Greeting everyone from New Hampshire, USA...have a 2006 Montesa 4rt I am the 3rd owner, I am an amateur haven't been on a bike 30 plus years (54 years old), few questions if you can all help me with,

1.) I have some swamp woods behind my house, few 6-8" logs to go over, some muddy areas  when not raining about an inch or two deep, trying to cross over a 10ft  wide by maybe 6-10" deep of swampy water ,not brave enough waiting for it to dry up some, few small slopes, very tight trail due to over grown etc. MY QUESTION...what gear should I be in?? I am going no more then 5--8 mph of so.., I stay in first for the most part, have tried second, really not sure if I'm hurting the bike at all?

 

2.) yes, I am one that knocked the idle down, after reading the owners manual I tried to get back to about 1,800 rpm, using an hour meter/tach built in and I know its not accurate, I would say I'm at maybe 1,200-1,300 rpm, today its been about 88-90F and very muggy, I rode for about 45 min to an hour, cooling fan ran 90-95 percent of the time, coolant level was checked few weeks ago and just about full....QUESTION, based on my temps and riding in first or second gear, normal?

 

sorry for the newbie questions, just want to learn to balance!(I was 12 years old I could ride a unicycle, 54 and I wouldn't attempt that again!)

 

philip

The 4RT is great at pulling from low to midrange so running in second or third could be fine but as long as your not revving it to the moon I doubt your hurting it.  

As long as your coolant is full I wouldn't worry about the fan running all the time. It's taken a while for me to adjust to a 4t fan running constantly when the temps here in Texas are at +100 degrees  (f). Both my Montesa and Beta fans kick on and stay on full time at these high temps and neither have shown any sighs of overheating or puking any coolant. I usually ride for about a half an hour without shutting down, never getting out of first and second gear. The fan running is just background noise now.

If it's that hot then the only gear I'd like to wear would be shorts, t shirt and some trainers, but that wouldn't be very sensible, so stick to the proper attire, grin and bare it, drink plenty of fluids.

As for your trails, 1st, 2nd or 3rd will be fine, if it's sticky under the tyres, pull 3rd. Trials tyres don't tend to clean themselves out very well at low speeds, so a burst of speed now and again will help clean the treads.

I  want to say thanks to all of you...no riding today(dogs to the groomers/poolside with wife), however, i checked the coolant level this am before i did some errands, and its pretty much right up to the neck(full),  i will go back and forth in first and second gear, for now really no place to "get on it" to clear mud off tires, trying to re-make trails that i use to ride my bicycle through about 40 years ago! lol a lot of things have changed since then, like freaking trees!, but a faint trail(s) are there, Fall will be a better time once the leaves come down to start clearing again......