2stroke4stroke

ACU rules require helmets worn in trials to meet the relevant standard for road use. Not always enforced but at least it means that any helmet marketed as a trials helmet "should" be suitable for your intended use.

Better still - Scottish of part Yorkshire descent :-)

Six weeks ago I was offered a Dunlop free of charge. I bought a Michelin. Need one say more?

You'll be lucky. Nobody connected with Beta seems to be able to provide any information about timing in terms of mm BTDC or degrees of advance to enable checking. The best I could get from the importer's workshop some years ago was that having the screw head near the centre of the slot in the backplate "seemed to be about right". Which of course does not provide any sort of info that you need.

I don't recall any criticisms about that way of operating when the (many) British trials manufacturers did so. The main reason that failed was due to the engine supplier pulling out. Jgas won't have that problem, presumably.

Try DVLA with the frame number - it may already be registered. It was unusual in that era not to register a bike as you missed the best events if you couldn't go on the road.

You may need to be patient a while longer - I've been waiting forty years for such a thing to appear :-)

I would get up there this year if at all possible (The first day is a public holiday but extend the weekend to take in the pre '65 at Kinlochleven on Friday and Saturday and the SSDT weigh on on Sunday). Some sections, especially on the Monday, are easily reached from the roadside, others a reasonable walk. Bear in mind that if you are using a motor vehicle then you can't follow the event off road. However, Scotland's access laws allow you to walk or use a mountainbike almost anywhere provided you do so responsibly. http://www.outdooraccess-scotland.com/sites/default/files//docs/enjoy_scotlands_outdoors_leaflet_-_english.pdf Last minute accommodation availability varies from year to year.

A long, long time ago (topical, given today's auction?) I came across a bike that badly affected. The tube in the silencer had become dislodged and was blocking the exhaust - but you would hear that from the note. Worth checking the exhaust anyway?

I was going to suggest pipe removal too - it just slips out the silencer. However, a 17 year old should not be "struggling with lack of power" from any Beta in 50/50 sections. I've seen hefty adults manage fine with a 125 (and they seem to be up to World round sections after all). I'd suggest there is something far wrong with the bike, not related to capacity. I have a 200 and it pulls high gears nicely. Perhaps try checking the timing or compression? Who knows maybe there's even a ring missing but you'll see when you remove the pipe. If there's one thing forty-odd years of trials has shown me, it's never to be surprised at what you find wrong with even the best looking of bikes, no matter how unlikely or impossible it might seem. There's no better penny-pincher than a trials rider :-)

It proves that if you put too much oil on you can choke the pores I suppose but filters are not oiled to keep out water, rather to catch dust, which we do occasionally get in the UK. Internal surfaces of air boxes (both sides of the filter) coated with grease for a similar reason.

I'm sure we got two in a van with a bulkhead (can't remember if it was a Berlingo or not) but I always got two in my Berlingo car per Ben Beta's method though it takes a wee bit practice. it's easier if you fill in the left hand side rear footwell with something (I made a wooden framework) and make up a plate to bridge between the rear floor and the handbrake tunnel so the wheels don't "sink".

I've seen these locks in action and have seen them broken in fewer seconds than I have fingers. Get a decent lock that lets you fasten the bike down to something. Even if the original lock deterred them a group of young scro ill intentioned fellows would lift it away in seconds.

For petrol to flood up that far due to the usual reasosn the bike would be runing very rich indeed, which you don't mention though it mist be if the air passages are flooded. I'd suggest a faulty casting/crack allowing petrol to migrate to the air passages.

That's not an original 247 kickstart. I'm sure some Mont owners would be interested to know what else fits. Any chance of a photo of it?

I don't know what heat you do the washing at but it is conceivable that, if too hot, then the foam could be damaged such that the pores close up? I've discovered No Toil which makes cleaning and oiling dead easy with no chemicals etc required for cleaning.

I stand corrected - I'll put it down to the onset of old age. But it does rather suggest that Beta felt, at that time, that the linkless was better. You would have thought that, after so long on monoshocks, everything that could be known about using the levers would be known with no further improvement to come but we still get improvements (though I daresay the latest versions are set up for a different riding style to mine). I haven't looked closely at modern trials bikes to compare linkages to see if there are real differences but the proliferation of different configurations on mountainbikes suggests that experimentation continues, in that field at least..

You may well be right but I don't care what shape the curve is; what matters to me is how it works. I do know that the rear suspension on my Rev 3 feels far better than that on the previous two monoshocks I had and they had linkages, but that's what development is all about. By the same token the Evo suspension will be "better" but not necessarily because it has linkages. I can guarantee that any marks I lose are not due to the lack of a linkage on the Rev 3 and I don't recall anyone decrying the system when Dougie was winning World titles with it. I enjoy working on a bike but when I want to do it, not when forced by bad design, and a trials bike with a linkage system not equipped with grease nipples is bad design in my book. It's all down to individual priorities/ preference. If you want to save on the weight of a grease nipple or two then you accept the penalty of needing to strip down and grease. I choose the penalty of the theoretical (at my level) disadvantage of a simpler system.

Well, if Allan's supposition is correct you would have been at an advantage in today's mud.

There's one on a few minutes away tomorrow at Aikeyside. Enter at the start. http://www.lothiantrialsclub.co.uk/dates-venue/4556232797

No matter how hard you ride it a trials bike is eventually going to need the perforated tube cleaned and the packing replaced. It's an easy job and, now you've got this far, obvious how it's done. Just don't put the new packing in too tightly. I don't see blocked holes in the photos, it all looks very clean.

Not totally, I have just had to replace the bottom bearing when it developed a very small amount of play after only 11 years of use. Disgraceful; how I wish I had bought one of these wonderful Gas Gas things instead.

Isn't it strange how we can convince ourselves, in accordance with fashion, that we need a mod on the bike that will improve our riding. I can’t claim not to be guilty of this – back in the mists of time I bought a set of handlebar clamps for my 348, these being sold by Sandifords to bring the bars back closer to the rider, thus, it was said, improving the steering. Plenty of people used them so that “must” have been right. I’ve still got ‘em and I’m sure something similar would be very easily made and do the job you want quite simply if fitted the other way round. They were basically two bits of alloy with three holes in them. Then when fashion changes again the mod is easily reversed.

Maybe his bike's not special enough - must be the most standard one in the event usually?

I've run the same 200 Rev 3 for 10 years (doesn't time fly when you're having fun?) at the recommended 75:1 using various semi synthetics, mainly Silkolene, with no problems. I don't use the modern 125 riding technique, if you know what I mean, but do like to enjoy the chance to open it up a bit on the moor crossings. I run a twinshock at 50:1 (per the advice from Silkolene) and that sometimes gets put in the Beta with no apparent ill effect by way of smoking and it runs crisply enough. Watch out for Ipone - I used that for a while and the bottle markings were, at these ratios, grossly inaccurate. Get a large syringe and use that to measure the oil whatever make you use.