cowpuc

Yes, that is a rubber surface imbedded into the choke "piston".. The system works by that piston being pulled open which opens a passage way for fuel to be pulled from the float bowl and moved into the carb throat.. It is adds fuel, and does not lessen the air.. If it were mine I would see if I could remove the choke assembly rods (rod with piston) without removing the carbs.. Open the drain valves on the carbs, take some carb cleaner and place the little straw thingy on the carb cleaner - slide it down the hole where that piston slides and try to squirt thru the passage way until I was getting carb cleaner out of the carb drains. Take a close look at the seals imbedded in the pistons (those are not replaceable to my knowledge - you have to buy the whole piston and shaft to replace the seal) - make sure they are still nice and flat - not bloated from the Chemdip.. Also,, before you do anything,, work the choke on your scoot and make sure those piston arms are being pulled all the way out.. If they are not being pulled all the way out because the mechanism is out of adjustment, the choke will not work enough to cold start..

@Flyinfool usually starts taking orders and running fall specials this time of year.. Not sure how far south he ships,,, seems like I remember reading about him shipping as far south as Atlanta last year at a very reasonable rate.. Might wanna give him a shout BUT,, I forewarn you Beachy,, he runs his Wisconsin White Wash business like one of those old Book Club deals,, once ya get em started its HARD to get em to shut it off!!

Awesome Venny!! That being the case,, you would probably really have fun on a 250 2 stroke MX bike.. Can always toss a flywheel weight on one of those too if you wanted to - 8 oz weight on a 250 is amazing!! That would really mellow out the hit and add trail torque. Another thing that I liked doing with my MX converted to trail bikes was either finding a rear wheel off a matching "enduro" bike and swapping it or lacing up an 18 inch rim on the stock MX hub. A KDX 250 Kawi matched my KX perfectly. Most (if not all) MX bikes come with 19 inch rear wheels and run a lower profile tire.. Works good on an MX track but most woods riders (myself included) liked the 18 inch better = taller profile tires, far better selection of tires (can run cheap ones too) and you can squeeze a much wider tire under your scoot and run lower air pressures = better hook up.. Inside scoop,, had a fair amount of problems with the Suzuki power valves, smaller than KX500 = cranks and tranny problems as far as Kawi's go, CR's seem to be good bikes but, like Beach Bum started to mention - YZ's = YUM YUM!! Know what cha mean on the KTM's,, pricey. They do seem to hold their value pretty good though.. Good luck in your search, looking forward to hearing how it all goes!! Also,, dont forget to take lots of 's,, we LOVE 's

No idea,, he was just banging second gear when Crud and I went flying by him with Cruds front tire touching ground about every two feet and me hanging onto his horns for dear life.. This thing is soooooooooooooooo much fun Dan O',,, :lightbulb:you and me - we should have Chopped a couple of these VMax's a longgg time ago Yammer - the world would be a whole different place if we would have bro!!!

