1oldbanjo

Well what method did you use to bleed the system? I have a hand vacuum that works realy well. You put fluid in the master cylinder and then pull a vacuum at the caliper until the fluid come out without any bubbles. Then I start bleeding by using the master cylinder to pump the fluid and I have a small check valve that I install at the caliper to prevent the fluid from coming back into the caliper once it has been pumped out.

Even at $ 3,100....it is probaby a good price. The used bikes on the RYP site are $ 3,400 up to $ 5,000 for one with only a few hours on it.

You can try using compressed air to blow them out - but be careful as they can come out in a hurry. Wrap the caliper in a towel while trying this method. If that doesn't work you can use a grease gun on the bleed screw to put a lot of pressure on the pistons. You will have to disconnect the brake line and install a screw in the caliper to prevent the grease from coming out the brake line hole. You can limit the travel of the piston by inserting spacers until you get all the pistons moving again. Once a piston is out far enough to lose contact with the seal...you will lose the ability to push the other ones out. The article about the chain o-rings was interesting...but chain o-rings are made to be compatible with oil/greases and may be made different than brake o-rings. I know that I once washed brake o-rings in a parts washer and the solvent expanded the brake o-rings dramitically. The only way to know for sure is to let Thedbf put his old o-rings in WD40 when he gets them out and see how the react.

I would avoid spraying or putting any petroleum product on the brakes - it can swell the rubber o-rings. Seals and o-rings should only be lubricated with brake fluid or silicone grease. My suggestion would be to take the front caliper apart, clean everything, lubricate the o-rings with brake fluid, and put it back together. If everything moves after assembly....it should work normal. If problems remain you may have master cylinder trouble - or a problem with blockage in the brake lines.

So does this mean you will be changing your "Go Big or Go Home" statement at the bottom of your post to: "It is OK to downsize"?

If I read a post and I have something helpful to offer.......I will respond at length. I don't reply if I can't offer any helpful advice. A large number of posts that I read are in hopes of learning something useful - I am somewhat new to the sport and there are very few people in my area that ride trials. When I post an issue I would much rather hear from someone that has experience and knows what can help me. Getting bad information from someone that is just guessing could be worse than not getting any respone - as it could send you down the wrong path while looking for a solution. I am a member of a forum that deals with chainsaws, and lots of people are willing to offer their uninformed opinions and give bad advice on that forum. I think this site is much better apt to give good and correct advice.....when it is given.

If you hear the clicking get louder while riding slowly.....that is the decompressor kicking in and you need to bump your idle speed up a bit. There is really no need to have the bike idling really slow, and my bike was set too slow from the factory. When I bumped the idle up a little it was easier to ride and a bit harder to accidently stall.

It is not much of a hassle - once you buy some form of measuring device. I have a Ratio Rite cup that can measure the amount of oil needed for various sizes of fuel containers. You have not stated what type of bike you are riding.....but if you have a modern trials bike it will probably run at a much different ratio than your string trimmer. Be very careful to keep you mixed fuel in a container that you will not confuse with the unmixed fuel!

When a chain is new it fits tightly into the sprocket and transfers the engine power to a large number of teeth on the front and rear sprocket. As the chain stretches (and the sprockets wear), you will have fewer of the chain links transferring power to the teeth. If you grab the chain on the extreme rear of the sprocket and try to pull it away from the sprocket it will be hard to do on a new chain - but very easy on a worn chain. A very worn worn chain will result in only a few of the chain links transferring power - and the chain will begin to wear the sprocket very quickly as a result. I replace the chain when it looks like there is too much slack around the rear sprocket. I also inspect the chain when I have it off the bike for cleaning and look for how much slack there is between links when you lay the chain on a flat surface and push the links together....then pull them apart. Another way to inspect for wear is to see how much curve the chain will allow when you lay the chain flat on the floor and make an arc with the chain left or right - worn links and bushings will allow the chain to bend a considerable amount. My normal maintenance schedule for chains includes frequent cleaning in an ultrasonic cleaner, flipping the front sprocket around on the shaft to allow wear on the other side of the teeth, and flipping the rear sprocket occasionally on bikes that have a rear sprocket that allows mounting on either side. When the chain gets too sloppy I replace it and the countershaft sprocket, and I can usually get a rear sprocket to last through 2 chains and front sprockets.

When you checked the plug.......does it have spark?

Well....this is unfortunately one of the things that can happen when you try to keep everything as light as possible. I would have the broken area welded and ride it while you watch for a reasonably priced replacement. The broken area be ground down in a "V" to allow good penetration and a weld that passes as far down as possible. Then as suggested previously - have additional aluminum welded on the top and bottom as a reinforcement.

Dry Weight? So what good is a Sherco without fuel, transmission oil, coolant, fork oil or brake fluid?

