ronm

This corresponds with what I found on my '04 carb. The part about drilling through the brass ball is not necessary. You can tell if you have the new type because the spot is obvious.

I did the kd moto mod to my 2004 Rev3 270. The instructions in the article were not exactly accurate for my carb. The drilling from the outside that was described was not necessary as my carb already had the passage open from the manufacturing process. Basically if you look at the overflow hole in the carb body, you will notice an undrilled boss about 10 mm away - toward the center of the carb. All you have to do is drill a hole in the unused boss. You will only have to drill a mm or two deep and the hole will meet the same passage that the overflow hole connects to. Then you plug the original hole. The article says to use epoxy. That may be ok, but I drilled and tapped the original hole and fitted a small socket head screw to plug it. The result simply serves to move the overflow hole uphill (since the carb is tilted down) a few mm. Is this needed? I can't say for sure. What I do know is that I modified the float level as previously described. I am still using the stock vent tubes, but I cut the ends at an angle and pricked small holes on the inside of the bend. This prevents siphoning which is the main cause of the problems. I can park my bike with the front facing down hill without any leaking and start it with one kick. I could just be lucky, but I suspect that if done properly, these simple mods will solve the problem on any Beta. (assuming your needle and seat are ok).

I hope everybody doing the case gasket job is using a C clamp to pull the skid plate back into place before replacing the screws. This makes the job a piece of cake. I think The one I used was a 6 inch one.

Way to go Geoff!!!! We look forward to several more

If the seals are leaking so soon, there is probably a nick on the tubes. This must be found and stoned down. A ceramic stone is good to use since it will cut the raised metal, bit will not cut the coating. Checking the tubes for nicks is part of the seal replacement process that should not be overlooked. The tip about shortening the garter spring when fitting seals is absolutely a good one. I always do it. WD 40 will not hurt fork seals. Hope this helps.

JTT is correct . The Tag ( ERE) and Hebo (and probably Renthals) fat bars can be purchased with the proper clamps. That is definitely the way to go. This question comes up concerning Betas and some Shercos because the lower bar clamp is cast into the upper fork clamp and due to the design of the casting, it is not practical to try to remachine it to accept the large diameter clamps. That is where the adapter clamps I mentioned earlier come in. Most people do not know these are available. The problem with them is that they raise the bar height, hence the ProTapers in the factory Suzuki bend, which are about 20 mm lower than the normal trials bend bars. If you have a GasGas or other bike with bolt on bar clamps, you should not go this route.

I have been running fat bars on my '04 Rev 3 for about 9 months and I really like them. I saw another Beta with the same set up at the US nationals. The plan is this: Order a set of ProTaper bars in the factory Suzuki bend. Also order a ProTaper clamp kit. The clamps will adapt your upper triple clamp to accept the fat bars. The down side is that they raise the bars about 3/4 inch (20mm) . If you want your bars higher, you can use the Renthals. If you want the stock height, use the ProTapers. The Factory Suzuki bend in the ProTaper clamps will give almost the same dimensions as the stock set up. Check out the ProTaper website for pics of the clamps.

KB- The fan should not switch on until the engine is hot. This is the opposite of the usual problem, which is the fan will not run at all or will not start until spun by hand. There are 2 possibilities to your problem. Either the temperature switch has failed with the contacts closed or there is a short circuit in the wiring. I don't know the history of your bike, but sometimes people connect the two leads going to the temperature switch together as a temporary fix for a bad switch. In warm weather, having the fan run all the time will probably not hurt anything. just be sure you allow the engine to warm up fully before you start revving it hard. I would go ahead and take care of it as soon as you can though.

