Rant:
I love watching people do horrible things to old machinery, I also love watching people restore old machinery... and even destroy old machinery in amusing ways.
However, for some reason, this particular group cause me issues.
This video. I do not know how many of you know anything at all about bikes, but basically... neither do these guys. Not the slightest clue. I am honestly surprised they didn't get SERIOUSLY hurt here.
First... The want to fit a "decompression valve" to a racing scrambler. No, just no. Why? Because they are short-asses, don't know how to fix the engine to start properly and believe it's too hard to kick over.
Second... they lower it, soften it and then remove material from the seat! If they ever give this bike to a profressional or someone who knows how to ride it, they will potentially suffer a broken back on the first jump the take on it.
Then they come to trying to "pull start" the bike.... with a FIXED tow rope on the forks... in 1st. FACE PALM SMACK. I am watching this ranting at the screen! "You are just going to lock up the rear wheel in 1st. The fixed tow rope is going lock out on you and send you down hard... and the tow rope is going to get fouled in the wheels... all of which then immediately happen. Did they figure it out? Did they wonder why that happened and try something a bit more sensible? Nope. They just got back up and repeated it.... They are EXTREMELY lucky that tow rope did not foul in the chain and pull the riders foot in there too.
Then they get to riding it. They run around with the clutch pulled in 90% of the time, trying to ride it like a bicycle with a temporary engine. They think the bike is broken because it keeps stalling out. It's not, it's because they keep blipping it and letting it idle back with the clutch in. Highly tuned 2 strokes like these do NOT have throttle dampers. If you blip them and let it return to idle it will ... half the time... stall. This is not an issue when ridden properly with the clutch OUT 99% of the time. They have very light fly-wheels for a reason and require the whole drive train to be connected to maintain themselves basically. Stalling the engine or locking up the rear end on braking are common, but easily fixed if riding properly and in the right gear.
So they get up to some speed, about half the speed an experienced rider would have got to, like they hit 40mph on the straight, I'd have had that thing up to 60 and a good rider close to 80 or the rev limiter on the bike in top gear.
To slow down for a corner, the immediately pull the clutch in and then ride the rear brake only to try and slow the bike down, all while blipping the throttle to try and stop the bike from stalling. If they just left the f'ing clutch OUT and let the engine do the rear braking, grabbed a whole load of front brake they would stop in 1/10th the distance, and get the rear wheel set out correctly to simple boot the throttle and powerslide throught the corner.
This "clutching" on braking is not just a rant about this video, it's a rant about nearly every american YouTuber who "self taught" themselves "stick" or riding a dirt bike. I see it all the time. As soon as it comes to braking, they disengage the clutch. Cars, go karts, dirt bikes and road bikes. It is not a wonder why the road death stats for US bikers is so damn high.
Do NOT attempt ANY of this at home... or at work... or ever. Please seek even 1 hours training.
https://youtu.be/LXNPYlCLNkM