jaylael

That is so cool! There's something about those things that's pretty wonderful. They seem to have lots of power and feel nimble (for a big heavy sow of an old bike) , yes nimble.

I've done my share of semi drunken trials riding. I find it helps with overcoming the fear of larger obstacles, problem is your lack of fear is misplaced, because you are actually in MORE danger! I seem to recall Ben Hircock sr. at the club property jumping a TY mono up an undercut 30 foot rock face, 3rd gear pinned over and over again. I wonder if alcohol was a factor. It would have to be to get me doing something that dangerous. Tell us some details Taff. Perhaps you can change the names to protect the innocent.

Thanks, Brian and Vaughn! It's good to hear some positive feedback. Sometimes I find myself wondering if I am just a pain in the behind who ought to shut-up. This past weekend I took the bike up in the mountains to practice my old sections, and decided that the clutch is working perfectly now, which brings me to the next logical advancement. It doesn't seem to rev up to the tippy top end as well as the prior one did, even though it now has a 26mm amal carb. and the type 2 had a 24mm mikuni. I also tried a 22mm before and it wouldn't rev up as high on top. The long term plan is to fabricate an aluminum still air box, (maico style) with mega air flow. Short term I just got out the disc grinder and cut the top half off of the ace 100 air cleaner. Now she revs up to freaky heights, like a sherco/beta/gasser 125, so I can hyper rev the engine and dump the clutch in second and launch up some bigger stuff that requires a bit of speed. Now that I have a super low first gear I can patiently totter along through a rock patch without becoming overwhelmed by the speed at which things take place. I hope evntually to try a couple of the bigger rocks at my old place, but so far it doesn't feel like the Tree Frog or me are up to the task. JL

Vintage Cota, I hope you mean funky in a good way. I'm sure that you are right about the file, but it's more fun to say it was because of the high Iridium content of the flywheel weight. I was worried that thing would catch the file and propel it through my eyeball or something. My momma always said , "Stupid is as stupid does." I say, "God protects the stupid."

As time goes on I have been fettling the Tree Frog with some further improvements, and it is ready for another outing to test it's progress. The biggest one is a set of very special primary gears to provide super low internal gearing. The first ride with these found first gear to be much lower than before and second gear to be where first had been. Now the little Tree Frog can crawl along at incredibly slow speeds in first gear, where as before it felt like you were being dragged along at an incredible speed, almost like being sucked down a drainpipe. (has anyone seen that animated movie, "going down the drain?) And now second gear allows attacking "larger" obstacles, so it is a win/win situation. This photo shows the bike at the last trials event, where we are required to sport the number of our line. Expert = #1 Intermediate= #2 etc. I had a guy walk up to me one time and say, "So you just decided you were number one?" I had to show him there were eleven other guys with number one also. At the last trial the flywheel weight had been dragging on the inside of the magneto cover, so Ed and I set about trying to resolve this, with a hand file. It only suceeded in destroying the file. I have since resolved this problem. It is amazing how much better a bike can run when the insistent drag of the flywheel is resolved.

Beautiful job on the OSSA! It looks almost as new. No wonder you are worried about scratching it up. Now that is a modern classic.

Try this url Garelli thread

Naw, Perce that bike's no good for Ishy. The seat's way too small!

Saturday April 21, I travelled East to Terrebonne, Oregon for the AHRMA vintage Trial there. It was to be the Type 3 Tree Frog's debut and sadly it's first break in/tuning day as well. After nearly fiving the first section due to a fouling plug, I replaced it and thought my problems were solved, until the next section when the engine spontaniously stalled at low revs. It proceeded to do tis several more times, chalking up fives like they were going out of style. Despite these problems the sections were great and I was having fun just being on a bike at such a wonderful spot. The trial was held in a very wide canyon which was formed like a giant river bed from millions of years ago. It had high vertical walls on the side nearest the trial, which looked like something out of an old western movie. The sections were very tight turns on loose sandy terrain mixed with a few rocks. Several sections were simply rock patches filled with grippy boulders of assorted sizes, but none over 2 feet. About the Hodaka, turns out the flywheel weight was contacting the inside of the mag cover and dragging on the engine. Also the timing was too far advanced, causing a gutlessness and propensity for stalling. Once the timing was set properly and the flywheel ground off a bit, test rides revealed the nature of the type 3. Power wise it is a timid thing. I plan to try some different combinations until it gets better but it will always still be just a 125. I seems it doesn't rev cleanly on top end so I plan to put a smaller main jet in today. As for the results of the trial I finished second by two points behind Larry Lake on a TL 250. He's a darn good rider to do so well on such a machine. The thing is I feel ok about not winning when there were so many reasons for it. At least it's dirty now so I can start riding it and advancing it's state of tune vs admiring it like it were a sculpture or something.

Good info for sure Copemech. I went to a vintage trial saturday and had a chance to ride a few other Hodaka trials bikes and my own a fair bit. Making small changes to the timing can cause dramatic differences is the way the engine performs. It's a wonderful tuning asset. So you have an 07 Sherco, with boyesens and it can rev to the nerve shattering moon! Sounds like the kind of bike I would like to ride also. I have advanced the timing on my Sherco as well, but never did figure out the actual measurements, just gave the stator a bit of a twist. Also drilled some air holes in the back fender, and soldered up the main jet and drilled it out a bit smaller to get the sucker where it didn't take 60 seconds on full scream to get up there into the stratosphere. (yes poor people do it this way in my case) A properly tuned Sherco is a pleasure indeed.

Cota 330 is one darn good working bike. Yes it has an excellent running motor. It should be worth the trouble of getting it sorted out.

