widrace

Martin Belair suggested Mobil One synthetic or PJ 75w clutch tuner if you don't go with the ELF. We have used the Mobil stuff across four teambikes (315r's) since 02 without issue. Cheers

Excellent trial! Sure did enjoy those SPT lines, particularly Jim Gawne's section - it had a bit of everything. Thanks for all the hard work folks, it showed. Finished with 44 points, just where I like to be in terms of difficulty/lingering pain. Can't ask for more than that! Miss the ex Great Lakes Radwick clan too, hope all is well in Ca.

Yep, those Canadians always do a fine job of it. That barrel is still haunting me though. Kept thinking all day about how scary poor my chances were at getting over that thing five times and not crashing out in a real bad way. Then it gets even tougher as the lower approach log disappears for some reason. Assembled spotters again and hit it hard, couldn't stop on top and dropped off the back woefully out of control. Crazy thing is for some odd reason the bike was still kinda attached to me, and managed to keep going for a two! Will be helping a few old lady's cross the street for awhile. This SPT thing may be over my head - literally. What are Metamora SPT lines like these days?

Can't remember having so much fun taking so many points! East Side has diehard members that worked their buns off - thank you!! On to the quiz... Is the two day format the way to go? Indiana and Rose City are the long travel events for me so a two-day is welcome. Don't think I'd want more though. Trailloop length? The dust is the only complaint, and that's just the air cleaner talking. I wouldn't complain about backups if another couple of sections were in that 7-10 area. It's like heaven back there. Difficulty of sections? Tougher? Easier? I entered SR on Sat but got sucked into riding much of the SPT line cause there were so many fun looking things to play with. Great stuff. Entered Sr again Sun thinking I'd actually ride it, but got sucked in again. Did go over the bars a few times - along with the normal crashes but nothing was damaged. That all made for as good of time as you could ask for. Perfect. More big stuff for Adv- Experts? That's none of my business. Food concessions? Not important here because Wendy brings her kitchen to feed Jeff. Cost of event-Camping and electric fees? $10.00 to keep the beer cold is cheap. Distance? It's a problem when you flush the keys to your truck down the hotel toilet. Can't help but notice all the MOTA clubs are working hard, constantly improving the quality of their events. The bar keeps getting raised higher and higher. Property owners that don't ride are a big part of this too. It's a great time to be riding in MOTA!

I miss that chick.... So it looks like Nov is the only class that isn't being declared off-limits. How about adding some technicality, and/or maybe do a few Nov=Int?

Your right Sam, let's keep it at the marshmellow level! How about we chat it up over a beer and see if Keener and Cap are up for a bit more challenge - and if not, grab those marshmellows! Still, it's that jump to INT that I feel bad about. Seen Dennis lately? I don't think he's the only one that's been caught in between. How 'bout this one... legitimize Beginner and add some meat to Novice? I'll bet our current President has something in mind with the better-half having made the jump. Maybe he'll swap a beer for a thought (at the target practice) Talk about going off-topic - I should be the dude marshmellowed!

