If you were Registered and logged in, you could reply and use other advanced thread options
|
Posted by Tiago Rocha on August 4, 2008, 10:03 am
Poor Gabriel. We spent the entire saturday trying to fix his bike,
which had a skipped tooth on the cam chain. We had to remove one of
the pins of the chain, it twisted on a way that we had to actually
open the chain and reinsert the pin. All that with the chain in
place!! Luckily, we made it work. And it was near perfect, with no
(weird) engine noises at all.
Sunday came and his bike wasn't working right. After much trouble, we
found that the wire that connects the coil to the spark plug wasn't
"connecting" like it should. We put in place and then it would
disconnect and bike dies... We tried lots of quick-fix ways, including
safety wire, zip ties and silicon and nothing solved that. He had to
stay at home this time. Sad.
We started the ride just me, Eduardo and Fabio, who is a taxi driver
and on his first bike, a XR200 with electric start and all - the
brazilian version, which is much better than the japanese version.
As we started much late because of Gabriel bike mishaps, we decided to
not ride through the quicksand of the Jar Trail. There are another
ways to get to our playground at Suape beach and we choose the way
through a small village that is what was left from a farm of the
1800s. Now is just a village in the middle of the nothing, with really
old houses and some ruins here and there. I was in front and
stopped... Three little kids got closer and started making all kinds
of questions, like, is this the brake, where do you accelerate, which
engine is this, how fast does it go, typical 8yo questions. A few
minutes later, the guys arrived and off we went.
From the village, there are three ways. The hard, the easy and the
easiest. Of course, we choose the hard... That is not *that* hard, has
some mud, some water, but it is actually a jeep trail during winter
and I am sure I could drive my front wheel drive compact car on it
during summer. Almost at the end of the "road", we stumbled upon a
fast going creek. I was in front, stopped and waited for friends.
Eduardo arrived and decided to try to cross it on foot "just to check
how deep it is, becaue I am sure we could cross it". I wasn't sure...
And obviously, it *was* really deep. Eduardo is 2m tall. He almost
drowned... (pic 1) We took the easy way and had to ride on the paved
road, watching for cops, as we had no street legal bikes...
We rode straight to the gas station, where some people would met to an
organized ride, but unfortunatelly we arrived way too late. Well, "go
riding" was the most logical answer the the "now what?" question. And
we went to ride the antenna trail (pic 2) and then straight to the
zombie woods, where water and mud made things interesting. Good that I
was there last week, I knew where the bad spots were. Oh, I forgot to
mention, but it rained from friday evening up to sunday morning, non-
stop. Water was everywhere... The zombie trail uphill rut was really
deep (pics 3 - Fabio - and 4 - Eduardo - ).
We basically did the same ride as last weekend, going to the grass
hill. It was slippery, my bike was all over the place (pic 5) and
Fabio crashed a few times, but climbed :-) (pic 6). Now I am sure new
tires are needed...
After some rest, we headed to Bar do Doido, for lunch. Before getting
there, the crashes took the toll on Fabio. His battery went dead, the
water leaked all. That's why a bike without kickstart should have
sealed batteries! (pic 7)
After lunch, we decided to go riding the lamp house ruins trail. At
the end of that, the silencer on Fabio's bike fell off, we had to tie
it on the handlebars. That thing is noisy without a silencer! Because
of that, we took the short way home, and besides, it was getting
dark... After lots of riding on muddy and sticky cane sugar plantation
service roads and along train tracks, we crossed the rail road bridge
almost at sunset (pic 8). When at home, we had a few beers to wash the
mud down and as an excuse to talk about trail riding...
Of course, the brand new rear brake pads that I put on last thursday
did not made it all through the ride... The front pads are 70% worn.
Now, I'll have to check the bearings, the front wheel feels sloppy,
but haven't checked that. I am sure that I need to put more grease on
the rear bearings too... And, I need to stitch my riding pants, one of
my crashes was right over a pointy branch on zombie woods and it
teared... But if someone calls me inviting for a ride, well, I'll go
with teared pants anyway :-)
pics here: http://www.diariodastrilhas.com/03082008.html
-- Tiago
|
|
Posted by Wudsracer on August 4, 2008, 3:30 pm
******************************
>On Mon, 4 Aug 2008 07:03:07 -0700 (PDT), Tiago Rocha
<snipped most of the ride report>
>Poor Gabriel. We spent the entire saturday trying to fix his bike,
>which had a skipped tooth on the cam chain. We had to remove one of
>the pins of the chain, it twisted on a way that we had to actually
>open the chain and reinsert the pin. All that with the chain in
>place!! Luckily, we made it work. And it was near perfect, with no
>(weird) engine noises at all.
>
>Sunday came and his bike wasn't working right. After much trouble, we
>found that the wire that connects the coil to the spark plug wasn't
>"connecting" like it should. We put in place and then it would
>disconnect and bike dies... We tried lots of quick-fix ways, including
>safety wire, zip ties and silicon and nothing solved that. He had to
>stay at home this time. Sad.
********************************
Tiago,
Thanks for the ride report.
After a close inspection to see if this may be the problem, try
cutting a short section (+/- 5mm) off one (or both) end of the spark
plug wire on Gabriel's bike, and then reattaching the wire.
One end or the other of the spark plug wire may be burned or
corroded. This is a common problem with riders in wet areas.
Make sure that the coil of his bike is well grounded.
Good Riding and Wrenching!
Jim
Wudsracer/Jim Cook
Smackover Racing
'06 Gas Gas DE300
'82 Husqvarna XC250
Team LAGNAF
|
| Similar Threads | Posted | | The lever makes difference. | October 7, 2008, 3:24 pm |
| Independence Day {Ride, Wrench, Bike, and Ride} Report | July 5, 2008, 1:09 pm |
| First ride of 2008! Ride Report | January 14, 2008, 10:34 am |
| WFO Ride Report | November 12, 2007, 6:44 pm |
| 12/24 Ride Report | December 26, 2007, 4:51 pm |
| Re: Not another ride report | February 12, 2008, 6:58 am |
| ATV Mud Bog Ride Report | April 14, 2008, 4:29 pm |
| Ride report. | April 24, 2006, 10:57 am |
| ride report | September 10, 2008, 10:23 am |
| ride report, you wish! | October 20, 2008, 7:36 pm |
|
|
Yahoo! 
Google 
Windows Live 
del.icio.us 
digg 
Netscape 
XML Sitemap