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I use Raptor pegs and standard hangers. I've had the pegs for years, been on 3 bikes, still good as new - I love em. When I try someone elses bike, the pegs just feel small and wobbly. Standard hangers bend if you clout them hard but are suprisingly cheap to replace. If I broke the frame there I think I might cry at the cost of replacement.

Personally I'd ride it and hope. No point spending on an unnecessary rebuild You'll soon find out if there's any damage and riding it won't make any difference as long as you stop riding if you hear something untoward. A top end strip down will reveal little as most potential damage will be to the bottom end, mains and or big end. The important thing is you got the bike running quickly with the petrol/oil mixture washing over the important bearings. I've had it go both ways, a fully submerged Sherco, drained off and running within 20 minutes never gave me any problems in the next couple of years. A drowned GasGas developed grumbly mains during the next trial, mains, big end, and gudgeon pin were replaced. The quicker you get it running after the submersion the better, water washes the oil off the bright hot bearing surfaces immediately and starts corrosion. If it took you over an hour from submersion to re-start then you are probably looking at new bearings, under that, you may be lucky. If the water was filthy then obviously, your luck will diminish. Gear box is very unlikely to have suffered, you did the right thing changing the oil, change it again after the next trial to remove any residual water. Wouldn't hurt to run a bit extra oil in your 2T mix next trial.

Robert Little has released more photographs, scanned from his archives. Click here to view

I can only recommend them I've fitted them to every bike I've had in the last 9 years and in that time have never had to replace a fork seal. I don't think they offer any real protection against bumps and knocks as they are just thin neoprene but they do stop you pressure washing dirt down into the fork seals.

50/50 water antifreeze prevents freezing and reduces electrolytic corrosion, De ionised water would be better but I've never, ever, heard of someone using it, so I wouldn't bother. Fill it up just short of the cap, start the bike, squeeze all of the pipes as it warms up to displace any airlocks, and let it idle for a long time, like half an hour, lots of fan on fan off cycles, feel the radiator, top and bottom tanks should get hot. The coolant will expand, push past the cap and 'find it's own level' I prefer the green antifreezes, but they all work.

I do think the Renthal chain is the best in terms of resistance to stretching and chain life, but I agree that it is expensive. If it's any help to your decision, Renthal don't make the chains. Regina make them for Renthal to Renthal's own specification.

In the UK I rather think the ACU rules preclude you from using anything but readily available pump fuel

I started off with Hebo stainless pegs - just smoothed the kickstart as suggested by John - Now I use Raptor titanium pegs, still on standard hangers. Excellent pegs, very hard to damage and impossible to clog with mud. If you do catch something hard then the hanger distorts and is relatively cheap to replace. You can get Raptor titanium hangers super tough and 10mm further back, but I can't comfortably reach the rear brake using them and I'd rather bend a hanger than the frame.

Could be that there is no requirement for tyres to 'move on' ? If you read and analyse the minutiae of your ACU handbook you will realise that the one control aspect of the sport is the dimensions of the tyres and their tread blocks. Effectively you can do what you want with everything 3" or more above the ground, but the contact with the ground (and in theory the available grip) is tied down tightly in the rules. It should then be the same for everybody. It would be easy to make a grippier tyre by altering it's size / profile / tread configuration but it's not allowed. Having said that, don't imagine for a minute that the tyres used by the World class riders aren't 'tuned' in their manufacture to suit the rider. I'd guess that if one of the manufacturers produced a tyre that was significantly better than the competition whilst staying within the rules (say a fantastic wet / dry / mud ultragrip compound) then it may actually be in the interests of the sport to change the rules and prohibit it. Probably just after I bought one

The 'teabag' in the tank is similar to that on Honda cars. You can take it out and wring it out if you think it's got water in it, otherwise leave it alone. It should last forever.

Hutton le Hole, the picturesque village in North Yorks? Just google it, you'll soon see where it is. Or do you mean somewhere different?

Almost certainly, you have a little leak. Fluid may leak from a seal / joint in the high pressure side of the system - i.e. between the brake master cylinder and the brake pads. Points to check are the banjos & bleed nipple, then the seals around the pistons in the caliper. My similar problem was the tiny o-ring sealing the 2 caliper halves. The only other fail that can cause your symptoms are fluid leaking back past the piston seal in the master cylinder. Are you losing fluid?

Not everyone's cup of tea but I've thoroughly enjoyed LWB Landrover defenders for the last 4 years. The first one was a van (they call it a 110 hardtop). cost me

Check it with a magnet. If it's silver and magnetic it's a type of steel, if it's silver and not magnetic it's probably an aluminium alloy If it's gold painted, it may be a magnesium alloy I'm well aware of exceptions to the above but for the bits you are talking about the magnet test should do - there's rarely much Duplex stainless or Monel in a trials bike. When you come to re-welding brackets to the frame, be aware that it's pretty thin and is Chrome moly, keep the haz as small as you can.

