| |
-
Anyone been to southern Spain or Algarve recently. What are food and drink prices like?
-
http://www.gasgasmotos.es/en/news/481-gas-gas-motos-sa-and-ossa-factory-sl-join-for.html
I came across this some time ago and at the time was surprised to see the join up described as a merger.
Sales 9000 bikes a year say at an average of £5000 each (wholesale) = £45m
24m Euro Debt at 1.0% interest is 240,000 Euro, divide that by 9000 bikes and that is only 27 Euros per bike, hardly significant even if the interest rate rose a few percent.Even to pay off the capital of 24m Euro in 25 years would only add about 110 Euro per bike.
Debt repayment / servicing probably makes up a higher proportion of sales cost on many products. 140 Euros on a £5000 bike is only about 2%. I know of many projects where the debt repayment is far higher than that.
Of course it may be that the creditors have problems of their own and need the money out, but forcing GG into bankruptcy will probably not solve that.
If GG did go Piebernat could set up a nice little sideline using the low batch number manufacturers he uses to supply his Jgas operation.
-
GTL technology has been about since the 1930s I think but until relatively recent oil price rises was only used on a large scale when the supply of petroleum was scarce such as in Germany in WW2 and South Africa during sanctions.
As Andrewmorpeth says even if the lubricating oil were completely "emissions free" there would still be the problem of unburnt petrol getting into the exhaust (unless direct injection is used)
Large 2 stroke diesels on ships have historically used heavy oil as the fuel but they are now being forced to switch to GTL fuel to clean up emissions.
What I wonder is if both the fuel and the lubricant in a 2t trials engine could be GTL and formulated in such a way either they burn completely to harmless byproducts or if unburnt they have such a composition they could be considered non polluting.
-
My 348s had points ignition. Sounds as if someone has modified yours by fitting motoplat electronic. You will need to remove the flywheel to check. To hold the flywheel you will need a band clamp, then to remove it a puller. If you don't have a band clamp an impact wrench can be used to remove the nut but I would not advise using this to refit flywheel, too easy to over or under torque the nut.
If it is a motoplat contact Bradford Ignitions.
-
For the date of your bike, presumably late 70s or 80s yamaha should be able to supply a certificate of newness, which includes the same information as a letter of conformity and you should be able to transfer the information over.
Type approval exemption is for newer vehicles. In the case of motorcycle one of the requirements for exemption is that the seat height does not exceed a certain figure, seehttp://www.trialscentral.com/forums/topic/52564-type-approval-trials-bike/
-
Check the air filter is clean / free of water.
Check there is not water in your fuel, you can get condensation problems at this time of year. The cold causes water droplets to form inside the tank, they then get splashed down under the petrol, can't evaporate out again. This causes gradual water build up.
Once you have done the above warm the bike up then turn the fuel off, keep the bike running and if it revs cleanly as the carb runs out of fuel it means there is something amiss in the carb, possibly float height, dirt in float valve or a jet in loose. Slow running screw is very unlikely to affect revving out.
Rings and seals very unlkely
-
I would not bother about wearing your trials bike out, properly maintained they wear pretty well, probably less effort and cost than running a second bike.
Riding an MX or Enduro bike does help with trials, as does riding a trials bike help with Enduro and MX.
The more time you spend on any off road bike the more it builds up your skill and fitness.
Even grass tracking which is basically just going round in circles builds your skill, throttle control and confidence.
-
Honda who have quite a bit of influence with the FIM have an ideological bias towards 4 strokes and this is often supported by environmental claims over dirty 2 stroke emissions.
However several firms are now quite well advanced with GTL (Gas To Liquid) investment, mainly with a view to fuel production. GTL fuel is very clean compared to mineral based fuels.
Advances in this technology could well result in a very high quality 2T lubricant that burns so cleanly in the combustion chamber that its emissions are less than petrol and at the same time the GTL oil burning will contribute to power output.
Technologically such a clean burning lubricant is near certainly possible but its development could be hindered by having only a small market.
For now the drift to 4T in trials seems to have been put on hold but how long will this last.
It is a fairly common opinion at club level motocross that the move to 4T has been detrimental to the sport both on the grounds of increased cost and excessive noise.
