kevin j

ok, the plot got worse. Now I have unequal travel of the fork legs, by 3/4 inch. forks totally drained, lower bolt out damper tubes out, etc. cleaned up seals and reinstalled. filled with 5w, right side. The oil level 60 mm down from top left side, 120 mm down. Now, the forks have different lengths of travel. Right side, full extension is a hard stop, so I assume the rebound damping is on the left leg. 7.25 inches travel (185 mm). Left side, 6.5 inches, (165 mm appr) Extend is a spring or somewhat flexible stop. Found Beta owners manual but no parts book. It is a 2003. Does not give the design travel, to know which leg has the issue. Manual shows a rod connected to upper plug on the right side, which mine has. No spring in that side. Nothing unusual that I can see. Manual shows left side with a rod connected to the upper plug also. Mine does not have that. There is an adjustment for some slight spring preload travel, a moving washer with button shape in center, only maybe 10 mm of adjustment or so. I am assuming the manual picture is wrong, but....?? From the top, lieft side internals, the adjuster on the plug, a plastic sleeve about 2 or 3 inches, metal ring/wear band at bottom for spring bearing I assume, the spring. From the bottom, aluminim damper tapered cone, the rod with internals and seals on top end. all one assembly not distrubed. Bushing at the top end of slider and lower end of tube seem in position and normal. Nothing unusual about the bottom bolts, they both engaged and had similar amounts of thread engagement. Certainly not 3/4 inch difference. Don't think any parts exchanged as never had both legs apart at same time. My past experience is TY twin and mono, and 96 & 2000 GG. Never a Beta before. So tomorrow nigh, fix this, and weld up two broken aluminum air box supports, and a rear brake to blleed. Bike hasn't run since late May, just didn't get to it until the last minute. Son: 'oh, by the way....' HELP! I might get to a phone during business hours tomorrow but doubt it, so hoping some online help here. what is the design travel of the front legs. That would help narrow my search. Any ideas what I have out of place? kcj

tried the search. 2003? Beta Rev 3 Stripped the forks to Helicoil an axle pinch bolt thread. right leg has no spring in it only a damper cartridge. left has spring and fixed damper, no adjustment. I assume this is normal but seemed strange. What weight and how much oil in which leg? Son is Expert club level, weights about 175 lbs. Wanted to reassemble tonight, but am away from being able to contact Ron C, and lost my notes at home. Ron said measure down from to instead of by oil volume cc. I just don't have the numbers. tks, kevin j minnesota

nothing compared to my luck. I live in the us, and one week won the netherlands lottery 3x and the uk lottery once. they messed up on the mailing address, so the entire list showed, and amazingly about 200 people won the lottery that day. and those were only the address names starting with 'ke' man, what are the odds of such a coincidence.......

are you running the autolube also? Many times the cable is pulled but the pump still adds the minimum idle amount. So at idle it is double oiled. I ran 60:1 in ours. Typical trials and kid use though. If winding it out along trails, maybe 40 is ok, but for trials it seems too rich. If exhaust is dirty, it heats up and is very sluggish. kcj

kill switch shorting should normal just cut out the entire ignition, not reduce plug life or cause hard starting? as long shot, wierd as it seems, check main bearing play in radial direction. As bearings get loose, the point gap changes from crank flopping around, the timing and amount of magnetic flux also changes. It also varies with speed as the crank climbs to different points in the bearing circle. reducing the point gap is a bandaid but might help. I think normal is 012 to 016 inches? Try reducing to say 010 and see if it helps. Have done that many times as short term fix. Utlimately new bearings. Was the autolube disconnected but not removed? that causes double oiling amount at idle and fouls plugs quickly. general mechanical issues: compression good? weak engines foul exhaust plugged? overheats engine and plugs air leaks, running lean overheats plugs. k

have seen 'araldite' referred here several times. What is it? two part epoxy, metal filled epoxy like our JB weld, car body filler, super glue, paint, or something else.??

