What are you doing today? Thread

[plastikosmd]

10hp, I have a 16 for it but the 10 runs so well, will keep it
The cutter handles 2” saplings without slowing, sickle is new to me but I expect it will do fine (not to hard to run that)

[DAM shop]

Did a lot of tuning today to our two 90's, Two 110's and one 70. Did a bunch of carb and ignition tuning. Was able to dial in our built 110 24mm mikuni by running a 30 pilot and a 110 main. Both 90's now start on half a pull. The 70 now starts a bit easier after doing some points adjusting.
Was able to ride and tune on them all. I like those types of days when you can do little things to multiple trikes and make improvements in them all. A good day for sure.

[plastikosmd]

^I would love a basic tuning tutorial one day if u ever want to write one!

[DAM shop]

^I would love a basic tuning tutorial one day if u ever want to write one!

I'm not sure there is a "basic" tuning tutorial. A lot of trial and error but nothing basic about it. We just keep things systematic when tuning. We try to only do one thing at a time. Timing, carb, cams, exhaust. Today we switched out a slide needle but only before trying every slot on the needle clip with the needle prior to that. For us it's pretty much a lot of errors.
We worked a lot on a VM 22 mikuni today on one of our 90's. We are pretty confident that we have narrowed it down to to much fuel to the amount of air we are taking in. We are now down to main jet tuning only, but beings I ran out of the sizes that we need that will need to wait for another day.

[barnett468]

Well today it was another race and another 1st place on my 250, but the best part is that I also took my 1981 YZ465 with me to try and get a few low speed laps in just to see if anything was going to fall off or was in major need of changing like the suspension settings or carb jetting etc, so I ran it in my very last race. The biggest size bike I ever raced before was my 1978 YZ400, which was back in 1978 (and is the same bike I broke my leg on) and my 1974 Maico 400 GP that I raced in the vintage class in 1993, so being 25 years older than I was the last time I raced any bike, especially a big bore 2 stroke, I was a bit apprehensive about it.

I was on the second gate with several other guys in my last race and I let them all go when the gate dropped, I then waited 5 or 6 seconds then took off. I went around the first lap at around 40% effort as a safety precaution, then when nothing fell off and it didn't bottom out on anything, I sped up just a little more for the third lap and a little bit more for the fourth lap, at which point I as going at around 60% effort, at which point I saw that I was closing in on someone, so I thought there must be a problem with his bike cuz nobody is that slow, especially on a new 4 stroke Kawasaki 450, so just for fun I sped up to around 75% effort and I actually reeled him in, at which point he noticed I was right behind him so he sped up.

I was around 3 feet behind him heading into the next turn, so I said fk it, I'm gonna see if my pig of a bike (around 235 lbs) will turn if I run it into the inside of him hard by taking the middle of the turn, cuz I saw he was going to take the outside, and to my utter amazement, it did turn, so going over the jump that immediately followed the turn, I took the center and he took the right, and the front of my front tire was even with the back of his rear going over the jump, so I said fk it again, lets see what happens if I nail this thing down the long straight after the jump. So I nailed mine and he nailed his at the same time and we drag raced down the straight, and I pulled up almost even with him gong into the next turn, so I rammed it into the middle of the turn again (hoping once again that it might actually at least try to turn), and he took the outside, and I passed him in the friggen turn, then I intentionally drifted in front of him to prevent him from passing me going into the next turn which he would have had the better line for at that point. After that I kept up the 75% effort and pulled away from him.

So to sum it up, the 1981 YZ465 is everything they said it was when they did the new bike reviews on it back in 1981 after declaring the 1980 YZ465 bike of the year the year before, and this one is even better, and I can ride it without any problem (at least at 75% effort), but the real tests will be the next 2 weekends when I will be racing against other vintage bikes, so I will see what happens then.

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[El Camexican]

So.... 1981 YZ465 fastest, most powerful bike in the universe?

[barnett468]

So.... 1981 YZ465 fastest, most powerful bike in the universe?

Well actually, the 81 YZ465 was the first big bore bike Motorcyclists Magazine tested in 81, so they did say that they couldn't say how it compared to any others at the time they tested it, and could only say that it was better than the 80 model. Other good big bore bikes in 81 were the 495 KTM and 490 Mega 2 Maico, but both of those are pretty rare and way more expensive than mine, so I'm not worried about one of those showing up and having to compete against it. It's possible that I may not go any faster on the 465 than I am on my 250 now so I will see what happens over he next couple months.
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[plastikosmd]

Thx dam, I was hoping my “trial by failure” was wrong!

[DAM shop]

Hey Barns congrats on another Win. Barns what do you think is contributing to your win's at this stage in your life? Do you think it's your age, making you a smarter or wiser rider? Experience? Or is it a equipment deal, having bikes that are better than your competition? and if it is the better equipment do you think that your ability to put more thought and money into your Bikes (because of your age) put's you above some of the other's that don't have the time or resourses to do the same?
A buddy of mine Roger that is in his mid 60's races flat tracks. Roger builds and races one of the fastest Champion frame 750 around. I would contribute his sucsses to having the ability, means and know how to build bikes such as this, but with that being said some of his competition is probably at his same level as far as equipment because he also builds some of their motors. So does skill as a rider come into play at that point?

[barnett468]

Hey Barns congrats on another Win.

