dadof2

There is already a place where you can introduce yourself if you wish to but regarding the post here goes. On another forum (not motorcycles) I used to post under my full name and just short of my full address and in a perfect world would still do so. However the internet is not a perfect world. Firstly you can open yourself up to theft, either physical or identity. On the forum I refer to above, and by having a website a person built himself and entirely false identity as a specialist and classic car repairer. He took his time over it and did a good job, he was a mechanic and did sufficient good work both parts by post and car repairs. He always collected the customers car and left a courtesy car. He was clever enough to make sure none of the other forum members visited his premises. He only dealt with people well over 100 miles away and used excuses like away for training or premises being refurbished. On his website he showed a large clean garage with about 4 car lifts, in reality it was a lock up garage type place. After gaining members confidence he ripped of quite a few to the tune of several £thousands. On another occasion a member was having valuable classic car engine fully refurbished at a small out of the way reconditioners. Every few days he would proudly post progress and details including approximately when he was going to collect it. Someone collected it from the reconditioners on his behalf and disappeared with it. The reconditioners were taken in by the collectors chat and the police are sure the thief had gained all his information solely from the forum. The forum is still going but is a shadow of its former self. Secondly you can open yourself up to abuse. At my last but one employer we were prohibited from putting our names or any information that may lead to our identification on forums, and this rule was with the full approval of the trade unions. Some staff had had their lives made a misery (to the point of nervous breakdown) by defamatory posts. Not only was this bad for the staff but anyone doing a search under the member of staffs name could find false information that could have serious implications for the employers reputation. At some other employers the trade unions had evidence of managers monitoring forum use and attempting (illegally) to threaten employees with disciplinary action. Another issue (sad but true) is multiple identity. Some people can have several different identities under which they post, they then use those multiple identities to reinforce their point of view or indulge in covert advertising. Just look at what has happened internet wise to those who have expressed different views on the Ched Evans, Sheffield United debate. My view is that he has paid his done his time as required by our legal system and should be free to get on with his life and career. My view is valid and not unreasonable but I would never post it under my name and address.

Gasser already use these to fasten the rear exhaust on some of the older models, BMW also use them on their 3 series window winding mechanisms. You should be able to find one that fits your slot. Try an Ebay search for "clip on fasteners.

When I had my first motorcycle, I was only 11 and could barely afford tools. One thing I did have was a 1/2 inch drive power bar that had a hole through the handle exactly 1 ft from where the socket fitted. I bought a small spring balance (the sort fishermen use) and used to hook it in the hole in the power bar to pull it round the right torque in ftlbs. I can't remember price of spring balance but it was a fraction of price of torque wrench and I still have it.

Agree with above. From memory TLs used to come with key operated ignition on/off switch so part of your system has probably already been removed

At slow speed when creeping down sections I have the clutch fully in to prevent stalling the engine, and use both brakes. At higher speed in higher gears between sections use both brakes but leave the clutch engaged. Very occasionally you will get a very slippery hill where you can hardly use the brakes. Use a slightly higher gear (to prevent fishtailing) and leave clutch engaged.

