jaylael

French web page of Cool trials bikes Here is where Tim. I like the looks of the green one too. Jay

And this one.

Thought ktmduke might enjoy this picture. (Sick bugger)

There is an 18 year old trials rider from Idaho staying with us for the summer. He is an avid (soon to be intermediate) class trials rider and has a taste for sorry old machines. He has been enamored with the Italjet and subsequently has spent the last few days working on it and has got it running. He has glued shut the huge holes in the gas tank since we have had no luck finding a replacement. Lo and behold it runs very well. He has grafted a Hodaka Road Toad front fender onto it which looks like it was MADE FOR THE BIKE And fabricated an alloy seat base for it and rode it quite a bit since this tuesday. These old green bikes are surprisingly good at trialing and he seems enamored with the thing. He asked me if I want to sell it to him and I told him sure, for $500.00 bucks it's his. He didn't seem too thrilled at the price, so I guess it's still up in the air what will be the future of this geen machine. He goes to college in Arizona this august and I suspect he will move on to bigger and better things. I have yet to ride it, but he says it's great. I have been too busy riding the Garelli to care much about it so far. I had a chance to ride the Garelli in the twinshock class at a local trial and had half the winning intermediate's (modern bike) score. I have been zapping a pretty good size'd rock on it and it has so much power it makes me grin alot! I am loving the Garelli very much! well, bye bye JL

KTM96Duke, Welcome to vintage trials riding! I hope you have a good time. That Italjet looks pretty sweet. Looks like you will be needing a kickstarter, airbox, and some cosmetic parts. I understand there are a couple of places in UK that still have a few parts around. (any ideas guys?) I found my Italjet to be a fine bike. Try not to worry about negative comments. They only reflect personal opinion. I once had a 300 Fantic which I detested. I don't go around bashing them, but I guess even a negative post is better than none. It has been riding season here, so much so that I don't feel like hanging around the internet. My best advice is ride the bugger. Push start it if you must, and ride it! Good luck and let us know how you get on. JL

I got a report today that the Italjet is at Dennis' house parked out in the yard. I intend to retrieve it asap. I understand I owe a debt of gratitude to someone who had it in them to haul the Italjet back from colorado nationals to California, where Dennis got it and brought it all the way to Oregon. It is remarkable to me how trials people are so great! I am truly grateful to be associated with such a nice bunch of people. To whoever hauled that green bike all the way from Colorado to Californie, Man you are awesome!

Man, I wonder how all those guys back then kept from smashing their skulls open riding without helmets. I have lost count of the times I have whacked my head on rocks and what have you all, thankfully with a helmet on. I remember riding trials events in a soft cap, but it's a wonder I didn't brain myself! Thank goodness for big brother making us wear helmets, thus ushering in their "coolness." Thanks for the awesome pic by the way. Very cool! J

I saw Eddy ride a bike very much like this one, if not the same one at the '87 WR in Bodines Pa. where I finished ahead of him on the list. (He broke his thumb and dnf'd) I finished 23rd. The oil cooler hanging off the side was unique to Eddy's bike as the standard issue bikes were smaller displacement and had no oil cooler. The muffler was different too. Swede Johnny Anderson rode a more standard version of this bike. Man, those guys would rev the nuts off these things to get up some of the larger rock faces etc. The bike Johnny Anderson rode was prepped by Sven Bley who is known as a very good machinist. All sorts of parts on the bike were custom made out of billet and machined/drilled for light weight. If you had to pay for the labor it would cost at least double the price of a good Beta at the time. These pics are really neat!! Thanks for posting them. JL

Steve: I was riding a 350 Italjet at the nationals in 1984 at Zig Zag when I came across you on the loop with the wind knocked out of you and your old man was standing there saying, "Maybe that'll make you slow down on the loop!", while you were hunched over making horrible gasping noises, remember? I sat there a moment on the Italjet and decided you were gonna' be ok and then rode on. There was a downhill rock slab the one Keith um... the guy who moved to Arizona, had a little brother who was really good at trials,...... Roper! Keith Roper was checking this 20 foot tall near vertical rock slab downhill, (I know you know the one) and I saw Kary Krahel go down that sucker on his '84 Beta TR 32 and when he hit the bottom, his handlebars rotated forward and pulled the throttle on hard and his bike was raging out of control in the gallery of onlookers and pinned a woman against a large tree and just hammered her pelvis with the triple trees on the Beta and it was slamming her against the tree with the forks on the Beta repeatedly until Kary got to the kill button, and it turned out by sheer coincidence that it was his stepmother, Gay Schultz who was getting gored by the Beta! That was somethin'!!!! Freddy Steele of team Fantic said, "She musta" been one tough bird!" Ahhh, I miss the old days sometimes. Cheers man.

Another pic.

This beauty is the latest addition to my bike collection. It's in Colorado so it will be about a month before I get 'hold of it. Looks like the "infidels" have had there way with it. I just feel lucky it hasn't been converted into a chopper yet. I hope to track down original seat, fenders, one side panel and wwhatever else it needs to get back to it's original glorious state. I must be sick.

Ishy: Thanks for the invite, but Kary and I are going to Dad Gumm's trials at Coppei creek this weekend. Wish you were going too. Is it too late? Nigel, There are very few SWM dealers around here these days. I fully agree it could use a bit taller gearing, but I have spent all my mad money for awhile. I just bought an Italjet trials bike to fix up and add to my little bike museum.