I've not actually been, but I hear good things about it, several organised training days for all abilities have been held there as well as people going to pay and ride. Warden Law is near Houghton le Spring, There's a karting circuit there too. Postcode for Satnav / google maps is SR3 2PR From the A1 take the A690 east towards Sunderland, through Houghton le Spring then turn right before the Reg Vardy garage, go to the end of the road, turn right at the tee junction, then take the first right. From the A19 take the A690 west towards Durham, turn left before the Reg Vardy garage, go to the end of the road, turn right at the tee junction, then take the first right. I can't emphasise enough that you should go to a few trials, 'specially Saturday ones to get an idea of what skill levels you need to enjoy yourself. If you went to Warden Law and watched Michael Phillipson practising on a massive step, you'd never start Oh yeah, don't go practising on your own. Ever. Thinking about it, the garage won't be Reg Vardy now it'll probably be Stratstone or Evans Halshaw

Sort of, Every trial in the North East Centre is run by a club affiliated to the NE ACU, and all of the trials you would enter are 'closed to centre' This means that they are only open to members of clubs affiliated to the NE ACU. So, join any club in the NE centre and you can ride any trial in the centre. Members of clubs affiliated to other centres (eg Richmond or Guisborough which are affiliated to the Yorkshire centre) must join an NE club to ride. The other thing you need is personal membership of the ACU. (membership form can be downloaded CLICK HERE) To make things easy, the rules allow you to turn up at an event unknown, join the organising club at the event and get your ACU membership form stamped & signed (you need a photo), then ride the trial. ACU membership is currently

Don't knock Rover too hard. I knew many Rover engineers - a lot of really talented blokes. Nissan obviously thought so, in the mid eighties there was a major movement of engineers from Cowley and Longbridge to Washington and the result was one of the most efficient plants in Europe. That Sprint engine was at the forefront of technical design at the time, that also meant it was at the limits of the metallurgy / casting / maintenance techniques of the time too. The leading edge technology was reduced to bleeding edge by the bean counters and production workers guided by Red Robbo. However, getting back to the subject, I bought a seized Sprint motor to put in my TR7 in 1980. The lad I'd bought it off claimed to have re-built it but it had seized in a week and he'd run out of money. When I drained the (clean) oil out and removed the sump I found what looked like a paisley pyjama leg wrappped around the oil pickup strainer

Yep, I've had one on for the last 6 months or so, they look much nicer than the stock white plastic one but the lower edge abrades quite badly on rocks etc. I probably won't replace it with another, I think I'll try making one from 6mm wear strip - the sort of material those very tough chain tensioner blocks are made from.

When replacing the seals, take your time and don't force anything. Why were your original pistons seized, were they corroded or dirty? When you get your new seals, check very carefully the recess/groove in the caliper that the seal fits in, it must be scrupulously clean or the seals will always be tight on the pistons. Split the caliper and clean the groove out with a thin piece of plastic so you don't damage the aluminium caliper, wash it out with old brake fluid until you're sure its clean. Lubricate the new seals and pistons with brake fluid, fit the seals making sure they're seated evenly, then slip the pistons in. If they don't go in easily i.e. moderate thumb pressure, something's wrong, either the seals aren't in properly and evenly or the piston is not being inserted squarely. Don't use mineral or silicon grease as a lubricant. You can buy a red grease compatible with brake fluid & seals but it's hard to track down, I just use lots of brake fluid. Again, take your time and don't force anything.

Don't know about the TXT boy, but be a little careful. On my '92 GasGas 320 I ran 1 tooth smaller than standard on the front sprocket and 1 tooth smaller on the rear. The revised gearing suited me perfectly, but the chain wore through the swinging arm protector and the top of the swinging arm inside 6 months.

I've been asked to share these photographs taken by Robert Little at the SSDT during the 1970s Photobucket Clicky Link For some reason, photobucket has stripped the spaces out of the file names. Not hard to work out who's who though.

Would that be the search function in the forum or the search function in the news archives? The fact that people use them a lot suggests that they are important. I find the home page takes a few seconds to load, seems to be longer now there's lots of animated advert thingies, forums load pretty well straight up, adding news features to the home page is about the same as adding a response or creating a topic in the forums, but the really slow bit is adding or editing entries in the calendar.

Neatsfoot oil is the best for softening and conditioning the leather, it also partially waterproofs it too. The last pair of natural finish Hebos I had were treated religiously after every trial. I pressure washed them lightly, put them next to the boiler overnight, then painted them with Neatsfoot oil. They were as comfy as trainers and pretty well waterproof. In a couple of months I'd so badly bruised both feet that it was affecting my riding. After that they got pressure washed with the bike, spent a night next to the boiler, then were put back in the boot bag. keeping them slightly damp kept them supple enough, they probably got oiled every 2-3 months. That way they protected my feet but were soft enough to ride comfortably, the permanent damp meant that the stitching rotted / gave up after a couple of years. Also in the winter they had frost in them - not so nice. I can put up with that rather than damaged feet (feet take ages to heal) Now I buy cheap boots (Diadoras) and supplement them with MOD surplus waterproof socks

Elf Oil + Mitani plates = trouble free clutch & gearchange, starts in gear, selects neutral at will. They came with the Elf oil, why didn't they come with the decent plates? A clutch master cylinder off a 315 gives a nicer & more progressive action due to the smaller bore, but you then really need the Elf Oil & Mitani plates or the clutch drag becomes an intolerable pain.

Can't you just use a download manager, set them all up, then go do something else?