Let me start out with, CONGRATS to both you and your son for you making the decision to get out and do something extra special with him - THAT is what I call LIVING my friend!! May your times together be extra special with the wonderful end being a life long bond between the two of you - I applaud you Venny!:clap2: IMHO - THE FOLLOWING IS ALL JUST MY OPINION - FEEL FREE TO PICK IT APART AND DEBATE AWAY!! Having sold many many dirt bikes over the years in my shop I assure you I have been faced with the question you are asking on many occasions. Not only did I buy/sell/repair and restore most of them, I also rode cross country single track (year round here in Michigan) and raced MX, Harescrambles - my personal favorite, Ice, Hillclimbing and pretty much tortured and destroyed dirtbikes as a sport. Knowing what I know from personal experience, this is my advice: Modern day 4 stroke MX bikes, YZF's - CRF's - KXF's and the like require way to much expensive maintenance for the "average" woods rider. They are SERIOUSLY competitive scoots and a BLAST to ride but can be a pain in the neck to maintain. I have been out of the dirtbike scene for a while now but can tell you, because of the high revving motors, pancake pistons, light weight valves and springs and tiny little cam chains - bikes like the original CRF450 Honda (you ever ride one - you will instantly agree with me when I say "there is magic between those bars ) had a factory rebuild schedule of every 30 or less hours of run time .. Of course, you can always go with the much more durable full pistoned, Hyvo cam chained "thumpers" as mentioned by Unc - had em for years and they do a pretty good job but,, they do tend to be heavier and more "street" oriented than a good ol fashioned 2 stroke dirtbike.. If you do decide to go that way, here are some things that I found thru owning/riding them. KLR - 90% street/10% woods. Tank of a bike that will wash out in the sand on you and leave you as to what just happened. Later models had a cam chain tensioner issue, fixable by an aftermarket repair part - well known issue. They are "CV" carbed like our Ventures - excellent for increased MPG - TERRIBLE for throttle response necessary to get a really good wheelie out of XL Honda - 80% street, 20 woods. Good bikes! 3 phase stator for LOTS of output for LOTS of extra things (like hand warmers for winter riding). Normal carburation so wheelies are fairly easy in first couple of gears. XR Honda's - 50/50 Street - woods.. Fun woods bikes easily convertible to street legal use. Very durable scoots. Suzuki DRZ (both "dual sport" version and "off road version) - Pretty cool lower dollar scoots. Normally carbed so wheelies are not a problem. Never was a Suzuki man but really liked this one. Weight seemed more "liveable" than the others.. After years of playing with dirtbikes, riding dirtbikes, teaching my kids to ride em and doing exactly what your doing Venny, I ended up living the following: Modern day 2 stroke MX bikes converted for woods usage and even "street legaled" so I could ride on the road if I needed! I liked the big bores! KX500 named "Kadie" was my all time favorite. I liked the Kawi because it was "power valved" unlike the Honda CR500 (rode those for years too but mostly on the track). The power valve on the Kawi was built on a gear rack idea - worked great and took very little maintenance. I had a TON of miles on Kadie before I sold her after I broke my back in a car accident and had to quit riding the woods. She was an ELEVATOR when it came wheelie time - anytime/anywhere! I even rode her on the back wheel across the Mackinaw Bridge suspention spands one time.. Telling ya brother,, 85/90 MPH and all it took was a "blip",, Kadie and I LOVED wheelies.. All sounds fancy but I wanna remind you of something, wheelies (and the ability to ride em) are a woods riders best friend, front wheel in the air and you can go across any terrain! I say that as an encouragement for teaching the skill to your son and to yourself if you guys are gonna ride the woods.. Back to the bikes.. One of the things that is over looked a LOT in the industry is the idea of adding weight to the crank on a modern day 2 stroke MX bike.. Back to Kadie as an example.. By tossing 14 oz's of weight on her fly wheel I could take a scoot that would devastate most amatures in a heart beat and make it so rideable even a beginner could ride her with ease (carefully of course - just dont wick her up to hard:doh:).. Adding the weight made the KX a TORQUE MONSTER that was literally unstoppable on even the highest hills!! I also added a lighting coil so I could put a whoopin on my buddies at night (winter night rides were our FAVORITES). A very small investment in time and cash and Kadie became street legal (one of many I did) - TALK ABOUT A FUN STREET BIKE!! Adding "bark busters" is a MUST for woods riding as is a low decible DNR Approved spark arrestor and a SKID PLATE. Seconded ONLY by a large aftermarket fuel tank (I had a four gallon on Kadie) cause pushing aint fun. Here is something you may find interesting.. Although I only had to rebuild Kadie 2 times during the many many hours of fun we had together - it was SIMPLE and CHEAP (well under 150 bucks) to bring her right back to brand new WOW ZZZZ WOW WOW WOW!! All of that and I gotta tell you, EVERYTHING above fits the parameters of almost ALL modern day 2 stroke MX Bikes!! You would probably REALLY enjoy a Yamaha YZ250 set up like I am talking about.. I personally LOVE the way the YZ handled when set up right for the woods. On the same token though, ALL of the metric (Honda, Kawi, Suzy) are right there too.. Something that you want to consider though if your going to go shop for one.. Do a little research on top end repair costs. I know that certain years of the CR's were REALLY pricey just for a jug - they started getting close to 4 stroke top end parts pricing.. I havent mentioned the mighty name of KTM yet for a purpose.. Around here, KTM is like the holy grail of woods bikin - almost entering into the zone of Harley's for the street.. Me and Kadie used to love to go by em on the back wheel - I can only HOPE that my good buddy Donny reads this and takes some time to sign up and respond - he has been riding KTM for a good while now:guitarist 2:- YZMAN400 - you out there?).. Anyway,, KTM makes a number of fabulous 2 strokers. I know my buddy Donny is still riding his 300 (never did get a chance to ride that one Donny) - cool thing about his is that it came WITH ELECTRIC START!! YZman is a really good friend of mine who has covered many miles of very tight Michigan trails with me - he currently spins wrenches in a Yamaha shop out in Montana (traitor).. If he happens to see this and responds he can fill you in on some of the finer points of the KTM,, and the others as far as that goes:bighug: All that said: Venny, I dont know you personally. No idea how much experience you have "in the woods" so to speak. Please dont take offense to what I am about to say in ANY WAY my friend. Gonna talk to you like I would my best friend OK? If you are just beginning into the dirt scene with little to no experience in the woods, just looking to have some fun with playing with your son, have no idea how to "ride a wheelie" but want to learn (doing so WILL inspire confidence), want to keep everything inside the realm of a good fun learning expeirence between you and that precious son of yours? This is what I would do. I would pick up a good, slightly used, TTR125 - maybe a Honda 150 or an Honda XR200.. May sound crazy but, by putting the biggest - fattest knobby on the rear, toss a little gearing at it (larger sprocket on front = geared for 40/45 top speed = easy to wheelie), set up the suspention for your weight (easy to do). The smaller four strokes make learnging to ride the back wheel easy = start out by learning to "cat walk" (feet down sliding on the grass), this will help you find and "feel" the balance point. After you can "Cat Walk" really good - doing figure eights and all that, you can begin placing your feet up on the pegs.. Then learn to control the wheelie by modulating your rear brake while holding the balance point. Then practice shifting into a higher gear as your front end starts to drop out of the balance point.. Just takes practice but the practice will be a LOT more fun on a smaller, not so spunky bike. Again, sounds crazy but if you do this you will probably go into it thinking,, yea,, I could do that - I can always resell the TTR after a year of playing with it.. I have heard that thought many times over and truthfully gotta say.. Most of the folks who do what I am talking about end up keeping the little TTR cause,, well,, because they are SOOOO much fun and SOOOO user friendly - even for "bigger" guys like me and you. Couple more suggestions regardless of what bike(s) you choose: - Set both you and your sons bikes up for your sizes. Adjust suspention settings including aftermarket mono springs and fork springs if needed. Stand on pegs - purchase bars so they are comfortable when standing up - learn to ride on the pegs, standing up is your friend! - Get GOOD safety equipment for both of you. All of these are just as important as the other: BOOTS, CHEST PROTECTORS, NECK BRACES, KNEE GUARDS, FULL FACE MX HELMETS, GOGGLES and GLOVES!! - Let your son spin his own wrenches under your guidance, get him an assortment of tools of his own.. Ol Puc wishes both of you nothing but the best of many hours of fun together out there!!!

