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groovylee

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Posts posted by groovylee

  1. wow, just came across this thread that i had forgotten i started!

    the good news is that the engine work went well, and the Rancher has been doing sterling service for the last few years. until now....

    it seems i may have had a small incident on the way to the edinburgh trial :-( 

    so it looks like there will be a new rebuild thread. i'll try to keep this one updated this time!

    i just hope its all repairable, or my parents will disown me.

    pics to follow

  2. Well, as is always the way, stuff happened and I didn't spend as much time on this as I'd like. But with a local trial coming up in October, I decided to pull my finger out!

    First up was the brakes. The rear flexis were now well shot, so they were replaced, and the brakes finally bled and operational. The washer pump had died, so a temp one has been lashed in for now. The indicators decided not to work, but a bit of contact cleaning sorted that. 

    The big one was the exhaust. As a temp measure I have used an 1 1/4 standard mini exhaust, and a load of stainless polylock tube. It works, but it will be replaced once I can get around to building a proper system for it. 

    This was the scene at the time of the work 😂

    IMG-20230916-WA0020.jpeg

  3. 49 minutes ago, twosmoke300 said:

    Nice bikes but the rear shock is a joke .

    My 500x one isn’t much better . 
    Don’t understand Honda putting such shit suspension on these bikes.

    My other halves new z400 is in a comparable price bracket but that appears to have some actual rebound damping 

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

  4. well, the GS went, bantam still here, but it has a new stablemate....

    image.thumb.png.446ca4b7239631dd6e6436ea4a9a258a.png

    2022 Honda CRF300L.

    took it down to devon to do some lanes. fell off. five times. 🤣

    image.thumb.png.4db24544b04a207b8c30e2512e515ea7.png

    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.

  5. 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 :-) 

    IMG_20230607_183007372_HDR.thumb.jpg.ef1f72620ec2db8b9cca28a9a53311f3.jpg

  6. 4 hours ago, Tommyboy12 said:

    How was L2B this year? Different start point to last time I did it. Did it help with the horrendously early start time?

    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.....

  7. 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....

  8. 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 :-)

  9. 3 hours ago, twosmoke300 said:

    Don’t fancy coming to cornwall next weekend for the flora trial then ? I’m doing it in the other half’s CT90 😂

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

  10. 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.IMG_20230417_182005324.thumb.jpg.28cf7d0fae90042109d21243849d52df.jpg

    Pretty sure it's not supposed to be that colour!

    Fork seals must be a bit ropey, let's take a look...

    IMG_20230417_181947885_HDR.thumb.jpg.d02c931549b59e5cf362da9fdf7928cc.jpgIMG_20230417_181956952.thumb.jpg.36f0c78473ed658af11f4e07f3f3ea6f.jpg

    yep. They're knackered. And here's why 😳

    IMG_20230417_182018690.thumb.jpg.2da3c72a81ca0782aef32f8db19487f2.jpg

    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 🤣

     

  11. 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 🙄😢

    IMG_20230413_184129769.jpg

  12. 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. 😅

  13. 23 hours ago, tom13 said:

    I will be on the beggars roost stage. Will have to post on here when you are coming through. 

    awesome stuff! i'll do my best, but having seen the state of some of the bike set when ive seen them on trials, posting on here may be a bit of a push lol.

    i should be coming through Beggars roost at about 22:30 if all goes to plan. if not, you may see a green Rickman Ranger instead. hopefully not... if on the bantam, you'll spot me because i'll be the one that probably falls off on the restart - Number 14. 😅

    by way of a bit of an update on the bantam - I've got the carb back together, the head back on the bike, and brought it back into the living room for some timing checks. I need to grab my DTI from father groovys house tonight, but a speculative check of TDC using a screwdriver in the plug hole yielded some unexpected results...

    the timing is 180 degrees out. yep. set at 16.5 degrees before BOTTOM dead centre. i had to check it three or four times, then video call my 2 stroke licker mate to further check my findings. he was as shocked as I was!

    so tonight is going to be full on reset of points gap, points cam, set the ignition timing properly, new spark plug. then drain the tank and put some fresh fuel in with a confirmed ratio of two stroke, and then on to test starting and tweaking the air and idle screws to get it running well at idle. after that, it's test ride time.

    it seemed to go ok the way it was, so if i get the timing and fuelling right tonight, it should go like a scalded cat in comparison!* 

    *as much as a 175 bantam can, anyway 🤣

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