brucej

I stand corrected! Really, I should have said I wasn't 100% sure on the trials machines, they are so rare I have only seen the one Rotax powered example. Sorry! Thank you for setting things straight. Bruce

Jay, sorry to say it, but I don't think you will have much luck finding Hiro parts on this side of the Atlantic. At least not from Can-ams, as they all used Rotax engines. A couple quick notes about Can-ams, just for the heck of it: The earlier models were built in Canada by Bombardier, from the mid seventies to the early eighties. The later models were built by Armstrong, in the mid eighties, under contract to Bombardier. Bombardier owns Rotax, so naturally the bikes sold under their nameplate used their engines. Most Can-ams were mx or enduro models. I did see a Can-am trials bike last year. It had an aluminum frame which looked cool, but from what I've been told they were not that impressive performance wise. I do hope you can get the Garelli running well again, I am looking forward to reading about it. Bruce

Yeah, that should be fine.

Another thing that should be checked before you start changing jets and things, is to make sure the exhaust is not clogged up with carbon or oil. BTW, what kind of plug are you using? Fine wire plugs, like a platinum or gold palladium(sp?), are a little more foul resistant than the regular ones. Of course, they cost quite a bit more, too. Good Luck, Bruce

I seem to remember something of the sort on TrialsXchange.com, have you looked there?

You want to close the fitting while pressure is still greater inside the system than outside, to prevent sucking air back into the line. Therefore you need to close it while the lever is still being pulled in or just as it reaches the bars. With 2 people you can get a full stroke of the lever, which makes the job a little easier. If you can rig the rubber band so that the lever is as far out as possible to start, and pulls the lever all the way in when you open the fitting, then it should work, too.

I helped a friend of mine do this job on his 96 Scorpa last summer. I don't know if this is the best way to do it, but it worked for us, so I'll pass it along. First of all, you have to find a way to keep the piston in the slave cylinder from moving as you pump the clutch lever. We used a c-clamp, with some pieces of aluminum sheet metal to protect the piston and outer surface of the slave cyl.. With the clamp in place, sqeeze the lever to apply pressure to the system, then crack open the bolt in the banjo fitting to let air escape. Close it quickly, before the lever has been pulled all the way into the bar. You have to be really fast! Repeat until no more air comes out and the lever feels solid. This is definitely a two person job! Bruce

The ratio of front sprocket to back sprocket is figured out by dividing the number of teeth on the front sprocket into the number of teeth on the back sprocket. So, for example, if you have 11 teeth on the front and 44 on the back, the calculation is 44 divided by 11 equals 4. In this example 1 tooth on the front is worth 4 on the back. If you want to lower your overall gear ratio (less speed in a particular gear at constant RPM), you would want to use a sprocket with less teeth on the front, or one with more teeth on the back. A one tooth change on the front will make a big difference.

Larry, once you get your pegs lowered and your bars raised, you may still find the Bell helmet restricts your head movement. The NZI doesn't come down nearly as far in back, or on the sides and front either. I have had 2 NZI helmets now, a polycarbonate and a carbon fibre, they are both light and allow good vision. The polycarbonate helmet isn't really that great looking, though. If you saw it on the shelf beside the Bell, you would probably expect it to sell for about half of what the Bell does. Instead it would cost you about twice as much. The carbon fibre model is much better finished, but of course costs even more. Most trials specific helmets are quite pricey, must be a supply and demand thing. Neither NZI has a removable liner, and the buckles rust quickly if you don't look after them. They are very light and comfortable, though (for me, anyway). Bruce

Sounds like warranty work to me. On the off chance the dealer doesn't agree with us, though, maybe you could split the cases and spot weld the gears into place. You really only need one gear on a trials bike anyway. As for that annoying oil leak, don't worry about it, if you do absolutely nothing, it will stop all on its own. Hope this helps! Bruce

I wouldn't worry too much about the blue smoke. It's a bit different with a 2 stroke than with a 4 stroke. In a 4 stroke blue smoke usually does mean worn parts are allowing oil into the combustion chamber, either past the piston and rings or past the valve guides. In a 2 stroke, of course, the oil goes in with the gas, and will build up in the exhaust like Clark said if the bike isn't run very hard. It is possible for a 2 stroke to smoke excessively if it is sucking transmission oil past a worn seal on the right side of the crank, but if this were the case it would smoke all the time. It sounds like your plug is partially fouled, that might be what is causing the pinging. If a fresh plug clears it up , then your task is to find out why the plug isn't staying clean.

