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Topics - JETZcorp

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1
Photos & Videos / My Kind of Riding
« on: June 07, 2011, 06:52:01 PM »
I've shown videos of side-by-side riding before, and most of it has been easy cruising on gravel roads, which was obviously pretty boring.  Well, that's not what it's all about.  This is.

Cowboys and Engines

2
Photos & Videos / Spring Ride 2011
« on: April 24, 2011, 11:34:13 PM »
I'm too tired to post all my video at the moment, but let me just leave a picture now and we'll talk video tomorrow.  ;D


3
Open Forum / Doyle Rotary Engine
« on: March 31, 2011, 09:08:34 PM »
I stumbled upon this a few months ago on YouTube, and now they've just released a new video which is pretty interesting.  I was wondering what you guys thought of this idea.  Bit of a pain to wrap your mind around the concept, but it's quite elegant, in a way.

The Doyle Rotary Engine

4
Open Forum / Lighting a Campfire
« on: February 23, 2011, 03:29:57 AM »
When going on a trail ride, it's often necessary to camp at the riding area overnight, especially if you intend on getting two days of riding in, and the riding area is a long distance away.  But because things can get so damn cold and boring at night in the woods, you'll need a fire, and so I've decided to document the proper, American method for lighting a campfire.  I hope you guys find it educational.

How to Light a Campfire

5
Open Forum / First Car Stories
« on: February 04, 2011, 01:20:28 AM »
So I presume most of you have heard of Top Gear.  Well now BBC America is doing a promotion where you submit the story of your first car, and then a couple of them are going to get read on-air, and the person with the best story gets to fly to London for a Top Gear Live event.  I don't know if they're doing a similar promotion in other countries, but the one I'm aware of is for Americans only, sorry guys.

Here's the link if you want to enter.
http://bbcamerica.com/shows/topgear/myfirstcarcontest.jsp

And here's what I submitted!
My First Car: Windy the Windstar

6
Photos & Videos / Rides of Olde
« on: December 15, 2010, 03:25:47 PM »
I thought that, what with Christmas coming up and all, this would be a good time to start posting some of the ancient projector home movies from my dad's past, complete with narration from the guys that were there, and Christmas music.  Be sure to read the YouTube description for more details.  Enjoy.

Rides of Olde Part I: The Res

7
Open Forum / I have... a Dream!
« on: November 28, 2010, 06:43:18 AM »
Someday, some way, I will create this masterpiece.

The basic idea, is to make the ultimate homemade, one-man, off-road kart/buggy or whatever you want to call it.  Now obviously, there are karts you can buy that use snowmobile or sportbike motors, complete with ECUs, limited-slip differentials, etc. and honestly there's no way I'm going to make something to compete with that.  However, what I can set out to do, is eclipse everyone else's home-built efforts, simply by thinking big.  As in, 490cc big.

Let's start from front-to-back.  The front wheels (and indeed, all the wheels) I think should be 12-inch rims, basically like you'd have on the back end of a 65cc KTM or something.  I might use disks or drums just depending on what I can get my hands on, disks obviously would work better, but then drums never develop fluid leaks (this was a problem with the front disk on my dad's '86 Maico).  Anyway, the front wheels are going to have independent suspension, and I don't see why a nice pair of piggyback Ohlins like you'd get on a late '70s Husky wouldn't do just fine in that role.  They would be configured to "lay down" as they compress, just like in a bike, except they lay down laterally instead of longitudinally.I'm looking for at least six inches of travel, and hoping for more like eight to ten.

Steering is something I haven't entirely worked out yet, simply because I can't honestly claim to know how that even works, but hopefully by the time I get an engineering degree and start work on this project, I'd have that figured out.  But, obviously there's not going to be any power steering or any of that nonsense, I want this whole thing to as simple as possible, so anything that goes wrong can be fixed with a brick, and a piece of string (to steal a line from Top Gear).  Throttle, brake, and clutch will be controlled with foot pedals, just like in a car.  The throttle and clutch pedals will be simply hooked up with cables to the engine, which sits behind the seat.  The brakes... well I'll figure that out when I get there.  The seat itself will have to be one of those very supportive seats that holds you entirely in-place, with a harness like you'd get in a real performance car.  Doesn't need to be a big name-brand like a Sparco or Recaro, just something that works well and doesn't cost $1,000.  Gear shifting is simplicity itself, the sequential transmission from the 490 Maico will still be used, and a hand-operated lever will be hooked up with linkage to the shaft that's normally connected to the foot-shifter on the bike.  Push forward on the lever to down-shift, pull back to up-shift.