Your in my world now Venny,, you want the long version or the short version?

I thought there was something special about that Canuck with the great big grin Tip and I met at Venture West of The Dalles in Oregon a while back.. A quiet kind of guy, real friendly but never did expose his right hand - even as we sat down with him to share a pop and hear some stories - he kept acting like there was something itching him behind his back... Now that I read the above, I have to make some adjustments to my 5 Star list of motels...

Looking GREAT there Spence!! GREAT PICS of a SHARP BIKE!! Man I LOVE the 83 Standards,, pure soul for the open road and ready to put a whoopin on almost any touring bike out there if needed :witch_brew:

Yessirrreee my good friend,, that Tippy - she is keeper!! There is just nothing better than sharing the best Motels known to man and the surrounding sites, sounds and experiences with your best friend:thumbsup:

THANKS A LOT ECKSTER,, NOW YA GOT MY BLOOD PRESSURE ALL MESSED UP JUST BY READING THAT!! Going to have to have some therapy here,, I dont drink so I guess I will have to settle for staring at some pictures of motels I have stayed in that something that HORRIFIC would NEVER happen in... Much better,,,,, sorry about the hijack Eckster but a mans gotta do what a mans gotta do brother...

Yea,, what da heck,,, sounds like another story I heard from the same story teller about a snow man visiting Don's MD - he didnt have any pictures to prove that one either Hey Jeff, should have had a Meet n Greet over there during the dirt road season.. This bunch LOVES to sit watch people do crazy stuff and you probably could have gotten one of them to do a Utube program for you brother!! Just set up a grill to cook hot dogs on, mix up some lemonade, toss in some Wisconsin cheese and crackers and you coulda had the bestest M n G EVER!! :lightbulb:Better yet,, open a 2 year old tub of Rum Balls and just the smell of em would have had most of these lop eared varmints being stars on Utube as they jumped that 2' berm on 800 pound touring bikes!!

WE ARE DA MAN JONAS,, WE ARE DA MAN!!

