minislim

The Majesty has just turned up for sale on facebook in manchester.

the key thing is get you float changed for a black "stay up" one. the way modern fuels are now with the high ethanol content they become porous and fill up with fuel. then they just sink and this makes your bike run rough. also i've also had two float bowls dis-taught recently. you cannot even see this unless you put the bowl on a flat surface. but because of this even with a new gasket it has a minute gap that lets air in. which isn't good.

on the irc website they list a "TR-011 tourist" tyre which is classed as street legal. what baffles me is the similaritys of the michelin and irc means they are almost identical in their make up. so why is the michelin legal and the irc not? could be a serious question for irc and their importers as most road trial riders i know use irc nowadays.

the "not for road use" marking on trials tyres only applies to america only.

just do the sheet of glass trick. push down and watch the knobbles. if they close up completely then its no good. done this with so many tyres over the years and only the mich's dunlops and irc have passed this test. not heard anything about x11's ceasing production though yet. is it just the dodgy tube type non radial one thats being scrapped i wonder? they were useless.

many thanks for the advice. i remember the hebo helmets being one size smaller than they stated because their padding was a bit excessive. and that in turn made the helmet look massive on your head as neilh mentions. ive had a few helmets myself in my years riding but most manufactures have dissapered. MPA, CTS, boeri to name a few. more recently its been a couple of NZI carbons and now its a NAU which is a great helmet but the cheek pads have come a bit loose. my friend still isnt sure if he'll fully get back into trials yet so he's reluctant to spend alot if its only used a few times.

a friend of mine asked me for some advice on helmets the other day. he's been out of the trials world a about ten years and when he pulled out and dusted down his trusty nolan helmet he found the foam mites had eaten away all the padding. anyway. he asked me what budget helmets are on the market as i have a fair bit of knowledge on trials gear out there. or so i thought. the budget helmet market seems to have exploded with so many new brands with their own trials based open faced helmets. having looked there does seem to be some models out there that look similar to each other. one in particular is the wulfsport one. its reasonably priced at approx £60. i know quite a few people who have them and say they are comfy to wear. then i noticed that JTsie one looks almost the same in its shell design, that retails at approx £90ish. why is it dearer? but then to really confuse the situation a helmet branded Wildcat looks just the same and has full ACU gold label standard too. at only £30!! why so cheap??? then i was suprised to find that airoh who made good quality helmets for under £100 have gone and lost the plot and only make £200+ helmets now. nzi dont seem to do many budget models anymore too. nau still look good and affordable. spada do one that looks good on a budget. some places still have nitro "dougie replica" ones about. what sort of experiences of these sort of brands have fellow riders had? advice would be muchly appreciated.

its history repeating itself from the early 90's. the boom i parallel imports will soon follow.

its a tricky one. the pinky is the best all rounder! it was way ahead of its time in the way it was set up and they didnt need to modify them much over the years. parts are still easily avaliable. the fantic 245 was a great bike i had one just as i came out of schoolboy. great bike. had the usual crankcase break where the swingarm pivot goes through but it won week in week out for me. parts are still avaliable too from bill pye and bob wright. the tr34 was another good one. in 240 capacity it was easy to ride and would go up almost anything. i'd avoid the 260 though. it always seemed to want to pull out of your hands and was fierce. parts for the beta though are very hard to come by.

nearly all 90's fantics where prone to breaking to the rear of the crancases where the swingarm spindle goes through. check around that area as cases are hard to come by now.

yes a hell of a lot.

yet another cracking event by wrighty. it gets better every year. i agree with monty jon though. where do some people get their prices for secondhand parts?

its just history repeating itself. back in the late 90's when trials lost its way for a while, they reintroduced no-stop and it rejuvinated trials. yet its been allowed to slip back into a stop permitted way again through the noughties. dougie was a master at both and adjusted his riding style to go on to win most of his titles. i remember back then quite a few clubs got their first no-stop trials wrong as some clerks of the course didnt adjusted their routes to suit the new rules. there is an art to setting a trial out after all.

there is the dreaded stator failure that was common on rev 3's. almost everyone i know who's had a beta in recent years has had one go on them. which can be costly. if they where still in warrenty then no problem. but judging by the year you're looking at they wont be covered.

i've had two carb floats that have filled with fuel. cannot see where its leaked in but its messed them up. one plastic tank that went brittle. numerous fuel lines that have gone hard. they always do but not as quick as in a week or so. two fibreglass petrol tanks that have leeched resin into the carb and engine and have rendered them un-usable. and the fuel line clips on my road bike snapped spilling petrol all over the bike whilest i was riding. poential fire hazard. all are connected to the upping of the ethanol content. god i am unlucky on this subject.