Yep... with 7 classes covering 50-60 riders I'm not surprised you hit a brick wall suggesting a few more. I was absent for a number of years, but it seems to me MOTA has done a good job of morphing the quantity and names of classes to suit. In the early 80's there were a ton of classes - NOV A/B, Junior A/B, etc. covering maybe 100+ riders. Now it's half that but stable. Regarding changes, our board members always have open ears, but also seem to quickly squash a suggestion - justly so too, finding I hadn't fully thought an idea through like they had. I tread lighter now. Trying to set my own agenda aside, I do have a few things in mind that might improve some things. I'm game to kick some in and get em' polished (re: beat) up here. For starters: Problem: That huge gap to INT, and the 150 point talent spread across those INT lines - that perhaps 50% of our riders are on. In comparison, the other classes work a zillion times better. We are beating the new-to-class folks up enough to drive them away so we can get a point or two from SR guys. I gotta agree with Scott that the 'Beginner' and 'Novice' moniker drives riders into INT too soon. Problem: The SR class has two types of riders, the squad of diehard older guys - most having physical limitations of some sort (from 30+ years of Trials) that hold them hostage, and a few younger guys (like me) that are working on it. Some of the events (inconsistency here) really abuse the older guys and it doesn't seem right. Be nice if they could compete in a real SR class. That would be the best competition of the day. FIX??? How about this thinking (without adding classes): If INT was softened a bit, and BEG and NOV lines were a bit tougher (renamed too) the issues above would be addressed. The top SR guys wouldn't want to ride the softer INT lines, so they go to the modded Sportsman line that leaves out that random 'it's too big' thing. The jist of all this is to just spread the current top and bottom INT riders into neighboring classes. Were still left with a jump to from SPT to AVD but at least you know what your doing by that time. Where's Biff?

kjax, thank you. If we show up on Friday can we ride around? To continue the Sportsman off-topic thang... From a pure selfish standpoint, I would like a rather technical line that requires some hopping maybe - unless perfectly executed, but doesn't include the 'another broken wrist cause I went over the bars' ADV + class stuff. Don't know if a line like that would attract enough of the 1-2 point capable SR guys as they seem to like the way it is. To me (53yo), a comfortably difficult line that takes points is way more fun than comfortably easy, and that one stupid 5 you earned wouldn't put you out for the day. I just end up screwing around afterwards. SR class could be 60 if some of us had a place to go in the meantime. The current Sportsman line is really close, but too inconsistent.

Wendy (our fantastic Milford Trials Team manager) would like to get a hookup for the trailer. An earlier post here notes hookups are available on limited basis, but the flier says 'no hookups'. Are the campgrounds and the hookups at the same place, and who should we call? Regarding the off-topic discussion - so far I'm with Zippy on this one. Our Mr. Dunlop has followed the Sportsman line practices of MOTA over the years, and surely has some interesting things to add here. He's a lurker here too.... come on out and play awhile.

Hi guys, Just reserved a room at the Scenic. Only rooms in the 'old' section are available. Am I better off at the Badlands? Jim - you are a machine that eats pain for breakfast. Didn't make last year but the "old-school' sections sound quite attractive to an old-schooler. Regarding the Sportman line - I too have dabbled (dabbed) with it as a 'more fun' kinda thing upon occasion. I find it's too inconsistent in difficulty from event to event to hang there, as some have beat my bones up real bad. Could anyone familiar characterize the Sportsman line at this event? Thanks, Steve

RDCHAIR, The 'quite noisey with a vibey whirr noise' could well describe my 02 315 until I put a new piston in it. An expensive piston at that.

Heard on the way home that Dick Debolt took a tumble that 'looked bad' down the back hill. How's he doing? It was really nice to chat with Gary W. He was fun to watch hoppin' around. Back then, Brad was just a little kid motocrossing through sections with Bill Decker yellin' at him to slow down. Gary and that yellow SWM was one of the pictures where naming the riders would win you a case of beer at the banquet a few years ago. The one where he's clinging to a tree for life. Joe needs to run EX - geeeessh. Biff, whats with that? Certainly not a matter of guts either. I second the hats-off to Rusty ....and wondering if Joe and Co. are paying attention!

Sam, that was a superb event! Thanks to you, your wife and your buddies. Huge effort - and it showed. All of us folks at Flint have a tough act to follow. Milford Trials Team

Sam, is it cool to ride your property on Friday? Any practice zones around? - or should we just hit your car? ... Milford Trials Team

My O2 did the same thing. I got lazy and didn't keep the crankcase clear of mung - I just kept turning in the idle screw every now and then to compensate. Didn't take but a couple of rides of this before it started racing away on cold choke. The fix was to simply blow it out (until it quit smoking altogether). The added RPM at idle required more than a full turn out on the screw to re-compensate. The slide was now repositioned where it wanted to be for cold start. Problem gone. For grins, I turned the idle screw back to where it was before the 'purge' and it raced away again on cold start up. One thing for sure... the idle screw doesn't have much authority when the engine is all loaded up. Also, a dragging clutch is going to make you raise the slide some more too. It doesn't take a bunch of slide height to transition out of the idle circut, and that's what mine was doing.