Yes, Yes

Big Wheeler, Quick version is - Use 5w oil in your forks. Preload should be set so the forks compress 1/3 of the total travel (about 50 mm) when you are standing on the bike. You can make suitable preload spacers from PVC pipe, but make sure the ends are cut squarely. At the back end, you should adjust the preload so that the rear end sags 1/3 of the total (which should be about 50 mm measured at the axle). As for damping, it is important that the front and rear compress and rebound at the same speed. You will probably find that any damping adjustment on the rear shock will have only minimal effect. If you think the shock has lost its charge, you can either get it serviced or just put air in it. I have done this a number of times and it works fine. (air is 86% nitrogen anyway). Nobody writes trials books anymore. They cost too much to print. If you can get hold of a copy of Bernie Schrieber's book, it is good. But it has been out of print for a long time. The best thing is to get a good video. They are far superior to a book. There are a number of good ones, but the best is probably Ryan Youngs. Hit the RYP link on the TC home page to get info on it. Also, there is a series of tech articles available from one of the pull down menus on the TC home page. A lot of people have never noticed it. My first trials bike was an '87 TR34. -Ron

Well, now that you mention it, I do have an opinion on the AMA. I think that all motorcyclists should be AMA members. Who else besides the AMA is out there trying to protect our riding rights? Not any insurance companies. Rarely our elected officials. As imperfect as some people may feel that the AMA is, it is the only organization with the clout to get anything done. Just read some of the topics on the UK forum to see how real the prospects of land closure can be. Of course, there are drawbacks. You have to have an AMA chartered club to get the insurance. But there are ways around this. A trials group could partner up with a road riding or enduro group and form an all purpose club. The trials guys would handle trials events and the other guys would handle their events. The biggest complaint I hear is that someone just trying out trials for the first time will have to join the AMA in order to ride that one day. But this is true of any AMA sanctioned sport. A side benefit of membership is that you get a free subscription to American Motorcyclist. I have to say that it is not very interesting to non-road riders though. But they occasionally have an issue with trials coverage. I recently read some really interesting facts in American Motorcyclist magazine: The AMA is 80 years old. The AMA is the largest motorsport sanctioning body in the world. Last year, they sanctioned nearly 4000 events with more than 900,000 individual entries. The AMA has over 1200 clubs That is my opinion for what it is worth.

Ringo and other distinguished persons, I have been holding back on answering this because there are others who are able to give more details. The following are some NATC facts in no particular order: Back in the 70's, the FIM dictated to the AMA that they must hold an AMA championship trials series. No one at the AMA knew how to do this, so the NATC stepped up and volunteered to manage the series. This became the beginning of a unique arrangement that you will not find in any other branch of motorcycle competition. The mission of the NATC is to host a national championship series. That is all. That is the reason they do not get involved in local clubs and events. They have no authority beyond the AMA/NATC Championship series. The USA world round business was mentioned in broad terms at the one meeting I attended, but I believe that this is mainly a promoter/AMA issue. The council consists of permanent members (such as the founders and people who have hosted world rounds), representatives from clubs who have either hosted nationals or who are wanting to host one, importers, an AMA representative, and volunteer officers. There is a yearly meeting where rules, event schedule, finances, etc are covered. Having been involved in one meeting, I can tell you that setting the schedule is no easy task. They must work around the schedules of various clubs, holidays, geographical and climate issues, world round, etc. There is sometimes grumbling about the resulting schedule, but due to the locations of the clubs hosting the events and their schedule requirements, the resulting schedule is the best that can be done. The NATC provides whistles, stop watches, minder bibs, punches, score cards, and marking supplies The NATC provides scoring services and a sporting steward. Lots of you know Tony Bussing, who is the current sporting steward. The NATC pays fuel costs to Tony. He takes his personal time to travel to all events. His job is to make the series uniform and safe. He inspects the sections for safety and suitability. He ensures that the loop is clearly marked. Because of the sporting steward job, Tony is unable to ride the events. There is a great benefit to having an experienced person do the entire series like this. The NATC also provides year end awards. The NATC maintains a bank account and is able to advance money to a club if they need it for their national rounds. The NATC is not a profit making organization. They spend what they take in to operate the series and furnish awards. Some people think that they keep too much of the entry fees. I can only say this about the NATC: they have been managing a very successful series for nearly thirty years and have not made a profit doing it. Yes, it is possible that they could save money by eliminating the sporting steward and not providing the score keeping personnel. They could also save some expenses if they quit having the yearly meeting. What everyone needs to remember is that any activity can be accomplished at different levels. At the local club level, it might be appropriate to do things in the cheapest way. If there is a dispute about scores or section layout, the stakes are not as high. But riding the national series is a much bigger deal. People dedicate a week or two of vacation and travel as much as 5000 miles to ride some rounds. If you spend this kind of time and money to ride an event, you want it to be the best experience possible. You don't want to get to the end of the year and find the results have been lost or messed up. The stakes are higher than local events, so things have to be done right. And doing them right costs a little more money. People who are out of the loop sometimes question the financial side of the series, but hardly anyone ever has anything bad to say about the series itself. In fact, the NATC sends a poll to each rider at year end to find out what they liked and disliked, with the goal of improving the series. The entire council is made up of volunteers. Some of the jobs require a significant amount of time. I for one would like to say thank you to Wiltz Wagner, Brian Behling, and the others involved for their efforts.

