jon v8

Does it really matter ? Me and my mates ride old British cr$p of varying condition/spec/quality. We have a bloody good laugh, plenty of mickey taking and go home. Makes the weekend worth looking forward to, yes we are competitive,but none of it is a world championship. At least we ride the bikes,trick or not.

You need a British four stroke if you want smooth bottom end power. See if you can bag a ride on a decent BSA C15, lovely smooth power.The Honda four strokes always lack flywheel effect to my way of thinking,but can be made VERY nice,a mate has an RS250t which is super smooth.

Thank you for that,can't remember who told me not to machine wash it... I'll give it a go and see if I can refresh its waterproofing ability.

Having recently ridden the West of England Moor to sea trial, I can only say that my feet in Sealskinz socks were the only dry part of me. The Hebo Gortex jacket now leaks like a sieve, its never been in a washing machine... I'm going to try a Hi viz waterproof jacket,thinking it will help being seen on winter road trials.

No sign of Classic trials drying up in the South West,we have plenty of excellent events, my biggest problem in running my club is avoiding date clashes.

Ah, OK - I was thinking maybe 6/7/8E, in which case the 9E conversion from Paul Powell at Cotton Villiers Spares is the answer. Can't help with the 31A motor, sorry !

Which Villiers engine/gearbox is it you want to change the clutch on ?

Absolutely, I'm busy prepping my little 1953 J9 James for the "Moor to Sea" on Exmoor this Sunday. Riding amongst the KTM's and Gasser's etc. I fully expect to laughed at all day,don't care cos I'll be laughing too - even if its peeing down.

David, he is bound to be mocked really - Here in the UK riders of Drayton Bantams and similar machines get teased at trials. We joke that they are cheating,the bikes are so light they are more bicycle than motorbike. I'm sure someone mentioned that a rigid framed one was down to about 160 lb. But the £10,000 comment can also be seen as a joke, you don't need to spend that much.(Unless you pay someone an hourly rate to build it for you)

Well that's easy - Here you go; http://www.boyerbransden.com/faultfinding.html

I'd like to see you make that statement in front of Mick Andrews...

No B40's were fitted with electronic ignition from new,so if it has it fitted it will be an aftermarket setup.Take some pics of it and post them up so we can id it.

Too much thinking going on here,those old Yams are simple, but well made. Just get it bored by a decent place.(From recommendation,not adverts) Put it together and ride. The old banger I have is built up out of junk from the remains of 3 engines,the piston was secondhand,not even run from the same barrel. I just bought new rings,circlips and a base gasket. Rattles like a bag of spanners,but everyone comments on how well it goes. It must have done 20 years of chasing cows before I got hold of it...

Personal choice, you can't stand him - I couldn't care less. But I'd be very happy if that **** Jeremy Vine left...

I hope everyone, (51 riders) that rode had a good ride at our trial, with a few kind donations including very generous help from John and Emma of Pitstop Catering we made £503 for the Wiltshire Air Ambulance. Me and Steve really enjoyed putting the trial on, now need to work out when we can do the next one. Thank you to All involved,but especially to Nicky.

We are running our charity trial on bank holiday Monday the 27th. At Ayford farm near Marshfield. 11am start,there will be a catering van onsite. Brilliant venue,all different sections to last year. All Pre65 classes, plus twinshocks. NO mono's. Three routes. The venue will be signposted with red arrows from the A420 at Marshfield,please come along and join us,all proceeds will go to the Wiltshire Air Ambulance. Enter on the day. https://joncvsv8.wixsite.com/ashwicke

As OTF says they are very easy to make on the lathe,only take a few mins to make so shouldn't be expensive. An m6 thread in the end makes life easy for fasteners too.

That's the problem, I don't. I'm building it from scratch,so its just getting some shoes to start off with,they are not easy to find - Even my mate Rupert Ratio didn't have any and he has supplied nearly all of the rest of the bike. Friction Services are just down the road from me so relining shoes is no problem,last ones they did for me were David Brown tractor shoes.

Cheers for the suggestions, I've had an Email back from CCM, they have been away.Now back and have a batch of shoes nearly ready. Going to have to start building it soon...

Sorry if this is a bit off topic... I'm in the middle of a build,not really even a trials bike,its an ex Army B40 frame with a B44 round barrel motor. I'm using four bolt forks and a 6" conical BSA/Triumph front hub.All shiny and smart, except brake shoes are rocking horse poo. Mark Cook of CCM Britain or PES apparently made some new billet ones which I'd like to buy.Been calling on the phone,leaving messages and have emailed as well.No response... Any suggestions, the parts are stacking up and it's close to me needing to nail it all together.The idea is a trail bike or long distance trials nail.

Domino on my bikes,not cheap but so comfy to use...

Those tank seat units were sold by Sammy Miller products. They were very good until Ethanol was added to petrol,completely wrecked mine. a shame because it was signed by Mick Andrews.

I don't know anyone in Oz that does that kind of stuff, but here in the UK its easy. I needed a set of yokes for my BSA a couple of years back and got them made to exactly my specs by Gerry Minshall who also runs the Kia Twinshock series here. http://www.twinshockchampionship.org.uk/

Model 80 makes a good point,I recently bought a piston off Ebay from a seller in Texas, I had to pay £66 to Parcelfarce for handling and customs costs. Same deal when I buy parts from the US for my Chevy pickup, it can almost double the cost of the parts...

If the main thing is reliability, I'd suggest a 68 year old rigid 350 AJS. Not touched mine since the Talmag in Jan, filled it up with Aspen and oiled the chain - Rode the Cotswold Cups on Sunday,an all day thrash.Never missed a beat. Going to oil the chain and refill with fuel then ride the March Hare on April 8th. Thing is I've done a few trials on it since the Arbuthnot last September when I actually gave it a proper service,I spend the whole week with spanners,last thing I want is a bike that needs lots of maintenance.