sherpa325

Try putting a new condenser in the bike. Faulty condensers will still give a spark when turning the motor over with the kickstart but can breakdown under load. They are relatively cheap and you an eliminate that area as a problem. I put one off a lawnmower once as a stopgap measure for a friend and it worked fine. Cheers Greg

I have been watching this thread for a few days now and I am still curious as to why? If you don't like the rear set handlebar position of the bultaco, I have seen several sherpas that have had the top triple clamp modified to move them forward, but to try and change the leading axle forks to inline forks has got me stumped. Every modern bike has leading axle forks, even Yamaha went to leading axle forks with the monoshock in 1984. A bike with inline forks will have a larger offset of the forktubes to compensate for the change in trail.My point is that you shouldn't change the legs without changing the triple clamps otherwise you are running a combination of both set-ups and I seriously doubt if it will work. Also on a bultaco there is no way that the mudguard is not going to foul on the downtube on full compression. As has been stated before most people I have seen who are having trouble on their twinshock, has been down to the bike being set-up poorly. Most commonly way too soft fork springs[very common on bullys] and too hard rear shocks. Bikes can be made to suit the rider by some very subtle tweaks in particular the handlebar height and the position for and aft has a huge effect on a twinshock. Also it cant be stressed how important time practising on the bike is. Just remember Bultaco won 5 world championships with three different riders with this fork and steering. Cheers Greg

Yes your bike is the first 325, model 92. The most obvious problem is the front hub, should be conical, top triple clamp is correct. The photo posted by TFTim is a little misleading as that bike is not strictly speaking correct for a 2nd series 92, incorrect rear muffler, and black not chromed header bike. As Tim said when set up correctly these are a really easy bike to ride with a very torquey engine, have fun. Cheers Greg

If they are the same as the Gas Gas ones which I think they are, you can buy a purpose built set of pliers to undo them and pull them back together again. The pliers will only be available from a specialist engineering supplier and will be expensive. How do I know this ,well my mate has a set courtesy of the mining industry, and I have tried to buy a reasonably priced set but basically no shop carries them, special order only. The pliers slide the two ends sideways to release them and basically pulls the outside end back over the ridge of the inside end to put them back together if you get my drift. Cheers Greg

What about using a control tyre that is a harder compound and offers significantly less traction than the current X lights. Cheers Greg

Hi, glad you got that shifter sorted, with regards to the spark- clean points and new condenser should do the trick[maybe disconnect the kill switch just to eliminate that] I don't think condenser brand or size is that important as I can remember getting one of my Bully's to run with one from the local mower shop. Regarding the carby, I would get the bike running first on the amal, go for a few rides and make up your mind then. They will start and run fine on the amal. The bike will be noisy however without some form of additional rear muffler. Your bike is the first of the 325's which were called 350's Cheers Greg

Hi, I am only doing this from memory, but I think the spring tangs are on the wrong side of the pin on the shifter shaft. If they are in the correct position they create a 'hole' or round gap which the arrowed pin on the engine will fit into. All my Bultacos are together so I cant visually check for you Hope this helps, Greg

If cleaning the point's doesn't work I would suggest a new condenser as these will cause problems on older bikes. They will give a faint spark but the bike will not run. Remember the points must be 'clean' so run a piece of paper through them after cleaning to remove any residue, best done with the flywheel removed. Carb should be a 27, the earlier 325's had 25's Cheers greg

Hi, cranks can easily be bent[put out of round] when the cases are pulled together, if not done correctly. So this may be the cause of your problem, the crank should always be checked for correct running after assembly. As Woody said the original triangular muffler is very restrictive and should be replaced with a later boomerang or clubfoot muffler. The four stroking can be caused by a worn needle and needle jet in the amal carbie. The motor will start and run OK but splutter and carry on from about half throttle upwards and no amount of fiddling will fix it other than replacing the worn parts. Bully motors are very simple, reliable and virtually bulletproof as a trials motor so I would persevere with the original. Hope this helps Greg

One of my best motorcycling experiences was to watch Stoner in the 2008 Philip Is practice sessions. He went basically flat out in every corner of every session so much so that you could clearly hear the traction control kicking in midway through the corners. He was the only one doing this and continued to do so even when it started to drizzle half way through one of the sessions. I can clearly remember him coming onto the main straight with the bike flat out and in a perfect slide in the rain, just amazing.

