michaelmoore

I don't have a moving picture camera, and I'm told I'm better looking. Other than that there's not much difference. cheers, Michael

Here's some information on the fuel line couplers I pulled together a few years ago: It appears these couplings (as commonly sold by various aftermarket motorcycle places) are made by: http://www.colder.com These are CPC's PLC series, made of acetal. The PLC series is good for -40->180F and 120 psi of vacuum. According to their product info, acetal is "excellent" for unleaded gasoline and also seems excellent for acetone, benzene, ethanol, and methanol, so maybe we can use it on our fuel drag bikes. I note that some of the aftermarket m/c packages on the couplers are marked "viton" and others aren't. The standard o-ring is Buna-N so they may have supplied those in the earlier days and then wised up to the fact that the Buna-N didn't hold up that well. I know I've had several O-rings swell up to the point where they tore when I pushed the coupler back together. They do have metal couplers (aluminum and chrome-plated brass - what appears to be shown above) as well as multiple line couplers and other whizzo things. Replacement O-rings are offered for 80 cents each by the motorcycle places which seemed a bit high so I pulled some of the O-rings off and measured them. It appears the 1/4" connector uses a #008 O-ring and the 5/16" appears to use a #011 ring. A bag of 100 #008 Viton O-rings (5/16" OD x 1/16" stock) from MSC (09265083) is $8.36 A bag of 100 #011 Viton O-rings (7/16" OD x 1/16" stock) from MSC (09265117) is $10.24. caveat: I make no claims to be an expert at measuring O-rings, and there may be secrets to it that I've not discovered. MSC (a US tool/industrial supply house http://www.mscdirect.com ) has several pages of CPC products and you have to order either side seperately so you can get a one side or two side shut off set: 1/4 hose barb body $8.22, insert: shutoff $8.07, straight through $1.73 5/16 hose barb body $8.22, insert: shutoff $8.07, straight through $1.77 Chrome-plated brass are roughly $22, $14, and $6.36 There are right-angle inserts too, as well as couplers with NPT threads An aftermarket place sells the single sided 5/16 for $16.95 and the double 5/16 for $21.50 $5-6 savings per coupler would add up pretty quick, and certainly pays for the bag of spare o-rings (since they'd come with Buna-N it might be best to just swap them out right at the start). cheers, Michael

"You could also enter a Flat Track Race on a MX Bike, but nobody does........." I think current AMA dirt track classes are mostly MX bikes (OEM frame required) with shortened suspensions. They seem to be discouraging people from building "framers". I tried a 3/8" mile short track on my 125 Maico and decided that MX and trials were better sports for me. Bultaco sold a fair number of Alpinas back in the day, and that was basically a Sherpa T with bigger tank/seat and a wide ratio gearbox. cheers, Michael

The TM had been used to sponsor a rider at the Suzuki shop I worked at in college, so when the new model came out I bought the old bike. It sure was fast in a straight line. My first MX was on my 71 TS185R, and then I got the TM. When the TM broke (they vibrated pretty bad and would break the motor mounts and then throw the chain through the crankcase) a friend let me ride her kitted TS125R (like the one shown above) at a race. I can't remember if I won all three heats or had a 3-1-1, but in the last one I had pulled out a lead the length of the front straight. The 125 was NOT scary to ride like the 400 -- why, I could even use some throttle in a corner! That sold me on riding 125s so I bought a new 1972 125 Maico and raced that for a couple of years, moving after that to a used 250 Griffon. At that time I was doing more trials than MX. cheers, Michael

My Honda book shows the CR250M0 was released February 1973 and was sold as 1973 and 1974 models. The only veglia recollection I have of the one time I raced one is that the front end wanted to wash out in the corners, much like my BSA B50MX and a Ducati 250 Scrambler. It was certainly light and powerful. My first MX bike was a TM400R Suzuki Cyclone. The first time I had a ride on a Maico I was thinking "am I supposed to be able to do feet-up slides like this without falling down?" Switching from the TM to a 125 improved my lap times. cheers, Michael

There is some nice panaromic footage of the California high desert. From the comments with the video it was shot out near Willow Springs Raceway. Those days of "unload and head out in any direction" are definitely long gone. cheers, Michael

Bodywork can be fun (as well as aggravating). You might consider this an opportunity to buy some more tools and learn some new skills. If you mess up you can always farm the repair out to a pro. If you manage to do it to your satisfaction, then you've saved some dosh and gained some expertise for future projects. cheers, Michael