Just logged on after watching Memphis Belle, and like the B17 crew, seems I am getting plenty of hostile flak also. Lad, Lads, Lads, Please read what I actually wrote before passing comment on statements you have made up yourselves. Why not quote what I said, then comment on it rather than making things up? Nigel, AG bikes see http://www.agbikes.co.uk/index.html I know full well he will source a GG but not a mention of them by name on his website. Who told you AG no longer supplies GG? On this post you say 4 th GG, on other posts you say you have had 7, how many have you had? DLs choice of bike - read again what I actually wrote. I have not written nor implied what your post accuses me of. Atomant - I have no motive, however I am quite happy to state that if my criticism spurs GG on to improving its products, then it will have been worthwhile. I may not have owned a GG Pro but I have worked on, diagnosed faults on and advised on repairs on plenty As for trashing the Vertigo, giving reasoned argument against what I see as excessive complexity of some parts of the bike is hardly trashing. I agree maintenance is a factor in reliability, but nearly all the riders I know who have had problems with their Pro’s have not had problems with other makes or previous models of GG. I am confident that poor maintenance (other than possibly use of ATF) is not a factor. Perce #50, which dealer are you talking about? If it is AG I refer you to his website same as my reply to Nigel above. JFC #49 Which dealer are you referring to? Perce #45. I know WB were also Honda dealers. I approached them several years ago about buying a Honda at well over £10k. They were pretty well piffed off that Honda UK could not supply one nor could they even tell me when they could get one. I then bought the bike elsewhere x stock. I will happily acknowledge that it was probably the collapse of Honda sports bike sales that brought down WB, Not GG. However see comment* nearer the end of this post. Baldilocks #42 and 43 Bill and Mick did trials as a bit more than a sideline, I had several different makes of bikes off them over many years. I know it was age / retirement that stopped them selling bikes but as above I will comment* more at the end of my post I never wrote closure of WB was related only to GG Nigel Birkett used to promote and sell GGs. Had they been selling well and in large numbers, would he have looked to possibly risky ventures elsewhere? Regarding Alspan, I am quite happy for you to discuss this with him. Unfortunately I can’t remember the exact dates but on one occasion it was something like “no GGs at all have been sold in this area (meaning Cumbria and N East) for ? (I can’t remember the exact time period but it was many months). Quite some time after that he reinforced the poor sales by saying that there was still virtually no improvement (in GG sales) I know no one has commented on MHB but I know he has sold very very few GGs and for some time now has chosen to ride a Jotagas. *My point in listing these GG or ex GG dealers was not to blame GG for their demise but to point out how many had gone without others being keen to jump in and fill their shoes. I would like to post quite a bit more dealer comment but as it has been said to me or close associates in private conversation it would not be appropriate to post it. It would be fair to say however that there has been fairly widespread comment within the trade regarding GG quality that is not favourable to GG. Dealers are having a hard time and there is not much sign of an improvement, they need every sale they can get so they are hardly likely to be too critical of bikes openly. Zippy #46. It’s not that I don’t like GG, it is just I have seen sufficient evidence of issues that put me off and these need to be sorted both visibly in the short term and proved long term before I would consider one. Nor am I against technological improvement, I will however question what I consider to be technological changes that I think could be detrimental to the majority in the sport. I have got certain suspicions regarding the strategies of the bean counters who now run GG. It not the same but there are some parallels to Fords unsuccessful management of Jaguar, which now under new ownership is making £10 million a week and expanding despite the recession.

Axulsuv, Unfortunately as an American you are probably unable to watch the Guy Martin Program. You would be better to reserve comment until you had seen the program. Guy Martin is a brilliant road racer, excellent TV presenter and thoroughly nice straightforward bloke. For anybody interested in engineering the spitfire rebuild was fascinating. Some time ago I spent a very enjoyable day at the Former Warbirds museum in Kissimmee, chatting to the owner and fitters as they riveted and wired aircraft. Anyway going to log off now, watching Memphis Belle. My school teacher worked on an American UK Airbase in WW2 and at times had the unpleasant task of cleaning the remains of aircrew out of B17s after daylight raids. In some cases so little of turret gunners bodies was left all that could be done was to hose he remains out.

Ham2 The point I was making is that for all the advancement in technology and supposed improvements over 30+ years the actual day to day driving experience is virtually unchanged (except when it comes to repair bills) So it will be with trials, no matter what the technology changes and increases in costs the actual enjoyment from riding in a trial will almost certainly not increase. There is a strong possibility that increasing technology will overall be detrimental to trials.

