16cs ajs

As per my original post in this thread, I've been trying to determine the year of manufacture, of this particular Dougie Lampkin replica. The current owner thinks it's an 03, but he's not sure & it's not registered. The frame number is A02E308445. Any ideas, guidance much appreciated chaps. The trials dealer RAS have similiar models for sale, so a visit there may well be informative. Mike.

Thanks chaps for all your replies, views & advice. To answer The Dabster, I live in God's own trials county, Yorkshire, where men are men & women are glad of it. Fortunately there are plenty of trials clubs & challenging terrain. Consequently older trials bikes may have been battered over rocks with subsequent damage to peripherals & plastics. The Lampkin replica that I have seen is no exception. The dogbone bushes or bearings require replacing & the plastics are tired. All of which are, I imagine, still available? I get the impression from various threads that the 315R benefits from better construction & build quality than its period contemporaries, hence a reasonable buy for a "mature clubman." Thanks again guys.

Hi. I've been offered a 315R D.R Replica, in reasonable condition for £1500. As my knowledge of "modern" trials bikes extends no further than my air cooled RTL four stroke, I would appreciate some info, data on the strengths, weaknesses of this model? Reading previous threads it seems that the 315R is still a popular choice, with reasonable potential & good build quality. Are spares still available? What's different from the base model compared with the D.R. replica? 314R/315R comparison? Cheers chaps. Mike.

Cheap shot Nigel at an easy, yet well respected & venerable target. Keyboard critics are ten a penny!

Mayhap the Edinburgh Club have taken a leaf out of the Indoor World Championship's book & introduced a wild card entry? Wild being the operative adjective! Should be a fascinating spectacle watching Guy trying to ride slowly. He'll definitely raise the profile of this classic event. Might even be worthy of a mention in MCN & similiar "rags?" That would be novel.

Hi Acot56, Re your request for help, with a collection of "classics" such as yours, you surely need it! One Cub is surely enough for anyone and I am an owner, but mine's a trials cub. If you have a Tigress/Sunbeam engines trials bike, then you have what may well be a uniquely interesting surviving example of what might have been a successful trials bike. One answer to your enquiry will be found in Deryk's ORRe, to be found on this site, which I heartily endorse & recommend to you. If you can source a copy of Don Morley's Classic British Trials Bikes, you will have perhaps the best reference source available. If necessary, I will photocopy the relevant pages & post them off to you. My choice re your little twin would be an update & make over to be suitable for classic trials. Good luck & enjoy. You will be inundated with questions about your antiquity, should you get it out in any competition. Enjoy.

It's usually the mild steel central collector box that requires renewal due to internal corrosion, as mine did. These are relatively easy to replicate. Reproducing the stylized HRC into the outer face of the silencer will be a challenge. To eliminate the inner face of the alloy silencer being worn through by contact with the outer edge of the tyre, it would be beneficial to weld on a doubling plate, or increase the offset of the mounting bracket to avoid contact. Good luck.

TMX somewhat ambiguously says "in the afternoon." In previous years it has commenced at 3.00 p.m.

Andy, The fact that a 2014 bike had screwed fasteners that could not be dismantled conventionally, would seriously concern me. It's only experienced one winter. I think I'd systematically dismantle as many components as possible and apply copperslip or molybdenum disulphide based grease. Swinging arm & engine removal are much more of a chore with seized fasteners, removal of both being predictable. I thought build quality had improved, over the years.

When I bought my RTL back in the 80s, it came with an HRC manual. It describes a complex method of measuring down the inside of the fork leg to the oil meniscus. In practise, this equates to 250cc. Experimentation with plus or minus 20cc will make a significant difference. I use the recommended 10 grade fork oil. If I was able to attack the hard course (how I wish) or weighed in above 12 stone, a higher viscosity oil would be advantageous. I also use 0.5 inch long PTFE pre load spacers, above the springs, to compensate for the coil springs settling over 30 years of abuse.