I used a Miller silencer on the exhaust I made for my KT. I'd thought I was getting one like they used to make for the Bultacos back in the day, but it was just a generic absorption silencer with an aluminum extrusion for a body. You can probably find a similar silencer off an MX bike. is my KT. is what I thought would be in the box when it arrived. cheers, Michael

http://www.clarkemfg.com/cart/index.php?ma...products_id=461 FWIW, That's listed under the universal tanks as an Elsinore-style tank. How does it compare in width to the stock KT tank? The KT is rated at 1.5 US gallons and the Clarke is 1.6. It seems like they'd end up about the same for width at the knees and up where the fork tubes get close in the front. Buying that tank would be a lot less bother than making a new one! Thanks for the info about that. cheers, Michael

AFAIK BikeBandit is just an Internet place that has items drop-shipped and doesn't actually stock parts. If a Kawasaki dealer can't get it, they can't either. Plus, you have to watch their parts numbers because they use their own, even if showing you an OEM parts fiche. The Kawasaki website has got manuals and parts fiche for the old bikes and will give you current parts numbers (and possibly availability info too). I think Kawasaki is out of KT rod kits, but you can use a later KX kit with a spacer under the cylinder. I run a Wiseco piston for an early CR250 in mine and I think it was just about an exact match. Bob Ginder at B&J has/had a few OEM parts and makes some replacement things like foam airfilter elements for the OEM airbox. I got the spokes and Excel rims from Buchanan in SoCal; they are a big wheel shop that has been around for decades. Watch eBay. I picked up a NOS sparkbox for "just in case" a while back and there are occasionally other KT parts put up or bikes being broken for parts. http://kawasakikt.tripod.com/index-4.html has a lot of info and links to people who've replicated some stock parts. http://www.eurospares.com/kt250.htm is the KT page on my website. The best course is probably to not be a restorer and then you can put anything on that works and is available! You can probably find a lot of stuff locally. cheers, Michael

I've been sidetracked with other projects and hadn't been checking TC but I have been recently thinking about how I need to get the KT or Sherpa T going. I need a less expensive project right now and since I've got all kinds of new parts on hand for those bikes they don't need any money thrown at them. Roadracing and machine tool projects sure can suck up the cash! cheers, Michael

Those are the OEM sizes. Check your rims carefully for cracks while the tires are off. Mine had cracks, and since water sections had left the spokes/nipples pretty corroded I ended up replacing both spokes and rims which is not an inexpensive thing to do. I got a 2.15x18 replacement rear rim (WM3) as that seems to be what the modern bikes are running and it should help to stabilize the tire on the rim a little better. 2.75x21 and 4.00x18 are the standard sizes for modern trials tires meant to actually be used in trials (as opposed to just a generic "trials" tire plopped on a trail bike) so you don't have to worry about finding something that will fit. cheers, Michael

Mine was severely rusted. After separating the top and bottom of the tank I attacked the rust with a sand blaster and wire wheel and it soon became obvious that there was more rust than steel in some spots, so I made an aluminum tank. I don't know of any direct-replacement tanks for the KT so you'll probably either have to reclaim a stock tank, make a new one, or try and adapt a "universal" (which often seems to mean "fits nothing in the universe without significant modification") tank. You might be able to pull a mold off the stock tank and make a composite replica. cheers, Michael

Those look like a DIY job and not any production LL forks I've seen. They are short LL forks, not Earles' forks. Earles' patent of 1951 has the pivot behind the tire. Here's a copy of the patent document: http://www.eurospares.com/graphics/chassis...esGB693646A.pdf LL forks may or may not have a hoop around the back of the tire. Greeves and Sachs/DKW/Hercules did, Guzzi GP bikes did not nor did the DOT LL forks. cheers, Michael

I'd suggest you ignore the "one to two times body weight" bench press numbers. There are people who can do that (and more) but I suspect they are often serious atheletes. Your genes will determine the upper end of the strength you can attain. Some people build muscle quickly and others top out early. The important thing is to keep records of what you do and try to see some gradual improvement over time in YOUR numbers. Testosterone appears to help to build strength (wow, it is actually good for something). If you are a young male you'll probably get strong quicker than if you are a doddering greybeard like me. FWIW I've been doing pretty good at carrying out my exercise program for the last 5-6 months. I'm 56, 6' and 190lbf and probably fall into the mesomorph body style - not skinny, not (too) round. Three times a week I jog 4 miles (about 12 minutes/mile average) and do some modest weights here at home. Right now I'm benching 90 lbf x 10 reps. When I started that was 60x10. I use dumbells as I don't have anyone to spot me and I'm averse to being crushed by an out of control long bar. 45lbf each is the max weight on these dumbells so I'll probably just keep adding reps from here on with the bench presses. hth, Michael

