Did you ride? Was it awesome?
Did you ride? Was it awesome?
I did ride today. Probably more falling than riding, but I was starting to get the hang of it- when the bike died.
There is much to tell, I'll probably write more tomorrow since I just walked in the door.
In reply to paranoid_android (Forum Enabler) :
Oh no! Hopefully it was the sort of adventure that will be fun to remember, even if it wasn't fun in the moment.
In reply to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ :
That's what it was!
Cedar Creek trail in Muskegon County is where I chose to go since reports indicated it would be beginner friendly. A 2:40 drive got me from Ann Arbor to the parking lot.
Parked, unloaded, geared up no problem. Started the bike and let it warm up with no problems.
Putted out of the parking lot to the trail "connector", and quickly found myself in sand. Then crashed and stalled the engine. Which by itself was no surprise. What was a surprise is I couldn't get the bike started again for 15 minutes. I thought I had fixed that problem, but it came to be a plague on the day.
This was probably the first hour of the trip. Crash, stall, fight the bike to get it running again; rinse and repeat.
As far as the trails themselves, they were whooped out sand, and I would say narrow. Or is it whoop-y sand? Sandy whoops? Regardless, I had a hard time figuring out how to get through them. Especially since I was already spent after the first hour.
But the longer I persisted, I felt myself starting to get the hang of it and moving along the trail. And got better at sensing myself starting to lose it, and slowing down and keeping the bike up so it wouldn't stall. What a rush that was!
After getting some good riding in, I was exhusted, dehydrated (ran out of water) and just wanted to be done for the day. I guessed I had about two miles to go to get back to my car, so I'd take it easy and just putt my way back. While doing so, a big root in the trail crossed me up and over went the bike again. It stalled and I couldn't get it started again. And I needed water- badly.
So it was left propped against a tree and I clomped the two miles back to the car for some much needed water and rest.
After getting to the car and getting my head together, exhausted and very sore, I decided I just needed to get the bike out of the woods and get home. Very luckily, there was a fire road (two track) I walked out on that would get me within 200' or so of where the bike was. With the trailer on the Subaru I went off-roading to recover the bike. This video shows the trail pretty well:
After getting back to the bike a quick attempt at starting it again was no bueno, despite it sitting during my travels. So pushing commenced. Not sure how long it took, but it ended up on the trailer and I headed for home four hours later than planned.
Replaying yesterday in my head today, I'm pretty sure the whole experience can be summed up as insane. At least that's the response from folks I've told the story to. Unbeknownst to me, those trails were way beyond my ability. But that's the way I like to learn things I guess 
Sand is hard. Narrow is hard. First ride, alone, on narrow sandy stuff is the stuff of legends!
Congratulations on outlasting the bike too, hopefully the no-start condition is an easy fix.
In terms of what I see in the video, I can see how it would be "beginner friendly" primarily because people who are comfortable riding on sand think sand is easy. That's true of all surfaces, obviously, but for whatever reason sand seems to be super polarizing- I know a guy who grew up riding in the desert who thinks it's insane to ride on gravel at more than 30mph but will happily launch a bike off a dune, for example.
It's also "wide" for singletrack but narrow for sand, in my (still nervous on sand) opinion. "Narrow for real" seems to be the point where people start cutting their bars down to fit between the trees.
Generally speaking, the skill ceiling for riding a motorcycle is unbelievably high, but more shocking is how high the skill floor seems to be for the dirt bike people who have been riding since they could walk. Those of us who started later have a lot of catching up to do, but at least it's fun to practice!
I absolutely agree with your observations.
From chatting with folks in the parking lot, one guy asked "have you ridden here before?". I answered "I haven't ridden anywhere before, this is my first time on a trail." From the look on his face and the rest of the chat we had, he either didn't believe me or just couldn't grasp the concept of an utterly new rider being there.
The idea of trail conditions seems to be a pretty nebulous thing as well. The trails are groomed periodically, so had I been there the day after grooming I'd probably have a different impression. I can imagine the condition changes as a result of several factors- weather, heavy trail traffic, vehicle types, etc. So it was a bit naive of me to think they would be good for a first timer.
By no means was I turned off by the trail itself. The bike not being ready for the ride was the biggest bummer.
Having grown up on that side of the state, yea, that looks about right. I learned to ride sand by falling down a lot.
A quick run-down from the last couple of days of chipping away at my no start problem.
Since I hadn't checked my valve clearances, I decided to start there. They were too great, so they were adjusted to the spec in my FSM. This did not help the starting problem.
So I backed up to the basics. Pulled the fuel line off the carb and opened the fuel cock. Plenty of fuel moving. And I could see fuel in the carb inlet, so it doesn't seem fuel delivery is a problem.
Pulled the air box cover and air filter and stuck a little inspection camera in there to see what I could at the carb. The accelerator pump squirts fuel, the slide is sliding. Beyond that I couldn't see much else.
Pulled the plug and grounded it and kicked it over. Spark looks sparky, but I put a new plug in anyway.
Put it all back together and tried it, no start.
For the heck of it I decided to try a shot of starting fluid in the air box and put the cover back on. After a couple kicks no start, but I swear I heard it backfire through the carb.