Wednesday night I had a chance to visit with Kary and Dennis. They had some hilarious stories from the Scottish. They each had a go on the Garelli. Seemed to like it fine. Kary had been struggling up a greasy hillclimb for a three on his M4rt and then cleaned it first try on the Garelli. He took to it instantly as he had been an SWM guy in the "olden days". Also I managed a blistering clean through the "upper dry creek section: on the Garelli. It really goes nice. Thats two tanks of gas through it so far only the rear fender bolts have shaken out, but that's it. Pretty cool. Saving up for a rear sprocket.

I heard that!

It's quite fascinating really. I am told it is full 350 cc, but there are no stampings I can find to state this and I have not measured it so this could be a pseudo fact. It alledgedly has a magnesium cyl and head with a chrome bore cyl. Whatever it has, there is a noticeable piston slap? sound at slow tickover which disappears completely once it gets fully hot. It just runs so sweetly. I tried to top it out yesterday and ran out of room but I guess actual top speed is really about 50 mph. Steve, I will look forward to being your trials punching bag next twinshock trials. I have my birth certificate now so I can visit your country. I look forward to it very much. Jay

still another

Another photo of the beast

Not the hottest news item today with the culmination of the Scottish, but I just finished riding about ten miles of hard trails on the Garelli and she is really working good! I tried to take a pic but the batteries in my camera are dead. I will pick some up later and try to photograph it. The Falcon shocks from B&J Racing are perfectly wonderful, and though it took quite a bit of fettling I have the kickstarter situation well sorted. The Del-orto carb is jetted perfectly and it started second kick after 25 years! The bike is much heavier than my'04 Montesa but it has loads of power and has a six speed tranny! The first four gears are very close together. First gear is granny gear and the shifts to second and third all provide small gearing jumps. To put this in perspective, third gear feels about like first gear on my '04 Cota 315r, and fourth is just a bit taller than that, with bigger jumps to fifth and sixth feels like overdrive! This is a very well thought out tranny. Sixth gear feels like it'd go way too fast like 70 mph! The brakes work great too. The bike has quite a bit of compression and is a full 350 cc's, so kickstsarting it can be a bit dodgy. I think what may have caused the broken gear was a moment of distraction. Donato must have kicked it impoperly which resulted in a backfire so fierce the kickstarter gears had no chance to survive. I found it was critical to feel for tdc rather than just stabbing away blindly at the kickstarter. It popped back once pretty hard when I forgot to give it the "BSA treatment". Also I have been securing the rh footpeg in the up position when cold starting it just to avoid the remotest possibility that the kickstarter would catch on the footpeg which could also cause a broken kicker catstrophe as we know from certain older years of Betas. I look forward to many happy miles of twinshock trials riding on this wonderful machine. Sincerely, Jay

Andy: I feel compelled to express my heartfelt gratitude for this window on the Scottish, which you provide for those of us who are stuck working. Thank you so much! It's wonderful.

I won't deny it.

O.K. I am officially on the hunt for Hiro Trials engines or parts to the bottom end. I have this wonderful book titled, The Encyclopedia of the motorcycle, by Hugo Wilson, published by Dorling Kindersley, London. There is an Italian Enduro bike in the back called a "Trans Am" with a Hiro engine. That is one sweet loking bike!! The Can Am 500 MX'er has a Hiro engine also. Jeff Smith said the 500 was "A real tire shredder". Too bad the Armstrong/Can-Am thing sort of petered out. They were such pretty bikes! The gear man was not in this evening so I think I'm going to continue trying to get ahold of him over the weekend. I am still waiting on the shocks anyhow, so it's not like I could be riding it. Soon, very soon...

Honda RS: I bow to your superior knowledge of old trials bikes! Thanks, and I have to say you were right. The gear guy will have it done by tonight as I have agreed to pay the "batch" price for a whole load of heat treating just to do the one gear. This evening I shall have it in my hand for the princely sum of (gulp) $240.00 Trust me in the future I will be trying to search out Armstrong/Can-Am engine parts. There were a handful of these imported to the USA, but were never very popular. I once tried one out and was disapointed, but I guess if you dialed in the jetting and put longer rear shocks on it to quicken up the steering, you could live with it. The Can-Am's were very old school. Jay

Thanks so much guys! For those of you who read the story, here is a photo of my my 80 year old uncle who set me on the path of trials riding. He ain't much to look at anymore but he was quite a guy in his youth. He once rode a Yamaguchi 55cc similar to this one all the way from the Bay Area in California to Cheyenne Wyoming in 24 hours. That has to be a record! Some time in the 1950's he also built a special "Whizzer" motorbike to a world record 71.something miles an hour on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. He is mostly deaf so he has to use the headset to speak with people. He recently finished this very nice restoration of a Yamaguchi 55, "Whitey Hartman replica". Jay

This is indeed some interesting development. See, boys and girls how you can learn from this interactive media? I guess it's an obscure subject. If I ever give up on this "gear guy" I will pursue the Armstrong/Can-Am angle. I wonder how many internal parts are interchangeable. Does this mean that the Garelli can be jammed into a kind of mysterious neutral from sumping it out hard, which I love to do. Isn't it Woody who tells about pushing the Armstrong/CCM Hiro bike for literally kilometres, with the tranny stuck in neutral? Great story Woody! I might have to work up to riding this thing any distance from the truck, if it ever gets running. It will right? Someday? Jay

Thanks for the nice comments! Really! It is surprisingly rare to get much enthusiastic response. I think some people are hesitant to encourage my motorcycle building obsession. It has become my favorite hobby lately and I have spent a good deal of quality time in my little shop lately. It has been raining for the best part of two months here so I just don't feel like riding. I guess that's what happens when you start giving in to old age. If ya' ever get to America, you can try out my Hodie. Later, Jay