It's been a long time since I bought it, but I seem to recall the bike had been stored either in a greenhouse or a sectional concrete garage. Neither good options.
They actually clean up very easily on the alloy, polished with a bit of scotchbrite soaked in Phosphoric acid and the white stuff is gone.
Internally the finish is immaculate apart from the broken shims.
Replacement Rods,Bushes, Pistons and shims should be with me within a couple of days. Just got to redesign the cylinder closure method as the circlips are totally infuriating! There is room to screwcut the bore and made a system like the new Rockshocks.
I'd like to find the original owner who I believe was Charlie Harris.
Wheelbase does look a little on the short side! I wonder how long that swinging arm will stay in line with the asymmetrical damper given some hard use. Not sure about that strange exhaust system either, but otherwise it's kind of pretty and makes up a little for the lack of specials on the scene these days.
OK Leg's might be in touch, Ossa's right at the tail of the queue though.
When working on the Cota 330 this last w/e I was thinking the rear shocks look damn similar to the new Rockshocks I had recently bought for my 340 Sherpa. Not identical but similar enough to send an email to John Bull of Rockshocks asking if indeed they were earlier Rockshocks.
I had always thought they were alloy bodied Falcons, but indeed they are Rockshocks.
But Total Dogs of Rockshocks! Nothing ventured nothing gained, so I stripped one down tonight to have a look see if the damaged is limited to the external corrosion. After fighting a battle with the 2 circlips that hold them all together (Crap Idea!) they were apart. Compression shims lost a petal each and the damper rods are stuffed (Rust). Bores are good, so with new rods, piston ring and shims we should be good to go again. Springs may need changing but we'll try them anyway.
Starting work on the Bult 340 has made me look a little at some of the other bikes waiting in the queue.
Done some work on the Cota 330 just to work out what will be needed and would like to paint the frame in the meantime just so it does not deteriorate any further.
Does anyone have a Paint code for the Red used on the 330? RAL3020 (Traffic Red?) seems to be used a lot on Monts, but not sure if it's right. I guess I can compare the new mudguards I have stored in the attic against a colour chart.
Other thing is the two Ossa Grippers, I've never had a Parts Book for these, does anyone have one? Very willing to pay copying fee's etc.
4282 is real late, would have an ally head steady i bet.
maybe in the last 100 ever made?
Yes it has the Alloy Head steady with the extra mounting point on the top tube. A huge improvement over those early Snapalot steadies!
Well it also now has nowhere to mount footrests!! Just welding in some captive M8 nuts to mount brackets onto. The existing hole (Tooling hole probably) is quite convenient for this mod. Needs an extra hole slightly further back to make it usable.
BEFORE you powder coat delug and move footrests back and get a bracket welded on for the exhaust at least.
As I said in PM I never had any real issue with stock Sherpa footrest position but I'm still open to suggestions as I've never bothered to try altering it. Never had too much trouble making the front end light being a 10-10.5 stone guy.
The gusset the hangers are mounted on with the addition of an extra hole I guess could be made to accept a bolt on hanger plate which would allow me to play around with positions. What are other 199 owners opinions on footrest position?? If moved how far back and same height??
Still trying to work out what you mean by a bracket for the exhaust?
Just seems real odd based on past experiences to me.
Just to clarify the C3 stuff and why in a engine. It DOES have a temperature relation but more for the cases. A good design bottom end will have tighter (Smaller) bearing housings, this is to ensure as the engine gets hot the bearing do not spin in their housing. BUT this would not be good for a standard radial clearance bearing as it would pinch up and run tight. So C3's have the same dimensions (Bore/Outer race diameters) BUT have more internal clearance which closes up on fitting to the tight housing. Hope that helps...
No Engine mods. Don't think it needs any apart from changing the carb for a new Dellorto. It's still got its original BING amazingly not worn yet!
Engine has not been started for about 6-7 years and I didn't bother trying before the strip down. It does however kick over nicely with loads of healthy compression. It was always a mechanically quiet engine compared to my 199A which I allowed to have a little piston slap!
I also asked why they are metal shield type because surely you want the oil to get in and the supplier said they are shielded not sealed and when you look closely you can see small slots round the edge of the shield to allow oil in.
