Put in a good 4 hours of riding today. It was superb to be back
on the bike, dodging trees and navigating ruts. Smiles all the
way around.
And the 144 has some poop after all. The Fatty pipe made the
biggest improvement of the parts I had on hand to compare but the
flywheel helped a little as did some jetting changes.
As I suspected, but failed to mention here previous to now, was how much different the smaller, higher revving engine would be to me in the woods.
Everything revolves around anticipating the next trail challenge
and carrying momentum the best you can. It took me half the day to
shake the cobwebs out of my skillset but then I grew comfy enough
with the terrain and my fitness to up the pace and pay attention
to my momentum. I think putting some time on this bike will help me ride the RM250 better.
After a speedy breakfast we gassed up and drove the back roads
over to the St Joe park. Three bucks is all it takes to get in the
gate (a bargain price we joked about the rest of the day) then we
made our way down to a huge dirt parking lot and found our spot.
The wind was howling and it was cold so we parked with our backs
to the wind and used the van as a windbreak.
We were both shivering by the time we got on the bikes having
stood in the cold to change into our ride gear. Our hands were the
worst part of the deal and we both dealt with the pain of being cold then warming back up.
To get up to speed as fast as we could and generate some heat we
B-lined it to the short loop we pieced together here last year. It
took a while to get it sorted out but we did. Someone else had
made a loop in the same area so we adopted parts of that. That
someone was a talented rider and they had been on the gas hard.
I figure they were on a big bike and the soil that day was either
super dry or very, very wet. The ruts and holes in that loop were
GNCC like.
I did several laps on the course to get a feel for things then
headed back to the van to make a parts change. This was when I
put on the new pipe. It made an immediate improvement to the
mid-range power and took some revs out of the top end. I liked
the changes and stuck with it for several more laps.
After lunch I slipped in the carb splitter. I couldn’t feel
a benefit in the mid-range but there was a little more punch right
at the crack of the throttle that I liked. But the high end power
sacrifice was not worth the trouble. I’ll try it again someday on
trails closer to home.
Late in the day I swapped to the smaller 36mm Keihin carb from the
stock 38mm Mikuni. The bike started right up but had an
unavoidable bog when the engine was under load. I figured it was
too lean so I ran it with the choke on and that helped. Despite
fiddling with the jetting I couldn’t tune out that bog before the
end of the day. I would have liked to continue to tinker with it
but the cold and long day was too much for us. We packed it in
while we still had daylight and energy enough to load the bikes
back into the van.
I hope to get more tinker time with that Keihin carb tomorrow but
I should probably put the stock Mikuni back on since that worked
right from the get go.
The rest of the bike really shines. I can’t say enough about Factory Connection and the set up they deliver. The settings keep me on the trail and in control, even when I probably don’t deserve it.
I didn’t bother changing out of my ride gear after loading the
bikes. I was cold and hungry and asked if Joe wanted to drive
back to the hotel so I could sit shotgun in my boots and Moose
gear. The long, hot shower was a treat.
There’s a Mexican restaurant here in Farmington, MO that measures
up. We found it last year and hit it again tonight. El Tapatio it’s
called.
My shoulders are fatigued and my throat is sore from the remnants
of the cold I had last week and chilled air today but I’ll manage
to get several hours of riding in tomorrow before we head home.
Now it’s time to put my feet up and rest.
PS – we saw on Twitter that Team 414 made it to Florida! Good job
guys and enjoy that sunshine!