I'm never going to be better than a good Novice vintage trials rider so hopping/stopping/backing up is totally irrelevant to me. However, I'll note that I can't think of any of the other aspects of motorcycle sport that I ride in (MX and roadrace) that allow a rider to stop in mid course for a rest/rethink/dither, or where if you are coming to a corner or jump at a bad angle you screech to a stop and hop the bike over to a better line. AFAIK USA style off-road hillclimbs don't let you come to a stop half way up the hill if you get aimed wrong so that you can drag your bike over to a less steep portion of the hill and then continue on. Of course, in MX and RR you've got other people on the course at the same time and you don't want to get in their way, and stopping for a rethink is just going to lose you places. But the whole idea is you keep moving forward. You have to think a corner or two ahead because your exit from corner A may have a big impact on what you are then able to accomplish in corners B and C. No-stop trials works the same way. You may give up a long dab (slow exit speed on a MX/RR corner) in order to put yourself in a better position for the next obstacle (corner) and so better your score overall. Why should trials be the odd-person out in motorcycle sport? I think that being able to do all the trick hopping and stuff makes you better able to balance when going slow in a non-stop trial. My attempts at practicing balancing at a standstill on my Sherpa T were all done to try and improve my balance overall, not because I expected that I'd be able to come to a stop in a section. I suspect that if I were thinking of starting trials today and saw nothing but stop/trick riding sections I'd say "wow, those guys are sure skilled but there's no way I'm going to try anything like that, it looks too difficult and/or dangerous." I might look at a lesser obstacle and think that I could definitely drag the bike up it so maybe I'd have a chance to ride it with some footing. I can't drag a bike up a 5' step so I'm sure not about to try and ride up it. Dragging may be doable, needing a winch and crane, not so much. cheers, Michael

The problem is that trials, as with other parts of m/c sport these days, is too specialized. In the beginning people were lucky to have a bike that ran at all, and since they only had one bike it was used in everything. Now the different elements of the sport have matured -- how much REAL change has taken place in MX, RR and trials bikes in the last 10-15 years? As far as I can see my 1985 CanAm/Armstrong/CCM 560 has the same basic suspension travel and dimensions as a 2009 MX bike. We're in micro-evolution from year to year now, not revolution. Line up trials and RR bikes from the last decade and Joe Punter is probably going to have trouble telling which one is new and which a decade old. When I started riding in the very early 1970s the same basic engine was in all Bultacos, small to large, trials/mx/street/enduro. The differences were in the details of porting and compression and gearing. You could easily mix and match to hot up a Matador or Metralla or calm down a Pursang. There wasn't much significant difference (spring rates and oil viscosity) in front forks as all dirt bikes had 6-7" of travel in the front. Rear dampers were pretty much the same too - Girling, Koni or Betor for euro-OEM and Curnutt was about it for an aftermarket item. You could line up enduro, trials and MX frames side by side and see that the big differences were mostly in some tubes being a bit longer than others or angled a little differently, not that the frames were entirely different technology. Wheels were wheels, and Bultaco swiped the Sherpa T front wheel to put on the Pursang. I had a 1971 TS185 Suzuki that I rode to uni and around town and also rode in my first MX and trials events. I rode my G80CS Matchless on the streets but also to a hare scrambles where I raced and rode home again, and I also trucked it to a farther away MX and raced it (and this was about 1972 or 73). I wasn't last in any of those events. That's not very likely nowadays. With extreme specialization you lose economies of scale and the prices go up. As trials bikes and riding techniques evolve to meet ever harder obstacles, the obstacles in turn evolve to become harder. Unfortunately the meatware for most people doesn't seem to get much past Version 1.0. EFI-equipped bikes can run sooooooo nice and smooth and powerfully, but with electronics they either work or they don't. They are pretty reliable now and run predictably for long periods, especially compared to an AMAL MK1 concentric. But the person who never worked on anything more complicated than a lawn mower could often figure out how to fiddle with a carb if it was acting up, while a lot of the new bikes have a multiplicity of sensors - water temp, throttle position, gear indicator, etc. I like technology but it can be a PITA sometimes. I've got a YZ250F Yamaha MX engine I picked up for a project, and that thing would have qualified as roadrace GP technology when I was starting out. From what I hear modern 4T MX engines can be a lot more expensive and time intensive to maintain than a 1973 400 Maico. Cool stuff, but not for the newbie competitor. The Maico had enough power to make your eyes get pretty big. Maybe it is time to turn back the clock to a somewhat less complicated era? Modern tech could probably make a really cool Sherpa T that didn't have a gazillion sensors, water pumps, exhaust pipe valves etc etc etc. Could making trials bikes 10-15 lbf heavier and mechanically more simple reduce the price of both purchase and maintenance significantly? Maybe there needs to be two tiers of bikes? There could be the clubman version and the "OMG, that is soooo trick and soooo expensive!" limited production "pro" version for the few who really need it (or have money to burn). We've already got clubs running multiple lines so the pro bikes could run the super hard stuff and the clubman bikes can run what are at times already labeled "clubman" lines. I don't see this as being a problem just for trials. MX has also gotten very specialized to where you may not want to do much trail riding on them. Oddly enough, for RR the current street sportbikes are so good that you don't need to much of anything to have plenty of fun in clubracing. cheers, Michael

