samy

Last year a member of our club kicked over his bike and it must have been in gear or partially in gear. The bike took off into a lantana bush and screamed it's head off while his hand somehow managed to get mangled in the chain/sprocket. He needed surgery but thankfully he's back on his bike this year and guess what? He and a lot of us in the club now run lanyards! I still have the factory push button fitted so i can use either. Get a spare, i turned up at an event and went to start the bike and realised i left the lanyard at home but luckily i had a spare buried in my spare parts bag. As far as riding with it - i've done some events and it's now second nature, i don't even think about it. cheers

Sounds like he's got a great dad! cheers

I'm still loving my 250 Sherco after 2 years with it. With a 9 tooth front sprocket they're a good bike for a beginner. cheers

When doing the double blip obstacles, make sure that on the first blip (when you lift the front wheel) you bend your knees so that on the second blip you can extend/straighten your legs to help jump the bike up. Well, that's the idea...

great pic!

That's a great angle!

I'm about to change the factory tyre on my bike, it's a 2010 model so it's 3+ years old! My tyre is worse than that and i didn't come last in my class last week but i did notice that i struggled more than some other riders in the muddy slippery sections with off camber mossy tree roots so i decided that 3 years is good enough from 1 tyre

I use motorex oil and have found that after only one dry ride the oil does go pale/milky, but not sludgy. It appears that some oils almost change colour the moment you put them in the bike. When my clutch starts to feel very different when cold and the gearbox becomes very notchy it's time to change oil, usually every 2-3 months for me but i only ride 1 trial per month if at all. I tried ATF fluid for a while but that makes gearbox changes terribly difficult and finding neutral impossible. Fresh oil and it's like a new bike. cheers

It's 20 degrees here, middle of winter and i'm rugged up with my jacket and long pants... bbrrrrrrrrrrrr 20 degrees is too cold to go riding

Apart from bolting everything down, I use an 8+ camera CCTV camera system around the house and sheds. I paid about 1300 pounds ($2200au) with discount (i set them up at work) 5 years ago but now you can get the same updated full professional system for less than 600 pounds ($1000au). Get great big dirty cameras that stick out like a sore thumb where people can see them so hopefully they'll move onto an easier target/something else. Cameras have been invaluable for catching thieves who smash and grab so i set up a system at home too cheers

great video!

Nude trials. That's the ticket. Strip away your inhibitions...

I just use a satin black to touch up my 2010 frame, matches in well. cheers

Hey guys & gals, here's some videos i recently posted up. The first is from Sunday out with the boys practicing on the 2012 sherco and ossa on the rocks in beautiful south east queensland, australia The next one is from a competition a fortnight ago in the Gold Coast hinterland. Have a look, i placed the camera in all sorts of positions, particularly in the last half of the video. See if you can spot where i stacked it! cheers

I printed out this and keep one on my shed wall and one in my toolbox: I usually put about 70ml per 5 litres which is closer to 70:1 although there are blokes in my club which say they run 100:1 in their new Sherco's, but i would say that's not enough. Cheers

Not to say this applies to Gas Gas's, but a few weeks ago i put ATF in my Sherco due to recommendations (and because it was cheaper) but i didnt like it. The clutch was sticky/grabby and the gearbox felt very notchy/ratchety and noisy - it was VERY hard to change gears and get into neutral. A few times in sections i'd pull the clutch in to feather around a tight turn and... nothing, the bike kept charging for a split second before pulling up. I would say i lost a few points due to the clutch action and came 4th or something for the day. Last week i warmed up the bike, drained the ATF (which came out like water), put Motorex back in and took it for a ride straight away. It was like a whole new bike, back to the way it was before ATF. The clutch was smooth, predictable and BEAUTIFUL and the gearbox no longer felt ratchety but felt rock solid, and i could select neutral on the fly. This weekend just passed, i competed and came 1st. I finally felt at one with the bike and it all came together for a great ride. I know my mate's Ossa's clutch felt better with ATF but this was not my experience with my Sherco. It may be the same with your Gas Gas. cheers

hOWDY! Lots of clubs still around the Gold Coast Hinterland. Also, check out sqta.com.au

