still trying

I have tried removing two springs and the clutch slipped in third gear or higher. I came across an article on setting the clutch up for lightest operation which said to smooth the driving faces of the lugs on the plates and basket. The factory does not bother to smooth the plate edges after stamping them out, and this wears steps in the basket lugs increasing friction. Note make sure all the faces still touch at the same time when finished. The extra side clearance is not so important. Also to remove excess glue from between the friction pads. This definitely improves things and gets rid of any "grabbyness" and makes the clutch give better feel.

I have had similar issues over the years; Dirt causing the caliper pistons not releasing, fluid heats up break drags, break stays on, doom. Adjusting the master cylinder piston so it didn't return back past the tank port, break gets hot fluid expands, break stays on, doom water in the fluid, as things get hot it boils and puts the break on for you, doom (caused by sitting in storage too long) air in system spongy break, minor doom. And as mentioned above, warped disc, wheel bearings, loose axle etc,etc. Good luck fixing this and let us know what you find Frequently clean the caliper and pistons (exposed bit), then push the pistons back in and pump out, with the tank cap off, Don't let the level get too low.. Change the fluid at least twice a year Keep plenty of material on the pad. This keeps the pistons further in the cylinder giving them better support, reducing wear, and the chance that if worn they bind and lock, damaging the cylinder.

Welcome to getting older. My wrists are not the best thanks to riding with the levers too high, so don't do that either. Knees that have hit too many rocks/trees, now are only ok if not over worked and kept warm, otherwise much pain. A physio that helped setup the NZ institute of sport, told me that high doses of vitamin C (1000 mg +) per day, and magnesium for a week before and after an event helps with muscle recovery. Don't forget to drink s'loads of water as well, (recomended 3 lt/day). I couldn't go far from a loo for a couple of days, but it seemed to work, unfit me recovered in two days not a week (which was usual for me). And nowhere as sore. But don't continuously do this, as prolonged use might not be so good for your kidneys. Training tip; This can be done in the garage or driveway, or anywhere you have about 2.5 square meters. If you can balance while stationary,without the motor, back break on (hard) and bounce (hop) the front wheel. Do this as long as you can. It helps your balance, works all the muscles you use riding, and is a awesome cardio exercise. See if you can do this continuously for 5 min. Get a rear wheel support to keep the bike up if balancing is a problem To learn to balance on the spot. Full lock, breaks on and carefully get on and try. The wheel on lock gives a wider more stable platform to balance. A bit like balancing on a 4" plank Vs a 1" plank. To get the rhythm for hopping the front wheel; Stand astride the bike, Front break on, and push and lift the front wheel to find the rate it seems to work the easiest at. Note you don't have to be lifting off the ground doing this, just getting the feel for the rhythm / frequency that your forks work at. This is the best rate for hopping the front wheel. So when balancing try to "bounce the front wheel at this rate" This is how I learnt anyway, hope it helps. Sorry but its just loads of practice from here.

If I've understood your last sentence right, you pull the clutch in and it sounds nice. Could be and indication that there is rubbing until the side load on the clutch pushes things apart. Time to inspect, You could be risking selecting two gears at the same time, which never ends well. Go looking for side play. Something loose, or a bearing worn or loose in its housing. missing shim , or shim in the wrong place, etc. A good opertunity to improve the clutch action. Check the clutch basket edges and plate drive faces, (this is a likely source of metal bits, you may need a magnifying glass to see the true wear face properly). There was an article on setting up a clutch to reduce stiffness that covered this sort of thing, but I can't remember where I saw it. They talked about getting all the fingers on each plate to contact the basket lugs evenly, make the faces flat,smooth, and square to the face, also add small rads on the edges. Checking all the basket lug load faces were smooth and had small rads on the edges as well, They also checked that the lugs are parallel to each other, and square to the plate face. The result of the clutch work was better operation and reduced noise and effort on the lever ,so worth doing if you strip the box Good luck

Looking at his bio, he didn't have to pick the thing up. And I think 86kg is heavy, Time to manup. Now where are my cement pills

AS above except I use the axle in the chuck and a tube that slides over it between the chuck and the face plate. The axle is in the jaws and the "head" end has a center in it that the tail stock goes in. Used the tail stock to apply clamping force (not much), nipped up the final bit on the chuck, machined it quite slow with very slow feed on the carrage. pick which one suits and enjoy.