Might it be in the interests of the 2T trials manufacturers to get together and try to persuade at least one of the major lubricant manufacturers to produce what is effectively a zero emission lubricant?
-
Bou - my guess is so he can easily change / experiment with the piston diameter to give a different feel to the clutch. Also if his clutch mechanism gets broken in a crash it will be quicker to replace, possibly vital in time limited wtc.
If your 4Rt were mine I would probably strip and inspect very thoroughly the whole clutch and operating mechanism, but first I would change the fluid.
-
Should you be using the clutch (other than to change gear) on a bike from the SWM era?
-
Some manufacturers publish resistance values for CDIs or you might be able to measure those on a known good CDI unit. However resistance is not a good way to test a CDI. The proper way is with a transformer that gives an AC out put in the 12 to 24 V range. I use avariable output old model railway transformer for this but something like http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/15v-250ma-miniature-transformer-yn17tshould do.
CDIs rarely give trouble, the source coil on the stator is far more likely to be at fault on a Beta. Again resistance is a less than ideal test. You need to connect the wire to a digital multimeter set on AC volts scale, spin the engine over either with a good kick or power drill and it should give over 20 V.
360 ohms sounds a bit high,
-
Following advice may be out of date as "purchase" tax rates on vehicles are presumably more harmonised than they used to be (unlike cigarette duty). A friend who use to race MX on the continent always had to carry proof of ownership / purchase showing that appropriate taxes had been paid. If he did not he could be stuck at border controls for 5 or 6 hours while checks were made.
The CPD is not required in Europe for private or commercial vehicles. In Belgium, Denmark, Finland and Greece, the CPD is used only for special categories of vehicles such as racing cars, ambulances, etc. In Turkey, the CPD is accepted, but a local document may be purchased at the border in the place of a carnet. The CPD is useful in Turkey for buses, radio/TV vehicles and breakdown vehicles
Look up CPD Carnet de passage
-
Trials bikes must pass noise limit tests for FIM / ACU competition as well as road use.
The perforated tube is a bit more purposeful than it first appears. It is significant with regards to 2 stroke power characteristics and silencing. The perforated section gradually removes energy from exhaust pressure waves. If this energy were not remove the noise level would be unacceptable and the engine would have a sudden step in power (grip breaking) over a narrow RPM range.
-
trailer.doc
I would not use a trailer like that, bike rack better for trial bike so long as your car is reasonably wide.
See the Word document. Quite a few years ago I made a couple of these trailers that could be quickly dismantled and carried up a passage at the side of a terraced house. I used 40 x 40 x 3 box but you may be able to go a bit smaller / lighter.
The wheels were attached with light (can/t remember kg) 4 bolt Indespension units and mudguards were plastic.
-
Have some posts disappeared?
-
aawil #4.
Thanks for pointing that out and I will amend my earlier advice and I now feel a bit daft. For some reason I had thought MJC 477s bike had an alloy barrel with steel / CI liner and roadwork never entered my head. The bore of a barrel of all cast iron does not expand sufficiently compared to the piston on sustained road running. More oil is needed to conduct the heat out of the piston. I would now not advise 40:1 but the 30:1 on A747 he has chosen should be fine.
Interesting to see the Greeves club advise similar to my ratio advise for gulf pride 2t, a good quality old fashioned mineral oil.
-
Slicktop - I posted this bearing in mind the situation in the UK
The VIN does not come up on the "national police database" An unregistered vehicle is treated more like lost property which is dealt with on a local basis.
Suppose you reported a stolen unregistered motorcycle to Cumbria police, Lancashire police could come across it and be unable even to know it was stolen, even if they suspected it was, if they could not trace the owner it would be handed back to the thief after 3 months.
To be readily traceable it needs a registration number issued by the DVLA.
VIN is often far too many digits to stamp easily.
-
The WTC has already imploded, as I have mentioned before it is now the Spanish Championship on tour.
I did not bother going to Nord View in 2014, probably will have a look this year but by no means sure. I watched Sheffield 2015 on youtube but was pretty bored after 1/2 an hour, yet I can happily spend all day watching 2 or 3 sections at a Lancs club or northern centre trial.
-
Hi , Why are you fancying a change from the 4RT?
