How Things Work

Back in the day, two stroke engines were very limited on what their power bands could do. One power band might be able to produce a rush of power in the low-to-mid rev ranges. Another power band may have produced a power rush in the mid-to-upper-high rev ranges. Still another might produce a lot of power only at the top-most range. There were no in-between, and there were no...

Ever since synthetic oil made its way into the automotive market, it has reigned supreme in two related, yet very distinct categories: performance and price. The former is why most professional dirt bike riders use synthetic. And the latter is why many aspiring dirt bike riders are still sticking with their petroleum-based oil. It's true that full synthetic oil is expensive, even more so when you compare...

I’m sure you’ve already seen it at your local gas station: fuel blended with ethanol. It’s becoming more and more common, and it’s getting harder and harder to find gas stations that do not use the blend as their available fuel. According to the EPA, as long as you’re using it in a car or truck that was manufactured in 2001 or later, you should be fine. Unfortunately, some small, 2 stroke...

Not all fuel is created equal, and not all vehicles (dirt bikes included) can run on the same type of fuel. As a result, octane ratings were established to classify the different qualities of fuel into distinct performance categories. And it’s this octane rating that ultimately determines what we put into our fuel tanks on a daily basis. Therefore, it’s important you know the ins and outs of what...

Ever since the two stroke engine gained mass appeal a few decades ago, debates have been waged in various communities (dirt bike included) over whether the oil injection systems commonly found in two strokes were more of a solution or a disaster waiting to happen. Those debates are just as strong today; however, over the years research and experience have changed some riders’ views on...

Film strength. We’ve all heard of it at some point, but most of us aren’t exactly sure what it is, or what it does for our dirt bike engines. We know that it has something to do with oil, but that’s about it. In this article, I'll try to answer the previous questions and take a little bit of the mystery out of the curious little component of oil called oil film strength. The simple answer is that film strength is protection for...

The gasoline octane booster (or, power adder) has been touted by the companies that make them as "miracle workers" for boosting an engine's horsepower while simultaneously improving its overall efficiency and performance. And there have been countless consumers who have bought into the hype. But do octane boosters really work, or are the just some marketing scheme designed by...

In this article, I'm going to give you a brief introduction of what biodegradable oil is, how they're being used in today's performance engines and give you some guidance on whether they're ultimately worth the investment. In today's environmentally conscious society biodegradable resources have become more popular than ever before. And one of the leading pioneers of the biodegradable market...

Castor oil was once the undisputed king of motor oils. It proved to be a shining star in a sea of very poor quality crude oils, and was commonly used in not only combustion engines, but transmissions as well. But besides being popular motor oil, do you know much else about this oil that comes from a plant? In this article, we're going to get into castor oil to find out exactly what it is, how it came to...

Shot peening is a process invented in the 1930s specifically for the purpose of increasing the fatigue strength of various metal components that encounter high levels of alternating stress on a regular basis (i.e. motorcycle engines and chains). In other words, it makes shot peened parts on your bike stronger and last for much longer than they normally would. Below you'll find a brief synopsis of shot peening...