That Bul sounds incredibly trick! Must run really good I imagine. I'd be interested to hear if your flatslide can work well w/o a reed. I had no luck. I theorize it was because the flat slide has less vacum area under the slide to lift the fuel at low vacum levels, such as just off idle. This Maico ran like absolute crap. Let us know how it goes. JL

Peter, with all due respect I have had terrible luck with flat slide carbs on non reed engines. Piston port engines do not run well with flat slide carbs in my experience. I fiddled around for ages trying different jets and adjustments on a 1978 Maico 250 and a mikuni flat slide carb. Went to a round slide mikuni to get the bike to run well at anything other than wide open throttle. Just my thoughts on it, but I'll be glad to be convinced otherwise. Maybe it were an anomaly.

Reeds are broken as water insn't compressible. Replace them with boysen reeds if available. Stock would be fine but is second choice. Rust in rod and main brgs is reason it may be too late. Engine crank does not share gearbox oil. They should be separate. One other possibility is that the main seal on mag side could have been pushed out also by water being non compressible. Note: Never kick your bike over with the spark plug lead diconnected! Either ground it out securely somehow, or at minimum you MUST hold the kill button when kicking over the engine. When I have watered out a 2 stroke in the past, I have had good success with removing the spark plug, and air filter. Turn bike upside down, put it in gear and turn the back wheel until there is no more water mist coming out spark plug hole. Note somehow you have to also ground out the kill button or the high tension spark plug lead. If not high voltage spikes seek their way to earth and usually it is via the switching diodes in the ignnition module, thus bringing about it's premature demise. Note: If bike has a drain plug for the crank case it isn't the one for the gear oil. It would be further forward, about where the crankshaft resides within the engine cases. Once the crankcase is drained, choke the heck out of it, leave the air filter out until she starts. Once it is running, rev it up and clear it out until it runs ok, then while the engine is warming up, (screw in the idle speed screw a bit so you don't have to babysit) squeeze out the air filter and put it back in, and you're off. Good luck, mate. JL

The Tree Frog 125 has a steel flywheel made by Ron Liddle, my machinist. It simply costs less than the fine product created by B&J racing. Ron's flywheel requires a Hodaka wombat flywheel for a core, and $250.00 to build one. I think B&J has a gorgeous brass flywheel weight which is $350.00 if I recall correctly. One of the neat things about this bike is the frog skin seat cover. It took quite a few frogs to make it. Also the Gonelli fender set from Bultaco UK sets it apart from the ordinary. The primary muffler (centerbox) is a refurbished Bultaco M199A part from E Bay. The carb is an Amal mkII from a 348 Cota. Yes twinshocks are awesome!

Thanks again all! I tried Marky boy's web site first and it works quite nicely. I had no trouble whatsoever. It even allowed me to rotate the image. Sweet!

Right I agree. That took some class. Jeremy is allright in my book. It's ok with me that he is a legend. He deserves it.

Krikee Bikespace, that sucks mate. Sorry to hear that. Makes me want to kick some a$$! It's a testament to your character that you are able to joke about it. You have my sympathy for sure. The way I understand it from the news, the problem is meth addiction is driving these people to do crimes to get that stuff. I hope to God I never see any of my good friend become meth addicts. Reminds me of one of my favorite personal mantras, "But for the grace of God go I."

Not ridden it yet. Waiting for a dry day as I don't want to get it all muddy yet. If it works anywhere close to the type 2 it will be frickin' awesome!!! OK I'll brag a bit, that I got second place advanced, in a modern event on the type 2 at Dennis Sweetens trial last summer. I also won the national vintage trial overall at Mid Ohio on the type 2. Had to sell it in order to put money down on a new Manufactured home.

Sorted! Thanks for all the great advice! It occurred to me that I could just put the photos on yahoo's Hodaka group, nip them off there and wala! They are downsized. Dumb people have to go about things differently I suppose.

I think they get pretty good money for winning. I saw video of Jeremy McGrath riding several different classes at Billings. He really earned a great deal of repect from me after seeing him do that. The guy deserves to be a legend! I was a bit sour on the lad back in 199? when he was out to eat at a restaurant in a pair if bedroom slippers and stepped on a bit of broken glass, which caused a very bad nearly career ending injury. What the **** are you doing going out to eat in bedroom slippers for anyway Jeremy? Ya poof! Then all the row with Honda about riding jet skis. I thought it was stupid of Honda to let him go over that. His performance at Billings has redeemed him in my eyes. He really rode awesome! Well enough to convince me he could have been a pretty darn good trials rider. Now he's getting set to go race Nascar cars for Dale juniors team. The moto cross guys are going to make that stuff worth watching now. Ricky Carmichael and Jeremy McGrath driving 200 mph race cars might even keep me awake for more than 5 minutes. Normally just the thought of NASCAR racing makes me yawn.

If this works, you should be looking at it. This one is really special. Lot's of carving to try and drop the weight.

The topic title says it all. I just became a TC supporter and wanted to celebrate with a photo of my latest creation, but the images are too large for TC software to permit them going on. Can anyone explain how to resize them? Thanks in advance, Jay

Next thing you know some Chav will be upgrading his Vauxall to a Subaru Scooby with trick wheels an all, really cheap.

It looks like the Billings (Montana) hillclimb to me. I have been to that spot and it is way steeper than it looks. I'd like to see anyone make it up that on a trials bike. There isn't enough power there even if you are Toni Bou. Did you see the guy get clanked by his own rear wheel? That had to have hurt like holy heck!