At that point I decided screw it, I'll take it to a Suzuki place and let them sort it out. After talking with them on the phone today, it doesn't sound like they want anything to do with it either. The more details I shared with the service guy the more he repeated "you can drop it off today, but it will be at least two weeks until we get to it."
Ok, fine.
Just now I decided to check compression because of that intake backfire I swear I heard. A leak down test on the engine shows 60% loss on the gauge. What the actual berkeley? It's faint, but I do hear air around the carb.
Sorry for no pics, I was too pissed to even take one.
Are the valve clearances in spec? Compression release sticking on?
In reply to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ :
Since I adjusted them, I wondered if maybe I had one a little too tight. But I verified with a feeler gauge the valves are all closed.
I'll double-double check the compression release- good thought!
In reply to paranoid_android (Forum Enabler) :
Sometimes, especially if left disconnected, the release thing on the cam can walk until it holds things open. I don't know what it looks like on that engine but have seen it happen on KTMs.
I tried to get some images this time.
Decompression lever "on"
Decompression lever "off"
In the "off" position there is clearance between the decomp shaft and the rocker arm, so it seems to be completely disengaged.
As a quick experiment, with the engine @TDC I loosened the valve adjusters enough that there was play in the rockers (intake and exhaust). Repeated the leak down test and the results were the same.
Yeah that sure looks like it shouldn't be interfering. I know leakdown is bad, but what about the compression psi kicking it over?
No compression tester on hand. I'll have to pick up another one tomorrow and report back.
Kicking the engine over, I'm seeing between 55 and 60 psi.
In reply to paranoid_android (Forum Enabler) :
You've presumably got a valve sticking open or a big cam timing issue or something, if it were rings or a gasket I think you would have noticed some other symptoms besides hard starting. That stinks and I'm sorry. 
I'd start with the cam timing and work inwards from there.
EDIT: That is with the throttle wide open, right?
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ said:In reply to paranoid_android (Forum Enabler) :
You've presumably got a valve sticking open or a big cam timing issue or something, if it were rings or a gasket I think you would have noticed some other symptoms besides hard starting. That stinks and I'm sorry.
I'd start with the cam timing and work inwards from there.
EDIT: That is with the throttle wide open, right?
Noooo- throttle closed. Am I doing it wrong?
Edit- oh hell, I was doing it wrong!
Edit-Edit: with throttle open, I had 90, 60, 60. Three different tests
Update time I guess.
The bike was definitely suffering from a lack of compression. After pulling the cylinder head and checking the valves, it became apparent they weren't sealing.
So lapped the valves in by hand, waited for replacement gaskets to show up in the mail, and put it back together. Situation improved!
Also returned to the carburetor to replace the slide hoping to solve some idling issues. Namely after applying throttle and letting off, engine revs were slow to return to an idle. Also went over the intake boots checking for air leaks and correcting them. Again, situation improved some. Maybe a new carburetor over the winter is in order?
Regardless, it was running well enough to ride it. So I traveled to Leota to give those trails a try.
(Long mostly boring video probably, but I crashed toward the end)
That trip was a lot of fun, and I will return there to ride more. That loop offers around 55 miles of trails, and I only rode the southern-most portions. It's a great place for learning to ride sand because that's all there is there, and the main trails are very wide.
This selfie summarizes the whole trip:
That's rad. Keep riding and getting the bike working so I can come ride with you.
The bike and I went riding again yesterday!
Despite an overwhelming desire to get up to the UP, I'm not sure I will make it before gun (hunting) season starts. But I should be able to get out somewhere in the lower at least one more time before then.
So I went back to Leota. But this trip I got in just over 20 miles, far more than last time.
Map for reference, I stayed in the blue circled area.
As for fall color, I was probably a week ahead of peak color. But it was still pretty amazing.
Things I learned from this trip?
I'm already scanning the trail maps to pick the next destination!
In reply to paranoid_android (Forum Enabler) :
Your riding looks to be progressing really nicely from what I can see in the video! What is the engine doing that you don't like? From the sound of things you're keeping the revs kind of low, does it break up if you stay in a lower gear and let it spin a little faster?
In reply to paranoid_android (Forum Enabler) :
I think it's around 1:34, it sounded like you used the phrase "not what I meant to do" when you wound up off the trail, which is funny because for whatever reason, I'm pretty sure that's verbatim what I say when I do that while mountain biking.
Also, those trails look awesome!
In reply to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ :
Thank you! 
Things finally started to click for me a little, primarily in the not falling over as much department.
And you are correct, I don't know what revs the bike is happy running at. Without a tach for reference I'm going off of sound and feel- which I'm sure means overly conservative.
The best way I can describe it is: cruising along in say third gear and approaching a stop sign, pull in the clutch and let off the throttle completely, apply rear brake to stop- the engine rpms won't drop to an idle, they stay right where they were. But if I keep the clutch in at the stop, shift into first and let the clutch out just enough to feel it engage, the engine will drop down to an idle.
Hopefully that makes some sense!
It will rev quite high. On my 95 per the tach will hit rev limiter at around 9800
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