1oldbanjo

Do not use scotchbright - it will leave ugly scratches. On my Sherco - the stainless header pipe cleans up very well with 0000 or 000 steel wool and metal polish like Mothers, Autosol, Flitz, etc. The aluminum is a bit tougher as it was probably not a high polish originally - and anything you do beyond just a cleaning product will make the piece shinier than it was originally. I would try degreaser products first and a gentle cloth or brush. If that does not do it you can use products for polishing aluminum - but once you start using them it will make them shiny and you will have to polish the whole exhaust once you start. It will take a long time the first time you do it - but it should be easier to polish from then on.

Spend some time (hour/days/weeks/months/years) riding and get some experience. As you get better...then try new things. Don't expect to be able to do everything from the start, and just go out and have fun. As your balance and timing improves - new things will be much easier to pick up.

I don't like the "wax" or sticky type of lubes. I pull of the chain when it is dirty and throw it in an ultrasonic cleaner and it gets all the junk off. Then blow it off with compressed air and let it dry for a day. Then I have a long piece of cardboard that I lay the chain on and I apply Maxima Chain Guard and run a brush over it to work the oil in.....then let it sit and overnight. Then I wipe the chain with an old rag to get the excess oil off and install it on the bike. It sounds like a lot of work over a 2-3 day period - but it is only a couple of minutes each day and I do it between other projects like feeding the dog or putting wood in the furnace. Sometimes I will lube the chain on the bike with the Chain Guard if it just looks dry and is not dirty.....but I do wipe off any excess before I ride or it can get messy.

What he said.......just place one of the O-rings from your selection into some of the brake fluid and see if it gets soft and spongy.....and grows in size.

I have tried all the fancy and expensive plugs once in my life - platinum electrodes, 2, 3 & 4 electrodes, surface gap.....v shaped electrodes.....anything with a wonderful claim I once tried when I was young an foolish. Turns out.......it really doesn't make much noticeable difference in the standard low stressed production motorcycle engine. A good old standard Champion, Bosch or NGK seem to work just fine as long as they are the correct heat range and proper reach. I do believe that the newer spark plugs with the small platinum or other fancy tips last longer as they don't round off over time like the standard plugs - but those newer plugs are expensive and the standard plugs can be replaced often as they are very cheap.

I also use Tygon tubing - but it does not have a great ability to withstand heat - so you have to keep it away from the exhaust. I believe I put an insulating sleeve over the Tygon tubing where it gets close to the exhaust. Below is a description of Tygon: Tygon® Fuel and Lubricant Tubing F-4040-A Designed for safe and efficient handling of most petroleum-based products, Tygon® Fuel and Lubricant Tubing resists embrittlement, cracking and swelling. A consistent performer lot after lot, Tygon® Fuel and Lubricant Tubing is the most requested fuel and lubricant tubing for a variety of applications -- from small engine fuel lines to coolant transfer. Specifically designed to handle most fuels and industrial lubricants, Tygon® Fuel and Lubricant Tubing resists the swelling and hardening caused by hydrocarbon-based fluids. This significantly reduces the risk of failure due to cracking and leakage. Its minimum extractability safeguards the liquid or vapor being transferred against adulteration. Extremely flexible (Shore A, 57), tubing simplifies installation, even in tight places. It is translucent yellow for positive identification and to allow easy flow monitoring. It is routinely used to handle gasoline, kerosene, heating oils, cutting compounds and glycol-based coolants. Max working temp 165°F. UV and ozone resistant. Silicone fuel tubing has a temperature range of -80° F to +450° F, and is better for use near exhaust systems. Neoprene tubing is capable of -20° F to 212° F. I use the smallest inline filter I can find as space is a premium on my Sherco. I got the ones I use from a small engine/chainsaw store, and it flows enough fuel to keep the Sherco satisfied.

I am not sure why you can hear an electrical "crack".....that tells me you are getting some sort of arcing that occurs outside of the engine and spark plug. Perhaps you have a broken high tension wire, problem with the coil....or some fault that allows a spark to jump a gap that you can hear. I am not sure why this sound would go away when warm.

I tried a similar experiment with several different kind of fuels in plastic bottles with a 1/16" hole drilled in the cap for a vent. I had Avgas 100LL, Ethanol fuel, no ethanol fuel, high test and regular, and they all held up well. Somehow the bottle test does not simulate the real world environment very well. In my test the fact that my garage is insulate and heated and the temperature and humidity swings are very small may have been a factor. Throw the bottles in a tin storage shed - and add some aluminum and steel and brass in the bottles to simulate the materials the fuel will come into contact with and it may change things. I know that in the real world with equipment stored outdoors or in unheated garages - the problems really do show up frequently......and mostly in equipment that is only used periodically. If you run a tank of fuel through every couple of months most of the problems with fuel don't occur.

Not only are you lowering the Octane rating - the resulting fuel will have absorbed water and become saturated with as much water as it can hold in suspension. When the fuel sits in a tank and some it evaporates or the temperature drops - the water in suspension can drop out and become liguid water.