Interesting to note Ducati do give a rats as they have just rushed together the new 012 chassis with an 011 engine for Rossi to use this weekend at Assen. If they don't get some results soon they are going to have some difficulty explaining how Casey had 3 wins, 4 poles and nine podiums in 010 and they basically have nothing this year. By the way if you have ever seen Casey, in the flesh, ride/slide the Ducati on the limit it certainly is more interesting than a paper bag, unless of course you have something interesting in that bag that we don't know about.

Thanks for the reply Andy, do you know if this has changed for all FIM championships, like motoGP etc or just the Indoor Trials

Does anyone know why Raga finished third in the championship, when he tied with Cabestany on 75 pts, but scored the better finish in the final round. I thought the higher place in all FIM championships went to the better finisher in the last event.

From my understanding of trials bike geometry designers try to achieve a 'trail' measurement of about 2 1/2 inches.If you go with parallel triple clamps and a non leading axle you will need a very steep angle to achieve this trail measurement. This can make the bike twitchy. I can recall reading an article by S H Miller on Bultaco geometry and I am pretty sure he developed the current system. The idea is to have a less steep angle [for stability] and then offset the bottom triple clamp and the front wheel to reduce the trail measurement, thus giving you light and nimble steering without having the disadvantages of a steep head angle, in theory the best of both worlds.

Hi, from my recollection the first alpinas were close to a sherpa, the main differences were a matador gearbox and a larger tank and seat unit. The frame motor etc were common with the sherpa, however later models grew further from the sherpa with different triple clamps and and a host of other changes that brought the bike closer to a trail bike than a trials bike. The last ones had the longer stroke motor 64mm for the big capacity bike, no sherpas had this motor.

I am pretty sure that the closer bracket will be off the 158, 182, 190 models which were 250's and for whatever reason had a completely different frame to the 325's. The forks, and triple clamps are also different. The bike is shorter and has more ground clearance, the swingarm is the same but the airbox is different to. The model 92 [first 325] had the swingarm pivot moved forward to get the rear wheel closer to the engine to increase traction because of the more powerful motor. Other than these models I am fairly sure the frames where the same for 250's and 325/340's. Interesting to note that the 325 had the cast alloy bracket and the 250 had the pressed steel one. Cheers Greg

He is also running a Keihin carbie instead of the Flatslide dellorto

Hi ,I tend to back up what woody is saying, a worn out needle and needle jet wont stop the bike starting and idling, it will just run rich in the mid to top rev range. I assume you have checked the woodruff key that locates the ignition flywheel as a sheared one will still give a healthy spark but not when you want it. Also it may be worth replacing the condensor as these give all sorts of problems, and will give a spark at the plug when kicking the bike over ,but muck up under real loads. However I think your carbie could be the real problem, check the rubber mounting flange for leaks, then I would go through the carbie again, check that the floats actually float,remove all the jets and soak the carb in fuel and then blow all the holes out with a compressor, make sure all the jets are not blocked particularly the pilot jet, also check the needle valve that is attached to the floats is in good condition,make sure the gasket is not covering the pilot jet or blocking it. These bikes and carburetor are very simple and I am pretty sure there is not that much wrong with it Cheers Greg

Thanks for the offer Nigel,have forwarded my details to you Cheers Greg

I do plan to make one, but as I have never seen one in the flesh and the couple of photos I have are bikes with the tank on, its difficult to work out what they actually look like. Thanks Greg

Any close up photos with the tank off would be appreciated as I need to do something about mine, as my new bike [199a] has a repaired pressed steel one which has cracked after two events. Thanks Greg

The standard pressed steel bracket will break if the bike is ridden in any sort of reasonable competition, if it is not repaired the frame will begin to bend, the backbone bends upwards and the front downtube bends inwards and hairline cracks will start in the downtube at the bottom engine mount and at the junction of the top triangular gusset and the downtube. All the 199B bikes I have seen have had the pressed steel bracket, so I would really like to see a detailed photo of the late factory alloy one fitted with the tank off. When I have seen photos of some english bikes with them fitted I just assumed they were a comerfords modification. Cheers Greg

I think you will find they are using the PHBL dellorto as the flatslide is illegal for their competition. I have a PHBL on my 325 and it runs fantastic, 36 pilot and 116 main. My dellorto is a gasgas genuine spare part so you can run a gasgas throttle cable and throttle.Hope this helps. Cheers Greg

Judging by the number of posts you guys make I seriously doubt whether you have time to ride ANYTHING