pro sport

Sammys Shop was in New Milton, Hampshire or it certainly was when I visited him there. I have also seen his address as Highcliffe which is also Hampshire so Southampton would have been the recording office for registrations.

Hi Scot, as a, young lad just getting into trials we used to go and watch some Eastern centre trials (we were under 16 so could not ride as most were road trials) Don was then riding a Greeves Anglian just before he moved on to help develop the Montesa Cota 247. He greatly influenced my choice in bikes as I started on a Anglian and then progressed onto a Cota. When we saw Don at a trial he would always spend time having a chat and discussing lines through a section with you, he always called you 'Ace' as he couldn't remember everyone's name but always made you feel important with the use of it. A great bloke and I still count him as one of the greats of our sport and use a picture I took of him on the Mont as my avatar.

Hi Dale I've got some carb info for you , see you at Crimplesham tomorrow I'm riding @ 74, and you can have a go on mine to see how they compare. Cheers Dave

Hi Dale Get the bike on a stand or box then take the front wheel out, undo the top nut on each leg - you will find just about an inch of compression on the spring inside so it won't be too forceful. Then undo the screw at the rear of the lower fork leg, put a container under the leg but covering the hole and push the leg up and down and this will pump the oil out into the container, when it is fully drained replace the screw and add 200 ml of 10 grade fork oil, recap an carry out same operation to other leg then replace front wheel. Take off of stand and pump the front suspension up and down until the damping action returns. Did you get the carb over run/ rich mixture sorted? Cheers Dave

Don't think that hell has frozen over ! UK tv has never been interested in broadcasting ordinary trials footage, even in long gone days they felt they had to jazz it up ...... Look up Kickstart and Junior Kickstart on you tube.

Excellent video as always guys. That young lad No38 looks to have great skills, a champion in the making.

Yep, well done to the British Girls for yet another TdN victory and Emma for her 2nd World championship With Dibs developing the Vertigo and Micheal Brown out injured and Jack Shepherds 1st year on the Jota our boys didn't really stand much chance this year!

Mudpluger tends to be an American term for Bikes or 4x4's that are used in muddy, swampy area's. Does anybody remember the Avon Mudplugger trials tyre in the 70's ? they used a hippo to advertise it !

Nice pictures of 'Old Iron' there. (But a few mid 70's Spanish have crept in to the late fifties captions, or was it just a foresight of what would eventually happen!) In the hands of an experienced rider no doubt they would still be competitive in current pre65 events, especially if shod with modern tyres.

If you go on eBay on the 247 parts, there's a guy who does the side tank stickers, called Hielorojo. Perhaps if you message him he could make some up for you and perhaps start a new sales line for him (the Cota 247 stickers are only £4.00 posted from Madrid! ) Worth a try .

Best publicity is the City Trial, Manchester must have bought Trials to the notice of a couple of thousand people! But only about 5% of people attending would follow it up and get interested and most of them would be scared off by the difficulty factor ( they wouldn't get to see the easy stuff we get to do!) if they looked up Dougie or Bou on YouTube . I think we have to face the fact that Trials is not really a spectator sport. The only way to grow it is get them interested when they are young, develope youth trials, the majority of our top riders cut their teeth on Junior Kickstart.

Great photo's, yes it does seem like just a few years ago. I wonder who else had a pair of S M Overalls (like Nick Jeffries only mine were blue and white, but the White nylon soon got stained by the mud)

Yes it's great to see the likes of Alexz Wigg riding 'Old Iron' Bet he noticed the weight difference! Still got my 74 Cota 247 But my Barbour suit went a long time ago......

