Motorcycle and Scooter appreciation

Nice

Ended up marshalling while mates did the rally this weekend. Was the only way to get access to the trail. Managed to play around for a few hours in the gullies and ditches, and try the hillclimb after a night of rain.

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Nice! Looks like a CRF450L might take the 450 Trail Bike overall class win. Did it make you want to ride, and how did the Traaaansit perform if you took it? I like how there seems to be riders of all abilities, with totally different goals at the Sweet Lamb Baja, not just those wanting to beat each other which can get a bit one dimensional.

Yea the strong guys were strong but the weak guys, well….

I definitely earned my playtime, we lost count of the number of bike pickups on that climb. So many drops and so many people retired after a lap or two. Hardly even ‘racing’ and people were just failing to read the track.

Honestly it didn’t interest me at all to race per-se, but I would have loved to have the DR with me to try the entire track rather than the area close enough not to run out of fuel.

The location is amazing, it’s a ballache to get to; after the A470? it gets mega twisty for a van.

The Transit somehow coped fine! Even with a 990 Adventure, Sherco, passenger, and shitloads of kit.

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Quite happy with mine now. Ear pieces (smallest) hurt after a couple of hours, but then that's when I should be stopping for a break anyway.

Sounds awesome. Van life looks dreamy too.

Nice.

Have you tried some comply foam tips? I find them so much more comfortable than the tips they came with.

Thanks. Yea I think the location would be amazing for anyone who goes there for training on their experience days. Bullshitting my way into a marshal jacket, I met a lot of the instructors and staff and they were all super nice. Definitely the kind of people you want to trust to get your skills to the next level.

I was glad to have the Sherco though. Practicing in the gullies was great. Totally loose shale and stone on greater than 45 degree sloped hillside, I was effectively wall-riding and seeing just how much I could get away with before the side of the tyre slipped down the hill.

I looked at a few lines afterwards especially doing near-vertical slaloms on shale, and thought bugger me, how did I do that.

Last few days of holiday so a bit of off road, out to visit relatives and then dual carriageway carving on the way home on the mighty Honda 90

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The Kingdom is looking resplendent there in fairness!

@pdlouche I think my fcr carb needs some love. The throttle response is about slack. Have you got a good book or website you can share to learn a bit about it?

Ohh, I don’t actually. Slack, do you mean it bogs down, or the revs just don’t climb fast?

The issue is I don't understand carbs well enough to know what the issue is, but I know it's not perfect.
I need to read about different faults and then come back and ride it again to try see what it is.
It revs well once moving but it bogs a bit, I am not sure if it's doing so due to lean or rich.

Start here:

https://www.uti.edu/blog/motorcycle/motorcycle-carburetors

Check your valves and timing before you mess with the carbs. Then try float bowl height. Check cable operation including choke cable. Then try and dial in mixture and tick over.

It's probably just got some shit in the bowl

Possibly. I've learnt over time to check stuff in the order I listed because the mixture is the toughest one to balance out. In the end it's preference and what suits the riding you're doing within a certain range.

Agreed. If valve clearance hasn’t been checked in a while it should be high on the list. I would hope timing hasn’t skipped a tooth.

I'm not sure what type of bike the fcr is, mine has points so checking them is a good place to start! I realise I'm an old codger with a vintage bike though so sometimes my advice is a bit too belt and braces.

No one mentioned that you shouldn't shit in the bowl.

fcr is type of carb.

Drz400e

It's annoying moved as I had a great shop around the corner with next to nothing labour. Now I've none.

I haven't check it and done maybe 1000km. Should probs put new oil in too.

Guess I'll add giving it some love to my long list of jobs.

If you search the FCR you’ll find a lot of posts about the bogging and other finicky issues with it.

To be honest, look up how to clean a carb, and you may have ‘fun’ trying.

Alternatively before you do any tear-down, three or more of the larger (125ml?) cans of Liqui Moly 4T Additive. Get below a half-tank and put two or three in so it’s very concentrated and then idle the bike for a while to clear the float and get it running through the carb.

Then go ride the bike for a half hour somewhat spirited. After running for a few litres, fill up and put the final can in and see how it goes for the next couple rides.

This is a tried and tested ghetto fix before tearing into a carb. It has worked well for a lot of gummed up carbs at my local mechanics. I did it on two or three bikes of my own (XJ600, CBR600 even the Blackbird’s FI) with great success. On the Blackbird the moment I felt a hesitation it fixed the problem, and it saved me a carb clean on the XJ and CBR.