I would suggest taking the rear suspension linkage and rear brake pedal apart to clean and grease them. They need maintenance periodically and without knowin when it was last done - I would do the job before I rode it much.

I live in the Cincinnati area and if you are up this way you are welcome to come and ride my Sherco. My bike suits me very well and the Sherco is easy for me to get parts - I telephone Ryan Young and I usually have the parts the next day.

Although the clutch sticking is common on a Sherco......it can get extreme and you do not have to live with it. When working properly the clutch should only stick for a little bit - My own procedure is to start the bike, push off with my foot while I put the bike in 1st gear and ride off, then I pull in the clutch and apply the rear brake and blip the throttle a couple of times and the clutch releases. When my bike was getting bad it took several minutes to get the clutch to release.....and this can be corrected. You need to work on the clutch plates to reduce the severity of the problem. They do wear and warp and get polished......and a bit of maintenance can make the problem much less severe. Here is a link to a discussion on the Ryan Young Website: http://www.rypusa.com/forum/index.cfm?page=topic&topicID=71 On my 2004 290 I did not have any warped plates - but the plates were polished from use. What this does is cause a "suction", "stiction" or "vacuum" that makes it difficult for the plates to release the first time. The plates fit together so well that when the spring tension is released - the plates and oil hold the plates tightly together. The plates can be lightly sanded or lightly bead blasted to remove the shine and provide a surface that will prevent the seal from locking the plates together. Anyone that is having trouble with their clutch sticking should really spend an hour on the clutch plates - it will be time well spent and your clutch will work much better.

I had this problem with my 2004 290. The clutch would get stuck overnight and did not want to release. The problem was that the plates were polished and would create a seal that would not allow the plates to come apart. I took the clutch apart and washed the plates. I taped some fine emery cloth sandpaper to a sheet of glass and I rubbed the fiber plates across the sandpaper just enough to get rid of the glaze and shine. For the metal plates I just sanded them lightly - just enough to put a little bit of a scratchy pattern on them. I then washed the plates and assembled them with a little oil rubbed onto them while I was putting everything back together. The clutch worked great after that treatment.

The local club in the Kentucky/Ohio/Indiana area allows tire trimming as follows: TIRES In order to receive any awards, championship points or to compete as a member of a team, even though otherwise eligible, all class riders except Novice must have trials pattern tires fitted to the front and rear wheels of the motorcycle used in competition. Aids to traction such as spikes, chains, etc. may not be used. Tires may be trimmed to remove rounded edges but the original tread pattern must not be altered. I am not sure that I would buy the Knobby Knife as the local dirt is not hard on tires and the rubber compound may be getting hard by the time the edges get rounded.

I added one to my bike as I was getting junk in my idle circuit way too often. It is somewhat hard to find the really small filters that used to be common - most of the newer filters for lawn equipment have gotten to be too big for a trials bike. I did find some small filters and bought several to stock up....and they seem to help as I have not had any problems since adding it.

Powder coating and plating are good - but not perfect. Powder coating and plating are not good at getting into seams and rust can show up quickly wherever seams occur. If you use powder coating or plating I suggest you put some silver paint into the seams - then wipe off the excess and allow the paint to remain in the seams for rust protection. Paint is better at getting into the seams - but can be easily chipped or scratched if the paint type is brittle or soft. Epoxy paints are the most durable if you can find one that matches the silver color you need.

I used to use a tire softener on the slicks on my autocross tires. The product came in a gallon can and I used a small paint roller to apply it......but the tires were flat and a paint roller worked great. The liquid had a mint kind of a smell to it. The local dirt track go-kart racers all wash their tires with water as soon as they get off the and dry them off - then they apply WD40 on the tires and let is soak in. It is obvious who doesn't do this - their cars slide much more in the corners and they tend to be at the back of the pack.....the front runners all are meticulous about working on their tires. On a trials tires I think you could get a small rectangular pan - like the one you use to apply drywall compound. You could pour the liquid into the pan and then hold the pan up against the tread and slowly rotate the tire to cover the tread evenly - then put the pan underneath to catch the drips. Let us know how it works!

I had the problem on my brand new 2009 Sherco 3.2T in only a few months. I was using premium pump gas and it had ethanol in it and the tank started to grow and push the fender back. I had a month that I could not ride - so I drained out the fuel, washed out the tank with soapy water and put the tank out to dry. I put the tank in an area of the garage that gets very warm when the sun comes out - but not in direct sunlight. In a couple of weeks the tank was back to the normal size. Since then I have gone out of my way to find fuel that is ethanol free and I have not had any problems. I have never used Avgas 100LL as I believe it runs too ruch without rejetting - but I have been able to find Sunoco 96 Octane racing fuel and CountryMark 91+ in Indiana that are both ethanol free. When I know that I will not be riding for a week or so - I turn off the fuel tap and slowly ride the bike around at idle until I run the fuel out of the carb and the engine stops. This gets as much fuel out of the carb as possible without opening a drain plug - and helps when it comes time to start the bike again.