Hi Graham, looking good! What oil ratio are you mixing up? Bearing in mind that the synthetic oils nowdays protect at 50:1 ratio as old style two stroke oil was 25:1 If your putting too much oil in no wonder your getting smoked out of your shed! Get out and give it a blast across the fields, clean the build up of oil out of the exhaust and silencers. Check the colour of the plug after a high speed run - if it's running a bit rich then it will probably be a bit smokeier. Good luck with it Cheers Dave

Hi Arfur If it was the Dabbers trial at the Corton trials park on Sunday then don't get disheartened ! The conditions with the rain early on made the going very slippery , and the second lap was the worse but it dried out a bit for the third lap. The CoC did drop the 2nd section for safety issues and a couple of section were altered to make them rideable in the conditions. Rest assured you won't be the only rider finding it very testing. Dabbers do arrange a training day near Downham Mkt but this is usually later in the year. Also look on Eastern Fourstrokes asso site as they do training days over near Sudbury on regular basis. Don't get dispondant though! Even after a full year of riding I still found it tough as did my old Montesa. If I find out any times we can get out for a practise then I will PM you and see if you can make it. Cheers Dave

Hi Ian As Feetup says it looks like broken piston ring! Got no idea why it was found inside the clutch cover, definatly not a good idea to have anything loose in there. Does the engine have a good compression? Have you had it running? If not you might have to remove the cylinder to check the piston ..... Yes the cracked magneto side crank casing is a common fault where a previous owner has fitted the kickstart too far forward mistakenly thinking they would get a better kick through - all it does is allow the stop arm to punch through the casing. Repair it with plastic metal glue and strengthen with a metal strip. When refitting the kickstarter make sure it is at the one 'o' clock position. Cheers Dave

Welcome Ian As Larry says any questions you have we will try our best to answer them on the Montesa forum, it's not just for the Honda Montesa models, there are still a lot of Classic Cota's out there ! and plenty of in depth knowledge on them to impart. Cheers Dave

Hi If we are talking Cota 247 mk1 through to mk5 ( UKR ) then the standard final drive was 10 T and rear sprocket 48 T. Mine was originally running this setup but our Club sections are usually based on tight turns and sharp instant climbs so I fitted a 9 T final which gives a nice low 1st gear ideal for slow speed turns without using the clutch and better 2nd gear use for general use and 3rd for long climbs and muddy work. The only drawback would be Top Speed if you did any roadwork on your trials! The other benefit of just changing the final drive is the gear is cheap and easy to change. Cheers Dave

Hi Arfur The actual Needle should be marked with U and have 3 grooves at the top, the needle jet has the main jet screwed into it and has the larger hole in it. The needle and its jet can wear, but the pilot and main jets just get clogged up. I ended up changing my main slide as it was loose in the bore , the needle and all jets and the difference was amazing, it went from running really rich and four stroking at revs to running sweet and pulling like a train through all the range. Well worth the £30 to sort it! Dave

Hi Arfur If you need parts for your Carb then try Burlen.co.uk where you will find repair kits for your Amal 627/450 for about £15 - £20 It should have 150 main jet, 106 needle jet, 35 pilot jet As for manuals try a Search on the Montesa specific forum for your model which might give a link to a free download. The main manual will cover all models from Mk1 (1967) through to Ulf Karlson Replica (1978 ish) for parts, but workshop manuals tend to cover all 250's and 175 models. Regards Dave

Hi Venhill cables are available on EBay , but as said you can adjust either at the handlebar lever or the brake lever position on its spindle. There was originally a blanking plug fitted in the cylinder head that could be removed so that a decompressor could be fitted, many owners just took out the blank and fitted a spare plug so that if one plug breaks down or fouls up you just need to swap the lead over - it actually works and I also run a cooler plug for different situations. Old Monts are not lightweight so you will find popping a wheely need some good technique and a well tuned bike....... Cheers Dave

PM. gasgas249uk. James is an authority on Spanish museums possibly in Barcelona! Or have a look on his Retrotrials Webb site for ideas.

There used to be a additive called Petal that you could add to paraffin that had a perfumed smell to get rid of the oily smell you got from Parafin Heaters! Couple of drops in a gallon gave it a lavender smell......

Normally when you sign on at an AMCA affiliated club trial you get a day licence which covers you insurance wise. Enjoy your new purchase and the first outing on it.

Stayed in Huelgoat a few years back when we did the Carhaix festival, was well impressed with the local terrain and the Monts Darree national park, looks like great riding areas. The only thing we disliked was lack of decent road links from Rennes but we did see some serious road development going on in the area.