my transmission parts arrived on Thursday, that night I found out I have an opportunity to ride with the Neiderer brothers on Saturday (today) So Friday evening I reassembled the engine and rest of the bike. Took me a little while (hours, too many to admit to and a couple )
but she is together.
So before heading out to ride today with friends and the Neiderer boys, I fired up the Old BAGG to put around the yard to verify all going well.
All did not go well, she ran like crap. I blamed it on the copious amounts of 2 stroke oil I used on the cylinder and piston for the reassembly. so off to the trials property, met the boys. Very nice guys, easy to chat with. No big egos getting in the way. and very very good riders.
My bike continues to run like crap, revs way high on choke and bogs out when given throttle and take forever to idle down. So with those symptoms if you guessed "sucking in extra air" you win a prize! go to your nearest fridge and retrieve your prize. (I am too cheap to supply one)
My buddy Biff, the great thinker, suggested spraying carb cleaner at the base gasket. and guess what that caused the bike to stall out. DING DING found the problem, base gasket sucking in air. but why??????
It turns out in my haste last night to reassemble, and the use of assembly fluid , I had left a 1 inch piece of the old base gasket on the cylinder when I put it back together. Break out the tool box right there in the parking area, time to fix the Old BAGG so I can give her a proper thrashing. And yes everyone thought "this is kinda sketchy, but if it works it will be cool" I took off the carb, motor mount to the cylinder, header pipe, remove water pump from clutch cover, basically whatever I needed disconnected to be able to lift the cylinder up about a half inch. Lift the cylinder and use a this flat head screwdriver and needle nose pliers to gently remove the offending piece of base gasket. Reassemble the bike and viola it runs like a top again.
Off to play and watch others. Alex and Andreas are very talented, riding up near vertical hills out of creek with only a bike length run at it. Rear wheel hopping two logs and then to an elevated log. just so much going on, Both are very smooth. I was highly impressed. I was also impressed with buddy Biff, he was trying most of the stuff they were riding, total mental. Both of them would chat with us, discuss various techniques. Great couple of guys.
about 15 mins before everyone was done for the day my bike decides to act like she is starving for fuel. So I am now off to the garage to clean my carb.