I bought a bike that was supposed to be ready to race, now I have to get it READY to RACE

Well, here it is, less than 2 weeks till my first MX race at Sears Point AHRMA Vintage Days West and my new (old) 250 KTM (“It’s ready to race” (how many times have you heard that?)) race bike is spread out all over my garage.   And panic is starting to set in.  When I picked it up at Sand Hill MX about a month ago, I rode it a bit, did a couple laps on the practice course there, and was fairly pleased that it ran and I could actually make it around the track.  Just needed to fix a few minor problems, right?  Kill button doesn’t work, carburetor leaks, tickler doesn’t work, suspension terrible, muffler blew out, front brake sticks, throttle sticks, cables are frayed, chain is crap.  Easy stuff.   The good news is the motor has been rebuild (mains, seals, piston and rings), new tires, and wheel bearings look good, alloy rims look good.  Spoke nipples are rounded off, but all seem tight enough for now.  I know I paid too much for it, but you win some and loose some.  It’s a 75 250 KTM, silver frame, white fenders, red tank and panels.  Qualifies for AHRMA vintage 250 sportsman under ‘like design as 74’ rule.  A bit heavy for a MX, but it is solid and I have never had a Penton break, other than the Sachs selector keys.  This is my first 250 KTM out of about 10 Pentons.

Well I started at the rear and working forward.  The chain is a 530 which is so big and heavy and hard to replace these days, so I got some new sprockets that are 520, and a new DID gold series chain.  While I have the rear wheel off, I decided to clean everything up a bit, so I took the rear brake apart and cleaned it up, and painted the backing plate, looks pretty good.  Replaced a bunch of rusty old nuts and bolts with new hardware.  Axle and axle nut and spacer were rusty and not cleaning up to good, so I got a copy-CAD kit from Coswell and plated them, turned out pretty good.  Took the pipe and airbox off to clean up.  While all that was off, I decided I might as well take the rear fender off and paint the rear part of the frame, turned out real nice.  Bought some new side/number panels and painted them red with white ovals and black numbers, turned out real nice.  Swapped the crapy old white air box for a red one I had, cleaned it up and painted it red, turned out real nice.  Swapped the big old enduro tank for a nice lite MX tank I had, painted it red, put on some 250 Hare Scrambler decals, turned out real nice.  Found a real cool Carl Crank original aftermarked machined gold anadised chain guide/rear brake stay that looks like it will bolt right up in place of the busted up chain guide.  Now I am working on the pipe, need to clean it up, paint it, repack the muffler with new material, and mount a sparky to keep the whole thing together.  Had to fabricate a new bracket for the center mount which is broken.  I have to pull the Works Performance shocks off my 125, and mount them.  Hopefully I can put the whole rear end together by this Friday nite.  Then I have the weekend to do the carburetor rebuild, install all new cables, fabricate some levers, mount new Renthal vintage bend bars, fix the kill button, pull the forks and put in new seals and oil, rebuild the front brake, fabricate and mount new wider foot pegs from an old Husaberg, clean fuel valves (2), install new fuel lines and filter, and button it all up.  Ha!  I really was not planning for a restoration project.  Funny how one thing leads to another in an endless loop.

I am hoping to get it together so I can bring it to Sears on Saturday and do some shakedown after the trials and then be able to do any last minute fiddling sat night so Sunday I don’t have to worry too much about the bike.  My goals for Sunday are modest:  Don’t get hurt, get the bike through tech, get the bike brokein/shakendown, finish at least one race, and beat at least one bike to the finish line.  Well maybe the last two are not so modest.  At least in the +50 class I should be able to beat somebody.  My conditioning is also way behind schedule.  Actually my main goal is to have fun, meet some people and see if I like it.

