dadof2

"Strangely not one gearbox cranckcase kick start or lower frame was broken" Give it time dear boy, give it time, it will happen as sure as day follows night

"As I see it (and obviously I don't have inside knowledge) GG need to sell more bikes and use the profit to pay off debts, or reduce the cost of their manufacturing / production operation to generate more profit from existing sales." The reason I made the above statement is because I suspect GGs manufacturing capacity (and therefore costs) is greater than they need for current sales volume. This suspicion is supported by 2 pieces of evidence 1) Creditors see more sales into new markets as a solution 2) GG more frequently than other manufacturers have discounted sales of unsold bikes ​The probable reason other manufacturers do not need to sell more is because their manufacturing capacity is closer matched to sales volume than GGs.

I have already signed this petition. The government are somewhat hypocritical on this issue. Noise nuisance legislation does not apply to highways. IE if the roads are changed or some development takes place which causes more traffic noise in your house you have no legal redress. Recently a MX track near Nord View has been closed. The land is being sold. Unfortunately due to noise (the nearby residents were there before the track) the track was restricted to less than 11 days use per year. Had unlimited use been possible then I (and possibly others) would have considered investing in it as a practice and events venue. Much of the answer lies with the FIM, FIA, ACU, manufacturers etc to reduce noise, pointing exhaust outlets down at the ground, say at more than 45b degrees to the horizontal would be a good start. What national bodies such as the ACU and AMCA need are specialist lawyers who can help clubs and organisations with planning issues and put up an effective case.

http://www.ebay.ie/itm/Motor-Cycle-News-13-2-74-Bultaco-May-Sue-Rathmell-Front-Cover-/351309700538?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item51cbb09dba Anyone remember what the above was about? His move to Montesa? Bit ironic as he is now importer for Sherco

At this stage / point in time I doubt if manufacturing in Asia is the answer. GG needs to sell more bikes at a profit, not make more bikes than they can sell. Setting up in Asia would cost If Spanish parts supplier (and creditor) found they were to be replaced by Asian supplier I think they would sue for repayment promptly. As I see it (and obviously I don't have inside knowledge) GG need to sell more bikes and use the profit to pay off debts, or reduce the cost of their manufacturing / production operation to generate more profit from existing sales.

PS dadof2 - that was a joke, really hate it when I have to explain my jokes No problem, the Americans in particular never seem to get Northern English sarcasm.

What radius have they put on the port edges? those in the photo look very sharp

#187 I note your vehicle achieved a very high mileage before the onset of problems, not entirely unusual but UK climate and driving conditions all too frequently bring these problems on at very low mileage. Hopefully we will never get legislation that requires EGR on a trials bike as a lot of premature engine management problems start with EGR clogging due to frequent cold starts and slow speed city driving. Use of budget oils and petrols probably contribute. In general car (particularly Japanese manufacturers) electric and electronic components are or were of much better quality and reliability than those fitted to European trials bikes. Imagine if the Beta ignitions of several years back had been widely fitted to UK cars, road network would have been gridlocked On thing EFI trials bikes should definitely be fitted with is some form of DTC output and clear instruction on how to access and read it. It would be very useful on non EFI bikes to have a decent wiring diagram and values for different circuit outputs, but even this seems beyond most manufacturers.

I was not entirely joking when I made #2. I have alpinestars for MX and they generally stay dry, have stiff soles and therefore pretty tough. Many years ago I had the old very thick leather black alpinestar trials boots and they were reasonably tough even when wet. My present boots are Gaerne and are thinnish and very soft when wet. The soles started to fall off my sons Gaernes well before they were worn out. I have yet to find a modern trials boot that offers good protection when it has been wet for a while. Several makes become little stronger than chamois leather after a couple of hours in a typical UK winter trial. I know boots are more comfortable and give better feel on the bike but they do not offer much protection. Safety wellies are made and tested to meet stringent impact and penetration standards. Trials boots protection falls well short of these standards.

#24 I did not want to list where cereal box may not be appropriate but I have used it widely with complete success. I have used it (with a smear or blue Hylomar) for base gaskets, sump pans, differential covers, inlet manifolds, ignition / flywheel cases, primary drive cases, water pumps, thermostat housings, idle speed motor, etc etc In the case of Beta primary drive cases cereal box works better than genuine gaskets which are very narrow and seem to shrink and move in the joint. Rather amusingly I once dismantled a "seized engine" only to find the owner had used Hermetite RTV silicone throughout instead of gaskets. The loss of clearance, in gearbox / mains and increased compression meant the engine could not be rotated. Why do you think cereal box should not be used?

