glenview09

One other part of the car that is worth looking at is the wheels. It is easier to distinguish movement of the car from the relative rotation of the wheel nuts rather than looking for motion of the whole vehicle. This gives you a bit more notice if the car starts moving. Keep safe and ride defensively.

As Sheeny7 says, sounds like the clutch but the oil leak is worrying. On the YPVS the clutch/ oil pump cover is much more accessible than the gears because the engine splits horizontally. You need to get into that side anyway to start the investigation. If there was a total loss of power and the crank has been rebuilt recently it may be the primary gear on the crank that drives the oil pump and the clutch basket that has come adrift. I think that the nut needs to be swaged to retain it. Still can't explain the oil unless the shrapnel did the damage. (Are you sure it is transmission oil and not 2T oil drained from the 2 stroke oil pump.) Gonna have to start stripping it.

If you are doing 1600 km (1000 mile) per month you should consider a scottoiler. Payback would be fairly quick. Given the state of the chain in the photo you could get as little as 6000 miles out of the chain. That would be 2 chains per year .. approx £140. Scottoiler is about £70 in the UK. Factor in the hassle factor of having to lube the chain the conventional way, particularly if you do not have a centre stand or paddock stand. I bought a scottoiler for a TRX that will do less than 4000 per year, just because I'm lazy. No I don't work for them. Squirrel

Quick warning though. Do not replace the ones holding the screen to the fairing. They should be made of plastic plastic and are designed to shear as your body passes through the screen. Doesn't really make sense because you are then doubtlessly going to hit something much harder. Last time I did it I ripped 6" of skin between my torso and pelvis with the clutch lever (called a laparotomy apparently). Pity you can't hold the handlebars on with plastic bolts..

Original equipment exhausts tend to avoid blueing because they use twin wall construction, the inner is heated up by the exhaust gasses. The outer one looks nice (until it rusts). I'm sure as a metallurgist I should know the chemical reaction that is taking place. Oxidation of the chrome plating or something. There is loads of heat coming from the exhaust gasses (>600C). Restrictions in the pipe (baffles or power reducing washers) will reduce the ability to dissipate the gas out the hole in the back. There is some discussion in the following links about how to avoid it. Some cite tuning (over rich mixture...blocked air filter?) but all bikes with aftermarket exhausts do it. I think it looks good. http://www.cycleexhaust.com/articles/blue_exhaust.html http://forums.sportbikes.net/forums/archiv...php/t-1321.html http://www.chromeheads.org/cgi-bin/discus/...pc=6&post=14037 Good luck. Squirrel

Scottoilers are brilliant and I wish I bothered to spend the £70 or so on each of my bikes (but I don't) You need to use the induction of the engine to suck the plunger out of the base of the scottoiler and allow the oil to flow to the injection head. If the bike has a vacuum fuel tap it is best to break into that hose. Identify the vacuum hose, it is normally the smaller diameter, (pull it off, if fuel comes out you are wrong!). Cut the hose so that you have room to put the Tee shaped hose fitting in, insert the Tee fitting and rejoin the vacuum hoses, putting the scottoiler vacuum on the remaining stub. If the bike has no vacuum tap the best way is to identify the stubs on the inlet manifold (between the carbs and the barrels (is the R6 fuel injected? this may not work). On each of these stubs there is a test port about 4mm in diameter with a rubber cap on it. This is used to balance the carbs. Removed the cap (probably easiest on LH cylinder, worst on 2 inner inlets) and fit the scottoiler vac tube there. If there are no test ports you need to make your own. Remove air filter / carbs/ intake stub and drill stub so that you can put the vacuum stub in from the inside. This is a lot of work but not likely to be needed for a bike this new. Whatever you do do not run the engine with any of these induction hoses open to air (you will probably hear the sucking) cos you can ingest dirty air rather than putting it through the air filter. Take a look here http://www.scottoiler.co.uk/support_fitting.asp , they are sure to have good advice. Sq

Any suggestions of good tyres for 1996 TRX? Only just bought it with mich macadam 100x (F120/60zr17 R160/60zr17). I See on one web site that they are crap but they feel OK to me, even when squared. Must be sticky, well able to lean / cheap, last millions of years. Always expect too much. Current quote £150 pair.

Just realised that Bandit is a Suzuki Not concentrating! The other 2 are correct though.

Help, just joined forum, just bought TRX850 to go into my collection. Been trying to find info / comments on it but the search engine here does not like TRX or 850 or TRX 850 or "TRX 850" or TRX* (get the idea). Yams are only called by 3 letters (except bandit, faser, virago..etc.). Any ideas how to search for model numbers - you need a rule to drop the spaces or allow and 3 letters that are nomenclature. Ideas?

I bought a 1996 20k mile Blue TRX850 in Ayrshire, Scotland after a fairly good test ride in the dry on Sunday this week. Collected it on Monday in the rain and hated it, engine braking agressive if you back off on roundabouts; suspension seemed too soft. Even in dry on Wednesday the bike did not seem as surefooted as I wanted...(anybody knows what is coming next?).... yesterday changed all the suspension settings to standard and blew up the tyres (not used since Aug 04, only at 26 psi f/r). Handling this morning was shit hot. . Moral of story, don't slag bike before checking settings. In my defence I had checked oil level. Seems almost as good at handling as my TZR250 but with the extra power that you really need on the straights. Grins all round on the way to work (15 miles) Bought it to replace my GPx750 which was too unreliable and wanted to travel at 135mpg everywhere (despite my protestations, officer!). Definitely slower but fast enough to make life interesting. The torque delivery is really interesting after high revving RD350F2, TDR250, TZR250 toys. Takes some time getting used to but more appropriate now I'm mature. Buy one now!