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Yipes! I think most of us that have been on bikes for any length of time can relate to the possible cause of that guy's "need for bleach".... Jon, been there, done that, got the t-shirt......

A good place to check in the U.S. is B&J Racing: http://www.bjracing.com/ty350.html . Jon

There are a lot of good full-synthetic premix oils to use. I use Castrol as it's easily available where I live and, well, Castrol and I go back a long time, so part of it is the familiarity of the brand. Ask your dealer what they recommend for your bike. Jon

Incidently, This is the bike (it's called a "Whizzer", made in the late 40's and uses a Schwinn "springer" bike frame) that turned me to a "Life Of Grime". I must have been 7 or 8 years old and used my paper route money to buy one of these, a real "basket case" as it was in three laundry baskets, all apart and in various stages of dis-repair. I had to keep the parts at a friend's Dad's garage as I knew my Mom would "not approve". It took me two months, but I got it together and running and my buddies and I took it out for a ride. That was the "Wright Brothers" moment for me, it was powered flight that captured my passion and I've been hooked on motorcycles ever since. You never know when something is going to be a life changing event, but that first ride on that old Whizzer was one. Seemed like I was going 100 miles an hour, but in reality is was probably only 15. Jon

Wish I had time to learn to shorten the link addresses (my wife is a blogger, I'll con her in to it) here is the link: http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&...t=0&ndsp=20 Jon

General consensus seems to be in the neighborhood of 80:1 (fringe measurements range from -32:1 to +100:1) for a full-synthetic premix oil, and some riders do not believe in the synthetic oils and prefer a mineral base, or a combination ("synthetic-blend" type). My personal choice for use is for a full-synthetic (Castrol TTS) at 70:1 for my liquid cooled bikes. Jon

Welcome to the foray! Sooner or later, everyone has a unique bit of information or observation they can share. I'll be flying out to Seattle in a couple of weeks on a just-for-fun break from the rigors of an all-too-busy "retirement" so order me some good weather if you can.... Cheers. Jon

Steve, Most of the later fork top caps are 32mm. You should be able to remove the cap with an adjustable wrench. It is, however, imperative that you loosen the top clamp capscrews first, this is a must. When re-installing the top caps, they only need to be snug, as the tripleclamp capscrews being tightened is what holds the top cap on. Do not overtighten the top caps, the o-ring on the cap is what seals the oil in, actually finger tight will work fine. You will often see the top caps chewed up by the owner trying to unscrew them and not loosening the upper tripleclamp capscrews first. The upper tripleclamp capscrews go to about 15-18 Nm or about 11-16 ft lbs. Make sure you apply some anti-seize to the capscrews. 5-weight fork oil works well in the GasGas cartridge forks. Cheers. Jon

One of my buddies sent me a Google photo site with a bunch of 1940's bike pictures and it included some early "Trials" in the U.S. Jon

I think it's the same as the Mono's, which is head-22Nm (16 ft lbs) and cylinder-35Nm (25 ft lbs). Here's a chart that may help in the future (click to enlarge and enlarge further for clarity). Jon

I like mine about 10-15+ degrees up from horizontal. It makes it easier to hook the boot toe to shift up and down and it also allows the folding tip to do it's job. If the tip is up too far, it won't be able to fold correctly if it hits something. Jon

Gunn, I'd be a little wary of a spacer/shim as I'm concerned that it would reduce the clamping force and defeat the knurling safety feature on the bars. The absolute last thing you want is for your bars to rotate forward on a downhill drop-off as you will be immediately at full throttle and along for the ride as it will be next to impossible to bail off. I've seen it happen a couple of times and the results are not pretty. Jon

That may help if the taper surfaces are chewed up, but the real reason that the flywheel hub "sticks" to the crank taper is that they do NOT match perfectly. One taper angle is slightly different and it's called an "inteference fit". Mating the surfaces can allow a tighter fit than the rough surfaces, although not quite as good as the original fit, but one thing you'll have to watch for is the crank taper nose fitting too far into the hub. When you lap the crank stub into the flywheel hub, it will cause the stub end to end up farther inside the hub and sometimes the flat end of the crank stub protrudes out beyond the inside of the machined flat area where the washer and bolt go. This will allow the washer to contact the stub end and no matter how hard you crank the bolt down, it will not pull on the crank taper any further (it would be like putting the washer/bolt on the crank end without the flywheel hub and tightening it down, it "bottoms out" on the stub and won't go any further). You might consider using a larger ID, thick washer or short spacer underneath the bolt/washer so the nose of the taper can protrude slightly out but does not bottom out against the washer. Jon

Patrik, as I remember, is from Gothenburg, Sweden, and has been doing a lot of different and interesting things to the TY Mono. Pat, ar22 first asked this question as he had, as I remember, a PHBH from an earlier bike and thought about using it. My experience with the PHBH is that it's difficult to get it to work right. I had one on my JTR370 and soon swapped it for a PWK28. Have you had any experience with the PHBH? (it's the "large body" Dellorto with the oval bore and was used on a lot of the Fantic bikes). Jon

