turbofurball

That looks like good fun! Pity there don't appear to be any similar events down here

Trial boots are flexible 'cause you need to be able to walk sections in them - my other half has been struggling on in MX boots but has now given up and ordered a pair of trials ones ... she also struggles with her MX helmet as it gets so hot, even on a cold day, that the inside of the helmet is dripping wet by lunchtime. What the trials boots do give is good sideways stabbing protection - fall off a trials bike and you're more likely to get a part of the bike trying to pierce the boot than a big twist or crush like you would in higher speed pursuits. Equally, people wear open face because you're just not that likely to take a hit to the front of your face, and having as much air as possible around your noggin is a distinct advantage. If you want safety, the best route is to go in for twinshock trials - far more gentle on the joints as there's no jumping about! Good luck

IIRC Montana Adventures have a trials practice area, and have rental bikes ... there's other places, but you may need a bit of Spanish! Good luck

Well, it's not completely flat - like this:

The Gasgas Contact is designed to be a bit of an all-rounder though, ie. you can use it for tricky trails as well as trials, so an electric start makes sense (starting my XR in the cold is time consuming, would love if it had an electric start, lol)

I have a dream of a new twinshock, like the current Majesty, but with an electric motor. I may be a very niche customer in that regard though!

Yup, I found the second episode to be a bit of a downer, but the last episode was very good - might even rewatch it over the holidays The detractors can always make their own enthusiast's doco if they want - there's lots of people making great stuff on youtube on a shoestring

Does anyone have one of the flat type '02 - '08 air filters to hand, who could measure it for me?

Yeah, that's a good idea - me and my other half video each other with our phones (we have a spread of chinese gopro ripoffs for the street bikes though)

Looks good, you might want to re-pack that back box too BTW

I'm curious to know what you think I'd do with a "man cave"? Edit: Interesting edit you did there, taking out all the quotes of other people makes the thread look rather different!

Just so you know, ACU regs say not to have a gopro mounted to your helmet. Many riders from other disciplines struggle with trials to begin with, but if you stick with it you'll get mad skills Good luck!

Twin shock is best shock

I always think of a "man cave" as being a shed or garage ... that's more of a little museum / office. Also not to my taste (very clinical, and it would be odd for me to see my own name written on everything), but it's nice that he has it as he likes it

Trials 2 strokes aren't like MX or enduros, they're tuned for torque and fine throttle control. Also they're more simple and lighter, and more than one person on here has said they're generally less agressive on the throttle than some of the 4 strokes. For my first year I had a 125 Gasgas, it was absolutely the right choice for me (after nearly 30 years of riding various trail and road bikes, and having a right leg that's held together with metal)

c'est la vie with old bikes, a quick rebuild and electronic ignition isn't a high price to pay for knowing exactly whats going on in the engine and never having to faff with points again

So, basically they're treating it as if it was 30 years ago rather than getting advertising / sponsorship and then spreading the coverage as far and wide as possible. It works for other things in this day and age.

Well, the engine is in bits for new mains, silicone just seemed like a common sense fix as it'll last as well as anything else I could plug the hole with (in other words till the engine comes apart again, and if I get it vapour blasted I'll get it fixed properly. If not, fresh silicone)

The kickstart hole on my 349 is patched with silicone now, I didn't want to risk getting anything hard catching on the flywheel!

I'd have faith in the police if stolen motorbikes were recovered often. Do the police not have a database of known vins of stolen bikes? How else are they going to identify them?

At 5'10 I've extended the swingarm, moved the pegs back and down, and moved the handlebars up and forward so the bike fits me. It was uncomfortable without that, because the stock TY175 was designed for teenagers to ride and thus is already smaller than most twinshocks. The longer swingarm has helped a lot on climbs, without it the TY175 is light on the front ... now my main problem is getting my speed right rather than the front wheel coming up!

If you contact some local clubs and ask for advice they may be able to find a volunteer to guide you - at my first couple of trials I had a 'minder' who helped me get started, and if I had the opportunity I'd love to do that for newer riders myself (I kinda do this for my other half, but she doesn't listen to me much, lol). These days I mostly learn by watching and talking to other riders. Entering trials is a steep but effective learning curve - expect not to be able to complete one right away. You'll use muscles that aren't needed for street or enduro, and the riding techniques are very very different, so if you're unsure or nervous go for practice days first. As mentioned above, don't go alone - you won't learn as much, and it's easy to come a cropper and get hurt.

Update: Well, I said there didn't appear to be anything else that needed attention ... it made it around the Downloand trial (32 mile lap), and a subsequent club trial, and then I started finding things. The bike currently looks like this Engine is being rebuilt by someone who knows what they're doing with new mains (we were very very lucky, it was borderline on complete failure on the clutch side main bearing, bits of the crown/cage were embedded in the seal etc), all new seals, and a large but hidden hole in the flywheel housing patched. It's getting new swingarm seals & o-rings, rear wheel bearings, all cables, modern shape levers (my other half has little fingers, the stock Amal levers gave her all kinds of pain), a swingarm protector (was missing, chain has eaten the arm a bit), a thorough brake clean at both ends, and everything actually tightenned - hardly any fixings on the bike were torqued down properly at all, I'm glad the engine didn't fall out!

Build photos are also appreciated

I'm sure a lot of them do end up overseas (the high end or large thefts, like the containers of Ossets), but also a lot just get thrashed to death as field bikes and then scrapped here in the UK. My Dad ran a motorbike breakers in the '80s and '90s, and turned away large numbers of obviously stolen bikes (and did return some not so obvious ones after handing over good money for them); there's a lot of people out there with bikes they bought in good faith which have been stolen at some point in the past, without any coordinated system for checking VINs at all trials venues that probably won't change.