Spark plug cleaning, save ole sparky for another day

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Hard core racers change spark plugs before every race to insure that they don’t have a DNF from a simple inexpensive part.  But for the rest of us that cannot afford to throw a plug away after every ride or race.  Especially because some of our machines require those iridium style plugs that can be up to $14 each!  Here is a nifty tool that can make worn or carbon fouled plugs new again, or at least new enough to be a spare back up plug to carry in case of emergencies.  The tool runs off of air with some abrasive that “blasts” the plug to remove deposits to allow the fouled plug to fire again.  It only takes a few blasts of air to clean a typical carbon or oil fouled plug, so you could do this with a portable air tank.  This makes it possible to bring it (with air tank) with you in your tool box.  Now obviously this will not fix plugs that failed because of cracked insulators, eroded electrodes, or other physical damage.  Best part about this tool is it can be had for under $10, well worth the price to extend the life of a plug that has electrodes that are in good shape but just is fouled to the point that electricity will not jump the gap.

A Diamond in the Rough: Christmas Valley Sand Dunes

MSRP on a Honda TRX 450R: $6,999.  Enough gas to make it there and back: $200.  11,000 acres of windswept, untouched sand beneath your paddle tires: priceless!  For one sleepy little town in central Oregon, Christmas lasts all year long.  At least for the ATV enthusiasts that live there that is. [Read more]

A Look Back At 2008

We here at ATV Sport often have to keep the throttle pinned even when we aren’t riding. You see, in the magazine industry, you’re always faced with a deadline and always thinking about the future. It’s such a regular occurrence that we often forget to look back and review the past year. For this year, we decided to skim through our own mags and highlight a few things from each issue. Enjoy.

2008 March
Big Feature: 450cc Class Woods Shootout
Racing Highlight: Racer of the Year
Hot Product: Elka System 3 Dampener (www.elkasuspension.com)
Funny Line: In answering the question, “What does your racing contract with Yamaha involve?” Brandon Sommers answers, “Letters, sentences and paragraphs. He he!”
On The Cover: 450 TEST (450cc sport models)

’08 April
Big Feature: Speed Freaks – Big-bore Woods Shootout
Racing Highlight: Off-road Birthday Bash – Baja Turns 40
Hot Product: Epic Racing Products Fun Fueler (www.epicracingproducts.com)
Funny Line: On describing Mike Cafro’s scamper in his underwear in Baja, author Jesse Wozniak wrote, “At this point, Cafro said he stripped down to his underwear, slung his gear over his shoulders and ran back to his 450.”
On The Cover: Feel The Power (Open class trail quads)

’08 May
Big Feature: Honda’s Hero – 400EX Revitalized
Racing Highlight: Built To Last – WBGO’s excellent coverage of 6 endurance quads and what makes them tick.
Hot Product: LEATT Brace (www.leatt-brace.com)
Funny Line: “He must be OK folks, he’s waving off his mother.” Cody Anderson describing the announcer’s post-race comments at a local race.
On The Cover: Ride For Fun (Honda 400EX)

’08 June
Big Feature: Building XX – In –depth look at Honda’s 700XX
Racing Highlight: Happy Go Yokley – In-depth interview with GNCC racer William Yokley
Hot Product: Steering Stabilizers Buyer’s Guide
Funny Line: When asked, What new things will we see on your quad this year? Yokley answered, “A rider with no belly handing over his belt, and the National Guard as my title sponsor.”
On The Cover: Sexy Quads (Yamaha YFZ GYTR)

’08 July/August
Big Feature: Sport Quad of the Year (Can-Am DS 450)
Racing Highlight: And They’re Off! Glen Helen AMA Pro ATV Opener
Hot Product: Youth Quad Buyer’s Guide
Funny Line: “Notice I said ‘race photo.’ Nobody wants to see a picture of you and your nerdy sister eating cake on your 5th birthday,” said Number 87 columnist Cody Anderson in his “The Sponsor Game” column.
On The Cover: Big-Bore 700XX (Honda’s open-class sport model)

’08 September
Big Feature: Big-bore Open-Class shootout
Racing Highlight: Super Cool – ATV Supermoto outside of Las Vegas
Hot Product: Dual Exhaust Buyer’s Guide
Funny Line: “When I first started racing, I wore jeans, a jean jacket, a helmet and combat boots,” explained GNCC veteran and multi-time Vet class champion John Gallagher.
On The Cover: Big 5 Shootout (Open class quads)

’08 October

Big Feature: 2009 New Models Previews & Tests (Kawasaki/Can-Am/Polaris/Yamaha/Arctic Cat/Suzuki
Racing Highlight: The Farr Side: Team FRE KTM