You didn't go far enough, Danny's stuff is nearer to the bottom of the page. The easy way is to hit CTRL-F and do a search on "Messmore". cheers, Michael

That's Danny Messmore's 250 Hodaka special that uses a modified KT250 frame. About 80% down the page http://www.eurospares.com/newadd.htm you'll find some more photos that Danny sent me, plus some of his 125 Hodaka trials project. cheers, Michael

http://www.fs.fed.us/recreation/programs/ohv/OHV_SAG2007.pdf That's a US Forest Service off-highway vehicle guide to spark arrestors. This appears to be what the employees will use when evaluating a spark arrestor to see if it meets standards. Oddly enough, they fail to list "Bultaco", though my 1976 Sherpa T does appear to have the appropriate stampings in the OEM exhaust. http://www.gsa.gov/gsa/cm_attachments/GSA_...RDZ-i34K-pR.pdf is the document (USFS 5100-1c) establishing the USFS standards There's some interesting technical information, a list of manufacturers, and it might come in handy should you need to have a polite discussion with someone on why your vehicle's system is legal and you shouldn't be issued a ticket. cheers, Michael

The biggest problem BSA had with the Ti frames was they tried to copy the steel frame. It is like with aluminum, you\'ve got to design for the material properties. Remember those early 1\" square tube aluminum frames on the roadracers, and how they quickly became large-section beams? That left them with something that was very flexy - adequate for the 250 but on the big bike I think they often managed to throw the rear chain a couple of times a race due to the flex. As mentioned above, Ti is not the thing you want to try and fix in a muddy paddock. A few days ago I ran across these photos of a prototype frame Antonio Cobas did for HRC/Montesa which should show that it is possible to do a tubular frame on a modern trials bike that is within the capabilities of many people to fabricate: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ZhCWX6XiSjk/SShG...ROTO%202000.jpg http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ZhCWX6XiSjk/SShH...MontesaN4A1.jpg http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ZhCWX6XiSjk/SShH...ontesa-N4A4.jpg If anyone is interested in the construction/design topic I\'ve run an email list on that subject for about 12 years now. You can sub to it here. ETA: I don\'t know why the linked images aren\'t showing up so I\'ve removed the tags. cheers, Michael

Does anyone know when John Catchpole built his Scott-based trials outfit as shown in this photo? http://www.eurospares.com/graphics/sidecar...eSpecial001.jpg Via Google I found an image of JC in action on his first special in 1952 but the one in the photo above appears to be a later version. It seems like every time I go thumbing through my collection of Off Road Review I spot some interesting bike that I'd not noticed before. cheers, Michael

I've used the small oil tank filler caps/neck from here http://www.fullborerace.com/fuelcaps_filler_bungs.html on my KT250 tank. Race car places are good spots to find those, and someplace that caters to homebult aircraft is another good place to check. http://www.aircraftspruce.com/menus/ap/fuel_caps.html cheers, Michael

Hi Jon, I don't think crashing in that armor is going to be a very comfortable process compared to modern MX stuff. But the MX stuff doesn't seem to be much good against lances. Some of the race scooter stuff is pretty impressive. But then that's mainly a factor of getting someone who knows their stuff and how to do it to do the work, and it doesn't matter whether it is scooters, cars, or lawnmowers they'll all come out being very impressively done. The folks who rode scooters in the off-road events must have been gluttons for punishment. cheers, Michael

cheers, Michael