Eleven days and counting

I got some stuff done last night.  Cleaned up the pipe and cut it off, painted it.  Drilled and taped the Sparky for mounting bolts.  Drilled the bolts for safety wire.  Cleaned up the new sprocket some, not polished much but will have to do.  Started to mount it on the hub and discovered that the allen bolts are rusty and I had no replacements.  Not enough time to replace so I guess I try to wire wheel them and maybe paint them black for tempory fix.  Pulled off the carb and inspected.  Not too bad, some dirt but looked ok and float and needle seem to work.  Still a mystery why it was leaking.  The needle was in the top groove (full lean) position.  Not ideal for breakin so I moved it back to the middle groove.  Hope it still runs.  Cleaned and reassembled.  Mounted new fuel lines, fuel filter (no filter before), and vent lines.  Much better.  Discovered that one of the fuel valves is broke and JB welded.  Not good, so I ordered two new ones, should be here by Friday.  Tonight I want to get the pipe together and mounted, and the sprockets, rear wheel mounted, chain, chain guide, brake etc. all back together.  At that point, if I had the fuel valves I could set the tank on and start it up, see if the carb is still leaking, before I put the air box and boot back on.  One thing (about the only thing I can think of) that I don’t like about Pentons is the exhaust pipe and air box are such a pain to remove and replace.  They are both so tight in the frame, and have to be feed in just right, usually a major fight to get in or out.  And the pipe will not go in or out if the air box is in.  Usually I grind/bend/pound to try to add some clearance to make it easier, but still not easy.  And the boot is very hard to get on.  In all other respects, John Penton and his boys designed the bikes to be very easy to work on out in the field, and they succeeded, except for the pipe and air box.  I guess they never had to  remove them in the field.  A two piece pipe and a slightly smaller airbox and the whole bike could be field striped in minutes.  Oh well.

R minus ten

Made good progress last night.  I built up the rear wheel, with 520x54 sprocket (was 530x52) and brake.  Mounted my new Carl Crank chain guide, only had to redrill 2 of the four mounting holes.  Mounted the wheel assembly and fender and mud guard.  Mounted the new 520x14 front sprocket (was 530x14) and the chain.  All looks pretty cool with the DID gold series chain and the gold anodized chain guide.  I wish I had polished the sprocket a bit more.  It is an old after market sprocket, alloy, but not drilled or slotted.  The original sprocket is slotted which looks real nice.  If I had a mill, I could just mill 1/32 off each side of the old sprocket and use it as it is still in good shape.  Or if I had time and money I could see if Sprocket Specialties would make up one of their real nice sprockets.  They list a KTM250 sprocket but it is a 530 also.  Wow the rear wheel assembly is heavy.  It would have been fun to take the bike all the way down and weigh each piece and see where all the weight is.  I did weigh it as it came to me, 229 pounds, not too bad I guess for an old 250.  I may be able to get it down a few pounds, as my new tank is much smaller and lighter, and the alloy bars will save a couple ounces, and the WP shocks will save a pound maybe, then add back several ounces of Locktite.  And the muffler will be a little heavier with the packing inside, but a little shorter too.  I’ll weigh it when it is all back together.  My guess, 227.  Anybody know what an Ellsinore or 250 Mag or CZ weigh?  The best way to save some weight would be for me to loose about 30 pounds!

Also went through the carb again.  I think the pilot jet may have been plugged.  Big ol carb, 40mm Bing.  Started packing the pipe with muffler material, but since it was 1am by that time and I needed to cut the baffle, I figured I should wait and not wake up all my neighbors again.  Tonight I should be able to finish the pipe and install it.  Then I want to get my WP shocks off the 125 Penton and install them.  I am excited about the shocks as the shocks that came with this bike are pure trash.  I wish I had some decent shocks to put on the 125.  Since I don’t have the fuel valves yet, I can’t test the carb yet, so I don’t want to put the airbox in yet so not much more I can do on the rear of the bike, so probably start on the front.  I found some forks (35mm Cerriani) that look real nice that I had forgotten I had.  If they work, it would save me having to deal with fork seals right now.  And I want to get the new cables installed and the new bars and and …….