That brings us to the engine.  Ah yes, the good old 490 Maico engine we all know and love so much.  Of course there's some variability in this, depending on what I can find - the main thing is that it be a big-bore Maico engine, roughly between the years of 1978-1983, just so long as it's big and air-cooled.  This engine will simply be pulled right out of the bike, and placed into the kart directly behind the engine, facing forward, and probably tilted a bit so that the cylinder axis is vertical (this reduces the amount of space it will take up).  To start the thing, I plan on simply standing next to the kart and kicking it over, like a boss.  This will probably mean putting the compression-release lever on a frame rail nearby for easy access.  Depending on how the ergonomics work out (for example, if the kickstarter interferes with the rear wheel) then I may have to do some dancing around to get it started, I really would rather not deal with a battery.  Of course the gas tank will also have to be located above the engine, because I don't want to mess around with a fuel pump, so that will probably just find its way being mounted on the frame above the engine.  I plan on using the stock pipe.

The rear wheels are (obviously) going to be driven by the engine.  It will be hooked up via a chain just like normal (albeit shorter), but instead of going to the axle itself, it will connect with a differential, taking the place of the bevel gears normally found on rear diffs.  The torque thus split, the power is then transmitted to the wheels separately, which are mounted on independent suspension just like the fronts, again probably on Ohlins or some other kind of shocks intended for dual-shock long-travel bikes.  Wheelbase is 6.75' in my preliminary sketch, hopefully I'll be able to work that down a bit, because I'd like to be able to get it in the bed of a truck, provided the tailgate gets left down, and the truck I intend to get has a 6.5' bed (not counting the tailgate).  It's still a little too long because of overhang, but I think I could probably find some inches to trim away.  Width is not really an issue, somewhere around three feet, maybe a little more.

So, any questions or comments?  The intent for this thing is to be the ultimate dirt/gravel road terror.  I'd like to use this thing for blasting down fire-roads basically like a rally car, except it can be much more easily transported and would cost a lot less than buying an Evo and thrashing it around in the middle of nowhere.  Plus I think performance would be better than the Evo as well given the power and weight we're dealing with, I don't see this creation being over 500lbs.  I do anticipate the front wheels might have a tendency to throw rocks at me, particularly during over- or under-steer, so the design (such as it is so far) includes some aluminum sheet metal, which will either be painted red with a big yellow slash (imitating a '77 Maico) or simply left as bare aluminum with a giant Maico logo on it, like the early '76-and-earlier aluminum coffin tank Maicos.

8
Photos & Videos / Two-Stroke sets World Record!
« on: November 27, 2010, 08:46:31 PM »
If ever if ever a brilliant idea there was!

WORLDS FASTEST MOBILITY SCOOTER

9
Photos & Videos / 120 in the Woods at Dusk
« on: October 30, 2010, 03:16:49 AM »
120 in the Woods at Dusk

From the Description:

This video was taken rather a long time ago, on the same trip as the previous, "Meet the 120" video.

This was the second outing of the day, because there was still light, the bikes were in good shape (aside from my rear brake lever) and the gas was plentiful. As you'll be able to tell from watching the video, the 120 has a unique combination of very high torque (for a 115cc machine), an extremely low first gear, and a riding position rather far aft. This means that, at any point of his choosing, the rider may bring the front end of the bike into the air with a simple zap of power. No clutch is necessary. Normally I ride my 250 Husqvarna, which cannot do this, so understandably I was over-doing it a bit on the wheelies!

You'll also notice that the other bike featured in this video (a 1973 Yamaha 100MX, ridden by my dad) is extremely loud. We suspect that the pipe may not be properly tuned for the motor, and is thus doing what incorrect expansion chambers do, which is to make a lot of noise and not much else. The 120 is a far more powerful bike in every category except absolute red-line maximum horsepower (the 100 revs quite a bit higher), and is much quieter. Neither bike has a silencer or spark arrestor.

