Riding dirt

[Squamch]

Let's discuss dirtbikes. Or dual purpose with a bent towards dirt.

I'm on an 85 bw200, stock other than an aftermarket CDI box, cobbled FMF exhaust, LED tail light, and a kenda bear claw rear tire. It needs a new front rather desperately too. It's my hunting and fucking around bike. It's not fast, and handles like a wet pillow, and stops like a walrus, so it's a hoot to ride.

My 4 year old son is on an 05 KDX50. It's a shared design with suzuki in those years...it needs forks after his last ride. Center punched a tree perfectly.

He's just starting to get out of the pit, so we're working really hard on avoiding target fixation

 

[Squamch]

My wife decided that Big Whitney (her affectionate name for the BW) was not an appropriate bike, and bought me an early Christmas present. 2001 yz250f. So I'm on a bit of a spree setting it up for trails. Standard stuff like handguards, gonna dick about with the suspension a bit too, try to soften the rear up a bit and see if I can drop the whole bike a bit. Might try my hand at a seat shave too. Would really help stop me sliding off the back of it!

I'll be looking for advice on tires too. Wet, muddy, rocky trails. Stereotypical PNW stuff.

 

[willis_racing]

Coolio, I'll hop right in.

I'm a desert racer from New Mexico. My tire recommendations won't mean much to you but I can always try lol.

Here's a few action shots of my '15 YZ450f from this season.

More recently, I picked up an '04 YZ250 to set up for tight technical trails and hare scrambles in the woods. So far I've just been undoing the neglect it had been subjected to and ironing out a build plan for it. First major mod was swapping the front triple tree, suspension, and hub/wheel from my 08 yz250f. This bike will probably be getting a build thread in the Other Builds section.

And lastly, I just picked this beauty up this past weekend. Don't even have any good pics of it yet so I just robbed a couple from the stealership.
2019 YZ450FX. It's my new honey, and you'll be seeing it often in my race updates as I post those somewhere on the forum.

 

[Squamch]

Awesome!! I've never ridden desert, always wanted to though.

Ordered a hotcams stage 1 exhaust cam today, supposed to help low end, as well as having automatic decompression, which will help on the trails for the inevitable stall.
Also ordered sprockets. I'm currently 13/50, going to go 12/54. I've never geared a bike slower before...had a 94 xr200 that I went from 50 down to 39 on the rear to keep up with my buddy's on a kx450 and a crf450r on the logging roads.

 

[willis_racing]

Awesome!! I've never ridden desert, always wanted to though.

Ordered a hotcams stage 1 exhaust cam today, supposed to help low end, as well as having automatic decompression, which will help on the trails for the inevitable stall.

Desert is where my heart lies. (Mostly because I don't have a choice) Sand singletracks take years to master but once you have it down it's solidly one of the most fun things you can do on two wheels.

Auto decomp on those really old YZ 4 strokes is damn near 100% necessary to starting them if your situation is even slightly precarious. I'm not one to mod engines but that was a good buy.

I'm in the same position as you on gearing though, I have never, ever geared a bike down instead of up. Stock gearing is the lowest I'll use. You'll have to let me know what you think of running gearing that low, My brain is telling me it won't even be useful at that point.

For tires I'd start by checking out "cheater" and "hybrid" tires, which essentially boil down to normal knobby dirt bike tires but made out of a sticky trials compound. A few tire makes also offer these "extreme enduro" tires that look super balloony and the knobs are small and spread really far apart. Supposedly stupidly gummy as well. From what I can tell those tires are about the top of the heap in your sludgy PNW type stuff. May not be available for your 19" wheel though.

 

[Squamch]

Desert is where my heart lies. (Mostly because I don't have a choice) Sand singletracks take years to master but once you have it down it's solidly one of the most fun things you can do on two wheels.

Auto decomp on those really old YZ 4 strokes is damn near 100% necessary to starting them if your situation is even slightly precarious. I'm not one to mod engines but that was a good buy.

I'm in the same position as you on gearing though, I have never, ever geared a bike down instead of up. Stock gearing is the lowest I'll use. You'll have to let me know what you think of running gearing that low, My brain is telling me it won't even be useful at that point.