Hmmm??? TTspud has invested considerable time, thought & effort into this initiative. I really do want to believe that his intentions are honourable & genuine but the mote responses I read the more concerned I become. By coincidence I have the same model of AJS, in relatively original trim and there are at least four pre 65 clubs, in the North, where I can enjoy it's traditional charms riding Clubman class. I'm never going to win any awards but then neither would I riding the Miller or Grant Ariels. History proves that reactionaries can never halt progress. Witness the Luddites. My approach is simply to enjoy riding what you have, whilst you can, deriving immense pleasure & satisfaction with kindred spirits of like mind. Ultimately the organising authorities, ACU, AMCA etc will determine the regulations & specifications & we all know how difficult they are to influence. In short, get out & enjoy the freedoms you still have. It may well not be available to us, indefinitely!

Wallo, I strongly recommend that you change that lurid yellow for the more traditional black or yellow if you are to compete in classic/pre 65 trials. That way you'll be more in keeping with ALL the other fiddle bikes entered. As both your bikes have rigid back ends, I guess you would be grafting the Rock shocks on to the front of your machines. Finally, when you are competing, take care not to bite your tongue wedged so firmly in your cheek. Nice one Wallo!

Gautrek, re your chain spit link, try this. Paint the "fish plate" white to make it more visible. Support the handlebars with tie downs from an overhead point. Place the bike on robust blocks beneath the sump guard to lift rear wheel clear of ground. Run bike in 1st, blip throttle to induce oscillations in chain tension while observing split link and carefully observe any potential rubs, particularly adjacent to any frame fixtures, tensioner etc. A thin piece of shim steel inserted behind the fish plate and then peened over both legs will prevent the fish plate legs opening up & becoming dislodged, if it does rub against anything. Good luck campaigning a Panther. You have my genuine admiration as well as the essential large spheroids required.

Hi. I'm pretty sure the pre-unit rider in the beck at Cowling is the gentleman school teacher, Trevor Taylor, who, from memory also campaigned a Crusader and Cub. I'm surprised no other period Yorks Classic member hasn't nailed that distinctive 'tache & riding gear, since October. Cheers.

Deryk, I'm intrigued by the picture of the last trials Ajay to leave the factory. What year would that have been, 64? It looks like the short stroke motor, with the push rod tubes cast in to the alloy barrel. My late 61 original Ajay has the long stroke mill with chromed push rod tubes. The riding gear in the photo looks more mid 70s period? Please keep posting. And yes, I have subscribed to ORRe. Ts.

Shedracer, I would be fascinated to know more about that captivating video, taken at Mr Mitani's place? He must have an excellent security system. Please excuse my ignorance, but who is this lucky chap who owns multiple RTLs, and SO many other desirable exotica? It appears that all the bikes are as catalogue and mint. Exceptionally rare with any used comp bike! Re additional RTL videos, could I gently encourage you to post a video of your pride and joy, as and when, now that you have your own HRC masterpiece? ATB.

Whilst I have no first hand knowledge of the effectiveness of Bulto cable operated rear brakes, there is no good reason that a cable rear brake should not work satisfactorily. Many British sports twins of the 50/60s utilised them, such as BSA A7SS. I have a Cotton 37A with a cable rear brake, that has plenty of feel and passes MOT. Period cable front brakes work with reduced hand pressure. Perhaps, as previously suggested, it's some inherent design issue within the shoe mechanism, rather than the cable.

As always Deryk, your retrospective, first hand experiences, provoke contemplation of the past and concern for the future. With the inevitable passage of time, we have to accept change, however painful. I well remember admiring Pete Robson, manfully riding his girder rigid Levis through sections at Scarborough 2 day & Yorks Classic Captain's trial, while I took the easier option of riding a Cub or Cotton. How many girder rigids or genuine, springer pre units are regularly seen in competition now? As the experienced older riders, understandably now chose to compete on progressively lighter more nimble bikes, witnessed by the recent proliferation of trick Bantams and younger entrants prefer high spec two strikes, I fear for the future of larger capacity four strikes. Some clubs, such as YCMCC & Poachers, strive to encourage pre units, with limited success. It is certainly no fault of "Sam the Man" who stayed faithful to large capacity pre units in particular & 4 strikes in general that current classic trials and their classes favour trick, lightweights at the expense of proper pre 65s! We can only hope that everything goes in cycles. However my bet would be the growth of twin shocks and air cooled monos, for a host of depressing but sadly irrefutable reasons, including price, availability & suitability to increasingly harder sections. On this occasion, I really would like to be proven wrong. Time, as they say, will tell.

