woody

Hi Bo, yes the brake plate is the type with the external arm now and I got it from Birkett's. It was no improvemt over the original though and is still not very good at all, has no feel or bite, I can only assume the drum is no good. It's adequate for most situations though. The tank is the small fibreglass tank. If you're going to fit one make sure it is well mounted and doesn 't vibrate. On the Godden frame there are two tubes running under the top tube up to the headstock. If the bottom of the tank is in contact with these it will rub through. Trust me.... Make sure the tank clears them. Also be carefull when you're taking it on and off. The lugs that are used to locate the rubbers at the front, either side of the headstock, are glued or glassed onto the tank. If you're levering and twisting the tank to remove/fit it, it's possible to break them off. I've broken one. If you're careful fitting/removing it, you should avoid this. The tank is also smaller capacity so be aware of that if you're doing road trials. Mine's a 320 so is a bit thirsty and I have to carry fuel with me just in case I don't meet up with anyone who is carrying the fuel at the right time/place . I've run out once or twice before I've caught up with them, so always have a litre or so with me just in case. The 250 may not be so thirsty though and have a greater range, may not be so much of an issue.

whilst still wearing them...??

Not sure who is the actual secretary for it but spoke to John Wells at today's trial, regs for Vic Brittain haven't been issued yet, they should be out shortly and will be availble from the Midland Centre website, so keep an eye on that. They'll be under the calender section. midland centre acu site

Be prepared for hassle though with anything other than the 'normal' 5 litre cans as you'll find that in this ever increasing nanny state we inhabit some filling stations won't let you fill a can which is over 10 litres. If your local stations are ok then you won't have a problem but we've had some real problems just trying to get enough fuel for the enduro bikes to last a race. The most you are allowed to take away in cans is 10 litres, some apply it as though their life depends on it, some either don't know or don't care. They also have cards with pictures of legally acceptable cans on them and the only cans on the card I was shown were the 5 litre red and green plastic petrol cans and the diesel can. They wouldn't accept anything else. The filling station on the A5 near Shrewsbury at the big roundabout where it meets the A49 is an absolute nightmare. Two over zealous tarts at the helm, utter control freaks who won't allow anything other than the small cans and no way will you fill more than 2 of them, not even if your mates take some to other pumps, they're wise to that. Three or four blokes getting out of a van with three cans each sends them into a flat spin. Flash sight of a big jerry can and they'd have to have counselling for a month. They won't even turn the pumps on unless your can is on the floor (so it is earthed..... 'but it's a plastic can luv...!!') They must have weekly training/refresher health and safety courses... You just have to pull up at a pump on their blind side and make out that it is the car/van you're filling and keep the cans out of sight. Gone are the days when I was racing a four stroke Yam and I could just open the side door of the van, climb in with the hose and fill the bike up and a jerry can. I'd like to try that at Shrewsbury, just once - although not as much as I'd like to point the hose from number 1 pump at the kiosk and ignite it...

Haven't you got another carb you can try from another bike as that is where I'd start. Doesn't matter if it isn't jetted correctly and the bike runs rough, as long as it runs and you can ride through the rev range you can see if the same thing happens with another carb. I'd be surprised if air leaks could cause what is happening, they make an engine run on a little when you shut off but not usually to rev on at full chat. It's a remote possibility that when the engine revs high, intake pressure is holding the slide open if the return spring is too weak to close it. This sort of thing used to happen on early 290 Shercos. I had a few moments on one I borrowed once and someone else I know broke his wrist when the same thing happened to him. These weren't one-off moments, they happened to a few Sherco owners round here, when you shut off the slide wouldn't close and the motor carried on racing for a short while until the spring pressure finally overcame the intake pressure. Try and borrow another carb and see if that stops it - or the one off your GasGas should do