Spitfire as in "flown by the few" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Christopher_Deere

First DLs choice of bike. Anything I write is speculation because only DL knows why but considering he had a 3 year contract with GG and coached Raga on one there is no reason he should not continue to use a bike he is familiar with until the Vertigo is up and running. DLs ignition failure at the Scottish. Beta ignition failure was well known. Had I been doing the Scottish on a Beta I would have done two things. 1) Had a spare ignition available and the tools to fit it. 2) Prior to the event and each evening I would have checked the ignition on an oscilloscope. DLs ignition failure at the Scott. This was an experimental ignition system not the make fitted to customer bikes. Perhaps using an experimental system on the Scott was pushing his luck. Bearing in mind the frequency of ignition failures whatever the system / bike if I were doing the Scott I would monitor the ignition with an oscilloscope for at least several weeks before. As said previously and well known, Beta had a problem with stators that went on and on and upset many riders. At least Beta UK were sympathetic to requests for free replacement well out of the warranty period. Sherco and Gasgas also suffered quite a few stator failures. Sherco gave some leeway out of warranty but I have not heard of Gasgas replacing any out of warranty. I discussed this with a multi marque dealer (and WTC level development rider) at the time I was thinking of a new bike and his view was that all ignition systems with the exception of Yamaha were now being built down to a price with a very adverse effect on quality. His actual words are unprintable. I have dismantled Beta ignition systems, including unwinding the source coils and they seem to be well built with nothing obviously wrong. I have also dismantled Gasgas ignition systems the termination of the fine source coil windings was such that failure was probable. General reliability. Pretty well all marques of trials bikes have problems, some more than others but some definitely due to design and or build quality. Take the Sherco selector spring http://www.splatshop.co.uk/spring-for-gear-shift-lever.html that breaks where the sharp kink is. This spring is made from wire only about 1mm diameter and therefore presumably quite hard to give it the necessary stiffness. This stiffness and the tight bend is why it breaks. Compare this to a Bultaco from 30+ years ago where the spring is about 3mm diameter wire and less hard, and rarely if ever broke. The Gasgas Pro. The pro engine was significantly smaller and lighter than previous trial engines, with a unique gearbox and clutch design. Unfortunately before long the gearboxes began to fail sometimes repeatedly and very expensively, sometimes just the selector parts but sometimes, gears, shafts, bearings and even the crankcases. Firstly the crankcases. The alloy is very thin around the gearbox bearings, thin castings flex, increasing stress on other parts. The gears themselves are very small and narrow meaning the stress on them is much higher than in a conventional gearbox. In addition some of the gears are used twice compared to a traditional gearbox. The gearbox shafts are quite small in diameter and the split cage needle roller bearing is less than ideal, any wear or debris can result in roller slewing and what follows from that If anybody does not believe what I am saying just ask any independent engineer and or lay the parts out and compare them with a conventional gearbox or pre Pro GG gearbox. The small chain links and pins in the selector which should be protected by the cross bar in the top hat shearing are not. The links frequently give way before the top hat. GG has known about these problems for years but never done anything significant to prevent them. Relatively recently they have (so I have been told) made it easier to change the selector shaft. But making a part easier to change does not solve the fundamental problem. These problems may not show up in top line riders bikes that are changed frequently but for private, or second owners they represent a significant risk. A risk such that quite a lot of people will not buy a Gasgas. Gasgas should have beefed up the box and casings many years ago. Perhaps if Piebernat had still been there they would have done. The crankcases also break underneath the rear where the frame is attached. The Gasgas is a very competitive bike and the basic design concept is very, very good but it is let down by the detailing. Until they sort the frame cracking problems (not all that frequent), fuel tap problems (not all that frequent) kickstart (fairly frequent) and substantially strengthen the crankcases and gearboxes I will not be buying one nor advising anyone else to. That is also the view of several ex Pro owners. The situation in my area not be typical of Derbyshire (near GG UK) but up here in the North. White Brothers GG dealership no longer trading Nigel Birkett – pretty well given up on GG AG bikes – strongly favours Sherco, pretty well given up on GG Bill and Mick Wilkinson. Former GG dealers retired. Can’t remember the name of the GG dealer near Nord View but he gave up a few years ago. MHB is current GG dealer but he hardly sells any GGs. Not that long ago one of my friends was talking to Al the Spanner who said GGs were just not selling.

