ask greeves

What about the tensile strength...just as important ...

A 200 forward kick Fantic swinging arm bearing, is a lot different from a 240....BEWARE

Suggest you use a venier gauge and a means to convert mm to imperial.....1957 DMW sounds imperial sizes........Could be 1.25ins (32mm) and 1.75ins (45mm) maybe !

Sounds to me, that you've still got the outer race still in the headstock. If so, the bearing you require would be 46mm OD x 32mm ID Timkin type. . The inner race would probably sit proud of the 12mm chamfer so's depth of bearing somewhere between 15....20mm probably... see what's available.

Hi, I've found that the kickstart lever from a minarela (sic) 125 engine, the sort used on back kick Fantics, is the same spline. Although this type is slightly shorter (not as tall) it works for me. As for the shaft, they were sold on e bay UK several years ago, Steve Goode Motorcycles is the Italjet man...here in UK, he may know who sold these shafts, or may even have them in stock....ps Piuma....means 'feather' ...should be white frame/white tank, alloy wheel spindles, apart from that...just about the same as any 250/350 Italjet Trials.

OUTLAW DAVE>>>>>Have found the video yet (from post 2006)

The correct way to remove the bottom yoke steering stem, is with a press ,in a downwards direction,(as if towards the front wheel direction).

Could this possibly be some kind of Chinese water torture ! But is minor compared to Senior Gonzalas, known to his friends as "Gonzo", Spanish ex pat, lives in little village Iron Action, on outskirts Bristol, rumour has it, he has seven 199b's. Spends 14 hrs a day, in his wooden shed, surounded by his bultacos, sitting on a large 3 seater settee, with a cardboard cutout of Vesty on one side and Bernie Schreiber on the other. His only pre occupation in life is to "find the forks"....I once asked him.."what do you mean"..he replied " the forks that even Senior Bulto could not decompress".

Hi Tom, Had a good look at both an old used piston and a new piston, seems taper on new piston (difference between top and bottom) to be 8 thou. Whereas the old used piston. the difference is 16 thou. I also had an interesting conversation last night with the guy who had re-engineered his piston. The long and short of it.....He made a 3/8th thick dural/alumium disc, after heating piston for 20mins in oven at 200c, took measurement (while hot) at the piston inside register and made a size fit disc (fitted cold to the hot piston) cooked again at 200c for 30mins then left in oven overnight (to cool slow). I suppose you could have a measure up, to see how much your own piston has worn/distorted, and may help in getting a fuller idea as to the sort of clearances involved.

Hi Fantic Tom, I have heard that it's possible to deform the piston skirt to take up excess clearance. Does seem quite drastic and i've never found it necessary to try this 'fix' myself.

Would still like to see the 'letter' on top of the barrel, But seems everything is pointing towards 'D' But the other markings suggests 'E' and as the gradings go in 0-0004 thou (4 tenths of 1 thou)..looks like an 'E' piston would work. But lets reserve judgement until we recognise the markings on the barrel. Next problem would be (if you decided to fit new piston) is a piston available !

One of your photos almost shows the letter we're looking for ( it's the image at bottom of photo) looks like a top of a B, if you could take a photo, including this whole letter...we could then maybe sort it.

Fantic Tom, Would have been nice to have seen the markings (letters) on top of the barrel and the markings on top of the piston (in your photos), these should correspond (be the same). Next, if the barrel looks OK (but it's hard to tell definitely without really seeing the barrel in real life) If for instance both barrel and piston are (say) B, then you would need to aquire a B piston kit (piston, wrist pin, rings and circlips) also (hopefully) would include a wrist pin bearing, but I would fit a new wrist pin bearing also. My experience has been, that to refit a noisey piston, will (at some time) damage the chrome bore, Of course while head and barrel is removed...to check the big end for excessive play, it's pointless to fit a new piston to a suspect bottom end.

Hi Guys, Fantic reed valve pistons, both 245 and 305 can come with different configurations for the piston inlet ports, the middle port is a puffer port, directly opposite the exhaust port, doesn't really matter (in my opinion) wether piston has or hasn't got this hole, or can be machined if you really think it's necessary. In my experience, some pistons have no holes whatsoever, but can quite easily drilled/ machined to original spec.

Hi Turbo, My understanding, any 250cc Reed valve piston, wether it be air cooled or water cooled will fit, and I would have thought that 309 and later would fit, and are supposedly stronger, There is a proviso, which is, are the water cooled pistons a tighter fit in the bore and would the grading letter on the piston barrel, be at the same tolerance for both air cooled and water cooled. This wouldn't matter, if the bore was replated, as the replate would be sized to the piston.