neonsurge

Time for an avatar change, methinks. If only I had Ron's... errm... level of equipment.

If you turn up and don't look like your avatar I'm going to be sooo disappointed. That's my "after" picture! After six pints that is...

STILL waiting for my license to return from the ACU - I compete only very occasionally and didn't get around to renewing this year until a couple of weeks ago. I guess it might have been delayed due to the pre-SSDT rush. If it doesn't arrive in the next couple of days, I'll send my entry in anyway with "TBC" in the ACU No. section. I hope that'll be OK and that my license will arrive in time to produce at signing on! So yes, one way or another I'll be riding (if only on the Saturday afternoon). By the way, it's the 29th and 30th WB! Wouldn't be looking for an excuse not to attend would you?

Ordnance Survey map no. 108, SD885765.

You're right, I'm currently using pump unleaded with 5ml of STP octane booster per litre of fuel but I'm mixing 2-stroke oil at 80:1 which should be OK. I've no idea where to buy race fuel 'round here, but there's an airfield quite close... hmmm, avgas!?! I guess I'll give super unleaded a try. Worth a go before I tear down to look at the timing. Thanks for all the suggestions!

Ack! Sorry 'bout that Clark, I KNEW I read a similar thread recently. That'll teach me to search/preview before posting. Thinking about it, you're right - it does start when the bike is hot. I've tried various combinations of fuel/oil mixes, with and without octane booster, so I guess I'll look at the timing. Any documentation on this procedure anywhere?

My recent proclaimation on another thread that I'd solved the pinging problem with my Rev-3 seems to have been premature. Last weekend it was up to its old pinging tricks, although only under under load and when going uphill at which point the pinging is accompanied by blue smoke from the exhaust. I pulled the plug last night and it's black and wet. Combined with the blue smoke, a sure sign of worn piston/rings right? Well in my (limited) experience a bike with worn rings will reguarly foul plugs but mine starts very easily, idles fine, runs fine (most of the time) and has yet to foul a single plug. And why only when going uphill? The uphill thing might be a red herring since this is obviously when the engine is usually under the most load and the problem is therefore most obvious, but the problem's certainly not severe and more of an annoyance than anything else. But the blue smoke worries me. It's a relatively new bike (late '02) and hasn't been ridden much if at all in the past 12 months so I'd be surprised if a rebuild is required already (although I guess it does depend on how the bike was ridden from new to some extent). Could this be at least partially carb-related? All suggestions gratefully received!

It looks like there might be a few of us coming across from the Scarborough area: myself, maximus, lastplacebrad and probably a couple of others and we're looking at hiring a big van for the weekend, so if anyone from this part of the world is looking for additional beer transportation facilities, drop me an email or PM (although I can't guarantee that it'll still be there upon arrival!) While I'm still undecided whether to actually enter the trial on the Sunday (I have my reasons...), it'd be nice to spend a couple of hours riding somewhere different to our usual practise ground on the Saturday afternoon - I'm sure that this has been asked before, but I assume that it's still OK? Maybe we need to start some kind of roll call/identification thread at some point... I'll kick things off: neonsurge (aka Steve Ford): 2003 Beta REV-3 with 2004 plastics, grey/white riding gear, glasses, unnecessarily overweight, crashes a lot (leading to torrents of swearing - I'll try to tone it down, honest). Anyone else...?

Apart from the Scorpa 125, of course. Or did you mean Montesa?

I reckon that unless the other manufacturers have been doing some intensive and very secret development, Honda are in the strongest position when it comes to an all-new 4-banger triallie. Like someone said elsewhere, the new CRF250 engine is tiny and on the face of it seems to have been developed with flexible application in mind. Then there's the rumours of Sherco's 360 trials prototype using a sleeved-down version of the 450 engine from the enduro bike. GasGas already have medium-bore 4-stroke motors in the FSE models and I guess that Scorpa are talking to Yamaha about the TTR-250 (or maybe WR/YZ250F) mills. Beta have an existing relationship with Suzuki for their Alp models (albeit for the old oil/air cooled DR engines). I don't think that there's any doubt that there'll be a whole raft of new 4-stroke trials bikes appearing over the next couple of years, but there's been a lot of effort going into 2-stroke R&D recently particuarly in the area of fuel injection so once the dust settles we might see a 2-stroke renaissance. My completely uninformed prediction: In 5 years we'll have at least one fuel-injected, electric start, 2-stroke trials bike.

Reminds me of the old KTM one: "Kick Ten Minutes"

OK, here's the skinny on how I've managed to completely cure the pinging on my Rev-3 AND find a little bit more top-end power as well. I am not a mechanic, neither am I any kind of authority on fuel, spark plugs or jetting so I have no idea if this will work for anyone else: NGK BP5ES spark plug. Standard pump unleaded petrol mixed at 85:1 with Ipone fully synthetic oil and 5ml of STP octane booster per litre of petrol. I tried the octane booster route first because super unleaded is very difficult to obtain 'round here.

My mistake: The coolant was in the transmission, not the crankcase and a water pump rebuild seems to have sorted it. I guess we'll find out for certain this weekend, eh Steve?

Posting this on behalf of my technologically-challenged neighbour: It's a 2002 250 Pro. While draining the crankcase after a very wet day's riding, a not insignificant amount of coolant was noticed in there. Obviously not good. Any idea what could be the cause? Is there a seal behind the impellor somewhere that might have failed? Many thanks for any and all suggestions!

Full results on the SDMC site: Try http://www.scarboroughdmc.co.uk/pages/down...ABnat180404.pdf Otherwise, go to scarboroughdmc.co.uk and click on "results, regs".