Hot Product: Hit The Dirt (Trail tire Buyer’s Guide)
Funny Line: “If I was a tomato, I’d find the first jalapeno and kick his spicy little ___! I get blamed for his salmonella outbreak— stupid!” Editor Jerrod Kelley said in his column.
On The Cover: Battle-Ready Quads from Can-Am (DS 450 X xc & X mx)

’08 November

Big Feature: 2009 New Model Previews & Tests (Yamaha/Arctic Cat/Can-Am/Polaris/ Suzuki/KTM)

Racing Highlight: Local Talent – AWRCS series by Amy McConnell
Hot Product: Iomega eGo Portable hard drive (www.iomega.com)
Funny Line: “We all know General Mills’ Lucky Charms is an tremendous cereal — incredible taste performance, high-quality packaging, brightly colored marshmallows and that awesome leprechaun. Did you know, however, that the generic Malt-O-Meal knockoff, Marshmallow Mateys, delivers almost the same sugary enjoyment for a fraction of the cost?” Contributing editor Tom Kaiser led off the off-brand 450cc four-stroke model story with this quote.
On The Cover: Built To Win (KTM SX quads)

’08 December
Big Feature: 2009 Yamaha YFZ450R

Racing Highlight: Three Men & A Cat

– Fines Double Racing Team’s Arctic Cat Thunderc

at & Racing The Vegas to Reno event.

Hot Product: DRD Raptor 250 Exhaust (www.dubachracing.com)
Funny Line: “Just figure out what is going to be in the path if you go straight, because you’re going to be there, and you’re going to hit it, whether it’s a barbed wire fence, rock, a cow, an abandoned car, a ditch or a cliff,” said Danny Prather about the Honda 700XX’s handling.
On The Cover: New YFZ450R (Yamaha’s new 450cc four-stroke)

Looking back, my 1973 Kawasaki F11

For most of us the winter weather interrupts our riding adventures and forces us to burrow ourselves into our garages and ultimately onto our computers. It also allows us to have more time to think about past events, rides, and even machines. I spoke briefly about this in an earlier post http://www.atvmagblog.com/2008/12/02/reflections-of-machines-gone-past/ As I was writing I thought to myself, everyone has some stories about their machines, past and present. Well this is my story about one of those bikes in the collection.

The bike I chose for this blast from the past for this week is the 1973 Kawasaki F11 (250cc).  First off just a little bit of history on the bike when it was new.  The bike itself was not really a revolution in motorcycling.  Loosely based on the frame and engine of the KX250 works bikes released the same year, the F11 was the “enduro” or dual purpose version of the KX.  For those too young or ignorant to read up on the evolution of offroad motorcycling, motorcycles in general sold in the US had to have some street legal prowess to even be considered by most potential buyers, partially because of the oil embargo of the 70’s.  At the time public perception was that if the bike was “offroad only” it was not a good value because you had to have a means of transportation to the track or trail, at a time when pickups were strictly for work or utility and the sport ute was 20 years away.  The F11 was a bargain with a MSRP of $495 compared to say a (superior) European offroad only race bike had MSRP’s of $1,000 or more and were not street legal.  This was also at a time when the term big bore machine meant 250 and 350cc machines.  Designed to compete head to head with Yamahas DT1 it fared well with the “green streak” modifications (similar to Yamaha’s GYT-kits, pronounced “git-kit”).  The F11 was a departure from Kawasaki’s traditional rotary valve 2 strokes being a more typical piston port machine.  The F11 only had a production run of 2 years before it was dropped and the KX250 was the only bike that filled the 250cc single cylinder spot.

Ok with a little background on the bike out of the way here is my experience with the bike.  I didn’t acquire the bike new of course, and I was not necessarily looking for that particular bike, lets just say it found me.  Back in the 90’s my family always took vacations around the country, with regular trips back and forth to Denver from our home in south central Nebraska.  One trip back from a vacation we stopped by an old Kawasaki dealership in a town of about 7,000 total population, (McCook,NE).  From time to time we would stop in to “shop” their back lot and storage room, well this time they had acquired a 1969 H1 500cc triple (street bikes we collect) and as we dickered on the price of the for the 500, the dealer asked “Is there anything else you want back here?”  I had spy-ed the F11 sitting way in the back under a good layer of dirt. ”I said what do you want for that?”  The dealer replied, “Well I will just give you that since your already buying the 500, anything else you see that you would like to take off my hands?”  We also came home with a DT175 that had been hit by a car, but that’s another story.  We paid for the 500 and a day later I made a trip back to the dealer for the 3 bikes. 