Right. its a problem thats effecting everyone in the sport. fuel companies seem to be upping the ethanol content in modern unleaded fuels. Problems arose firstly with just the classic bikes running fibreglass tanks. the ethanol leached out the resin which clogged up carbs and varnished pistons. but its now effecting modern bikes too piercing carb floats and knackering up fuel lines. its also effecting other motorsports too. i started off this epetition and now with it appearing in several publications the numbers signing up are rising. now we have 11,828 memebers on here. ok not all are uk residents. we should be able to boost this just from trials central memebers alone. please can you sign up to this and help sort this problem. the link is http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/15535 cheers.

theres still quite a few riders who attend the yorkshire classic events. be it pre-unit or championship events. approx 32ish over the year have entered at some point. my own matchless has been sidelined with the dreaded ethanol damage . when i can afford to repair it i will do. remember theres a petition on this subject at the moment! http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/15535 please can you all sign it when you have a moment.

infortunately almost every bit of your bike is valuable. most parts if clubbed together would be well in excess of your bikes value. just try looking on evilbay at parts for your bike. then you have scrap value too. best thing is find a friend who you may be able to store it with. that or do without trials for the short time till you have somewhere to keep your bike.

it was about right. for normality anyway. suprised it went for that on evilbay though. there are some seriously mad people who pay way over the odds for things. i do suspect there is some "friends bidding up" going on. but you can spot these a mile away. with that you'll need to spend another grand or so to make it anything like competative. but then you'd have something custom to you.

hahahaha very true! the papers lost its way abit in recent years. trying to keep "in wiv da kids"

contact john lampkin imports, they maybe able to help. in regard to spec changes im not sure. john hulme has a great supply of bike specs and you may be able to compare years if he's got some on them.

there are those compressed air ones that mountainbikes us. i've had one of those in the past. just pump it back up with a compressor.

sounds like your idea of laying out a good challenging trial is the same as mine . and not laying out a world round to suit the few.

think you may have got my comment slightly muddled up jon. in regards to organising and running trials that bit still is fun. we used to have great fun in marking out a pretty good course that could be challenging for all capacities and yet there wouldnt be anything too difficult for a raw beginner to attempt. yet at the same time with a stratigically placed flag you could also catch the more experienced riders for a dab or too. that bit is still fun. im on about riders who seem to hang about, waiting for sections to get easier. riders who modify their bikes beyond actually being recognised as a classic bike and taking things far too seriously, these are what i would say are spoiling the fun of trials. hence why numbers are dwindling in some clubs. some turn to modern bikes instead as these riders stuggle. but then the sections start to change in favour of the more modern machinery. then the classic numbers dwindle. like for instance yesterdays dales classic round of the northern british bike championship. for a first attempt at this sort of type of event i applaude the dales club. it was a great ride around with a large amount of traditional sections to enjoy. but it was spoilt by about five or six sections that your bike would have needed a pivot in the middle of the frame to get around. i've returned home with my arms red raw from bashing against trees and a bad back from one major crash too. now where is the fun in that?

having gone through the motions of modern riding and slowly converting to older machinery i feel the fun factor has gone out of the classic side of the sport. i look back to 15 years ago when the acu classic series used to be bussling with pre 65 bikes and twinshocks and a handful of aircooled monos and that cseries was enjoyable even for a 15 year old as i was back then. now these event are overun with over 40's and 50's on modern bikes and so the sections are set to these bikes and not the older ones. i cannot see why they dont limit over 40's and 50's to ride up to aircooled mono's? that would create more interest and bring down the severity of the sections. now back to more club based trials, i think by opening up the classes more then clerk of the course has a harder challenge of catering for all. back when we ran our club trials we tried but the scope of the land and the unknown quality of riders played its part. in the end we did just the one route which was for all classes except expert. the more you cater for more modern bikes the more you put off the older bikes. thats why the likes of yorkshire classic still command good turn outs because they dont cater for the few. and they are stricter on your more modern 2011 pre 65 bikes too.