R minus 9

Finally I got the muffler together and pipe mounted.  What a job.  Hope I never have to remove it again.  Looks pretty good.  Finished clear coating the tank, looks pretty good except for a couple of small runs which nobody will notice.  Painting in my poorly lit garage late at night makes it hard to see little things like runs.  Good part is it keeps it out of the wind and bugs till it is dry.  Put on the new wide pegs.   Put on new kick starter and new shifter rubber.  Started working on the new clutch cable and mag side cover.  Looks like my new (old) sidecover is not going to fit very well.  I looked for the oil drain plug and filler plug as I need to take off the clutch side cover also.  Looks like the filler plug is directly under the carb?  So the carb has to be moved out of the way first?  Not cool.  Anybody had a 250 KTM before?

R minus 8

The new side cover does not fit!  Bummer.  Had it all painted up real nice!  Plus it cost me a pretty penny.  Had to clean up the old one and paint it.  It will be ok, just not as nice, and it’s only a half cover.  It leaves the clutch actuator, drive sprocket and chain hanging out in the open.  I know the racers like it open, but I prefer to have it covered as I often jump on the bikes and ride a bit just to get it warmed up or something with out boots or riding pants.  I hate it when my pants cuff gets in the chain.  Oh well, it will have to do for now.  Got the new clutch cable and front brake cable lubed up and installed, even though I wanted to wait till I got the new bars and levers installed.  But I was starting to worry that if the cables were wrong, I would not have time to replace them.  They work real nice now, what a difference!  The old ones were sooooo bad!  If this bike was ready to race, I wonder what ………… na, better not go there.  Tonight I gotta get the front brake fixed, then I could, if I had to, put it together and ride.  I am still hoping to do something with the front forks tho.  And I am still worried about the carb leak test.  I found a real nice fuel cap and polished it up real nice.  Put some wax on the tank hopefully to protect it some agains fuel spills.  Oh ya, still got to do the rear shocks.

R minus 7

Got the fuel valves from AMS racing.  Gouped them up and mounted them.  Gouped up the mag side cover and mounted it.  As soon as I get the rear shocks on, I can put some gas in and see if anything leaks.  If no leaks, I can see if it starts and if I can ride it long enough to get the oil nice and hot, I can change the oil.  That will only leave the front brake/forks/bars/levers.  No sweat.

R minus 6

It’s alive, It’s alive!  Finally got brave enough to put gas in the tank.  With some fiddling, got the valves and lines (two fuel valves and a tee and a filter so 4 fuel lines each with 2 ends so eight connections plus the valves themselves) to stop leaking.  The carb is still leaking!  The float needle valve does not close.  I took it apart several times and tried different things.  Tried different floats, no help.  Out of all my Bings, none of the other needles valves are the same so I gotta get a new one quick.  Had to find some new bolts for the seat, and of course the welded on nuts on the back side of the frame were stripped.  I found some nuts that would wedge in and stay put so it worked out ok.  Swapped the shocks from the 125, and of course had to find bolts and drill and push and bend etc. to get the shocks to fit.  Turned out real nice.  Started up on the second kick!  What a relief.  Got the kill button working by giving it a good ground.  Fiddled the front brake enough to be ridable sorta.  Rode a bit and everything worked.

R minus 5

After church yesterday, I pulled the front wheel off to see what the problem is with the brake.  I had sorta been leaving this torwards the end as I thought it would be pretty easy.  Well of course nothing is pretty easy.  The axle has some sort of sleeve on it that fits over the axle and the hub bearings fit on the sleeve, and the sleeve has some threads on it and a nut that does nothing.  Of course the sleeve was stuck to the axle and the hub was stuck to the sleeve and the nut was (still is) stuck to the sleeve.  Such a waste of time.  I got most of it apart, and the brake shoes look great.  Like brand new.  And the reason they were not returning is somebody had done such a good job of cleaning and then forgot to lube the actuating cam.  Dry as a parched bone in the desert.  I put some grease on it and it works great.  I cleaned up everything and cad plated some of the hardware and replaced the rest.  And painted the backing plate.  All looks good, just got to get it back together.  As you probably guessed, I am not going to get the forks off this time around.  I am still hoping to change the oil so I will at least have a baseline for future reference, and maybe some better action.

