2010 Gasgas 250 Mods

[shercoben12]

hi, recently purchased a 2010 250 gasgas after having alot of issues on my 125. now thats gone ive been riding alot down our woods which is been very wet in the last few days. its a great bike very clean and little use. i noticed comparing it to my friends 280 that his "dug" more into the mud and just went and carryed on gripping. where as mine might slip and when it did grip you had to be very careful not to spin it up again. the tyre is an average xlight thats been turned but i have a new one in the shed. i am hoping this will make a big difference but the 280 has a bald tyre and low compression head. are there any mods i can do to mine to give it more "dig" if you now what i mean...

[laser1]

The 250 should be good in the mud. you sure its the bike? if so, hows your suspension setup. It may be too firm for your weight. You want a nice compliant suspension and low (very low if your light) tire pressures in the wet. Also - short gearing can also compound a lack of traction problem.

[baldilocks]

are you both in same gear ? You need to bend your knees and sit back so you are over the wheel spindle. rider position makes a lot of difference so may not be the bike.

[shercoben12]

we both use 3rd. i am more aggressive and tend to gunn it and go thanks for the tips though - the tyres are 3 psi in the rear and 5 ish front. the gearing is 41 on the back and 10 front?? would a higgh comp head work to give it more bite ?

[canada280i]

One little slip in the mud and you are ready to start looking for more power? Laser1 is likely right on the money here, you need to work withwhatvyou have for a while rather than just looking for excuses to make major changes. Set the bike up for your weight and improve your technique, higher comp will not improve grip in mud, less revs and better weight positioning is what you need

[shercoben12]

NO I'm not blaming the bike and asking for more power! I was purely just wondering why the 280 was like that!

[baldilocks]

A 280 is a more aggressive motor but it also generates a lot more torque. The 280 is probably in its comfort zone in third, the 250 may be better in second but with more revs.

it can be frustrating but go back to it, think about where you stand on the bike. Mud can be ridden by some people on very little throttle, others use lots of revs and slip the clutch and are just as effective. The more mud there is the more appropriate the "rev it" approach becomes. Other point is there is often grip somewhere and once you have it you need to maintain momentum.

[sting32]

Slip is probably more likely going to happen with a 125, when using the "proper technique" to make the bike have enough "umph" from a tiny sized engine... what you do as a "technique" on a 125 is using rev & clutch to do what my 300cc bike can do much easier without that technique, on dry ground let alone on slippery.

It is technically the same as doing a "burnout" in a car, because the trials technique cannot make most cars do a wheelie, it makes tires spin. most little cars can do a burnout with 1st gear on flat surfaces optimum grip, when you rev the engine enough and dump the clutch... but a 400 hp Mustang/Camaro for example, can do the same without reving and some without dumping the clutch, and can do it in 4 gears at a whim... also because to "launch hard" like you do on trials bike, we use 4.56 or 5.12 rear gear which is worthless going down the highway. 125's have done same gear ups to keep the engine with enough "power" to make rear wheel turn etc. I think I had a 54 rear and 10 on my son's 125. that is like taking the 273 gears out of that car and putting 411's in there... now for each pulse of the engine we've reduced the torque necessary to make the wheel move, which makes the bike move.

So, what do you do? Well... You have to then essentially learn how to "Modulate" throttle, clutch "engagement" AND your body to compensate for traction. What I have to do Ben, is tell you if it is not known by you, is read about how 10,000 HP dragsters and funny cars have to modulate through (saying it too basically in this memo) applying pressure to the clutch, which then gives more HP and Torque forces to the wheels, up to a limit defined as the traction the wheels can handle... Once you apply TOO MUCH POWER to the rear wheel, the only thing the wheel can do is "spin." in drag racing or trials, in a simple way, once you overpower the traction that the wheel and ground can take, the wheels slip, and you lose any acceleration.

This is one reason, me not being a TOP level rider by ANY stretch, use an oil in my clutch cases that seems to help me have a lot more "area" of lever movement between fully engaged clutch (pulled in, nil connection to wheel) and fully disengaged (when you let out of lever and torq/power to wheels is at max). this way I can give as much gas as I hope it can handle, but also vary how much power you give, by being able to slip the clutch a little more or less depending on conditions. Hard to describe what I am saying but there is a sweet spot where I can give my bike's rear wheel 10-98% full power via the clutch movement, in 10 increments or steps. when I ran plain old ATF I can only describe that I had less range more like 60-100% in about 2 increments. But a really good master rider doesn't like the milliseconds longer it takes my clutch to completely give 100% power to rear wheels on a "blast or Splatter" that delay can mean they dont get up to speed and not make it. so there is a trade off.

One more thing.. kind of related... it is like jumping a log that is wet, but pulling clutch as rear wheel gets just on top, kinda... As when you pull the clutch, the wheel stops the spinning so I have a firmer set of contact points on which to balance, that is the goal... versus leaving clutch out and having to try to balance on a rear wheel that is spinning and unpredictable to balance on. kind of the same in my head anyhow, because maybe you just pull it for 75% slip so you can get back on the bike and rev and go more, so it is about removing the "power" from the wheel, so it can get a traction and then increase power by slipping clutch a little and all that.

hope you see what I mean with all that? maybe drag racing is bad analogy of clutch slipping... But, you being interested in F1, maybe you can read about "traction control"... not long ago they had "traction control" that would either apply brakes to dissable some of the "power" given to rear wheels, so the car wont just spin tires, now I think they use not only brakes, but engine timing and clutch slip to reduce power so wheel can take as much power as calculated, or when a wheel spins, it is detected and computers make all those adjustments for the driver... it caused some controversy, but in the end it works so much faster than a human can do it... anyhow, your Fingers and brain have to figure all that out and "be the traction control." Yes bigger engines give me a bigger RPM range to do same as you have to do on a 125 at higher RPM because of the total power output differences in the engines, it is all same, you'll seem to have a smaller window for error than I do with so many much more power/torqe per RPM than the 125.

[shercoben12]

Cheers sting for the great explanation really apreciated! yeah I get what ya mean! That's what I've been trying and it seems to work with the clutch. I've been using thicker oil and it seems to give me more feel. I'll keep trying. Cheers !