aawil

hi deryk ,i sure do it looks like the group at lambs lair ,muddy and slippery but with the sections set wide enough to try various lines a slow sensible approach to get grip ,or my way flat out in third and hang on, both styles had equal success, on the topic of the cotswolds trials charlie are the fairbrothers still around with there influence in the acu and experience,of s/cars , i for one will be delighted to ride and will be quite willing to offer advice to any clubs on traditional sidecar sections , will,

i did not mention bantam/cub hubs most old l/weights used british hub company wheels , about the same size as cub ones weigh less and have 36 spoke holes,i recently bought a pair of an old f/barnet on ebay for £38, my local bike breaker has piles of used D I D alloy rims from trail bikes that he sells for a £10 note what i do is take the wheels strip the old spokes out keep the rims ,tapes .security bolts and give him back the hubs oops a small mistake in that as have about 1000 spokes in stock i forgot to price them ,so add another £100 so what have we got basic cost of about £250-£350,depending on the spacers and sprocket ,i still cannot see how you can spend £1500 on a set of wheels unless you have totally new everything including the hubs ,its great as i know people who have spent a fortune on replica rickman conical hubs (the lovely shiny ones that take bantam/cub brake shoes)only to find that the steel original weigh slightly less, so i ask myself why i have only been building competition bikes for 50 years and never made a shiny one yet, and i thought the idea of classic trials was to finish and enjoy yourself and if you win sometimes that is a bonus, will

,and i thought sanity was returning to our sport even in dollars $2000 seems totally over the top unless gold or titainiam spokes are the latest fashion a pair of l/weight hubs any early british l/weight ,will have 36 spoke holes , a pair of used alloy rims from a jap trail bike, and 72 spokes/nipples , new brake shoes sealed bearings alloy wheel spacers/snail cams and a dural rear sprocket,add 3 security bolts (alloy) and a pair of tyres and tubes you end up with a light and eligible set of wheels ready to go out and ride ,i know this can be done easily for £250 as i have just built a pair for my latest panther lightweight trials outfit,if you cannot do it yourself add another £50 -£100 for labour /using my own labour i reckon to build the new outfit which will be competetive for about £1500 so does spending what i consider a stupid amount of money on a trick bike make you a better rider,, i think not ,so the sooner we all get back to reality,keep within the spirit of the sport and have a good time riding instead of polishing i at least will be happy will

hi charlie and deryk ,been away for a while but i am now back in the land of the living ,do i see common sense starting to prevail over this great sport that we used to enjoy lets hope so as i am getting on a bit (a sprightly 72 this week ) i have had to realise that a big panther outfit is becoming to heavy to pick up , so soon i will be out on a 250 panther outfit one of the later panther two strokes, with a few mods it should be fun to ride ,i met up with doug sherbourne back in the summer and we sort of decided to both come out and have a final fling at the sammy miller series and maybe show these youngsters a thing or two even it is only about enjoying yourself on competetive trials outfits that probably cost not much more than £1500 to build and run,so keep up the good work . and if any organiser wants help and or advice on laying out real classic sections in the east ,you only have to ask will

it sounds like you have a well sorted triumph cub but why oh why is it in the pre 65 bit of the forum. will.

A BIT LATE it is a std bsa c15 frame with an added top tube to strengthen the steering head, and a few extra brackets to hold the tank, the rear footrest arms have been cut off as well,coupled with the *****welding its not the best modifyed road c15 frame i have seen will.

re your kt over the years i have fitted a small wire wound resistot on various off road lighting set ups , the one i use is from one of the small hondas, costs about £12 and is easy to fit having just one wire , i will be back in my workshop on thur and can sort one out if you wish (complete with a simple wiring diagram) pm me if this is any help, will.

interesting , back in the seventies i turned up with a 156cc fantic outfit much to the amusment of most of the other riders , the critics quickly dissapeared and the rest was history, now i have enough parts to build a really light 185 bantam so i suppose i try and build a competetive trials bantam outfit just for fun and of course to upset the same old critics again ,oh what fun being retired is , will.

