How much time do you spend on maintenance of your bike?

[GMP]

50:1 is emissions related spec, nothing more. Just like your tied up PV drain line. Its been proven with modern oils, in a Maxima study, and on the dyno, more oil is better as long as jetting is corrected acccordingly. The silencer has a great deal to do with the perceived spooge.

[Rick]

[QUOTE=GMP;111582]50:1 is emissions related spec, nothing more. Just like your tied up PV drain line. Its been proven with modern oils, in a Maxima study, and on the dyno, more oil is better as long as jetting is corrected acccordingly. The silencer has a great deal to do with the perceived spooge.[/QUOTE]

My FMF TCII S/A catches more oil than a grease trap at Mc Donalds No joke! The Leo Vince S/A on my 125 is spoooge free, smaller, lighter and is quieter than the TCII. I am jetting pretty fat on my 125 @ 32/1.

[jgas]

My answer is, not enough, and more than I want. Since I quit racing, I spend far less time working on the bike and more time (comparative to wrenching) riding. I love riding the most technical terrain, but am learning to love dual sport/adventure riding on my trusty GG 250 XC. Most people would assume that it's a terrible bike for dual sport or on the pavement, but not so.

I just rode a dual sport ride last weekend that was approx. 10% singletrack, 30% dirt roads, 60% very rough 2 track ATV trails and old log roads. My bike got good fuel mileage, vibrated far less than my old 02 KTM 520 XC, and had good enough gear spacing to do it all.

DS riding puts a lot of miles on a bike but not terribly hard miles. Finding a happy medium with jetting and oil ratio is a bit harder than if you are just racing and either on or off the gas. I probably need to go from my current 40:1 to 32:1, but have been afraid of fouling plugs and gummed up PVs and silencers. What I'm doing now is often lots of idling, lots of steady throttle pavement-dirt road riding one weekend, then next ride some of the nastiest singletrack there is, then the next ride working on trail with even more idling, stop and start, etc. I probably do the weirdest and most unpredictable type of riding of anyone on this site.

If I go to 32:1, where would be a good starting point for jetting? Don't worry, if I toast a top end I won't sue anyone, or even complain. The jetting is stock, whatever that is. Needle clip in the bottom groove

My bike is now a 275cc, Eric Gorr ported factory GG cylinder ported for low-midrange. Stock reeds, large PV cover, Fatty pipe, FMF spark arrested silencer. I never foul plugs, but there is a little spooge from the silencer junction, and it loads up on bottom end with idling around or slow riding, and feels/sounds like it often needs a revving to clean it out. When it loads up, it smokes like crazy for a few seconds before cleaning out. With my current setup, the bike just won't rev extremely high, which is fine by me, so I am not too worried about a lean seizure/failure at high rpms. I've done plug readings, and as expected, with harder-high rev riding the plug is grey/brown with a little oil residue, looks about right to me. With the DS riding or trail work, low revs and idling, the plug is usually black and oily, but never fouls, although it often seems to be about to.

[Coop]

My approach is very similar to what Rick wrote on the first page. A clean bike is a happy bike. Plus being an ex-motorcycle mechanic my bikes are as close to mechanically perfect as I can make them. Decals and plastics might be scratched but that's as far as I allow my bikes to go

[nknudsen]

Originally Posted by Coop

My approach is very similar to what Rick wrote on the first page. A clean bike is a happy bike. Plus being an ex-motorcycle mechanic my bikes are as close to mechanically perfect as I can make them. Decals and plastics might be scratched but that's as far as I allow my bikes to go

I 2nd that! My bike gets cleaned after a ride almost as well as my 72' Olds.

[sevenfourate]

I easily spend as much time messing around in the garage as i do riding. Probably more like 4:1 to be honest whether that be cleaning, servicing, 'fettling' or just checking it over for the next ride and stripping and re-greasing some unseen part !

I only ride weekends, and i'll be in the garage quite a few nights a week.
Its often not the fact the bike really needs something doing to it - its just something i enjoy, gets me out the house and in the fresh air (With the doors wide open) and its something i enjoy.

Im a Virgo starsign; which means im a perfectionist; and im also an Engineer, which means i love finding 'problems' and fixing them. Also helps in the head if when you ride everything is 110% with your machine.

Garage-time is second only to riding time

[sevenfourate]

This thread should really have pics of garage lay-outs......

I KNOW alot of you Americans have some impressive set-ups

[Coby_p]

If sitting on the bike pretending to ride counts then id say about 15:1 hours pretending:wrenching and 6:1 hours wrenching:riding