Clutch Woes cont.

So I went to Redbikejohn’s house yesterday afternoon to try and get my clutch sorted once and for all.

We started off by adding all new fluid since the old fluid looked more like old motor oil than DOT4. The bleeding was very straight forward and we got everything working straight away.

It didn’t fix the problem, however. It is still dragging badly. SO…

Tomorrow, I’m going to pull the clutch plates and check the basket. From everything I have read and been told by TM (in New Zealand of all places) the steel plates are the most likely culprits.

I’ll take loads of pictures and post them up if I can do it without getting gear oil all over the camera.

On a more positive note, we pulled the front brake caliper and checked it over. It was amazingly clean and the pads were still good and didn’t need replacing! Amazing. One thing that didn’t need doing. MAybe I’ve started a trend…

Not likely.

Anyway, more later.

Bits & Pieces

So all the little bits and pieces are coming together now.

I got my fork support

and triangle stand

yesterday, but the fuel tap is still on order. TM UK didn’t have one in stock, so they had to order it direct from Italy. I shudder to think how long that might take…

First Race – 13 April!

Well, it looks like I’ve got in my first race! It’s the TBEC (Trail Bike Enduro Club) race at Whaddon not too far from Milton Keynes in the UK.

Based on everything I know and have read, this is all the stuff I should take with me ‘on the day’

Personal Stuff 

• Helmet
• Goggles
• Boots
• Gloves
• Pants
• Body armour
• Long sleeve under shirt
• Heavy socks
• Towel
• Breathe Right strips
• Small first aid kit – aspirin, bandages, band-aids, Neosporin
• Camelback + spare water
• Pre-race snack – power bar
• Lunch – apple, bananas, PBJ sandwiches, crisps
• Post-race snack -
• Lucozade
• Bin bag
• Camera and spare memory cards

Bike Stuff

• Pre-mix
• Petrol
• Spark plug
• Tool kit
• Zip-ties
• Electrical tape
• Duct tape
• Tyre pump

 

I’ll be #150 – the one upside down in the ditch. If anyone is there, please feel free to give me a hand.

Fluids – UPDATE

This morning we had a break in the horrible weather and I got a chance to change and flush my coolant and gear oil.I had no idea if the gear oil needed changing or not, but since it has been part of the plan all along, I thought I’d go on and do it. It wouldn’t hurt anything if it had brand new oil in it and at least I would know it was good for the first race.

I’m glad I checked it.

It was very dark and definitely needed changing. There was a very small amount of metal shavings on the magnet on the drain plug, but I assume that’s normal. I didn’t take a pic, so I can’t show you how much it was but it didn’t seem excessive.

I flushed the system with some of the new fluid before putting the plug back in and filling it up again. I’m not sure how much should be in there but I put about 675ml. The closest thing I could find was a setup manual from TM that said  650 – 700.I also flushed what was left of the old coolant (blue) before refilling with all new stuff (pink).

I used Halfords Advanced this time mixed to about a 60-40 coolant to water ratio. I’ll see how that goes. I’d like to use Engine Ice, but everyone told me that it really doesn’t matter so we’ll see.

All the bolts – both the gear oil plugs and the coolant drain plug – are stripped (on the outside, not the inside) and I had to use vice-grips to get them out.

I’m scared to find out how much it will cost for the new bolts, but as we all know TM = Time & Money and they are special bolts so they will have to be OEM parts.

I’m off on Thursday to get the clutch sorted and maybe all the brake pads changed. Once that is done, I’ll be ready to race!!

BRING IT ON!!!

 

UPDATE – I checked with my supplier and all the bolts I need run from £1.50 for the coolant bleed bolt to £5.00 for the gearbox drain plug with the magnet. Replacements have been ordered for all 3 and I should receive them when I get the fuel tap.

Bolts

Since I have the new rads on now, I thought I should drain and flush any remaining old coolant that might be lingering and replace with all new fluids.

While trying to get the drain plug out, I managed to strip the bolt. Exactly how I managed that with an allen-key I’m not sure, but suffice it to say that the bolt is well and truly stuck in there. I’m not sure if it’s rusted in or if it’s been ‘loctited’ and just needs breaking loose. Regardless, I’ll need to get a replacement bolt.

I call the my TM parts dealer and they want £1.50 PER BOLT! Um, I don’t think so. It’s only a standard 6mm thread SS bolt, so I’ll get it myself.

Anyway, after searching around on the interweb, I found a great site that will sell small batches of nuts and bolts – all of them are A2 SS as well. The site is called Stagonset and they do basic nuts, bolts and washers.

