turbofurball

Urf. Would be nice if there was a dipstick or sight window ... or even if the gearbox drain plug exited on the bottom ...

Is there any trick to checking the oil levels? Or do you just have to drain them out and refill on a regular basis?

I forgot to update this - having pulled the flywheel, I found a little sliver of wire floating around ... no idea where it came from, as all the stator wires are nice and tidy, and nothings been catching. I cleaned everything I could find and put it all back, and it worked just fine for my other half to do a trial on Sunday - the engine is now out. @riffraffretro - sorry to hear that, maybe it's time to start spending money, though

@jimmyl you might be interested to learn that competition difficulty is something that other sports struggle with - apparently in kayak racing (ie. not white water, just distance) there's an issue where despite having national difficulty levels set by the governing body, people travelling from the north to the south find they get entered at far too high a level ... this is down to the level of local competition getting skewed over time, and I guess as with trials low-level entrants don't tend to travel very far to take part.

Hopefully the Downland trial will be on next year, this year it had a 32 mile lap (mostly off road) with 33 stages - fantastic fun, but also guelling!

It really is, me and my other half had a blast there - you should have said hello!

Well, yesterday I rode a trial with a fantastic range of difficulties - I enjoyed myself, managed to complete all of the Sportsman laps (though two sections were solid 5s for me, being juuust a bit beyond my abilities without being dangerous). Kids on electric bikes managed to do most of it, people on pre-65s managed it ... but there were a couple of sections that were properly challenging to the expert level riders, too.

Syringe, and I found an extra pair of hands is the easy way to do it - make sure nobodies looking down at the resevoir without eye protection though, as you can get a surprising brake fluid jet wash going on by accident!

Well, can't speak for the brakes, but certainly my clutch and ergos are fine thanks to throwing the right parts at it ... in fact, I'm getting to the point where it's not very far from the TXTPro for my level of riding, lol As to the subject at hand, perhaps instead of trying to define a slippery fish there could be a standardised set of handicaps, so you can enter on anything but the more fancy features your ride has the less likely you are to win? So, say, unit construction engine adds 5 points, disk brakes another 5, etc, so that people not being competitive can ride an aircooled monoshock with disks, and super hardcore types can ride an old Ariel 500 and really fight for their position?

I agree with you there, maintenance of older modern-style bikes is a PITA, they need a lot of love. Similarly, maintenance of classic bikes can be disheartening as unless you've completely restored one there's often issues lurking (like main bearings in a seemingly really nice Cota 349 - gah!) If only someone with the necessary resources could build something like the cheap and easily available pit bikes, only for trials - you can run those on a shoestring despite the lack of quality, and they're super basic to maintain.

Well, if you were getting Rock Shocks you'd want 55lb springs, compression shim 1, rebound shim 3, medium washer, 10w oil, and a length of about 360mm ... because that's what I have, lol All I did was tell them the length I wanted, my bike model, and my weight ... I don't understand any of this, but they work sooo well!

It was a play on words. Because you grate cheese. Not my finest work, but there it is on the internet to be enjoyed by future generations ...

There's a trial on at Birdlip Quarry this Sunday, just down the road from you - I'll be there, and the Zona 1 peeps are very friendly and welcoming. You could come along and have a look, see what others are riding (be sure to wrap up well though!) Birdlip is their practice space, with a full membership you can ride there any time as long as you're not alone - it's a fab space

You should take up competitive cheese rolling, it's a grate workout

Well, it's either that or roller derby - be reasonable!

I started with the kill switch, because I only put it on a couple of weeks ago, and moved it when putting on a new clutch lever ... but it's working normally. With the black lead off the coil it reads as grounded for a full rotation, but I could be missing something or not reading it right. I'll be pulling the flywheel later and having a nose around, I only need it to run for one day then the engines coming out for new mains!

I'll check on that, though the points have been on there for a good while I guess it might have broken up or something weird like that

I'm experiencing an issue, and just need a sanity check - should the wire that runs to the live side of the coil read as shorted to earth at any point? I've got no spark, and as a quick check of my recent kill switch wiring I found this to be the case ... is it a short, or something to do with how the Motoplat system works?

All of the above, plus make sure you're not locking your elbows straight, even when just pootling about. Handlebar position has a huge effect though, I could hardly ride my TY with the bars in their stock position!

Like any group of random people, not everyone on this forum behaves the same. Why not import a used but not very old bike from another country? Cheaper than new, more choice (unless you have 100% import taxes, like Iran) For what it's worth, if you have interesting places to ride a trials bike can be good fun, even if you're the only one doing it

It's not too hard if it was sold new in the UK, you need NOVA clearance for tax purposes and then to apply for a new reg - I got help with the paperwork for a fee which was well worth it! Note that not many TY125s were sold new in the UK though, so you'll want to get the frame and engine numbers and look them up before going further - it may get tricky if it's been converted from a 175, especially if the frame and engine don't match.

I've not seen any barriers to people riding old machines, there's lots of people entering events on modern style bikes over 10 years old; at the sportsman level I don't think any working machine stops people from doing well

Ah right, I get you I'll order some appropriate solder now then!

Wow, looking at that I'm glad I've got the earlier hub

So, is it ok to use normal lead-free electrical solder, or do I need something else? Well, being one of the girls I can safely state I've never said that about anything that wasn't engineering related