ross brown

Lived in HKG for 15 years and never saw another trials bike. Always thought that one night I should risk riding around Exchange Square and IFC plazas and then up the escalator to Conduit Rd. if you ever get the chance.....

TL still a non-runner. This is the left engine case looking from inside out. Oil positively flowed out of the clutch pushrod cavity. As fast as I poured oil in, it hit the garage floor. The clutch cavity is supposed to be totally dry. At first I thought the grommet may have shrunk - it happens - and this was where the oil was escaping from. Oil leak must have started some years back as the oil has worked its way into the electrical insulation making it rot. Wiring passes through grommets from stator to clutch pushrod cavity, then out and to a third grommet where it exits the cases. Once I had the left hand engine case off (had to grind 2mm of a washer on the lower frame mount to get the engine case pass the frame mount; strange this. I don't remember any such washer on my first TL) I could see lots of gasket gunk the previous owner had used to try and stem the oil flow and to stick back a part of the aluminum cases that had broken off just ahead of the sprocket. Complete gasket set arrived from Canada this week. Will have to order a complete oil seal kit next! Lots of fun.

And perhaps the greatest obstacle is the seating position and the CoG. At speed there are advantages to planting your bum on/into the bike (significantly lower centre of gravity than standing on the pegs of a trials bike at speed) and powering/sliding your way around corners. Even downhill pushbikes use a seat to help the rider muscle the bike around a turn or a slide. And then of course, there are the tyres and low pressures! But speed can be fun, so buy a kidney belt, a Buttrest - www.buttrest.co.uk - and report back.

Swingarm came back from the powder coaters today. Re-profiled lower shock mounting holes are now 35mm higher. The new shock mounting position brings two benefits: by raising the rear of the frame it steepens the steering head angle, and it increases the ground clearance. Critically the extra clearance is at the rear of the bash plate just ahead of the wheel. Ground clearance is now 310mm (12.2 inches) ie. the same same as a Beta Evo 250 2T. Someday soon I am expecting to really need those extra millimeters of ground clearance to get the TL over a dead 20th Century log. The down side of having raised the shock mounts is that the bike now has a slightly higher CoG. Offsetting the Centre of Gravity shift from the shock mounts is the weight reduction and the improved control feel from wider pegs, fatter bars, and smoother levers. New chain guard is from Shedworks and half the price of what people are asking for the original plastic chain guard on ebay. Mudguard extension is a piece of white rubber strip as used by the food industry. I remember that my first TL back in the '70s was also my first bike with the then-very-trick factory installed chain tensioner. This was a seriously good bragging point. Vertical supports have been welded onto the inside of the swingarm to stop twisting. But the LH one had to be ground down to half its thickness to allow clearance once the spaced-out sprocket was fitted. Sprocket bolts missed the swingarm reinforcement by about 2mm. It was just too tight to live with. Space is now about 5mm (You can see bracket standing proud of swingarm just to left of the sprocket bolt. Speaking of cogs, with the smaller countershaft sprocket - down from 14 to 12 teeth - the chain now runs on the edge of being impossibly close to the top of the swingarm. In the top photo, the clearance between the moving chain and the upper surface of the arm is 10mm at rest. There could well be moments when a fast and lose chain wants to saw through the swingarm. I'm betting on 36 years of improvements in thermoplastic polymer production in the form of a new chain guide pad glued to the swingarm top to hold back this catastrophe-in-waiting. Talon sprocket with BJ Racing sprocket adapter uses bolts not studs to mount to hub. Back to 2011. New Old Stock (NOS) plastic swingam bushes went in easily. Will upgrade to bronze from a CR125 of similar vintage next time around. They don't have to stand up to the same impact forces as a MXer, so there may be a few years of wear in the plastic bushes yet. The new seat base came back today. It is lower and lighter than the original. Tank has yet to have dents taken out or be repainted. I wanted a neutral colour scheme and will eventually extend the same gun-metal grey to the tank. Two screws at the back of the seat fit the existing mudguard mounts and use 6mm rivnuts mounted under the frame cross member; previously there was just thread in the cross member which was fine for a mud guard mount but under strength to anchor a seat. Gone are the industrial weight steel mudguards, seat base, sprockets, steel bars and pegs. In come replacements in plastic or alloy. I should add at this point that any weight saving on the bike has been negated by 36 years of weight gain on the part of the rider. I'm almost 10Kg (wet weight) heavier than when I owned my first TL. If I start to feel weight (of the bike) is a problem, I can always lower the foot pegs mounts. I haven't decided yet on which shocks should replace the stock ones. Rockshocks look good, but the price to NZ is an issue. It's getting a bit hard to ask the Mother-in-Law to carry a pair of shocks on the plane journey out from Manchester as this Xmas she's already committed to bringing a spare right hand magnesium engine case in her luggage.