I have just been sorting out a small family car which uses technology that not many years ago would have been state of the art on a superbike. All alloy, double overhead cam EFi engine. 30 odd years ago I could have sorted the electrics and the carb on this category of vehicle in about an hour. This fuccer has more pipes and wires than an intensive care patient. Symptoms, Misfiring when cold and very jerky to drive, nearly stalling in neutral, stalling at slightest amount touch of clutch bite point, several MIL DTC Remove the EFI ECU - burried under the inled manifold and requires coolant to be drained (no drain plug) ECU found to be Ok stripped and cleaned EGR valve as this was logging a DTC. Either replace at £120 + or soak with carbon solvent for 2 days (I did the latter) Re assemble, run engine and clear fault codes. Extensive test run gives intermittent MIL and on return to garage DTC code indicates MAF circuit error. Cleaned all contacts, cleared codes and test drive. MIL now only on at lowish engine speed deceleration / running Strip and clean MAF (difficult as tamper-proof security torx screws used) Still getting MIL light on deceleration, Spend some time on PC looking up MAF contact voltages / functions. Find these models have reputation for MAF failure and cheap aftermarket MAF said to be no good. Genuine MAF list price £250. MAF output tested with PICO and laptop. Needs driver and laptop operator to do the test. PICO reveals low MAF signal on overun but MAF functioning correctly. Contemplate stripping idle speed control assembly. No DTC but could cause some of symptoms Decide to clean throttle body and increase throttle body clearance to help alleviate irregular low speed running. Spray carb cleaner into throttle body, none at all gets past butterfly, ie no throttle body clearance. Throttle body clearance not specified in manual so I guessed and set it at about 0.004 inch. The adjustment screw was a T20 torx that had to be turned about 15 degrees at a time due to very poor access. The torx bit was taped into a Honda spoke key at about 45 degrees. The butterfly stop was soft plastic and over time the small diameter (about 3mm) domed head of the stop screw had made quite a deep dint. Re assemble all the pipes, airbox and crap that had to be removed, run engine, clear DTC then test drive. Car now runs pretty well and no MIL. I guess Copemech has a few examples like the above, but to those who are keen on EFI I hope the above shows the extent of the drawbacks and motorcycle EFI does not have MIL / DTC to help diagnose problems.

Came across an interesting comment in the Cumberland and Westmorland Herald on Saturday. The motoring section had done a test on the new Triumph Thruxton twin. It had EFI disguised to look like carburettors. The comment in the text "the basic essence of motorcycling ends with technology"

I got my piston off Sammy Miller many many years ago when he was selling them as 150 conversion kit. Took my barrel to local boring shop and he refused to do it because he said liner would be too thin. I then took it to Ray Cunliff at Ilkley. He bored it spot on and although liner was very thin it never gave any problems

I find breakfast cereal box cardboard makes pretty good gaskets.

#11 Regarding duraluminium. The firm I used to work for used to buy quite a bit of thick dural for machine parts and it got harder the longer we kept it. First few days it was soft, then it became quite a bit harder to machine than mild steel. Eventually 4mm plate became so hard / brittle it could not be bent without cracking and was quite hard to machine with HSS tooling. I know when I got some 1/4 inch off the same supplier for a Bulto sump guard conversion their instructions were to press brake it as soon as I got it. For trials use Dural corrosion never seemed to be a problem although definitely some of the aluminium "went" as it often took on a hint of copper colour yet it only contained about 4% copper. 7075 does seem to be supplied T6 which is OK to machine with insert tooling but I suspect it would crack if you tried to bend it to make a sump guard without annealing it first.

Probably better off with safety wellies and thick socks if leather boots get any thinner and more expensive

Yes, after many years of having leaky fuel taps it seems for 2015 Beta have decided to try something different. The reason the taps leak is slightly rough finish on the metal tap parts. It prevents the seals / O rings sealing. Polish off the roughness and the taps work OK. I have not looked at a 2014 air box but pretty well all previous Betas need extra sealing work to minimise water ingress into air box.

