beamish owners club

You are right that Sammy farmed everything out but I wasn't aware that Mick Whitlock did any work for him.

My best friend died in May (he was on here as Monoped) and has left behind his private collection of bikes that I am now looking after them on behalf of his daughter. He had what he always called his 'Miller Bultaco 350' which has a chrome frame with the number 715. A recent visitor to my place called into question that it is a Miller frame as there is no rear loop. On closer inspection, the brazing does look remarkably like that of Mick Whitlock and the footpeg mounts are identical to the Whitehawk. I don't want to misrepresent this bike when I come to sell it or under sell it if it is a more desirable/rarer model than the Miller. Can anyone shed any light on this aftermarket frame?

The same thing happened to me today on my (new to me) 06 Repsol 4RT. Is it a big job to replace the shaft? What's involved?

Hi Woody, this is a bush but not one that is shown in the manual, possibly because it's not something that can be changed without special tools. Drop the fork valve back into the slider to check that there is not excessive wear in the bush. You don't need to remove it to have your forks re-chromed, certainly not by Philpots anyway. I have never had one bad enough to warrant seeking replacement but I think that Philpots could do that for you if you sent them the valve tube with the stanchion.

When Beamish modified the RL250 they cut 1" from the fork stanchions, put a reducer in the carb to bring it down to 24mm, used a #27.5 pilot and #120 main jets and added a 1Kg flywheel weight to them magneto. If you do fit a flywheel weight, make sure you remove the small piece of aluminium webbing in the bottom of the casing or it will foul the weight. Beamish also threw away the Suzuki frame in favour of their own but there are only a handful of those in the States! If you are riding a courses laid out for twinshocks there should be no need to alter your steering angle, if you are riding ones that are laid out for modern bikes then you probably do!

All Beamish' are rare, yes they all have a chrome frame made of 531 tubing, yes all the black engine models have an alloy bash plate and an alloy tank and yes they all had a reed valve but there are only about 1,000 of them left running - mostly tucked away in someone's shed it's true. But do you ever see one at a trial? Doubtful, they are all cosseted away in sheds! If you really want to see a rare one, go to the home page of my website www.beamishownersclub.com

Hi Rob, Reed block gasket - Crooks Single spring from exhaust manifold to U pipe - Crooks Base gasket - Crooks (as soon as they get some in) or make one Anything you find you are short of let me know through the website and I am sure we can sort you out. There is a manual on there which is a free download PDF. Why do you think there is more than one spring?

Hi Rob, it soulds like you may have an air intake leak judging from the engine racing and the air screw being 3/4 turn out. You should have a spring holding the U front pipe into the manifold, you may find that the is a lot of carbon in the fitting where the U pipe slots into the manifold stopping it go all the way in, this needs to be cleaned out and a spring fitted from the ring welded to the U pipe and the hole in the manifold. Check your base gasket and fit a new one anyway when you replace the barrel after sorting out the thread problems. Check the rubber inlet manifold to ensure it is not perished and ther are no cracks around where the rubber is bonded to the metal. Re-assemble the reed cage with a new gasket between it and the barrel. If your reeds are steel REPLACE THEM! They are almost certainly original and if you read the manual, it is recommended that you replace these every 6-12 months. Crooks have fibre reeds for £15, they inprove the performance of your engine and won't damage it if they break up unlike steel ones. If you are on a standard bore (80mm) think about replacing your rings while you have the barrel off, these are £7.50 from the Beamish Owners Club at the moment for genuine rings. Check your pilot jet too, the Club have new ones for 50p at present for a 20 pilot jet, they also have the rubber manifold should you need it. Check all other possible sources of an air intake leak. Hope this helps.

Now a blind test would be something I am supremely qualified for Nigel!

Thanks Richt, that's all I needed to know!

I have a mapping swithc on my TXT Pro and the makrs have worn off, is the sunshine switch on when the larger button is pressed in or the smaller button pressed in? I have read all the debate about whether they work or don't do anything but I would like to know in which position it is supposed to do which!

HI Suzuki250, the problem is almost certainly your side stand spring, you need to replace it or examine your stand to see why it is not keeping tension on the spring.