10
Photos & Videos / Old Dirt Roads
« on: October 15, 2010, 12:41:28 AM »
I just realized that I completely forgot to share these videos with you guys after posting them to YouTube!  It's really one giant video, but it's split in two parts because of the YouTube length limit.

Hidden Roads (Part 1 of 2)

Hidden Roads (Part 2 of 2)

11
General Two Stroke Talk / JETZ and the WR250F
« on: August 24, 2010, 09:30:20 PM »
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it's finally happened.  JETZcorp has ridden his first four-stroke bike, and now he's going to tell you about it.

The story behind it is this.  JETZ was coming back from work, and as he was pulling into the driveway he noticed his neighbor's '80s Camaro pulling away, and a new-ish looking Yamaha four-stroke sitting in the driveway.  This was the same neighbor from whom JETZ had bought his 250 Husky, and who had owned a 430 Husky, and an '06 KX250, all of which had been owned for mere months.  Curious, he walked up to the small crowd (two dudes) gathered around the bike, and asks, "New bike?"

"Yeah, dude.  Just traded the Camaro for it.  Bought that thing for a thousand bucks and he gives me this bike that's worth $2500-3000.  Only two-hunnert miles on the little odometer here."

JETZ, noting the steel frame and "WR250F" sticker, asked "What year's it?"

"2004, four-stroke and everything.  New technology!"

"Eh... that four-stroke bit's not really... a... good thing."

"Well it's what they all got now, and it's clean.  Two strokes are nice but they don't make 'em anymore."

At this point, the other neighbor cut in, "Yeah, and they're real dirty power."

"Well hold on, Yamaha's still making basically '05 two-strokes, and KTM is pushing them out, too.

"Yeah, but not very much.  They're phasing 'em out." replied the new WR owner.

"Well they were, but now with this economy they've got a shit-ton of four-strokes piled up in warehouses, and the two-strokes are selling out as soon as they hit the showroom." JETZ pointed out.

"Yeah, that's the bad thing about four-strokes, they're expensive.  Not like that 250 Husky of yours, you can rebuild onna those damn things in like ten minutes for $150 bucks.  This thing forget it."

There was a short silence at this point, and then the onlooker said, "Well come on man, fire that bitch up, let's hear it!"

"Oh yeah, it's got electric start and everything.  But the battery's dead, guess I'll have to just kick it over."

The man got on the bike, bounced the suspension a couple times to get a feel for it, then pulled out the kicker.  The WR fired on the second kick.  After letting the bike warm up for a grand total of five seconds, he put on the headlight (this was happening at 8:15pm) and blubbered down the street.  The onlooker-neighbor looked at JETZ.

"Doesn't sound like he's going for it too hard."

"Well, it's hard to really give it the beans on these short little suburban roads."

After about half a minute, the WR returned, and was left idling.  "This thing is a tractor, dude.  The KX would've ripped this thing a new asshole.  It's more like a 125."

"Yeah," JETZ replied, "they race these things, or the racing version anyway, against 125s.  It's close but the 125 is just a little bit down on it most of the time, depending on the rider.  The enduro versions like this can be a bit more mild, though."

"I bet."

"Hey," said the onlooker, "Can I ride it?"

"Have you ridden a bike like this before?"

"Shityea!  I used to have a Honda CR480!"

"Yeah, in 1980!" the bike's owner sneered.

"Technically," pointed out JETZ, "The first year for the 480 was 1982."

Reluctantly, the neighbor was let on the WR.  "One down, three up?"

"One down, four up.  Just take it easy man.  You wreck that thing and I'm wrecking your truck!"

Struggling with the clutch, and almost killing the bike, the WR awkwardly rolled down the street and into the night.  Half a minute later, it was back.  The rider attempted to find neutral, and killed the bike in the process.

"It's like a tractor, ain't it?  You couldn't hurt yourself on this thing if you wanted to!"

"Yeah, but it's a torquey little beast."

"Wanna give it a try?"  the owner said to JETZ.

"Sure, never ridden a four-stroke before."

JETZ took the bike, and attempted to find neutral.  The shift from first to second was extremely easy, making neutral difficult to locate.  Being used to old Husky transmissions, which had fairly long throws and distinct gears (making it easy to find neutral, whether you want to or not), it took him a while to get it.

