sherpa325

You can put Casey Stoner in there as well, basically anyone who he has perceived as a threat he has tried to bully off and on the track. Phillip island was a fantastic race and if Marquez was out to sabotage Rossi why didn't he let Lorenzo win??? I am not sure what he expected Marc M to do after his outburst about the Phillip island race. One of the main reasons the Honda was quicker than the Yamaha in the last couple of seasons was the seamless gearbox, and I would guess, not lack of development from Lorenzo. You only have to look at the non factory Hondas without the seamless gearbox to see how much off the pace they are. I am not so sure Rossi is such a great developer of bikes either as his years at Ducati would seem to confirm.

I have used steel on all of mine as opposed to cast iron, the reason being is that cast iron has basically graphite in the microstructure which makes the surface greasy to touch and aids in lubrication ie liners and piston rings, not really what you want for a brake surface.

I just tried this for you and sadly they wont interchange, M91 slimline tank onto 199B frame and the Slimline wont come down flush on the horizontal seat frame rails - ie sits up by at the seat end by at least 100mm. It fouls on the diagonal tubes that run forward up from the swinging arm pivot to the petrol tap area, these appear to be a fair bit wider at the top where the tank sits, not an easy fix. Cheers Greg

I think the difference here is that TRS have gone with a fairly conventional design where not much can go wrong. The design brief seems to have picked the eyes out of the existing bikes and come up with a great looking but conventional, simple bike. Vertigo has gone down a different path with the use of fuel injection and an unconventional exhaust layout, which seems to change every time you see the bike. I guess TRS have gone with the 'if it isn't broke don't fix it' route and this appears to be working with Raga finishing second to Bou in the latest round of the Spanish Championship at the weekend, not bad for its second outing, and you cant imagine Raga has spent much time on it as he was still on the Gas Gas a couple of weeks ago.

The problem with a European manufacturer supporting a young rider is that Honda can just come along and poach your rider and there is nothing you can do about it, cant imagine Beta is particularly happy as that is what happened with Lampkin, Bou and now Busto. HRC are always going to be able to beat any offer made by a Euro manufacturer as they are governed by bike sales and HRC well who knows?

The problem is the money has to come from somewhere and in trials that is basically the manufacturers and the accessory suppliers involved with the sport, S3, Hebo, Jitsie etc. To the best of my knowledge these are pretty much trials only companies and as such rely on the sales of trials bikes. If you take into account the cost of producing a bike and then paying all your overheads I would imagine it would leave very little funding for a Factory team effort and factory rider salary. The size of the factory teams has been steadily declining since the 70's to the point where, Honda aside, they are all running only one rider, with Ossa and Jotagas not running a team at all. My guess is the top European sponsored riders get a reasonable salary and top it up with clothing, helmet, boot, oil sponsorship etc. For Honda to get Toni Bou all they have to do is top any other offers by whatever amount, which I don't think would be very hard for them.Reading the Retro Trials articles is eye opening as you soon realize that payment of riders has been an inherent problem for a long time. Trials cant realistically be compared to other sports as we don't have the market appeal,sales, or popularity of any popular sport and therefore don't generate the funds.

I get the feeling that they have stolen the limelight from Vertigo to a certain degree with the signing of Raga and the success he is already bringing, very smart marketing.

I always bore mine to 1.5 thou and have never had a problem, always very careful during run in. A friend had his bored and thought it was nice and quiet until we went riding together and then realized his brand new rebuild was quite noisy. To cut a long story short, he pulled it down and got the piston ceramic coated [cost about $40] The ceramic coating people can alter the thickness of their coating to suit, and after reassembly the motor was a lot quieter and ran great, fairly cheap solution. Cheers Greg

Looks like that would do the trick, I have always put the bike on the trailer and pulled down the front end as far as possible and this puts enough pressure on the damper rod to allow the allen headed bolt to be loosened or tightened as required. That tool is certainly easier to use however. Cheers Greg

Keihin / OKO style cabries don't have a fuel filter in the the carbie itself so its essential to fit an inline one particularly if you have a fiberglass tank. I fitted a keihin on mine years ago and am very happy with the result, so I bought an OKO off ebay which was very cheap to go on another bully, but could not get the thing to run at all. Basically it was a piece of rubbish, pulling it apart revealed there were no markings/ sizes stamped on any of the jets and no amount of blowing jets out or anything would get this thing running, you get what you pay for I guess. Cheers Greg

I have been able to find neutral on all my pros , the secret is the oil viscosity, the thinner the better - ELF is the best oil in my opinion

There have been bikes throughout the history of trials that have set a standard that the rest of the manufacturers have followed. the first Sherpa T, the monoshock TY Yamaha, the first Tarres Beta Zero and even the first Sherco set a new sub 70 kg weight that forced the majority of manufacturers to follow. I personally would like to see a completely repackable exhaust system, radiator protected by the downtubes, adjustable footpeg position, head and barrel easily removed without pulling half the bike apart, not sure about fuel injection just yet and why not have a lighter bike. The vertigo does appear to address some of these issues, but I guess I was hoping James may have been able to crack the top five on the bike, but as I suggested before it must be very difficult to develop the bike and compete in the world championship at the same time competing against the already existing proven rider and bike combinations.

