old trials fanatic

If you look under the USA section higher up the index there is a thread which is very interesting about ethanol in petrol which should explain fully your question. Have a look

Copy of a previous posting further up the page of Charlie Prescotts "Hi Guy's. I for one thought Sprite 1966, this is when the company pushed there kits, and you just think there were none before that time? I can remember "Jonah" riding a bike that had a Sprite sticker on it but it looked nothing like one of the production kits, but more like an old Cotton with mods. I will mail Chris Leighfield,for his comment, has he was one of the Sprite boys along with Denis Jones, and I know Chris is in contact with "Jonah", so he may be able to get his opinion. What I can say is that the bike he rode in the Scottish of 1965 was a joint venture, Frank Hipkin supplied the frame,Roy Bevis the forks,and front wheel, and the Cotton that Jonah had been riding up until that time provided the rest of the bike including the iron barreled engine, and has every one knows Jonah's engines were always clapped out. Regards Charlie." "Hi Guy's. I have just had a PM from Jonah, to confirm that the statment I made last about "Sprites" Was corect. I must say it is brilliant news that I can now contact,Jonah, (and I will), And I might add that I am so pleased that Chris Leighfield, was able to get in touch with Jonah before his sad passing, as they were best mates and travling companions in the sixties. any more information I get i will pass on. Regards Charlie." "Hi Guy's, Hi OTF, You never know you could be right,(i will have to get the information to confirm this though)!!!! -17 it must be cold in Derbyshire? only -6 here. Regards Charlie." Does that answer your question Pat ? The text of my original post also gives a clue. No doubt this posting will attract even more negative ratings from all those who seem to disagree with anybody daring to ever question anything. To all those

When i had mine i had it bored to 270 and had the inlet manifold shorteded and porting done. Once rejetted the bike was probably the best bike i have ever had and i now wish i had never sold it.

-58 now and falling LOL some people need to get out more LOL Yes please get the info if you can cos i would love to see it posted on here if i am right about something. That should get me to -100 and break the bank LOL. Wonder what happens when you hit 100? do you spontaniously combust ? LOL God there's some fragile souls on here eh?

Ahhhhhhhhhh bless somebody doesnt agree LOL

does that mean i was right all along ?????? -13 (edit now -14 and rising) cos everybody hates me and could i have been right all along?????????? Oh i do hope so. I can just hear all the appologies flooding in already. Yeah right as if thats ever gonna happen !

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH I do soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo like that bike!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

FWIW our Club uses the same points scoring as per the Sammy Miller Championship and as for tie deciders we abide by TSR23 as we are an ACU club and i always thought all affiliated ACU clubs were honour bound to follow and abide by the National Sporting Code and Trials Standing Regulations. Well thats what i was told at my Clerk of the Course seminar. I am anazed that other clubs do otherwise. As for AMCA a local club used the age of the bike??? which i think is simply farcical especially as who has the foggiest idea what year a bike was. They use the info entered by the rider on the entry form which is ridiculous because there have been 1962 Sprites and an incredible amount of pre 1960 James entered because of this. I suppose i could see some kind of locic in using the age of the rider but how do you comfirm that without a birth certificate. No the TSR23 rules are clear and concise and i have never had a problem.

Beautifully finished special Charlie. A credit to it's builder. RiP

Think you have to be a supporter to post piccys etc but thanks for the offer most appreciated.

All i can say is i've known Alan a long time and IMHO he knows more about PVL ignition than anybody else i've come across so i would go by what he told you. He can also help with the mod for the pushrod fitting. I thought a VM22 carb was 22mm which would be normal for a Cub whereas a 26mm would be a VM26 which is a bit larger than most of the people i ride with use. Jack the Lad will probably be along soon with his advice as i know he does work on Cubs for Bob Moore and he also advocates the use of pit bike carbs so can probably advise re those. Ignition timing shouldnt be affected by the carb size or jetting i have found. Good luck with the build BTW

What have you guys got against Jim Pickering because the above post received a negative review ? Most people i have spoken to have thought his products are good value for money. I wasnt aware that Jim Pickering had done anything wrong ?

Would be interesting to know if it was down to too little oil in the mix as people seem to want to run leaner and leaner oil mix. Dont quite get the obsession with it. Then again i only run classics on 50:1 and the clearences on a Villiers when just built are probably worse than a Gas Gas thats worn out so less chance of a seizure. Did think they were a thing of the past on trials bikes with the superior oils we have nowadays but obviously wrong again

Very good point but as you can see from my "reputation" i'm not a people person LOL so doubt i would get away with it if i followed your lead. Think you did the right thing though.