Gunn, I just went out to the shop and compared the newer fatbar clamshell clamp to the older 7/8th bar mounts and they appear to be the same distance holes, so you can use the older mounts and shims. S-3 also makes a fatbat adjustable clamp that raises the bars up and Hebo also makes a taller set of the fatbars (I have a set on my 02' Pro, I don't like the newer low bars also) and they are part #HR30009285P and I think they come in silver and platinum colors. Here's a photo of them on my bike. Jon

I'd offer the suggestion that the difficult starting is not the result of your ignition timing being off. Often it's a combination of several minor problems, that, in themselves, would not cause the hard starting, but in combination, will create the issue you're dealing with. You might start by "tuning up" the electrical and fuel systems and go through the basic checks and adjustments, such as clean/inspect/adjust the carb carefully (take out all jets, including the starter jet and check them), drain out old fuel and use fresh premix, check for proper flow through the petcock (and proper operation of the vent tube, remove/re-attach all connections and ground wires (and that includes the stator plate), install a new, correct plug gapped to .024". Often, you will not find "The Problem", but you will have eliminated it by the process. Jon

The performance and throttle response will deteriorate to a degree, but more important (beside irritating the bejezez out of the riders around you) is that the center steel perforated center will vibrate with exhaust pulses and gradually wear the inside so the short tubes that it fits into and will eventually come loose from the aluminum tubes and shift inside the muffler body. Unless you are good at repairing, you will have to replace the whole muffler. Repacking the oval muffler bodies can be tricky (you can't just wrap the sheet around the core like a round muffler) and unless you have some experience with the "cut and fit" method, I'd use something like "SilentSport" packing which is a special loose packing, and quite easy to work with. The main thing is not to pack it too tight. Just follow the directions and you'll be fine. Jon

Neat, Pat! Looks like you got the "modified" PWK for one of the modern bikes with the controls on the left side? The PWK off the KX80 has the adjustments on the right side, which would be perfect for the TY. What size jets did you end up with and how is the performance, compared to the TK? Jon

I'm assuming you have a Pro. The static timing is not adjustable as the stator plate is fixed. Some riders have slotted the mounting plate on the Hall Effect Sensor (the magnetic "trigger") to change the static setting. Jon

What you might try first is to take the caliper apart and face the mating surfaces by sanding them on some 280 grit wet/dry sandpaper. Put the sandpaper on a level surface like a surface plate or piece of glass and move the caliper mating surface in a figure 8 pattern. You'll be able to see when the surface is level by the even pattern. Re-assemble and add a little fluid to the caliper before hooking up the hose to make bleeding easier. This should eliminate or at least reduce the flexing to the minimum. Jon

Here's some photos I took for an article for Trials Comp News comparing the Keihin to a PHBL (which is closer in size to the VM and TK carbs):

The PWK Keihin-28 may have a slightly shorter body (bell to spigot end) and a taller slide housing so there might be clearance problems, but here's a photo of the VM Mikuni-26 on the TY Mono (the cable comes straight up from the slide cap, without an angled fitting, and works fine) and a photo of the modified Mikuni 26mm flatslide I'm going to try: Jon

Alan, You really need to go to a motorcycle store for specific "fork oil". Fork oil has certain additives, such as one to reduce foaming (as does ATF) so that aeration does not reduce damping function (or in the case of ATF, cause hydraulic pressure variations). Jon

To hold the crank after the cylinder is off, take two short pieces of, say 1/2"X1" wood and place them front-to-rear under the piston, on either side, and then push the piston down so the skirt rests on the wood, which will lock the crank so you can remove the clutch hub nut. In addition to Stork's advice, look carefully on the rings and if they go on a certain way, they usually will have a mark (like an "N" or a "T") on one side and that will be the "top" or the side of the ring that faces up. Before installing the rings on the piston, you also will want to check the "end gap" of each new ring by pushing it into the cylinder bore to about 2-3mm from the top (a little above the point where the top ring stops at TDC, so it is in the non-worn, or smallest diameter part of the cylinder) and then square it to the bore using the top of the piston, lightly pushing down on it. Measure the end gap with a feeler gauge to make sure it's within spec.'s. Check your manual, but generally the standard is .1mm per inch of cylinder bore. If there is not enough clearance, you can dress the ends of the ring to provide a little wider end gap. Jon

Alan, The TY has what's known as "damper rod" type forks and work well with 15/20 weight fork oil. The ATF you are using would be more suited for a cartridge type fork, like on the modern bikes, during warm weather or a heavier rider. ATF is about 7.5 weight and at 160 lbs, you should probably be running 15 weight, minimum, for them to work well. The combination of low oil level and too light fluid could be the cause of your problem. Jon