R minus 4

Last night after trying unsuccessfully to find somebody with a needle valve for the big Bing, I tried once more to make it work.  After swapping flots, needle valves, gaskets etc. and sanding the needle (I know, I know, but I was desperate) I think it works good enough to get me through the weekend.  I’ll have to do a real carb rebuild later.  And one of the fuel line connections was giving me problems again.  I tried everything.  If I use ¼ inch line, it will seal nicely, but will not pull off (which is good) but to get the carb off to work on, I need to get the fuel line off of it.  When I use 5/16 line, it goes on pulls off nice, but leaks.  I tried the little fuel line clippies, I tried hose clamps, I tried everything and then I decided to try safety wire.  Viola, it works.  And looks much better than the hose clamps.  I don’t know why it works and a clamp doesn’t, but that’s ok.  Means I have to carry sw and sw pliers in my tool box, but better than leaking or having to cut the line to get it off.  Now, if I can just get the front wheel back together, and get the air box into the frame.

R minus 3

I got the front wheel back on finally.  Should have been easy, and mostly was but for one small problem.  The brake cam shaft (the shaft that has the cam that expands the shoes) has serrations on the outside end that the lever arm slips on, and then threads (8mm x 1.0 medium) for a nut that holds the lever on.  Well, the nut was crap so I tried a new nut and it would not even start on the threads.  Got out my thread gage to make sure, checked the shaft and the nut, both the same.  Got out my tiny file and my magnifying glasses and cleaned up the threads, especially at the starting end.  Still no go.  Got out my tap and die set and the die would not even start.  Double checked again to make sure it was not US threads or something stupid.  Checked out, 8mm medium.  Time to get mean.  Ground off the first thread and forced the die on and cut new threads.  Not pretty, but the nut went on and with some loctite, should be fine.  Not much force acting on the nut anyway.  I’ll have to find a new piece when I get a chance.  Rest went together ok.  Front break feels real nice now.

R minus 2

Simple job tonight, drain and refill the forks while installing new bars (bars have to come off in order to get the caps off).  One hour, tops.  Right.  Pulled the drain screws and nothing came out.  Pulled off the grips, throttle, levers, bars, caps, and springs, and pumped the forks a bit, still nothing.  Poked things in the holes and got some goo out.  OK, I’ll fix it.  Stuck the air hose in the drain hole and pulled the trigger!  Out came all the goo thru the top of the forks and all over my nice clean bike.  After lots of air, and several flusings with mineral sperits, the forks were loosening up pretty good.  Clean everything up and put in some ATF (cause it’s cheap) to flush out any remaining spirits, and put in 185cc 10 wt BelRay.  Polish the caps.  Vent holes in caps were plugged up solid.  Cleaned them out, and made sure the little balls and springs worked.  Install new bars and buton it all back up.  Forks feel like real forks now.  Only took three hours.