The basics: Typically a nominal bore size will vary by .001" due to manufacturing issues. To a lesser degree pistons have the same issues. As a manufacturer (assembler) you need to build to a nominal clearance with some tolerance. Lets say that nominal clearance has been determined to be .002" and your tolerance range allows clearances to vary from .0018" to .0022". You then take all of your pistons and catagorize them by size into 3 or 4 groups. Call them A,B,C and D. Do the same with the cylinder bore diameters. Example - if 'A' is the smallest piston in the range, it would be fitted to an 'A' bore, which is also the smallest in the range. You will need to create as many groups as required to be within your tolerance range. When all is said and done, as long as you pick the same letter piston/cylinder assembly you will achieve clearance within your tolerance range. Typically, a piston will vary .0003" within any given range. In service, you have the option to fit a larger piston to reduce clearance if you wish. Maybe you are on the loose end and want to reach the tight side of tolerance. Depending on the specific piston, you may find the next larger size is only .0001" larger. Another piston with the same letter might be .0003" larger however. If you have the complete range of pistons at hand to measure, your all set. Measure like this: Make sure everything (including the mic and bore gauge) is very close to 70 degrees F. Take a mic and measure the piston wherever your supposed to. Put a towel in a vise or something to hold the mic. Set the bore gauge in the mic and zero it. Stick the bore gauge in the cylinder (with some WD-40 on the wall) and it will directly read the clearance wherever you are in the bore. Look at taper and out-of-round. Pay particular attention to the area between the exhaust port and the top of the cylinder. Finding a .0005 hole here is not uncommon. Leave it. Recheck the gauge in the mic every now and then to make sure it didn't change from a bump, etc. Calculate what you may need to do from there. Notes: 1) The old piston will not measure even close to the same 'letter' new piston. In addition to wear, skirts will collapse .002" or better sometimes. 2) If you haven't developed good technique using these tools don't bother. Find someone who has the gear and knows how to use it. 3) .0001" is nothing, .0003" is something, and .0005" is alot 4) Any other method sucks. 5) Just put in whatever letter came out and have a beer. 6) I have never seen a circumstance where you could not put the next larger piston (into a used bore) and be out of tolerance - see #7 however. 7) Every once in a while a piston is mismarked in repect to it's intended range - and it's always bigger. Sorry 'bout long post.

It

Think twice about placing something incompressible between the cases and the plate.

I went to Duluth with my video camera and got Dougies crash. It's the footage that was seen here in the States on the Top Dead Center show. I'm curious if it's the same footage that TrialsTV has. Could someone describe the footage? Maybe I can get a free copy eh? Don't worry, I'm not a jerk that's gonna cause a stink. It's neat to see your own stuff on TV....and maybe a video as well? Regarding Dougies performance on the horrible day...... as the conditions worsened, it was quite obvious to onlookers that he was the only one that could maintain command, and was well on his way to a win because of this - until the crash. After that he kinda blended in. It was impressive watching his crew fix the bike so fast. They had the triple clamp off a minders bike and onto his in a few short minutes - long before he was able to get back on it. That part took a good 15 minutes. I'm still amazed he even got up. Propel yourself backwards into a bed of jagged rocks, land kidney first onto one that sticks up almost a foot above the others. Now go ride. Geeesh Later in the day Dougie watched the crash and dragged his dad over to see it. "See...I pulled up!, look at this" Not quite enough, as the front tire found a spot on the ledge that was slightly undercut.