You might be able to install a short piece of tubing over the throttle cable - between the slide and the cap that would limit the movement of the slide. You would have to take the top off the carb and find a piece of tubing that was just a bit larger than the cable end - and trim it to length before installing it over the cable. It might be a bit of a juggling act to get everything installed with the tiny size of the slide and carb.

You may not be missing much. We talk about a lot of the same stuff.....best oil, best fuel mix ratio, best brand, best spark plugs! If you need to know.....www.arboristsite.com

This has been discussed at length on a chainsaw website. The consensus is that the gasoline can also aborb some water - and it will be saturated with as much water is it can hold. Therefore is could also cause problems related to water and corrosion. The only way to properly seperate them would be to have a distilling process......which would be dangerous.

The only sure way I know is to test the fuel. Take a plastic bottle (soda bottles are fine) and fill it about 1/3rd with water - then carefully mark the water level on the bottle with a marker or tape. Then fill the rest of the bottle up with the fuel you want to test, put on the cap and shake. In a few seconds the fuel will rise to the top and the water back to the bottom. If the fuel has ethanol in it the level of the water will have risen as a result of the ethanol being absorbed into the water.....the point where the water and fuel meet could be cloudy and/or bumpy. If there is no ethanol in the fuel the water level will be exactly where it was before you added the fuel and shook......and generally the layer between the fuel and water is very distinct and smooth. I have only been able to find ethanol free fuel by searching on the internet - then testing as several of the sources on the internet no longer carried ethanol free fuel. Some bulk distributers deliever ethanol free fuel to farmers as the ethanol does not keep well in the above ground tanks that most farmers use and the ethanol does not run or keep well in older farm equipment. You may also be able to find ethanol free pump gas at marinas or gas stations that are near race tracks. Airports have Avgas 100LL and it keeps forever - but it runs richer than regular fuel and you may have to rejet to get it to run properly.

The fuel test you are doing in the glass bottle is not representative of real world conditions if the bottle sealed and stored inside your garage heated garage. Without being exposed to temperature swings and moisture the fuel does not deteriorate. I did a similar test and had several different brands of fuel and they all held up well (Avgas 100LL, Shell 96 race fuel, Torco 110, 87 Pump Gas, 92 Pump Gas). To be an accurate test - I believe the container needs to be vented like the fuel tanks are, and it needs to be subjected to temperature and humidity swings the way equipment is when it is stored in unheated garages and pole barns....or left outside. I personally have seen lots of damaged related to ethanol fuels. My Sherco tank is nylon and it swelled and became soft in only 4 months of using pump gas with ethanol - my current replacement tank is 2 years old and doing fine now that I make sure to use ethanol free fuel. I have repaired lots of mowers, chain saws and snow blowers that have had the fuel lines and/or carb diaphragms dissolved by the ethanol laced fuel. My neighbor had a Honda CRF450 that had the carb float needle corroded by the ethanol - ethanol in concentration will corrode aluminum. Prior to the introduction of ethanol fuel problems with old gas were resticted to gumming things up - now the ethanol related problems show up as corrosion of metal parts and dissolving rubber parts. My opinion is that ethanol fuel causes few problems in equipment that is used regularly. It causes problems in equipment that is used periodically and stored for extended periods. The ethanal fuel either absorbs moisture and causes corrosion problems - or the "gasoline" portion of the fuel evaporates and provides high concentrations of ethanol that dissolves rubber parts and corrodes metal parts. It is also during these extended periods that phase seperation seems to occur.....some oils do no mix with ethanol and can seperate when the gasoline portion has evaporated and the ethanol percentage is increased (or water is absorbed). I have found a source of ethanol free 91 octane gasoline and it works great in all my mowers and motorcycles.

I went to a dirt track gocart race this summer and was surprised to see how they tend to their tires. As soon as they are off the track they put the cart up on a stand and wash and squeege the tire off. Then they spray it with WD40 and let it soak in until the next heat. This evidently softens up the tire and makes it stick to the moistened and rolled dirt surface. The weird part is that the place where they line up and merge onto the track is not moist......so the tires get a layer of dust on the tires before they even reach the track. It must help though......as they would not go through all that WD40 if it didn't help. You could see cars at the back of the pack drifting around corners as their tires were not hooking up - while the cars in front where not sliding at all.

The test is easy....and unfortunately often necessary to be sure. Find a small clear bottle, fill it about 1/3rd up with water and carefully mark the water level. Then fill the rest up with the gasoline to be tested, put on the lid and shake. If there is no ethanol the gasoline will float on top of the water and there will be a very distinct seperation and the water level will be at the mark you made earler. If there is ethanol in the fuel the seperation often is bubbly and rough, and the level of the water will have risen above the mark that was made. Testing a small amount is the only way to be sure.