My long time friend Eduardo have this 84 XL250R. And this was its
first ride of 2004, so, it was it's 20th birthday party!
Eduardo arrived my home by 8am on the saturday. I was already ready to
go. Eduardo tried to tighteen the nut that holds the footpeg on place
and... snap! He broke the bolt!!!! Great start for a ride! So, we rode
slowly to a nearest bolt store, glad that it was saturday, or else
we'd be screwed and the ride would finish before the start! Well, with
a new bolt in hands, we went to a buddy's shop, he's specialized in
salvaging those big wheels that big trucks use. He have a 400A arc
welder and did a great job of welding that bolt back on place. 10am,
trail here we go!
It was cloudy saturday and while we were welding the bolt, it rained a
little. We arrived the trail and crossed the train bridge, right into
Dutch Trail and then the Jar Trail. To avoid the quicksand spot, we
decided to climb a hill, not actually a trail, but we could do it. I
climbed first and Eduardo came second. His bike was smoking a lot!
While up there, resting and having a scenic view, we
saw two DT200 far away. Eduardo yelled and they stopped and we asked
them to join us. They accepted. Funny thing is that one of the guys
actually lives on my street, for about 25 years and *I never met
him*!!! Amazing. A dirt rider right up on the street and I don't know
the guy.
We went to Itapuama beach, climbed the hotel ruins, then we went show
them a new trail, then we went to the Zombie Woods, through a nasty
downhill, there's an erosion left, and that can be very dangerous! At
least wasn't that slicky. Last time there I hold the handlebars so
tight I thought I was going to crush them... hehehehe. One of the guys
were really slow, but the other wasn't, The guy who lives on my street
is a very fast guy! Right into Zombie Woods, Eduardo leading
and I chasing him closely. Under the large trunk which is fallen
across the trail, over the small trunk, wait... Then the DTs appeared,
first, second, third, brake, turn... I love this trail. And here we
come, the uphill climb along the Zombie Lake.
Eduardo climbed without problems. I was second and crashed... Tried
again and had to jump from the bike and I fell from very high! Great
Gaernes I have protected my foot from the impact. As a side note...
Don't you guys think that MX boots should have a shock absortion
system just like the jogging tennis shoes? I thought on that when I
was riding on a SX track... Well, I crashed but the DT guys climbed
that without any problem.
After the hill climb, we have some more TST and then we ride across a
sand mining place, and back again to the woods. A large fallen tree
made us ride through the woods, off road and off trail. I got lost!!!
Amazing ain't it? I stopped the bike and start whistling. The guy who
lives on my street (and of course I forgot his name) came to rescue
me... :^) After the fallen tree, we met two older (40 & 42 y.o.)
riders with older, late 80s XR250s.
They were resting and wondering how to get over the fallen tree. Of
course, on a woods environment, when a tree goes down, it takes at
least half a dozen other trees, so it gets hard to go over. We chatted
for a long time... Talked about dirt bikes, idle stuff a lot. One of
the guys (the youger, 40) said if we got atacked by cannibals (there
aren't cannibals in BR since 1600 and there aren't indians in those
woods) he would not run, because he's old and fat and if he run
he would get tired and if he didn't run, he could manage to knock down
a couple cannibals... The things dirt riders talk...
So, we were going ahead and they were going from were we come (there
aren't a right way of going on these woods, except on the main trail,
and we were on a secondary trail), but Eduardo's bike started acting
weird. Like clogged main jet. Fine. We dismounted the carb, and it was
clean. Weird. The old guys offered help, and there we went to a car
mechanic on a village near.
There we tryed everything. The last thing: spark plug. We took the
spark plug out of the bike and asked the mechanic to heat the tip with
his acetylene+oxygen welder. He lit the welder and the hose got
disconected from the tip, gaving a loud bang and a hissing sound.
The mechanic was the first to run. The 40 yo guy ran faster than
anyone, when we saw him, he was almost a kilometer away... and he said
minutes before he couldn't run...
Well, we tried to push start the bike, just to have the engine locked!
So... a couple beers to wash the mud and I start pushing Eduardo's
bike. (right foot on his left footpeg). It worked until an uphill,
where I got exhausted. Eduardo rode my bike and I got pushed by him.
Sucks on TST. I got exhausted to the point I could barely breathe. I
really should get into a gym...
About 5pm we were at home. Eduardo left his bike at my home. Sunday
morning I was washing both bikes and Eduardo arrived. We took the
header off the bike and found the problem: the valve adjusting screw
was jammed on the cam and of course, the engine couldn't run. We fixed
that, but found out that the right exhaust valve was burnt and the
valve seal was melted. At least we found the problem with the smoke.
In a couple hours I'm going to shop around and see how much will cost
for a new valve, valve guide...
Does anyone know how to put the valve springs back *without* the
special valve compressor tool? Take them out is easy, just punch it...
Another 70km on the ride log.
--
Tiago Rocha
Recife - Brasil
www.diariodastrilhas.cjb.net
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