woody

That last 349 - aka 349/4, 350 or MH349 - is a much better bike than the previous white one. Quicker steering and handles really well. Motor is one of the best of the twinshocks I had a Cota 350 and the only thing that let it down was the clutch action. Rest of the bike was spot on.

Try Steve Goode as he did have some Italjet stuff

Yes, they all use 30204

Yes, easy route will be fine for first time Revs Suspension in Halesowen for the seals, can't think of anyone closer but there must be motox dealers around Bromsgrove who could do them? http://www.revsracing.co.uk/

The TR77 with the black frame had a full length mudguard in that funny off-white material. The later TR77 Verde with the green mudguards also had a full length guard but they weren't the Gonelli Bultaco type. Now, the Gonelli is the only option for a green rear guard but fitting one without some sort of lower section will leave the back of the engine exposed to all the crud off the back wheel The middle exhaust box is a perforated tube and packed yes. I've never been into one of the TR77 type rear silencers but I've been told by those that have that they were packed with wire wool and have the two exit holes at the rear but underneath, not out of the end. Apparently, the mod was to rip out all of the wire wool, weld up the holes and put an exit hole out the rear as normal - but I've no experience of that so can't comment. What I did on my two MAR models was to make my own end silencers by using motocross / enduro back boxes, about 12" or so long, with the innards replaced with a trials size perforated tube (25mm in my case and straight, no bend) packed with wool. Keeps them quiet and the 310 in particular revs like hell.

I'm lost trying to understand what you've done You only loosened the allen bolts, you weren't able to remove them completely - which means you can't remove the tubes? But you managed to remove the seals with the fork tubes still in the legs? You removed the fork caps? If you unscrew the fork caps from the tube, they are still attached to the top of the damper rod and until you unscrew them from the damper rod you can't remove the springs. The usual process to fit new seals is to pull the tube completely out of the leg, so I don't know how you've removed and replaced the seals with the tube still in the leg.... Also, the allen bolts at the bottom of the leg house the damping adjuster which is a small brass screw head needle that screws through the allen bolt and into the bottom of the damper rod to control oil flow. If this isn't screwed right in before you use and allen key, you can damage the screw adjuster. If you don't have the tool to lock the fork internals the only way to remove the allen bolt is to use the spring pressure to stop the internals spinning. With the cap and spring fitted put the leg into the vice, then use a ratchet strap or something and compress the fork as much as you can, then see if the spring pressure will allow you to hand tighten the bolt until it just bites. If so, see if it will let you unscrew all the way. It should unless they were forced home and cross threaded or suchlike. The link below is to some instructions I put on some time ago for someone else asking for info on how to change the seals in a TYZ. http://www.trialscentral.com/forums/topic/27478-tyz-250-fork-seal-replacement/page__hl__%2Btyz+%2Bfork+%2Bseal

Check out insurance first because your premium could more than double with the modifications. Some insurance companies also want a certificate to the effect that the extra seats behind the cab seats have been professionally fitted and comply with safety requirements - ie they haven't just been fitted using 4 M6 bolts. Some companies won't insure you My last company, Commercial Vehicle Direct, wanted to increase my premium from £350 to £800 for extra seats and side window. I didn't renew with them and went with Adrian Flux who specialise in modified vehicles. They insured me for £360 with the side window and extra seats. When I was looking at changing the van a few weeks ago, I asked them for a quote on an unmodified van - £800..... the reason being they only specialise in modified vans, not unmodified... If I added the side window and extra seats to the SAME VAN, it was roughly the same as I'm paying now - you couldn't make it up. I found Chuchill to be very reasonable when I was getting quotes for a new van a few weeks ago. There was no premium increase if I modified a standard van with extra seats and side windows. They just asked for a certificate from a professional that the seats were fitted to a satisfactory standard. If you go onto ebay and search on van conversions, you should get plenty of pictures from the adverts

If he'd stayed at Tech3, Yamaha wouldn't give him the full spec bike he wanted. There was no room in the full factory squad and even if Rossi leaves at the end of 2014, Espargaro is waiting to take the place. He wanted a factory bike, he couldn't have one with Yamaha, he wasn't going to win a race on the Tech3 without a huge slice of luck. He may not win a race with Ducati but he has a factory ride and an opportunity to help with the development of a new bike. He's no worse off in terms of race winning opportunities but he's a lot better off financially. And there's always the chance that Ducati may create a front runner again.

