bulltaco340

Thanks for that guys, sorted out now.?

Hi, I'd be grateful for a lead to a bike orientated welder to put modern type footrests on a Sherpa in Scotland. Central belt or North east Scotland would be most convenient.

pschrauber #52 Many thanks for your reply, I was sure that was what you meant. I wonder if the 5-speed 340's owned by ND and BJ are 199a engines with the Pursang piston. The 5 speed gearbox would possibly have given more lateral room for machining bits off for the new s/a pivot point?. I'm sure we'll hear !!. Not any help in finding the last Sherpa, I know, but after Dabsters post,I had wondered if there was a previously unknown last factory run of bikes which might have explained the very high serial numbers mentioned by "Greeves".

Thanks for that. I was aware of you guy's bikes. I read pschrauber's post as :- "the modification was made by Reg May on behalf of Comerforts and that these improvements were sent to the factory and ones hopes that there will be the development of a new model at the end of 1984.",comma, "It did sadly not happen". ("It" being the development of a new model, by the Barcelona factory, at the end of 1984, with the Reg May mods.) To which ND replied "It did happen......" Do you guys have Reg May prototypes, details of which were sent to Barcelona but never acted upon, or was there in fact a production run of "Reg May" bikes subsequently made in Barcelona?.

Mildly confused here!. Do you mean that bikes with the Vesty/Reg May mods were subsequently produced in the Barcelona factory as hoped in the pschrauber copy article ?. Everything I've ever read suggests that only around 40 of the bikes with the oval swinging arm, etc., were produced at Comerfords by Reg May.

Thanks for that, There was a suggestion that Mike Bell may have ridden it in the 1983 Scottish but that trail fizzled out. Bulltaco.

Not any help as to total numbers produced, I know, but here's a quote in a letter from the great "Legs":- "The bike you have is one of the last six speed Sherpa's imported into the country. Imported on 18th April 1983. The bike was sold to Ernie Page Motorcycles in Edinburgh. By your description it sounds like a Vesty replica." The bike referred to is about 30 numbers below this one in Greeves post :- "Second document is astonishing: Bultaco No.: 199.14.688-B, Imported to Germany: 30.06.1983, (through Switzerland (bike was former registered in CH)), through custom of Freiburg, first road registering in Germany: 30.06.1983."

Thanks for that.

Hi, I need the right angle speedo drive box for the British Hub Co. full width alloy hub on my Greeves and of course these hubs were fitted on many lightweights of the era.The threaded mounting hole in the hub is 10mm or so in length and the drive cog on the hub sits about 19mm in from the outside of the hub plate. I wonder if anyone knows of a source of these or is it a case of scouring the autojumbles?. If anyone knows the part number or original maker of these, that would be interesting too.

Deryk, I did have a look at the timing marks, they are where they were but as you suggest it may be necessary to investigate further. Whinger, It's a concentric with the bush, I didn't have access to a compressor yesterday just the carb cleaner aerosol. I'll try the compressor on it today and hope your right. Thanks for your time guys.

Hello there, My 3ta engined trials bike has suddenly decided not to run unless on full choke. I've stripped and checked the carb a couple of times, float and needle are OK, tank and carb. filters are clear, tank cap breather is clear, replaced jets, needle and gaskets but no joy, it splutters out as soon as I begin to open the choke. Exhaust pipes are tight, can't find any evidence of cylinder head leaks.The plugs are obviously sooty black with the choke on. The bike has a Rex Caunt ignition system. Any suggestions would be welcome, no matter how unlikely they may sound!. Regards, Bulltaco.

Nevertheless, and according to the programme, the Monday route was 51 miles and riders were given as taking five and a half hours from leaving the start to arriving at the last sections (Lagnaha). The route was over forestry roads, good hill roads, a short section of a hill path and main roads. Tuesdays route is given as 102 miles, twice that of Monday, and included some pretty wet moor runs as well as the possibility of hold-ups at the canal bridges. Time from leaving the start to arriving at last section (Trotters Burn) is given as six hours 48 minutes. Just sayin'.

Hoping to get a few classic scrambles before the arthritis in the wrists puts a stop to everything. They're too far gone to handle the Tribsa any more.

Wow, there's a man who knows his Greeves. In fact I will be at Stafford tho' it's a fair trek from Glencoe!. Next puzzle is that the Hawkstone bottom yoke position and angle on the fork legs look identical to an MDS sitting beside it, maybe have to take it apart to see exactly. Thanks to both of you again for your advice.

Thank you, I had a quick look and that definitely seems the place to go.

Hi, I have a Greeves bitsa, basically a 1960 SCS Hawkstone, which has been set up for trials with footrests mounted on the s/a spindle, brake pedal shortened to suit, trials engine plates complete with side stand, Parkinson conversion with thick Tufnol spacer and a trials top fork"yoke" with the ends of the curve pointing forward. Is it the case that all the fork main "H" pieces are the same and a scrambles top yoke with ends of the curve pointing backwards will convert the forks to scrambles trail?. I also think I'll need scrambles engine plates which give a slightly different weight distribution?. I've read the books and done the googling but am stumped, any advice gratefully received.

"There's a distinct lack of SSDT chat this year." Interesting to hear that, I thought SSDT and pre-65 chat on TC was absolutely dead last year and didn't seem to be much on the SSDT site either. I rather assumed it was all taking place on one of them new-fangled Twitter things or something?. Funny, but I also thought the events themselves seemed pretty low-key and lacking much of the old atmosphere.

A bit of both bondy, I've got a spare 199a without an engine and thought I might play around building a modified bike over the winter. I wonder if anyone has contact details for John Collins who has (or used to have) a trials used spares business?.

Thanks for that guys, I've been offered a 340 motor without a head. After reading your replies I managed to find some exploded diagrams and it looks like the 340 head is a 325 head with a relief machined to take the 340 liner. Can anyone confirm this please?. In fact, it looks like the 1975/76 type 350 sherpa head has the same relief?.

Hi, Could someone advise please, are 199a and 199b cylinder heads a straight swap?.

Reading through the two recent "3or 5" threads, and earlier posts in a similar vein, isn't the real and insurmountable problem with trials scoring that final results,even in trials of International or World Championship status depend entirely on subjective judgements made by volunteer officials. Regardless of the scoring system, these results are usually justified by "what the observer saw at the time". Any subsequent discussion is dismissed by - you weren't there ; the observers view was obscured by bushes/spectators/badly laid out section ; the picture was taken from a different angle ; it was a lenient/hard observer who marked everyone the same,the observer at the next section was hard/lenient and it balances out ; the observer was possibly influenced by the reaction of spectators, blah, blah, blah. None of which alters the fact that, in very many trials competitions, a competitors actual performance according to a standard set of rules is impossible to record, the point Smarty156 makes in #26 above.

Sorry, I haven't looked back at this post for a long time. Many thanks to bult 360 who recently found the log book for the bike and very kindly sent it up, 10 years after I bought it from him!.

I wore a pair of Big John boots for solo and sidecar scrambles and grasstrack in the 1960s /early 70s, as a member of the original Forfar District Motor Club (Hic et Ubique motto, still got the car badge proudly displayed in the kitchen!). Boots were good solid lumps of horse or cow hide.

Looks like Mike Bell is the prime suspect he's been mentioned twice now, I'll give him a ring later. Definitely not Fraz, no 240, he had a blue 199a.