Yesterday, we had another one of those high speed all sandwash races we love so much in Idaho. The air temp was 58 degrees, and the ground had just enough moisture to eliminate dust but not get slippery. Since I am the current President of the Promoting club, I was managing/working the race, while the boy was going to race his KX125. Ben helped put down signs and markings on the start the day before the race, so was able to staked out his start spot to get a good line. Even the start was a fast 1 1/2 mile fifth gear pinned flat, so I knew the 125 would be singing from the beginning.
As the race started, he was at 9th overall at the end of the bomb run, the little quarter liter pinned to the stops. I have drilled into Ben that when your running full throttle for long periods, especially on a 125, it's not a bad idea to hit the kill buttom periodically to add a little oil to the bearings. Unfortunately, he didn't remember this until about 20 miles into the 80 mile race when his engine died running sixth gear pinned (not a good thing) during a long run down a 10 mile long flat sandwash (serious high speed for a long time). Remembering instuctions from his chief mechanic (me), he immediately pulled in the clutch and held the throttle wide open to flood the motor with gas/oil. After a few seconds, he dumped the clutch, and the motor fire again (a miracle in itself). The rest of the day, he frequently hit the kill buttom as he blasted down the many, many high speed washes and two track roads.
Here's the kicker. No only did he win the 125 Expert class (and 12th overall beating every KX500 entered in the race - ugh) on a bike that had tried to sieze in the first 25% of the race, immediately after the finish, the motor went away! So, this week we get to put a new motor in the 125. Since a 125 and a 500 motor rebuild are about the same, I'm going to try and take some pictures on rebuilding the motor and post to the site.
The moral of the story, if you feel your motor going away, frequently flood the motor with gas/oil by periodically hitting the kill switch, and DO NOT shut off the motor until you return to the truck. If you are losing compression, while you may be able to keep it running, you'll have a lot of trouble getting it to start again once she's off. Hopefully you will also be able to slow down, but in a race, you didn't show up to take second by slowing down. I would much rather lose the motor pushing to the finish, than slow down and take last.
Always give 100%. Some days that's less than others, but always 100%.
Rick