The new seat base came back today. And it came back from the powder coaters the wrong colour. The young employee who spec'd the colour for painting no longer works there. You knew it was never going to be an easy rehab project! Here's the stick-on seat pad waiting for the sat base to return. Made by X-Trak in the U.S. - "The world's best grip for you board". Cost 29 Pound which is a helluva lot for a piece of foam. But it finishes the seat better than any DIY Blue Peter mash up I could make. Gorilla Grip is a similar brand and maker of stick on surf board Tail Pads. They had a red one, but it was of a 3-piece construction. This is a single piece which means that when I trim it - about 30mm needs to come off each side - it should have less risk of peeling off the seat base if it gets hooked by say a boot buckle. I figure that if the 3M adhesive backing is waterproof and good enough for a surf board it should be good enough for an occasional soaking at a trial. You can see the white adhesive backing under the pad. Opposite end from the "X" is a kicked up lip (on the right in the photo below of the pad sitting on the car bonnet so you know what you are looking at) that will be the front of my seat and sit against the tank. On a surf board it is to the rear. It is for your heel to push off from when surfing. Whereas, for me it will provide separation between testicles and tank.

I've broken my own rule and actually added weight to the TL; but only by a smidgen. I've splashed out on new adjustable-reach ASV levers with gorgeous alloy perches that have a forward bending motion to the levers protecting them from breakage. My first lever replacements were cheap black painted aluminum ones that not only looked just like the levers we used in the 1980s, they snapped just liked them too. The very first time the bars touched down from a fall off the stand onto the garage floor. You get what you pay for! All the ASV sellers on ebay claimed "universal clutch lever" with no brake lever assemblies for sale other than hydraulic ones. Well of course if you horizontally flip a clutch lever assembly - you get a cable operated front brake lever assembly. DirtBikeBitz UK sold me the ASV levers; and they had a free-international freight offer. A bargain in the long term! Just trying to balance on the bike in the garage - it is still a non-runner as the wiring from the stator needs replacing- you can feel the benefits of being able to move your body weight around more easily on new pegs that are twice the width of the ones that the bike was originally sold with. Are bicycles bikes ahead of us in this department? The sort of pedals that Danny MacAskill uses on his trials pushbike are CNC machined from quality grade aluminium, weigh less than 240g each and are closer to a square in layout than our foot pegs. There are mountain bike pegs out there that are 115mm long and the same wide. Compare this with some 'extra width' Raptors at 52mm and the stock TL pegs at about 35mm. Wider pegs, or pedals, offer a whole lot more surface area to 'push' weight through. I wonder if super-wide pegs would help us to bunny-hop as they would be easier to load/compress prior to unweighting? Still waiting on the swingarm, seat and assorted brackets now in their second week at the powder coaters.