Is it just me, or is anyone else thinking after reading this thread that some of us really do need to get out there a bit more? That includes me for spending valuable time reading it, instead of fettling and riding. Ahhhsa is getting dangerously close to a noun that comes readily to mind when picturing fervent pedantic anoraks.

Lineaway's point is crucial and highly informative. If you are sufficiently fortunate to own an RTL, for goodness sake, enjoy riding it and after optimising the original factory suspension, hone your riding skills to improve your results. How many home mechanics have the engineering ability to improve on HRC Honda's years of development? Do you really need to improve an RTL when it was capable of such amazing achievements, back in the day? What level of World Class sections do you aspire to be cleaning? When I ride my stock RTL, I am acutely aware that any weakness & deficiency in performance is inherent in the rider NOT the bike!

Hi, fellow "mature" enthusiasts. The evolution & ultimate sad demise of unique development one - offs, such as the Tigress engined C15, are indicative of our then stagnant British motor cycle industry management. If only! What a shame. I seem to remember that sage chronicler Don Morley, saying in his invaluable tome that when the designer of the Tigress (Edward Turner?) happened to discover the existence of this unofficial, *******ised hybrid, he insisted on its destruction and termination of what was an unofficial, unauthorized project. Talking with factory employees of that time, this complacent ethos was endemic. And the rest as they say is history.

Working from first principles, if the spring in the carb above the slide has the correct spring rate to overcome the collective friction, the slide will be forced to close. I would suggest checking individual components to find the culprit stiffness. Take the carb off, and remove the cable. Check that the slide strokes freely up & down in the carb and that the cable inner moves freely through the outer. The throttle should now be silky smooth when turned. If all good, careful reassembly, paying particular attention to routing the throttle cable to avoid, kinks, acute bends and being nipped should result in your slide snapping closed. It may just be that someone has fitted a weak spring above the slide. Easily resolved. You will sort it!

Andy,on behalf of all the lovers of the English language & pedants, my sincere gratitude. Perhaps, when time allows, you might covertly sub-edit the infuriating could HAVE in place of could of and you are in place of your? Such grammatical errors may appear to be inconsequential, but I suspect, not so to you. Keep the faith.

Hi Deryk, I am intrigued by your last "Matchless" posting. I have enjoyed riding Poacher's trials, since their inception & would highly recommend them to proper pre 65ers. Shane is a skilled and accomplished rider & machine builder of AMC pre unit models. It is your reference to a Derek Brooks frame that interests me. Is this the late, well known prolific bike building D.B of Red Rose & Yorks Classic fame? I own the 16CS he fleetingly rode in the early 90s campaigned for many a decade by that gentleman rider Malcom Adams. The late, outspoken Howard Midgeley once gave my Ajay a thorough eyeballing @ a YMCC trial and pronounced it a genuine, original,based on one frame lug, that can't be copied! Keep posting Derek. Your knowledge & diligence are much appreciated,giving great pleasure, whilst refreshing flagging memories. Many thanks.

Re riding techniques, particularly clutch control, using twin shock/pre 65 bikes, negotiating clubman type sections, it is better to leave the clutch engaged. Learn to ride, in full control in first gear, using precise throttle control off tickover. It also means a modest rider has one less variable to manage and reduces the risk of braking traction when re engaging drive. If you need proof, watch the older more experienced riders trickling through sections in first gear, using throttle control, weight distribution & body counter balance, with the clutch fully engaged.