If you file the valleys rather than the peaks you can restore a better profile without making them razor sharp.
works on the old style metal and Ally ones but no need with the grub screw style which just need the screws changing every year or so.
the angle of you footrests is more important. Can’t believe how many droopy pegs you see while sat in a queue .
( other pet hate - snail cams pointing down ???)
I'll second that (don't understand why folk spend out on expensive pegs to have 'em pointing at the ground) and the cams, also spring clips on the outside of the chain, another bugbear for an old git like me from the era when nobody "serviced" a trials bike - you set it up properly then maintained it according to use, not some schedule.
All you need is a file. I have kept rests sharp that way for decades - essential to maximise control. Also, be sure to keep the footrests level as pivot and stop wear leads to drooping.
How did you get on with this... I’m currently doing similar with a 4rt... does the bike need to be insured for this paperwork to go through? Also how did you go about obtaining the nova ref number?
I registered a bike recently and insurance was not necessary. I have no idea why, as part of the process is that you pay for a year's tax, which can't normally be obtained without insurance.
The very early ones, as I recall, had a different gearbox spec with later versions having a change that lowered third and top slightly. A bit hard to tell in your situation though.
I really find this talk of limiting bikes frustrating and ill thought out.
If you limit innovation, you are handicapping riders whose ambition drives them to develop the skills that they are capable of. Why would you possibly want to do this?!
Trials is a competitive sport. The argument that WTC level is too far beyond club level illustrates the difference between a professional career athlete and somebody who rides as a hobby. There is nothing wrong with the latter, but to limit the ambition of riders who are capable/willing/committed enough to push what's possible on a bike is ludicrous. There is a reason 'the average' (what does that even mean anyway!?) rider can't attempt WTC sections, the same way that Toni Bou wouldn't attempt to achieve what the Sunday league riders achieve in their respective careers'.
At some point everybody is a clubman - it's the ambition of each rider that determines the way they progress. If you begrudge not being able to have a go at WTC sections, put the effort in until your ride well enough to attempt them.
So let's please drop this ludicrous desire to hinder the progression of trials.
Of course, tyres are already restricted by regulation. Would you advocate a return to the use of full knobblies for grip in mud?
No doubt other old guys like me are smiling at the recollection of similar "where will it end" comments when the Spanish got the Bultacos and Montesas to ride so much better than the previous British stuff. I'll admit there is a difference in degree but it was ever thus. The tyre issue, one of his hobbyhorses, was raised frequently by Ralph Venables in his weekly trials column in MCN (current riders may find the idea that MCN knew what trials was and reported on loads of local events each week with the SSDT getting several pages hard to believe - their staff could actually write in proper English then too) and was always scorned but, in retrospect, perhaps he had something.
As far as "ordinary" trials, as opposed to WTC go, rock steps which we routinely rode on early Spanish stuff now don't get used because folk seem to find them too demanding (though the modern bike practically rides itself up them). I observed at a trial last year which used straightforward sections unchanged from the Seventies and many riders were moaning when they saw them.
I agree that WTC is beyond a joke, in many ways, but there does seem to be a marked lack of ambition in the young at grass roots level. As Breagh has said on occasion, an old twin shock could be (and is) used to clean the bulk of sections in the modern trials I now ride. Not that I'm complaining at my age but nobody would have laid out a trial to suit pensioners back then.
I assume EM (a business that has to have profit to survive) are selling all they can make, so why bother spending a lot of money for no commercial return?
Works specials have existed for decades, perhaps not as extreme as the Honda, and are part of what makes trials what it is. I suspect many (most?) trials bike purchasers see the WTC as an irrelevance anyway. I know I do but also feel that trials is important enough to have a world championship; a bit of a dichotomy, I know.
I have come up with a plan "B" .. One of the bolt holes in the top of the exhaust has failed leaving a 6mm hole into the exhaust chamber, currently sealed with liquid metal. I have some 4mm glass fiber rope which should be easy enough to feed into the hole. Its intended use is for sealing a stove. Any thoughts?
If you can get more than a couple of inches through the hole then buy a lottety ticket as it is your lucky week. The packing needs to be evenly distributed and not too tightly packed - impossible to do without a large access. The rope is the wrong stuff anyway. I have used the same bag of loft insulation for years so it works out cheap, you could even borrow some from your attic?
Ease of repacking was one reason why I bought a Beta and, given the importance of a correctly packed exhaust, then frankly any bike that can't easily be repacked has a design flaw in my opinion. I can't be alone in that.
Thank you all for taking the time to reply. The 300 has some snap but no where near to my 86’ KX500. That thing was a beast and if used 1st gear for anything other than just getting it to start moving, it would throw you to the ground with a “I told you not to do that!”
The 300 could definitely use a flywheel weight for my riding “style” (I use that word loosely) so I’ve got one of those coming.
my first trials event is July 7th so that gives me about a week to practice. It will undoubtedly be ugly, but I can’t wait!
Once you get in to the confines of a "proper" section you may find the bike seems somewhat snappier than you currently think?. Let us know how it goes.
The Dalesman is what it is, a product of the difficulties of the time, and it's good to see a piece of history in use; I did wonder if any would surface in trials. However, most folk found there was only one really worthwhile upgrade.......... a Bultaco.
Are we all talking the same currency? Scotland is GBP. Indiana is USD.
Don't worry, Breagh is a Fifer so an expert on value and will have spotted that. In the Ossa context there is not that much difference using exchange rates, but "market value" depends on other, local, factors too.
That will have been the Little Bear time and observation trial. Can't think of any other six lap trials in north east unless you mean north east Scotland?
No, the NE Centre and I never did the Little Bear. Might have been at Woodburn (west of the A68).
I notice that some insurers are now requiring vehicles to have a current "MOT". Whether in response to the law change for older vehicles or not I don't know. It does raise the point of how you get a vehicle with an expired certificate to a test station though.
Just cheaper than the only obvious competitor, the 125 Scorpa, though the Scorpa silencer does seem to actually do something by way of noise reduction. You pays your money, you takes your choice.
On an older well used bike, I wonder how critical it is (new bike and engine, with assembly swarf I get) to change the oil filter
Every time mine has come out it looks fine and nothing in it, plus the oil is clean
So, as Clubman trials is pretty low stress, are we 'over servicing the oil filter'
Recently I only change it every 3rd oil change (change oil 500ml every 4 uses - trial or practice)
What's the concensus?
You're possibly right; how many folk do an oil change every day at the Scottish, if at all during the event? However it does give the opportunity for a look inside. Apart from size, what's different between the filter and one doing thousands of miles on a road bike after all. As you say, with the oil changed every six trials per the manual there's not much to filter out.
After the first time, I now find the filter easy enough to remove and refit (every second oil change) but it is a design glitch by Honda - a fraction off the back of the flywheel by way of a chamfer would remove the difficulty and, if critical, the weight could be added elsewhere on the flywheel.
I don't know about bhp figures but it is about as far as you could get from an Alpina equivalent, being based on the motocrosser in both motor and cycle. It's more a Frontera equivalent.
Tie down eyes Fiat doblo car
in Trials Transport
Posted
I use either the recessed bars in the floor that the rear seat locks on to or the square loops that the seat back locks on to.