I'm told that the CDIs of XR200, XL185 of around 1980 fit and that the CT125 (all the way up to 1985) will fit my '76 TL. I'm looking at replacing the points on my TL250 at some point soon (after the bike becomes a 'runner'). On some of the vintage boards, there's talk of people using CT90 (ie Postman bikes) CDI ignitions on XLs up to the 350. Can't tell you at this point if the coil and stator also need replacing but will post as I learn what is needed. There are quite a few conflicting stories out there. You could start by looking to pick up a second hand XR-XL 250-500 CDI Unit black box that will suit any XL/TL with a mechanical ignition advancer. You may have to grind a little on the points cover, or the tank, so that there is clearance. As the farm bike CT125 (made up until 1986 I believe) uses the TL engine and gearbox that could be your best starting point.

Right, today I put this cardboard template into production for my new TL250 seat. All measurements in the photo are in mm. Cut from a single sheet of aluminum it should require either one or two simple folds per side. The first one to wrap it around the frame and a second fold might be needed to bend the lower panel inward once it's cleared the frame. It should end up the same width as the original at seat pad height, and about 40mm narrower than Honda's push-on panels at the base of the side panels point. Base material is 3mm thick. 2mm felt like it would bend too easily. Looking down vertically, an RS250 seat is 180mm to 200mm between the outside of the frame tubes at its widest point at the rear. The Old TL has wider hips by about 25mm at the same point but she is a good 40mm wider up at the seat and tank junction. I was planning to go with two side panels and weld these to the tank to create a single tanks eat unit a la TLR200. But it quickly fell into the too-hard basket as I can't weld myself and I kept seeing that I would have to cut and reshape the tank as well. Unlike the flat bottom tank on an RS250, the TL250 has a distinct down turn at the very end of its tank which complicates getting a single flowing line. Anyway, if I'm unhappy with the final look and feel of the aluminum seat, I can always use it as the mould for a fibregalss or cabon fibre seat base The process would be as simple as turning it upside down, cutting it down the middle and inserting a 6mm strip in the cut line to allow for 3mm thickness of fibreglass one each side. Then lay the fibre glass up inside the upturned base. I'll mount the seat only from the top and not through the original side panel mounts. There are two mudguard bracket mounts in the right place already and there's a cross bar (that the original seat tongue slotted under) about 75mm back from the base of the petrol tank that I can drill a hole in and add a third riv-nut. No welding required. And I've had an idea about the seat pad> Buy a surf board Tail Pad. These are roughly triangular, made of grippy foam and come with a quality waterproof 3M self adhesive backing. About US$40 on ebay. They come with one end of the pad raised for your heel (if you are a surfer) but if you turn it around to face the other way the raised lip could butt up nicely to the base of the TL tank. More pics in about a week when it all comes together.

If there's a surf board shop near you call in. They use a tough and waterproof glue (sorry can't remember its name) to hold vinyl foot pads to the fibre-glass board.

A beautifully machined spacer to adapt straight sprockets to the TL250 rear hub arrived in this morning's mail. B&J racing in the US make the spacer. To my delight it mates perfectly to a new Talon 60 tooth sprocket from the UK. I had worried that the outer diameter of the collar on the US spacer would be too great to fit inside the Talon sprocket, but every now and then the world does seem to adhere to a common standard of engineering measurment. I had previously approached Talon in Yeovil directly, but they said 'we have no information on this bike'. Fortunately, there are TL fans out there with The Knowledge. TY Trials supplied the sprocket along with a 12 tooth for the front. Here's how the two come together... Here's the spacer as seen from the side of the hub. It adds 12mm between face of the hub and the opposing face of the sprocket. So if I had machined a sprocket blank as a spacer it would not have been deep enough. But will it fit on the modified swing arm that I bought from ebay? It was only when the replacement swing arm arrived from the USA that I saw that it had raised shock mounts with extra supports welded to the inside. So I might yet have clearance issues between sprocket and swing arm and need to purchase a decent quality grinder. If nothing else, this TL250 rehab is making me feel like I am becoming My Father; with a tool for every occasion. I hope my kids are taking notice, but I doubt it.