This weekend, I’m going to go out and figure out how many bolts I’ll need to replace most of the old rusty ones. I’ll order a few extras of varying sizes to have a backups and then I can go about replacing all the old, mank ones with shiny, new SS ones.

As usual, I’ll take pics before and after and post them when I have them done.

Together Again

I got a chance to do some work on the bike today.

I re-installed the rads and the carb, rerouted the breather tubes, pulled the old air filter and put all the plastics back on there they belong.  Here’s what it looked like before I started.

And with the shiny cleaned up carb.

Ummm pretty…

All together again

And from the front

That’s all for the moment.

I broke the fuel cock by dropping the tank when I had it off, so I’ll need to get a replacement before I can get all the fluids back in and get it running. Here’s the offending item.

GMX Rocks!

GMX Radiators rocks! They are the guys I sent my radiators to to get them refurbished. They got them last Wednesday morning and I had them back in my possession on Thursday. That’s awesome! And they seem to have done an excellent job – although I haven’t had a chance to test them out yet.

Here’s what they used to look like.

And here’s what they look like now.

They aren’t perfect, but I wouldn’t expect them to be. The left one was really battered before hand, so I’m just happy they got it fixed without having to buy a new one.

Here they are in situ on the bike.

I got to do a few other things as well, but I’ll do another post about them.

Reed Valves cont.

I was able to take a few minutes to pull my reed block yesterday afternoon to see how the reeds look. This isn’t something I was worried about, but while I was doing all the carb work I thought I’d take a quick look.

Before removal.

And From the top.

And from the end.

The one-piece blades on each side surprised me. I expected to see at least 2 per side or maybe a “V” type setup so I went looking for information on the differences between the blade configuration and what effect that might have on performance and power characteristics. I didn’t find exactly what I was looking for, but I did find a fairly good general explanation.

“Think of a reed valve like a carburetor, bigger valves with large flow-areas work best for high rpm power bands. In general, reed valves with six or more petals are used for high rpm engines. Reed valves with four petals are used for dirt bikes that need strong low end and mid range power. There are three other factors to consider when choosing a reed valve – the angle of the reed valve, the type of reed material, and the petal thickness.

The two common reed valve angles are 30 and 45 degrees. A 30-degree valve is designed for low to mid rpm and a 45 degree valve is designed for high rpm.

There are two types of reed petal materials commonly used, carbon fiber and fiberglass. Carbon fiber reeds are lightweight but relatively stiff (spring tension) and designed to resist fluttering at high rpm. Fiberglass reeds have relatively low spring tension so they instantly respond to pressure that changes in the crankcase, however the low spring tension makes them flutter at high rpm thereby limiting the amount of power. Fiberglass reed petals are good for low to mid power bands and carbon fiber reeds are better for high rpm engines.

Dual Stage reeds have a large thick base reed with a smaller thinner reed mounted on top. This setup widens the rpm range where the reed valve flows best. The thin reeds respond to low rpm and low frequency pressure pulses. The thick reeds respond to higher-pressure pulses and resist fluttering at high rpm.

A RAD valve is different than a traditional reed valve. Bikes with single rear shocks have off-set carbs. The RAD valve is designed to redistribute the gas flow to the crankcases evenly. A RAD valve will give an overall improvement to the power band. Polini of Italy makes a reed valve called the Supervalve. It features several mini sets of reeds positioned vertically instead of horizontally like conventional reed valves. These valves are excellent for enduro riding because of improved throttle response. In tests on an inertia chassis dyno show the Supervalve to be superior when power shifting. However these valves don’t generate greater peak power than conventional reed valves.”

I’ve pretty much decided to replace the current reeds with Boyseen Power Reeds – but only when they need replacing.

Breather Tubes

After cleaning the carb and discussing it with a few people on the Trail Bike Magazine forum, I’ve decided to replace my breather tubing and re-route the top two tubes up into the airbox. I’ll leave the bottom two to go down through the bottom of the frame where they were, but I’ll make sure I put a slit in them so they can still draw air if the end gets clogged with mud or anything.

I’ll leave the bowl overflow tube as is.

I might get a chance to do it today. I’ll post pics when I’m done.

Reed Valves & Low-end Power

I’m trying to ‘tame the beast’ a bit since I’m a new rider and don’t want to kill myself on my first race, so I’m thinking of replacing my reed valves with something that might give me better low-end grunt. I figure this might soften the power delivery and make the bike more manageable.

Has anyone else experimented with this?