Find a long smooth hill and put the bike in 4th or 5th gear at low revs and low throttle. Then accelerate under full throttle and see what happens. If the bike accelerates smoothly and then just sort of hits a wall and won't go any faster.....I suspect fuel flow. If the engine instead abrubtly coughs, sputters, backfires......I would suspect ignition. Fuel flow problems generally have a softer onset then ignition troubles. Also a fuel flow problem will go away with just a few seconds off the throttle - while ignition trouble will probably remain as soon as you get back on the throttle. Since changing carbs did not solve the problem.....I would suspect you have a fuel flow problem in the tank assembly. Try using the tank/fuel valve/cap from another bike and see if the problem has gone away.

More than 30 years ago I was a good MX and Hare Scramble racer.....then I gave up bikes until just recently. I am 54 years old and weight 11 stone, and my first trials bike was a Sherco 290 that I bought 2 years ago. I didn't have any problem adjusting to the available power.......providing that I was allowed to learn at a slow pace. When I got into some tight situation I did learn that the bike had enough power to get me into trouble if I used too much throttle. If you throw this woman on any bike and have her doing advanced maneuvers too quickly.....she will get hurt and learn to dislike trials riding in a hurry. Let her have plenty of practice with balance, slow turns, small logs and little hills and learn at her pace and she will be fine. The use of a slow throttle tube could help as I doubt that her street bike had a quick throttle. She might be able to learn some things faster on a less powerful bike........but I think she could learn on a 270 providing that she can get it started.

When I bought a used 2004 Sherco and attempted to tighten the spokes up - I found that the spokes and nipples had siezed tight. Also when I took the front tire off to put on a new one I found the inside of the aluminum rim to be pretty corroded. The previous owner rode through a lot of creeks and rode all winter and the wetness must have corroded the spokes as it takes a long time for water inside the wheel to dry out....especially in the winter. On my new 2009 Sherco I put a waxy mineral oil based rustproofing on the spokes where the nipples attach to the spoke and where the nipples pass through the rim. This product is mineral oil based and never dries completely, and will allow movement when the spokes are adjusted. I put it on with a squeeze bottle and when it had dried for a couple of days I wiped off the excess. I also think it is important to keep the rear suspension bearings greased, and the rear brake pedal bushing is not sealed and needs to be taken apart and cleaned and greased fairly often.

I am confused about what you want to accomplish? Do you need to register an off-road bike in California in order to own or ride a bike in CA? Do the newer engines from Sherco or any other trials bike manufacturer comply with the engine pollution requirements in California? What is special about the steering head that makes you want to keep it and the engine case (Serial number)? How does keeping the old serial numbers while updating everything else help you? Is there a way that older bikes don't have to comply with requlations.....while newer bikes would? All years of Sherco trials bikes will have a big jump between 3rd and 4th gear.......1st,2nd & 3rd gears are for doing slow work - and 4th and 5th are for use when riding between sections. I am not sure if the other bike manufacturers space the gear ratios similarly.

When I typed "New Fuels" I was referring to the ethanol blends that are taking over the US. In an effort to reduce pollution and clean up the envorinment the Environmental Protection Agency has made it so that it is almost impossible to get anything that is not blended with 10% ethanol. While this works fine for new cars with fuel injection, plastic fuel tanks and modern plumbing - it can be a real problems for older equipment and it may be that the EPA is hoping that all the older equipment will go away. (This is pretty typical of the government employee turning a blind eye to the needs of farmers and small businesses). Rubber parts dissolve, aluminum parts corrode and steel fuel tanks rust as a result of the ethanol. The ethanol will gradually absorb moisture from the air and then the fuel starts to corrode aluminum and rust steel parts. It only takes a couple of months for the fuel to break down. Equipment that is only used periodically becomes impossible to start when it is needed again, and it has become necessary to drain the fuel out of any equipment that will not be used for a few months. Fuel stabilizers help - but the only sure way to prevent the damage is to drain the fuel out of the equipment until it is needed again. The ethanol fuel caused the fuel tank on my brand new Sherco to become soft and swell in only 4 months. I now only use fuel that I get from the distributor that has not been blended with ethanol.

See if you can get Phosporic Acid at your hardware/paint store. It is the key ingredient in most rust removers and will do a good job of cleaning the rust without damaging the good metal. Do not use Muriatic acid - it causes the metal to become brittle. Plug the drain and put the phosporic acid in the tank and allow it to work until the rust is gone. When finished dump out the used acid and dilute it with water. Then quickly rinse the tank out with warm water, then follow the water with a rinse of Acetone that will dry out the remove water - keep rising with Acetone until it comes out clear - the presence of absorbed water in acetone will make it cloudy. Now.....you will probably want to coat the tank to prevent it from rusting again. The new ethanol fuels will quickly rust an unprotected steel tank. I like the POR15 tank lining as it is dark silver colored and it cures by contact with moisture in the air and is very durable. Most of the other tanks liners are white and acetone based.......and I have read of people that have had trouble with some of them with the new fuels.

