ChrisCH

The wife had now officially taken over my Rev 3 so I have bought a TRS 280RR for myself. I changed the oil for the first time and the filler is quite small and fiddly. I can see Jitsie do a range of screw in fillers to make the process faster and wondered if anyone knows if any will fit? Their website doesn't list the TRS anywhere. I am hoping the filler is the same as one of the other makes? Cannot see the actual thread listed anywhere. Thanks.

Hope you have a good trip. Careful what you smoke ?

Hmph. No UK venue then. ? Will have to do Belgium. Lots of beer then ?

You also need to factor in the weight of the rack itself. (I think they are about 10Kg ?) Knowingly overloading the tow bar is contributory negligence from an insurance viewpoint. if the back of the car is empty and you don't care about the law/insurance I think the car would steer okay and so on, but if you load the back up then you would definitely notice the reduction in handling. Enough weight that the suspension is sagging and you are asking for a pull as well. Do it enough and you might need new springs too.

I have taken up riding recently. I bought an old Rev 3 for 1600 quid, which is half what I paid for my mountainbike. I cannot believe how cheap motorcycle trials are. My club charges 15 quid for a trial which is about 4 hours entertainment. My ACU licence is 12 quid. A practice session at our local venue is a tenner per rider. I can't tell you how much I regret not doing this much sooner. I would encourage anyone that is interests, old or young, to have a go. I hope once I get my head round the rules and so on that I can help the club out a little. All clubs work like this, a few people do everything. I think it is great for youngsters, we have a good few at the club and I think it is wonderful they are given this chance. I couln't care less if I paid an extra tenner to let them in for free to be honest.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gasoline

It does look like the new owners have a new business model (they say so on the website). It will be interesting to see if they "revert" back to the more traditional model for this very tiny market segment or if the other trials bike manufacturers move to the mountainbike model of shifting new kit at a premium and heavily discounting last year's model.

Forgive me - i thought that was the whole point of the thread and why you started it.

Business runs on margins. Fairness and loyalty don't pay mortgages.

Fair point. The importer must make a decision about what generates the best revenue. If enough people are annoyed by the discount on the previous model then presumably they will not buy the up to date one (or buy the last year "bargain"). In time sales will drop or the dealers will only ever sell the "old" model at the knock down prices. As I understand it GasGas have had a lot of financial issues so that could be the deciding factor. The model they are following is the same as mountain bikes - the new year model immediately sees a big discount in old stock. If you are too rubbish (like me) to notice the difference and want - for example - a Scott Genius it pays to wait until next year's one and buy the old one. I think a fair few people do that, but there are enough "must have the latest" rich kids about that the new model is bought and the year old bike is on eBay (and like the OP the losses are rather unpleasant). The prices of a top end mountain bike are the same or more than a trials bike. I have an old nail that is near to or at it's terminal/scrap value. The missus needs a bike and I would like to upgrade mine. The market seems to be new or newish bikes round the four grand or more mark and stuff like my Beta at one to two grand that has seen it's best days. I can only assume that the mid range stuff is owned and ridden until it fits the old nail category. It seems that "keeping up to date" is expensive so thanks to everyone for their contribution to the thread. Sorry to the OP - I would be annoyed too.

it is unfortunate but not unfair. Nothing says life is fair. You gave the dealer a grand margin on the new bike and they want a grand margin on the trade in. Someone has to pay the business rates, electric bill, phone charges, broadband, advertising and so on (and it is you). £6300 to 5k in a year sounds about right to me. You'd lose a bit more on a BMW X5

I can't imagine a dealer that would stay in business letting a bike sit there that long. Perhaps things are more time sensitive than they were 10-15 years ago but it has always been the case that the new model launch sees a big drop in the price of the old one. It hasn't depreciated, it was overpriced on day one. It is simply that the dealer can get a better margin on the "new" model from those who absolutely must have the newest, latest thing at any cost. In the 80s there was a big thing about discounting new bikes and a lot of dealers wouldn't put their price in the adverts as they would have lost the franchise. I can't remember the company but there was a big outfit in Doncaster that had that business model. To be fair that was all road bikes and not trials. Also remember that there is VAT on a new bike so the dealer is getting 16% less than the headline figure. When you sell it second-hand the government have already had their cut. Mountainbikes certainly can be 20% cheaper for last year's model. My budget doesn't run to new in trials bikes...

So 4166 net. So the trade in is about - err... three and half grand. It is generally accepted with most motor vehicles that the bulk of depreciation is the first owner. I am sure that the value would be more in a private sale - the dealer has to make a margin on the trade in as well as the new bike. It seems a bit harsh but I don't think there has ever been a time when that was not the case.

The weather looks nicer in Spain. It's still Great Britain as it is Big Brittany. Maybe we could include all the other bits of the UK and hold it in Gibraltar? Might annoy the Spanish though

I am sure there is some truth in this and a UK rider would probably generate more UK interest. Assuming that to be the case how do we generate more world class riders? We have some pretty good ones already, how do we get that next step? I see good facilities and a lot of people interested in the sport at club level. How to convert that?

You have far more experience than me so I can only offer you a new rider opinion on the 250 Rev 3. The bike is very good and certainly good enough for club level trials. The Mikuni carb is not brilliant and the exhaust rubs on the tyre and is a pain. For those reasons I wish I had spent more and bought an Evo. However the Rev is a cheap ride and you can get a decent one for a grand if you look hard enough. I would part with mine for a couple of hundred more than that. Read the Beta specific sub forum and the clutch issue specifically. You need to factor in the job if you don't want the cold stick issue. I have moved over to Nano Trans and now on the third oil change and it certainly is a better oil and the clutch is much better. I might do the full job when the weather warms up, too cold to be bothered at the minute. The suspension is the same more or less as the modern bikes and so despite the age and the issues it is not that far from a 2019 model. I very much like my bike but I am looking at upgrading for the reasons outlined. My budget is going to be more than yours as it is my only bike not a second machine. As a second bike I would be very very happy with it.

