cleanorbust

Works bikes were 450cc at one time, pretty good for motoring round the Scottish I think, less so in the sections. Yes, Richard Sunter rode for them, also Mark Kemp, Jack Galloway and Nigel Birkett. I think all of them were glad to get back onto Spanish bikes when their contracts were terminated.

If you have read the above post and moved on without doing anything, read it again. See also the post from twostrokefourstroke in the UK trials forum last week. Just because your mates haven't been talking about it or it hasn't been mentioned at your local trials doesn't mean it's not important. We seem to be sleepwalking into a situation where the activity we all love will be crucified. The threat is far greater than a lack of youngsters taking up trials, loss of land or complaints from the public is to our sport. That bike in your garage could become a redundant toy, even just to go practising. We'll be mortified if/when that happens and can only look at ourselves for someone to blame. If this sounds like hype, unnecessary scaremongering or high-handed preaching which will go away, it's not and it won't.

It could be ridden in the Kia championship, Yorkshire Classic trials, plus any trial with a twinshock class against the machines it was designed to compete with in the first place. Or, of course, any open trial with a suitable clubman route. So you could compete on it any weekend of the year round my way and have some fun out of your investment. Or just keep it in the garage to look at.

If you are in the UK you could try allensusedtrialsspares.co.uk for an original back box. As has been noted, these old Spanish bikes do seem to run better on their original exhaust systems.

Yes, you should find that araldite withstands the heat OK, and there should be enough clearance on the inside for the bolt heads (you could always grind the heads a bit thinner). You can use a fairly small widow to leave enough flat surface to fix the rivet nuts and still get access to the innards using some sort of tool to poke the packing into place.

You can access the inside of the middle box by cutting a plate from one side using a small cutting wheel. Then clean and repack it around the perforated tube, araldite some rivet nuts on the inner surface by the edge of the hole you've cut and make a new plate from some sheet alloy to fix in place with short bolts. Seal with heatproof silicone.

I was having a problem getting my brake to have a firm feel at the lever rather than a spongy one. The trick of holding the lever in with a plastic tie overnight cured this.

Take a look at the following threads in the forums on Trialscentral: Sherco forum: "Trouble bleeding AJP brakes" started on January 25, 2017 Beta forum: "Rev 3 front brake" started on June 3, 2016 and "Bleeding front brake" started on November 15, 2005. Bleeding AJP brakes can be something of a black art but there are good tips in these threads. May be something on Youtube as well. Let us know if you're still stuck as there was another very thorough thread on this in the Beta forum which I think I could locate.

Can't tie it down to a year by the engine/frame numbers from my knowledge but a picture may well allow an accurate id. It would be very unusual for the bike not to have been registered when new, it was normal practice in the mid 70s.

You can, however, present a bike without lights for an MOT and the examiner can pass it with provision of a VT32 advisory certificate stating that the machine should only be used on the public highway between sunrise and sunset, but not within one hour of either, or at times of "seriously reduced visibility". This is commonly known as a daytime MOT. HTH.

Some of us do.

Tim Slaughter at Midlife Classics in Worcester may be able to help with info.

Try de-glazing the shoes with sandpaper, and tapering the leading edges with a file.

Presumably because he wasn't trying to build a bike representative of a historical period, just making a twinshock which would be reasonably competitive from available parts, which he could ride in modern or twinshock class, where there is no requirement for bike to be of a certain age. Plenty of trials in which it would be eligible in UK, including the Kia championship as already noted.

Tried Richard Allen used trials spares? Inmotion have a Sherpa 175 swinging arm on ebay at the moment.

Not sure where your location is, but in the UK Inmotion trials would be the first port of call for sprockets, cables, seals, brake shoes etc. Ebay throws up secondhand parts pretty regularly (I think forks are same as 348 or 349, which were much more common). What is the actual problem with the internals? A plus point is that it's still got the chain tubes, which tend to be missing on these old Monts. However, the mounting points are prone to wear.

21M was the prefix for Cota 248 models. 349s used a different prefix.

Yes, 248s were white. Seat has 248, rather than 349, printed on it as a small bit of supporting evidence that it's not a 349.

Montesa Cota 248, circa 1979/80?

For interest, I totted up how many trials it would be feasible to ride within 70/80 miles of home in a twelve month period. Including midweek evening trials run by a few local clubs, it came to 72. Which would be followed by the purchase of a new bike.

Pretty good on a Honda GL1800. What a he-man.

I too can make myself a little coarse. Some cider, deepening my voice and introducing some anglo saxon into my vocabulary usually helps. No breeze blocks required. Seriously though, welcome to the fold.

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Not so. Kia championship has a class for any twinshock bike regardless of age. I regularly ride trials with a twinshock class where there is no condition on age or origin of the bike, simply being a twinshock qualifies.

In my experience the best bike always seems to be one a rider used to own or the one he is going to buy next. We're driven by rose-tinted memories or blind optimism, rarely by satisfaction with the current state.