brucey

Thanks guys. 1 - 1 then! I can understand the logic of both arguments. The guy who sprays tanks for a living would have done as Nebulous suggested but I’m assuming he would use proper 2K lacquer and know how not to leave a ridge.

Here is a slightly larger photo:

Interesting brake pedal set up. Should be easy to convert to a right foot brake if you wanted to :-)

Long story short: I decided to paint my Armac Cub tank (Holtworks?). The colour was chosen to commemorate a friend of mine who passed away this year and had his Cub the same blue. I got a couple of quotes (at around 200 pounds) then decided to have a go myself! I got most of the materials from a local automotive paint supplier and the pinstripe and tank stickers from Ebay. I used rattle cans for an etch primer and also bought the rattle can equivalent of 2K colour and lacquer. (I don't know how you can get a 2 part paint into a rattle can either!) I have always liked the 'Gulf'' colours on Triumph Bonneville's so thought I'd do mine in a similar style. I prepped the painted area by masking it and rubbing it down with 1800 grit paper before painting. Once the paint had dried, I 'tickled down' the paint edge and covered it with the stripe. My Son then applied the transfer's (I'm useless at that bit as he say's I think about it too much!). I also prepared a test piece to make sure all the paints and vinyls were compatible and the best place to put the stripe in relation to the paint edge. (see photo's) My question is should I lacquer it? I'm tempted to stop while I'm ahead! I have the options of leaving it with no lacquer, lacquering just the painted area and pin stripes or lacquering the whole tank. The rattle can 2K lacquer doesn't seem to have gone hard on my test piece (even after 3 days in the sun!). I'm also concerned it will just go yellow or be affected by small petrol spills. My other thought was if I do get small scratches in the ally, I can polish them out if it isn't lacquered. The bike is there to be trialed and I expect my nice new paint scheme will get damaged sooner or later. Your thoughts and opinions are welcome (even from Nebulous :-)). Bruce.

To show I’m not bias, (well, I am a bit?), Inter in Maidstone also do lots of Trials bike stuff. HTH Bruce.

Try Freestyle (Mark Cross). I use them all the time. Very friendly and will carry out the work if you want. I have used them many times but have no connection to them apart from being a regular customer Hope this helps

O.K. I ran my Montesa up and down the road for around 5 mins with the rear brake slightly on. It felt like it was biting a bit better and the disc just started going a very light straw colour! I then dowsed it with a watering can full of water until completely cooled. This transformed the brake and it now easily locks the back wheel on tarmac with only a light application of the back brake. If fact it worked so well, I repeated the excercise on the front brake! Again, it made a significant improvement. Thanks guys. :-) I hope this thread may come in useful to others with the same issue. Bruce.

Many thanks for all the replies. I have a number of things I can try now. Your help is much appreciated. Bruce.

Thanks imexian, food for thought. It seems like there is basically a lack of friction between the pad and disc (unlike yourself and Nebulous :-) ) Also the old pads I replaced look like Fren which would explain why they weren't so good even though they were hardly worn! I just assumed they were contaminated.

Are they trick pads? Seem like a pretty common OEM replacement to me? I’m not sure a replacement expensive disc would make much difference on a trials bike if the original one is in reasonable condition. But a nice expensive red anodised brake pedal?. Now your talking? I guess I need to give it a proper test to let everything bed in but I’m sure a new bike wouldn’t have this problem.

Yes, I cycled both pistons in the caliper by clamping one and using the lever to push the other one out. I then cleaned the bit sticking out and gave it a quick wipe with brake fluid. Both pistons move easily when the brake is applied. I put new Gold Fren Ceramic Carbon trials pads in. I haven't ridden the bike in anger yet, just up and down the road briefly. I will try the 'get it hot and dowse it with water' thing if I can do it without upsetting the neighbors! :-) Nothing to do with the rear brake but I also fitted an Apico clutch kit (dimpled steel discs and new friction plates) to try and stop the irritating clutch drag. This included putting 1/2lt of expensive HTX 740 gear oil in. 2 of the new Apico friction plates looked slightly different from the rest so I put these in the first and last positions. The old friction plates were approaching their wear limits. First impressions are there is definitely less drag, especially when warm (I'm anticipating it will improve further when 'bedded in a bit more). I also think the new clutch and/or oil have made the operation significantly less fierce which can only be a good thing. Thanks for the suggestions. Are poor rear brakes common on 4RT's? Bruce.

Thanks for the suggestion. Disc looks o.k. I rubbed both sides on a sheet of 360 grit wet and dry on a surface plate (Ex Toolmaker!). However, it is a little bit scored (I rubbed the worst bits off)

Still can’t lock the back wheel on tarmac. I have: Replaced pads for Apico items Bled system and replaced fluid with fresh Dot 4 (nice place to put the reservoir!) Rubbed disc with wet & dry on a flat surface plate and cleaned with carb cleaner. Pedal seems there and doesn’t pump up but brake is no where as good as my old gas gas (or even older Tiger Cub come to think of it!) Is it new master cylinder or different/longer aftermarket brake pedal time? Any advice appreciated Bruce

I've been preparing my spare Cub for my Son to ride in some Pre 65 trials with me. Since I now have a spare gearbox cover from my Armac Cub, I decided to upgrade my old Cub and fit a clutch lightener, blind cam bush, gear selector oil seal and kick start shaft oil seal. As this bike is running standard road gearing I will also be fitting a 16T primary gear to get 1st and 2nd lower. This bike is running with standard type clutch but with ally end plate and an additional friction plate. Unlike my Armac cover, I had the kick start shaft housing welded where the flat is in this one to prevent the od 28, id 22 x 4 seal breaking through. Bear in mind you still need to be able to get the selector plate pivot pin in and out! I have added some photos as I know some other people were considering this modification. I think I should have taken my own advice and machined the seal recess 4.5mm to 5mm deep instead of 4mm, but I'll see how it goes together! As not everyone has a mill in their shed, I'm assuming someone like UPB can do all this machining for you. I hope this helps someone. Enjoy :-)

It may be worth considering doing a 'long distance trial' if you have a road legal bike and appropriate road motorbike license. I've done a few on trail bikes and they are great fun.