JETZ then got onto the bike.  He was expecting the new bike to feel narrow and ergonomic, but was surprised to find that the saddle felt very hard and tended to cut into his legs compared to the old "sofa" style seats he was used to.  But, he thought, the safety seat would be nice through the twisty stuff.

This would also be JETZ' first time starting a bike with long-travel suspension and a kickstart on the right-hand side of the bike.  After two awkward and failed attempts at kicking the thing over, and achieving a greater understanding of why Grandpa Joe fought in the Pacific in 1944, JETZ readjusted and started the bike.  It idled smoothly in the four-stroke tradition.  JETZ gave the bike a couple gentle prods of the throttle, testing how it responded before committing to getting the bike in gear.

He remembered, at this point, someone at twostrokemotocross.com saying that the 250F he'd ridden had a big delay in the throttle.  To test this, JETZ gave it a quick 3/4 twist, and the Yamaha promptly died.  "What in the clear blue fuck was that?" he thought.  If he'd done with with the Husky, it would've not only stayed running, but would've instantaneously hit the red-line and sent all the children of the neighborhood running.  The Kawasaki, more so.

With a sigh, he stared it back up again.  After a few more experiments to give the throttle an accurate reading on the "Thisisfuckedometer," JETZ put it gear and did a U-turn in the street.  He gave it a zap of throttle, noting the tremendous delay before the surge of power that, honestly, felt a lot like the Husky.  After the throttle was cut, however, compression-braking cut in and the bike slowed ridiculously.  "I knew these things did that, but, Johasus!"  He tried shifting it to second, and the result was identical.  Same with third.  The bike was determined to slow it's ass right on down, transmission be damned.  As he pulled in on the front brake, he noticed that it responded about the same as the 390's front drum for a given amount of force applied, and much better than the Husky's front.  However, the lever was quite stiff, and he sensed that with a much harder pull, he would have access to far more braking than either of the others.  In other words, the front brake was a cut above the vintage bikes.  "At least this thing does something better," he thought.

Rounding the 90-degree turn in the street, he opened the bike up a bit in third.  Again, it felt a lot like the Husky would at the same input, just with a big delay at first, and a big slow-down after it was done.  Up ahead was a T-intersection, where the current street ended and met with another.  He used this small intersection to turn the bike back around, shifting down into first.  It was time to see what this thing was all about.

The plan was to pour on the coal and do some speed shifts.  As JETZ hit second, he remembered back to when he'd done the same run on the Husky, and upon watching the video, hadn't hit powerband.  The result had been unspectacular to say the least.  And now he was doing the same thing on this WR?  Come on, let's see what this has for top-end.  So JETZ delayed the shift to third for a while, waiting for some power.  None came.  It's low-end was like the Husky's low-end, and the top-end was like the Husky's low-end.  Where's the beef?!

As JETZ pulled to the driveway before the WR's owner, he pulled in the clutch and said, "Man, you can keep this thing."  He then tried to find neutral, and while he did, the bike committed suicide and died.  No one knows why, the RPM wasn't low, no one was foolish enough to nail the throttle, and the clutch was pulled to the grip.  It just died.  Weird.

"Hey, maybe we can go on a ride sometime and I'll drag race you with the Husky!" JETZ suggested.

"Eh, bring the 120 and we have a deal."

JETZ pondered this for a second, comparing his experience with the WR and his experience with the Kawasaki.  "Sounds good to me."

12
Non-Moto / Official Handbook of OHV Oregon Laws and Rules
« on: August 17, 2010, 08:16:08 PM »
So I happened to come across this official little pamphlet that contains all the rules and regulations and shit for the State of Oregon if you're going to ride on public land.  I decided the best way to illustrate how ridiculous this is, is to compile a list of things that are ILLEGAL to do on public lands with a dirt bike.