If its a challenge your looking for get a KT

Hi, I've been working on setup of shocks/springs recently and have found that for my bikes system the gas pressure helps tune the compression, i.e, it works with the spring to create progression by adding more resistance at the top end of travel and less at the start . This is because as gas is compressed the pressure increases exponentially, so it affects the final travel more than the initial travel. Use it to fine tune the suspension for bottoming. Set the spring sag for your weight and the small stuff. Then start adding pressure to suit, NOTE when you get it about right Reset the sag, as any pressure added will affect this. Then its back to testing, i.e, riding. It looks like the limits pressure wise for the shock is 300 psi, Don't exceed this for obvious reasons. But 0-300 would depend on your preference. The factory settings are to suit the weight of the average rider and the weight of the bike, hence tune to suit yourself and your style/level of riding. Nitrogen is the perfered gas, but air is ok and cheaper during testing. To get access to nitrogen, try performance tyre shops, they usually have a bottle and appropiate regulators hoses etc.

My guess is something is flexing or moving under high load As you have looked into cracked drum,cable failure, shoe lining delamination, wheel bearings. that leaves; cam bush wear, Break shoe pivot peg might be flexing when loaded, the shoes may also be flexing, Is the shoe carrier plate lined up with the drum? (check it matches the drum really well when assembled. Have the breaks on hard before and during tightening the axle), Place a finger across the plate and drum, when applying the break , feel if there is any movement This would mean that the shoes are not parallel with the drum across the face is the cable arm ok, not cracked, flexing, etc? (starting to look at extreme stuff now).

Once you start taking points for bad sportsmanship, i.e que jumping I'm guessing that it will stop Just figure out how to police it and your away

Hi, If you go ahead with this project; Take lots of progress pictures and post them in the projects section, we need more people doing this kind of thing. As for the setup of the bike, Google "Trials Australia" Go to "forums", Then,"twinshock and classic trials" Then, "Steer clear, Understanding steering for twinshocks" It will help you understand the issues and their effects on handling. I built a highly modified bike with very steep steering angle,and the result is very good. But I think I got away with it because I got the C of G much lower and back a bit. Result drop-offs are no worse than my '97 gas gas, And there is no appreciable tuck in unless applying the front break with a lot of lock on, (again no different from a modern bike). I think a lot of this comes from the rear setup. you will learn a lot from this project Good luck and enjoy.

Chuck a tire on it, and see what it does to the tread. It may close up the knobs and that would be bad for grip, I would think. If no difference it may be ok but will add weight to the front Vs a 1.60 rim.

I've just been to what we call a "Practice Trial". It's set out as a proper trial, with all grades set out as they should. The differences are; No score sheets No observers, (local trials don't have these anyway), Ride with your friends, Bringing along potential new riders Ride whichever sections you choose. Ride the section (or parts of it) in what ever grade you feel you can cope with. Which is perfect for trying the next grade up to see if you can cope with it,. also as commented above getting advice/training from better riders. Also good for testing out a new setup (or bike you've just built). . The aim is very much about being social and having fun. The organisers even break out the barbecue. Many thanks to them, More fun than a proper trial. Maybe this sort of trial should be as frequent as "proper trials these days, as it would give people a chance to practice that wouldn't otherwise have access to practice areas.... Just a thought.

Hi for what its worth I'm running my KT forks without springs It works like this; The oil viscosity does the usual thing of controlling the dampening. I'm using 5wt oil, (Note; oil weight is not the "be all and end all" of oil acting as a dampening agent, but that another saga) The air pressure at test sets the sag (initial spring at rest load / ride height) The air volume controls the progressiveness. Air volume is set by oil volume. Higher rate of change = less air, more oil. Note; as air is worked it heats up and increases pressure, Nitrogen is far more stable, so for the perfectionst, once a pressure is established, refill with nitrogen. The air has to push the oil out to leak from the seal in conventional forks, or get passed the cap/valve, so is easy to maintain and not likely to fail during a ride. This seems to be going ok. I'm only in the early stages of getting it all set up, so final results aren't in. But it is a cheep way to vary things. The only issue I had was the sliders being a bit sticky on initial movement. This came down to sticky seals, (cleaned and lubed now all good) Just an alternative way to consider.

