ronwright

I am considering buying a Suzuki RL250 which has a Whitehawk frame. The bike is not registered. There are no numbers on the frame and I must be able to road register this bike in order to use it on road trials. There must be quite a few Whitehawk framed bikes out there and some must be registered. Can anyone give me a steer on what I need to do.

Just to allay any fears that trying to register an old trials bike is difficult it is not provided you follow the procedures. I have just registered a Honda TL125 which I have built up from a frame which was about to be skipped and bits and pieces which I had already or found at auto jumbles. First make sure that your frame has a legible frame number. Mine did plus the vin plate. A letter to Honda with £30 quickly produced a dating letter showing the vehicle to be a 1976. I then built the bike up and when completed I waited until 20th May to register it. Fill out the V55/5 form, attach photos of the completed bike from both sides plus the frame number plus documentary proof of who you are where you live and send off a cheque for £55. I sent off my application so that it landed on the desk of someone at the DVLA on the 20th May so no MOT needed. It also does not need to be insured unless you live in N.I. On the 24th May I received a letter of acknowledgement from the DVLA and informed that the vehicle had to be examined. They gave me a leaflet to contact a local firm firm SGS. SGS were very professional and examined my Honda within 10 days and found everything OK. There is no cost to this service. Today 15th June I received my vehicle registration document. All pretty painless. The vehicle is classed as a historic vehicle. I have checked the vehicle on the DVLA webside and it shows it as "taxed" until 1 June 2019. When I have to renew this free tax I will have to fill out a V112 to claim MOT exemption.

Thanks to everyone for their help on my previous topic regarding TL fork stripdown. Whilst I am changing the oil etc are there any mods that I can do to improve the forks. At the moment after the bike has been on its stand and the front forks unloaded once the wheel starts to come back in contact with the ground the forks tend to jerk a bit and sag an inch or two. They seem quite soft in their action. As I intend to strip the forks down it would be sensible to try and improve them if it is advisable at the same time as the stripdown..

Thanks to everyone for their input especially Craig. Hopefully will time at the weekend to sort this out.

Thanks for the help so far but I am no further forward. Each fork has a nut and washer at the top of each fork leg. If you turn the nut [10mm socket] the washer also moves. Turning the nut either way neither tightens or slackens the nut. Looking from the top of the fork I can see that the washer has room to jam a small screwdriver into it against the fork stanchion which I did and lo and behold this held it sufficiently for me to remove the nut. Once the nut was removed I managed to lift the washer out and what do I find another identical washer which is held tight - no circlip to be seen !! Really need to find someone with a TL who knows how to dismantle the forks.

Looking for advice on the front forks of my 1976 Honda TL125. I want to change the fork oil and also possibly increase the pre load on the springs. The problem is I cannot work how you remove the top caps on the fork. They have a 10mm nut which is attached to the fork top. If you start to unscrew it nothing much seems to happen and it also does not seem to tighen up.

This is a problem of my own making and ossa ignorance. I have recently had both the primary case and magneto cases off ; one to free off the clutch and the other to check the points. Whilst the case housing the magneto and gearbox sprocket was off I inadvertently leant the bike over onto its side and the clutch pin fell out which I found a few minutes later. Today when I went to rebuild the bike and sort out the clutch I remembered that the clutch from the engine lever to the cluch housing has a long pin, a ball bearing and then a second pin. I had lost the ball bearing. I had in stock some 1/4" cycle headstock bearings so I used one of them between the two pins. I could not get the clutch to work so I took the pins apart and to my surprise the ball bearing had disappeared. I rebuilt it again with a new ball bearing and again the clutch did not want to work so I took it apart again and once again the ball bearing was missing. Where they going to. I am not losing them when I take ity apart. Please help before they cart me off to the funny farm.

Thanks everyone for their input; now got a new problem which is of my making and ignorance. See new thread Ossa TR77 clutch problems

Recently acquired an Ossa TR77 - well used but sound. Been standing for about 5 years. Initially it had no spark but I tweaked the points and they started to show life. The bike is not a good starter so I have some new points and a new condensor to fit tomorrow. The spark is good but it is not bright blue - hoping the new points will fix it. Got it running yesterday but it would not rev and kept bogging and backfiring in the exhaust. After a while it was running of a fashion but with cloud s of blue smoke which I hope was just unburnt fuel. What is the best plug for this engine. Is it possible to fit the mar engine into a gripper frame. On the carb there is a large air screw - what is the general setting - 2.5 turns out ?? To the left of the airscrew is a another smaller screw which can be turned clockwise and anti clockwise - what is this and what is the geneal setting. I am hoiping to use the bike in the Beamish trial in less than 12 days time so I need to get it sorted.

I am pleased to be able to report that apart from Deryk having an inflated opinion of his worth to the pre 65 trials community that many people offered me free advice and assistance without any strings on this issue and without wanting any recompense. Amongst those that helped were Paul Powell of Cotton Villiers; Norman Blakemore of the shock absorder supplier; a chap called Malcolm from the Francis Barnett forum. The modification is very simple once it is explained in detail and does not need the use of the lighting coils which probably by now are well past their best. If anyone wants help on this issue they can contact me on my email; ron-wright@blueyonder.co.uk.

I think you need to change your motto to read - Never forget if you need facts you have to pay for them

Re the above post - see my note above yours.As a result of my post Deryk volunteered to help me and send me the info via my email which he suggested was common knowledge in the 60's. He has now changed his mind and wants to charge £12 for this info which is hardly in the spirit of volunteering to help. That is what has disappointed me. The £12 is not necessarily the issue but if I say I am going to do something I do it in good favour. Can anyone help me out ?

Seems like the offer of some assistance now comes at a price of £12 as I will have to subscribe to the digital magazine. I hate digital mazazines and cannot read magazines off a computer. I was simply looking for help from the trials fraternity who are a pretty giving bunch of people.

Thanks to both the above contributors; I have just emailed Deryk.

Thanks Andy; a bit pricer for me. I am aware that there is a modification that can be used which was used quite widely. I am hoping there there is still the expertise out there to help me