He had traction control on his 990 Honda before anyone else. Burgess said that Rossi's first comment about it was 'this is cheating'. They also had early traction control on the NSR500, first tried out in Doohan's day along with anti-wheelie and active suspension. When he was winning his first championships, all of his opposition were 30+. He's now in the same position and the opposition is just faster.

The gearing I would guess as being standard. The original MK1 MAR used 12 : 46 which was changed to 11: 42 from the MK2 onwards. The two bikes I had back in the 70s were both MK2. They were pretty quick on the road, especially compared to the '71 Sherpa that I'd had before which must have struggled to get 50-odd mph (never had a speedo on it) The Ossa would see 75mph on the speedo flat out and in a drag race could beat my mates' (3 of them) Honda CB200 off the start up to about 50mph until I changed into 5th which was a big drop from 4th and then they pulled away. The gearing as standard was always a bit tall and these days I tend to run 10 : 42 instead of 11 : 42 as it gives a lower 1st gear which, with the heavy flywheel affect, makes it very difficult to stall and the clutch virtually redundant. The only problem with the 10 tooth sprocket is the chain can catch the sprocket nut, you need the nut with the boss on the inside which moves the actual nut outwards and keeps the chain away from it. FYI - I use Barnett friction plates in my clutch and these were a huge improvement over the suflex plates I'd used previously. Break drive immediately with no drag and hardly ever stick if the bike has been standing. Because the plates are Kevlar or suchlike they bite harder so can be run with less spring tension which makes for a lighter clutch action. I got them from Doug Elke in the USA but he seems to have disappeared now and I haven't yet found anyone else that does them.

Just come in from the shed after reassembling the engine. I managed to get a good shaft from ebay USA so that is now in the engine. The shaft I have with the weak spring is the only one I have with this larger spring - typically. The ID where it sits on the shaft is 25mm. All of the others are 20mm. Don't make a special effort to look for one yet Giles, as although I'll want one eventually, the immediate panic is gone due to getting the shaft from ebay. I'll also speak to Steve Sell this week as I'll be at the two Miller rounds next weekend and he usually rides one or both of them so if he has one he can take it with him. I'll let you know after that whether I still need one.

Retard the ignition all the way, put a flywheel weight on it and it too will become impossible to stall. It will still pull like a train but won't try and leap out of your hands when you touch the throttle

Hi Giles, it's the return spring on the selector shaft but there are two sizes, so I'll need to measure it when I next get back into the garage. All I know is it is the larger one for the shaft that has the larger diameter piece where the spring locates (rest of the shaft is the same) Not sure about the porting on the MK1 barrel but they had a smaller crank assembly so, I think, different crank compression and should rev up quicker. They fitted a larger crank to the MK2 and the rest from '74 onwards. I had a go on a green 250 recently and was surprised at how well that picked up off the throttle, a fair bit quicker than the MK2 version that I'm more used to

He probably got mixed up with the Sherpa S 175 which wasn't a trials bike but resembled the Lobito. He's definitely referring to the late 60s as he was suggesting Bultaco were trying to compete against the 175cc and other smaller bikes that were being produced at the time, mainly here in the UK. The model 221 was created as a holiday resort rental bike for various holiday destinations in Europe, I think 175cc because that was a restriction on engine capacity without a full licence in parts of Europe. Some were released as trials bikes. Basically a sleeved down 250, model 190

There is no top hat spacer between the wheel and the split bush, it is a normal spacer. There is a top hat bush inside the front brake plate, so make sure you have these the right way around first. However, as the top hat isn't as long as the external spacer, it can't be the cause of the problem. Sometimes the spindle end is a tight fit in the fork leg due to corrosion on both spindle head and inside of spindle housing, the spindle housing may have picked up or burred or there may be muck in there. Take the wheel out, remove the split bush and just try to push the spindle through the leg on its own. If it resists, clean up both housing and spindle head and try again as I've come across this before now which has made it impossible to push the spindle full home without force.