Any topic like this is subjective, opinions will aways differ but, for what's it's worth I really don't think there is any need for a big bore Villiers. It wasn't a standard fitment to a Villiers so there are no baseline settings, once you've got one, from whatever source, there will then be endless time messing with it trying to get it to run right as it's unlikely to do so right away. If there is some sort of fundamental design flaw that you don't know about, port sizes, port timing, compression ratio etc it'll never run right and you'll be trying to tune something that isn't tuneable. In the end for what? More power than you'll never need in classic sections. A 250 Villiers with electronic ignition, decent exhaust and airbox and good (ie; not worn out) carburettor will have more than enough performance. No need for TY or GasGas porting, reed valves etc. I borrowed a friend's bike for the Manx Classic this year fitted with a standard 37a, DMW barrell and head with Villiers piston, decent exhaust and airbox, motoplat ignition, amal mk1 carb - nothing else. It was fine, performed very well, good pick up off idle, torquey, revved out well with enough over-rev to give a long flexible long bottom gear. It was the first time I'd ridden a Villiers engined bike since the 9E piece of crap we learnt to ride on as kids and I was impressed with it. If it was mine I wouldn't want to change anything on it. I know someone who was running a 350 James a few years ago with a nikasil barrell and modern piston. He gave up with it in the end as it was too much hassle to get it right. Save yourself a lot of time, expense and grief and use a 250. They have all the performance you'll need.

300 Euros for a licence is ridiculous And some people here moan about

Oh dear.... when I did a Bultaco tank they didn't have any petrol resistant lacquer so fingers crossed it works. I was really hacked off when it happened to me as I had spent ages prepping the tank, managed to knock out a few dents and skim filled the rest. The paint sprayed beautifully out of the can with a really good finish which cut back into a nice gloss with cutting paste. I was so chuffed. On went the decals and in went the petrol for the first ride - out came the petrol over the first few bumps, off came the decals and dull went the paint..... As regards painting plastic tanks, a mate of mine has a 240 Fantic which has had the plastic tank painted. This was done years ago, before he got the bike and it hasn't lifted anywhere yet, so someone found a way of making it stick. Also, Bill Pye paints 200/240 tanks, I saw some at a trial earlier this year and none had lifted. I have a plastic Bultaco tank which has been painted although I've yet to fit it onto the bike and put petrol in it. It was done 12 months ago or more and the existing vapours in the tank haven't lifted the paint yet. It was done by a professional car painter in plastic primer with flexible additive and something else that effectively melts the primer to the plastic (or vice-versa). Then two-pack painted. I'll put petrol in it when I get around to it to see if there is any affect over time. I'm not saying categorically that paint on plastic tanks won't lift as I am not qualified and I've seen some disastrous efforts in the past. But based on my mate's Fantic tank, I'm saying it has been done successfully.

Cellulose or 2-pack are fine and aren't affected by petrol. Acryllic will lose it's finish the moment it comes into contact with petrol so don't use Halfords paint.

Yes, that won't be a MAR wheel if the sprocket and brake are on the same side. I've changed a couple of mine to use a Gripper style Grimeca rear wheel as it means a rod (or Yam style cable) can be used from the pedal direct to the rear brake arm. This dispenses with the tortuous standard arrangement of spindle and cable. Here's a link to a site with some useful info Mats Nyberg Ossa website

Frame/engine numbers starting 22 or 23 are from a 74-76 MAR 250 which are known as the MK2 models. If it is '76 it will be an early one as in '76 they changed to the MK3 which had a different number prefix, laid down shocks, longer forks. Engine/frame numbers matched from new but obviously in 30 odd years some have had engine swaps. It's still a MK2 engine in a MK2 frame. Yours will be an Ossa frame that has been plated which was something some owners used to do back then. A Whitlock frame wouldn't have an Ossa number - unless someone restamped it. Whitlock frame doesn't have a sidestand, rear brake lever/spindle assembly is different from Ossa and the rear spindle slot in the swingarm is open at the end allowing the wheel to be removed without removing the spindle.

