KTM21

Just saw this, Gordon Jennings talking about reading plugs in 1977: "A lot of amateur tuners, some of whom are fairly successful, will look at some plug freshly removed from a two-stroke engine and offer advice based on the color of the oil deposited on the insulator nose. In fact, if the plug is hot enough there won't be any color, and if there is that still has nothing much to do with air/fuel mixture. If you think about it you'll realize that the only color you can get from an air/fuel mixture is the color of soot. When the mixture trapped in an engine's combustion chamber has more fuel than can be burned with the available air, then combustion will be incomplete and the excess fuel will remain as soot, which is not brown or tan or magenta or any color other than black. And if your engine's mixture is too rich, the sooty evidence will be present on the spark plug's insulator, in a very particular area." "You won't find any soot out near the insulator nose, on a plug that's running hot enough to keep itself from fouling, because temperatures there are too high to let soot collect. But the insulator is much cooler deep inside the plug body, and coolest where it contacts the metal shell, which is precisely where you "read" mixture strength. Look far inside a plug, where its insulator joins its shell, and what you'll see there if your engine's mixture is too rich is a ring of soot. If this ring continues outward along the insulator to a width of even a millimeter you can be sure the mixture is rich enough to be safe, and too rich for maximum output. In most engines best performance is achieved when the mixture contains only enough excess fuel to make just a wisp of a "mixture ring" on the plug insulator." http://www.strappe.com/plug_section_16.gif http://www.strappe.com/plugs.html

Thy're saying there is no cutting threads involved in a plug chop and that you just look at the top of the plug instead of the mixture band.

Not for me at £2 a plug lol

I'm having a discussion with some other blokes on the yamaha forum about what a 'plug chop' is. From what I've seen, a plug chop is when you install a new plug in your bike, do one pull through the gears all the way up to 5th or 6th WOT. Then you kill the bike and coast to a stop. Then you take the plug out, cut the threads off and look at the base of the ceramic to see the size and colour of the mixture band. The idea is that you can tell how well your carb jetting is setup for the main jet. I've seen lots of sources describing a plug chop exactly the same as I just have but the blokes on the yamaha forum are saying that's not what a plug chop is? Just wanted some more opinions

I think you're right, at the end of the day, it didn't come with the rev-plate for a reason so I'll use the oem stops and see if there's any improvement.

I've installed some boyesen reeds on the dt but I'm not sure to use the stock reed stop or not. The reeds didn't come with a rev-plate and it says in the instructions that if a rev-plate is not included, you should use the standard stop. But lots of people have said the oem stop basically acts as a restriction for the reeds. Some people have also increased the angle of the oem stop by bending it to allow the reeds to open slightly more. It would be really easy to fabricate a rev-plate, So what do you think I should do? btw it's a right pain to get the reed block out of the dt so I don't really want to have to have it out again. This is what the standard stops look like: The boyesen reeds are on the right, they're the dual stage design so there is two layers. The stock reeds are on the left.

https://www.facebook.com/MagicTouchMiam ... 213931300/

The epoxy was what I was looking at, hopefully once it dries you wouldn't be able to tell. The lens itself is really dirty so it's making the reflector look worse than it is. Although it probably could do with being replaced.

Are the tape kits any good, I feel like it would look a bit naff...

I think polisport make one for the dt's, but that would mean changing the whole shroud and I'm trying to keep the bike as original as possible.

If it's the right size, I'll be happy to pay for it But as I mentioned above, it has be a very specific size other wise it won't sit into the plastic shroud properly.

It's annoying because the dtr has a totally different headlight than the x/re. The lens has to be a specific shape otherwise it won't sit into the plastic shroud. I found one from an dt125re that going for £55, guess it's better than £100

Noticed the other day that my headlight had a big crack in it, must have happened while I was riding and didn't realise. It runs the whole way from the top to the bottom of the lens. The annoying thing is, to replace the lens, I have to replace the whole headlight assembly which will cost me £100. Is there way that I could repair it myself?

There's a youtuber called Rob Dahm who's building a custom quad rotor, turbo rx7. He thinks it'll be good for 1200whp. I call bullshit on that until he proves otherwise. A lot of good builders, but most greatly exaggerate what the motor can handle! You're going to melt something at that BHP with that size of engine I think Yeah I know what you mean, here's the video anyway: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOGSB6sbYTw

There's a youtuber called Rob Dahm who's building a custom quad rotor, turbo rx7. He thinks it'll be good for 1200whp.

Do you get any? I just had a little girl come to the door (with her parent round the corner I imagine) and she started singing. After she sang for about 20 seconds, I couldn't think of what to give her so I just gave her a couple of quid in change. What are you meant to give them (if you give them anything at all), it's the first time I've ever had someone do it. I was pretty sure it was a neighbour so didn't want to seem like a knob by only giving 50p.

That's sweet, I can picture my nan doing the exact same thing. Older people hate wasting anything especially food, I can remember having some beans on toast or something at my nan's house and she would complain if I left like 2 beans on the plate lol.

You can rip it from the dvd with vlc media player. I've done it once before but don't really remember the steps. You can see instructions here: http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/2696/how ... -with-vlc/

So that would be the only adverse effect from doing it then? I'm okay with keeping a spare spark plug in my bag, that sounds like a good idea anyway.

I keep seeing lots of older bikers talking about the heavenly smell of castrol R and how they wish it was an aftershave. I have to experience the smell for myself!!! I've seen some posts of people adding a teaspoon of castrol r or castor oil into a full fuel tank just so they can get the sweet smell. I know it doesn't like to mix with petrol but if you shook your bike before every ride, would it be okay? There's also the problem that they don't make castrol r anymore but they replaced it with castrol A747 which is still a castor based oil so should give off the same smell when burnt. The question is though, could this be damaging to my bike? There are some who add it to their 4 stroke bikes and apparently they have no problems so surely it would be fine for a 2 stroke. Any thoughts?

Yeah I think it would be fine after a while and you wouldn't need bike mirrors any more.

I imagine there would be a fair amount of customizability with something like this.

Would you get one? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30EHI4S38u4

So would that be on A roads then?

Just read someone's mod 2 experience and he said that the instructor told him to follow road signs to a certain place. Is that how the mod 2 is or does the instructor give you turn by turn directions as to where you are going like when you are doing your cbt? Just wondering...