groovylee

Yeah, the difference between this one with the ktech upgrades and my mates one as standard is ridiculous 😳

It was a bit funny. Just not the next morning 🤣 We did some pretty gnarly hills, and I got better as we went on. Just need to practice some more 👍

well, the GS went, bantam still here, but it has a new stablemate.... 2022 Honda CRF300L. took it down to devon to do some lanes. fell off. five times. 🤣 was great fun though. much more capable than the Bantam. entered the Cotswold clouds at the beginning of september in preparation for the Edinburgh trial at the end of september.

pic of the GS -

anyone fancy a 2014 R1200GS? i appreciate its not really autoshite fodder, but im getting bored of timewasters and idiots. ad here - https://www.autotrader.co.uk/bike-details/202307049254789 based in shefford, bedfordshire. also, possibly more autoshite - my 1971 Gollner Bantam Trials. converted to 12V negative earth. great little bike, still plenty of potential for fettling and making your own. not perfect, but just managed almost 50 miles of the TET from newton abbott a couple of weekends ago. looking for £2500, and making a decent loss at that, but im in need of clearing the decks so i can buy a more modern CRF250/300 for doing long distance trials. happy to answer questions

it seemed to go ok. i last did it 18 years ago from crystal palace park. this time from Cheam it was a bit more organised. basically camping was in organised rows. cars were lined up at 7pm on the sat night in strict order of arrival for camping. very controlled and very good. 5am sunday the gates opened for the non campers to queue up. run pack collection from 0530, first cars away 0830 after the show and shine ones left. all in all, good fun, felt less manic than the old CPP days, and more easily accessible food places on foot at Cheam. it looks like this could have been the last one due to ULEZ, but we will see.....

Crazy to think that these two were taken 20 years apart!

not a lot has been going on with this little thing really. while the salt was on the roads it stayed on the drive. so now the sun is out, it's time to get it out to play again. with this in mind, we decided to do the London to Brighton mini run last weekend. it was a great run, with loads of amazing cars present. pics in a sec, as i can't seem to get them to work on this machine....

This is the manifold I've got in so far.

this has sat doing nothing over the last few months, as work, life, and a general loss of mojo stopped me from wanting to go anywhere near it. the work on the bantam has kind of kicked me out of my funk, so i have had a good clear out of the cockpit, and started to get on with it again. first up, was the frankly shit exhaust that i lashed up to get it running quietly enough to try and get it timed up and tuned up. it is obvious that a standard LCB was never going to fit, so i have decided to revert back to the old cast all-in-one manifold, as that has a single pipe exit, and is on a sort of knuckle arrangement, so it should give me some wriggle room to fit everything in. i found a mild steel Klarius twin box exhaust with all clamps etc, that i think will fit my purposes for the princely sum of £70 delivered, and that is hopefully coming today. if the weather holds out, i'll get some pics and show you all what i intend to do, so people can hopefully tell me it'll work! or, if not, why not.... there are also the rear wheel cylinders to replace, which wont take long, and i should be able to get it back on it's wheels. then it should just be tuning and fettling before i give it an actual road test. then the usual tweaks and adjustments before i can call it finished (not that a car like this is ever truly finished!) pics to follow this evening

I'd love to, but the forks are currently in pieces 😢

I found litre bikes easy and lazy to ride after my R6. Just remember the throttle goes both ways and even first gear will get you.into licence losing territory. It'll be fine. My first bike was an RSV1000R. No kittens died.

I managed to find an upgrade stator, so that is all sorted, in conjunction with an LED headlight bulb, so the smoke shouldn't be escaping from the wiring any more. As the next event isn't till October, I'm taking the opportunity to go through everything with a fine tooth comb. First up, change the fork oil. Oh. Pretty sure it's not supposed to be that colour! Fork seals must be a bit ropey, let's take a look... yep. They're knackered. And here's why 😳 New stanchions, seals, bushes and scraper seals (NLA so had to pay £24 for a pair from some robber on fleabay 🙄) Once this is done, I'll test them out, then I need to build an engine cradle and whip the top end off for a good look see. From what I've found so far I'm expecting a wooden piston and a con rod made of Meccano 🤣

Bit of a bantam update.... Did the lands end trial over the Easter weekend. Well... I say did.... Managed to do the first 95 mile leg to the start, all good. Then did 34 of the 35 miles to the first section, and then the lights went out. Then the engine stopped. Ah. Must be not charging. That'll be why 🙄😢

more bantam news. some good, some bad.... managed to get the timing done and it started first kick, result! took it for a 5 mile run, nice and easy. during the ride the gear changes started feeling a bit notchy, and the engine sounded a bit rattly. as i pulled into my drive, pulling the clutch in killed the engine. very strange. thought i'd better check the gearbox oil. it should take 568 ml (a pint) before it starts to run out of the level hole. i managed to put 390 ml in before it was full. 🙄 still no better, although a bit quieter. pulling in the clutch, even in neutral, killed the engine. so back into the house to take a closer look. on pulling off the side cases, i noticed the clutch basket didnt look like it was fully seated on the shaft. so i went to give it a poke, and it came off in my hands! the nut that secures the whole clutch basket to the shaft had come undone. so off with the clutch, separated it all, and im now just waiting on the clutch holding tool so i can tighten the nut back up properly. then we should be good to go. after i've re set the timing etc all over again! buy an old two stroke they said. it'll be fun they said. 😅