R minus 1

Saturday at Sears Point was great!  I rode my Montesa 348 Cota in the AHRMA Trials, 2 line.  Got there early enough to do some warmup ridig around.  Meet up with Jim Connally and John Sweeny and we rode around to see if we could find the sections.  Unfortunatley we were going the wrong direction so could not follow arrows.  Anyway we rode a lot but not really a good warm up for trials.  Anyway, the 2 line was pretty difficult and I really stunk up the first loop (21 points), and did a back flip on one of the early sections which sapped all my energy.  Second loop went much better (17 points) and finally, the third loop I got it together and rode the way I should have from the start (4 points).  My concentration really was not into trials early on, and that was not good.  And my rear brake is still bad, grabs and looks up with the slightest touch.  But I had a great time.  After the trials, I unloaded the KTM and rode it around some.  What a transistion!  From trials bike to MX  in five easy minutes.  One likes to go slow, and one likes to go fast.   Took a little bit to get used to steering with the throttle and rear wheel, but it sure felt good.  Ran and handled real nice.  Starts right up first or second kick every time.  Jetting seems to be real close.  Bottom end seems to be getting stronger as the rings seat in.  I think the gearing is too high.  I tried some MX style starts, second gear bogs unless I really rev it hard and slip the clutch a bit.  First gear starts winds out too fast.  I think if I go up a few teeth on the back, maybe to 58 or 60 (currently 54), I’ll be able to do better on the second gear starts.  When I do get it right (about one out of 4 tries) it carries the front wheel till it peaks, then I am too slow shifting to third.  I need lots more practice.  After about ten wild starts, the clutch was starting to get hot.  That is probably normal?  I abused it pretty bad.  It came right back after a minute or two of more normal riding.  Seems to like to shift better without the clutch, just a twitch of the throttle and a nudge and it goes right in.  I am used to clutchless shifting on Hondas, but with my Montesas and Huskys and Sachs motor Pentons, I am much more gentle.  Again, I need lots more practice.  Suspension felt pretty good.  Tires seem to stick ok on the grass and loose dirt.  I went over and registered, and then to tech.  Passed tech with only two minor problems.  He thought I had too much travel in the rear, and sold me a pair of spacers (installed for free) about 3/16 inch thick to fit under the rubber cushins in the shocks.  I had just tested the travel the night before and with my son and I both bouncing on it, it would not even move 3 inches.  Oh well.  As long as it’s the same for everybody.  He also thought my fork stem bearings were loose.  I can feel just the slightest bit of play, but I don’t think I can get them any tighter.   He gave me the little green dot and I was happy.  First race tomorrow, +50 and +60 novice.  I’m ready!  I can’t wait.

Race day

The good news is I didn’t get hurt.  The bad news is I didn’t race.  By the time I woke up Sunday morning, I just was not into it.  Peaked to soon and burned out.  If the race was Saturday afternoon, I would have done great.  Except I had already used up most of my energy for the day.  Staying at the track overnight would have been great.  Probably would have kept up the excitement and woke up to screaming 2 strokes and caster oil.  Awsome.  Instead I woke up at home with all the responsibilities and problems of a single parent that I had neglected for 4 weeks, and just wasn’t into it.  I had a great day though, after church I got all my spring yard work done in front so the neighbors won’t complain for a while when they see me working in the garage on bikes all the time.  And went to my son’s Mission to Mexico Celebration Dinner which I really did not want to miss and may have been a big factor in the whole deal.  Anyway, I feel good about the progress I made, and  glad to have a little time to work on the physical and mental conditioning before the next race.  I notice that I am a little nervious about running with the pack.  Hopefully I’ll be able to practice some before then.  The bike stood up well for the riding I did do.  Nothing fell off or broke, everything still tight, even the chain.  It starts first or second kick everytime, and never missed a beat.  The carb did not leak, and seems fine so I may just leave well enough alone, although with my luck, if I know it is not right and don’t fix it, it usually comes back to bite me sooner or later.  I did remount the front fender Sunday, the PO had put it on crooked and it drove me nuts.  Much better now.  I’m going to try to get a little bigger rear sprocket, and a rebuild kit for the giant Bing, but nothing major.  Someday I want to respoke the wheels as the nipples are all rounded off, maybe when I put new tires on.  There is a race next month in Tulare I would love to ride, but that is about five hours away, which means at least one overnight, which is really hard for me.  Maybe.  Anybody going to that one?  Then in June is Dixon which is much closer and more likely I can make.  Anybody going to that one?