The problem I see with what they appear to be doing is that the exhaust looks to be a sealed unit with no provision for repacking, and I would imagine very expensive to replace. On another note altogether the bike doesn't appear to be a game changer that I was hoping for in terms of its performance in the world championship. I realize it is early days but Dabill hasn't really moved forward since leaving the Beta for the Vertigo. Maybe he is not a great 'development' rider, no disrespect intended. Some riders just ride what they are given and are happy to do this and concentrate on their riding, while others continually fiddle with the bike setup, trying different shocks, peg positions etc etc.Or maybe the bike is significantly different in terms of development each time he rides it.

All weighed on the same digital kitchen scales S3 Fatbar buffalo 660g Hebo conventional + crossbrace 760g Renthal conventional + crossbrace 715g

Hi not wanting to cause any dramas but I have to agree with Woody, front wheel,front hub, forks, triple clamps all M91/92 series 1 , the frame also appears to be series 1 M91/92. After the various M49s comes the M80 which is essentially the same frame only slimeline tank/seat and that model has none of the M91/92 frame/front end updates. Maybe someone has re-stamped the frame to suit the engine! The mystery frame is maybe an M27 or early M49 - looking at the rear top shock mount. Cheers Greg

Interesting to note that for 2015 the weight of Moto Gp bikes has been reduced by 2 kgs with a further reduction again in 2016. I personally think the weight of trials bikes should start at say 67kgs and be reduced by a published 1kg every two years so every manufacturer/team can meet those goals. This would rate have to be revised periodically to ensure costs didn't get out of hand for privateers and also ensuring that manufacturers continue to improve and upgrade their designs

Maybe not what you had in mind, but never the less it is a sherpa 325 M92 ridden by a good friend the day before a trial in 1973 Australia

I am pretty sure the first swing arms with grease nipples are the 159 [1975] onwards, and there is a recess machined into the bush, to give the grease somewhere to go presumably , that lines up with the grease nipple [pretty much in the middle of the bush] I don't think the aftermarket bushes have this recess machined in them. Cheers Greg

I think welding new peg mounts for the later style of wider pegs is a good move and will help your feel on the bike. I keep mine in the standard position forward/back but get them as low as possible. As breagh said I find the standard geometry fine. I have tried moving them down and back but found the front end not as planted with a tendency to push in turns. I don't have trouble finding traction so for me it was not a good move. However the current crop of spanish bikes 'Puma' etc seem to be moving their pegs back as well as down, so it must work for some. A couple of things to take into consideration when modifying bikes, particularly bultacos, is that the standard bike is pretty good for the period of time it was built. They won five world championships on the trot with three different riders. Also remember pretty much everything is a compromise, handlebar height,wheelbase, steering head angle, flywheel weight ,footpeg position. If you are not riding the bike at least weekly at a reasonable level and have some favorite practice sections to test your modifications on, it is going to be very difficult to gauge any improvements. For me its important to have the bike running in really good order, Carburation needs to be spot on, timing needs to be done regularly, new fork springs, good rear shocks, good tyres, barnet clutch plates, one finger clutch and then plenty of practice. Cheers Greg

Yes the bikes with the curved front down tube and less curve in the bottom yoke are the 250's that ran a different frame to the 325's from 1975 though to 1977. [m158, m182, m190] The 199A had the same airbox as the 199, but my 199A ran much better than the 199- maybe I had a dud 199 who knows The airbox was upgraded on the 199B As most will agree, the most complete package is the 199A - 199B

Hi, I just looked at your original photo where the size of the gap would appear to be about 1mm. I just checked my M92 by removing the large clutch adjusting 'bung' in the case and the clearance between the clutch posts [the ones that hold the clutch springs in place] and the case is about 2mm. So you may be able to get away with the original gasket, certainly worth checking out before you go to any extra trouble. Also just checked and you can buy gasket paper up to 3mm thick. If you decide to make your own you don't have to follow the internal shape of the original gasket where the mounting holes are, you should be able to make it about 20mm wide [instead of 5mm] and just add some cutouts where required, shifter shaft, chain tensioner?. Cheers Greg PS dadof2 - that was a joke, really hate it when I have to explain my jokes

Sounds like something the GasGas factory would do, must say I did expect better from you!

Sounds like the best solution, are you sure that you will need a thicker gasket. It would be worth trying the std one to see if you have enough clearance. Making your own gaskets is not as hard as you think, gasket paper can be purchased at any good motor accessory shop. You need a 'wad punch' to punch out the holes [can buy cheap ones on ebay] - just remember when punching out the holes to do it on the 'end grain' of a piece of wood, preferably hard wood. Cheers Greg

Ossa Gripper maybe???????

I forgot to mention I also rode montesa's as well, 348, nice bike - shorter than the equivalent bultaco, less bottom end power, felt lighter, not quite as stable as a Bully but a good bike, couldn't pull second gear as easily as it was a 305 349 too long, too tall[red first series] plenty of power- full 349, not as predictable as the bully off the bottom,steered slower than the bully 349 'white wonder' montesa got it right here, wheelbase fixed up, just a real nice bike. Italjet, tested the 'all green' ones, found them to be just OK, felt heavy. nothing special- never competed on one. Italjet, competed on a 350 Piuma in 1983/84- Great bike totally different to the green ones, much lighter, more power, better everywhere. Good clutch, lighter flywheel, alloy axles, completely different. lighter frame, marzocchi forks and triple clamps, fantasic handling. Just felt like the old bully with some improvements. The only problem was the mono yamaha had just turned up.