A dealer I spoke to about 200 Beta availability and pricing gave me the impression that any limitation to supply was more to do with Beta UKs decision on how many to import at any given time. Would always be able to order one from factory but may have to wait at least several weeks and would unlikely to be discounted.
-
Most poster seem to be concentrating on highlighting bou's good points, fair enough but in starting this topic I hoped to promote a discussion on how the others might think about beating him. If it is the Honda that's exceptional (I don't think it is to any great extent) then the answer is for Beta, Gg, Sherco etc to make their bikes more competitive.
I agree Bou seems more able to hold a precise line more often than others but not always. He seems to have most advantage getting up the most difficult / largest obstacles and this is backed up by comments he has made.
What I wonder is if by slow motion computer imaging where they "attach" markers to key points on his body and bike it would be possible to determine where his technique differs from other riders, and then if they then could emulate or better it.
Take cycling for instance, at the highest levels the eccentricity of the chainwheels and the degree of eccentricity relative to crank position is matched exactly to he riders physiology. Runners gait is analysed to look for difference between legs or where power is wasted on unnecessary movements, skiers boots are shimmed etc. It may be as simple as Bou's C of G is on average 30mm nearer the front wheels spindle than his competitors, or his knees bent through 5 degrees more when initiating the spring up at a step.
-
"making things more complicated than they need be" not me, that the people wanting to put EFI on 2T trials engines. The drowned 4RT I mentioned, both the owner and his 2 friends, also 4Rt owners fiddled with it for a long time before giving up. This amount of time would easily have seen a drowned 2t running again, even one with points ignition.
Some people seem to have far more problems with carbs than I have ever had. I have had carbed bikes, 2t and 4t for about 45 years, hardly ever had a problem and none that were not easily and cheaply fixed. When I get a new or new to me off road bike I spend a bit of time getting the carburation right, usually less than an afternoon and from then on its only occasional servicing, maybe a jet or needle clip position change from winter to summer. Any more frequent changes consist of a few degrees either way on the slow running screw.
I have already acknowledged Mont / hondas probable reason for going EFI on the 4RT, but that reasoning does not apply to 2t.
The reason I keep bringing car EFI into a trials forum is because as yet EFI is not common on 2ts. Car manufacturers put vast development mileages on their components, trial manufacturers can't or won't do this. When (and if) EFI becomes common in 2t trials so will the (difficult to diagnose) problems. Car ECUs are pretty well ventilated (to keep component temperature down) but this makes the easily damaged by water. Trial ECUs will have to be potted to prevent water ingress and this will make component overheating more likely. Where EFI has become common such as in MX the bikes do not seems to run more reliably or better than their carburettored equivalents. I suspect at least some of the gains people attribute to EFI are actually due to improvements in ignition mapping, not the fuelling.
-
gizza5 #128, what you say may well be true and I agree EFI is fine when its working OK, the problems arise when the EFIs brain has a breakdown.
I am presently having to contact engineers in the far East regarding a car ECUs refusal to communicate with a DTC scanner and I am also aware of owners of vehicles with certain models of Nipondenso ECUs that can't be repaired / reprogrammed in UK, the replacement cost being in excess of £2k.
I have seen a 4RT drowned at a trial and they could not get it going again despite spending some time drying out the filter and airbox. No reason was found for the non start. It started and ran Ok once they got it home, and gave it a bit more drying out.
-
The engine shown on the link in #125 would not work, or not work well, the exhaust port is far to near the cylinder head. The picture looks like an autodesk inventor image rather than an actual engine.
Is this not the company that designed the GG pro and Ossa gearboxes?
Look at the price of those clutches, I can buy a whole new clutch for my 500 crosser for less than half that.
-
Nigel, it is you who needs to think things through, or perhaps have a word with a crime prevention officer about the benefits of traceable ID marks on vehicles and goods.
Discreet stamping of a registration number with 4mm letter stamps, on forks, yolks, handlebars, engine casings, hubs, callipers, rims plus few other parts and putting a clearly visible sticker on the bike stating (parts security marked) greatly reduces theft and if it is stolen greatly increases the chances of it being returned.
Just engraving / etching the registration number of the glass parts of a vehicle greatly reduces theft.
Why should security marks affect the sale of the vehicle?
-
See my "early diagnosis" post, Check you ACG (stator) output.
|
|