All fuels in the Cincinnati, Ohio area are blended with 10% ethanol. This has been a problem for those of us who have farm equipment that is used seasonally - the ethanol blended fuel will only last about 3 months before it won't run anymore and the ethanol is corroding fuel tanks, dissolving fuel lines and diaprhagms, and gumming up carbs. I have a found a distributor that will sell gasoline to farmers prior to blending with ethanol, it is 87 octane and runs and stores like the old stuff (before ethanol bending). This octane is a bit low for my Sherco so I blend in about 25% 100LL Avgas with the farm fuel. Even the premium fuels in this area contain ethanol. If you want to test the fuel for ethanol it is very simple. Take an old 20 oz clear soda bottle and put water in the bottle up to about 1/3rd the volume. Carefully mark this level, and then fill the rest of the bottle up with the fuel you want to test. Shake the bottle and then let the contents settle. The water will sink back down to to the bottom and the gasoline will float on top. If the water level has risen - it is because the water has absorbed the ethanol out of the gasoline. Every fuel I have tried in the Cincinnati area has ethanol - except for Avgass 100LL or Torco racing fuel, and the farm fuel that I get from the bulk distributor. If you think the Premium fuel in your area has less ethanol....you may be fooling yourself as they usually add ethanol to increase the octane rating of fuel that you buy at a gas station.

A "Dab" is a quick use of one (left or right) leg to keep you from falling over. The length of time that you have your foot off the peg and planted on the ground really isn't relevant.....it still costs you a point in competition......but it is better than falling over.

Well I am assuming the greetings from "NC" is North Carolina.....and you are picking the bike up in "TN" Tennessee. I am in Kentucky and I have learned that us Yanks are a minority on this site. I am slowly learning new words like "Tick Over" (idle), "Pinking" (pinging), "diddy" (small), "No Joy" (did not work), "Tidy" (pristine)..........Thanks to everyone on this site that is patient with those few of us from the US that are keen in trials, most of the people around here have no idea why our trials bikes are so weird looking and why we would want a bike without a seat! I remember seeing my first trials at a local motorcycle club in Ohio somewhere around 1972 and thinking it was a neat sport. I rode motocross and hare scrambles and never had a trials bike. I had been away from motorcycles for nearly 30 years and then for my mid-life crisis I decided to get a trials bike. I am now almost 55 and I have had a trial bike for about 3 years......and I love it. Welcome to the dark side...... Dave

Tony: The Sherco uses straight cut primary gears......and these do whine. The pitch changes as the load is applied. Most road going bikes and enduro's use helical primary gears which make much less noise - but are not as efficient in transferring power as they make a lot of side thrust. I suspect that what you are hearing is the whine of the primary gears.....which may be normal. Since your bike looks unused, maybe there just isn't enough use to break in the gears yet? Maybe the gear set you have does not fit up very well and is noisier than most?

Sam: You need to choose your oil and mix ratio for what your bike likes......not what smells good. Castor oil is great for vintage WW1 planes with rotary engines, and high rpm racing bikes and karts......but not good in low rpm uses. The thing about Castor that makes it so good in high rpm engines is that it has a very high shear strength and it just doesn't burn away.....the exhaust is usually very oily which works well for oiling the exposed valve gear in a WW1 Rotary engine. The Castor will probably just gum up your muffler in a trials bike. Currently there are far better oil choices for trials bikes than Castor oil. I use Maxima K2 as it is an esther based synthetic and I mix it at 80:1 for my modern water cooled bike, and at 50:1 for my Suzuki RL250 and Yamaha TY80. I mix about 25% 100LL Avgas to get a little higher octane in my 87 Octane fuel......it is the highest Octaned fuel that I can get here in Kentucky without Ethanol mixed in.....it is sold to farmers to keep in their outdoor tanks for farm use. The Avgas adds a cool race smell.....but it does not smell like Castor. The smell of Castor oil brings back a lot of memories for me........back in the late 60's and early 70's the Bultaco, Montesa, CZ and Hodaka bikes racing in this area used Castor oil. I can still remember the thick smoke and smell wafting across the track as the bikes all revved up getting ready for the flag to drop and start the race. I even used some Castor oil for a while in my weed wacker just to get that racey smell......but I have moved on and switched everything to modern esther based oils. Why deprive your engine of the best modern oils available just to smell cool?

The piston looks to have been blasted with a very heavy bead size - it is really rough. The good news is that he did not blast the cylinder or head. The cylinder appears to have some scoring - it may not be too bad but there are some vertical scratches showing.

My Sherco 3.2 has the a similar tube, complete with what appears to be a melted hole on the bottom. When I had the carb apart for cleaning I could see that the top of the float bowl chamber is connected to these two ends of the tube (one each side of carb) and they act as vents. I guess when the bike falls over to either side this allows excess fuel to flow out regardless of which side the bike falls.