Do you find your RL325 a bit of a handful at low speeds? There are a few ways you can calm it down. 1. There is a hole in the barrel just above the exhaust port that get clogged with carbon. You can feel it in the top of the exhaust outlet as a channel, the hole is only about 2mm but if this is cleaned out it will make quite a difference at low speeds, that is what it is there for. There is no hole on the RL250. 2. The standard ignition system on the beamish is analogue and linear, you can get a mapped digital ignition that calms it down at low speeds but still give you all the power when you open the throttle. 3. You can fit a thicker head gasket to lower the compression ratio, you may want to do this if you are a beginner on a RL325. If you want to improve your bottom end performance it is easily done for about £15 by fitting Hi-Tech fibre reeds. The Beamish manual suggest you change your reed petals every six month - I bet most RL325's are running on 30 year old reeds that are weakened through metal fatigue! Hi-Tech reeds are avaiable from Crooks Suzuki.

I have a 24mm OKO on my TY175. I am just having a Mikuni flat slide developed for the RL325 and a 26mm OKO for the RL250 - watch this space!

If you have cleaned the clutch plates thoroughly and tried everything from 10/40 to 20/50 oil then you will just have to live with it. A lot of them do it but not all. Fantics and TY250 monos are prone to the same problems I believe. How much oil are you putting in it by the way? The casting on the casing and the manual differ in what they say the quantity should be. Use the level screw to get the right amount of oil. You could even try running 100cc less and see how that works. Gas Gas UK recommend running the Pro engine will less than the manual states and it does make a difference to the clutch operation. Don't go lower than 100cc less than the amount of oil you drain out once you have it corredtly measured on the level screw. I rebuilt a Beta 80 a few months ago for my son, the online manual was not clear about oil volume and I put 450cc in it, the clutch was dragging, wouldn't disengage sometimes particularly from cold. I found out it should have 300cc and now it works perfectly.

The Beaumsh was first built in late 1975. The kickstart from a RL250 Exacta (they come up on eBay USA) is the correct one. Most Suzukis of a similar CC around the period will use the same splines but you need one to clear the footpegs. Check out my website for more details, there may even be one on there.

Hi Si8433176, The front brakes on the RL250 are all pretty rubbish! Yes you can strip the wheel and get a new liner, if you speak to Dave Renham at www.bultacouk.com he can get it done for you if you don't know anyone locally. Better still, look for a 1978 RM front wheel from the MX bike. The spindle size is the same and you may have to make up some bushes to centre the wheel correctly but the braking is vastly better! As for your kickstart, if you go to my website you will find a link to a guy who can refurbish your kickstart for £30 with postage. Hope this helps.

It depends on the model you have or are looking at (silver or black engine). Casings are becoming hard to find for both models. Crooks-Suzuki have a lot of spare and are a good source or www.beamishownersclub.com is where you can find out more information.

The Beamish was designed to be a clubman bike. The idea behind the chrom frame was not for looks but for a bike that you could wash and throw in the shed until next weekend without the paint on the frame rusting. 30 years after they were built it seems that most frames are still in a pretty good condition so I would say they achieved their aim. This is not my view, this came from a conversation a couple of years ago with Nick Beamish. There are some very talented riders out there still getting results on a Beamish but to be fair they would probably gwet the same result on a C15! I can atest to the fact that most Beamish are 'garage queens' and owned for their aesthetic or nostalgic value as opposed to the trials capability. Are they any good? Depends on who you ask!

Sidecar trials are hard to find we have discovered. Sidecar trials for beginner are even harder! Normandy Club (part of the Thames Valley Trials Combine - TVTC) have said they will lay out a few trials catering for sidecars if they can get at least 3 outfits interested. A kind offer indeed I think. So, if you are in the South East (most of their trials are in West Sussex and Surrey) and interested them please contact the club secretary http://www.normandymcc.co.uk/contacts.html Hope to see you out there!

Hi Tim, we are no experts by any means but watching the guys at the South Eastern Centre trail on Sunday (we quit becasue we were just not good enough to get round), you need to lift the chair wheel off the ground and go over your obstacle as a solo. That will take some practice!

Thanks Wayne, I didn't think it should be too difficult!

I have a Cub on the old coil system and need to add a kill button. I am not the best at electrics, can anyone tell me what and which terminal I should earth for the kill switch? There is no battery by the way.

Sorry but you can't convert oil forks to air/oil without damper rods with vents in the top. You should have 236cc of ATF or SAE 30w oil in your forks - don't sue 5W, 10W or 15W fork oil unless you are under 6 stone!

Are your forks air/oil or just oil? If the former they will have iar valves at 45 degrees on the tops. You can try preload spacers to suit by cutting only pieces of bent handlebar - a cheap alternative, it they are still too slack then put a little more in. Start at 3 1/2". If your forks are air/oil, buy a proper fork pump and inflate to 15 psi.