Yambo

I second the Maxxis Trialmaxx. I had one on the rear of my heavy-ass DR350 and while there was some cracking around the knobs I didn't actually lose any. They wear quickly compared to an MT43 or similar but they still lasted for hundreds of miles of road use and the grip is vastly superior. They'd probably last better on a lighter bike too. I might prefer a longer lasting tyre on a trail bike but for something as focused as a 4ride I'd definately go with the Trailmaxx.

My hope was that I could cut a window rather than splitting the thing in half. That way I could use rivets or screws and castle nuts to attach a new sheet of aluminium over the hole rather than welding the thing back up. The benefit of this is that if I needed to repack it again in a year or two it would be much easier. The drawback is, I think, that extracting the old packing and putting the new stuff in would be more difficult and maybe impractical. That would be extremely useful if you remember where you saw it. I've had a look but I can't find any information or pictures.

In a similar vein, does anyone have any tips or pics on SY silencer repacking? I originally planned to cut a window in the side to repack and then cover it with a new aluminium sheet, but I've been told this is a bad idea. New silencers are no longer available it seems.

I have a 2011 Caddy Maxi and it's just long enough for an enduro bike with the bulkhead fitted. A trials bike goes in easily but I'm surprised to hear that the standard Caddy is long enough unless maybe you put it in diagonally. I looked at the Connect when I was buying but the new shape ones were out of my price range. IIRC the connect is slightly taller inside or at least has a high roof option. While the Caddy is high enough for a trials bike it is a bit awkward when you and the bike are in there and you are trying to reach around it to strap it down. Having doors on both sides (standard I think) helps a lot though. If you want to carry anything taller than a trials bike the low roof is a real drag - you need to remove the handlebars. The Caddy isn't as boxy as most vans which exacerbates the low roof issue.

Cheers for that. Looks like my hoses should be longer ideally which might explain the tiny bit of water I found in the float bowl.

On all (non trials) bikes I've seen the air filter looks something like this with the filter at the exit to the airbox: So you want the coarse mesh on the 'outside' of the filter. Obviously this is not what you want on the Scorpa; you want the coarse mesh on the 'inside' of the filter. I was just saying that the only reason I could see for Jitsie doing it as they did was that they copied an OEM filter without knowing how it went into the Scorpa airbox. They might have assumed it was like the picture above. Granted it seems pretty weird that they would make a mistake like that but it was the best reason I could come up with.

It occurred to me that the breather hoses could also be an issue. As shown in the picture the top two hoses are fairly short and the bottom one is only about an inch long. Perhaps water and dirt are getting to the carb through them when riding through streams etc.. Does anyone know what they are supposed to look like?

Yeah, but on most bikes the convex side of the filter faces the incoming air since the filter sits on the airbox exit with the convex side facing inwards.

Thanks for all the replies. I'm coming to this from trail riding on a DR350 and I'm used to having a muddy airbox - the difference is that the DR350 filter is on the airbox exit rather than the entrance! I am pretty confident that water is not getting in by flowing over the top of the airbox so I thought it must be getting in through the same hole as the air and overwhelming the filter. It is a new Jitsie filter. Yes it is complete and clamps down very tightly and evenly. This fact plus the fact that the airbox is a complete plastic unit unlike some bikes (KTM) is what made me think the filter was being overwhelmed. Thank you for this - I didn't realise the screw holes went all the way through and after shining a torch in there I see that they do. I think they were sealed up but I'll double check when I reassemble. This could well be the issue. If stuff was getting in through the filter or through holes in the airbox in small quantities I would expect it to fall down into the lower 'horn' of the airbox rather than be sucked through the high exit to the carb. I'll have a good look out for this when I reassemble. Yes! I almost sent mine back but couldn't be bothered. It's really bizarre as it seem nicely made otherwise; I can only assume that the designer had never seen a Scorpa airbox and assumed it was like all other bikes which have the filter on the exit rather than the entrance. Unless the Scorpa arrangement is common on trials bikes?

I bought a 2008 SY250 recently and I'm having trouble with dirt getting through my air filter. I cleaned out the airbox and put a new Jitsie filter in when I got the bike. After one ride I cleaned the filter and saw some dirt and water in the airbox. I read about sealing the gap between the plastics and airbox so I did this carefully with foam tape and it seems to be a good seal. Nevertheless, after one ride there was more dirt and water in the airbox. I should add that the PO made quite an effort to prevent water getting in, including a sheet of rubber pulled across between the swingarm and airbox to stop churned up water from the wheel getting in. It hasn't been running right so I took the carb out and there were chunks of mud at the entrance. I stripped it and the main jet holder was packed with mud! I'm having trouble believing that this is normal since I haven't been able to find any mention of it on here. Do Scorpa owners just deal with having to regularly clean out their carb? The only thing I can imagine might be causing it is that the DIY rear mudflap done by the PO might somehow not be doing the job and mud/water might be being thrown by the rear wheel and up to the top of the shock where the airbox draws air in. It looks pretty good though. This is what I mean by mudflap: