alan bechard

I was figuring about 1/8" and you would not feel it. I guess I am wondering more, "what amount of out would it take before you felt it on a trials bike"? I would think a high speed road bike you could feel some pretty small deviations. I have ridden some trials bikes though that the wheels were scary out, and never felt it, or maybe realized how I was feeling it.

What do you guys feel would be acceptable tolerances on a used trials wheel? Roundness? trueness? (side to side)

Purple power or purple Clean, generally available at Automotive supply houses like AutoZone or Advance Auto. I like the one by Coastal the best. Cheap $2.50 a gallon on sale, and very, very effective. Will make your plastic look much better than you thought it would. You Simple Green guys should try it once.

Wayne, will Andreu be in Indy then?

Not quite sure what you are saying but let me try it this way. The petcock, mounts into a plastic "Plug" that is inserted and bonded into the tank itself. The petcock usually has an O-ring, as well as a rubber, diamond shaped (well kind of) washer underneath it. First off, determine exactly where it is leaking. Take the tank off and carefully wiggle the petcock, sometimes the plastic plug is loose in the tank, sometimes you can see it squishing out around the rubber seal. Sometimes people leave off the rubber gasket, I do not believe the earlier bikes came with one. If it is the o-ring, rubber gasket, replace them and carefully tourque the petcock into place. You should be golden. If it is the plastic plug, you need to do some evaluating. I wiggle it and if it is real loose, I wiggle till it pulls out like a tooth. Be extremely carefull what you break doing this, it is not a cheap piece when it all goes wrong. Go too your automotive repair parts house. They should have a kit to repair plastic tanks. I will about bet that it will say, "Do not use on Gas tanks" This is primarily done for liability, which I will add do this at your own risk. Throuroughly prep / clean the plug and cavity, mix the glue, put it together quickly. There is a very limited pot life on this product. I sand with 80 grit or so to give some good surface scratches for the glue to adhere into. Sometimes, you can clean it up without removing the plug and "flow" the sealant down around the plug and lock it in place that way as well. A company called CarGo is the the only one I found that made a glue that they rated for bonding poly tanks used for gasoline. The only problem I had with it was that it was too thick, or heavy bodied to flow, it is a putty when mixed. I also have a superglue type product that comes with an accelerator primer that I will try next time it comes up. It is rated for Polyethelene as well. I do not know how well it works. I have heard of some folks using hot glue with success. I have not tried that. Hope that answers your question. The problem is usually people twisting on the petcock without holding it. It is one of the problems that is better prevented than fixed.

Tony, you fit a brass sleeve over the flywheel is a common way of doing it, or ring if you will. I do not think you want to do that on your whatever though. With the centrifigul (sp) clutch, it will effect too many things, like how long it takes from throttle roll on to engagement. With a clutch bike, you can overcome some of the limitations put on by additional weight, but with the automatics, there are some extra twists.

25 Jan 04 Well, last Friday got word from the landowner that they would be in there working building a big jump in the lower field. He just wanted me to know so that I did not freak out and think it would impact the event. He knows the amount of time and $ that is being put in there, and goes out of his way to be helpful. Went out yesterday afternoon after working with the tractor and post hole digger all morning and was supposed to ride with D and B. Went out without the bikes because it was late and I was whipped. D & B were there riding the loop. Also brought out some materials I had scrounged up for the Circus tricks sections. Man, they are building a BIG jump. They are terracing off the lower field and they also went down around the barn and cleared some huge trees to make a large parking area there. Man are those doziers powerful! They are hopefully going to be done this weekend and we will need to see what to do from there. At least a bunch of grass seeding is going to need to happen to get some form of ground cover back in place before the event. Not really sure how this will all play out in the end. Depending on conditions today (freezing rain at present) D may make it out and work to smooth stuff with the doziers while they are there and available. I am suspecting that it will be too wet and nasty to do any dirt work today or tomorrow. I hope it does not interfere with their tests. For us it may boil down to some increased box blade work to get the parking area's useable. We got to work with a couple who are "new" riders. It is really great to see people taking up motorcycling. She was on a TTR 250, what a neat bike. Electric start, plenty of power, NICE, he was on a YZ 450 I think it is, 4 stroke motocrosser! Unbelieveable! It would take more of a rider than me to use that thing in East Coast woods as it comes in stock format. I bet it will easily do 30 mph in 1st gear. Probably idles over 5mph in first. I rode around the loop with them one time and it was slip clutch, stall, bump start (Only bike I think I have ever bump started in first gear!) They said they would help with the event if possible, he is on a work cycle that can take him away every now and then. Well today because of weather, we may run to Louisville and get Dean's new bike. But, the weather is actually worse than predicted so it may be wisdom to sit it out today. Off to the weather site and make a guess!

Looks like between Brian and Jason we got the image for the medallion sorted out. Looks like we are going forward and getting these done. Hopefully some work will get done this weekend on the Circus tricks. The tractor is almost done, and the trailer should be done this Saturday. That should give me a kitchen pass for Sunday!

5 again, Go try the different ones. Give a 200 or 125 a try. You might be suprised. My daughter now owns the Pizza bike from Ishy that Copemech mentioned and I rode it 2 weeks ago and took 5th Advanced in a rather challenging STRA event. (and I am a good sized boy) (18 stone I think was the translation) (250 (and loosing) pounds) All this discussion is really pointless, because the only thing that matters at the end of the day is what you think and how it feels too you. Personally, I could switch between the 125, 250 and the 290 and have plenty of fun and not feel let out. There are some places where each are better, but I ride a variety of things so it really all balances in the end. Let me also add in on the "same Grip" line While technically yes, they are the same, I challenge you to find someone that you put on the 290, then on the 125, that does not absolutely swear it is a smaller sized machine. Not motor mind you. They will swear the frame is smaller and the bike is lighter. Try it sometime. The only thing I can say is that the smaller rotating mass, just makes them feel much smaller. I would swear to you that I can hop my daughters 125 far better than my 290 and I am sure Dabster would tell me it is rubbish. But then again, it is my story and I am sticking with it! Good luck, go ride em and pick what works for you.

Sure Pete! Come on out, Just no trials riding on my new tractor! And you better be careful that what you are draggin does not get caught in the PTO! 21 Jan 04 Working back and forth with the trophy guy to get the digital image so he can use it to make a medallion for awards from. It is taking some time to get it sorted out. Working with my scheduling to try and fit in everything I would like to do before the event, The Indy bike show, The fun in the Sun, going up to RYP and picking up my son's new bike, going down to TTC and helping work on the National sections, and then I still need to do the stuff that pays the bills such as work on the mowers, the tractors and the trailers. Looks like this Sunday will be a work day for the event. Mother nature dealt us a hand last weekend and home fixen stuff won out.

Not sure if it is available over there yet, but "No Toil Oil" is a great product for air filters. Biodegradeable, and the dirt and gunk jump off the filter when they hit the special soap and water. As Mikey would say, try it, you will like it!

For me personally, the magnetic attraction of the aluminum is directly proportional to the cost of the piece and whether I own it or the Army does My drill wants to wander into a $200 aluminum hub, much quicker than into a $60,000 rotor blade for some reason! As my sister said after she got married, "I just assumed that you went out into any mans garage and there was a big red toolbox and 5 welders lined up!"

A couple of well placed dabs of weld will give you a nice handle to grab and pull that "stud" out with, and if it does not work, you are no worse off than when you started. If you get walking just a bit with a drill, it will much prefer the soft aluminum to the steel of that bolt. What do you think Charlie????

Sorry, read it three times before I caught the word "Front". Yep, I would disagree with myself on that one. I would go to a 1/2 impact gun and let it tap on it. My apologies again, I was thinking Rear wheel as that is what I have been working on myself.

My favorite brand of weasel p*** for that is called Kroil by Kano labs but I doubt it would be available to you. Pick your favorite one and soak it liberally. Then find someone with a long barrell air hammer or about an 6X rivet gun and get the brass tip punch for it. The jarring from the air hammer will usually drive it out. I have not had that problem out of axles as much as swingarm bolts, but it is really the same thing.

Alan

Nope, Still waiting for the WWW audience to chime in. Will have all the pieces in place to do it, and it will probably depend greatly upon manning and conditions the day of the show. Right now the stress is looking at my schedule, and seeing very few open weekends between now and then. Thanks for the reply.

14 October Dooooohhhhhhh, were did that come from, must have been the end of a long evening working! Lets Try 14 Jan 04 Wrote the landowner who is thinking of getting back into trials. Offered to set him up on a bike if he wanted to come out with us this Sunday and ride and play around. Worked on the Tractor and Trailer getting it ready, have to touch base and see where "my" bush hog is???? Maybe be able to mow the area this weekend? Have to reinforce and add hooks to the bucket to move the logs around. Got Christina's bike ready to go for this weekend (washed, oil change, air filter, new shifter (oooppps) chain oiled etc.). She wants to train with Doug so that she can be more competitive. I think she wants to beat the boys now! Set up a tentative CAMELOT trials Schedule and sent it to folks on the Camelot list, along with an invite to come out and work this weekend, uhhh, I mean ride this weekend.

Alan

Make sure the little itty bitty hole is cleared, and make sure that you have "play" in your adjustment and that you are not pushing the piston in from the start position.

Here is Will Ibsen on a 125 doing a wall.