For tires I'd start by checking out "cheater" and "hybrid" tires, which essentially boil down to normal knobby dirt bike tires but made out of a sticky trials compound. A few tire makes also offer these "extreme enduro" tires that look super balloony and the knobs are small and spread really far apart. Supposedly stupidly gummy as well. From what I can tell those tires are about the top of the heap in your sludgy PNW type stuff. May not be available for your 19" wheel though.

There is an 18" wheel on marketplace too. I was thinking about grabbing it for the ability to run a taller sidewall.

Good advice on the tires, thanks, I'll investigate that!

 

[Gots_a_sol]

18" wheel plus a shinko 505 ftw (pretty sure the 505 is available in a 19 though)

I run Dunlop mx33 or 53 on my Beta for racing these days but the 505 works great for trail riding without wearing out super fast. 525 is good too and is a little more open/aggressive but also wears faster.

I typically stick with the mx33 or 53 on the front and swap rear wheels depending on terrain.

Bridgestone M59 front gets a lot of praise too but I liked the mx33 better

 

[Squamch]

Started doing some research...found an article that describes the trail system we were on...

Glad you asked because Kitt Stringer—who is one of B.C.’s top off-road riders—put six different brands of soft or gummy tires to the test in the unforgiving woods of Vancouver Island’s Shawnigan Lake area.

“This is some of the more difficult hard enduro terrain that I have found in Canada,” said Stringer, “and it is where I trained for Romaniacs. It is slower-speed, technical terrain, using mostly second and third gear.”



Well. Nice to know that I don't suck that bad, they are in fact really mean trails!

 

[Gots_a_sol]

Well, learning to ride on hard shit first makes the easier stuff a breeze


We have a few local spots that are super rocky/techincal and it's 50/50 on people quitting riding altogether or embracing the suckage after taking them there

 

[Squamch]

Didn't find any deer, but had a good ride.

 

[willis_racing]

Didn't find any deer, but had a good ride.

I've always sworn to myself that If a BW350 ever came up for sale near me for a good price I'd have to buy it. Lately my attention's been more toward something like this though.

YZ250 YZ250X 2 Stroke Complete Big Wheel Kit

Current lead times are4-6 weeks, possibly sooner. Call for a more accurate lead time if needed. Kit will include: Custom Rear Swing-arm (bearings installed) Billet Rear Hub (Bearings Included) Heavy Duty Rear Axle 2- 12" Wheels (Comes black only, as seen in picture) Billet Triple Clamps &...

bvcbigwheels.com

 

[Squamch]

The 200 is a hoot, I'd like to try a 350. A 2 stroke set up with a heavy flywheel would be a fun ride too though.

 

[Squamch]

My diesel is leaking oil from the front main and the oil cooler, so I spent the day working on the bike.
12t front sprocket is on, the 54t rear doesn't fit, needs a longer chain, and some fuckery with the guide...I'll try riding with the 12t and see how that is, then if I need to, I can swap to the 54t. I also picked up an 18" rear wheel with a good 52t on it that I can try. After I kill this tire I'll swap that wheel on with a new tire and see where I want to be with that one!
Got my hand guards on, and the hotcams exhaust cam in. Hooooooooly crap. That thing is awesome. Flashes right up easy. Fantastic. Stoked to ride, but it's DUMPING snow.


Even after all that work, the truck is still leaking. Dunno how that happened!

 

[Squamch]

Went out and rode the tansky rec area today. Good network of gnarly single track maintained by the Vancouver island dirt riders association (VIDRA). Got our asses whooped, but had a hoot. Frosty bridges, slippery roots and rocks, bottomless mud pits that were over my boots. Absolute blast of a ride. Only took one picture, this is on the wide open blue level trail. Some of the hills were rather unreasonable. Angle on the gopro sucked, and I only remembered to turn it on on the easy parts.

 

[willis_racing]

My suspension guy got a short video of us ripping last weekend. I love being able to film stuff at all, but man do gopro wide angle lenses make me feel slow.

 

[Squamch]

My yz250f seems to have 2 idle circuits. It will idle way high, then when I put it under a hint of load, just like slipping the clutch, disengaging it again, it drops down to a normal idle. Any ideas on WTF is causing this, and how to fix it?

 

[willis_racing]

My yz250f seems to have 2 idle circuits. It will idle way high, then when I put it under a hint of load, just like slipping the clutch, disengaging it again, it drops down to a normal idle. Any ideas on WTF is causing this, and how to fix it?

