jse

Spencer, I think it's best to completely clean out the system when converting to DOT-5 as the fluids are not compatable. When mixing DOT-3, 4, 5.1/DOT-5/ mineral oil fluids, you will usually end up with some pretty weird stuff floating around in your M/C reservoir that looks like sea monsters.... Jon

Steve's bike is on display just "up the road", maybe 70 miles, from where I live: http://www.mcqueenonline.com/huskyandtrophies.htm . I also have the framed Sports Illustrated photo of him on the cover pictured there. A Buddy gave it to me for my birthday one year, knowing what a McQueen fan I also was. Jon

I have a 280 Pro and am close to your weight at 14 stone, and have riden the 250 and found it quite nice, with enough power to do whatever I had the guts to try. The lighter weight of the Pro offsets displacement to a degree and if you are starting out in Trials, I would think the 250 just about perfect. Jon

Usually the cylinder will have "GG28" cast in it, on the left side, I think. Or, look at the VIN number on the headstock (behind the headlight) and it will be "VTRGG2803......". The chassis numbers up to 2003 have the following code: Example: VTRGG 2800 0200 9955 VTR = International manufacturers code. VTR = GasGas GG = Trial model (Company code to identify model EC = Enduro & MX, FS = Four Stroke, WD = Quads) 2800 = "28"0 model, year 20"00" 0200: 02 = Manufacture month. (2ND month) February. 00 = Year of manufacture 2000. 9955 = sequential chassis number (9,955th built in this year.) Cheers. Jon

As far as I know, only Gary Burghoff played Radar on the MASH series. Michael J. Pollard was the co-star in this movie, but both actors had the same style and affect in their various roles. When the movie first came out we all thought, "Cool! Another motorcycle racing movie!", but it was pretty hokey and disappointing. We did get to see a lot of the filming as the company came up to the Hall's Ranch TT track south of San Jose, California to film a lot of the other racing action in the film and I had raced on that track many, many times. It was a neat (and very tricky) track as it ran up and down the side of a big hill studded with huge oak trees and small ravines. I once ran off the fast, narrow downhill groove and out into space and down into one of the ravines, narrowly missing the referee down at the bottom near the start line, hitting hard enough to ram the upper fork tubes out the bottom of the lower tubes on my Montesa. I was lucky enough to not get a scratch.....this time. Ah, youthful stupidity..... Jon

Michael J. Pollard was in the Little Fauss and Big Halsy movie, and I think you're thinking of Gary Burghoff, who played Radar in MASH.

I don't know of an on-line owner's manual for the TXT (I assume you have the "Edition" model, not the "Pro"?), but a parts list is available at: http://www.trialspartsusa.com/manuals/part...ok-complete.pdf , it's for the 2001 model, but the basic parts should be the same. The TrialsPartsUSA website, under tech, has a bunch of information that should help you. If you have a Pro model, the website has a 2003 Pro parts list for download and also a 2004 owners manual, which should also apply to your 03'. I've never seen a hardcopy TXT manual (I never got one with my 96, or with my 02' for that matter), only the later Pro. The owners in the U.S. received a VHS/DVD service manual with their new bikes, since 1995, I think, that was made by the bike and parts importers. Jon

This is the kind of movie you'll watch over and over for years. As to the pitstop desert racing dog, I can't remember the racer's name, but as I remember, the dog's name was "Cookie". Jon

Believe it or not, I did this swap on a friends Cota and it ran quite well. The oval port PHBH26CS (air screw model, known as the "large body" Dellorto) was off a 96 GasGas 338cc (JTR370) and worked essentially with the GG jetting (at sea level). MAIN: 115 PILOT: 45 NEEDLE: X18 (2nd CLIP POSITION DOWN FROM TOP) SLIDE: 55 AIR SCREW: 1.5 TURNS OUT TO START Jon ps. Forgot to add: These carbs often work well on the early bikes due to their throat bore design, which is oval (like the early four-stroke Keihin models) rather than round. This makes them act like a smaller than 26mm carb at low slide openings and maintains a higher velocity of air over the needle jet tower promoting better atomization of fuel and aiding the "idle circuit-to-pilot jet-to-needle jet" transition of the fuel/air mix. As for the starter jet, they often come with #60 or #70 and seem to work better with a #80 starter jet, or you can drill out the jet with a .8mm or .031" pin drill (best to do in a lathe if you have one).