After getting it home and doing some preliminary cleaning and adjustments, I proceeded to try to fire the bike.  Everything was in spec, carburetor, ignition points set correctly and in time, but it just would not fire and run.  Upon a compression test revealed very low compression, I kinda suspected it in the beginning but I have made bikes in worse shape run and run well, so I didn’t think a whole lot about it. A tear down for a top end was in store.  Now I found out why the dealer gave it away with the other bike, the piston had a small piece missing on the crown near the edge of the ring land.  Ok not a big deal, I have done top ends before, no biggie.  Sourcing the parts was the real challenge and probably the reason the original owner abandoned it at the dealer years ago.  The piston, rings, and wrist pin were obsolete from the OEM and Wiesco.  In the days before Ebay and the Internet, my only shot was either find a bone yard bike/engine that was in better shape that I could rob the parts out of (not my first choice) or find some NOS (new old stock) parts.  Through many phone calls to dealers spanning the country, I got a tip of a guy that buys up dealers parts inventories when they go out of business.  I thought SCORE!  Well this was a mixed blessing as the guy only has the parts cataloged by part number on micro-fiche.  So without an OEM part number he could not tell me if he had the part(s) or not.  With some digging on some old micro-fiche parts diagrams I got my numbers, and sure enough he had all the parts I needed NOS.  Fast forward a month or two later I had basically a “new” 1973 F11M. 

Many good memories were had on that bike.  I hate to fathom how many hours I put on that machine.  At the time it was all I had for a motocross bike, even though it was not a true mx bike.  The thing was heavy hovering around the 300 pound mark, and suspension was sub-par even for its day, 4 inches in the front and about 3.5 in the rear with little to no damping to control the springs.  I felt I handled the bike well considering its drawbacks and ultimately I believe made me a better rider for the future when I would update my equipment.  I am a firm believer that ANY rider should cut their teeth on a vintage or lower performing bike for a while before they go head first in to one of these cutting edge machines.  Below is a link of me and my friends riding these bikes back in the day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9O1pdW1o4g

Goin’ for a test ride

My first opportunity to work as a test rider for ATV Sport Magazine was nothing short of spectacular. Back in July, ATV Sport Editor and chief Jerrod Kelley contacted me about participating in this new blog. I was ecstatic for the opportunity to be considered for the position and set out immediately in hopes of making an impact on our sport.

[Read more]

Reflections of machines gone past…

Now I know this is an ATV site but nearly anyone should be able to relate to the following story. Everyone has that one or many machines that bring back a fond memory of the past.

What ever you want to call it, reminiscing, memories or just shameless self promotion. I was vacationing back at my old stomping grounds in Nebraska where I grew up on my folks farm. While I was back there I ended up helping my folks clean up from the ending harvest season which ultimately meant putting all our restored and currently ridden bikes into winter storage, to make room for the farm equipment. This meant moving them from the main shop into a dedicated storage shed. Hold on, maybe I better back this up a bit.

I grew up on a family farm that my folks still farm to this day. My dad and mom rode motorcycles in the 60’s and 70’s so naturally that was one of the hobbies growing up (that and restoring old cars). Being a farmer we never got rid of anything because “you never know when you may need this or that”. Some of my school mates rode as well and in those days we bought bikes for nothing fixed them, rode them, fixed them, rode them and on. The phrase “RAMP IT!” seemed to claim a lot of bikes back then. Usually the night before a ride we had to fix what we broke the weekend before, and many parts were just hard to find. This was before E-Bay so trips to motorcycle boneyards and leads on junk bikes were regular occurrences.

Of course along the way we collected bikes and restored them not really for show, but just for fun and to make reliable drivers out of them. I did this throughout my teens and twenty’s through college. Graduating college and starting a career the bikes of my past got pushed back into storage as I scaled back a bit (student loans can do that you know) I carefully selected only a few bikes that I could store and ride in my new “home”. For these I chose my Kawasaki KX250 for track and trail riding, Gas Gas TXT321 for trials, and KZ400 for commuting (later to be replaced by my Buell XB9SX). This meant I had to put all the rest on hold for the future.

Fast forward to the future (present). I was getting a bit nostalgic and as I pushed the bikes around I decided to get a group photo of all the old bikes from my past. Each bike has its own little story about it, whether it be how I acquired it or some memorable event while riding it. It should be noted that really none of these bikes are worth a fortune, some have historical significance and are collectible for that reason, but most just carry sentimental value. Possibly in future articles I might delve into some of the bikes are tell my story about the bike as well as telling a bit of history about the bike from when it was new.

Feel free to express some of your fond memories of bikes or atvs of your past in the comment area.

click below for videos

Team MGR memories

Team MGR from way back

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Flipping Amazing!!!