TY80- could be many things, piston slap, loose small end bearing etc. second poster: tilting to one side. I have a gasGas200 that has really bad sounding rattle. Checked top end. all fine, but changed piston, rings, pin & bearings anyway. $200+, and same noise. Then noticed it changes tilted to one side and not the other. Ended up that the crank is moving side to side in the main bearings. When on compression, the crank is pushed one side by the helical teeth of the drive gear to transmission. Then, after TDC on power stroke the loads reverse and it moves to the other direction on the helical. Helical tooth sort of acts as a spiral thread and the crank walks back and forth. In this case. .014 inch. Pulled apart, used high temp red loctite to glue the right (drive) side bearing to shaft. Solved it.....for about a month. the noise returned. The next task will be to measure clearnace again and shim the crankshaft. Grainger has some 25 mm ID shims of varying thickness that I think will work. Apparently it doesn't hurt the engine as it has ran for a couple years and not anyworse. Just embarassing and sounds like a piece of junk. I want to fix it right. So not sure if applies to TY80 but it might. I have had 3 TY80 but haven't worked on them an at least 8 years. kcj

Don't know TYZ, but in the older 86 I run 60:1. 80:1 in the water cooled moderns, but TY seems noisier so I stay no more than 60:1 kcj

GasGas front wheel and 4 piston AJP caliper and master cylinder and hose. All slip on, no modifying the original forks. Way better than the older conversions. Search on this site, I posted info and pics in the past. I can email you the dwg of the bracket with all the dimensions. k

Fascinating layout. The link you had said that for 09 the drive is reversed to 'conventional', I assume meaning on the left side. So,you have the choice of left or right, whatever you want to build on ! and the choice of 450 or 565 engines. Yikes, the old GG200 is too much for me...... Carb area could get ugly. The beauty of CAD, just scale it down until it fits.... At TTC Youth Nat's, maybe 5 years back, was a guy riding the loop with a Husaberg 4 stroke engine in a hand made frame of 1 inch square 4140 tubing. Looked rough, but it sure sounded unique. The only 4 stroke in the woods then. k

What are the front and rear wheel bearing numbers for 03 Beta? Assuming two bearings per wheel, 2RS bearings, no extra loose seals? My manual info is packed away and like to get parts at bearing house before tearing into the project. tks, kcj

jon: the dip cup method works really well. I have learned so much of your expereience from the posts and TC articles. glad to repay that, albeit in a 1:1000 ratio ! kcj

yes, 22 mm, 7/8 inch across flats. couldn't find notes, but did find the tool. kcj

For odd stuff I just make one. Especially if using modern bars, or Domino throttle, or removing Autolube. I use a universal cable outer core (Dennis Kirk in the US), but toss the inner core and use a bicycle control cable. Slightly thinner and softer and more flexible, especially for kids hands, or for TY80 with tiny carbs. (throttles only, not for brake of course). The end ferrules I think were Barnett but from Kirk also. I bought a bunch long ago. There are setscrew type ends, but I am not very comfortable with possible loose parts in the carb end. Should not get below the slide, but I don't want any risk of inhaling any bits. Assemble the ferrule to end, then fray out, dip in liquid solder acid flux. I use normal tin lead solder. Silver solder is stronger but the higher temperature required for melting can damage the cable wires. Melt the solder in a solder 'dip cup' made form a 3/4 inch copper tube cap, mounted on a longe screw or wire handle of some sort. Just melt the solder with torch, then dip the cable end in. Doesn't really matter how long you hold it in there, which is the beauty of dipping instead of direct heat. Controls the heat, more even all around, and less chance of overheating the fine wires. Then clean with soap and water, neutralize with baking soda, dry, then lube and ready to go. Parts are so cheap I make two, and keep the one as a spare for later. k

I don't have my notes files here, but I think it was 22 mm. That is just under 7/8 inches and I think I used 7/8 across flats nut. I welded it to end of a piece of tubing, then welded a socket to the top end to accept a 3/8d rive ratchet. Easy, and way better than the broomstick/wood/tape/screwdrivers methods. I don't know how to post a pic here but can send you one. kcj

gearing, or because of the heavy flywheel? Trim half the flywheel ring off, then use more clutch slipping action. I geared lower on TY350 and run amost everything in second gear. Old first was too low, and second was too fast. on 350 at least, 10/35 and 12/42 were stock. I think I have 11/42 now. Run mostly in second.

whatever happened to the 'Torl Attak' (?) electric trials bike? and of course, the little Osets, awesome kids trainers.