I'm using S3's "No Arm Pump" grips. They are very soft and grippy, fairly thick and very easy to install. Only downside is that they wear out fairly quickly. cheers

I normally run with about 4.5 in the rear and 6 in the front but last weekend i was at a trial that was quite cold (well, for Australia!) and the tyres didn't seem to want to flex very much. There was a small amount of water and wet rocks but a fair bit of mossy, damp hillsides and on my first lap i was slipping all over the place having a hard time of it. I dropped down to 3.5 in the rear and 4.5 in the front and it made a big difference! I almost cleaned the rest of the day! It's amazing how much difference 1psi can make! cheers

Thanks for the reply copemech, I plan to change those seals fairly regularly! That is, if i don't get that 4 stroke beta i may or may not have fallen in love with last weekend...

Jeez what a can of worms i opened up Thanks for clearing up some of my comments kris! BTW, the bike's running GREAT! cheers

Hi guys, thanks for the replies! To try and answer a couple of things, we don't get a lot of mud/water here so we don't have to deal with what i'm sure are very dirty bikes in the UK But on saying that, i usually change my gearbox oil after every 1-2 trials so that's about once per month or two. I also clean the airfilter after every trial, only use fairly new but very clean plastic petrol cans and have an additional inline fuel filter between the tank and carby. Copmech, the mate mechanic is the state authorised repair/service mechanic for Sherco and Beta and knows his stuff very well. He did mention something about the Viton alcohol resistant seals needing to be used. naichuff, it has been said to me by many an opinion in the paddock at the last 2 -3 trials that the Sherco's crankshaft seals are one of the worst in any modern trials bike and you should expect at least the timing side seal to fail within 12 months. Therefore the seals should be replaced every 12 months as part of routine maintenance. I am now aware of a 2010 290 Sherco in my club that was when 9 months old, knocking, pinging and running very lean like mine due to failed crank shaft seals. The seals were replaced and it was as good as new. baldilocks, i am unsure how the bearings will be lubed by gearbox oil if at all (i just assumed) but as i mentioned above the mechanic is the authorised Sherco repair/service rep and he stated that sealed crank bearings were a factory design fault. He said something along the lines that a fully sealed bearing inside a hot 2 stroke engine is never a good idea. I'm not a mechanic so don't quote me Well the bike is running very well, too well in fact. It's now very snappy of the bottom so i need to get used to all this power or somehow calm it down. It's about to hit 2 years old and finally running great cheers

Hello all, i have just picked up my 2010 Sherco 250 after needing new crankshaft bearings and seals. The bike was 18 months old when the seals and bearings decided to go belly up. I did not do the work myself, but had a great fellow trials rider & mechanic do the work for me. He stated that when the factory put the crank shaft bearings in, they did not remove the seals in the bearings and therefore after 18 months of easy clubman riding they ran dry and failed. Apparently the bearing's seal needs to be removed before installing the bearing to allow the gearbox oil to lubricate the bearing. If the bearing remains completly sealed, unless you crack open the engine on a regular basis, crankshaft bearing failure is inevitable. Apparently there was a batch of Beta's which had this problem back in 2000/2001. My mechanic has replaced the bearings (and leaving the seal out), and after giving the bike a full service and going over is confident that the bearings will not have a catastrophic failure again in the future in the way it was designed from the factory. My question is, is this normal for the bearing seals to be left in place? Does the factory expect the average clubman rider to tear down the engine every 6-12 months to replace/regrease the crankshaft bearings? Is this an oversight on Sherco's behalf? Was the person on the facotry floor who installed the bearing simply being lazy? I was under the assumption that as i only ride 1-2 times per month (and very easy at that) that i would have been able to get years out of my bike without having to tear the engine apart. I did not plan to have to tear down the engine as part of basic servicing! Anyway the bike is back, it is running VERY nice and has more power than i remember! I think my next trials bike will be electric... cheers

Excelent video! Let us know if you're making a DVD! cheers

The 'top guys' were raving about honey at the last trial i went to. Apparently it produces energy, lots of it, and over a longer period of time. cheers