Neon, Sorry to hear about your cracked clamp. Regarding welding, there was an Aprillia in our club for several years that had a similar repair on the lower clamp. The bike was owned by several people including a friend of mine who was famous for spectacular crashes. I never heard of any problems related to the repair. That said, I seem to remember some discussion a few years back concerning using the upper clamp from a '98 Techno to allow fitting tapered bars to a Rev3. Based on that, I think there is a good chance that the clamps are interchangeable. But of course, you should check with a dealer first.

Hey Clark P.- Were you by any chance checking one of the sections on Sunday in Muenster? I thought I heard somebody call one of the guys Clark and the guy looked kind of like your avatar pic. I meant to ask, but if it was you, you were way too busy to chat. It was one of the later sections - 10,11, or 12.

I wouldn't clean friction plates in solvent. I once cleaned some (GasGas) in acetone and was rewarded with a bunch of little rectangles of friction material. Check out the tech article I wrote a few years back on clutches (link on the front page). Add to this a new opinion- friction plates will swell over time. Sanding them to remove the glaze actually has the effect of slightly reducing the thickness. I would just follow the instructions for sanding the plates and put the thing back together. A very light gear oil works well in Technos. Standard ATF will not hurt the clutch, but although I have not experienced it, I have heard that the synthetic ATFs can cause swelling. The problem with ATF in a Techno is that the release will be grabby. Something a little thicker works better. I am currently using 5w20 conventional motor oil in my Rev3 trans and it works well. Light weight gear oil is supposed to work well also. When reading the tech article, note the part about making sure you do not have any air in the hydraulics. This is hard to detect in a clutch, but is a cause of drag.

I would like to thank the Texas crew for a great event. Yes it was windy and yes we parked in a cow pasture. On the plus side, the sections were fun. The difficulty level for the support lines was about right. There were plenty of checkers and even though they were not all trials riders, they did a good job. There were way more than enough portapotties. The temperature was good both days, and the weather held out on Sunday. Thanks to all involved, you did a great job.

I've used Michelin and IRC for 10 years. Like some others said, each has its strengths. But they are VERY close in performance. The big difference is that I have severly gashed (ruined) several Michelins and no IRCs. The IRCs do last longer as far as tread life, but the main thing for me is the greater cut resistance. I can tell you that it is a big disappointment to shell out for a new tire and end up with a 1 inch cut in the sidewall a few weeks later. IRCs also tend to be about 20% cheaper in the US. Bottom line- if you ride where you are likely to gash sidewalls, IRCs are a good choice. If you need to ride with flats maybe the Dunlop. If you ride big rocks then the Michelin. Kind of like bikes. Each has its strengths and anybody who tells you one is the best is really just giving his opinion.

Healthy, I had an air leak problem on my Beta that drove me nuts for a while. I haven't ever disassembled a Dellorto choke, but on the Mikuni on my Beta, I found that any air that leaks past the seal where the choke rod goes into the carb has a direct path into the engine. This was a bear to find, since a lot of people including myself, don't bother with the choke circuit when cleaning their carb. Once I disassembled it, the possibility was obvious. You can seal it temporarily with a bit of grease. I certainly sympathize with you. Good luck.