I must be the lone dissenter-I don't pressure wash the chain as it drives moisture into the pin area, even past orings. Since pin to bushing is the only wear point that matters, it shorteden the chain life a lot for me. I use degreaser, garden hose and brush butr avoid the sideplate ares. mainly, i use oring chain, and wd40 to lube the orings. WD is crappy light for actual pin lubrication. but better that than totally dry on a non 0-ring chain.. I've tried all sorts of tacky lubes and moly lubes and while they work great in clean environments, I think they simiply hold grit and act as abrasive compounds. Found out accidentally when I bought a buddies bike, who never cleaned or lubed it, that running it dry actually works well and saves sprockets better. I do lube the side plates to keep the o-rings pliable and free from sticking to the side plates, and prevent rusting. k

ratio should not affect wheelbase, but chain length will as it puts the axled forward or back in the swing arm. I have heard of people add/subtrtact two links so the axle is in front or rear of adjusting slot to gain an inch of change. I would certainly never be able to tell the difference, and I want as much adjustment as possible. Smaller sprockets have less chain speed, but more chain pull, for the same required wheel torque loads. Minor issues, no significance. I dropped down on ratio, and ride most sections in second gear now. don't recall raatio, I can check, but sounds you are happy with what you have. just a minor deal, but better to have a prime number on one of the sprockets, or at least an odd ratio. so you don't have an exact 4:1 ratio. The same chains and sprockets teeh match up over and over with exact ratios. More of an issue with gear teeth, they almost never have exact ratios as the teeth mesh directly. Always better to have teeth matching adifferent tooth each cycle around. Like I said, theory only, don't worry about it if you like what you have. there, lots of tidbits mostly meaningless to your question. k

check ebay as a guide. Last TY80 I sold was $500 and took a while. Nice shape. The advent of used modern kid trials bikes 50-80 cc took the TY80 prices in a dive. There was awebsite specializing in JT1 60 cc mini enduros. They seem higher than TY80 by quite a bit. Most of them seemed to be dads reliving their youth, or what the wanted when they were 8 years old but didn't get.... minienduro.com or something?

I made a bracket that floats on the axle and engages the original torque lug on thr fork. Used GG 4 piston AJP caliper and GG front wheel. Works awesome. Details and pics posted here in past. Now, if I could just figure how to easily mount a rear master cylinder, that looks harder than the rear caliper mount. Looking at building the pedal mount when I lower the peg mounting brackets. kcj

Some people make it sound like they are using weights that bolt on to the outer face of the flywheel and others like they are referring to a ring shrunk on to the periphery of the flywheel. Did Yamaha use both methods? The monoshocks used a pressed on ring/band/pipe around outsidecircumference of flywheel. I machined off about 50% of it. Apparently the twin shocks used a bolt on or additional disc on the end face of the flywheel. k

That's common, they shrink in size, so the threads look perfect but it drops in & out of the opening. Don't know if it is age, or if it only happens if they dry out from lack of fuel. Also never tried to soak them maybe they would swell back up in a month. I doubt it, I suspect theyhave lost the plasticizers from the base material. I have a bought a couple on ebay, but I also know to ask the seller if it has been screwed into a tank and does he guarantee it fits? There is one seller of NOS caps that advertises quite often. 'hurry, limited supply' etc at about 19.95 I think. There is also one made of billet aluminum, cool looking but silver, at about $25 I think. that is ebay us, I didn't note where you are. k

do you think the extra hose should fit? straight onto the caliper or elsewhere? To try it im just going to use a normal master cylinder, but may change for a proper thumb brake one as it will be more compact. Can't just tee them together as when you apply one master cylinder, the glycol would go back through the bleed hole into the other reservor. You will need what is called a shuttle valve that take the higher of two signals and passes it through. Easily available for vehicle hydraulic systems and air brakes, but for brakes, this small I have no idea. Both the action of the shuttle and the increased volume of the system will reduce the stiffness of the system, it will feel like there is some spongy or air in it. Way more complicated, but you could put an entire second capiper and pads on the same disc. Original from foot, plus one from thumb. If you don't need as much power, maybe a MTB bicycle caliper added to the rear disc might work. k

turning the wheel by hand only puts a few pounds force on it, braking the entiner machine is msuch more load. Is the cam oriented properly inside so it doesn't go full out and sort of past center, if there is too much clearnace shoe to drum the oval part gets up on the very tip. that makes no sense, but you'll see it. cleaning and sanding and sanding shoes mayhelp. What shoes? OEM yamaha I got changed to SBS and they were way too hard. Vesrah japanese were pretty good. still lot of maintenance. Why I switched th TY350 to GasGas front disc and 4 piston AJP. but for TY175 assume you want to stay vintage stock. just lots of cleaning and roughing up. kcj