Riding dirt

[Squamch]

Deadly. Thanks. I'd figured it was hard and soft compression, but didn't know if that was for the flathead, the nut, or some combination of the two.
I don't recall anything on the bottom of the shock but I'll look again tomorrow when I'm back at the shop. Borrowing a corner of my buddy's warm, dry shop to do the work instead of on the back porch at my house.

Got the forks re sealed and juiced today. Took about 525ml per leg.

Back tomorrow to finish reassembling.

Got a new shinko cheater 505 on it too, that's one sticky feeling tire!!

 

[Squamch]

Killer after work ride yesterday.
Accidently found ourselves on some sweet trials trails, didn't get any pictures or video of that, but man, rebuilt carb and a bike that actually idles...what a feeling. Still fell over heading in around the gate and double bagged myself, but it was a good ride.
The cheater tire really is a lot like cheating. Wow. Front tire REALLY sucks now, so I've got a shinko mx216 ordered to replace it, and a set of spoons.

 

[Squamch]

Solo ride yesterday, had a good run. Snowing, and also a beautiful sunny day, depending on when and where we are talking about.

Naturally, the video does no justice to steepness.

Today, I rode with 7 dudes on ktm and husky 2 strokes with electric starts.

Still held my own though! Wild rockfaces and single track, and some fast double track thrown in. I didn't take any pics, but there were a few go pros and phones out on some of the better obstacles.

 

[Squamch]

Well. That was brutal. Carb started doing it's high idle thing part way through first lap, pinch flatted the front in the first couple KM, bailed and ripped the bite valve off my water bladder so I had one mouthful of water the whole race....came in 12th out of 16...and 4 didn't finish.


Also bent the shit out of a rad, tore a buckle off a boot, and got my wife on board for me to get a newer bike. Not right away, but sooner rather than later.

My 4 year old took 8th out of 11, and has the bug big time. He was done after 2 laps...6km, and was crying because "but I wanna do FIVE laps! I just want to be racing all day Dad!"

 

[willis_racing]

Myself and 6 other guys took a 4 day weekend trip to Moab for our friend's bachelor party. Our main focus? Dirt bikes!
And maybe getting drunk at Woody's tavern.

Day 1: Slickrock Trail, Hell's Revenge, and then Sovereign Singletrack for the second half of the day.

Eyeballing Mickey's hot tub

Perched on Slickrock Trail

"Extreme Difficulty" Obstacle on Sovereign.

Day 2: Behind the Rocks> Pritchett Canyon> Kane Creek

 

[willis_racing]

Day 2 Cont'd:

That's the hi-dive in the background for location reference

Coming down some climbs on BtR(I think)

And... While attempting a splatter I missed my front tire and absolutely demolished the rear tube in my bike. A couple patches and we were underway again , but I had to take it easy for all of pritchett canyon and still had to ride 70% of kane creek on a dead flat rear after it went flat again. It also eventually started spinning on the rim, so getting out of that was a bear. But I made it out and had a blast seeing all the scenery. Moab truly is amazing.

I do highly recommend running Moab on a dirt bike as a bucket list item. However it's not for the faint of heart, and you had better have your sea legs in chunky rocky shit. None of us got out of 3rd gear the entire trip, it is incredibly techy and slow. It is all completely worth it for the views and the history of the place though. 10/10 would do again, but with mousse bibs next time.

 

[Squamch]

Had a minute to pull the carb apart tonight. Pinched gasket on the top cover, pulled in just barely on one corner. Explains the high idle issues if it was leaning out from a leak, why it dissapeared under load I can't understand though.

 

[willis_racing]

Had a minute to pull the carb apart tonight. Pinched gasket on the top cover, pulled in just barely on one corner. Explains the high idle issues if it was leaning out from a leak, why it dissapeared under load I can't understand though.

Remember that the more the throttle opens the less vacuum there is in the system.

I honestly hate air leaks, they're some of the most finicky asinine problems to track down because of the amount of symptoms they can cause and the intermittent nature of them.

 

[willis_racing]

This is essentially the "Useless things about your day" thread but focused on dirt bikes, right?

I tried wearing ear plugs in my helmet for the first time yesterday.
MASSIVE GAME CHANGER.

I've been meaning to start doing it for years at this point but now that I tried it once there's pretty much no going back. Good for my ears and comfy? Hell yes.

 

[Squamch]

2005 Kdx50 is on the block, 2016 ttr50e is up. Kid is, obviously, stoked for more woo-pow.

 

[Squamch]

We went riding Monday night. Didn't realize how much the kdx was holding him back. Killed it on a bunch of hillclimbs, then ripped some single track. We're working on standing for the hard parts, so I made him ride one lap of the pit standing before we could hit the trails.

 

[willis_racing]

We went riding Monday night. Didn't realize how much the kdx was holding him back. Killed it on a bunch of hillclimbs, then ripped some single track. We're working on standing for the hard parts, so I made him ride one lap of the pit standing before we could hit the trails.

I love it when youngins/girlfriends get a different bike and find out it was the bike holding them back a bunch instead of them just "sucking at this". Huge free confidence boost. Always fun to watch.

 

[Squamch]

He was fast enough on the single track that I got worried he had bailed and I'd ridden past him

 

[Squamch]

Well apart from the pissing rain when I left the truck, crashing and getting smashed in the ribs with a stump, and the 2' deep mud hole that didn't look like it was a hole at all that I sunk in right after smashing my ribs...that was a great after work ride today. Found a couple spots to play and practice on big ugly rocks.

