g4321

Oil capacity - 1.5litres (from memory!), the quoted capacity and the level on dipstick do not really have much in common. Change oil every trial or two trials - oil is cheap maintenance, judge it on how hard your bike is worked! Me I use semi synthetic and change regularly. Air filter 200 and 250 are same - clean regularly, every trial or two trials Oil filter - mesh at drain plug - wash in petrol each time, there should be nothing in it when you take it out - if you start finding bits of rubber or plastic think of looking at cam chain tensioner. The other filter is centrifugal in centre of clurtch, held in place by 3 screws, if you have just bought bike and dont know when it was last cleaned out take off petrol tank, drain carb, lay bike on side and take clutch cover off. Use a large cross head bit to remove screws, perhaps an impact driver will be used but filter is only alloy so watch out. Wipe/clean out filter - you will be surprised how much crud is there if it aint been done for a long time, have a look at what you wash out, some alloy, some plastic bits will be present. Refit & rebuild. If you use bike a lot clean out every 6 months as a guess, if not yearly. If you do start seeing crud in mesh filter then think about stripping centrifugal one sooner. I have also heard of using specific clutch plates but model I thought was used was CG125. As for brake lever, make one! Gordon

any common honda or other bike that would have a similar fork seal or even fork that would be replaceable The seal is a common size - nothing exotic here. Can't remember whart bikes also use this seal but a search on an online parts shop (or better still visit to your friendly corner bike shop) should get the proper seals. Simple job for them to look in catalog from any parts supplier.

Does anyone else you know have a 200 TLR? If so after all you have done to your carb try swapping carbs to a 'good one', its a 10minute job and will prove once and for all whether your suspicions are right. Put a new plug in the bike first , replace the fuel in the tank for fresh fuel and if I was you disconnect the kill switch. If it runs ok with another carb then carb is the answer - assuming your mates bike runs the same way as yours.

I have owned both an FT (while in London) and still own a twinshock XR500, I still have a couple spare motors - XL/XR500- the only real difference is the inlet manifold, even the cam is virtually the same. There were two main drawbacks with the FT - the electric start could be problematic, (I never had any problems with mine), if I had the bike at home a kiskstart bottom end would have been fitted and the electric foot thrown away as superfluous. It used a big CV carb which made the bike feel a bit flat (compared to a slide carbed XL or XR). Otherwise there was very little difference to the XL motor - same potential problem with cam running in alloy head and little filtration of oil. The FT would top the magic ton on a good day but not by much, handling was OK - not brilliant, especially with the wide/high bars it came out with and the 19" front wheel. With narrow /lower bars the feeling of holding on to a sail went away. I agree though Honda should have fitted the XL/XR500 motor in the 250rs frame , it was a much lighter and sportier frame. If I remember correctly it only took drilling out one engine mount to the next size up to make it fit. Interestingly a mate had the XBR500, this was closer to what the FT should have been but was too heavy with too complex an engine RFVC (radial four valve combustion) 500. There was not much difference in performance on the road. the FT is one of the few bikes I have sold, most I tend to keep and to be honest I did regret selling it not a brillisant bike but not 'crap' either. I always fanclied trying an XR cam and decent carb on the FT

Engine is from eithe a Honda XL250S or from CB250RS - both essentially same motor, Twin port 4 valve. (Early 1980's) Main disadvantages of this engine are height -its much taller than tlr weight -its even heavier than a tlr and gearing - made for road, no matter what Honda tell you the XL250s was no good off road, check out the size of back sprocket to get a low enough gear for trials. Reliability is OK IF the oil has been changed regularly, cam runs straight in the head and ther are no oil filters. XL250s was pretty gutless, 250RS (road bike) was more powerful (compression if my memory is correct) Tank looks like montesa to me. Take an XL500s engine (or XR500, or FT500), and fit it in 250RS fram and you have a brilliant bike, fast and handles well - used to be the bike to beat in single racing - I digress.

Aye John I know the individual in question as well - no further comment required......................

Its a trials bike, trials bikes are made to ride off road. Unfortunately if yo try trials and unless you are very very good you will fall off. It usually happens when you have just painted the tank, polished the alloy of fitted new plastics. ce la vie

Take off the head, replace valve stem seals as a matter of course, while you are there you may as well fit a new set of rings after honing the bore and replace cam chain. All parts should be available from your friendly local Honda dealer - part numbers will allow them to confirm. As far as I am aware head gasket, seals, cam chain and rings are same as TLR 250. John appears to buy all the RTL's he can find so I guess 'somewhere in Scotland' could have been him?

Simple way to check whether or not it has 'reflex' forks. Measure Diameter TLR200 = 35mm Reflex = 33mm TLR250 = 35mm but they are different from 200 in that they have more travel - they have different dampers (and I think springs from memory) Gordon

Make up a cable to a lever on the handlebars - a proper valve lifter lever can be bought or just cut down a plastic push bike lever. Use the kickstart to find compression, ease it over using the valve lifter and et voila easy starting. Starting is much easier this way, the added bonus of a simple push or roll start when pointing down hill is also a bonus. In my opinion the automatic valve lifter is more trouble than its worth and is the first thing I would throw away !

Throw away the automatic decompressor - its a pain in the neck and a bike starts easier without it. Fit up a cable/lever to allow a manual valve lifter to be used - much easier, you gret a better kick at the bike since you know or should know wgere the piston is when you feel though compression before starting it.

Does the spark look weak - if so disconnect and throw away the kill switch, check and clean all connections in the ignition circuit. , including spark plug cap. Fit a new plug - possibly even try a hotter plug. have you checked float height? If it is only happening at high revs then perhaps it is a weak valve spring allowing valve bounce? The 'black' plugs may relate to poor mixture lower down the rev range where the bike spends most of its time. The comments about timing relate to valve timing and not ignition timing, the ignition timing is fixed on a tlr with the flywheel and CDI pickup running off the crankshaft. Valve timing can be adjusted and is set by positioning the camshaft relative to the crankshaft - hence the comment about one or two teeth out. If its only happened since you rebuilt motor then perhaps this is the case - although (I doubt if bike would rev well if valve timing is out.

the main differences between the Reflex and the Normal TLR200E are (as far as I am aware) 1 Steel Rims compared to alloy rims 2 33mm forks compared to 35mm forks Colour is deceiving there are normal TLR200E's out there which are white as well as red, all UK Reflexes are white. Many people think a white TLR200 is a Reflex - only if it says so on the side panel, has spindly forks and steel rims. The TLR200E is from around 1985, the Reflex is later circa 1987? - (I might be wrong with this last bit???) Gordon

Definately NOT a Reflex - I suspect I sold the owner the bike recently.

Why not give me the RTL roling chassis, I would put an engine in it and try to ride it . Its a shame to have a bike like an RTL which is sitting unused