Wallrat

Actually that's not quite true. There were a few four strokes that got red stickers as well. DMV looks at the 8th position on the FRAME VIN, if its a "3" or a "C" and the year is 2003 or newer you get a red sticker. The engine number/type don't matter. The reason for the <2002 vs. >2003 is because older bikes were grandfathered (basically they made a new law that applied to all new bikes). Some areas in California don't care about red/green and some don't patrol. You can look up the different riding areas and see what months they won't allow red stickered bikes. Usually its only 2-3 months during the summertime. The reason why some people got a red sticker and then had it switch to green is because the original law was for 1998 and newer (I think that was the year). Anyway they took that one back after a couple months and changed it to 2003. I think it had something to do with when the law was written vs. when it finally made it thru the system and got implemented. Anyone that renewed their registration during those couple months got screwed for a year (unless they went back to the DMV after it was fixed). Only option you have is to pick up a new frame. Usually you can find one on the HQ for less than $200 or so shipped to the nearest Greyhound station. Just make sure its newer than 91 or your a-arms won't work.

Unless you're doing really short drags I'd stick with 8 paddle haulers. Anything more than that and you're going to get off the line quicker but get passed when you hit 3rd gear. For dumont or glamis, no shee with stock stroke and factory cylinders needs more than an 8 paddle hauler.

I bought a Barnett because just like you I figured it would be the last basket I needed to buy. Its held up great and still looks brand new after 1.5 seasons.

click here (and next time try a search)

Increasing the toe-in can also help your control at speed.

On: T&A Off: Smoking = -10pts on the 1-10 scale.

Those are the "I just bought a new set of cylinders" ports. Congrats on finding them, most people search long and hard before they decide on somebody to port their engine.

A lot will depend on the paddles you run but generally its a good idea to change from stock gearing when you head out to the sandbox. Usually that's in the form of dropping 1 tooth on the front sprocket since they're cheap. But since you're doing the rear, the equivalent would be adding 3 teeth. That's a pretty good setup for a piped shee, but once you get porting it'll all change again depending on the port work. Definitely go steel, aluminum sprockets don't even last a whole season.

I noticed a 5

You can grind out the holes on the stock plate to give you 4 degrees of advance (do a search cuz I don't remember exactly how much), and ya that's a good number to go with. Billet only refers to the way the metal is prepared, same as cast. Cast aluminum is when they pour molten alum. into a mold. Billet is when you take a solid chunk of metal (doesn't have to be alum) and machine it down to the shape you want. Billet is better looking and stronger, but a timing plate has no load on it and can't be seen. There's a ton of Ricky Stator plates out there, and only a couple failures. Odds are that you'll never have a problem with either provided you install it correctly. Its not something you have to tighten the crap out of, you just use a dab of loctite and snug it down. That's probably the cause of 99% of the reported failures.

Check out Custom Creation's booth this year. They're almost exclusively banshee stuff. Barts, Golden West, and Cycle parts West are good for gloves, helmets, pants, bags, jerseys, goggles and stuff like that. Alba usually has some pretty nice deals as well. I got my stainless radiator cover from Alba for $20 two years ago. Last year I got a $60 dirt bike paddle from the Skat Trak vendor for $25. Best selection of stuff is on Friday, best prices are on Sunday when the vendors are trying to unload all the leftovers so they don't have to haul it back to the shop. Just ask the vendors what the show price is - EVERYBODY gives a discount.

Ah I should have made it clearer... Draggers are a breed apart and will do just about anything to get an edge, so of course they'll change their jetting. And yeah, if somebody actually tried to rig a single carb to a top end drag bike, especially on alky, that would not only be ridiculous but an amazing waste of power. My post was directed more towards the 95% of the population that uses their bikes for duning, trail riding, cruising, and maybe the occasional race against a couple buddies. Out in Glamis where I ride, temp swings of 30+ degrees are pretty normal.

1. Dunno 2. Dunno 3. End of September if you don't mind your balls sticking to your seat. Check out the Sand Sports Super Show which is usually held on the weekend around Sept. 17th. It's a good show and you can pick up all your riding parts/gear for the season at show prices. Anytime after that show is pretty much fair game for Glamis, just check the weather first. Most people wait until somewhere in October. Usually by Halloween the temps are really nice.

