trapezeartist

Well the give-it-everything wash cycle worked on the clay-mud stains pretty well. Now I have to dig around on the laundry shelf to see what might be around to tackle the grease stains. The chain grease has survived several conventional washes so any success now will be all bonus.

It gets easier with practice.

I wasn't really holding out a lot of hope over the oil stains, but I'll try getting a bottle of Elbow Grease. In the meantime I've thrown them back in the machine on the pre-wash, post-wash, super-duper wash cycle and I'll see if that helps. Unfortunately leaving on the floor doesn't work in our house Jimmy .

"Proper" trials clothing (shirt and trousers) is expensive but should be made for the job. So why does mud and chain grease not wash off easily? Does anyone have any cunning methods for keeping their riding gear looking good?

I don't know, but I can give you some information that will allow a comparison. Look up the internal dimensions of your Zafira and compare the equivalent figures for a Citroen Berlingo (2003 or theabouts). To get a bike in my Berlingo I have to put it diagonally across the space. I had to take out the rear seats (I think I could have got away with just removing the left rear seat, and folding the other) and slide the front passenger seat forward. The handlebars are very close to the roof lining so foul against it every time I lean the bike or turn the steering. If the Zafira is a gnat's wotsit smaller than the Berlingo, it won't fit.

You may have found it then. Try running it with the cap off. If that solves it, you've got a blocked breather.

Yes, you really need them. Without them a tubed tyre will rip the valve off the tube as soon as the tyre moves a bit on the rim. It's less important on a tubeless tyre, which is presumably why there is normally only one rimlock (I always called them "security bolts") on a rim designed for tubeless.

Yours is nothing to be ashamed of, Sam. I'm holding off the clutch lightener at the moment as it will obviously increase lever travel as well and make it a bit more fiddly to get adjusted right. One day, when I have time for experimenting. I'm really tempted to get rid of the toolbox. Originality is the issue, but my bikes not that original anyway and I do like to get rid of things that don't perform any useful function. I really need to sort something out on the chain/swingarm issue. I've protected it with PVC insulating tape for the moment but I'll be lucky if that lasts five minutes. I see you've got a nice clever re-routing of the rear brake rod. That's another point of where on the paint on my bike, so I need to do something.

Thanks stpauls. On your advice I've contacted Somerton DMCC. I should perhaps also have mentioned that I have a twinshock, but at novice level I would hope that doesn't really have much of a bearing on things. Is Breakheart Trials Club ACU or AMCA? I was planning on going to their trial in about 10 days time, but I may not have all the ACU stuff sorted by then.

I live near Bristol, so within the Wessex Centre, but also close to Western And South-Western Centres. Which club would local forumites recommend for a novice looking for as many easy trials as possible?

Every bike has a weak spot. Personal experience is a more measure of the reliability/durability of anything as complicated as a motorbike. If a particular item has a 10% failure rate, 90% of owners will have no problem and say the part is good. The other 10% will think the item is rubbish. Making wild generalisations on such a small sample size will not get you far. On the other hand, I once owned a Hillman Imp for a short while (yeah, I know!). That car worked it's way through every problem the Imp was know for, and then started making up new ones itself.

It's got a red anodized engine oil plug! I'll go and put my order in now!

I've just changed from a modern seat-less bike to a twinshock with a seat. Sitting down on a bike feels really weird.

That's true. Just ask Fernando Alonso.

Good point Dabba. You don't have to take it off completely like I said, although I suspect in practice the spring preload will generate too much friction to allow rotating of the top relative to the bottom.

It's been fitted back-to-front. You'll need to take it off and turn it 180deg. Then it will be easily accessible in future.

Here's a vote for Andy Kelley. Top man.

It would be nice to think that the factory have learnt from their (apparent) past mistakes. But who knows?

That seems pretty straightforward. I'll try that. That's a nice looking bike Sam. I see you've got rid of that rather pointless toolbox. I'm tempted, just to make cleaning a little bit easier. I'm never likely to put anything in it. Do you have a protector for the swing arm pivot? The chain is being a little bit unkind to the paint on mine.

I've been used to using my hand to engage neutral on my previous bike. The Fantic just seems to go one step further and even by hand it just keeps going from 1st to 2nd to 1st to .... OK, it's not the biggest problem in the world so if I can't cure it I'll live with it. I found out from the previous owner that the gearbox has 0W30 in it. That sounds a bit watery to me so I might go up to light gear oil. I paid a fair bit for the bike but not so much that I feel ripped off. Anyway I can't reveal the sum in case my wife sees this thread. What is the "chain link clutch lightener" mod? There's no bit of chain anywhere in the system so I assume I haven't got it. Actually I find the clutch effort to be pretty good. One finger is a bit hard-going but two fingers is fine, and I don't think that reduces my control on the handlebars significantly.

Yes, the spacer is a substitute for the speedo drive but what happens on the right side doesn't affect wheel location as the stepped part of the wheel spindle just finds it's natural place and is then clamped in the fork leg. I've confirmed with Bob Wright that there shouldn't be a spacer on the left; the brake backplate just bolts up against the fork leg. I'm wondering if someone in the past history of the bike has modified the backplate to move everything over a bit, though I can't think why. At the moment my plan is to insert a washer between the backplate and the fork leg and bolt it up that way. A standard Form A washer is 2.5mm so that will get it just about exactly in place. Unfortunately it might leave me a little bit short of thread on the end of the spindle. There seems to be an internal thread in there though so I may try putting a set screw and washer in the end as a precaution. Thanks maggar. It would be helpful if you could have a look for me and tell me what yours looks like.

When I went on a trials experience day last year (just to make sure I really wanted to do it) there was a guy in the group who had never ridden a motorbike before. He got on fine, and he was your age or probably a little older.

Working, yes. But I don't know whether the wheel was offset then, and I just didn't notice.

I just bought my Fantic 200 and came across my first little difficulty in the garage today. Having done a very muddy trial the other day I took the front wheel out to check the brake and clean all the crud out. On reassembly I put it back with the spacer on the right (see bilco's post above) but the wheel is not central. The rim is about 3mm offset (30mm clearance to left fork leg and 36mm to right). Also the clearance between the brake lever and the fork leg is only about 2mm which seems uncomfortably close. I'd already worked out that the spacer is a substitute for the speedo drive (as bilco's post). On the face of it, it looks like the RH spacer should be smaller, and there should be a small spacer on the left, but that doesn't agree with bilco, nor does it seem a logical way of designing the bike. Any thoughts, guys?

But that list includes Haven Trialsport who, I understand, are no longer working with Jotagas. How reliable is that list?