What are you doing today? Thread

[Scootertrash]

Repairs and maintenance on a 92 Suzuki LT80

[barnett468]

Yet another installment of a barnett468 race report at the OTHG National this weekend.

I had 2 motos a day on Saturday and Sunday. The combined score from all 4 motos determined the results. I finished 2nd in my class which had 11 guys in it, and all of them were riding newer 4 stroke MX bikes and most were friggen 450's.

I holeshot both motos on Saturday over 15 other guys

Below are a couple photos from today, and the photographer is sending me a couple other pretty cool ones, and one of those shows me nearly holeshoting 1 of the 4 races, so fluck them new whazoo $10,000.00 race bikes. Just for comparison, I'm lucky if my bike puts out 36 hp and it weighs around 218 lbs without gas. A new KTM 125 2 stroke puts out a whopping 37 hp and only weighs 197 lbs. A new KX450 puts out over 59 hp at 11,000 rpm and all the other new 4 stroke bikes still put out over 54.


I passed several people in this turn when I raced here 2 weeks ago, so I figured I might be able to get a few here this time also, unfortunately, this weekend the entire inside of the turn had deep ruts, so most everyone took the far outside line and railed the berm, HOWEVER, there was around 3 feet of flat ground on the inside of the berm that one could ride if they have brass balls, so that's exactly what I did in this turn and had just passed #685 on the blue bike and was then trying to pass 805 on the orange bike also.





This photo is 1 second later, and you can see that my speed caused me to drift to the outside of the turn and into the base of the berm, and #805 nearly ran off the track....but I never touched him cuz I am a kind and courteous racer.





This was taken with a telephoto lens so the two peaks of the jump look fairly close together, but it as a double jump with around 16 feet between the peaks, and is the one that sent a guy to the hospital 2 weeks ago and he just got out yesterday. It is the most dangers jump and most dangerous section of the track because you have to hit it doing around 45 mph to clear it, and as soon as you land, you have to slam on the brakes to lock up both wheels to loose enough speed to make the 90 degree right hand turn just after it. If you go really slow you can easily roll, over both of them but you will loose a lot of time doing that. If you misjudge your speed, and go just a little too slow, you will nose dive into the face of the second jump, in which case you will have a very bad day. If you go at the right speed but don't slam on your brakes as soon as you land, you will fly over the berm in the turn like the guy did 2 weeks ago, in which case, you will have a very bad day.

My 38 year old suspension is not designed to take this type of abuse, so nearly every time I landed on the second peak, my bike would rebound so hard it would literally bounce back up in the air maybe a foot, which would knock my feet off the pegs by a few inches, so I then had to wait until my bike landed the second time before I could slam on the brakes and hope the 38 year old drums would slow me down in time.




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[3 Wheel Drive]

When are you going to start racing your YZ490? Thanks for sharing! Any video of your race?

Yet another installment of a barnett468 race report at the OTHG National this weekend.

I had 2 motos a day on Saturday and Sunday. The combined score from all 4 motos determined the results. I finished 2nd in my class which had 11 guys in it, and all of them were riding newer 4 stroke MX bikes and most were friggen 450's.

I holeshot both motos on Saturday over 15 other guys

Below are a couple photos from today, and the photographer is sending me a couple other pretty cool ones, and one of those shows me nearly holeshoting 1 of the 4 races, so fluck them new whazoo $10,000.00 race bikes. Just for comparison, I'm lucky if my bike puts out 36 hp and it weighs around 218 lbs without gas. A new KTM 125 2 stroke puts out a whopping 37 hp and only weighs 197 lbs. A new KX450 puts out over 59 hp at 11,000 rpm and all the other new 4 stroke bikes still put out over 54.


