tony27

Have heard that marlboro will be the reason that Rossi will end up on the Yamaha, they are wanting him on a competitive bike & Yamaha needs a major sponsor

Being a motorsport there is no chance of it ever happening, bike trials would be a possibility though

Given up on trying to shrink mine, wont fit in the frame without bending upwards & is jammed against the head stay etc. Would need to cut about 15mm off the guard to get it hooked under the frame properly & thats not going to happen Have ordered a new tank & the correct graphics to go with the new rear guard I already have hanging up in the garage, should see it in the next week or so May try soaking the old tank at a later date to see if more time has any effect

Hopefully sorted brake, couldn't bleed it with kitted master cylinder at home & ended up ordering a new cylinder from Splatshop Spent a few hours with the Ossa importer a couple of weeks ago pressure bleeding it. Basically it involved removing the reservoir & fitting a syringe in place of it then forcing fluid through the system with the nipple opened & closing the nipple while keeping pressure in the system. It's really a 2 person job or at least 1 able bodied person & 1 with a broken leg job Seems to have given enough pressure to allow me to be able to lock the wheel by hand, may have contaminated the pads & plan on riding the brake on the workstand to heat them up then quenching them to clean them. Will have to wait until the new tank arrives to try this though Looking forward to finally getting a trial under my belt this year, won't be able to retain my club championship after missing 2 or 3 rounds but hopefully should be able to win at least a round or 2 before the end of the season

I think he is talking about the crank seal rather than bearing getting oil contact from both sides. As such I haven't had a crank seal let go but have had the dreaded noisy mains a couple of times & have always replaced the seals at the same time

Dovi or Crutchlow both deserve to step up to the factory team going on their results this year. Hopefully Yamaha has a long enough memory to remember how badly Rossi dumped on them & how disruptive he was to team harmony The talk of Rossi going back to Yamaha is probably more about getting Ducati to up their offer, the boss of Ducati was at Laguna Seca waving a bigger pile of cash in his face so it seems to be working

The bearings being sealed isn't their only change over the older non-sealed bearings, the cage material changed to polyamide for noise reasons although also have the advantage not doing as much damage if they fail I think the reason for going to sealed bearings was to try & extend their life after lots of owners were finding very short lifespan due to water damage How hot do 2 stroke crankcases honestly get?

Is there any thread left on the shaft, had a gas gas shock do exactly what you're describing years ago & had a helicoil fitted to the shock eye(mount) which fixed the problem. Worth showing a bike shop or engineering firm the shock & getting their opinion, you won't need to take the spring with you

Probably safest to not go lower than 5 in the front especially if you ride rocks/slabs, too low on grippy stuff has a quite nasty effect where the tyre resists any steering imputs, if turning it wants to keep turning & if going straight then it takes a fair amount of effort to start the turn then as much to stop the wheel from turning more than required

Not sure what other bikes use the same knuckle but have a look on cmsnl to check out the part numbers, they used to list which bikes each particular part fitted if you looked at it. Generally a few TY250A kickstarts on ebay in the states which is probably your best place to look

About as well as a road race slick

Have a look on the splatshop site, there will be a good exploded view of the kickstart assembly there. Definately should not slide outwards when in use, should be a circlip & washer outside of the gear which stops the shaft moving sideways http://www.splatshop.co.uk/Parts-Finder/Sherco/2009/290/Kickstart/ Don't worry about the link being for 2009 as they're all likely to be pretty similar

Best way to do this is to make 2 aluminium jaws with the shaft size machined in them, when put together around the shaft there should be a gap between the faces. Leave the spring off & use the jaws you,ve made in a vice to clamp the shaft then a longer capscrew/bolt through the eye to screw it down. I would suggest test fitting then use a locking compound on the thread when tightening up properly Back the spring preload ring off to allow refitting of the spring & keepers, would pay to measure how much thread is left under the locking ring before starting to allow you to set the preload back where it was before your problem

Sounds like you're saying the shaft has undone from the mounting eye, had this happen on a gasser jt35 years ago. Quite possible that both the shaft thread & thread inside the eye are worn enough to not stay tight, I ended up getting the thread inside the eye inserted which worked well until I bought a new shock months later

I've got a header pipe for my Jarvis that has never been fitted that contains a catalytic converter from memory, came in the full road kit supplied when I bought the bike new. The main jet fitted for running with the catalytic converter was only around 108 or so from memory so that tells you how much it must restrict exhaust flow Will dig it out & take a photo at some stage

If the Valvoline is a synthetic oil then you can run quite a bit leaner oil wise, my CZ400 vmx bike was originally meant to run at 20:1 but the recommendations made nowadays by most experts are to use full synthetic at 40:1 which has proven fine. Only thing is that you need to lean off the jetting to make up for there being more fuel in the mix due to less oil

Had my 01 airbox rewelded when I still owned it, a decent plastic welder will be able to make it much better than standard

Bit of a moot point there now that Dorna has limited the factories to building only 4 prototype bikes each The comment about Honda having too much control is pretty spot on, can't see any other manufacturer being able to get the rookie rule ditched

Fixing stripped threads in cases is not normally a big problem, you need a M6 helicoil kit for the primary drive cover to crankcase screws or M5 for the clutch cover to primary drive cover Most bike shops & engineering firms can do this for you for a small fee if you're not confident in doing the job yourself

Should do, otherwise there is a dealer in Oz

Another thing going against direct injection on a 2 stroke is that is has been banned by the FIM, may have changed now that the road racing classes have been altered to eliminate 2 strokes. I seem to remember the Bimota V-due was originally designed to be direct injected but they had too many problems with it & didn't have the money to sort it out

Theres something majorly wrong in the cabin of that car for the states, I reckon it looks like they've snuck a third pedal in there

Pulled the caliper apart & gave it a good clean. Refilled the fluid & bled all the air out of the system, pads move but retract when the pressure is released. I got told to try something thicker than the disc between the pads to see if the pedal goes solid & if it does then I have a good system that just needs more pumping of the pedal to get the pistons to stay out Unfortunately the pads were already closer than that & I had to spread them slightly, pushing down on the pedal produced no real pressure & the pedal stuck down a couple of times. Looks like I'm only stewarding the trial tomorrow & won't be defending my club championship this year due to the problem, we could only drop 1 round & this will be the second I've missed due to this brake problem

I may have put you wrong with the fuel tap position, if the tab is towards you & you can see the C from above that is off. Normal position is straight down & reserve is towards the back

The fuel tap will have a C on 1 side in the circular part & a R on the other, R is for reserve & C for closed. Normally the tap should be so that neither is pointing to the outside of the bike when looking at it side on There will be a black lever at the front edge of the carb for the choke, it should be pointing straight up to start from cold. Can be a pain to flick off if the carb isn't sitting on the right angle. I find my 290 is quite cold blooded & needs the choke during the day if left to cool down for any length of time during the day Easiest suggestion for kicking the bike over is to slowly press down on the kickstart til you feel less resistance then return the lever to the top & give a good kick, you really need to win the kicking contest as it really hurts if the bike does