And very good it was. Big turnout today. Excellent.

For a good quarry as a base you ideally need limestone. Somewhere like Hope in the Peak District has big quarries nearby. The problem is probably that the cost of renting then cleaning up afterwards is too high. All these sorts of places are run by commercial companies and they might be open to the idea or not. Weymouth is a venue where the quarry (Albion Stone) is used by the local club. http://www.bridportandweymouthmcc.co.uk/ This venue is probably good enough and the location was the Olympics sailing village. Very "tourist" venue with B&B and hotels and facilities there plus the ferry port. Of course I am not at all biased by it being just up the road. Oh no.

Hmmpph. What a shame, I was looking forward to this and had planned to buy tickets for my nephew and his mates. No idea what the venue is like, but the island is a great place to visit and would be nice at that time of year I am sure. I can stop visiting the website every day to get tickets now. The Belgian event is not too far if you are in the Southern part of the UK. About 3 hours from Calais. Might go to that. You can buy tickets on line for that and plenty of places to stay overnight in Liege. Expensive with the ferries or Eurotunnel added in though. I would have thought a more central venue than North Wales would attract more visitors? The peak district for example. It's a superb venue with some great scenery and wonderful places to ride, plus there is a wealth of accommodation and food and so on. UK has more TV channels than you can shake a stick at with programs like 5th gear surely we could muster a little media interest? 35 grand hillary? is that all? Seriously? All the more shame, a village fete is more than that.

Yes, it's nuts!

Try https://www.mytyres.co.uk/cgi-bin/rshop.pl?dsco=110andtyp=R-268199andpartner=1andm_s=1andpartner=1andCountry=UKandID=css_rd_uk_Froogle_Shopping http://www.123tyres.co.uk/cgi-bin/rshop.pl?dsco=420andtyp=R-238408andpartner=1andm_s=1andID=psm_rdd_uk_shopelloandCountry=DUK https://www.wheelhousetyres.co.uk/tyres/classic/3-25-19-54t-heidenau-k67-classic-trials-t-t.html

Back to steel then.

I guess you would need to know what particular plastic the motorbike tank is made of. There are gigabytes of discussion on the matter and lawsuits in the US. My understanding is Ducati also replaced some tanks under warranty. The on going problem appears to be if any European models are affected and what if any comeback there might be on a bike that is 5 or more years old and the problem is the petrol spec has changed from that when the bike was manufactured. The tanks are - I think - PA6 made by Acerbis who also make tanks for dirt bikes. There was a class action filed in California against Ducati US in (IIRC) 2010. A fix of a liner material was as best I know the solution used and the Internet rumour machine revolves around whether the EU spec machines were not getting the same problem as E10 is not widely used in the EU and not in the UK. personally I think if E5 is OK then E10 will be as the percentage of ethanol is unlikely to make any odds to it being absorbed or not. Therefore I think all the BS on the 'net is the usual agenda of making a problem where none exists. The weird thing is I notice a smell of fuel now and then from the Monster as you walk past it. So you add 2 and 2 and get twenty-two

The ethanol write up is interesting (particularly as E10 is going to be the new UK standard) but nothing is said about reaction with plastic. I have read about ethanol being a problem with plastic tanks and in particular Ducati. Now, I really don't know what to believe, the Internet is not a reliable data source. Firstly the petrol cans you buy in a filling station are plastic so someone somewhere thinks it is OK and a million gardeners with a few litres for a lawn mower are all very silent on the matter. Second Ducati seem rather silent on the matter too. (Missus has a Monster). I have also read that ethanol gums up over time and so is not ideal if you don't use the bike over the winter. My road bike (Suzuki 650) sits most the winter and doesn't gum up and starts first push with months old fuel. My lawnmower does not gum up either and doesn't get the TLC of the bike. One problem in the UK is the ethanol content is not shown. In France for instance the pump clearly shows E5 or E10. Here you just have to assume it is E5. I have read (and again don't really trust) that Esso Super (97ROn) is only 1-2% ethanol or even 0%. I can report both the Suzuki and Ducati run just the same on whatever you put in it and normally get supermarket unleaded (95RON). My Beta pinks on standard unleaded, but is OK on Super. I have recently tried V Power which is a Shell 99RON product but it doesn't make any difference I can see. The technical pdf says what I have read and ethanol increases the octane rating so in my mind the higher the octane the more likely it has ethanol and yet the Internet reports suggest the opposite. We were in France at xmas and saw E85 at the local supermarket filling station. I had to look it up to see what it is. It was €0.63 a litre (unleaded is €1,29). This fuel seems quite common in the US. Could be becoming more common over here now? No real point to this other than my observations - ethanol seems to me to be inconsequential and the scare mongering about it mostly nonsense. i would love to know if there is any actual real data to suggest otherwise?

This is the one I bought (there are several sellers) You need to bend the bracket to fit the mudguard. The hinge has a thread in it so you tighten up the bracket to get the angle right. I doubt it would stay put if you rode it - I just fitted it for the MOT then took it off. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Motorcycle-Number-Plate-Rear-Light-Holder-Adjustable-Bracket-Metal-Motorbike/232778157571?_trkparms=aid%3D555017%26algo%3DPL.CASSINI%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D55149%26meid%3D7ccd702227644ad7a453d79f068ae456%26pid%3D101006%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D1%26%26itm%3D232778157571and_trksid=p2045573.c101006.m3226