Red Dirt Rider is a Rollin'!!!

Some sandpaper, wire brush, and a nephew who goads me along the way... And the carburetor is back on the bike with a float needle that works, and a wee "rough ground" idle jet mod that sees a 15mm hose running overtop the idle jet so it sips deeper out of the bowl for rough ground riding.

I'm wearing my gloves for added safety.

There is a start up routine to that beast that my buddy Willie told me over the phone, turn on the fuel, apply half choke at the carburetor, turn the lights to run with the Baja Designs light switch (it's the run position), decompress and kick about four times to cycle fuel into the cylinder, then release the lever and kick at TDC over and over until it fires into life.

Well, it worked to a point, and sparked up but ran for a few seconds and shut off. Over and over and over again until I felt like a tired old man who is out of shape. I resemble that remark, and I was very glad I'd quit smoking 6 months back, or I'd have lost more than my dignity trying to get that thing to spark to life.

It would run for a brief for up to ten seconds, then die, so we thought perhaps pushing it down the hill and bump starting it might work, but that didn't work as well as I'd hoped, so my crew chief, Kirk, fired up the tractor and and we rigged it up for a tow...

Darryl and Willie can relate to this

And it ran, then stalled, ran and stalled, so we needed a longer run, and took our fun out onto the road to get a flat, straight run up to speed with lots of traction...

Where there is power equipment, there is a way...

My crew aka my big sister got bored while I was on my test ride...

Bald Eagle sizing up the cat for a snack

And I can report that once I got it actually running and past the idle stage, I opened the throttle to find it ran! It wouldn't idle yet, but she was running! Whoot!

BEFORE THE RIDE

Observe the ride in motion and all SIZE UP signs for height and riding restrictions to determine whether or not the ride is appropriate for you or a child in your care.

Read and Follow all the rules for each ride and instruct any children in your care on how to behave appropriately. Follow all instructions from the ride operator at all times.

Be sure to remove any loose articles such as sunglasses, hats, phones, and jewelry that have the potential to fall off during the ride.

DURING THE RIDE

Smoking, eating and drinking are prohibited on all rides, unless you really want to. 

Remain seated and restrained and be sure to keep your arms, legs and head inside the ride at all times.

Use all safety equipment which the ride offers and remember to always listen to the ride operators’ instruction.

AFTER THE RIDE

When the ride is over, remain seated until you come to a complete stop and the ride operator instructs you to exit.

Closed course, professional riders, do not attempt etc. etc.

You know, we could still be getting some good use out of a sled if we had one. 

I can report that she comes up nicely in first and second gear. 

Right, what was the problem here? Four year old gas, and a varnished, gummed up carb and sticking float needle valve. I mean stuck so badly that it took 80lbs of shop air to dislodge from the carburetor. Then enviro-friendly carb cleaner that doesn't clean the carb so much as get it wet with stuff you shouldn't drink without ice cubes in your glass, in fact, research shows that 99% Isopropyl Alcohol is used to clean carburetors, with a lemon wedge over crushed ice. I ended up spraying it down, then rolling up a pipe of emery cloth and rolling it in the brass sleeve, then blowing it clean, spraying again until the aluminium needle valve dropped in and out of the shaft with a tiny bit of play, then using a needle file on the float hinge to clean it and debur it before reassembly. She was a bit finicky to get back on, but as this was my third attempt, I had it down to a bit of a science, and every fastener got a coat of the blue bolt holding stuff, cause if this is anything like a KLR it'll be tossing fasteners left, right and rearward.

While kicking it we had the air cleaner off, and it was probably too lean, so with the air cleaner back on, we found that this bike really doesn't need a lot of choke. Very little at all, and with a clear tank like that, I just run the bugger on reserve.

Okay, first ride of the year in a sweatshirt and -2 in the sun, and my ear to ear grin froze as did my tears of joy. :D

I'll let you know if I can kick that beast to life again tomorrow.

Cheers from this Red Dirt Rider!