As buying new parts would make your new aquisition less than a bargain, you might be on the lookout for another parts bike around the 97' year model. A lot of the major parts you need are the same for a lot of the years and maintenance parts like brake pads, master cylinder rebuild kits etc. are easy to get. For instance, I had a 96' JTR370 and my son had a 97' JTX320 and except for a few things like the airbox design and displacement, they were essentially the same bike. Jon

Mick Andrews showed me a good way of checking bar width. Close your eyes, stretch out your arms comfortably and lower them on the bars. If they are fairly far in from where the grips are, you might want to consider shortening them, but keep in mind you'll lose a little leverage in the process. Jon

I'm one...... Jon

You may want to ask a more experienced rider to take a look at your bars for you as the width may not be the problem. It's common for new riders to set up the bars like a "normal" bike that you would sit down to ride. This position puts the wrists at an uncomfortable angle in a standing position and perhaps rotating them forward a little would help. Jon

The 99' is pretty straightforward and I doubt you will have any trouble, the sidecover is all you need to remove. It would be a good time to replace the trans oil as you can drain out the old oil, place the bike on it's side, replace the clutch and pour 650-700cc's of oil over the clutch to refill the trans case. A tip is to use a new T-handle Allen wrench (or grind off about 10mm off the tip of an old one) to keep from stripping the small buttonhead screws. Tap the head of the T-handle with a small hammer to "shock" the screws and they will usually come out easily. Jon

I think Peter's general impressions tend to follow my prior experience. But, I think that Ralph is also correct, but that the reedblock/distance theory tends to be more valid in the area of cylinder reed engines (where you deal with a longer intake tract and resonance issues need to be considered). and is less valid in dealing with case reed engines, which most of the new 2T Trials engines are. Primary compression ratios in 2T Trials engines are closer to Supercross MX engines (than, say, outdoor MX engines), where a high PCR is needed for instant mid/upper-mid output for corner-to-corner performance. The Primary compression ratio has an effect on port fuel/air mix velocity, and therefore the scavenging of the cylinder, at the cost of a slight decrease in volume (a two-stroke's crankcase compression of the incoming charge is, in effect, it's own "supercharger", unlike a 4T, which relies on ambient air pressure and fuel/air mass velocity). There are, as in any competition engine, trade-offs, and the high PCR in a SX 2T engine make it unsuitable for regular outdoor MX as the power tends to flatten off fairly quickly due to "pumping losses" as it takes energy to compress the incoming charge in the crankcase (in a Top/Fuel Dragster's engine it's estimated that it takes between 800-1200 HP just to run the supercharger). Jon

This is unusual in my experience. The first thing I would check is that the correct washer is on the kickstart shaft, it's quite thin and the tolerances are tight there. If the washer is too thick, it would exert pressure on the inside of the case, but you usualy would feel binding of the shaft. I would think that a remote possibility would be that the kickstart rachet is not being engaged before kicking on the lever, which can cause several problems with the starting mechanism. You might want to check some of the sealing surfaces with a straightedge. Jon

Sometimes you can change the leverage ratio by running a different type of lever. I run a modified Suzuki brake lever on my Pro, which gives me a little better ratio (the adjustment screw is farther out from the pivot point which moves the M/C plunger farther for each degree of lever movement) and I like the straight blade design as it gives a better "feel" than the curved standard design. Jon

Sometimes, as Peter states, in a two-stroke, if an inner head o-ring is leaking slightly and the radiator overflow tube is restricted, the excess pressure can force coolant past the W/P seal into the trans case, and, yes, it's generally true that only four-strokes have a gasket sealed junction of trans oil and coolant, but two-strokes can do it also, just indirectly. If the bike has been in deep water quickly, the trans vent tube (it comes out the top/rear of the cases) can ingest water due to rapidly cooling of the case, causing a vacuum, but Peter's correct in that the usual path is past a worn W/P shaft/seal from my experience. Jon