I'm not 100% sure on what carb those early 250fs had, but it does have an air screw right? I'd probably start there. Sounds like it runs lean when the throttle is fully closed. Does it slowly climb back up after you (for lack of a better term) pull the idle down with load? Or does it high idle, then just do a completely normal idle after pulling it down?

 

[Squamch]

I'm not 100% sure on what carb those early 250fs had, but it does have an air screw right? I'd probably start there. Sounds like it runs lean when the throttle is fully closed. Does it slowly climb back up after you (for lack of a better term) pull the idle down with load? Or does it high idle, then just do a completely normal idle after pulling it down?

Goes back to a totally normal idle, but will cough out and die after 20ish seconds.

 

[willis_racing]

That’s sounding like vacuum leak to me. Check the carb boot for dry cracking and stuff.

Other than that, I’d trace out the cough and die at idle problem and the hanging idle will probably go with it. It’s a 4 stroke, it should just sit there and idle to infinity.

 

[willis_racing]

Sceep If I hypothetically wanted to make a thread about my adventures in dirt bike racing this year, do you think it would be better to make it here in the motorcycle group, or in the Offroad Racing segment?

It seems like the Offroad racing segment of the forum is mostly dedicated to 4 wheeled stuff, which makes sense given the whole "4x4" theme of the forum as a whole, but i feel like there will be more traffic for the thread there.

I don't really want to disrupt the flow of things over there though, nor do I want to put the thread somewhere it doesn't belong if the members in this group are the only ones who give a fuck. Advise.

If I'm overthinking it tell me to fuck off and I'll do whatever I want

 

[Sceep]

Put it on Austins new forum. ADVbikes.com.

The groups section here is probably one of the lowest traffic sections. I see no reason why It can't go in offroad racing.

 

[Squamch]

01 yz250f, forks are leaking. Depending on source, I either need 500ml per leg, or 700ml plus. Recommendations and wisdom?

 

[willis_racing]

Squamch It's been years since I've worked on old style open cartridge forks, but here's what the factory service manual says.

As per usual, they can never be so straightforward. I usually just buy two quarts of fork oil to be on the safe side and know that I'm going to store a half empty bottle on the shelf for a few months.

 

[Squamch]

Squamch It's been years since I've worked on old style open cartridge forks, but here's what the factory service manual says.

As per usual, they can never be so straightforward. I usually just buy two quarts of fork oil to be on the safe side and know that I'm going to store a half empty bottle on the shelf for a few months.

I bought 2 jugs, hoping that's enough!

 

[Squamch]

Parts finally showed up on Friday, so I left em in the box and went for a ride yesterday. Buddy has been insisting that his cr80 camping bike was appropriate.
Nope.

Broke my rear fender and lost the bolts from my skid plate, but a great ride over all.
Signed up for my first hare scramble April 24th too. Whisky creek "roots of doom" race in the Vancouver Island Hare Scramble Series.

 

[Squamch]

Started to pull the carb apart last night, and...well, I'm surprised it ran, actually.

90% of that filth came from inside.

 

[willis_racing]

90% of that filth came from inside.

Always start with basics, right? Should run pretty tits when you're done with it then. Congrats on signing up for some racing! Looking forward to seeing how you do! I'll probably start a racing thread for us in the Offroad racing section, or we could pile into Gots_a_sol 's old one. My next one is April 17th

EDIT: Or since all 3 of us are on ADVbikes now we could post over there. I'm not sure what I want to do. But I want race updates and pics dammit

 

[Squamch]

I don't think it's against the rules to start a thread in both places!

My 4 year old is stoked to run the kid's series too.

 

[Squamch]

So the bike runs great now, really nice idle.

I did the rear suspension linkage yesterday...

I can't find specifics on how to dial the rear suspension, but Golly is it ever a lot smoother now

There's a small flathead screw, in the middle of a brass hex nut on the shock. There is also a H<---->S marking beside it, but I don't know which that refers to, and don't particularly want to accidently dissasble the rear shock.

 

[Gots_a_sol]

The flat head and brass nut adjust low and high speed compression damping. The flat head should click as you turn it, cant recall if the brass nut does also.

Rebound adjustment is on the bottom of the shock near where it attaches to the linkage.

H and S are hard and soft. Turn the clicker to hard to stiffen up dampening, turn toward soft to lessen it. Rebound is faster/slower.