Agree with 'jimmyl'. Added a drop of weld to my 315 stand to stop it rotating too far forward and causing the bike to fall. Did this and had no further problems. Never touched the bracket. The problem started when I carried the bike on a normal garden flat-bed trailer and not a bike trailer. Tied the bike down to the trailer with the stand down so that it had three points of contact with the trailer. During the drive, the inherent movement of the trailer worked the stand leg against the stand bracket and wore down the end-stop metal faces. After a short 30 minute drive the damage was done and the stand now over extended/rotated forward past the vertical allowing the bike to fall. I was surprised how quick and how much metal was eaten away. So start with some weld on the stand leg and go from there. For a bling stand, check out the Mitani 4Rt stand for around $150 - $200!

Well done on getting around this hacking. Did you see that they had a facebook link? If you follow it to their facebook page anyone can then report that page for "hate crime: race and ethnicity'. There's a report this page menu on the left hand side of the screen. Facebook will normally quickly remove the page. More reports, the faster FB tend to respond. Doesn't put a stop to this hacking business, but it can help curb the spread of such anger and misguided disruption.

Sweet. Carpet on the floor and one of those extendable bike stands/platforms no doubt ease the pain of working with a twice broken leg. Good looking TL homage.

Had to get a bracket made for my towbar to accept a Dave Cooper rack. Essentially the bracket is a simple right angle "L" shape with an additional small tab welded on either side of the towbar so as to locate the bracket and stop it rotating/yawing on top of the towbar. Bracket sits on the swan neck and is held in place by the tow ball bolt. A wider and longer bolt was needed. The curved piece directly under the ball in the photo is actually a plastic washer to protect paint work - not structural at all. Having done all of this, I prefer my trailer as this swan neck is of the removable type so there is a pitching motion that occurs when driving over speed bumps and rougher ground. I never feel as comfortable as I would like when using it - short bar, fat bike, short drop, fat damages bill. See other threads on pros and cons of racks and tow ball weighting!

Photo courtesy of ebay. Just realised that the intensity of the 'melt' would have been aided by the magnesium cases on the TL250 ( you can tell this is a 250 as the airbox and frame have a straight-through feed to the carb, whereas the 125 has the airbox entry on the side). Mg is not an easy metal to set fire to, but when it does, it burns at a temperature of about 3,000 °C., or above 5,000 F. Wouldn't like to be near any fire that can melt a bike!

Vmar site is here. http://www.vmar.com/snail.html If you can't see them in the photos, then email him through the site as I these Twinshock snails are anew product for him.

Some time ago I bought a pair of brand new snails that I just couldn't make work. I tried putting them on the Montesa but there was just not not enough thread left for the nut to bite onto the axle. No matter what the ads say about fitting so-and-so brand. The snails were too fat. So now they are key rings. Anxious not to repeat my poor buying when it came time for new snails for the twinshock (just how did the previous owner manage to take chunks out of, and twist, the current snails so?) I spoke to Vince at Vmar. As luck would have it he was looking to make a batch with 15mm axle holes that would fit old TLR/TL axles. Check out the machining... a fat 6mm wide but with a 2mm recess machined down around the axle nut/axle end to 4mm thick. They add zero width to the axle. ie same width as the original Honda Snails. Art. Wish I could make things that looked that good. And they would be better looking key rings too.

Those TL250 exhausts rust away to nothing at just a hint of water. Lucky the fire brigade didn't get to it with a hose.

Funny you ask this. Less than an hour ago, I heard back from Vince at V-Mar. He's just completed a batch of anodized snails (black or red) for TL/TLR Hondas and other twin shocks that use a 15mm axle. When I started looking for snails, I found that most of the ones on offer take up too much width on the axle which leaves the axle nut short of thread. Of course, I had to purchase a set before I found this out. Still they make good key rings! The really good news is that Vince has now done a batch where he mills out the snails around the axle nut/axle cap area so you get a solid width modern alloy 6mm snail, with 4mm width at the axle nut. This means you can throw away your standard Yamaha/Honda OEM 4mm snails and not worry that the thicker snails use up any extra axle length. I don't think he has them shown on his web site just yet, so send him an email and ask. Hope this helps. http://www.vmar.com/snail.html He also does a mean set for the 4RT (17mm axle) that is milled at one end to capture the axle nut and stop it turning ie. no spanner needed.