But that was for the 'mappable' throttle body, which the standard throttle body isn't

If it's the original rim, yes they are tubeless

I remember someone telling me a few years ago, they went to a local Honda dealer they were on good terms with to see if they had any leads that would fit the standard throttle body. The assumption being that it must have been mapped in the first place so there must be a way of mapping it. This was before Sandifords went and before Honda wanted all their road bike dealers to stock off-road models. He reckoned they did it with the same mapping lead as used on a CBR600. Np idea if this is fact or not, just reporting what he said.

Unfortunate about the black flag but they knew the penalty for exceeding the stated number of laps and they screwed up. There seems to be fracutres within the HRC pit, not only between the two sides of the garage but within MM crew also. The personnel he brought with him don't seem to trust what's left of Stoner's crew because they think they may pass info to the other side of the garage as Gabbarini has ties with Suppo. It's known that Alzamora wanted all of Stoner's crew out. The Philip Island mess appears to be as a result of MM and crew he brought with him from Moto2 devising a strategy but not telling the rest of the crew. Gabbarini can clearly be seen giving the 'cut' gesture to say it was all over when MM didn't come in on lap 10. They had his bike ready and running and clearly thought he was in. Hernandez and Alzamora (MM's inner circle) had mis-interpreted the rule and thought they could go one more lap. HRC are just saying the team screwed up but it seems a little less simple than that. Also a little justice in a way as MM's recklessness ultimately resulted in Pedrosa crashing out of the previous race, a race he looked as though he may have won. Good article on the PI debacle on Motomatters.com

Jay - it's the inlet that differs, exhaust and transfers are the same on both

That's the last model with the Jumbo chassis, pretty rare and one of the best handling twinshocks as it is. Rotax clutch is the worst aspect of the bikes. The lever mechanism inside the clutch cover is abysmal and is more than half the problem of getting a smooth action as it can foul on the casing. If you take springs out it will most likely slip under real load and high gears. If you lengthen the arm inside the cover to lighten it, it will not get enough throw to clear properly. It's a really tedious juggle to get them to work, yet some (not many) seem to work without any need for tinkering. The best solution is the Aprilia clutch cover with the external arm and different actuator

When you say all the proper Vesty mods, do you mean it was one of the 40 or so bikes that had the swingarm conversion to move the pivot a bit closer to the final drive - based upon the early experiments? Or a copy of Vesty's last bike. This had some pretty big alterations all round and I didn't know they did any replicas of that - engine mounts moved to tilt engine, bashplate reshaped because of engine position, hybrid exhaust, airbox etc.

No, haven't got a contact number or email for him - do you have one? Just managed to source a decent selector shaft from ebay USA though.

Here's a question for those who understand port timing - which I don't Having a few problems with gear selection set up on my '75 310 MAR. Under the bench is another 310 engine I picked up about 25 years ago. It's a later engine from a green bike. I stripped it to compare selector mechanism and set up but whilst apart I thought I'd compare porting as I'd heard that the later bikes were different. On the 75 bike, the inlet port measures 25mm top to bottom and is 25mm high in the barrel (from bottom of liner to bottom of port) On the 79 bike, the inlet port measures 20mm top to bottom and is 30mm high in the barrel On the 79 bike the port is also narrower in width but I couldn't measure by how much. So basically, smaller size all round and higher in the barrel meaning it opens later. On both bikes, the distance from the top of the port to the top of the liner is the same. Both use the same piston. Exhaust port and transfers all appear the same. So the question is, what does this mean and how does it translate to engine performance? Just curious as I'd heard that the later bikes were sharper than the earlier lazier bikes. The later engine has been fitted with a huge counter weight on the clutch in place of the cush drive. It's a home done job but very neat but it weighs nearly as much as an ignition flywheel which suggests someone was trying to calm it down - why I've no idea as they were hardly 350 Bultaco / Montesa power. Finally, anyone any idea of sources for gear selector shafts and return springs - I'm running out of useable items trying to sort this gearbox.

Nice comeback - seems he's on the British humour wavelength Eddie Lejeune could ride either no-stop or stop and hop as sections demanded. The trick riding started long before Tarres and his Beta. Riders were stopping, hopping, reversing on twinshocks. The advent of monos just made it easier and riders like Tarres moved it on a level