you can still get a usable villiers powered bike for around £1200 you dont need to spend a fortune on loads of shiny fancy fashionable bits keep the steel rims , footrests and bars you will just need a pair of decent tyres,(i use hidenau trials tyres at about £80 pair ),and sort out the ignition system(another £225 )you then have a british classic trials mount ready to ride and win awards in the right hands for a total outlay of £1500, me i ride a 1958 greeves ta fitted with a homemade s/car,powered by a 197 villiers motor with a go kart top end and ajax head ,starts first kick dead reliable good enough to win a few awards , and with a few mods i will be riding the twinshock sammy miller rounds next year ,the total cost of my old greeves was about £900 on the road so keep it sensible and get out and enjoy yourself,if that dont work i can always give you a closer look at classic trials from a comfy sidecar , will.

hi try asking the same question on the greeves riders assocation web site as most of the experts seem to be members even some of the factory workers ,they welcome anybody with a greeves based bike.and i believe that you do not have to join to get an answer , i would personally join the club then you get full access to the lot including factory drawings , good luck ,, will.

this lot makes great reading and brings a smile to my face , the same arguments have been used over and over again during my short trials riding career, but as i have only been riding the things for 45 years what do i know,,this situation was happening in the seventies when deryk and the yorkshire lads decided that a simpler form was needed for the real trials riders on real trials bikes,it worked for 10 years we had a good set of proven sections in a well contested championship i enjoyed nearly every event and made some long lasting friends over the years where else could you ride the same sections that you read about and admired in the blue and green uns weekly as a spotty schoolboy, luckily for me a road racing accident left me with a badly damaged left leg so i had no choice but to either retire or take up the gentle art of s/car trials,the chairs won and suddenly i found a world of riders who were out to ride , not moan about rules, we made our own , if the section was reckoned to be dangerous we altered it to suit us, the spectators loved us the only folk who objected seemed to be some solo riders in shiny suits on shiny bikes i personally thought they could not understand,how we could enjoy riding so much and assumed we were not serious,how wrong they were..my solution is to get out and ride with what ever you can afford be it solo or s/car.enjoy yourself and you could try using the rule book as a door stop. there is a club out there who will welcome you with open arms ,if you want to ride get on with it. if you want to get into politics try another sport. will,,

hi deryk and charlie its a pity that a lot of modern riders and course plotters have not had the experience of a real classic trial such as the tour of islwyn , how about a long section with two subs , with just a set of begins cards and a set of ends about 1/4 mile further up all in a natural rocky gully ridden by all classes including s/cars , maybe todays riders would have problems deciding which line to use without loads of tapes and markers to show them the way , i would still love to scrutineer some of the bikes , i think i will voulenteer my services to the t.a.l.m.a.g. next year that would be putting something back into the sport, after a quick stay in hospital i will be back riding my 197cc greeves outfit in a few events later in the year just me and a 56lb weight bolted in the chair as ballast , at last a passenger who does not moan when we are upside down, cheap classic trials total cost to build an award winning genuine pre 65 outfit £785, cheers for now ,, will ,

wallo this is making me envious weybridge on a big trials outfit now that is a proper classic section , looks like i will be back riding full time next year (thanks to the N H S for the rebuild) is you see her give julie my love gcheers will.

just get a couple of mates to give you push then once running you can set i tto a fast tickover to let it bed in , i have found that some of the bushes are a tad to thick leaving you with no end play and a tight engine the real answer is to pull it apart shorten the bush a bit then shim the crank to give the correct clearance , i would give it about 10 thou with the cases tightened,will

yes they are a very good copy of the mk1 concentric amal i have compared both and to be honest it looks a better job than the real one they are fully ethanol proof with adjustable float level which makes fine tuning a bit easier, and new come as two or fourstroke types i hope that helps will

i have one on my greeves scottish outfit ,another on my panther stroud replica ,and have supplied and fitted about ten to various bikes all with no problems , on my own bike i use the chromed brass slide that is an extra , so no problems once set up and a great price , will

