Hello all, I'm new here and would like to introduce myself. My Name is Mike Baxter and I rode with Woodschick, her hubby and Coffee yesterday. We were at Hollister and the weather was great. The trails were dusty and slick. Tami's WR125 had several power valve and jetting adjustments in search of the elusive perfect jetting. She let me throw a leg over it a couple times and I came away impressed. I really can't wait to try it when the jetting IS sorted out. I also got a chance to ride Coffee's TE250. Again I was impressed. The power was more than expected and smooth. Finally a 250 four stroke I like! Coffee asked me about the suspension and I suggested some changes, he tried them and his ride improved. I really enjoy riding with good people, old friends and new ones as well. We saw many vintage bikes out yesterday. It was very cool except for the VERY loud obnoxious ones. Loosenut AKA Mike Baxter '05 GasGas ECO300 '00 GasGas EC300
Great to meet you Mike! Thanks for the suspension tips, with added re-bound dampening the bike did not want to kick me off any more! I'll follow up with more (including pics) in this thread soon.
That was part of the fun! I was happy that I had not lost my feel for suspension. BTW, I find Metcalf to be an excellent place to tweak suspension. All the loops are short and they have just enough varied terrain that allow for testing different settings on the same trail time and time again. Loosenut AKA Mike Baxter '05 GasGas ECO300 '00 GasGas EC300
Alright! Baxter's in the house Nice to see you here, buddy I had a great time riding and camping, even though it was a total work day and there was a lot of stop and go, what with numerous jetting changes and trips back to the van to change up the power valve springs. I can't even remember how many changes we did. I have it all written down in my notes, but suffice to say that I would like to have a different needle for the Mikuni. Yeah, yeah, I know..."just buy a PWK and be done with it." I have a PWK 38 in the garage, but I want to see if we can make this carb work better first. Ahh, I have my notes... First spring combo was yellow/silver...slower to rev up off the bottom, but I lost all my top end. Not good Second combo was orange/silver...lost low end, but the valve opens sooner and the transition from mid to top end is smoother, but still the top end hits very, very hard. There's still a little bit of a bog...well, more like a little stumble, really...and it seems like once I work through it and the valve opens all the way, all that gas makes it through and it acts like a turbo charger or something. It just comes on hard all of a sudden Third spring combo was white/silver...this one made nice power throughout the bottom and mid, I was able to cruise along in 2nd, 3rd and 4th and lift the front wheel at will. This setting will work well for most of my riding needs, as I am rarely in 1st, and surely not in top gear when on the trails we have here. I can still wick it up and the top end is good...and it's good for a long spread, not just a major brutal burst and then it's over. It just seems to pull and pull till I say "uncle" and back off. It seems the spread from IO to FO is wide enough that I can actually spend my time there where it is making good power but not all the way open. I can rev up to full open within a split second and have good power at my disposal should I need it for log crossings, trail junk, etc. I think I liked this setting best. All this testing of power valve springs is interesting and all, but I feel like I'm kind of putting the cart before the horse, in that I feel like the jetting should be squared away before even messing with the springs. We got it close, but close is never good enough...especially for Eric. I think we'll peruse Mikuni's site and see if we can't find a needle with more taper. Anyway, it was super-fun riding with Baxter again, as it's been way too long, and it was really fun having Coffee along, too. We did some fun trails at Hollister, one of which was in the Renz property, some new trails that opened up not too long ago. I think we did...Garcia Gulch? Anyway, I took a few photos of Eric working on the bike, and I took a grand total of 3 photos on the trail...all of them Coffee Coffee swears he was taking photos, and I heard his camera clicking, but since we never actually see his photos, I'll have to conclude that he isn't really a photographer, he just plays one on the internet Anyway, we all rode each other's bikes and I had a blast on Coffee's TE250. I don't know what I expected, but I know that if I'd had his bike instead of my old WR250F, I'd have probably never bought a 450 It was smooth as silk and made good power everywhere. And, uh, it didn't feel very heavy when picking it up, either...heh. Eric rode it, too, and had a blast on it. All in all, a fun and productive weekend spent with good friends, good bikes and good weather WoodsChick
Welcome to Cafe Husky ! If I would have known you folks were going to HH yesterday, I would have been out there as well. Oh well, next time. I was there Friday and it was already getting dusty but was nice in some of the shady areas still. I live in south san jose so don't be afraid to pm me whenever youre going to Metcalf or Hollister and I'll try to make it. And I'll do the same. Jerry
Thanks, Jerry! It would have been great to meet you, but you probably would have been bored out of your mind. One can only watch so many jetting changes, ya know? We spent a lot of time sitting around talking and playing with springs and jets and stuff, and not near enough time riding BTW, I was born and raised in lower east side SJ WoodsChick
Will you give me time to develop the film? I've got many pics but most of them are blurry cause you were moving so fast
Riiiight...that's pretty funny, Coffee Only post the ones that make it look like I know what I'm doing, ok? Thanks! WoodsChick
But as mentioned, much of the day was spent doing things like this. Which was good because I have not ridden in a while as the pictures of me show. Nice to sit back in a chair far away from a computer, and relax in the afternoon. The weather was perfect
IMHO and experience toss the PWK on it and be done with it. It simply works a lot better. I would also put the stock PV spring back in, get the PWK 100% and then play with the springs. The springs can and do effect jetting. My bike would not run with the yellow spring and no amount of jetting would get it right. Also play with the slot on the PV arm. Seems pushing the adjustment towards the top of the slot makes it smoother / less-no mid bog.
Well, exactly...which is why I said "All this testing of power valve springs is interesting and all, but I feel like I'm kind of putting the cart before the horse, in that I feel like the jetting should be squared away before even messing with the springs." I had my PWK 38 with me, but we never threw it on there. Maybe next time out I'll try it instead and see how it runs. If it is significantly better I might spring for a new one. I've got a ton of jets for it, and a few needles, so I'm sure we can make it work. WoodsChick
It's really hard to see, but if you look closely you'll spot it; it's the teeny tiny shiny thing with the plug sticking out of the top WoodsChick
Oh well admittedly I thought it was a steam powered machine and the exhaust system just came right out of the bottom of the radiator.
Now don't be silly...I think it's really nuclear rocket turbo thruster nitro powered, myself WoodsChick
First thing I did is stick my arm through that huge empty space. Loosenut AKA Mike Baxter '05 GasGas ECO 300 '00 GasGas EC300
