tsiklonaut

Headlight is just fixed with two clips. Just take easy on them and in warmer temperature, so the plastic doesn't snap easily. Headlight and it's wiring is a complete chinash*it (read cheap and fragile), I've broken the wires many times and they self-destruct in time anyway. In the end I just binned it and the dead headlight stays in place just as a design element, rear I just removed, LOL.

My TR280i has well over 300 hours, so had my trusty '13 for some well deserved refreshment, made it more minimal and elegant looks, more OSSA style:

Yep, check the master cylinder as well and try to replace the piston (the seal lips wear vs the new ones will give you a good indication). If the pack thickness is correct then it just doesn't hydraulically push clutch enough to engage fully. Removing all air from the hydraulic system is vital of course.

On a second thought quite sure it's the master cylinder plunger seal. I had the same symtoms once. Those AJP seals wear fast, I always buy multiple to keep as spares.

Clutch pack is probably too thick? If so, grind the plates carefully (evenly) down to OSSA spec. It's the same design as GasGas Pro series, pack thickness needs to be right for the best feel and performance. I recently got Xiu-RDi kevlar clutch for my 280i, fantastic piece of kit. Much better feel over the stock clutch and costing just some 20 EUR more than stock. Xiu-RDi Pack thickness is spot on, no need to measure anything, just install it and you're good to go!

Wow, if true That'd be very nice if we could have the updated 2017 OSSAs! Dont think the client base is decreasing though... We both with wife like our 280 so much that there's a good cahance we'll buy a 250 regular or 300 factory into family, depends who will win the argument!

I've put over 300 000 klicks on clock meself with boxer BMWs - let me tell you, the changing of ports from rear-to-front to up-to-down wasn't the issue. It was about the aestethics coming from air cooling and going to liquid-cooling from the later models. The new ones are unproven, but the older air/oil cooled boxers are among the most reliable engine I've known. Hank, a friend of mine has his 1995 R1100GS stacked up to 500 000 miles (over 800 000 kms) with everything stock in the boxer engine! Boxer layout itself is by far the best air-cooled engine by nature, by far - cylinders are sticking fully out of the frame and getting all the air you need, no matter where you place the ports. It's no accident the piston engined airplane manufacturers (Cessna, Piper etc) prefer de-facto boxers for their effective cooling, accessibility, ease of maintenance and most of all: reliability. Engines, that are stuck between the frame (singles, inline and V [minus transverse Guzzi]) that do not get a direct air are a worriy if you require air cooling, hot port(s) from the front add massive additional hot air to the already airflow lacking engine in the direaction of motorcycle movement (and why the liquid-cooling is very important for those type of engines). So in case of OSSA the front port's hot part doesn't add additional heat to the working cylinder behind, it get's cool intake air instead, I do believe this layout saved me from seizing it from overheating. Anyways, just me 2c and I'm still amazed the thing keeps going strong!

Well, me idiot forgot to connect the rectifier after I installed the stock exhaust (me old Termi needs some carbon fibre repair). Basically I rode 2-3 hours without cooling and voltage control! ECU should be fryed (overload), engine should be seized (from excessive heat), but NO, the 2013 very-high compression headed OSSA TR280i thing kept going and going without blinking! I thought it's running a bit strange, and after a very hard core section I noticed vapour fog coming from below the engine (coolant vent) and noticed there's no fan action. Then the shock came and I released my mistake. The designer of OSSA TRi, mr. Xiu, put a lot of effort on getting the optimum thermodynamics and efficency out of this engine (and the reason why it came out with such a radical design - engine always gets cool air from the front and hot exits from the rear, not like with the flawed classical front-exhaust ported bikes where the hot air from the exhaust always falls into the engine). In any case, I'm relatively sure any Sherco, GG or Beta would have piston seized into bore already after that kind of heat abuse Of course I quickly I replaced the oil - to my surprise it looked very clean, almost half of the coolant was boiled away, I it topped up. Rode some additional 3 hours in different days to be sure it's fine - the thing keeps going strong like nothing has happened, so all looks to be set and fine. Top marks to OSSA designers and engineers! This TRi platform has so much potential if they could keep this fantastic design going and improving!