That is hilarious that you mention skipping the front end above.. After we got ol Crud home and were discussing names - I told my wife I wanted to name him "Beach Ball" because he did exactly what you are talking about - thru second gear his front tire would bounce along the pavement like a beach ball being bouncing along the beach in the wind Cruds fork brace is stock by your definition Beau (THANKS FOR THE INFO BRO), got an after market one on one of my retired 83 Ventures out back (parts bike now) - wonder if they are the same bolt pattern? Will definitely try the Furbur Fix if I notice any funny stuff going on,, you are right - must of been in the same class somewhere along the line!! Our shop classes were at the end of a long corridor, got booted for riding my 69 350 Motosport down the hallway and out the door after setting valve clearances during shop class one time, sound familiar (I dont think those people would have liked Crud at all back then:confused24:)..

That would be a known fact in our neighborhood Goose!! And my neighbor @bluestar99 should know,, he stood there and watched Crud and I give another neighbor a very fair head start before Crud put yet another Harley notch on Cruds ever growing win counter.. Figured a good 2 second lead (two lights at any drag strip) was fair being a 103 inch V-Twin against an old 73 inch Vmax

Sure seems like the simple thing of requiring a valid drivers license just to purchase booze would help - no license no booze, then run stings like are currently being done for under age sales of booze - get caught, your license to sell is gone. Then maybe an accountabilty ruling that requires Judges who have released waco's like this from prison to be required to share the sentence with the perp if they release them and they do harm.. Say a split by 50% = if this guy gets 20 years for this = the goofy judge that let him out in the first place gets 10. In all honesty, this person should obviously never have been released in the first place. I agree with Paul ( @Pegasus1300 ) - getting the AMA involved is not a bad idea,, their thoughts on the life of a motorcyclist being just as valuable a road worker or civil servant's is CTFW up the right road as far as I am concerned..

Or the brain either @bongobobny!!

Looks like someone forgot about the code Sticky... As a reminder: Page 967, Article 31.00A, Paragraph 2 = "its easier to ask forgiveness than it is to ask permission"

Crud and I are glad we could be of service Dix. Ever notice how any cartoon character that was worthy of our time has had a side kick? Rocky n Bullwinkle, Rough n Ready, Quick Draw n Bobalouie, Road Runner n Wiley Coyote and now its the days of Puc n Crud Gives a whole new perspective of Saturday Morning cartoons dont it:thumbsup: Gotta agree with ya @Venture n Dixie, I LOVED amusement park rides when I was younger - this V-Max is like owning my own monster coaster ride and its faster than the Bat Man at Six Flags, greater highs than the Magnum at Cedar Point and even sucks the breath out of you harder than the Tower of Terror at Disney.. And to think, me n my buddies can ride it any time we want:big-grin-emoticon: About that jumping out of a plane,, never did that but - isnt falling speed ONLY somewhere around 125 mph? Shooooooot,, I think ol Crud and I could take ya,, wanna run em:big-grin-emoticon: GLAD YOU ENJOYED THE TOONS DIX, PLEASE STAY TUNED FOR THE NEXT EPISODE OF: PUC N CRUD

BUT,, the whole time he was gone he would have been ,, I left my gorgeous 99 Blue RSV sitting in Pucs driveway - Tweeks is sitting there talking to Puc about how bad she needs a new motor, forks, seat, frame, brakes, plugs, tires, bags, trunk and gas too.. Bill,, ya gotta remember,, your ol buddy Pucster was one of those strange kids that grew up taking the little jingle below to heart!!

Ummm no,, Tippy is NOT a farmers daughter!! She really would not know a Chicken from a Sea Gull!! :crackup:Heyyyy,, wait a minute Raggy,, is that legal? You trying to get me in trouble brother? I was thinking of for em,, I got a fishing license Here is what I wrote to my daughter: 1 of 5,648 [TABLE=class: Bs nH iY] [TR] [TD=class: Bu] [/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE] Hi Sweetheart, OUR CHICKENS CAME TODAY!! Just wanted you to know that you two are an inspiration to us.. We ordered chickens off Ebay and they came today!! LOTS of FUN!! HOPE ALL IS WELL - WE LOVE AND MISS YOU BOTH!! Dad And here is the response from my daughter: Hahahahahahahaha You totally had me! I was jumping up and down in the office until I watched the video! Seagulls are NOT chickens dad .... Sent from my iPhone And here is my response back to my daughter: LOL!!!!!!!!!!! Ah Oh,,,,, I thought they tasted kinda,, different!! In a "fishy" sort of way!! And here all the time I was blaming your mom, thinking she fried em in some grease that she had cooked fish in earlier or something LOL [TABLE=class: Bs nH iY] [TR] [TD=class: Bu] [/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE]

