VMD

[Bob Bean]

Home from VMD at Mid-Ohio and the bikes are cleaned and partially service..
  First off I want to Thank Gary and Toni Roach for the loan of her championship winning Motoplat ignition..
   When my 250 Harescrambler didnt start on the 1st kick after tech inspection, I knew something was wrong..  Turned out the 41 year old motoplat had retired before me !
  It also turned out I had 2 problems..   After switching ignitions the bike started with 1 kick and ran and sounded good..
   My 1st moto though didnt go as planned.. The bike would die when ran at full throttle on longer straights..  Up to half throttle was ok.  I played with the choke, put the petcocks on reserve and even opened up the gas cap to see if the vent was plugged, but nothing helped...  So I just ran at half throttle and finished.
  Back in the pits I checked the petcock flows, pulled the bowl and pulled the float valve and checked flow thru all...  Plenty of gas.....   The only thing I could find, was the float height was slightly low....?  Could this be the problem?   I set it even with the gaskets and put it back together.
  Later at the Penton meeting I asked Jerry Birkey if the slight low float height could cause those problems...?  He said "yes".
Now I felt better...
  Next morning after waking to rain on the MH roof, we were the 1st moto on the line !
  Penton Holeshot....!  Led start to finish !  Plenty of power..
Repeat National Championship..  And kept Toni's Championship string going for her Motoplat !  
  Next up.. Sharon is riding the Penton in a 3 women team race at Byron Il. at one of the Midwest VMX series race...

Bob Bean

1986 ISDE Italy
1987 ISDE Poland
1989 ISDE Germany