I passed several people in this turn when I raced here 2 weeks ago, so I figured I might be able to get a few here this time also, unfortunately, this weekend the entire inside of the turn had deep ruts, so most everyone took the far outside line and railed the berm, HOWEVER, there was around 3 feet of flat ground on the inside of the berm that one could ride if they have brass balls, so that's exactly what I did in this turn and had just passed #685 on the blue bike and was then trying to pass 805 on the orange bike also.





This photo is 1 second later, and you can see that my speed caused me to drift to the outside of the turn and into the base of the berm, and #805 nearly ran off the track....but I never touched him cuz I am a kind and courteous racer.





This was taken with a telephoto lens so the two peaks of the jump look fairly close together, but it as a double jump with around 16 feet between the peaks, and is the one that sent a guy to the hospital 2 weeks ago and he just got out yesterday. It is the most dangers jump and most dangerous section of the track because you have to hit it doing around 45 mph to clear it, and as soon as you land, you have to slam on the brakes to lock up both wheels to loose enough speed to make the 90 degree right hand turn just after it. If you go really slow you can easily roll, over both of them but you will loose a lot of time doing that. If you misjudge your speed, and go just a little too slow, you will nose dive into the face of the second jump, in which case you will have a very bad day. If you go at the right speed but don't slam on your brakes as soon as you land, you will fly over the berm in the turn like the guy did 2 weeks ago, in which case, you will have a very bad day.

My 38 year old suspension is not designed to take this type of abuse, so nearly every time I landed on the second peak, my bike would rebound so hard it would literally bounce back up in the air maybe a foot, which would knock my feet off the pegs by a few inches, so I then had to wait until my bike landed the second time before I could slam on the brakes and hope the 38 year old drums would slow me down in time.




.

[stoshu]

Looking out my window

[barnett468]

When are you going to start racing your YZ490? Thanks for sharing! Any video of your race?

Both my biggest bore bikes are actually YZ465'S, but I also have a 1978 YZ400. The YZ490 is too new for the class I race in, plus, from everything I have read about therm, they are apparently a big pos. The 1980 YZ465 was declared big bore bike of the year by the magazines, although a big bore Maico certainly wasn't a pile, and as John Neary mentioned on 3ww, magazines have in fact intentionally posted inaccurate info pertaining to their bike tests and comparison shootouts etc, however, in this case, with the possible exception of the Maico, the 1980 YZ465 was in fact the best box stock bike you could buy for the big bore class, and they sold like hotcakes, and on top of that, the 1981 YZ465 was even better in numerous ways, and was really the pinnacle of all big bore bikes up to that time, which is why I am going to race that one instead of the 1980. The 81, had more bottom end and a smoother power band than the 80, plus it had better suspension and a much steeper steering head angle so it would actually turn (almost like a Maico) without having to drop the fork tubes 2" in the tripple trees like I had to do to my 1980 YZ250 just to get it to almost turn.


Interestingly enough, the bike that Marty Moates holeshot both motos with and won on in the 1980 Carlsbad World Championship GP had a stock 465 engine that his sponsor LOP Racing highly modified with a custom cylinder and stroker crank to make it a 490, but they didn't tell anyone this at the time. The reason they didn't tell anyone may have been that Yamaha might have asked them not to, because Yamaha wanted people to believe that it was just a 465cc engine so they could ride the wave of Moates win and sell more 465's, which they manufactured in 1980 and 1981, but that is just a guess. Unfortunately, when Yamaha decided to make a 490 for 1982, they must have lost LOP's phone number cuz the one Yamaha made is not nearly as good as the one LOP made.

I was at the 1980 race watching from a section called the ledge, and I was only 5 feet from the edge of the track so I had a killer view.

Here is Marty at that race GP. You can see both of his starts at the 20 second and 2:15 marks in the video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqHwoor11ic


Here's some more info on Marty, and that race.
https://racerxonline.com/2017/09/12/...s-and-carlsbad


Marty also started a company called "NO FEAR" which sold Motocross apparel, and the 465 I am going to ride has one of his NO FEAR decals on the rear fender.




