turbofurball

Oh well, we'd better not bother doing anything then. In other news, I went to a trial that took place in a little wooded valley, a really good place for a trial since the logs were a bit slippery and ground squishy with dead wet leaves. It was tight enough that the exhaust smoke didn't dissipate; I decided to head out early after the first couple of bikes went through because I was getting a headache from the fumes ... haven't had that since I used to work in a HGV garage, back before there were emissions regulations. These days I live in a nature reserve and TBH I'm not really feeling like I want to contribute to the detriment of nature, I love bikes but I'm finding I have little will to ride my 2T bikes nowadays. Actually thinking about it, this is probably it for me regarding trials, since a switch to electric is never going to happen for twinshock events and that's where my interest is.

Because we're killing the planet.

A good deal if you know enough to be able to sort any problems out yourself! (as can be said for many cheap motorcycles, Chinese ones can be fine as long as you know how to fettle them yourself, and have the facilities to do so)

The words trial and trail are very easy to mistake for one another, and yet completely different, lol It's possible to use a trials bike for trails with a bit of moxy, but not the other way around. The TRF are a generally nice bunch, and for an enduro bike the FE250 is nice though wouldn't be my tool of choice for TRF style trail riding for a first timer ... if it were me, I'd look at an old CRF250L or similar, which is heavier but rideable on the road (where the FE250 would be a PITA, literally) but importantly much quieter - the TRF needs to annoy the NIMBYs as little as possible if they want to retain access to trails. Also it only needs normal maintenance, having to service a bike after every 8 hours of riding becomes old fast if you're not doing competitions.

No, what I was saying is that I did the second ever oil change when I bought the bike and the internals are still fine. I haven't bothered changing it for the last 3 years because I haven't used the bike more than once a year, lol

As is the way with many established businesses ... just look at how oil companies haven't invested in renewables and are now loosing more and more business to them, even though it's been evident for a long time that that's where the wind is blowing (pun intended)

My TY forks have probably had 6 oil changes in the last 43 years. Still in good nick. Changing after a year of solid use you're going to notice the difference, more frequently than that and I'm not sure it matters to 99.9% of riders. Pro and serious competition maintenance requires much more fastidious care than weekend wobblers like me, if I give my Sherco one good going-through a year and change the gearbox oil every 6 months or so it rides nice and tight feeling, to the point that the next year I'm not finding anything nasty hidden. And that's on a well-used 24 year old bike.

Thinking about it, I wonder if thats why all the "old" manufacturers have dragged their heels on electric bikes, because then they'd have to do some serious development work

Yeah, smoothrite is good for brushing on stuff, I've not had much success with it sprayed (though maybe I should have laid it on thicker and not worried about runs). I bit the bullet and had my TY frame powder coated since I wanted to Majesty-ise it anyway, but there's some people who don't like that because tiny cracks can't be spotted below the plastic ... I figure I'd not spot those anyway, plus the bike doesn't have a hard life with me, lol

Though Honda owns Montesa, and Sherco owns Scorpa, so those are more a case of badge engineering, lol Historically some brands have used the engines of others (Scorpas with Yamaha engines for example), but the vast majority are in-house efforts because they're in competition with each other, and engine design is a major source of competitive advantage. Most parts outside of standard things like bearings are incompatible.

Mick Andrews on the first TY used in competition, there's the whole thing on film on Youtoob somewhere ... I grew up wearing those helmets to ride horses in and they provided very little protection!

Not in any FIM sanctioned events, you need an open face helmet at least for those. DOT approval is not a good guide to protection but if you're in the US check with the club running the event, because there's a chance you live in a state where you're free to have a traumatic brain injury and then go bankrupt. Personally, I ride where there's a lot of jagged rocks and so only ever use a full face enduro ECE approved helmet because I fall off a lot and I like my teeth.

Sticky clutches on trials bikes are a thing - I usually get the bike running, hold the clutch in, roll it forward and drop it into 1st and then keep running with the clutch in until it frees off (can take a minute for some bikes if they've been sat a while). As always, switching to Dexron 3 ATF gearbox oil either cures or eases the problem. As for the bike setting off, yes any modern 250 or up is going to do that - that's part of the reason people who are new to trials can learn easier and faster on a 125 or 200.

Hello and welcome to the forums (and to the buying-the-biggest-trials-bike-available club, which always has a lot of people in it, lol)

Unfortunately since Brexit importing anything from the UK is a massive headache, the last two things I tried to get just didn't turn up and I've given up on getting anything from Britain for the forseeable.