Blue's ride didnt last very long Joe,,, its a good thing to because just after I clicked off on the video it occurred to me that I had put Crud on reserve yesterday and forgot to tell Ron that he only had about 10 minutes of run time,, 3 if he kept the ol boy wicked up:big-grin-emoticon:

One of our daughers in Sacramento got into raising chickens for a hobby.. Her and her fiance' found some really strange looking varmint chickens (Tippy knows what kind they are - I call em Ostrich chickens cause they look like a miniature Ostrich - kinda..).. I liked em.. Tip and I ordered and finally received our chickens today. We made a special video of us feeding them today and sent it to my daughter.. Bet she will be surprised!! Our friends and VR family members Orlin and Sharon (@OrlinEngh) have a farm in Viroqua Wisconsin that we visited this year.. I fell in love with the place and Orlin's farm animals when we visited them - talk about FUN!! Not sure if they also raise chickens (I know Sharon cooked up a whole mess of eggs for breakfast - YUMMY - but I cannot remember if they came from your farm chickens?) - regardless Or,, this video is also for you folks!! Also, a very good VR member friend of ours, @eagleeye visited us this last summer.. I know for a fact that Mr. Eagle has some chickens cause he brought some of his chickens eggs all the way from his home in Wisconsin for us and WOW ZZZZZZZ WOW WOW WOW were they GOOD!!! Hey Steve,, this video is for you too my brother!! Behold - THE NEW CHICKENS ON PUC AND TIPPY'S CHICKEN FARM!!

ALWAYS great to see you folks Ron, also MY PLEASURE on the Crud ride brother!! Obsolete Pain:think: Obsessive Peashooter:think: Old Peabrain:think: Odorsome Popcicle:think: Ok Person:680:Owie Perpetrator:doh: Where the heck is that @etcswjoe (think OP is a rough one Ron, try to figure Joe's code name out - he even told me what it was one time and I still over it) when ya need em,, he is an EXPERT at being a VR code talker - and pretty dog gone good "lost Puc n Tippy" rescuer too - mans a walking compass I tell ya:backinmyday:

I totally agree with ya Dj, after spending a fair share of my life restoring, building, cutting, welding, pulling wires, fixing trannys, CLEANING CARBS and on and on to trying to keep the family fed by selling bikes - the LAST thing I wanna do is lube cables. My best friend has spent his life driving semi cross country, after 40 years of driving - he is sooo sick and tired of driving truck. He comes home now and LOVES to tinker on his scoots. I go down and help him a lot cause I like to spend time in the man cave playing with my buddy. The other day, after I showed him how to clean the jets on his Ruckus he was telling me how much fun he finds in doing so. He couldnt understand my distaste for the tinkering but find my pleasure in the RIDING of them. I then put my feelings into a word picture for him, I explained to him that I really feel the same about tinkering with bikes as he does about truck driving and the :lightbulb:came on!! In the end though, I gotta say,, if we are gonna ride these puppies and expect them to carry us for thousands of miles without those surprise nuisance little problems - a little maintenance does go a long way. Take those cables for instance, years ago I rode home from Sturgis using a pair of vice grips clamped on to a broken throttle cable as a throttle.. My daughter and I made it home just fine BUT - doing so didnt exactly make the trip funner. Had to pass up on lots of South Dakota two tracks because its pretty hard to navigate such terrain while steering with one hand and controlling the throttle by pulling on a cable end with the other. One of the things that I really like about the clamp on cable luber is that, with a little finesse, you can lube the cables without actually dismantling a lot of stuff. Just loosen em up, pull em out enough to slide the clamp over an exposed area of the cable, slide it up till it seals against the rubber grommet inside the clamp (the grommet has a variety of cable end sizes built into it), tighten the clamp, stick the little plastic straw that comes with most aerosol spray lubes into the clamp hole and shoot it to it. Squirt till it comes out somewhere up or down the line. For split cables like on our throttle cables, you do have to fuss with the short ends down on the carbs to get enough exposed to get the luber attached but at least you dont have to actually remove the cable box where they all adjoin if you dont want to. In the end, a maintained cable can last a LONG time (Tweeks cables have over 300k on em, all due to keeping em lubed up). :lightbulb:Wish someone would invent a tire lube,, or a brake pad lube,,, or a headlight bulb lube,, or a.......

How long does it last Jeff?