2.5 to 3.0mm btdc

I went to “tricks in the sticks” in Kent for a days training with my 2 Sons and 2 other friends a couple of years ago. Had a great day and learnt what I’ve been doing wrong after 40 years trials riding???

I ran the bike for around 15mins outside my house and no signs of any oil leaks so far. Fingers crossed??

I wear muddy fox mountain biking gloves. £12 from sports direct. Again, I have no association with sports direct.

I also forgot to say, my Armac Cub is my ultimate 'state of the art' bike. I also have this slightly more traditional Cub that I have just rebuilt to allow my Son to do some pre 65 trials with his dad :-) This is another bike that I built from bits and pieces. For example the oil tank in made from a piece of Class 465 train cable conduit, the oil filler plug is a used gearbox drain plug from a class 395 high speed train (all from the scrap bin at work). I swapped a few cub wheel bits with Malcolm Simmons for the back wheel out of his green Trials Francis Barnett (I kept it the green he painted it to remember a great guy) I'm no expert rider but I do like modifying and making bits for these old bikes and then trying them out. You can't really do this sort of stuff on a modern bike.

Stanmet, thanks for your comments. Nice to know it’s helpful to someone. If you are fitting an outer cover with the kickstart seal I would recommend you get the end of the flat in the casting welded so your seal recess doesn’t break through. However, make sure you leave enough of a flat (or file a small recess) to get the selector pin back in the case. I would probably go 5mm deep on the bored hole too. It doesn’t matter so much on mine because the spring cover, spring retaining washer and kickstart hold my seal in place. I would still love to see what UPB do to modify their kickstart housing. Bruce

Probably my final post on this subject! I have finished final assembly. I learnt from my mistake and added an M5 c'sunk screw to the end of the camshaft end cap so I can hold the cam in place next time I remove the side cover. I also made a spacer bush for the gear change shaft to make it a little less vulnerable to being bent. (It's still pretty tucked out of the way) I think my original oil leaks were coming from a slightly loose blind cam bush and along the kick start shaft. Both of these should be sorted now. It should be easy to see where any oil is coming from now! I have attached some photos of the finished item. I'm still waiting for 3off 2BA cap heads to be delivered to fill the final fixing holes but you get a pretty good idea. It has been more work than I anticipated but I have enjoyed doing it (most of the time!). Do I like it? To be honest I'm not sure, but it's growing on me :-) I hope this has been of help and interest to other people who like to muck about with these strangely addictive trials bikes in their sheds! If you do something similar, let me know how you get on. Bruce.

I just thought I'd add a photo of the mod that saved the day when I accidently pulled my camshaft out. I take no credit for it as a local Tiger Cub Guru from Pluckley (thanks Henry!) told me what to do when I was rebuilding the cylinder head. It obviously has a nice shiny ally plate that covers the access hole. It may help somebody else.

Thai-ty, Thanks for your reply. Point taken. The gearbox uses standard engine oil and I am running a (dry) diaphragm clutch so I could probably get away with using modern 20/50 for both engine and gearbox. Moleman, Again, thanks. I read the article with interest. I managed to relocate the push rods as the engine was at TDC (without the valves lifting). I removed a little access plate I put in the head when I built the engine originally and managed to locate the inlet push rod into the rocker shaft. I was then able to hold both cam followers up and pop the camshaft back in! I think being a side point engine probably also helped. I have fitted my modified gearbox cover to check the end float on the main shaft. (as photo) I also removed the primary case outer cover to do this but I think I'm also going to have to remove the clutch diaphragm and basket to measure the end float accurately. I also need to fit my spare kick start shaft oil seal on final assembly! Oh well, at least it's progressing slowly :-)

O.k, I removed the existing gearbox side plate from my Armac Cub over the weekend ready to fit the modified one. Unfortunately the cam came out with the cover instead of staying in the engine case! I didn't notice until it was too late as I have a blind camshaft bush fitted. The cam followers then dropped down along with the push rods. I have no idea how I'm going to put it all back together without lifting the head. I do have an access hatch to locate the top of the push rods but I may bite the bullet and take the engine out. Any advice on this would be appreciated :-) I did notice my blind camshaft bush was a slightly loose fit in the cover which was causing a small engine oil leak. I also had signs of gearbox oil weeping around my Armac clutch lightener (I have now made a replacement 'O' ring to cure this). I also had some oil coming down the kick start spindle. My new oil seal should also cure this. Hopefully I will have an oil tight Cub engine at the end of all this! The other thing | noticed was just how thick my standard (Halfords classic) motor oil gets when cold. I'm seriously thinking about using a multi grade oil (10/50) in the gearbox and going for a fully synthetic (PJ1?) in the engine now that it is run in and I'm running a Honda 220cc piston with decent seals. The oil that came out looks like treacle!