch him 25 Bob!" Apparently they understood that, turned around and took off. The big problem occurs when the trialsmasters and the sanctioning body don't back up the observers, overturning decisions and giving the observers a hard time for enforcing the rules. I've seen it happen many times. At a US national last year during the observer's meeting the NATC rep said, "Don't be too strict because we're all out here for a good time." After a few odd shuffles in the crowd our local club president raised his hand and said, "So which rules are we supposed to ignore?" There was a big laugh in the crowd of observers because 1. It was a valid question after what we were told. 2. It's New England and we're known for being strict on the rules. Especially for a national. Seriously, if the rules can't be enforced we might as well give the championship to the guy with the shiniest bike. Observing is only miserable when you must worry about enforcing the rules, but not too much lest you upset somebody. Oh yeah, have you noticed the guys who are the most indignant are the ones who make the most blatant fouls?

OK so you're no Amos Bilbao. Yeah you could probably use a heavier spring.

Yes but check it with a timing light first. As always with such off the wall advice do at your own risk. It worked for me but by that point I was desperate.

As far as I know all the propylene glycol coolants are premixed and ready to use. From the Silkolene website PRO COOL Advanced, all-season engine coolant based on propylene glycol for reduced toxicity levels. Formulated with 50% distilled water

My friend commented the rear suspension on his new GasGas seemed very soft. Before doing any adjustment though we went out to a practice spot and I watched closely as he rode a series of obstacles. We then took a good look at his suspension and noticed on the new GasGas the shock travel is different then other bikes. The shock has a very short range of free motion before it hits an elastomer bumper. The bumper itself is quite large. Too large to be just a travel stop for the shock. The conclusion was that the soft spring takes care of the small bumps but the elastomer provides a secondary spring rate for the larger hits. It may be that GasGas found this to be a better solution then a progressive or dual rate spring. It's certainly cheaper to manufacture. After another session of closely observing his suspension while he rode I could see no bad behavior from the system. It didn't have uncontrolled rebound on hits and wasn't violently bottoming out either. In fact it seemed very well controlled and "sticky". End result, we left it alone. Unless you're heavier then the average rider you'll probably do well to leave it at or near the factory settings. The bike is so different feeling then the Beta it'll take a while to get used to it so don't over think it. Just ride it. You'll get used to it.

It can't mechanically shift into reverse. What can happen is the engine can run in reverse if the timing is set too aggressive. Two stroke motors don't know the direction they are running except for ignition timing. If the timing is close to TDC (top dead center) the engine will happily run backwards.

I had the CanAm badged version. I went through replacing all kinds of things to get that bike running properly including a steel cylinder sleeve and the only spare cylinder in the US. It would idle fine but when I'd go to the higher revs it would heat up and ping and just never seemed to run right. Then one day while checking the timing with a timing light for the Nth time I noticed something odd. When I revved the engine the spark would retard. HUH??? The ignition had two wires coming out, a charge wire and a trigger wire so I tried the only option. I swapped them and retimed the bike at idle. It ran perfect after that. At which point I promptly sold it and got the 350cc Jumbo powered version. Now that was a scary bike. Soooo check your ignition advance with a timing light. Yours may be hooked up the same. Good luck.

Er wait a minute. Holes in the rubber mud guard? Yes that is where the tail light wires go through. They do not go through the airbox. Are the holes in the air box or just the mudguard?

Sad but true. GasGas is taking over the world.

No wiring goes through the airbox. That's BS. It's critical to seal the filter around the top of the box with some lithium grease. I'd be p****d (American definition not British definition) I suppose it's against TrialsCentral policy to tell us who this dealer is so they may be avoided.

I love this line, "His logo is on the top of the filter cage and really makes this bike a Cabes

From what was said earlier about the 4T clutch pull it's entirely possible it uses lighter clutch springs anyway. Hmmm according to the engine manuals for the 08 2T and 4T same part number (13.5kg spring) EDIT I think this should be 13.5 N/mm] Could be affected by fluid type or the adjustment bring a bit too tight or it could really just be slipping.

The real question is how did my buddy Stuart in Sr50 score a 9 point ride in section 9.

olec: Oh ye of little faith. scorpion: Yeah I just take the two bolts out. Why leave in something that can get loose and cause bad things to happen?

I'm thinking it's time to come up with a stator with replaceable coils. This replacing of a large assembly makes no sense at this point. Anybody got a dead stator they want to send me for post mortem?

As a friend of mine said, "Every direction looks the same when your nose is 4" off the ground." After it took him 4 hours to crawl out of the woods his wife made him give up riding. At least leave somebody information on where you are going to be and expected time home. Carrying a cell phone with a GPS is good also.

OK this is going to seem insane (like much of what I say) but I was wondering what would happen if you dropped a few drops of candle scent into your premix. You know to sort of... freshen up the line at the section start.

Did you measure the gap after stroking the damping rod a few times to make sure the cartridge is full of fluid? It's easy to be fooled into thinking the cartridge is properly full or empty for that matter. It got me on the last seal change. Filled the forks with the recommended amount of oil thinking I had pumped out the cartridge and had about 2" of fork travel on the first test ride. DUH! My guess is if you pull the cap off and remeasure you'll be low. If not then at least that's one possible thing out of the way.