Two wheels or four, the world of freestyle motocross has come a long way from the days of Jeremy McGrath and the nac nac. I realize this is an ATVBlog, but then again my area of expertise as they call it is “lifestyle” so I figure that encompasses all aspects of the motorsport world. This past weekend I had the opportunity to visit the home of Justin Homan a freestyle MX rider from central Oregon. Depending on which day of the week you catch him, you’d probably never place this guy as one of the founding fathers of freestyle motocross. [Read more]

2008 Oregon Dune Fest Part 2

 

As promised, I have completed the second of the so called highlight reels from this years Oregon Dune Fest. Sadly, inclement weather made for a whole lost day of shooting so most of this action was from Saturday’s events.  Please don’t hesitate to leave feedback on the videos and also check out other related videos on my website at www.LocalHeroesNW.com  Enjoy!!! [Read more]

Shiver

There’s just something amazing about riding in the snow.  The challenge of taking an ATV deep into the remote wilds of the Bitteroot mountains gets my blood flowing.  When the weather is below freezing and the snow is chest deep, well… the experience becomes surreal, the challenge amplified, the test of your skill augmented only by your will to continue. 

It’s man and machine vs. mother nature.  The ability to take a quad where only snow machines dare tread.  The realization that if something goes wrong, it can become a matter of survival.  The solitude, because nobody else is crazy enough to be out there.

Prerequisite are planning and preparation, an intimate knowledge and familiarity of your ATV.  You’ll need technique, not the biggest badest machine and tires that money can buy.  Required is the mastery of your throttle. Knowing when to get off the throttle and not dig in.  Knowing when you need to pin it, for more wheel speed, to keep your forward momentum.  An ability to feel the ATV in the snow and know what is required to keep moving on, climbing higher, deeper.  A proficiency to read the snow and terrain, every day is different, every trip a new challenge, the trail is constantly changing with every new snow fall or midday’s melt.

Backwoods winters are not for everyone; you must be well-equipped, and knowledgeable.  For the adventurous and hardy, experienced and seasoned, you will in every day have the thrill of your life. 

Keep the rubber side down.  -Mark

For more videos check out our YouTube Channel.

Harvest Time

Assuming the demographic of a lot of ATV riders I’m sure a lot of you are gearing up for long days and short nights.  That’s right, it’s harvest time again!

 

I wasn’t lucky enough to grow up on a farm; my dad is an accountant so I spent my childhood in Iowa City, IA, an average sized city.  We lived in a good size home in a great neighborhood and I certainly had no shortage of toys, just a shortage of space to use those toys.  Luckily, my dad grew up on a farm no more than an hour away.  I always enjoyed going to visit my grandpa and my uncle (he helped my grandpa run the farm) and help during harvest time.  We would always make it once or twice a year, usually during the corn harvest since that’s when they could use the most help.  I started riding with the adults in numerous machines, and then began helping them drive trucks when they had to switch fields.  One time, when I was 12, I even drove the truck down the wrong lane on the highway for about 2 miles before realizing it.  I quickly graduated up to pulling the grain cart by the time I was 16, even traveling the hour from home without my dad a few times. 

I always loved going to the farm and have always envied people that could make their living doing it.  I still remember being at the University of Iowa, where ironically half of the students are from Chicago, and having to explain to them what hard work is actually like and that farmers aren’t just dumb hicks.  I remember one guy bragging about his $100,000 Mercedes his daddy bought him, I quickly shot back with “Oh yeah? We have a $250,000 combine we use 2 months out of the year.” That shut him up.

 

Two years ago my grandpa passed away leaving the farm to the family.  Although his four children (my dad included) still own a chunk of the farm, my uncle runs the day to day operations of the 2500 acre farm with the help of one employee.  This year the weather has been bad, causing a late planting and thus, a late harvest with a shorter amount of time to get the crops out.  Because of this I have decided to live at the farm for a month and help with the harvest.  I am lucky to have the flexibility in my life to this, although I will have to try to find some way to set a laptop up in the combine! Most of my decision was based on how much I enjoy being out there.  I get a sense of zen from cutting rows of corn, or busting across a field in an 8330 pulling a 700 bushel Kinze cart, or just jamming through 18 gears on my way back to the field to pick up another load.  Call me crazy, but I love it!

 

So many times the farmer goes unrecognized, when most people know that the farmer is the beginning of most product cycles.  So if you are a farmer or even have a family farm, thank you! It is because of people like you that our country runs, I am truly envious that you have found a way to make a living doing something so important that you obviously love. 

 

If you haven’t already hit the field take a few days to relax, go for a long ride, or just spend some time with some loved ones, it’s going to be a long 8 weeks!

 

On a side note, I may not be blogging for awhile unless I can get that laptop hooked up in the combine!

 

And of course, as I mentioned in my first post, I plan to include a cool ATV video from the web in each blog.  So here you go, courtesy of ATVonDemand.com

 Testing Dustin Wimmers Championship Winning LTR-450

 

Catch you on the flip side!

 

-Brad Phillips

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