Since you have the system apart, why not change to Silicone (DOT-5) which should give a little smoother action. It works a little better in colder weather also. Silicone fluids exhibit significantly lower changes in viscosity when compared to petroleum-based fluids (due to it's viscosity-to-temperature coefficient). The Silicone is compatable with all the seal/o-ring materials. Jon

Hmmm, I must have been 7 years old, so that means about 59 years ago, when I got my first taste of "powered flight". A friend and I pooled our allowances and went to a war surplus store (when they actually had "war surplus") and bought a beat-up Welbike. The Welbike was a British paratrooper scooter that folded up and could be dropped with the troops behind enemy lines. I think it had an old iron Villiers deflector piston 98cc engine in it and we literally rode the wheels off that thing and it's when I first learned to work on two-strokes. My first introduction to four-strokes came a year or two later when that same buddy and I bought a basket-case Whizzer (a Schwinn bike with a small engine in it) and it was actually in three laundry baskets, completely apart. We kept it in my buddy's parent's garage, luckily the manual was with it so I spent some time putting it together and, lo and behold, it actually ran. I think that experience hooked me on bikes and learning all I could about them. My mother never knew about the bikes as I knew she wouldn't approve, "Dammit, Jon, you'll poke an eye out with that thing!". There was a stint in and after with cars and dragracing (Flatheads, Chevy, Olds and Cadillac powered gas coupes/roadsters and then AA/Fuel Chrysler Hemi dragsters) that ended when I quit dragracing, when too many friends got killed (the front-engined dragsters were death machines), so I took up something "safer", flat tracking, so back on the big bikes for a time, throwing them sideways at 100 MPH+. One night sitting on the line with all the other gunfighters, waiting to be flagged off, I thought "Darn, this isn't fun anymore". So, sold the equipment and happened to attend a motorcycle show at the Cow Palace in South San Francisco soon after that (1971). PITS (Pacific International Trials Society) had a booth there and some Trials bikes to show visitors and they were very nice people, unlike the gunfighters, and invited me to ride an event. I thought "Well, heck, I'm a hard-core racer, I can kick all their grannybutts". The first event was a long series of humbly taking dirt samples, but it was fun and the people were helpful and encouraging. I feel that I really learned to ride motorcycles when I took up Trials. Well, since then I've been involved in Trials and am having more fun than ever. I get to use my experience to help others and it's much better exercise for guys my age than walking on a treadmill and watching soap operas. I've been told that you don't choose your hobbies, they choose you, and Trials has certainly proved that true for me. Jon

Each bike is a little different, as are the conditions that it operates under. For tickover, I set mine by (bike warmed up) puting it in first with the lever normally held in (with one finger, like I would ride, and not fully back at the grip) and then adjust the idle speed where I like it and this compensates for clutch drag and prevents stalling in the section. For the air mixture screw, again bike warmed up, quickly blip the throttle from idle and adjust the screw in/out for best response. This way you adjust the carb for your bike, under the circumstances in which you ride and the adjustments will most likely be a little different from anybody elses. Jon

As I remember, it was the Duluth WTC round, Spirit Mountain, on Saturday. I was standing in the creek shooting photos upstream and couldn't believe how fast the creek was filling up. They get some big nasty raindrops off the lake there. Jon

One of the tricks I've found useful is to use an old used premix bottle (auto and farm stores carry them for chainsaws and other uses) that has two caps and a measuring reservoir attached. It's really easy to quickly measure out what you need and dump it into the fuel container. Jon

The RMTA and WMTA are a great bunch of people. I trailered my bikes out in August for the Ute Cup and checked sections morning and afternoon sessions, both days and loved it! You won't find a nicer group to ride with or a more beautiful area to ride in. I guarantee you will be glad to be a part of them. Jon