Gnarly Parts and Accessories - Quick Trail Tips

Re-Newing Plastic for Free

No need to buy new plastic, just renew it. For that plastic that you ran into the tree on the weekend and it now has the white lines/streaks in it, just take out your heat gun or blow dryer and warm the white lines. This will bring back most if not all of the colour to your plastic. This may not work on extreme cases.

Rick Cooper

Keeping costs down

When you need to replace any of the various bearings on your bike, (wheel, steering head, suspension or engine bearings) you can save money by sourcing them from a bearing supplier rather than buying them from your bike dealer. Just look up the yellow pages for your nearest bearing supplier and take the old bearing with you. All bearings have an id number usually on the side of the bearing. Some bike manufacturers like KTM include the bearing id numbers in the part number, so you can look up the number in your parts catalogue.

Tim Ballie

Bike Setup

Loctite as many nuts and bolts that you can get to. Especially things like handlebars, seat, levers, tank & guards and any other fasteners that you remove during maintenance. Fitting quality accessory hand guards (the cheap ones are next to useless) is a good way to protect your levers from breaking when your bike gets unexpectedly horizontal. Fit a bashplate to stop rocks from damaging your engine cases. Adjust brake and clutch levers so that you can comfortably reach them in a sitting and standing position. If you are not using hand guards, like on an MX bike, tighten your lever brackets enough to keep them located but not so tight that when you drop your bike the levers break.

"Seattle" James

Fuel

One thing that never ceases to amaze me is the number of experienced dirt bike riders, who own late model high performance bikes e.g. KTM 520, WR 450s and run them on ordinary unleaded fuel. Abusing your engine by doing this will shorten its life. Using Premium UnLeaded Petrol is what the factories recommend, read the owners manual, and your bike will run better as well. If I'm going to the Tip or outback, I take an octane booster with me or enough PULP to last the distance. If you're using an octane booster get one that comes in a metal container, boosters that come in plastic bottles are as useful as an ashtray mounted on your handlebars, real boosters would melt the plastic.

Ricky Hon

Essentials for Trail riding

• Always carry at least 2 liters of water with you
• Never ride alone
• Wear good quality safety gear
• Use heavy duty tubes & carry at least 1 spare
• Carry a good range of tools (standard KTM are ideal) e.g. plug spanner, tire levers, screwdrivers, single hex sockets (1/4 inch drive), wheel nut spanners, spoke spanner, air pump, pocket knife, butane lighter, valve remover (tube), allen keys, spanners to suit your bike
Spares: spark plug, levers, nuts & bolts, cable ties, drive chain joining link,

Greg Harper

H2O for two

when carrying a camelback or other type of hydration container for your water supply, carry only water in it , no Gatorade, juices etc , in case you, or your buddy's liquid cooled bike boils over , you have a fresh supply of water to refill the radiator with, its only a temporary fix but wont leave you stuck on the trail, sure beats the muddy pond water.

yarrowKevin
Kevin Gilderdale

Fender Fixing

I discovered a cheap way to fix a cracked fender. Drill 1/16 inch holes every quarter inch on each side of the crack. Then take some 50 pound test fishing line and weave it from hole to hole.

Jacob Lefevre

Flooded Motor

If you have a flooded motor, turn off the fuel petcock, hold the throttle wide open (while the engine is out of gear) and kick the engine over until it starts. If this doesn't work, remove the wet spark plug, dry it and reinsert or replace it with a new plug.

Daniel Duncan

Seat Attachment

The other day I threw away the two nuts holding the seat on my dirt bike and replaced them with wing nuts and lock washers. I no longer have to spend time getting them mud off the nuts so the socket fits; I also don't need a wrench to get the seat off while on the trail. It even saves time doing repairs at home.

Shaun Peter

All Tee'D Off

Have you ever gotten up early Sunday morning, ready for a great day of riding, and as you do your equipment pre-check before leaving the house, you notice you're missing the mouthpiece to your CamelBak? Instead of getting all teed off about it, I just grabbed a golf tee out of my golf bag and plugged the end of the hose with it. When I got thirsty, I just pulled out the tee, drank and plugged the hose back up again. Monday saw me down at the shop for a new mouthpiece.

Clyde Pacheco

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