1)  Be Too Young - If you are under the age of 7, it is decreed that you are unworthy of operating a dirt bike, even if it's got a 3-horse lawnmower engine.
2)  Go Without a Helmet - This makes sense, really, except the rules say that once you turn 18, you don't need to wear one.  Like adults all have craniums of titanium or something.
3)  ATV Safety Education Card - Yes, that's right.  If you are under the age of 30 in this state, it is required that you have taken a government course either online or in-person, and have an official card with you showing that you've done it.  By 2014, everyone must have one of these cards to ride, full-stop.
4)  Ride Without a Sticker - The ATV sticker you buy for $10 and goes to fund the people who close down trails and harass riders, is mandatory for all.
5)  No Spark Arrestor - It doesn't matter if you are riding in the rainforest (yes, we have a rainforest here) in the dead of winter during a typhoon.  Without a government-approved SA, you might as well ride a nuclear bomb as far as the law is concerned.
6)  Be Louder than 99dB - Who wares that the acoustics of the area are, or what how the noise will affect the neighbors, if they exist.  This law is universal, regardless of the circumstances.

Here's the best one of them all.

7)  Riding without Headlight and Tail Light - Yes, that's right.  In order to ride on public lands in Oregon, no matter WHAT the visibility is or the time of day, you have to have a tail light and headlight.

The above rules don't apply, however, if you are part of industry, such as forestry or agriculture.  In that case, you are likely part of a union that has lobbied the State government to exempt you.  Because the Christmas tree industry is WAY more important than recreational riding.  Also, if you are on private land, these rules are also exempt.  So if you're riding in your back yard, you're good.

13
Vintage Two Strokes / What did the '70s Look Like? This!
« on: August 13, 2010, 05:04:00 AM »
So I was randomly surfing Google a few minutes ago and happened upon a thread on ThumperTalk where someone posted the link to watch On Any Sunday.  This, of course, sparked a wave of grizzled old vintage guys to come out of the woodwork.  During the proceedings, someone posted this picture that was taken in 1978-79 (although the bike is an early '70s model).  It is just so ridiculously and thoroughly '70s that I just had to share it.



By the way, notice the clearance between the gas tank and the cylinder!  Get some air moving over that and you'll start to see ice forming in the transfer ports pretty soon.

Here's the forum thread this was taken from, by the way.  Looks like one of the people at TT there went to an ISDE on a '73 Hodaka and wiped everyone out.
http://www.thumpertalk.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-798010.html

14
Vintage Two Strokes / What Spark-Arrestor Should I Get?
« on: August 03, 2010, 08:03:17 PM »
Ladies and Gentlemen, it's been revealed that for my birthday (hopefully the last one spent at home) my present is going to consist of a new spark arrestor for my Husky.  I'm not aware of any case in the history of the planet where a dirt bike (as opposed to lighthing and arson, which have caused all the fires around here in my memory) has burned out a forest, but they're still worried that I'm going to burn the entire state of Oregon to the ground, and that they'll be charged all the damages for the entire timber industry of the Pacific Northwest.  After spending a long time explaining why it would be impossible to research what kind of spark arrestors will work on a 1967 Kawasaki with a hand-built custom pipe made by some anonymous person who is now surely dead and buried, the decision of what spark-arrestor to buy for the Husky was presented.

So, I don't really know much about the various kinds of spark-arrestors floating around in the world, so I figured I'd ask you guys what to put on a stock 1982 Husky 250CR pipe.  I was thinking of the FMF Turbinecore 2, because I've heard good things about FMF and the TC2 looks like it's reasonably-priced and not gigantic.  What do you guys think?

15
Photos & Videos / Gary Semics' Training DVDs
« on: July 31, 2010, 03:18:22 AM »
I happened across this about a year ago.  I was looking for footage on YouTube from various helmet cameras, when I see the name "Gary Semics" in one of the titles.  Being all crusty and old-school like I am, I immediately recognized the name from the magazines of Yore.  Lo and behold, Semics is keeping busy by training other riders in the art of motocross.  His former students include Jeremy McGrath and Ryan Villopoto, among many others.  On his YouTube channel, you can find snippets and previews from the DVDs he sells, the oldest being produced in 1992 and the newest in 2010.  The following is from the most recent DVD.  I haven't bought any of these yet, but from what I've seen it looks like they have immense instructional value.  And, if you have the ability (and the cash!) to bring your bike to a few select spots around the country at the right time, you too can be instructed by Gary Semics, or some other "Semics Approved" trainers.  I'm sure he'd get a kick out of me showing up with an '82 Husky, but there's no way I'm driving to Ohio to show him my bike. :D

Motocross Corner Speed - Beyond the Basics.wmv

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