Originally posted that points not burnt. Burnt points are a common sign of condenser failure. If you can rig up spinning the engine with a power drill (plug out and a bit of oil squirted into bore) I would expect to see between 20 and 30 Volts AC from the source coil in flywheel. Primary on HT coil to ground / Earth should be about 1 ohm. I would expect earth on HT coil to secondary to be about 3,000 ohms so your 4,700 ohms looks as if there may be excess resistance. 4 stroking and poor starting are often signs of HT coil failure. Bit of a guess here but I would suspect source coil if resistance a long way off 200 or 250 ohm. I would think any similar single terminal HT coil of a TY, Bulto or Mont would do. EDIT - figures based on general knowledge of points systems on bikes of that era, no specifically SWM.

I would doubt it is the end but it looks like another setback. If you look back over other news articles there is an announcement from GG on 21 January that said they expected to reach an agreement with creditors within 2 weeks. The Catalan News Agency article is 4 Feb, so it looks as if he 2 week deadline has passed without agreement being reached. What does not look good is the fact that in about 10 years, mostly of very low interest rates the debt has not reduced, it has increased despite reportedly a cash injection of 2 million Euro at the time of the Ossa merger. In the absence of any evidence to the contrary it looks like GG is operating at a loss which is a situation the creditors may not be willing or able to sustain. It seems they are pinning their hopes on expansion into the BRIC economies. But this is not straightforward with the possible exception of Brazil. Russia is sanctioned, India has heavy import duties, China is slowing down and in any case favours licensed local manufacture. With regard to Steves comments about ATF. I have known for some time that not all ATFs are the same yet many trials riders tend to regard them as the same. On the JSE video (from memory) he points out that some ATFs are not suitable. Very recently I found out that some transmission lubricant which is red and frequently referred to as ATF is in fact much more of a synthetic gear oil of about SAE EP 80 or EP 75w - 90. That means fluids commonly called ATF, range in viscosity from about 7.5 to 50 on the SAE engine scale. This is way beyond the amount of variation that would make them interchangeable.

I do own 2 gassers but neither of them are Pro's. I have ridden pretty well all the Pro models from 125 to 300 and like them to ride, and I like the overall style and build of them. Unfortunately in addition to riding them I have had cause to have to look inside the gearbox of pretty well all the Pro models and that is what puts me off. If you like Pros then by all means buy one but it would be prudent to Budget for a gearbox rebuild approximately every 18 months if you ride them regularly. http://www.catalannewsagency.com/business/item/motorcycle-manufacturer-gas-gas-ceases-production-after-creditors-meeting http://www.everybikesnews.com/featured/gas-gas-preconcurso-creditors

Soft lever is usually sign of air in brake fluid or something pushing the pads back. Pads could be pushed back by Dirt on disc Ice on disc Bent disc , disc runout Disc pushed to one side in rut or on rock, ruts in heavy clay can do this Loose front wheel spindle, fork clamp or calliper bolts.

Dirt and or corrosion behind the seals in the calliper will cause this.

Don't know the model number but my blue 1979 with plastic tank handled brilliantly, I would happily ride it today. I had a 69 250 which was very good in rivers, seemed much more stable than the early 70s Ossas. Edit. The 250 might have been a 1970 as it was J reg but it was one of the earlier 5 speeds. I also had a couple of red 325s, probably a 1975 and early 1977 model. The 77 felt more "planted" and steered better than the 75 and was very good on hillclimbs. The Blue 79 seemed good all-round, especially pivot turning on a bank and getting up big steps.

Never disputed GG being competitive, just some parts don't last as well as they should. Nice to see Rag win. Who knows, perhaps he has even picked up some tips from this topic! One swallow does not make a summer but something I wonder from time to time is how long a 4T can continue to beat a 2T. In pretty well all other branches of 2 wheeled motorsport the 2T would be dominant but for the FIM rigging the rules in favour of 4T. This has been done to some extent in trials with the introduction of the minimum weight limit, without which Raga may have had more wins.

Of the problems that affected GG it would seem they have at last resolved the water pump issues. They are still no nearer resolving gearbox, kick start and lower frame / crankcase breakage issues. A fair number of riders including myself (cost me a Scott finish) have had trials spoiled due to unexpected and unseen fuel loss or excess consumption. A reserve tap may get you a bit further but is not as good as being able to see the tank contents easily. Regarding developing prototypes in public, Some have already said of the broken suspension bolt (they may be wrong) that its just another example of bikes too light and comparing it to Ossa dog bone trouble). Sherco's development problems and reputation for bad bearings undoubtedly did their image no good for quite some time. Nigel, I am quite surprised you are contemplating a switch from GG.