The headpipe goes down, makes a tight loop, and comes back up over the ignition sidecover, almost as high again as where it exits the head. If you see a left-side veiw it shows it a lot better.

Regarding which brand plug is best to reduce knocking, I'm curious: Are you guys comparing a new plug of one brand to a new plug of the other brand? That would be the fair way to do it, IMHO. It really wouldn't be a big surprise if a new plug worked better than an old one, would it? I recently cured my bike of knocking by replacing the plug - with the exact same brand and type of plug.

So how come the Betas use such a cold plug, ie. NGK '7' heat range as opposed to the NGK '5' that most others use? Is it because of design differences in the engine, like higher compression or different squish band design, or is Beta just more conservative in this regard than the others? Anybody have any ideas?

http://www.birkettmotosport.co.uk/

Money saving tip for cheap b*******s like me: Wal-Mart sells Bosch platinum spark plugs for less than you can buy regular NGKs. If you use an NGK BPR5ES, the platinum Bosch replacement is a WR8DP. Platinum plugs generally last longer than regular iron alloy plugs and are a little more resistant to fouling. They also usually cost 2 or 3 times as much as the regular plug, but the local Wal-Mart price for a pair of WR8DPs is $6.47 Cdn., the best price I have found locally for the NGK is $3.50 Cdn. apiece.

Jesster, the seat was still available from Yamaha as of 2 years ago. About $145. Cdn at that time. Or have you tried there already?

Kevin, you could try using a oil pump can instead of a syringe to pump the fluid in. I don't remember for sure where I got this idea, but I think it was from Ron Milam's tips. It does work better than the syringe, at least for me, because the pump is easier to work with one hand and it seems to develop more pressure. A couple of other problems I ran into when I did this job on my 98 GG yesterday: the bolts that hold the caliper together weren't tight, so it was sucking air. I've never had the caliper apart, so they probably just vibrated loose over time. The other problem was in getting the banjo connection to seal at the caliper. I did have the line off the caliper, and the sealing washers had 'seated' in their original position which, of course, I couldn't replicate. I'm sure new washers would be the best fix for this, but I didn't have any, so I filed the old ones flat and it seemed to work. I don't know if any of this will be of any use to you, it did work for me but maybe that was just luck. Speaking of which, I hope yours gets better!

Personally, any dealer that made a comment like that to me would get very little of my business after. They will make something on the sale of the soles, afterall, even if it's not as much as they'd make on a new pair of boots. Keep the customer happy and he'll come back for other things, send him away unsatisfied and he'll look for it elsewhere...

Thanks for clearing that up for me, Dave. My Ty does have a re-inforced back hub, but just the stock chain guard. I imagine the Miller guard is the type that fits tightly around the front sprocket, to keep the chain from 'piling up' between the sprocket and cases if it breaks? I might have to invest in something like that when I get the bike up and running again. (it's currently waiting for some engine repairs). BTW, I have heard the ACU run an air-cooled monoshock class at vintage events, have you considered doing something similar for your Outlaw trial? It could be run as a kind of support class, keeping the glory for the twin-shocks... just something I was thinking about, it would give me a good excuse to keep the old bike. Richard, good luck with the sale of your TL, I think you will be pleased with a new bike when you get one. As much as I like my TY, it can't match the performance of my GG.

Richard, are you from Richmond, B.C., or some other Richmond? I'm guessing B.C. because I've been told the 84s were only sold in Canada and Japan. I have one, too, they're good bikes.

The best way to check the bottom end is to pull the top end off and have a look. I wouldn't risk starting it again until the problem has been found, it can only get worse by running it. Hope it's not too serious!

Didn't Fantic sell an air-cooled "clubman" model trials bike alongside the liquid-cooled bikes? I thought I saw one on a Fantic site a while back, but don't know much about it. Might this be what Tony was looking at?

Are these Sherco silencers not repackable, then?

http://www.ducatimeccanica.com/dellorto_guide/dellorto.html Thanks, Al!