Yes I know the difference between Z and RS bearing types I specify and purchase bearings regularly I still don't agree with the shields. Never seen a two stroke with factory fitted shielded mains and I've rebuilt more than I could remember how many. Not rebuilt a modern Beta though.
C3 Bearings have increased radial clearance. This allows them to be fitted to tighter housings without binding the race.
It's also wise to specify a decent branded bearing for mains. None of the Far Eastern stuff unless it's Japanese should even be entertained. Get friendly with a proper bearing stockist and the prices is so close anyway. 75% + discounts in the trade is commonplace.
I have just got some mains for my 04 model, they are all the same i believe. Got them from a local supplier, the only thing that's different from the norm is they are double metal shielded code zz or 2z. Ill get the size today and post up the numbers tonight. They were
There is another option I thought of after posting yesterday and thats to get a inner raceway designed for needle rollers.
Get one the same diameter as the std crank journal and the largest inside diameter available. Turn the damage off down to a transition fit to the raceway and shrink it on. This would rely on your original crank centres being still in good order, though it can be made concentric other ways.
Only takes a few mins but its hard to carry a bike , Having said that if someone wants it bad enough, Alarm mines are also good , they take a black powder 12 bore blank and you conect a short wire to your bike , if someone moves it whammo ,deaf and dumb.
These work really well! and in the confines of a garage would scare the *&% out of even the toughest scum! Are they still legal? Any sporting gunshop should have them if they are. They used to be used by Gamekeepers a lot to warn of poachers. Easy to make too.
Now where the hell did I hide away the 199B decals I bought from CI Sport in the 90's! I found about 10 of the FIM decals but have put the others somewhere else.
I may buy one of those Gonelli Polyprop tanks for this bike. I'd hate to ding the alloy tank, same with the 199A it's tank has been stored away safe on a shelf for years while the bike had a crappy miller GRP one fitted for use.
The bike has actually been in Storage with no forks or wheels fitted, they were taken out when I had bikes stored in the attic. (Concrete ceilings!) I still have a few tucked away up there with the wheels and forks for the 340.
The Wheels will need rebuilding, was absolutely shocked to see the current retail price of akront rims recently, the rims are OK on this bike though, just needs polishing and new spokes and nipples to brighten the wheels up.
Airbox is not as good as I'd have wished (Cracked in one rear corner) but it's not totalled, I can repair that in satisfactory way.
Not a bad job especially for 25 quid, but they did miss a few tiny spots which still have white paint. I can deal with that though.
Off to be powder coated next week after I have giving it a good going over on the weekend. A client has a powder coating line and some Signal White in stock so that should be a fairly cheap but good job too.
Well didn't know if to start a blog or a forum topic but chose the latter.
Some of you know I have a 199B Sherpa amongst my twinshockers and it's been with me a long time, BUT I had a long hiatus from the sport and a shorter one out of the twinshock business. Being slightly disinterested for a while meant I didn't even look at my bikes let alone look after them much, they had been in storage and thats about it.
All "Fired Up" again now though and really feel guilty I left my bikes for so long, I also realised I'd lost out on a lot of fun.
So my punishment begins! and the bike was completely torn down when I returned from a trial last Sunday. Took all of an hour to get it down to frame/swinging arm. and another 2 hours to get the Swinging arm out! I also be using the bike as a testbed for a few parts I have up my sleeve;)
Here's a pic of the bike from when I first got her! Not bad original condition really.
Perhaps a question to seek the frame number is in order My 199B frame and swingarm is off to the blasters today and all tagged up so they don't lose it or mistakenly send it elsewhere It's happened in the past!! Well not permanently!
update: well they didn't have time to lose it! Dropped it off at noon, picked it up all done at 3pm.
Oh No! Not Yet Another Cota 330
in Twinshock
Posted · Edited by wayne_weedon
It's been a long time since I bought it, but I seem to recall the bike had been stored either in a greenhouse or a sectional concrete garage. Neither good options.
They actually clean up very easily on the alloy, polished with a bit of scotchbrite soaked in Phosphoric acid and the white stuff is gone.
Internally the finish is immaculate apart from the broken shims.
Replacement Rods,Bushes, Pistons and shims should be with me within a couple of days. Just got to redesign the cylinder closure method as the circlips are totally infuriating! There is room to screwcut the bore and made a system like the new Rockshocks.
I'd like to find the original owner who I believe was Charlie Harris.
Wayne....