steve_earle

99% of chains on the market can be cut with bolt croppers, The adverts are misleading as they say you can not bolt cropper them by hand, But rest one part on the floor and get a big Transit & caravan driver to put his weight on it and it's cut in seconds with just a split second ping sound. The super tough chains can be freeze sprayed and bolt cropped while hitting the bolt cropper jaws with a hammer. Get a heavy duty d lock and ground anchor as well as chains. Most thieves will go the quiet approach especially if you garage is next to your house. Sadly Disk cutters will get through anything but only the very brave use these methods if your bike is near your house. A decent alarm is your best bet and lots of locks and chains. I hate scum that take stuff that doesn't belong to them. I know of a great product but I can't disclose at the moment due to waiting for a patent to be issued but the trials world will know when they are avaliable.

Sounds like the brass overflow tube in the floatbowl is causing the floats to jam as cope and others have said. Look at chris's blog on the splatshop website for info on how to properly set the float height. Dont set it to 19mm as most places state. There is an art to removing the float bown on a keihin, It's like a chinese puzzle on mine with the stupid angled brass tube. This is common on the keihin but when sorted they are a great carb.

Glad to hear you got it sorted now bud, Have fun.

Hi there, Have read your post and I'm guessing the noise is piston slap, If you have a worn bore or the piston you replaced is not up to spec it will happen. Get a proper 2 stroke engine builder to check it or stick the old piston back in to see how it runs, Might cost you a base gasket but will tell for sure if the noise didn't happen before the rebuild.. I've ordered pistons before, size a, b etc as stated on the old one and found the new one to be out and needed the bore matching to the piston. The problem with bike manufactures is they use different companies, usualy the cheapest at the time like gas gas, They now only supply S3 pistons as they use S3 barrels and pistons now as standard. You can't get a standard piston unless you can source old stock. The S3 pistons in the standard barrel are not always spot on but this is only an example from my experience. It's probably a piston problem, Ive recieved pistons from S3 and they don't even give proper size circlips for the gugeon pins.

The 300 Factory is very tractable of the bottom and fairly smooth but picks up very quickly and turns into a missile when given a handfull. The factory bikes are different to the run of the mill cabestany versions. the engines are ported and matched, The ignitions are altered and the clutch is modified plus many other little tweaks. I would pick an ex factory one over a cabes version as it's basicly a stickered up bike with a 300 pot and a titanium pipe where the factory is properly set up. I am biased as I'm lucky enough to have one, although it is in red cabes colours, and I wouldn't swap it for anything, If I can't get my hands on another factory one when I change I'm going back to gas gas as the standard 290 sherco is terrible in comparison to the factory bikes.

Hi Mate, Look Here. http://www.lewisportusa.com/manuals/sherc_11-21-09/sherco_fork_seal_replacement-1.pdf Seems strange about your kick start, It may be a bad one, Been hit or bad starting habbits. Mine's still o.k on a high compression 300. The 2013 bike has a longer kickstart might be a consideration if you need to replace.

Changed the dogbone bushes today, Simple, took about 25 mins. the plain bearing collars have a slot in them so they compress when going back in. The old ones taped out easily no need to use the press. A 11mm 3/8 deep snap on socket does the trick as a drift, one end for the small bush and the other for the large bush. The bearing collars were well shot but the bushes were fine but I had them both so changed them anyway. Next time I will just order the collars as they are fairly cheap and much softer metal than the more expensive center bush. While I had it apart I checked the delta link bearing and it was not nice, so will have to get one next week as there is still too much play for my liking on the back end still. Also done the headstock bearings too today, Very simple job. The frame tube on the headstock on my bike has been machined off centre, I noticed it as soon as i looked down the tube the metal looked thinner on one side. Shouldn't be a problem there's no cracks on the thinner side of the wall. It might be on purpose to do with the rake as it's thinner torwards the front but with Sherco's frame quality it wouldnt suprise me if it was off. I packed the dogbones with grease to help keep water out, There are no seals on them so I know now to dry them out with the airline and spray lube them as good as I can while in place on the bike. Grit and water will knock them out rapidly. They are a good design if looked after but will be a nightmare if not.

Just bit the bullet and ordered mine, I have the plain bushes rather than the bearings. I didn't shop around, just phoned Splat Shop as usual because they are friendly, reliable, They know what they are doing and always take their time to help. They never seem too busy to talk to you and prices are very good. Support the proper trials dealers like they support the customers with endless advice and service.

it's about time our sport got promoted on t.v. We need more fresh blood in the the sport especially youth riders. Seems trials has been in the dark since kickstart in the 80's.

My rear end is tight as a ducks, The poor Sherco's like a worn out rent boy!!! It's got bad very quickly, 3 Trials ago it had a little play now it's hanging, Will be changing in the next week or so. I can't believe the price of these things, I will be cleaning and lubing my rear end after every trial from now on.

The bearings are cheap, It's the bushings that are expensive and normally wear with the bearings so just replacing the bearings will only take up some of the play. There is no cheap way around this, I need to do mine but have to convince myself that I have to spend money on something you can't see and isn't shiny!!!.

I'm with Cope on this, If you could get one you will need a pair of pliers to open it, It's tight enough with a plastic one. There is other bling as you will already know about. You can get your existing bits anodised fairly cheaply at a good electro platers.

Oh also, The 2012 airbox will fit but you have to drill and tap a thread on the frame by the headstock and elongate the 2nd hold under the filter for the bolt to line up. Also the 2012 airbox is for a Keihin 28mm carb so might need an adapter for a 26mm Dellorto. Also it will set you back £175 and you will need stickers too and a mudguard one for a 2012 on bike to match. You will still get water in it when you jetwash so not really different from the 11 airbox, It looks better though and will stop muck getting in better due the cone design making a better seal round the inlet pipe.