 

[Squamch]

Last night's ride.

 

[willis_racing]

Last night's ride.

Great. Just great. Now I gotta start planning a ride in wherever the fuck it is you live. That is some freaking badass terrain man.

ETA: I'm gonna buy a gopro chin mount and consider getting a newer gen gopro with image stabilization so I can share some of my good trails too. I think we'll have to do a helmet cam share thread or something, I want to see more of this magical canadaland

 

[Squamch]

Great. Just great. Now I gotta start planning a ride in wherever the fuck it is you live. That is some freaking badass terrain man.

ETA: I'm gonna buy a gopro chin mount and consider getting a newer gen gopro with image stabilization so I can share some of my good trails too. I think we'll have to do a helmet cam share thread or something, I want to see more of this magical canadaland

Chin mount is awesome. We're on southern Vancouver island, Shawnigan lake area. Have a look at island single-track on Instagram, he posts ride videos daily and lives in that same area.

I'll add, the guy who filmed and posted that is racing the rebull outliers race at the end of August in Alberta. If you want to see some truly disgusting terrain, youtube tansky tearzberg.

 

[Weasel]

Canada has some amazing riding areas, follow the Traction Erag just a Griz Bait and Big Rock Candy Mountain are bucket deals.

 

[Squamch]

Buddy's gopro clip from last night's ride.

These trails are a challenge on a 20 year old mx bike

 

[Squamch]

First race of the season...and I've jacked my knee. Was hailing during the rider's meeting. Parking area was slop, trails were slop, but slipperier.

Halfway through the first lap I spun on wet muddy rock and hyperextended my right knee. Gibbled back and loaded the bike with my jib crane.

Assholes made us ride the endurocross course in the pissing rain too.

 

[willis_racing]

Took the opportunity of a 4 day weekend to spend 2 days on a truck project, and 2 days doing a couple of rides in southern NM. I wish I got videos but I can barely remember to take any pics so no dice lol.
Few shots in the main canyon in Socorro

Then perched on top of a mountain overlooking the town. This is where I lived and went to college for 5 years. I miss having this out my back door.

Then sunday went over to Roswell to ride an area I've never been to before.

Singletrack there was decent. I didn't find the hard/enduro stuff challenging enough to be exciting, but a few of the singletracks the locals have cut in out in the desert were flowy and very fun. Perfect wet dirt helped that experience as well.

 

[willis_racing]

As an addendum:

Got to ride a '23 300XC with the brand new TBI engine.
If you're curious about them I would highly recommend finding someone to bum a ride off of. The new engine is an absolute thing of beauty.
It climbs onto the pipe at a way lower RPM than you would expect and carries out into the over rev like crazy. Very, VERY fun engine for desert ripping. And it's a 300 so naturally it lugs like a freight train as well.

I wont be buying one as a first year of the new model, but here in a year or two I may just go pick one up.

 

[Sandy Johnson]

Phase one of Operation: Take My 5 Year Old Riding is complete.

Picked this beater up last night. It needs some love, but it was cheap and it's allowed on all the minibike tracks at our local OHV area.

Gonna fix the chain tension, clean the air filter, and change the oil tonight.

Tomorrow we're off to look at a 2003 ktm adventure mini for my kid. Gonna bring this thing and if he fits on it, we're stopping at a little beginner ohv area on the way back


Eventual goal for this thing is a CR85 rear shock and kx 85/100 forks/fork tree. New carb is on order since I found one for $30 and it seemed worth it rather than cleaning and rebuilding the existing one.

 

[Squamch]

Nice!

What Ed Zachary is it?

 

[Steve300xcw]

looks like a lil klx110

 

[Sandy Johnson]

Nice!

What Ed Zachary is it?

looks like a lil klx110

Close- it's an old 2006 klx 125, aka drz 125. Pretty much the same bike.

Was talking about getting a TTR with a local moto shop friend when he mentioned these. Said the ttr- transmissions blow up a lot and to try to find a kawi or suzuki instead.

 

[Sandy Johnson]

Phase Two complete.

Bought this thing and went straight to ride it. Crappy weather and his first time on a real dirt bike and I was nervous. Turns out I didn't need to be. He took to it like a fish to water. I barely had time to remind him how the back brake was different and he was gone. Don't have many pictures of him because he was hauling ass and I had to wait around for our 2.5 year old on the little Stacyc.

I am now a firm believer in Stacycs as a teaching tool for kids to learn to moto.

We're going riding again tomorrow.

Oh yeah, previous owner was a little girl racer who outgrew the bike. New decals are definitely coming soon.

 

[Squamch]

That's dope!!!! What's the full specs on that bike?

 

[Sandy Johnson]

That's dope!!!! What's the full specs on that bike?

2003 KTM adventure mini. Pretty stock other than the mix oil tank removed, some beefy handguards so kids can dump it on the ground without much consequence, oh and an fmf pipe. Last owner babied it- it started right up cold with one kick.

We currently got the forks sitting as low as they can in the tree and the rear nice ans saggy so it fits my 5 year old perfect.

 

[Squamch]

Deadly! Are those kids size hand guards?? Been struggling to find a solution for my boy's bike to save his knuckles.

Does it have the tunable clutch like the newer ones have? How's the hit for him on the pipe?