turbofurball

Yeah, any conditioning oil, or dubbin (which is cheap), or saddle soap will work ok for making boots supple ... I can't speak for other brands, but my Formas were never waterproof so I've drilled some ventilation / drainage holes in the arch area (like chucks have) and use army surplus sealskin socks if needed. On one recent river crossing on a hot day (with normal socks, I was expecting a dry river bed) the water just drained out and with the extra airflow my feet were dry again in an hour

Sounds like you already made up your mind. Depends on the child though really, if they're champing at the bit I'd go with a full size that they'll grow into - less faff with then swapping bikes later when they have a growth spurt, they can learn how to handle the extra weight, and when ready they can tackle larger obstacles. A larger bike would be more intimidating for some kids, swapping between two different bikes would help their skills round out as well as building their confidence. My first bike, at age 11, was a '78 Kawasaki KE100 though, so I might be biased towards "full size" bikes for kids.

For tops I just use normal running shirts (in the UK I managed to find ones with long sleeves that are made for Muslim women, which keeps the ACU happy, for practice I just wear short sleeved ones). For the trousers, I have one pair each of both men's and women's Clice ones I got cheap off the internet, they're stretchy so the sizing only has to be about right and are good in hot weather (the men's fits my legs better, hips a little worse, and just leaves a bit more room in the crotch that I don't need, but it's hardly noticeable), but most of the time I just wear loose work trousers or stretch jeans because they're a bit more abrasion resistant. Anything that won't burn on the exhaust, fits in the top of the boots, and gives a good range of motion should work fine.

Not to be funny, but, is it a new carb? If so, is it definitely a genuine OKO? There's a lot of fakes around that literally don't work. If the carb is snapping back ok it must be an air leak or something weird going on in the carb with the idle jet or choke.

I'll take your word for it over the forks, I have Magials progressive springs in mine and TBH now I've got the oil right I can't tell the difference between them and the forks on my ST2.5, so I don't feel the need to upgrade

It's great that you sorted it, but that cause is really out of left field! BTW keep the rear suspension dogbones well lubed because new ones are rare as rocking horse poo, apart from that they're a fab bike so I hope you enjoy the hell out of yours

Thanks Like the upgrade to 250 mono forks I suspected it was more of a want than a need, but it's good to know the reasons!

I know some people upgrade their TY175s from a 428 chain, as someone who has had zero problems with the little chain I'm wondering just how much stronger is the bigger one?

Over here the club fees etc are much higher, so they can put a bit more effort into promotion at a grass-roots level. It's a double edged sword, however, since it raises the bar of how cheap it is to get started. One could argue that the cost of a motorcycle and some way of transporting it still dwarfs the club fees. Accurate reporting with good photos, rather than just putting out a spreadsheet of results, would be a big improvement in PR for most clubs in my opinion.

When we got my other half's one the plates were warped - with a couple of oil changes it still dragged a little, so she just bit the bullet and changed the whole lot and cleaned up the basket at the same time. I'm afraid I don't know about the shifting mechanism in them because we didn't have to touch that since everything worked well with the new clutch

The Pampera clutch can be very sticky and the plates can quite easily get distorted with misuse/overheating causing drag etc. My other half replaced the clutch on hers and it went from being a pig to a joy on the gear change, so if it were me I'd start by looking at that. Maybe take it for a good ride to get it properly hot and then do a second oil change before opening it up, though.

It's just a harder thing to "get into" in general, you've gotta be a bit dedicated to do trials (regardless of gender). Trail and road riding can be done with multi-purpose bikes, you can go traveling or to work with them, thus they make more sense economically. While out trail riding this last weekend my partner basically reinvented long-distance trials, she said "I like riding along and then having to get past something difficult, and then carrying on a bit before the next hard bit. In trials you just get non-stop obstacles which isn't my thing." Putting on "have a go" events specifically for women might help, Camp VC (a women's moto-camping event in Wales) has this with Inch Perfect and it's very popular, however it took concerted effort for nearly 100 years for women's football to become recognised on a grand scale and I don't think trials has that sort of pull in today's society. The most successful women's motorbiking events are the ones organised by women, so I would look to those already in the sport to get the ball rolling.

I guess I have skin in this game, being a woman rider who has previously had a second job doing grassroots motorsports coverage. Making professional quality content (not counting modern "content mills" online) takes a surprising amount of effort - getting results quickly from organisers can be like pulling teeth, alongside taking photo permissions seriously, actually traveling to the location, taking decent photos, speaking to competitors in a way that gets some insight into the event, and actually writing in an engaging way rather than just padding out a list of results with some fluff. I've only been to a couple of trials events specifically for women, and they had a very different feel. I think they have a place in the world of trials, but without the kind of support and love that, say, women's football receives, it's never going to become more popular than it is now. Yes, trials is very welcoming and friendly, however it doesn't appeal to a large cross section of women in the same way as trail riding or road riding can.

I never knew the reasoning - thank you

Ok, image attached from the manual, hope this helps

Sorry, only just saw this ... I can dig out the 349 owner's manuals later, IIRC it has the wiring colours for the complete road kit etc.

Yeah, slow que for you ... wasn't an issue last time I got back home from the UK, everyone was waved through the EU customs line together because it wasn't busy.

Here you'd be looking about about 1K euros, 2.5K for a fully restored one with the road kit etc. I bought mine for 1K GBP in the UK, road registered with an MOT, in a bit better condition than yours (but far from factory fresh, lol) - that was 5 years ago now, I think

They're very different countries, plenty of villages near me aren't on paved roads. It's nice.

And here in Spain as long as you're not being anti-social in some way, and avoiding places with tourists, you can do whatever. People near me ride stuff like motocross bikes to the pub and back without worries.

You only need adjustable length if you're changing the ride height of the bike, or to change the fork angle a little

This link talks about car suspension, but explains what dampers are. Compared to the vast majority of motorsport trials bikes perform best with a low level of damping, on modern bikes it's typically adjustable to suit individual riders' weight and / or preference.

Yeah, a "modern" (ie. 2000 or newer) bike feels more like an extra heavy mountain bike, whereas a twinshock it like a lightweight motorbike. They're not as pretty, but make for an excellent learning tool (and the 2000 - 2010 ones can usually be sold for what you bought them for, as long as they've been maintained)

FWIW I started (at 38 years old, though with lots of trail and a little enduro experience) on a modern shape Gasgas 125 for about 18 months, and with that in sections it really was a case of stick it in 1st and leave it there for the beginner/twinshock routes. This was super helpful for me - a light bike I could lift and pull out of mud easily, not enough power to get into trouble, modern suspension is more forgiving. Because I was useless the local clubs didn't mind me riding the twinshock route slowly (I let the competitive types go first) and it helped me get to the point where I was happy on a twinshock ... still a terrible rider, but happy. Just a thought

You're right, it is a bit bigger ... the extra made the difference when it came to winning the world championship, but I doubt it matters for current twinshock competitions when the most competitive bikes are much smaller!