Thanks, but it's not really a huge achievement cuz it's not in the expert/pro class. I'm just happy to be able to ride at this point irregardless of where I finish, but even when I was in the pro class in the 70's and on 3 wheelers in the mid 80's, I was still happy just to be riding and never got pissed off if I didn't do well because I never took it all that seriously, so I never even practiced or really worked out between races etc, however, I did drink a lot during the week back then so maybe that helped.

Barns what do you think is contributing to your win's at this stage in your life?

Not riding in the expert/pro class.

Actually, the short answer to your question is, I truly have absolutely no idea, and am shocked and surprised by it myself, and am shocked and surprised that I can even still ride a dirt bike due to a few different reasons, but I'll still try to answer your questions.

Last month at a big vintage race they put the 250 novices, 250 intermediates, and 250 experts in the same race on the same gate to save time and in the first moto I got a first or second place start and was in second the entire race and was pulling away from everyone behind me. I think there were 4 experts 4 or 5 intermediates and the rest novices in that race. I think I finished around third overall in the second moto. I just happened to ride better that day than I previous had been so I definitely don't expect that to happen again any time soon, and I actually don't want to go that fast at my age even if I was able to do so on a regular basis because I don't want to get hurt if I can help it, and falling off at those speeds would be very unpleasant.

Do you think it's your age, making you a smarter or wiser rider? Experience?

In regards to racing motocross, after a person has physically matured enough like maybe age 16 - 18 etc, they only have so many years they can perform at a high level, which is maybe 10 years, after which, most people start to loose their desire, and endurance, and strength, and their reaction time slows etc. In general, the more one races, the smarter and better one gets at it irregardless of their age but the there are limits to peoples ability based on their age etc. Also, even though I used to race in the pro class, there are many others in the vintage races that did as well, so in that regard, I don't have any real advantage, plus, everyone there is easily twice as strong as I am which gives them a good size advantage over me.

Or is it a equipment deal, having bikes that are better than your competition?

One can go faster on better equipment to some degree, but in my case, in the vintage races there are bikes I race against that are a little better than mine, and on most of the tracks, I am actually at a slight disadvantage against many bikes in my class because they have significantly have more bottom end power than mine does which is better for the way the tracks are designed. My bike is far better suited to a big track with high speed straights and wider turns, and it is definitely one of the best bikes on that type of track.

As far as a drag race goes, I probably have the fastest 250 compared to the others I race against, so this helps me get decent starts. I learned a very long time ago that it is far easier to start in front and work my way back then it is to start in the back and work my way forward, and because of this, I practiced starts a lot, and fortunately, when I raced in the pro mx and pro 3 wheeler classes I was an exceptional starter, and was rarely outside the top 4 or 5 going into the first turn, and got many holeshots. In fact, when I raced in the expert class in vintage racing, I holeshot around 90% of my races, and 3 of my classes were open to all age groups, and I definitely couldn't have had the fastest 125, 250, and open class bikes then, but they certainly were not slow by any means either. Also, as far as getting good starts goes, it also helps to hold the throttle on just a little bit longer than others when going into the first turn, which is one of the things I have always tried to do whenever possible, but this takes some brass balls.

if it is the better equipment do you think that your ability to put more thought and money into your Bikes (because of your age) put's you above some of the other's that don't have the time or resourses to do the same?

I can't explain how funny this question is, and you would have to go to one of these races to really understand it, but in my class, I am on the very bottom of the totem pole as far as having big dollars invested in my bike. Most of these guys have pristine, fully restored bikes with every fancy high perf item they can get, including race tech gold valves in the forks and rear shock or complete race tech rear shocks which cost maybe a couple grand, lol. The one thing I wanted to do when I started racing again, is have a bike that was period correct in every single way, because to me, it's not really a true vintage bike if it has things on it like race tech suspension parts or the new style reed valves etc, and my bike is in fact period correct in every single way, which puts me at a disadvantage, but I couldn't care less about that. If you saw my bike in person, you might even think it looked like it was just pulled out of a barn after being rode hard and put away wet back in the 80's. At the last vintage race, my friend even told me that my bike looked like it needed a lot of work, and that was the race I beat all but one of the other 250 experts at.

A buddy of mine Roger that is in his mid 60's races flat tracks. Roger builds and races one of the fastest Champion frame 750 around. I would contribute his sucsses to having the ability, means and know how to build bikes such as this, but with that being said some of his competition is probably at his same level as far as equipment because he also builds some of their motors. So does skill as a rider come into play at that point?

Skill will always trump superior equipment providing there is not a massive disparity between the equipment. For example, a pro level bike will not instantly make a novice level rider an intermediate level rider or drop their lap times at all.

I raced TT on a motorcycle a few times and short track on a 3 wheeler a few times, so I can say from my experience that it is a bazillion times less physically demanding than racing motocross, which has been said to be one of the most physically demanding sports in the world. This is not to suggest that riding a 750 on a flat track is not physically demanding or easy, and it certainly isn't, because that is a monster of a bike, and it is far easier to ride a bultaco astro.
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[DAM shop]

Nice Barn's, real nice. thanks for the detailed explanations.

[El Camexican]

The twins are ready, bags are packed and the meat is frozen.

Heading to Austin for four days of Moto GP immersion and some Team Aprilla elbow rubbing, then back to Mexico for two days of two wheel two stroke mountain riding with a hoser buddy AND somehow the NHL scheduled the Jets games in such a way that I might not miss a game.

[barnett468]

...a hoser buddy...

Dare I ask what one of these is?

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[stoshu]

Dare I ask what one of these is?

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A Canadian

[El Camexican]

Dare I ask what one of these is?

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Like a Gringo, but ‘cooler’ eh.