Very cool that you guys have changed the focus to; preventing and dealing with possible injuries. Low speed at the moment of failure is definitely a big part of the lack of bad injuries in this sport. Mental note to self; when laying out sections look for any hard bits that require speed near dangerous drops/objects etc, and avoid/mitigate. I'm sure section setters are very aware of this sort of thing, and that the riders are quick to educate them if they miss something. In NZ we are required to have a first aid kit and someone able to use it at the event. The idea of observers having "crunchy rappers" is a good one, even if its only used to keep the observer warm and dry.

So the count so far is; 1 by natural causes 1 maybe yet to be confirmed genuine trials death Scope of replies; USA, UK, NZ, and dating back to '72ish conclusion so far; If you don't want to die, ride trials, and don't stop......ever! After all its the stopping that kills, AND we'll give you a five. Thanks for the replies, hopefully we'll get some more. This was started by a discussion following a mountain bike incident. A bit grim but food for thought, and an argument for better insurance rates. Don't lump us in with other bike riders maybe.

Can anyone remember anyone dying riding a trial. Not counting someone riding on public roads between sections. To my mind that's road riding where the rider is mixing with general traffic. I can't, and to my mind that makes this the safest motor, or bike sport. It would be interesting to compare results with other sports

The most fun on a trials bike for me is exploring new areas with a group of friends, or practicing with friends. I stopped riding properly in '97, and am just slowly getting back into it. Really enjoying the new venues, and catching up with friends. As for the competition, Don't really care, I ride a grade down from intermediate, but if its too easy I'll make my line more challenging. This means that I loose a few extra points. But it is way more fun and enjoyable this way. I try to clean everything for the challenge, not for the score.

I have wondered about this "leaning the shocks forward" and wondered why, and the only thing that makes sense to me is that by moving the top mount forward reduces the amount of effect the springs rate of increase has, As for sag, This has a big effect on the angle of the swing arm. If the frame pivot is above the axle, then there is a component of the driving force pushing up at the frame pivot, (jacking up the rear end and stiffening the suspension, steepening the steering). This could be useful when trying to get the rear to launch up something and not useful when riding small bumps when soft suspension is more desirable. So consider this against riding style and terrain you typically encounter. And as mentioned it needs to also to fit with spring rate and the shock setup. SO, Three things to get to combine; swing arm angle, shock design and rate, spring design and rate(s).. And once you get that sorted see how its bugged up the front end and go round again.

Yes turbo, I suffer Tuesdayitis too. Monday's are no problem. Also occasionally after a trial I get a headache, I've tried drinking plenty, bar position, different helmets without success.The Tuesdsyitis and headaches used to happen after enduros 20 years back too. I wonder if the headaches are from exhaust fumes. I definitely get a headache after a while, if the bar is positioned too close. The week after; Monday tired but ok, Tuesday back hurts, Wednesday shoulders and arms (back almsot ok), Thursday its the legs, arms and back ok. Friday recovered. My body hates me.!! Seriously have you tried hydrating days before the ride. My doctor told me I should be drinking 2 - 3 liters of water per day (talk about peeing every 3 minutes!!). Did help with recovery aches and headaches though. No I didn't keep it up at that level, but 2lt is do-able.

Hate to say it, but the other day I saw the Honda clip about the bike that can stand up on its own (self balancing) New frontier; Bikes that can self balance and ride up stuff !! Riders job is to plot the coarse and not fall off or bugger up the machines balance and be left behind S##t I hope not !!!,at least not until after I've been recycled You know your old when you aren't looking forward to the "next big thing".

I have often wished they would switch off, especially in confined spaces like in the bush, when the next section or two are fairly physically demanding, (I need all the oxygen I can get to concentrate). bush sections are usually the ones where you are working hard in tight steep places. Yes I too like the smell, especially some of the classics with the caster oil type smell, only way to take the stuff! The problem is that petrol is kinda not good for you in a major way. We should all change to methanol, yay, a new set of problems, go electric or turn off when not in use.

Todd what a well executed build, well done. Have you any progress photo's you could put in the projects gallery? It might inspire more people to get creative. Enjoy riding and tuning your new (?) machine, brilliant!