collyolly

My earlier point was more to do with riders moving on their current bike enabling them to buy a Vertigo not how they will sell on the Vertigo ! Would you as a dealer want to fill up your shop with thousands of pounds of year old bikes not having benefited from the next new sale ? Sounds like Vertigo want all of the advantages of new sales but none of the disadvantages of helping riders make the change, time will tell.

Seems a strange business model not to use a distribution network where the exchange of bikes takes place ( your local bike shop ), how will people sell on their year old bikes ? Dealers make this transaction easy by offering to arrange the finance, you cannot do this selling your bike privately so you will be reliant on a buyer turning up with say £3 - £4 grand in cash, why should the dealers help you out ( help out Vertigo) by buying your bike ? Sounds nice and clean for Vertigo but not so sure about the rest of the market.

As has been said on other threads, are there not now too many choices ? Once the new TRS and Vertigo bikes come on line and GasGas is reborn can you see a space in the market for the Ossa ? It was around for a couple of years and down here in the South East you could count on one hand the number of riders on them, now that the competition has gone up a notch I really do not see them coming back. What value is there in the name Ossa ? I would rather try a bike designed by Jordi or Dougie or maybe just stick with the tried and well tested Gasser ! ( not been made for this year but the team still took the Northern and Southern British Experts Titles.

How do they get a valuation ? If it is broken up what would they sell ? A bit of stock and some special tooling will not add up to much, if they had 20 years of back catalogue then perhaps there would be something to be had but they were only around for a couple of years and how many bikes were actually made and sold ? I just do not see a multi million Euro business here do you ?

Where are you in the world ?

Well I think it's a good effort apart from the intersection of the front of the seat/mudguard, the piece of carbon and the piece of alloy with all the holes, tidy that up with one piece of formed carbon or plastic and you have a neat bike. Nice to be different.

Depends what era you were reading about as GOV 132 was used by Sammy to win the first of the pre 65 Scottish events in the 80's (?)

When GasGas restart their aim is to produce 2000 bikes in 2016, that equates to around 8 to10 bikes a day, how do they need 55 people to do that ? The usual advantage of buying an existing manufacturing organisation is the absorption of some of the 'clerical' work so you do not need two accounts departments, purchasing etc certainly not for a business with an established market position do you need marketing, export blah blah. I hope the rebirth does not go down the path of the previous organisation !

Back wheel and swing arm from a 301 ?

Owls mcc have a club trial at Paddock Wood this Sunday (29th), if that's not too far check out their website, very friendly bunch of lads.

It's not really adding £3000 is it ? That bike is very tidy looking and I am surprised it only fetched £1500 at auction, I have seen some ridiculous prices achieved on trials bikes far less attractive than this Ossa. I would have thought £2500 would have been a more realistic figure and he would have made a sale by now, how many 1980's bike do you see as clean as this one ?

Hi Laird, just re-read your post, HT5 parts, well that's not going to happen ! I was referring to any standard 1950/60 Ariel parts !

Hi Laird, yes I agree with you, it was Walllo that suggested a closer look was required. The sport has morphed into pre 65 bikes being built in 2015, I have never seen so many Bantams, Cubs and James, if they had been around in 1964 the Spanish invasion would never have happened. As I said earlier most are competitive with the twin shock brigade in fact the better versions of the twin shocks, you would need a late SWM or Fantic to compete with the Pre 65's !

Well I have looked closer and it is a very pretty bike with lots of modern parts, this is now a standard wish list for this class. I can see- Flange less alloy rims, gas assisted rear shocks, plastic mudguards, Amal concentric carb, looks like an alloy sump guard, looks like a titanium front pipe, fat bars, slab yokes, no fork gaiters fitted, modern small tank with plastic cap, no seat ! ,looks like skinny hubs, KTM style kickstart, in fact apart from the crankcase,barrel, head and gearbox where are the standard 1950's parts. I love it but where are they all being ridden ? surely not just being built for entry into the pre 65 Scottish or the Northern classic bike championship.

Nice to see an original looking bike. I would suggest you seek advice about those footrests though, as to comply with the A.C.U. they need to be folding and you may get stopped from riding by an enthusiastic machine examiner.

It's not just the bike, it is the change in sections as well. Modern pre65 bikes are easily as competitive as twin shocks as they have been forced to ride the same sections, it really is a viscous circle of bike development and then sections to take marks off the modernised bikes being ridden by riders using 'modern' techniques. Show me a picture of a period rider with fingers on the clutch, in fact show me a picture of Martin Lampkin or Malcolm Rathmel riding like that ! Can't comment on the ease of Sammys bike to ride but you won't get away from the fact that he was the main factor in that partnership, it's more about the rider than the bike. If you think otherwise there is a winning Ariel on flea bay at the moment so if you think it's the bike go and buy that and clean both days of the pre 65 Scottish because that bikes already done it ( with an Ace on board )

Have you found out why there is no compression, the lack of flywheel should not stop your compression. Take out the plug and turn the engine over by hand with your finger tip over the plug hole to make sure there is something going on in the top end.

Looks like a good job well done to me.

It is not a bodge, it's called engineering, I have ridden pre 65 bikes for 10 years so I have got used to it. Any mate with a lathe will sort you out.

Those springs should be stiffer due to the reduced diameter, you need a small spacer turned up to take up the space. This spacer will also act as an adaptor to pass the load into your plastic spacer, I would suggest a spacer with the following dimensions 1/ O/D same as your plastic spacer 2/ I/D same as the I/D of your new spring or smaller 3/ Length, to make up the difference in the springs 4/ You could also put a small raised collar on the spacer to fit inside of the existing spacer to lock them together making your assembly easier. OR just make up a new spacer to do the whole job in one !

Yes that sounds right, hope nothing gets lost in translation here ! This means you can either let the thermostate operate automatically or over ride it with the switch both options will work.

You say you still want to use a switch if you find the thermostate fails, well you simply wire it in parallel with the thermostate. Imagine a ladder with the rungs being the thermostate and the switch with the wiring connecting like the side rails.

My bike is fitted with Rickman hubs and I am sure they go up in jumps of 2, so if you need an even number front sprocket to get the right option changing the rear by one tooth is not an option. Changing the front by 1 to get your odd/even affect would then be too much of a jump, so rideability has to take preference over perceived chain wear.

I would read your photo as 3rd down from the top as I consider the top the flat end i.e. when the needle is in the carb that is the top. This setting would have the effect of richening the mixture as it is pulling the needle up relative to the slide when fitted.

That may depend on where you are in the country, a small number plate is almost guaranteed police interest at places of bike interest.