1997 Gas Gas Recomendations

[Hainesy4]

First post. I have struggled with the search feature here. I have always been a CR250 guy with E-Line lighting kits and enduro set ups... I have mostly been riding trials bikes for the past several years and I just picked up a 97 EC. I expect I will do technical trails, harescrambles, enduros, and some endurocross type stuff.

I am hoping you guys with years of experience can tell me few things about it to get me pointed in the right direction.

1. Are the conventional forks any good? I am 6'2", 200#s and it seems to flex a bit and would probably bottom out if I were going race pace. (been really muddy on my only rides) Can/should they be upgraded with triple clamps from newer models and newer legs? or is it worth reviving the current forks.

2. The clutch is stiffer than the clutch on my 94 CR250 with a clutch cable. I checked and cleaned all the moveable parts at the lever and bled it with new Dot4 and it didn't get any better. Any suggestions?

3. I love the counter balancer... so smooth. I only bought this old of a bike to get the cb. Any ideas if this motor will bolt into a newer chassis?

4. It has stock pipe with FMF silencer. Any jetting advice would be helpful. It has a lot of white smoke and seems to get loaded up on 50/1 mix. Fouled plugs on both rides so far. It is also rather flat on the bottom and in order to do technical logs and boulders I have to get the revs up and pop the clutch before it gets back down to low RPM. Can't rely on rolling up to an obsticle and rolling back the throttle it will sputter and not raise the front end.

Great site and lots of great guys here. Been lurking for quite a while and I am excited to finally have one of these great bikes.

[gasser]

1. The conventional zooks are fairly good but the tubes are soft and wear and dirty the oil very quickly.
2. Check your clutch basket and hub for wear notches. The clutch pull should be very light.
3.Yes but the frames are the same till 2005 I think and they only changed a little then. Your money and time would be better spent upgrading your front forks IMO.
4. Check "Intake/ Carburetion 2 stroke" under the Technical Forums. At the top of that forum is a jetting database. Hope that helps. Welcome to a world on the GAS(gas).