feetupfun

Well the frame is not particularly early in the 187 production run. I don't know how many 138s were made but I'll see if I can find out.

Well I would have a good explanation if you had said your Alpina was a model 188 Alpina but not so good an explanation for a model 187 Alpina. The models 187/188 Alpinas are the models that followed on from the models 137/138 Alpinas. Bultaco are well known for bikes of one model coming with parts from another model, especially near the beginning and the end of the production run for the model. Their inventory control for components was not as sophisticated as some other manufacturers. So it's easy to imagine that there could have been some model 138 motors left over when they ran out of model 137/138 frames and the best place to put them would have been in the next model Alpina. What seems unusual though is that they put a 138 (350cc motor) into a 187 (250cc) bike. To help solve the mystery it would be valuable to know the (approximate) engine and frame numbers of your bike.

While the frames are not all the same steering head angle, all the Sherpa T triple clamps have the same geometry however the early ones are made for fork tubes that have a tapered connection at the top. Your tubes being non-tapered at the top limit your choice of triple clamps to Sherpa Ts after about 1974. If you are in a rush to get it finished, the Alpina triple clamps will work, but you end up with a lot more trail and less wheelbase and the front guard will be very close to the front downtube on full fork compression. Some people like the steering/handling with the Alpina triple clamps. It is very different to a normal Sherpa T.

Excellent. They are a good reminder of how much better modern tyres are

On mine the brake pedal up-stop is the engine cover. It's the perfect height with the standard footpeg location. I've just now looked at you photo and can see that your engine cover is missing the section that the pedal usually comes up against as a stop

I checked out an OSSA kickstart lever today and as Woody says, the spline diameter is way out compared to a Bultaco so the Sherpa T I have seen locally probably has a Bultaco bottom modified to suit the OSSA lever

Yes it's a normal thing to refurbish wheels. It's an economical way to get your bike looking good and nice to ride. Many riders do their own, motorcycle workshops can do it and there are even places that specialise in doing it. 1970s Spanish trials bikes are an amazing source of discussion points and the rear brake actuation on the MAR is one of the best conversation starters. The cush drive mechanism for the transmission is another.

I agree with the identifying features of a MK1 mentioned by fourex and add that the shouldered rear rim (and maybe the front rim?) are also a sign of a Mk1 MAR. The Mk1 came with a fibrous bashplate that has fortunately been replaced with the later aluminium item on yours

That's a pretty good price for an OEM spoke set. They are about $AU120 including taxes here and your currency is on par with ours. That sprocket looks expensive to me. A JT brand 13T 428 sprocket from my local shop is about $15. It's amazing what parts are still available from Yamaha

I see there are fork sliders for 4RT Tech forks for about 450 euros and 4RT Showa fork sliders for 308 euros from CMNSL

Be careful there are two different OSSA splines

Yes I had a cranked one on a Bultaco. It was fine. You could put a crank in yours if you didn't want to buy one

I know of someone who fitted a shortened OSSA MAR kickstart lever to their 198A and I had wondered why but this is probably why (it has the swivel joint at the bottom end, providing more clearance)

The kickstart lever it not meant to go past the footpeg or brake pedal tip. Maybe post up a photo showing the kickstart side of the bike.

I'm going to try and give an explanation for why, with everything else being equal, reversing the direction of rotation of the brake cam does make a difference to the effectiveness of a cam driven single leading shoe brake. One working edge of the cam is further from the pivot of the shoes than the other working edge of the cam. It is the outer edge that is further. The outer working edge bears against the outer section of the shoe rubbing pad. This section of the rubbing pad is further from the shoes pivot than the contact section for the other shoe rubbing pad. This means that a rotating force on the camshaft will provide greater force against the drum for one shoe than the other shoe. On a single leading shoe brake during braking, the geometry of the shoe pivot and the drum is such that one shoe is pulled against the drum and the other shoe is repelled. The one that is pulled in is called the leading shoe and the other is called the trailing shoe. If the direction of rotation of the drum is reversed, then the shoes swap roles. It is a small effect, but if the bike has the cam rotation direction such that the leading shoe has the smaller of the two forces against the drum, then reversing the rotation direction will increase the force applied to the leading shoe which should make the brake more powerful, with everything else the same. It's interesting to note which way bikes have the cam rotation which way as standard

I just gave a damaged TY175 flywheel to a friend because he wanted one to cut off the rest to leave the hub so he could do just that. However I don't think it would be as accurate as using the cam that it is being run with because there are bound to be slight differences between them. Also I prefer to use a timing mark on the flywheel rim rather than piston position.