I thought the 2011 has the external spoke rear wheel?, Mine does, may be you have an early 11 model or someone has changed the rear wheel. I have always used a can of tire weld to seal the rear rim on bikes, Has worked a teat on loads of our bikes. It's nice to have external spokes now though!

Thinking about it, I should be fine running less oil even with the semi, Most of our Trials don't have big long climbs or long runs between sections and I don't rev it to the moon, Just quick short zaps. I have always run full synth at 70 or 80 ish since getting back to trials and just remember the old days of old oils and 50:1. Thanks cope for the vote of confidence I will run a different mix now I know it's o.k.

Does anyone know why sherco have a unique clutch master cyliner, I know the gassers etc have a smaller mineral fluid. I am thinking of changing levers as I have the Ajp genuine medium levers which are o.k exept the are not anodised & I ride without gloves so I end up with black fingers. I suppose any lever will be o.k for me. I only use 1 finger on my controls and have had long and short levers on various bikes in the past and the lever size doesn't matter to me, I just set the bite and reach and I'm good to go. Do the Apico levers fit?

Different premix will change the fuel to air ratio slightly but not cause a problem, I was running 80:1 with fully synthetic, I brought Some Ipone semi synthetic by mistake a couple of weeks ago, thought it was full synth! My bike runs exactly the same no change even at 50:1 on the semi to be on the safe side. I will go back to full when I run out next. From past experience running too much oil espacialy full synth at 50:1 will make the bike boggy and appear to run richer even though it will be leaner on paper.. Be interesting on others views on this

Just a couple more ideas, Check for leaks around base gasket with some wd40 while running, make sure engine is cool so just after starting. look for bubbles of a change in the engine note. Strip and clean the fuel pump just for good measure. They normally run down sooner with the choke as they are over rich with the choke on. Im starting to think this is a sherco thing with mine, The bike does ride superb, I just have ocd when it comes to carburation!!!

As neo has quite rightly said it takes more time diagnosing a crank seal than it does to change it. Doing mine cost about 25 quid and an hour of my time. But it's worth it's weight in gold as piece of mind that I don't have to scratch my head and wory about them. I spent hours messing with float heights taking carb on and of about 10 times till I found the sweet setting. Then that same night I came accross Chris's blog online and my floats we exactly as Chris sets them, could have saved hours of messing. I seem to recall I set them to about 21mm, But I will have to recheck when i have the bike apart this weekend to do some maintance. I'm running a 125 main, 48 pilot, 3.5 slide and jjh needle 2nd clip. I will try the 45 pilot back in now I have the floats sweet and see how it runs. It still seems slightly lean on run down but I have noticed most shercos running a Keihin or dellorto sound about the same. Maybee I'm too fussy and should go and fit a Gas Gas engine in it, That would make the perfect bike for me..

Hi, it does sound like it's running lean by what you have described, I had the same problem and everyone was shouting crank seals I replaced them anyway as they are cheap and a dead simple job for me even though I didn't totaly think they were gone. My lean problem I tracked down to carb float height. My bike is running a keihin and everywhere I searched says set it to 19mm. Not true for the Sherco but thats another story, Splat shop now has a blog page on this. I think the delorto is more forgiving with float height but check it anyway. Phone Chris at Splat shop, He will give you the right info and save you a lot of messing around and wild goose chases.

Hi, Not had this experience with a sherco but had a similar issue with my sons gas gas, I had to heat up the tank with a hot air gun and re shape it so it fitted around the fan, This was a reccomendation from gas gas uk, 2 years on and no problems still with the tank.

Hi, Base gasket wise a 0.8mm will be safe and give no loss of power, as for break in read this site http://www.mototuneu..._in_secrets.htm. I never ride a bike gentley after a rebuild, you need to wear the rings to the bore, and the rough finish on a new cylinder after honing is there to wear the rings in. if you ride around too gently you will polish the hone marks off before they wear the rings in. Never use high revs while running in but give it some under load at lower revs through gears the to force the rings to the shape of the bore.

I realise this as stated in an earlier reply to this post, "the u.k factory bikes are different to the top spainsh factory bikes." Cabestany's bike is unique with no expense spared and even if you won the lottery you would not be able to get the parts he has got unless you bribe someone in the sherco factory to steal some for you. What most people are refering to as factory are bikes supplied to people who ride for Sherco and they are modified and set up different to the standard off the shelf bike. Sorry , I didn't realise this post was about Cabestany's bike in particular and very few people will know exactly what spec it is they can just guess and tell by odvious bolt on parts.

Some people want the best and take great pride in owning something special and it doesnt matter if you can use it to it's full potential. The factory shercos are very rideable, lots of power but very smooth and progressive so a half decent novice could still ride one. Plenty of people have had a go on mine and love it. The 4 stroke riders have a different view because they are never going to get an ex factory mont so tell themselves they are happy with what they have got. I ride a ex uk factory bike, I'm not a factory rider or anywhere near that level (or ever will be), I would not want a standard Sherco, When I need to change bikes, If I can't get another factory sherco I will Be looking at the Beta Factory Or A Raga.

Hi Mate, If your head has studs and nuts it will need o rings as water escapes up the threads, past and through the nut centres. If you have bolts you just need m6 copper washers. You could remove the studs if you have them and replace them with bolts. The S3 heads are good at keeping the bike cool, worked a treat on my gasser with the high comp insert. They can be a pain to seal properly. It will make your bike sharper off the bottom with more torque. Thinking about getting one for mine for the cooling advantage and it looks cool but I will have to find a red one. My head is already high comp but I need more bling.