Most of the guys that run reed spacers are only doing it because often times the clutch lever hits the bottom of the carb. There are some people out there that will say that single carb intakes that are short (like Trinity) can also benefit from the added distance/volume between the carb and the reeds. I think its supposed to help the top end. I never really bought into it. I've made two single carb intakes. On the first one I was catching the clutch arm on the carb so I ran spacers. Then I made a new intake that angled up a hair more so that the carb would clear the clutch arm. I never noticed any difference between the two setups. As far as question #2 goes... It's really a matter of preference. Duals are the only way to go if you're trying to maximize your top end. There's no doubt that you lose a little bit off the top when you go with a single carb. However I personally feel that for every other shee out there that isn't used 75%+ for drag only then a single is a better choice. Sure you lose maybe 5% AT MOST off the top end, but you gain some bottom end (which the banshee seriously lacks) and a whole heap of throttle response. Plus your throttle pull is seriously reduced. Besides that, jetting changes are stupid easy and quick, so your more likely to change your jetting for the different temps in the morning, afternoon, and evening. Most dualers don't change their jets 2x/day because its a pain in the ass. So really, you probably gain back that 5% top end just by having perfect jetting on every ride instead of just living with a slightly rich condition during the warmer part of the day. If that's not enough, engine problems are also much easier to diagnose and fix with a single carb. Except for having a hole in the metal intake (unlikely), single cylinder running can only be spark, reeds, cylinder, or pipe. Spark is easy to check by swapping plug caps, and really the reeds are the only other part that's likely to fail. A plugged jet results in the engine dying, not running like crap while one piston melts a hole through itself. There's more space around the engine, so almost every job is 10x easier to work on. You'll never melt an outerwear and you can keep your dual clamp on's and swap to the other clean one halfway through the weekend. But other than all that, single carbs suck.

Alot depends on how hard you ride too. If you're mostly doing drags or cruising on smooth terrain you'd probably be fine. But if you're hitting whoops fast or doing ANY jumping, I'd get it re-done.

Its too bad Graydon went out of business - their 2 into 1 design is FAR superior to Trinity's. Free bump to a great mod.

My tire guy made a really good point to me once about the whole red vs. black vs. blue label wheels. Let's say you land a jump really bad - would you rather bend the crap out of a $30 wheel or a $300 axle? Kinda the same thing that the guys into R/C trucks do. They'll buy aluminum parts to replace all the stock plastic pieces but they'll pick one cheap and easy to replace piece of the suspension and leave that one plastic. That way in most crashes the piece that gives is the cheap-o plastic one. You can just buy a handful of 'em to leave in your toolbox for field repairs.

Steel wheels are for hauling crap around a farm on a big utility atv. Get some douglass blue labels and be done with it.

A set of fairly new knobbies will handle sand better than geckos. I second the Sandstars. Great tires and some of the cheaper ones out there as well.

What happened to your old swingarm?

Man that had to be a pain in the ass to make! Titanium is expensive and can only be welded in a completely inert atmosphere. Probably welded it in a box filled with argon. F'n cool!

They're definitely a smart design. Typical cool heads are just domes surrounded by coolant, which as most people can figure out would lead to hot spots wherever there's an eddy. The Wicked heads actually force a flow path, so hot spots should be minimized. Plus it looks like their design would be MUCH easier to get the head back on. None of that balance game you have to play with Noss, etc. I like them, and I think they're almost worth the extra money.

Sounds like you seized it. Was the bike properly warmed up before it shut down? You might get lucky and just have to get new pistons, rings, and a bore. Or you might have some crank or bearing damage. If the crank is toast, then yeah, I'd recommend ditching the stocker.

I'm saying that because I've been to Wicked and talked with the owner about his heads. Pro Design, Noss, etc. use a real cookie-cutter design whereas his are shaped specifically for his head. That said, they've got one of the nicest designed cool heads that I've seen.

Plus RMATV has a tusk chain breaker for $12.