As it will be a dinosaur compared to proper monoshock bikes, put it back to twinshock and you'll have one of the best twinshocks available

Front forks are Fantic 200 amongst others so try Bill Pye for springs, or WES make replacements for 35mm forks so try the usual parts stockists for these. Airbox - pray..... Chances of finding an original are slim, best put a wanted ad on all the internet sites you can think of. There is someone in the Isle of Man who has Seeley parts, name of Quayle I think, someone may know how to get in touch with him.

Any one would do the job, the fitment of the stator is the same on them all. In fact, the stator plate itself is the same casting for both Mono and twinshock if I remember right, probably the TYZ too.

Yes, Mono flywheel taper is different so won't fit the crankshaft You just need the stator, CDI and HT coil

Yes you can but the firing position is different so you will have to elongate the slots in the mono backplate accordingly as it won't work in the same position as it does on the mono (can't remember which way this is) It will work using the TY twinshock flywheel.

Still not convinced - look at a picture of a KX450 and compare the size of the clutch cover to the cover on the red bike. The KX cover is much bigger.

Thanks for that - very useful info as I'm going to be putting mine back together in the next week or so and I wasn't looking forward to it much. The Mont engine seems such a contrived piece of design, almost as though they were thinking how complicated can we make this.... A Bultaco or even an Ossa with its gearbox shims are so much more straightforward to work on.

Yes they were, the Alpina changed in about '75, models up to then were Sherpas with different gearing and bigger tank. After that they got the Pursang type fork yokes. If you have the earlier version then changes are minimal, just the tank and gearing - there are plenty of Sherpa gearboxes on ebay so you could just swap the gearbox internals as long as it is from a compatible model as there were a few changes to the mainshaft and its bearing on the clutch side over the years and this will determine whether your clutch hub would still fit. If yo have the later type Alpina I'm not familiar with them so no idea how much work is involved but sounds like PeterB had the later version.

Not sure why people are thinking this was the dawn of the trick riding era - front and rear wheel hopping and feet up reversing was in full flow well before the the first Yam mono hit the dealers floors. The FIM changed the rules from the original 'if forward motion ceases it's a 5' to 'anything goes' in about 80-81. By the time the 240 Fantic became available sections in centre and national events (UK) were already being marked out so that hopping was required to get around the tight turns and shortened run-ups to steps. Although these air-cooled monos are not from my favourite era and I find most of the bikes themselves pretty ugly, it was still nice to see the video. Favourite bike on there is probably the Garelli, I always liked those, twinshock or mono.

Because on the Yamaha rims they won't stay seated, they drop into the rim as soon as the pressure is let down. On Bultaco/Ossa Akront rims they seem to be ok so you can use tubeless with a tube.

You have to split the crankcases to change the seals or just look at the kickstart stop? No, crank seals are like the Bulto, fitted into bolt on carriers. Kickstart stop I'm not sure about as I haven't really looked at that yet but someone else said not. I was assuming that a full engine strip was on the cards - I've been in the 'I only need to replace this bit and it will be ok' situation myself and ended up with the thing in bits.... too many times actually...

When you split the crankcases try and do it gently and leave the gearbox in the right hand case (ie; kickstart lever side) The gears run on the shafts using three rollers/pins as bearings. There are three sets of three. Each set is a different length. The parts manual shows each set but doesn't show which is which in terms of their length. I split mine and managed to keep everything in one piece. Inevitabley, something happened afterwards which resulted in gears sliding off shafts and rollers dropping onto the bench. When I put it back together I've now got to work out which set goes where and from what I've seen so far it doesn't look obvious. Hopefully this will save you from doing the same....

You're right, definitely the show to go to but there is a new date - it's now 24/25th January - Wrighty was actually standing on the path back to the carpark at Stafford on Saturday giving out leaflets to everyone he could force one on. Have to hand it to him, he puts a lot of effort into that show.