Jimmy examines his CRF50's bent frame. Nothing Jimmy can't handle, but not what you want to find in a used bike you just bought.
3000 Reasons
What I Learned
Story by Jimmy Lewis
Photos by Jimmy Lewis and Pete Peterson
Getting three solid bikes for $3000 was an accomplishment in itself, but was the deal really that good? In hindsight, I say yes. What I didn't need was another bike, less three. (Four actually since I got that YZ400 in the deal.) So now I'm trying to figure out what to do with my newfound toys, besides let other people ride them.
The XR 50 was easy. I sold it to a good friend of mine whose kid was just at that age where he needed a mini-bike, for about what I paid for it, $400. OK, maybe that was less than I budgeted for the 50 but its making kids happy and I can live with that.
The XR400 will stay in my fleet of bikes since it is a really strong running one. I have a couple of others that are not as fresh I'd sell first. And I don't have the need to do anything to this bike but regular maintenance since it is set up perfect for the trail riding I'll do on it.
Then there was the YZ125. Remember when Chris Denison wrote in his opinion that he knew Jesse unloaded it because it was going to blow up. Funny, I read that comment just the day after the YZ125 ate a circlip and seized over a triple-jump. No, not funny! How did Chris know this? Was it a conspiracy? Not really, but Jesse isn't the mechanic he thinks he is, especially when it comes to installing those pesky little clips. The one that came out wasn't much for telling stories, since it was mostly embedded in the cylinder wall and head. The one still intact was not exactly a springy circular clip, but a mauled, plier beaten piece of wire that looked more like the "C" of the Cincinnati Reds. Herein lays the risk in buying a used bike. It was running great, worked perfect, and because of something in the bike's unknown past, blammmo! You now have a problem.
Jimmy's Buck 25 was tricked out with this funky
http://RidePG.com graphic to make an impact at the Hangtown national weekend. Jimmy gained fans fighting the 450s on his mighty little 125.
Luckily I didn't crash when it happened and I sort of heard and felt it coming. I thought the big end of the rod let go until I pulled the cylinder. So my formerly smoking good deal on a YZ125 was now a smoking pile of parts on a bench, with me trying to figure out the best way to get it all back together. Luckily my job position affords me the ability to test out some cylinder replating services and possibly a big bore kit for the bike. Truthfully these would have been the routes I'd have taken with my own hard earned money too. But I couldn't wait to ride the bike and I just ordered up a new cylinder from Yamaha and a Pro-X piston kit to keep the bike running while I'm lining up the fix-up for the thrashed cylinder. Because I really like riding this bike. The suspension is so good (it was done by Pro Circuit) that I like it better than the fresh 2008 we have in our fleet of test bikes. Since then I'd freshened up the look of the bike with www.RidePG.com Groovy graphics kit on fresh Polisport plastic from Powermadd and added Fasst Co. Flexx bars, because that is the stuff I do to a lot of my bikes. OK, the graphics are for my wife, after all it is her bike in the first place.