12 Jan The STRA had it's annual meeting this past weekend as well as it's first ride of the year. We had a promoters meeting in the morning to get the schedule planned out. Fortunately, the difficult task of trying to schedule between two clubs was pretty much already worked out between the TI meeting and the STRA meeting so when it came to my event at the meeting, it was quickly agreed upon and gone on to the next. The afternoon held our annual business meeting where there was much discussion and some changes were made. NATC scoring rules with few exceptions were adopted as well as the marking rules. This is a blessing for me as it puts TI and STRA now using the same scoring rules. I think the new white ribbon will also be very good and give us some options to reverse lines as we see fit. I also picked up the marking supplies for our event at this meeting, by doing this it saves on paying for shipping which is quite expensive. We have a new rule in our rulebook that is called "rule 8" that basicly say's that the rules can be disregaurded by the promoter if he thinks it is a good idea. I am sure that is not a literal translation, but that is the Al Bechard, real world definition. It will be interesting to see how it is applied in practice throughout the year. Riding the event the next day provided as always some more insight into setting my event. They ran a shuttle service with a rented van that transported over 70 people to the section area. I think it was a real success, I think there would have been almost no spectators had it not been for this service. Makes me rethink my Trolley idea, but I do not have the distances that they had to contend with. They used longer sections than I normally do with more twists in them. Made for some pretty challenging lines that you had to hold your concentration through all the way. Something to think about when setting mine. My daughter worked that event, so I lost one worker for my event for one day, it was a difficult trial so it was probably the best that she chose to do that, and her best friend C will probably work with her one day at our event, and then they will ride together one Day. Last week or so, I sent some trials video's to a work friend of mine that is a Scout master. I hope to be able to recruit 5 to 10 "punchers" from his crew for the event. Workers are always a concern when setting an event, and in my opinion, should be a priority for all promoters. I am looking for different options than press ganging in riders and their families all the time for the entire work force. Another benefit to the STRA adopting the NATC scoring rules is that we are able to use the excellent scoring video that BB of the NATC has put together. I will do this a week or so before the event, and then at the event as well. The STRA has also adopted the TI scoring system. This was truly a challenge at the event yesterday as they had a tremendous amount of Data to load, but I am confident that we will see it steadily improve as we go along. It also means that I will have quick access to excellent event statistics directly after the event. For an example of these results you can go to the STRA BB and see the result link under announcements. Well, diary, enough for tonight, A big get off yesterday has taken the stuffing out of me all day. Got the bikes washed up, and Christina wants to go riding next weekend so that she can practice. Need to service two bikes, and get the brakes working on the Goosneck, and the lights, and get the bush hog, and go do the property, and weld on a brace on the bucket of the tractor so I can weld some hooks on to move the logs around with. Yep, sounds like fun.

Well Charlie, that is one that you and I see opposite on. I think you will find that if you do not quench it, it will be annealed as well, the Ivory soap, or the Acetylene black is common between us. When you are heat treating aircraft parts, they are quenched at the end of the heat cycle normally to "lock" the molecules at that point, then quite often the part is left to age harden as well. (ref Standard Aircraft Handbook 5th edition, page 28) There is an excellent easy to read book about metal working that anyone that works with sheet metal fabrication should read through once or twice. Written by Ron Fournier I think his name is. I think I have lent my copy out???? as it is not in its spot. He covers many great metal working techniques from a standard shop perspective. You will also find that if you will keep the heat in a part as long as possible after welding (through the use of a sandbox or asbestos blankets) and allow the heat soak, or cooling time to be as long as possible that you will experince less stress cracking and weld problems in general. It is best to let items that you have done this with age harden or air harden as it is sometimes called prior to placing them in service.

Well, this has wandered in to a slightly different subject, but I feel that I am continuing on in this same vein. I happen to now own (actually it is my daughters) the Famous Pizza bike from Ishy. Yesterday, I had a flat on my 290 on the second ride of the day, (both beads touching in the middle of the rim and the wheel spinning in the tire.) This was at our first event of the season. I limped home and after pushing up this incredible mud hill in the pits with a front tire locked with red georgia clay with a spare tire to mount on my shoulder I sat at the back of the trailer and thought about changing it and saw my daughters bike there, clean, gassed and ready to go. A careful addition of a letter A to her # plate that already carried a W made it an accurate representation of my initials which were Wise A$$ to my favorite club Prez and away we went. I went and got out my converter deal and boys I weigh right at 18 stone (250 lbs) and am an old fart compared to many of you. And definetely out of shape. I was very impressed with the bikes performance. I did some very large rock steps, roll ups, logs etc. on this bike and it never hesitated. I was slightly regretting that last week I had changed out to the lighter rear shock spring and set the suspension up for my daughters 110 lbs (8 stone)! To say it was a little soft for me is an understatement! What I am getting at, is that the little bike was more than capable of carrying my fat butt up some fairly decent steps of about 1/2 Dwight High and so you little skinny guys should have no power problems whatsoever on one of these machines. I have a picture of Will Ibsen on a step well over a Dwight on a 125, so if that is what your class requires, I would have no fear of riding one.

I got one or two of those tuit's in the shop. Propane torch and gentle pressure is the trick for me. Acetylene if you are careful. Come on down brother man to my event 1 and 2 May this year! See you there.