I saw a great post somewhere on this board or the former one about brittle plastic parts. I can't remember who posted it but he obviously knew something about plastic. His suggestion was that sometimes plastic parts can become brittle from the molding process, and that it is possible to stress relieve plastic. I am particularly interested in this because I just put new 05 plastic on my 04 Beta. I followed his suggestion which was to heat the fenders with a hot air gun and flex them repeatedly in all directions. This way, the plastic will not have to stretch so abruptly on a sudden impact. I will let you know how this works.

Neon, If your brake is firm, but just takes too much pedal travel the problem is that the caliper pistons are retracting when the pedal is returning. This is not an uncommon problem on both front and rear brakes. Think about it, when you push the pedal way down and a large volume of fluid moves the pistons out. When you release the pedal, the pressure is released, but one of two things is going to happen. 1- the pistons have enough friction in the seal and caliper to resist the negative pressure caused by the return spring acting on the master cylinder piston. ( don't forget, these things pump both ways). They stay in place and as the mastercylinder retracts, fluid bypasses the seal (which mainly seals in one direction, but can also seal a certain amount in the "wrong" direction). Then when you take a second pump on the pedal, the previously displaced volume is already filled, and only a normal stroke is required. This is how things are supposed to work. 2- The negative pressure caused the pistons to retract and you basically keep pumping the same volume of fluid back and forth each time you depress the brake pedal. I would say from your description that your bike is doing number 2 The fix is to take the caliper off and the pads out and pump the pedal until you get the pistons sticking well out of the caliper. Then push them in enough to put the pads in. Then spread the pads just enough to get the pistons to slide onto the disc. Tighten it all up and the brake should be back to normal. I hope this helps.

Brian is very nice.

Hi Stu, These screws were a problem on my '04 rev from the beginning. The one on the drive side bent just like yours. Most of the threaded holes in the revs are helicoiled, but the ones for the chain adjuster are fairly short. They carry their load in the shearing direction instead of in tension. Since the aluminum is soft, the hole seems to elongate. I think the helicoil may have been left a bit below the swingarm surface which left the screw a little bit unsupported right at the head, which is where it is most needed.I removed the helicoil and peened the displaced metal back flush with the swing arm, retapped the hole, and replaced the helicoil. I used a better grade socket head cap screw using Locktite and tightened it up really tight. I can't remember for sure, but I think I also used a screw long enough to get a nut on the back side. I also tighten the crap out of my axel nut. I really have not had any more problems.

Check your timing. Lots of people soften up their power delivery by retarding the timing. If I remember correctly, my former Techno ('96) ran well with the stator plate slots centered on the fixing screws. Your jetting is in the ball park. If the problem was jetting, it would not run cleanly, but it would still make lots of power (if this makes sense). Let us know what you find. -Ron

I was looking at some of the articles that Andy posted and I noticed that part 5 of suspensions (the one that answers the question) is erroneously titled handlebar safety. I hope that the articles are helpful. Ron Milam

OK- Here is the deal- Most bikes have bar clamps that bolt onto the upper triple clamp. Beta Rev3s and some Shercos have the lower half of the clamp cast into the upper triple clamp. Due to the way the triple clamp is designed, you cannot just machine off the bar clamp and use the bolt on style. I was very happy to find the universal clamps that easily solve this problem. However, the bad thing about the clamps is that they will raise the bar height about 3/4 of an inch. Therefore, if you use oversize bars in the normal trials bends- Renthal, Hebo, etc. you will find the bars end up higher. If you don't mind that, then fine. If you want to match the original bar width, pull back, height, etc as closely as possible, then you can go to the Renthal website and look at the chart with all dimensions for trials bend bars. Then you can find some oversize bars that closely match every aspect except they need to be 3/4 inch lower. That is what I did and the bar I chose was the ProTaper "factory Suzuki" bend. They feel about the same as the stock bars. As for using the bars on a '98 Techno, the factory Suzuki bend will be too low. That bike came standard with fat bars. I am not positive, but I suspect that the current fat trials bars (Renthal, Hebo, Tag) would be a direct replacement.