The bike when new would probably only come with a fairly thin but useful service handbook. Perhaps try a wanted advert. Try the Gasgas USA / Jim Snell website. I can't think of anything on them that they should need that would not be common to most bikes or just what you might call engineering common sense.

Dabster #9 You state "This bloke hasnt owned a gas gas for over 10 years so i wouldnt listen to a word he says." You are wrong (as usual) and additionally I have fixed or helped to fix quite a number of friends GGs. I am willing to bet a new Respol 4RT on it. Put up your cash or shut up and withdraw your post.

You can't sort this properly without splitting the calliper and thoroughly cleaning the seal groves, see my previous post, It sounds as if you may have to replace the pistons as you have marked them with grips. Do not push them back in or you could trash the bores / calliper as well. You will probably now need new pistons and seals. Never use grips on pistons. If all is correct they should ease in with light finger pressure.

Some other possible causes. Radiator air flow passages clogged Radiator and internal water passages clogged - possibly someone has mixed OAT and BS6580 standard antifreeze Corrosion in pump.

Anyone see the Guy Martin (road racer) program on rebuilding a Spitfire. Tightening the prop on (not good if it falls off). No torque wrench used, just swing on a long bar and get it FT. Back to main point of post, much fastening is not about needing a specific clamping force, its just about making sure the fastener is tight enough not to come loose.

Agree solder pot is the way. Spotless cleanliness also vital - prepare and assemble parts the shake in brake cleaner, them shake dry before fluxing. I use bakers plumbing flux (the blue paste) its aggressive enough but not as corrosive as bakers soldering fluid. On the subject of lack of skills, it is noticeable on engineering programs such as English wheel work or rebuilding spitfires there are no young craftsmen.

http://www.splatshop.co.uk/spring-for-gear-shift-lever.html Useful pictures on above link

Just a brief reply to SE Lucas #145. I too have a laptop and diagnostics hardware + software (circa £2k) But when it comes to riding trials in the frequently wet and muddy northern UK I much prefer to carry a 50 pence screwdriver to tweak the fuelling rather than carry £500 of laptop and leads.

Nigel Dabster, you really need to read what I actually wrote rather than post on comments on what you misread and then accusing people of lying. Atomant, at least you only misread what I wrote without being insulting. Atomant, when comparing the 2 engines you show, I know which one I would prefer the repair bills on, You could probably have the whole Ford engine for the price of the Audi inlet manifold. Hear is what I actually wrote "30 years ago I had a car with a V6 engine and a Webber carburettor, my present car although EFI and about 25 mph faster, gives worse mpg and is no better at all for actual driving. I did not say one engine is more economical than the other. The engine in the newer car is theoretically more economical. Newer car rated at about 220 BHP and 33 MPG. The older car was rated at about 140 BHP and 27 MPG. So the newer engine would clearly appear to be much better at turning fuel in BHP. But in real driving mainly on mixed A roads the older car gave 27 + MPG. On the same roads, same driving the newer car gives about 24 to 25 MPG. Both are luxury saloons although the newer car is about 375 Kgs heavier, because it has much wider tyres / wheels, it has a heavier stronger body shell for crash protection, it is weighed down with airbags, electric motors for seats and windows,ABS, Air Con, heavy speakers in each door etc. There is much irritation among purchasers of many new cars that the fuel consumption they actually achieve is nowhere near as good as that achieved and published for the government CO2 ratings. (Do a search on this if you don't believe me) Exactly the same thing has happened with large capacity motorcycles, typically in late 70s or early 80s they gave up to 100 BHP and could achieved high 50s to mid 60s MPG. Modern superbikes have maybe 70% more BHP but struggle to get much over 40 MPG at similar road speeds. Anyway to get back to nearer the post topic. There is more justification for having EFI on a 4 stroke because 4 strokes are much harder to carburate accurately just off idle, particularly when the throttle is snapped open, than a 2 stroke and that is presumably why Beta opted for a CV carb on their 4T and Honda for EFI on their 4T Whether 2 or 4 stroke EFI is much more complex and expensive than carburation. On 2 strokes EFI is always going to have problems getting round Lambda feedback (lack of) because 2T oil is always going to foul the sensors. EFI has another drawback for intermittent or repeated short stop / restart running. Every time the temperature sensor indicates the system is not up to normal running temperature the ECU assumes warm up / cold start fuelling is needed. This causes excess fuelling, causing bore wash on 4T and plug fouling on both 2T and 4T. I was at an MX meeting (sand track) not long ago. In general the carburettored 2 strokes were running fine and revving out cleanly. By comparison several of the 4T EFI bikes were running like a "bag of S--t", misfiring, popping and banging. EFI will improve but whether it will ever justify its cost and complexity on 2T trials bikes is more debatable.