Thanks for that. I assume you mean scan? LOL

Had an update on this one which i just thought i would post. This only affects riders who compete in the ACU East Midlands Centre Classic Trials Championship. I was discussing the above with a friend who organizes the aforementioned championship and he pointed out to me that that championship had the following machine eligability rule pertaining to twinshocks. "Twinshocks must use a frame origionally fitted with two rear shock absorbers at time of manufacture. Must be fitted with drum brakes and have an aircooled engine from a machine originally fitted with two rear shock absorbers at time of manufacture." We as a club chose to adopt these rules for all out rounds not just the ACU East Midlands Classic championship ones of which we run 3. As posted before the major ACU Championships did not choose to include the clause about the engine just the frame and in one not even the drum brakes as they allow discs. At least i now know i am not going mad just confused between championships. Again appologies for any confusion.

In the process of putting one of the TY's back together and have a little problem with the wiring and wondered if anybody can help? All the engines i have in the shed seem to have different wiring colours. The one i'm installing has a Yellow, Yellow with red trace and a black wire coming from the mag. Which do i connect to the coil ? Have checked the other projects and all seem to have different wiring colours, i assume the coils are all aftermarket ones, on the coils. Can anybody help? Thanks.

Best first steps for beginner? Small ones ?

A smaller front sprocket lowers the gearing which makes the bike less sensitive to a clumsy throttle technique and also effectively shortens the gears. What i mean by that is if you take first gear as an example the bike would be less prone to run away with you if you opened the throttle too quickly. A bit like trying a section in a higher gear means you have to be very precise much more that when pulling a lower gear when you have more time to correct errors. Well thats my take on it although some people will always dissagree with me.

Thats the Cotswold isnt it?

I doff my cap to you. After checking, i must have been dreaming oops, you are TOTALLY correct. The only restriction is that a twinshock must be as the ACU handbook states "Twinshocks Machines with twinshock rear suspension and drum brakes as at time of manufacture". Page 207 of the 2011 handbook. So you can run any engine you like as i cant even find a reference to the engine even being air cooled. I therefore appologise profusely and have already slapped my wrists. The only thing i can possibly put my lapse down to is that i was part of a discussion with some ACU officials and the topic under discussion was the proliferation of cheat bikes namely converted air cooled monos. The ACU intention was to nip this in the bud as they already had a class for air cooled monos and didnt want these cheat bikes to ruin the twinshock class. However in wording the rules how they did they addressed the issue of converting the frames whilst missing the obvious bigger advantage of using a much more modern engine, lighter , better performance, more gears etc etc. I do remember pointing this out but somewhere in the mix they chose not to include the engine in the 2011 handbook. Whether this obvious omission will be addressed in the 2012 handbook i dont know but i will try to find out. So hopefully appology accepted and i'm now off to the garage to graft a water cooled mono engine into my Majesty or shall i mod the fantic ooooh decisions decisions.

Dont know the bike you are talking about but if that is indeed so then it is most definate illegal for use in ACU Championship events. You didnt see it at one of our events did you? If so i would appreciate it if you PM me, if you dont want to name on here, as it will also not be eligable at our events and i will need to amend any Championship scores to reflect this. It is nigh on impossible to check every bike but i do my best to try to monitor any cheats at our events. One thought they would get away with disc brakes but they got caught. Not a hard one that. They would be welcome to ride but would NOT be eligable to score Club Championship points and as we also will be holding 3 rounds of the ACU Classic Championship for which this machine would most definately be a no no it's important to know who it is. You have my number anyway if you would sooner ring me. Thanks.

Thank goodness for pressure washers was the cry that went up from the 69 riders who competed in round 1 of the Peak Classic Trials Clubs 2011/2012 Club championship after 4 laps of 10 sections at Dudwood Farm near Elton Matlock Derbyshire it was amazing there was any mud left in the field looking at the amount that was taken home on the bikes. The course wound its way up the stream and over some large rocks reminding the entry that the Scottish Pre65 is not that far away and provided good practice for the many members that have been lucky enough to secure an entry in that prestigious event. That said as the riders got to the top of the rocky stream bed they were faced with two very deep muddy sections just to remind them to also beware of the dreaded bogs in Scotland too. One of those sections, section 5, a climb over a rock step and into a mud lagoon then out over a jumble of rocks that were once a dry stone wall proved particularly tricky and nobody had a clean sheet let alone a clean bike on that one all day. The best result being shared on 3 by Peter Carson and Chris Milner both mounted on cubs who had a good fight for the lead in the Expert British Bike Class. The first place however eventually going to Martyn Stanistreet on his 197 James who had a stunning ride again losing just a mere 14 marks to Peters 17 and Chris

You could also try Jim Pickering who specialises in Bantam Trials stuff.