Been running the Xiu kevlar clutch for some time now - much better feel over stock IMO. Comes spot-on pack thickness from the shop, very high quality since I couldn't even find thicker-thinner parts after a lot of measurments when installing them into basket, in the end had to put them in randomly and it was butter-smooth, tractible and highly controllable clutch action after some 1-2 hours of run-in. Let's remember Xiu actually designed OSSA for the most part, he knows his stuff! Anyways, highly recommended!

I'm using this function. It really helps to make the this best 2T trials engine in the market to run even smoother. It depends on your riding style, how you oil and how much you oil your air filter (how much air the engine gets) and what exhaust you're running (how good the "flow" is). For Termignoni I run between 102-103% that seems to do the trick for the best smoothness in power delivery for my riding style and less "popping", since Termi seems to run leaner (better flow vs stock). For stock exhaust I still experiment, currently 101.5%, a bit too much popping and unstable under load or free running, might tune leaner next time I connect the ECU. I use very "sticky" Motorex air filter oil, but the flow seems to be good since I tend to go on the richer side (over 100%).

Yep, many of my mates have destroyed wheel and steering bearings, injector heads, Hall-sensors, TPS-es and other electrical bits, ... and the list goes on, on their various bike with a simple occasional jet washing. That massive water pressure penetrates water so deep you can't believe, people even find water in their cranks ("coffee" colored oil) through breather via airbox on some bikes after jet washing, no joke. No wonder most motorcycle manuals strictly ban jet washing. It's OK for cars where everything is under a blanket of metal, but AVOID jet-washing your exposed bikes IMO!

Hard to say, maybe they're waiting to update with 2017 models, LOL. Smell more like OSSA is done though. There's not much to compare with, GG was reborn but it has long recent ongoing history compared to fresh OSSA or i.e. even a reborn Jotagas for example. Time-wise OSSAs are operating in dangerous "zone" of product presentation - it's been around for what, just 4-5 years maybe. It's not enough to put yourself firmly on the brand map. OSSA also had zero to very little product advertisement, while tried they also couldn't buy any real top rider such as Raga or Bou to put them on the map with a shortcut (like newcomer TRS does now). It was the long and hard way route they had to work on. The bike itself is fab - a big pro for OSSA product is it's revolutionary technology side - radical yet optimum engine and frame layout, first 2T FI in the segment, also the lightest non-special-edition bike (w/o using expensive materials) in the segment. I really hope they could continue operate in a very small factory, since the bike is worth premium for a limited hand-made but high quality production runs IMHO. Develop and finetune already one of the best platforms in the segment (other being Vertigo) with every year model updates and they maybe they'll win a stable and loyal client base. Knowing it's a very capable bike I'd definitely buy a limited run brand new hand-made one even if it's some 1.5K-2K more than some similar mass-produced known manufacturer (GG, Sherco, Beta etc) model that weights more, poorer build quality and probably performs less. In any case I love mine to bits and will continue to ride it for some more years until some other trials manufacturer finally starts to think by itself and builds a trials-bike ground-up for the intended purpose, give it real form and function, not just copying others like 95% of the trials designers and engineers tend to do. Anyways, just me 2c.

Could be a misaligned TPS. Check spark plug cable - it may be loose or scratching against the frame. It may be weak fuel pump,

Yep, Kevlar clutch supposed to be better feel than the original, pack thickness is spot-on according to my dealer. I'm ordering one as well.

Albeit expensive (445 EUR + shipping from OZ) it's looking good indeed. Lubable nipples are nice. So in theory you only have to replace the bores on the swingarm?

Well, my wife had a dash on me TRi yesterday and boom, it suddenly locked up. Thankfully while working on low RPMs. Turned out one of the 5 gearbox fixing bolts vibrated loose and did this: The little fecker who's fault it all was is in the front in two bits. "Thankfully" it only damaged the crownwheel, if there were high-RPMs the damage could have been way more catastrophic or even engine career-ending: OSSA doesn't sell it separately, hence you should buy a complete new gearbox. Thankfully Joa has found me a s/h one that they can hopefully replace the clutch basket crownwheel with. Be sure to locktite those gearbox fixing bolts! Do not overdo them as well (you may stip the thread or they weaken). Just right amount of torque and locktite.