Honda OEM CT200 does. But this is a modern 'replacement' of a 1985 design (Musket Mufflers www.musket.co.nz) so no matter how good it is at preventing/arresting any sparks it still won't have the US DOT /50 state approval engraved onto it like original Honda pipes do.

I never learnt to weld, so had the pipe fitting done by a professional. For those of you reading this in the UK, the donor CT200 is a farm bike, not a step-thru like the CT110. You can see that the pipe layout is similar to the XL/CT125. Both CT200 exhaust mounting brackets needed to be shifted to fit the TL frame mounting points. "S" bend of CT pipe was not a perfect match. The angle was not quite acute enough and the top of the "S" was too short to meet up with the header. So a new "S" was crafted to snake over the frame cross-member up to the header pipe, and also to provide a solid lower mounting bracket. Top bracket was cut off the pipe, moved South and then rewelded back on. The set-up ends up being slimmer than the original triangular muffler right where the top of your boot is. Tyres and sprockets still on the To Do list.

I've seen photos of a Swiss bike with a TL125 muffler and a straight header pipe. While I think it keeps the original DNA, or look, of the TL intact the smaller pipe diameter could prove restrictive. Then I came across photos of Greg Harding's TL250 in Australia which uses the Honda CT200 twinshock farm/ag bike muffler. While the CT technology is almost a decade advanced over the TL the materials would still be 26 years old, which is to say rusted and in need of repacking. A reasonably priced one year old replacement pipe made by Musket Mufflers has arrived. It weighs 3Kg and is longer than ideal, but it's worth experimenting with as the price is right and my need is immediate.

Strapped the TL to the trailer today and took it to a machine shop to get the peg-mounts straightened (bigger hammer than I owned) and the stand re-bent and welded. When I pulled hard on the tie-downs, the forks fully compressed and suddenly the air was filled with fork blood spurting skyward. Like a mortal stab wound. The catastrophic failure of the left hand fork seal put a lot of red ATF fluid in the air. On the trip to the machine shop, I looked in my rear view mirror and thought that you would not want to have been driving behind me unless you had a really good slug of detergent in your windshield washer tank as the venturi effect of the slip stream -which is a jet effect - was sucking out whatever fork fluid was left. The day ended with two steps forward and one step backward. To all those who have persevered and seen a restoration project through to completion – RESPECT.

TL triangular exhaust is toast; so has been ditched. Currently thinking that fitting a CT200 farm bike exhaust from 1985 may be the way to go as it might just fit behind the shock while providing reasonable volume. However, it may be too wide right where your leg is on the TL. As farm bike pegs are much further forward the pipe is not an issue for them. Anyway, a reasonably priced one year old replacement pipe made by Musket Mufflers should be here later this week. I'm trying to avoid the straight-pipe-with-muffler-on-the-end approach (that delivers horsepower but not necessarily torque) and instead go for a better low end response that comes with a high volume pipe. After all, that's what Honda played with throughout the '80s with the RTLS. Fitted the replacement swing arm. You can see how much the 'surprise' higher shock mounts add to the ride height. Not what I wanted, but we'll give it a try. I happened to have a brand new set of '03 Montesa 315 guards lying around, so for a laugh I thought I'd just sit them on the TL for inspiration and compare 30 years of change.

"I am addicted to all things Trials x10 now." Excellent. Welcome to the addiction. You won't be able to drive through the country - or the city - without 'seeing sections' where ever you go now. Questions: Did you install a bj racing sprocket? Did you use a tubeless rear tyre with a tube? If so did it stay on the Honda DID rim? Ross