hi welcome to the mad mad world of trials sidecars, i have only been riding them for 42 years and still enjoy riding with or without a passenger ,you will have a load of fun and it will keep you fit , will

i am with deryk and charlie get an old trail bike sling a triumph 500 unit motor in then bolt a sidecar on you now have a cheap fun trials outfit capable of winning the sammy miller championship , all you have to do is ride it better than the rest ,you could put one together at todays prices go out and have fun and get change out of £1500. me i ride a 1958 197cc greeves scottish with a homemade chair .total cost on the road and its competetive £965, all we need now is to go back to one route for all classes ,you then get wide sensible sections that we can all enjoy without having to spend a fortune on trick fancy frames and bits or am i just getting to old ,.will

charlie back in my road racing days with bsa outfits we allways used either renyolds 531 or T45 tubing both had nickel content we used bronze rods with a gasflux unit as that type of tube goes brittle if heated to much , great to work with and we built lots of outfits i cant remember them breaking up even when i bounced of the wall at ramsey hairpin one year,. will

charlie i see the s/car entry was down this year , i have heard from some of the regulars that it seems to get tighter for the proper british outfits each year , great for trick c15s and b40s and special expensive bikes but no way you can compete against them on a std old british bike having tried a few times in recent times on my 600 panther outfit i got so fed up with getting to the top of climbs then sitting rocking on the sump with both wheels in the air i decided that was it for the talmag,i i am thinking of offering my assistance to the organisers next year ,i would love to be a scrutineer , that would be very interesting ,as i have read the regs and if followed correctly , i leave that to your own thoughts . i my self have now built a greeves outfit which i would love to ride in the trial but its a two stroke . will

tried running my iron barrel 34 a trials outfit on 40-1 great in sections but partial seizures on the road between sections was a prob lem even with modern synthetic oil i have gone to 25-1 and the bike is still great in the sections and it keeps going and you can thrash it for miles with no problems , so having tried various mixes i know what i am sticking to 25-1 as greeves recomended, . will

the first tank is from an export a65 we used to buy them 4 in a box from MCSi in watery lane birmingham in the late sixtes, i visited them each month to help sid the gaffer sort out all of the stillage crates,that arrived from both bsa and triumph, the stuff they sold off cheap was incredible , things like boxes of 6 chrome lucas headlamps complete with the harness bsa twin cyls and heads, the best was pairs of1/532 amal gp carbs c/with remote float . i was paid in bits i needed for the family bike shop , oh what great days, looking back it is obvious that things were being sold at a tremendous loss no doubt by the accountants to clear up the books, will

you will need some sort of peg for your passengers right foot we used to weld a box spanner onto the rear wheel spindle nut then a series of small spot welds to give grip , some folk made a seperate footrest to weld on to the s/arm just in front of the spindle , later outfits used an extension on the chair floor which came over near the wheel the idea was to give the suspension a chance to find grip and the passenger an easier time i always thought they had an easy time anyway, the choice is yours my latest outfit has the extension on the chair it suits me fine ,so are old fan belts i have always cut a piece of car heater hose to fit over where the passenger grips taped to keep it in position so he has a good shaped bit to hang on to . get out and enjoy yourself its great fun , will.

i started running my 1958 iron barrelled scottish on 40.1 mix with modern synthetic oil, on the advice of the experts , great in the sections but on the road between sections it locked up 4 times it freed of after cooling down and i was able to finish the event, i asked the greeves riders club for help and the answer was to use a good quality oil at 25.1 mix, since then the old engine has been fine so i will stick to the advice of the greeves guys. will. i

what a great looking PROPER pre 65 trialer, all thats missing is the chair . i agree with deryk about the long lever i adjust the advance on my panther outfit with its lucas sr1 modifyed to manual use and vary it in the sections, the same on my road outfit and my special hillclinb panther solo , all fitted with the good old lucas sr1 magnetos which start first kick hot or cold , who needs modern electronics. will.