Remove primary drive case and clutch. The spring is at the bottom left hand side. Remove the gear leaver and clan the shaft then push it through so it comes out of the primary drive side of engine. Fit new spring and refit shaft making sure spring legs correctly engage on aluminium lug on crankcase. Make sure you find all the old spring. usually just one leg breaks off where it is bent tightly. You will need a clutch centre holding tool to stop it rotating whist you undo the centre nut.

Dabster #134. The V6 engine in my 30 year old car was the Ford Cologne built engine, generally reckoned to be one of the best engines ever built. Since about 2003 Jaguar have built a range of V6 engines but I think they may have dropped the petrol version recently. Toyota also have a range of V6 engines. Still think I am making things up - get your facts right. Regarding hydraulic motors I quote "Hydraulic motors, on the other hand, can produce speeds from 1 to 5000 rpm. With proper valving they produce little shock, and their efficiency is in the 80 to 95% range. They also operate safely in most environments and save space at the work site. They are very rugged. Unlike cylinders with resilient seals, hydraulic motors always leak or bypass internally." ​For a cooling fan motor a very simple valveless impeller type would be suitable. Water turbines (and turbines in general) are very reliable. The reason they have not been used on motor vehicles is probably because there is no net advantage over the belt driven mechanical pump. but that is not the same as comparing them with an electric pump for use in a harsh environment. For Vertigo the electric pump was probably the easy option. Just buy it off the shelf along with the beefed up alternator, sensors and control circuitry. Had they gone for a mechanical pump it would have increased the complexity of their design for the cylinder, crankcases and primary case and they may well have had to design and possibly manufacture the pump themselves. But just because it was a convenient design option for Vertigo does not mean it will be the best design for long term ownership.

Pretty certain centre one is oil change bung. I think the one beneath kickstart shaft will have a spring and plunger in it which hold the selector drum in each gear position.

http://www.sparkplugs.co.uk/iridium-spark-plugs See above and consider an iridium plug. It will help whatever the problem Spark plugs do deteriorate and this would match your symptoms. Poor electrical contact either earth or live from ignition source coil could cause this gradual deterioration due to corrosion or water ingress Could also be source coil or trigger beginning to fail. What colour is your plug, is it getting darker? Something worth a try (I always do it) is when I have finished riding the bike for the day I turn off the fuel but keep the bike running until it starts to hesitate due to fuel shortage. This means next time I come to start the bike it has a good fill of fresh fuel into the carb. this also cuts fuel smell in your van on the way home.

I would contact Beta-uk. They should have a record of which dealer it was supplied to and if it was registered from new dealer may still have reg no. Other than that its a full explanation letter to DVLA at Swansea. Does the person you bought it off not have any record of previous keepers contact details, receipt etc? There can't be all that many 2005 270s.

Quite noticeable on a 300 Beta. Splatshop were doing a very good deal on slow throttle + new domino grips.