Dirt Bikes and Tundra

I destroyed enough single sided exhaust systems, I never wanted two sides to wad up.

 

Yep we used to drive south from Redding a lot.

 

Drove from Cali to AZ for a ride

 

Yup. RG3 Triple clamps too. Good luck finding those anywhere. Bought the bike new in '08. Got it dialed in how I want it. Rode it for 2 years while life was getting in the way. Then life got in the way full time.

 

Suspension upgrade time...

 

First ride yesterday since starting a new job in Santa Fe, I had a good time and rode about 20 miles of desert singletrack. I plan to head back out there today and do some more exploring the area is BLM land off of Old Buckman road west of town.

 

I rode my friend's GasGas MC350F and it felt pretty boring compared to my 300. It was like driving a camry.

 

Had a different sort of ride that brought back memories of just riding a bike because it took me places.

found a road on Gaia maps that took us up to 8500’ and looked down on Panaorama ski resort in Invermere BC.

We probably rode 20km of down hill double track with our motors off pretending we were DH mountain bikes, it was a blast.

 

One of my riding buddies moved to Buena Vista after losing his house in the NM South Fork fire last summer, I need to get up there to ride with him he keeps telling me how good it is. The last time I rode in Colorado was around Taylor park area in 2009 we camped for a week and had a blast.

That looks amazing, I loved riding in BC. In 2005 driving home from Alaska in the fall I was able to catch a few of the late cross country races at Quinnell and Williams Lake. I can't remember all the other spots I rode but people took me in along the way and showed me all their riding spots around Kamloops, 150 Mile House, Dot Lake etc. all way down into the Methow Valley. It was super memorable and folks were really friendly in BC.

 

Really starting to get the urge for another YZ250. One of my favorite bikes of all time was my '05 Eric Gorr cheater 265. Just a great spread of power. Didn't lose any top-end pull like lots of big bore bikes normally do. In 2006, I switched to four-strokes. I was in my 30's by then and while they were good bikes (usually), I just always missed my 2-strokes. That's what I grew up on. The four-strokes were kind of boring. And loud as f#$k back then.

 

They still are. My buddy's 350f is so obnoxiously loud, it's ridiculous. I'll stop on the trail and let him get way ahead just so I don't have to listen to it

 

Yes, stock exhaust. Which surprised me after hearing it

 

He'd definitely fail that

 

Nothing like they were back then. The AMA Pro Racing sound tests were far less strict back then. Which resulted in aftermarket exhaust being insanely loud. Even stock they were loud. My last bike I bought in 2018, KTM 450SX was very tame sound wise in comparison. But, definitely still louder than a 2-stroke for sure.

 

If I buy another bike, that's what I will probably buy, too. I haven't cared for trail riding much since I was a teenager. But mostly because trail riding just beat me up. Super stiff MX suspension just makes trails miserable.
But, at nearly 50 years old now, and MX pretty much dead in AZ these days, trails will be all I would be riding. So the X and it's cushy suspension would be great.

Honestly if just trail riding, you could probably get 80+ hours out of top-end. And they are so easy to do yourself.

 

Most of the trail guys I know are doing their 300 top ends around 125-150hrs.

 

Ugh. Carbs. Not just bad for the belly, but just a PITA to rebuild too. Fortunately I already had a rebuild kit sitting on the shelf. And I rebuilt it years ago before going on hiatus. Even then the float bowl had some shit brown gas in it even though I drained it many years ago. I just cleaned out the float bowl and replaced some jets with the new ones.




Somehow the nut for the hot-start plunger stripped out. Plastic nut going into metal. Great thinking Yamaha engineers. So I prefer a new one and it showed up today. Had to wait a few days for it.



I got a new spark plug in it too.

Also bled both brakes. I bled all the old oil out and filled the lines with some new Yamaha DOT 4 oil. I came up with this to get all the bubbles out. Let gravity do the work.



Hopefully I’ll get it back together tonight. Then change the oil tomorrow, get some gas in it a hope it fires up.

 

Link didn't work. At least for me. I don't have Facebook, though

 

Great build!

It’s probably too late, but you can replace that garbage plastic nut with a much needed aluminum upgrade…..

I’m not good enough to ID the carb from the photos, so make sure to confirm fitment if you go that route.
https://ziptyracing.com/products/hot-start-carb-nut

I had a hot start plunger on my CRF450R seize on me after a fall on the track. During the fall the hot start lever was engaged, then disengaged, but the plunger stayed engaged. It had a Honda tech and I scratching our heads in the pits for longer than I would like to admit. I blame the different materials on allowing grit to get in there, probably during washing. I could be wrong though. I ended up replacing it with ZipTy’s aluminum nut and I didn’t have anymore issues.