Horrendous conditions at Low North Park today - torrential rain combined with several sections in the river resulted in numerous drowned bikes. Elsewhere it was a mudbath. Still, some good results for the local boys! A-class 250 1. M. Brown (67) 2. S.Haslam (85) 3. A. Wigg (102) 4. G. Kendrew (106) 5. L. Sampson (109) B-class 250 1. N.Crellin (50) 2. B. Regan (61) 3. M. Jones (73) 4. W.West (98) 5. J. Carr (98) B-class 125 1. R. Danby (34) 2. R. Andrews (51) 3. J. Walker (93) 4. A. Jones (99) 5. J. Merchant (107)

Around here, Champion have the reputation of being slightly inferior to and subsequently less reliable than the NGK equivalent although Stu's theory about atmospherics affecting plug performance is probably correct when you take into account all of the associated variables such as the relative density of the air passing through the carb, ambient humidity, altitude etc. The reason that the Beta factory state that only Champion plugs should be used in their bikes is almost certainly a consequence of an exclusive supply agreement that contains some element of reciprocal marketing. Just a theory.

Hey, thanks! I think I'm gonna like it in Betaville. Oh, and just to add fuel to a fire that you all probably thought had gone out, what I didn't mention in my "first ride report" was that I noticed a slight knock, especially under hard acceleration. I didn't mention it because I hadn't read the spark plug conversation at that stage and in my (limited) experience, such problems are usually easily solved by installing a new plug and/or switching to a higher octance fuel. I've replaced the old Champion with an NGK and the knocking's disappeared. I'll let more intelligent and experienced persons than me draw conclusions from that...

r2w: I live in fear of the day you call in the favour! Anyway, I spent a full day on the Beta today and for what it's worth here are my impressions from a former GasGas owner's perspective: Much more power. Especially in the mid-range which makes 3rd/4th gear climbs ridiculously easy. In fact, I had to train my right hand to apply only about two thirds of the amount of throttle that I'd use on the Gasser. No compression of the forks needed to wheelie across ruts and ditches - just wind on a smidge more power and the front end rises effortlessly. Nice. But the thing that impressed me the most was the suspension. Even though I was using the factory settings which are definitely a little too soft for my lardy a***, I never bottomed either end despite some big drop-offs and absolutely spot-on damping provided an easy ride over rocks making the rider look far more competent than is actually the case. Oh, and I love the Beta "whine". In summary: More power, MUCH better suspension and and overall feeling of functional refinement. You'd expect as much when you consider that 4 years separate the 2 bikes but the gap was far wider than I expected it to be. I'm a very happy camper!

First of all, thanks for the info. That about covers it! My reasons for swapping the Gasser for the Beta are almost completely unrelated to the bikes themselves I'm afraid: I bought the Gasser (a '99 TXT270) to get back into trials after a long lay-off. Apart from the suspension linkage (the problems with which where entirely a result of my own mechanical incompetence), it never gave me any problems and to he honest, if finances allowed it'd still be in my garage alongside the Rev-3. But it just so happened that the opportunity to buy the Beta came along at a time when I'd been thinking about updating a bit and could just about afford it as long as I traded the Gasser, so that's what I've done. In fact, it was a choice between the Beta or a similarly immaculate Sherco and I went for the Beta simply because I won't have to wrestle with any linkage and replacement plastics are cheaper! The Beta came with a flywheel weight (unfitted). I've yet to ride the bike "in anger" (that'll happen on Monday) but I did blast around the field next to the dealer's shop for 10 minutes or so and the thing that I noticed immediately was how much more powerful than the GasGas it is - vicious even, so the weight might see some action in the near future. I might post some "GasGas vs. Beta" thoughts later, but I'm not sure how useful it'd be to anyone: '99 TXT270 vs. '02 270 Rev-3 as ridden by a ham-fisted overweight thirtysomething? I don't think so, do you? Oh, there is one thing: The fuel tap - what are the different positions? I haven't fiddled with it yet, but I assume up is "on" and either left or right is "off" and "reserve" - which? (I said I'd ask dumb questions!) P.S. The site's looking good r2w!

Makes you wonder why GasGas have started manufacturing of the old '03 Edition models again, though. A couple of people have suggested to me that the "Pro"s are just that... relatively vicious and fragile and a bit too "pro" for the average clubman rider whereas the Edition was at its peak of development when it was initially discontinued with the ergos etc. essentially unchanged from the '98/'99 TXTs and the switch to the very light, ultra-slim Pro was just too much. Or maybe they just had shedloads of unsold '03 Editions... who knows? Like I said, just what I've heard ("fat bloke down the pub" syndrome).

Reet, you're all gonna be fed up of me 'cos I've just bought a Rev-3 and as any regulars of the GasGas forum will tell you, I ask some dumb-ass questions. It's an extremely clean, little-used 2003 270 - so little used in fact that the engine's still slightly "tight" and it's closest that I'm going to get to a new bike in the forseeable future so I'm as happy as <insert reference to something very happy>. I'd like to get hold of a manual, if such a thing exists. Not because the bike needs any work at the moment but I always like to know the factory-recommended amount of gearbox oil, fork oil, premix ratios and the like. Does such a thing exist in downloadable form? Failing that, is there an online reference site that contains any information I'm likely to need during my ownership? There's not much technical information on JL's site and a half hours' Googling hasn't turned up much... As always, I'm not worthy

What's a "burn"? From WB's photos, it looks like what we'd call a "gulley" 'round these here parts. Am I right?

Yet another fantastic photo of Dougie from last weekend. Why does he always seem to evoke the intensity of the competition more than any other rider? Click here.