Here's the ad that Yamaha put out after Marty won that GP. Oddly enough, it says 465 instead of 490.



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[Arky-X]

Looking out my window

Bet on red....no, make it black.....well, one of those will win.....unless it's green but that ain't gonna happen....probably.

[stoshu]

And look what my wife treated me to.

[stoshu]

And a better view

[knappyfeet]

And look what my wife treated me to.

I wish my wife would treat me to things like that!

[barnett468]

.
Holy mother of God...what have I done? I have awoken the best from its long and peaceful slumber, and am now trying to figure out how to put it back to sleep.

I got my YZ465 together today then turned the gas on, pulled the choke on, and activated my handy and dandy new fangled compression release, then coasted down our long steep driveway until I had some decent speed, then jammed it into second gear and it turned over once, after which my brand new $140.00 Hoosier rear tie just started skidding like it was on ice, so I coasted to the bottom of the driveway then coasted downhill on our steep street and jammed it into second gear again, and it did the same exact thing. I then pushed it back up our steep street and decided to try the starting fluid I use to start my YZ250 when its engine is cold. I also decided to try just kick starting it, so after around 8 kicks, it ran for a second. I then put more starting fluid in it, and after 8 more kicks, it violently roared to life.

Well, I can now tell you from first hand experience that a TECATE engine feels as smooth silk compared to this monster. It vibrates more than a Magic Fingers bed plugged into 220 volts. I let it run for a few minutes then slowly went down and up our road just to check the trans. After a few more minutes, I went down the road slowly then gave it a bit of throttle coming back up to clean it out. I then made one more trip down the road then opened it up around 3/4 of the way coming back up the hill and the tire spun some when I hit the throttle, and when I shifted into second it literally roasted the tire until I hit fourth, at which point it roasted the tire some more until I let off the throttle.


Anyway, the good news is that the compression release works fairly well although it still has a lot of compression even when the compression release is activated, and it would literally be nearly impossible to start it without it, which is obviously why these bikes break kick starter shafts, and wear the clutch cover out or simply break the clutch cover. The bad news is that it runs, so now I have to attempt to ride it.
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[El Camexican]

What happened to your 250 trans Barns??? Did you fix it???

Try a third gear start next time. All my stuff skids in second unless its hot, third seems to work much better.

[barnett468]

What happened to your 250 trans Barns??? Did you fix it???

Try a third gear start next time. All my stuff skids in second unless its hot, third seems to work much better.

No, I just left the trans and kept my fingers crossed that it would keep working, and luckily, it worked just as bad as it had been since I bought it, so I'm just going to leave it alone for now and hope it makes it thru the summer season. These trannies are notorious for shifting badly, and I literally have to roll the throttle all the way off then pull the clutch in between shifts on the starts or it will absolutely refuse to shift, so you can imagine how fast it is having to do that and still getting hole shots. When I eventually take it apart, I will probably have the trans rem finished then coated with Tungsten Disulfide to see if I can get it to shift better. Might get some ceramic crank bearings also, but that's about it for the fancy stuff.

One of the things that is absolutely spectacular on tis bike is the stock clutch. It was used when I bought the bike and I have to slip the crap out of it when exiting every single corner and after landing off most of the jumps and it still works flawlessly.

Thanks for the gear suggestion. I plan to start it again tomorrow so if I have to push it, I will definitely try 3rd. Haven't had to do that since around 1974, lol.
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[plastikosmd]

Got the sickle and front weed cutter (the mangler) on ugly Betty

[plastikosmd]

Chasing what I thought was a coil/ spark issue on the oc3. It turned out to be a radiator leak that was soaking the coil with fan blow by. I’m a bit surprised the coil is so sensitive to moisture.

[DAM shop]

Got the sickle and front weed cutter (the mangler) on ugly Betty

That tractor is bad arse. How's it do in heavy brush? Size motor?