I'm poor with balance also. Fact is at 73 years, I don't hope to be great at it. I did make a simple device to practice on. A board about 12 inches by 30 inches. 3/4 to 1 inch thick, supports my 175 lb weight . The board is centered lengthwise across a piece of 2 by 2 inch 12 inch lenght wood. I didn't even fasten it to the main piece. Those of you who are great at balancing, please stop laughing. For me it was an easy way to start learning and easy to practice, as that seems to be the way to get you body to learn.
Don't use a round piece for the balance point without fastening it to the board. You just may inflict serious injury!! ?
The opening I cut is in the black of the decal and not noticeable. The baffle under the hole is a simple piece of plastic, taped in place. The front opening to the airbox, is blocked with some filter foam, I had , and oiled some. Still the intake gets it's share of dusty air, but seems to go longer between filter cleaning. It's a little faster to check the filter now.
Gets real dusty, here in the riding area, and my 2017 Gasgas seems to get a lot of the fine dust into the airbox. I blocked off the intake from the front, and cut an opening in the top lid, and made a baffle under the hole. So far it is reducing the amount of dust that enters the airbox.
The chain tensioner on my 2017 Gasgas Contact was not moving as well as I thought it should, so I took it off and cleaned up the pivot and applied some grease and then had such a good time getting it back on the swingarm. As far as I can tell there is no simple trick to installing the spring. Google did bring up a nifty tool Jim Snell made to make the install easy, but takes a bit of welding and grinding. Also some older TC threads talked about using zip ties and I finally used zip ties and made a handle to apply leverage to one end of the spring, and removed a linkage bolt so I could get the tensioner in position. The spring needs to be compressed, and is not easy to do. Point in posting this is to caution owners of this type of tensioner to not just pull it off to clean and lube as something routinely to do on a rainy day, unless you have the strength a gorilla or find some trick I could not find.
My feelings is some related to when and where you usually ride. Real dusty, oil the filter thoroughly. The oil migrates through the filter but oiling all surfaces and good massaging the filter to even it out works well for all conditions.
The 2017 Gasgas Contact 250, came with the Pirelli MT 43 tires, they are OK in the trails, but at the rate I wear out a tire, I did not want to wait 1 to 2 years to get a softer compound tire with better traction. Of note the new Gasgas Contact no longer uses the MT 43.
Aside from budget, for a new person to trials skills, engine size is something to consider. The smaller displacement and milder tuned engines are easier to learn skills on. I bought a 2017 250 Gasgas Contact and the performance is still above my needs.
Once the weather warmed up, the stock jetting and 2% premium pre-mix seems to be good for me here at sea level. Same Delorto 26 as the Sherco X-ride but the bigger cc engine on the Sherco is smoother. Not sure why.
Not a lot of organized trials riding close to home town here in the west coast of Washington state, USA. Nice area though for off road trail riding and a lot of it is fun and technical enough for a trials machine. Several years ago I tried to interest the local riding fellows I ride with into getting trials motorcycles but no one was interested and I got a Sherco X-ride. Later a member of our group got a beat up Yamaha TY250, which lead to a later year Montesa 4RT, and others have bought trials motorcycles and are really into how neat trials riding is. After going to a couple trials events I decided to move from the Sherco X-ride to a trials machine and knowing my skill level is low, I would have preferred a classic, but classic trials here is not very big, and the Gasgas Contact seemed right. In the past I have owned Sherpa T's, a 250 and a 350, and a Yamaha TY 350, air cooled mono-shock. With getting older I really like the light weight machine. I envy the European classic trials and love watching the YouTube classic events. It is good to be back on a trials machine.
The X-Ride is just what I want for trail riding, but I would not do well or enjoy myself riding it at trials events. A local dealer has a new Beta EVO 200 that I'm going to test ride. What new generation trials machines I have tried are so different from what I have owned. Just have to find one that suits the level that I will compete at.
Home is Pacific Northwest USA. Ride a Sherco 290 X-Ride on local single track off-road trails here. Have enjoyed trials since the 70's and owned a couple Sherpa T's then. Wish I had them now. Have been attending the area trials events this year and feeling I need to add a trials machine to the garage again.
Oldman new bike
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Welcome, I have heard the 125 School is really smooth, and fun to ride.
Art