The aluminium "Sherpa T" tanks on eBay made in India are replicas of late model Alpina tanks (model 212/213)

Small world. I might have been spectating that day at Biddaddaba. I know I took photos at a trial there in 1974 when I went to watch a friend Mark Stephens competing on his RL250 and still have the photos. My friend Mark was pretty good (B grade). I do remember Rod McLean. I seem to remember him doing a few mods on Bultacos. I don't remember you from back then though. I started riding trials in 1975 at age 16 and rode most of the NDMTC events and some LRMTC events at Blunts Quarry and one at Darlington Park and at the Qld or Aussie titles at Christmas Creek where I came 153rd or something like that in C grade . I spectated at a couple of TCQ trials in 1974 at Biddaddaba and Tivoli. Was a bit weird being in NDMTC because the local trials riders where I lived at Bulimba were all TCQ but I joined NDMTC because of my schoolmate with the RL250. I didn't even get a proper trials bike until 1976 (a beaten-up TY175B) having ridden the 1975 trials on my TS185K then my Bultaco model 99 Alpina. That beaten-up TY175B is now my hot rod 210cc TY. I'll pull out those Biddaddaba photos

Those old photos are fantastic fourex. It's exactly how I remember trials from the time and one of the locations looks quite familiar. That kid in the last photo sitting backwards talking to you looks familiar. Also no wonder so many old bikes have broken stand mounts. Look at you two sitting on the bikes on their stands. One friend of mine was a bit small for his TY250 in 1974 and had to have it on the stand to be able to start it. Luckily for him the stand was on the left on the A model. Your TY175B looks a lot like mine did, even where the top shockie mount was moved to and the black fork boots. Were they konis too?

I can say that the Majesty 200 motor as they were done back in the day had a bigger-sleeved TY175 cylinder using a TY250 twinshock piston with bushes in the piston to suit the smaller little end pin. As for the power developed, my hot rod TY175 is 210cc and I had to calm the motor down considerably after it was first built in 2005 before I was happy with the motor. The cylinder and head was done in a way that would provide strong response everywhere by the expert race engine builder who did it. I reduced the compression ratio and fitted an ignition I could set up to smooth out the low RPM response to make it gentle enough for me to comfortably ride the tight stuff. After my refining of the response it has a strong bottom end and very strong mid range and a nice top end that I never need to use and overall it suits my weight, strength and reflexes perfectly. A younger high level rider would probably have preferred it exactly as it came from the engine builder. It has exactly the bottom end power you would expect from a 210cc motor as in midway between a 175 and a 250. Highly-skilled trials riders who have had a go on it have preferred riding the hot-rod 210cc TY175 to riding one of my very nice TY250-based bikes. Some of these highly-skilled riders have commented that they would have liked the response to be sharper.

Tony, austini and I have been collaborating already in private. I would love to know more about the Godden Majesty TY175/200 but I've not ridden one. They are a vanishingly rare beast. I've ridden a Godden mini Majesty Ty175 owned by Paul McLeod in NZ and it was excellent but a quite different design to the bike austini has acquired.

Could be due to a few things and finding out what it is will probably require taking the cover off

Do you know if the one you want is made of steel or aluminium?

No reason at all Rod. That's what I do with most of my bikes that have the two compartments separated

I've got a mix of AMAL 80/200, Domino slow and Suzuki DS80 twistgrip assemblies on my twinshocks and they all work very well but have found that the AMAL and DS80 types are more easily broken in crashes