tdht

There does seem to be confusion amongst testers as to whether the horn needs to be continuous tone - my local guy said this was definitley the case and he has several old bikes. However as noted above the regs do say that pre 73 bikes can use a bulb horn. I got a bicycle horn from www.chainreactioncycles.com in any case so I used that. Speedos have to be fitted but don't need to work. Rear reflectors are not needed pre 73 but seem to suffer from similar confusion so I fit one to be in the safe side

Interesting - I ran both my B40's (trials and trail) with a 520 Chain and had no problems with it fouling the oil seal. This is how it came as standard on a B25 and the frame and engine position are the same..... Unless its because the 14t sprok I used placed the chain plates outside the oil seal whereas the 12t puts them right by the seal??

Yes - even the yokes with no speedo maounts seemed to have blank bosses underneath - I suspect they used the same bottom half of the molds and differnt top halves hence the blank bosses underneath but not on top. There are also a couple of different offsets - I once bought a speedo mountless top yoke bu the offset of the fork leg holes from the steering stem hole was about 1/2" more.

Hmm there was a very nice 'taco sherpa 350 at the Lanark autojumble on Sunday - only

The army B40 and the starfire used the same top yoke with 2 threaded holes for a speedo. The civilan B40 and the Ceefer had the speedo in the headlight nacelle so no mounts on the top yoke. The c15t also used the one with the clock mounts as it had a speedo fitted as standard.

Fair enough - good for Mick for bucking the system - reading 'classic trials bikes' I think a panther is probably a less accomplished mount than a Douglas but only just! As for the other top riders not riding uncompetetive mounts - the point is their talent means they can do without, I can't believe they are so obsessed with winning pre 65's that they have to bend the rules as much as possible - they have nothing to prove as they did it for real in the 60's. If they aren't prepared to ride a more realistic pre 65 mount then they should enter twin shock class and mix it up with bultacos etc. simple as that. Pre-65 trials is about enjoying old bikes and using your skill to make up for their lack of performance! The specials should go in a different class and it should be up to the riders to be honest about which class they should go in. If people then cheat, the rest of the field will know and their victory will effectively be worthless.

I think the issue is popularity - they could make everyone ride standard bikes (even tyres if they really wanted to given the previous post re dunlop trials universals) but the entry nos. at trials would plummet. As far as I can tell most of the people who are into classic trials aren't really into old bikes per se - they are into trials and fancy doing sections which aren't going to kill you if you get it wrong. These same people then want the most competetive bike possible and have (seemingly) endless amounts of cash to spend. They also don't want to fanny around restoring a bike themselves, they want as near a new bike as possible with leccy sparks, good brakes etc. etc. Hence lots of folks using new Anglians, otter B40's etc. One thing that really struck me reading classic dirt bike was that all of the fancy bikes they feature weren't built by the owner - I dread to think how much cash people have spent on these things! If you read Don Morleys book on 4 stroke classic trials bikes, all the mods he describes involve a lot of home ingenuity and skill but very little cash. The 80's and 90's pre 65 scene was all about budget trials riding on old clunkers over easy sections. This is no longer the case - its just as much as a cheque book sport as modern trials. As a result the modded bikes have become ridiculous, I was particularly amazed at those 'replica' James frames you can now get. Lets be clear here, they aint replicas cos they have no lugs, the angles are different and they way several pounds less than the last offering from either james or fanny b. And as for billet cub hubs for

I'd have said the opposite - an old bike will develop your skills more as you need to accomodate the machines abilities. A new bike will make classic sections much easier but wheres the fun in that? The alternative is to do increasingly harder modern trials I suppose and that is down to you. Another alternative is to get an older, heavier and slower bike and use that to challenge you or get some other friends?? And remember an old bike is always the best excuse for being rubbish, thats why I ride a '61 greeves - modern bike = no excuses!

Well my greeves runs on the standard points and I've had none of the problems mentioned. Whats more you can carry a complete spare coil, points and condensor in your pocket so even if the whole lot goes kaput you can fix it. It might not provide the optimum spark at the optimum spot but it seems to do remarkably well and a bit of silicon keeps it water tight. Sometimes simple is best....

I've been into pre 65's for a while although i don't get to compete very often. I did a season of the various Scottish events (but not 'the Scottish') a few years ago on a B40 and I hope to do more this year. Just came across this website so I thought I'd join to help with info on prepping bikes, events etc. cheers Phil