davetom

Road Trials = Insurance, which means up to date V5, MOT, licence etc. If that's the only road trial on your calendar, it adds quite a cost. Over and out.

I have no problem with good natured debate, but there's something about the general tone of your posts that makes me nauseous. For that reason I shall refrain from posting on any more of these 'state of pre 65' threads

The Talmag is like the Banbury Run, where bikes come out the woodwork specifically for that event. Why not organise a similar event and advertise it as being to Talmag rules, and wait for the entries to come flooding in ? Having all these new groups and sub-groups so that you can ride this ex-works bike you've inherited seems like a lot of hassle, when by your own admittance you rarely ride anyway? What next, if someone turns up who's ten years younger than you , will you make him ride a different subset so that it's all 'fair '? You've said on here before that your bike has alloy rims, so does that put you in 'Britshocks Modified A4' or whatever, or don't rims count ?

What Jon says .. You decide in your head who you're competing against, whether it's a skilled rider on a rigid, or a novice on a billet Bantam, you don't need a raft of classes and sub-classes or things get complicated. Well plotted sections with an easy and hard route, and maybe a mix of those if you want an Inters class. Sidecar,Rigid. pre-unit, Unit and maybe Twinshocks for anything post 70?

@aawill , are you confusing the cylindrical foam filter with an air box, or have I missed something ??

Couldn't you have just emailed him the info? Cut and paste is only a couple of clicks for chrissakes

Common sense prevails ⬆️?

Fair point OTF, if it's Deryks mod, it's up to him to use it as he pleases . If though, like some of the Rupert Ratio stuff, it's lots of common knowledge collated together, at what point does the mod or information become the property of the collator ? There's loads of C15 info on here that is in Ratio's book, but is also known by lots of others I'm sure..

He's got a point though, Deryk, surely this forum was created to share advice and information, not act as a signpost to your e-magazine ? I subscribed for a couple of years but the format didn't suit me - I wasn't keen how it worked with my Apple stuff at home

I don't have his number but I got him through Alan Whitton, 07711218818 or 01246419805

I would keep it standard and see how you like it. I have a +40 Triumph 5TA unit piston in mine (70 mm I think), and it doesn't make a lot of difference to be honest. I always go for as low compression as I can, I usually skim a mil or two off the piston too. It depends on your skill level I suppose, but some pretty good riders ( not me !) find that that standard is enough. Edit to ad, I use Electrex too, works fine for me

Was Deryks bike standard with all the steel stuff still on ? Ariels sales literature quotes 290lb dry for the 500 and 285lb for the 350, (and I doubt they'd over estimate ?)which compares to Morleys wet figures, so I'll stick with those thanks

The HT weighs around 300lb when Don Morley weighed them all. The figures are in the Classic British Four Stroke Trials bike book. No I sold it thanks. The clue was in the thread title ' Drayton Bantam Buying Advice', not 'Please Rant Your Views On The State Of Pre-65 Trials'. A request was even made for it not to descend into arguments, a request you chose to ignore.

Well thanks again TTspud, despite you only doing a few trials every few years and never organising any, it's great that you take time to rant on here to those that DO ride and DO organise regularly, and tell them where they are going wrong. If I had been lucky enough to inherit an ex-works big 4 stroke, I think I'd just take any opportunity to ride it, rather than waste time posting spiteful rhetoric to anyone who dares poke their head up while you're 'on one'. I presume it'll be just ex-works bikes you wish to compete against though?With your highly sensitive sense of fair play I'm sure even you would admit that riding it against over the counter bikes wouldn't be fair ? My old dead standard HT weighed a ton with all the correct steel bits on it. This thread ought to be deleted as I'm sure you're discouraging more than encouraging prospective ' pre-65/Britshock ' riders. Pre-65 has evolved fairly democratically to where it is now, from bikes that were only a few years old to the point now where original genuine competition bikes are worth a fortune anyway, so there is no dirt cheap answer. My mate though has just bought his first 'pre-65' ish bike, a nicely modded C15 for not much over £2.5k. And he'll be doing what you should, Spud, and just getting out and riding the bloody thing regularly

I've used old valve springs as spacers to do a similar job

I thought Sammy went to smaller chain sizes for weight reasons rather than sprocket diameter? I bet that maths student was grateful that you carried out all this work to validate his calculations ? It's a shame that no numbers were kept on the test examples

Ok thanks. If larger sprockets are acting as torque multipliers then, it sounds like a good mod for low powered, low torque bikes, like the smaller two strokes ?

I remember this being discussed before ( quote below), was this the same experiment or a different one ? I notice the one involved 2 bikes and the other lots of spannering..

Surely everyone with Monobloc/ Concentric should be suffering , not just Cub owners? I always use Premium Unleaded ( no special brand) and my Concentric is 3 yrs old without any problems

I watched ' Field of Dreams ' at the weekend. That was unrealistic nostalgic fiction too

Interesting comments by Deryk re sprocket size affecting grip . Squat will increase with smaller sprockets but there's more to it than that as swingarm length, shock length, Spring strength and ride height are all factors too. A certain amount of squat is useful, but too much isn't good either so I'd be interested if anyone's done any recent comparisons, especially as bikes are lighter, softer sprung and have more travel than they did back in the day ?

Electrex works fine on my C-15 although there's a problem I find with it, not sure if the others have it ? The rotor doesn't positively locate on the crank, so it can move as you pull the crank nut up. A little is ok as you can get it back on the pickup adjustment, but it's not clever in my opinion ( mines 5 yrs old, it may have changed..) I should just file a key way in , but haven't got round to it

Readers of a nervous disposition may need to have a chair ready...

Friday night cat amongst the pigeons!

To sum it up ; bloke who doesn't ride his bike and doesn't organise events, tells blokes who do ride their bikes and do organise events where they are going wrong.. Even my birth certificate isn't pre65, the sport over time can't help evolving, and numbers are bound to fall off as the bikes mean less and less to young people as they have no connection with them. Be thankful that there's still a healthy amount of riders out and about that still wish to play around on older bikes, but maybe do appreciate a little front suspension and tyres that grip. Lucky for you that you've had a dead original big thumper handed down to you, just get out there and ride it, or lend it me if you don't want to?