Mine is around 275 hours of abuse, still going strong. I'm having the 2013 very-high compression head which is even higher comp than the special red racing head, hence the crankshaft is getting a lot more abuse. At 200+ hours most 2Ts are blown to bits thus I think OSSAs are very good quality engines considering mine's still running like a minter nearing 300 hours. I'm replacing oil (GRO Gear Extreme) every 15 to 20 hours and putting in 450-500 ml instead of 350 ml the manual says. Not sure if my 2013 model has the needle or regular main bearing. I need to get there first to see since the thing just doesn't wear through no matter how hard I abuse it... (most other trials bikes would have been blown to bits already )

Yep, this one looks decent enough. You can use the same puller kit for the most internal stuff, wheel bearings, bushes etc etc.

Ian, I suppose you could try "village mechanic" style by kicking them out with a correct sized socket, but since the bushes are very shallow you can damage the bore in the process. I recommend getting a proper internal bearing puller kit.

Wow, that's an incident I reckon I also rode on some time but noticed the bike struggling with power and then stopped, also found the brake disk smoked. I let it cool and all was fine again. I replaced all the fluids. Noticed there was a LOT of crap and sand in the rear master cylinder work area. The rubber design is not the best and sand can get inbetween. Ditto on the front brake master cyl. I cleaned internals and properly greased the rubber cap lips to give it a better seal against the outside crap. On flushing the rear master cylinder: since I don't have the vacuum pump that OSSA recommends I just use the oldschool method - take off the cylinder, place it horizontally with some strap over the rear mudguard and pump it with some sharper tool (i.e. very short screwdriver or a small hex key) that you have enough grabbing force to push the piston in. Do this with one hand while opening the rear airing nipple on the brake caliper with the other hand. Since it's a very small volume master cylinder refill the cylinder every 3-4 pushes, repeat this when you see more clear oil coming out of the nipple, I use transparent hose on the nipple for the best visual inspection. I now also loosened up the rear brake tension adjustment, I think it was at the limit and the reason why it happened. I do love very firm brakes, but now got to get used to riding with softer and less strict rear brake again.

Cheers guys, I did recently adjusted it for quicker action. Sounds like I need to adjust it off a little.

Yesterday I had a strange incident while doing a rough track - rear brake got locked up. The disc and the saddle was overheated (it smoked), brake pedal was completely locked and unmovable. Needed some 5-10 minutes to cool down and then worked fine again, pedal started to move and brakes worked again. There were no leaks. Anyone else had this? Oil seems to be quite dark from the master cylinder inspection window. I wonder if I need to overhaul the master cylinder and the caliper hydraulics or just suffice with replacing the DOT4 oil for now?

Yes, TPS needs to be re-set quite often (running rough or poor idle is a good sign), also cleaned from the inside every 100 hours or so. The original Bing throttle body is plastic, it deforms in time, also in time the 2T oil mounts up on the butterfly and surfaces of the bypass hole drilled into the butterfly (this is how it get's most of the idle air) hence giving slowed and poor idle. I had Btwice metal throttle body but not having time to fiddle with it I sold it, makes me think I shouldn't have. It's made from metal and is superior to plastic, also has a bypass screw which is neater design. But the buyer said it couldn't get the idle to slow down with the Btwice so not sure. I have the diagnostics cable so I can set the idle, but needs quite often with stock Bing TB.

Yup, sounds like the big ends to me now too. The magneto has apparently too much play(?) When you open up the case you should see how are the conditions of different bearings by observing them or rotating them with your fingers - a rough or loose fiddly movement means a bolloxed bearing. Good luck on replacing 'em, let us know how hard job is it. Most of us have to go through this one day anyways I reckon.

You sure those are top end bearings? Might be something else too if your bike hasn't got much hours on it. My 280i is nearing 300 hours and while running the 2013 very high compression head (even higher than the red "Racing" head mod) no top end bearing replacements done, it's got a lot of abuse but still the heart of it going strong, running GRO Gear Extreme 75W oil, replacing every 20 hours or so. Haven't done this but looking at the manual you need a rather shallow type of a bearing puller. For parts you can try European OSSA dealers, a good bet is Joa International or someone from UK (but they probably are at the SSDT too I reckon).