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That crazy bastard ice races on two smokers, he should have some hints.
The Shop
What kind of riding?
Just wonderin, where do you plan on riding?
Is it really cold inside the salt lake arenacross thing? My bike runs kind of rich in warm weather and when I took it out in the cold, it ran so crisp and sounded like it had punch. But I tuned my carb to lean it up in the closed-1/2 throttle range for summer riding which is when I will do most of my riding. You don't want to run it too lean or the engine may overheat and cause problems in your motor so to be safe I would move the clip on the jet needle down one. To do this (well on my bike anyway) take your seat off and gas tank off Make sure your bike is very clean so dirt doesn't fall into the carb. Unscrew the two screws on the top of the carb that hold the throttle cable and pull it out. It should look like a needle (that you could kill someone with) with a slider and dangling by the throttle cable with a spring around it. Pull the plastic peice out of the slider and pull the needle out the top. Move the e-clip one groove down and put the needle back in how you took it apart. when you put it back in, make sure the slider and needle are VERY clean. if you have a shop manual, it will help with this.
This will richen the throttle in the 1/4-3/4 throttle range for cold weather.
It sounds like your doing some indoor-riding (in lower temps)? If so, you shouldn't have to do any mods.
So instead of going all crasy on jetting, warm up your bike real good, take a lap, stop, take of your glove and put the palm on top of the radiator for a while (around the rad cap). If the bike has the right temp, it should be hot, but not burning hot (you should be able to hold your hand there for atleast 3-4 seconds).
IF you don't get the engine to be that warm, tape your radiators. You'll be fine doing just one of the rads down to very cold temperatures. Tape the second radiator of the two, the one closest to the engine. Once again, take a lap around the track, stop and check the engine temp againg. If it still isn't hot enough, tape the other radiatior to or if the engine feels to warm, rip of a peice of tape, do the same procedure again till you find it okay.
And what ever you do, don't put tape directly on the rad, do it on the fins or you may stop the air-flow/circulation.
Me and my oldes't son a couple of winters ago.
You can also take a lap and hold it WFO on a straight, pull in the clutch and kill the engine (and check out the sparkplug after that).
Even better places to feel the right engine temp is on the backside of the cylinder/head or after the waterpump. Or even better, get on of those temp stripes you can buy and put on the cylinder.
The only time you may need to do any big mods, is if you ride ice hard/fast in very cold conditions or Enduro in alot of snow. Then it's time to jet properly and it can also be useful to isolate the leading edge of the crankcase with, for example. "sleeping pad". This is to prevent condensation on a two-stroke.
You can also do the same procedure around the carb and that way create warmer air into it, which improves jetting problem and prevent the risk of frost in the carburetor.
Some of the guys (during the two-stroke 500cc days) that do our type of ice-racing (high speed supermoto style) also used to put exhuast/header band on the first part of the pipe. When the exhaust gas is cooled quickly, it will reduce peak engine rpm and the engine won't rev as far.
By isolating the pipe to around where it passes the water pump, you maintain the temperatures in the exhaust and hence peak power. Atleast that's what I've gotten to learn (and I'm no tech, what so ever).
Photos courtesy of Niclas Alfredsson.
Just try and warm it up a bit outside out of the wind
Pit Row
Get some of those Fx temp stickers and put one on the back side lower tank of your radiator. Should be in the 160-180 deg. range. These bikes have no thermostat (moto) and need to be kept in the proper heat range. I used to road race two strokes and the rad tape was key to good engine performance. Too hot, you can seize (even a four stroke), too cool and you are throwing away power and the engine components never get up to temp and expand to the sizes they were meant to run at. The piston could be too cold and not fill the bore properly, resulting in accelerated wear. (Like it is already worn out and undersized). Same with bearings, and a lot of other components.
If so, leave the bike alone. You don't need tape, you dont need jetting, because in AX, you will not be running the bike hard enough to have to worry about jetting other than maybe raising the needle one position.
We run in VERY cold conditions and need to jet, tape rads etc, but we are running at speeds of 90+ mph with lots of wide open throttle.
For the most part, leave it alone.
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