Not a bad idea, Lineaway. The frame has been reinforced and welded, so the axles are the next weak link. Glad to hear the Montesa is not terminal. So much for my points lead.....
The state must be a little low on Tecate. Porter must be camping all week. Not a peep out of him for awhile. Garrett and I were forced into a weekend at the lake to keep the rest of the family Happy. Seems like before Garrett became an uncle seven fold I had more weekends to ride! ( I still am in denial of my seven grand kids!) We just finished loading and ready to leave at 5am to give Brewtus another weekend to gripe about!!
Well Brewtus had a bad week. Broke his right hand doing @#?!$% at home. So he sighed up for novice. Next the reflux had a flat just before he started. So he rides the ty80 in novice and gets a 45. I was feeling sorry for the broken hand and signed up for sportsman to ride with my son. Ended up first in sportsman with 35, so by our strange vintage class rules I won twin shock class. Today, Brewtus still rides the ty80 and I am going to ride sports again. After scoring the morning classes I decide to walk my afternoon lines, and wouldn`t you know it. The sections are too hard for me to ride my cota 200 safely so I decide to spectate. Brewtus ends up on top this weekend again! Way to go Gimpy!!!!
Thanks Bob. I did "cold wrap" therapy on the hand as much as I could all weekend to make it survive. And by "cold wrap" I mean wrapping my hand around a cold beer......
When you beat the clothes on the rock, don't get it backwards or forget to take the clothes off first...
Well at the last event, the valve stem finally pulled away from the inner tube on the rear wheel on 'ol OJ. I had watched the tire rotate on the rim for 3 years, and whenever the valve stem got too far over I'd merely rotate it back. Last Friday however, it finally got away from me. I rode the last event on the Team TY80 to try and maintain my Twinshock points for the year. That, and I had left my 4RT at home. Yeah, it's flat. Time for a rimlock. Honda did not put a rimlock on the rear wheel of the North American-spec Reflex's', so it was time to install one I had lying around. Drill da hole - Knock down the drill burrs to relieve the hole as much as possible - I'll be the first to admit that I really don't like drilling holes in steel rims for rimlocks, but I don't have a nice hole punch that would have done a much cleaner job. Guess I'll have to come up with a nicer, tubeless alloy solution later..... Anyhoo, back together with said rimlock - And back on the bike - I gave both twinshock steeds a much-needed bath afterward, along with a generous lubing-of-the-chains - More to come....
I wholeheartedly agree. Stupid piece of crap thin Chinese tube should last more than 5 years without a rimlock on the back of an overweight vintage Trialer. I should fire off an angry E-mail........
Your gonna need a lot of fuel for the first annual Kachina Cup Dual Sport Trials th weekend after Roswell. Just saying. But the little TY looks ready to rip and grip.
BUMPORINO! FF's. My wife's first bike is this, still in the garage. 1971 I think, 125. The beast behind it is a 1976 Yamaha TY 250. Still competes and runs awesome. Here is Mick Andrew applying his autograph on the tank. <!-- / message --><!-- sig --> __________________
With the 2012 NMTA season wrapping up next month, I am very happy to say that my old bitsa-bike Reflex "Outright Junk" has secured the Twinshock championship. Not too bad for a bike that was built out of 3 piles of parts destined for the landfill. To be honest, the only real competition we had all year long was Lineaway and his nifty 200 Cota. When he competed, that is. Lineaway skipped several Twinshock events to ride his Raga in Expert, or to mind his son who is doing very well, moving up through the ranks. Several times this year I was the only one in Twinshock so the championship points added up quickly. I really don't like having no one to compete against, but that's the way it shook out this year. Several club members have expressed interest in riding Twinshock next year, and I wish them well. I'm going back to my beloved 4RT, and giving OJ a well deserved break. For those who came in late, OJ has been modified yet it remains frightfully stock. It's not a...bad... Trialer, but it certainly is not as nice as genuine same-era Trials bike. I competed on it because it's what I had. The breakdown is as follows - The Good B&J racing's awesome skidplate. It is the most expensive single part on the whole bike, and totally worth every cent. I am certain that the bike would have folded in half long ago without it. The footpeg and mount modifications. Widened the pegs using a cut-in-half Beta peg, and welded tabs onto the frame to drop the peg mounts approximately 1 1/4 inch. Much better control - Subframe -to-main-spar frame bracing. Helped get rid of that "loosey-goosey" feeling in the rough stuff, and made the bike feel much more stable on hard landings - Advancing the cam timing 6 degrees using a $12 (delivered!) adjustable cam sprocket from Parts Unlimited. Single biggest torque-increasing mod, very inexpensive, easy to install. Carb mods, airbox restrictor removal, XR100R K&N air filter (fits right in the Reflex airbox). Good, crisp power, no flameouts. Silly bar risers. They work for my height and poor ability - 9/50 gearing. These things have a somewhat speedy primary gear ratio so I dropped the final drive ratio quite a bit. If I want more speed or "hit" I upshift. Simple as that. The Bad The engine is beginning to show it's age. OJ is starting to smoke pretty good when cold, and the camchain is so stretched out that there is no more adjustment left. The camchain clattering is now very loud. The cam sprocket mod, while cool, somewhat increased the cranking pressure to the point that an XR-style bar mounted compression release would be a very good idea to take some stress off of the somewhat tender kickstarter gear assembly. I'm not a big fan of the kickstarter-mounted decompressor, and the cable broke anyway. The frame had been developing stress cracks before the frame bracing. I merely stop-drilled 'em earlier in the year. Since I've no idea of the history of the frame before I got it, they may very well have started long ago. No matter, it's time to grid and weld. The head and base gaskets are now leaking quite a bit, as well as the left engine cover gasket. Both stock chrome steel rims are now bent. OJ still does not steer nor stop worth a damn. The Ugly That would be the whole bike. The fuel tank is still the same dented, rusted tank that was the best of the 2 I had started with (the other tank took the brunt of the frame breaking and folding in half on the bike it was attached to), the frame has Mopar Hemi Orange paint on the parts I modified (does not match the orange that Honda used), it never had side covers, and the latest duct tape seat cover is already looking hideous. No matter, OJ (shown here in Roswell last month) is a championship winner! The Future So what's next for ol' OJ? Not sure, to be quite honest. If it were up to Gordy and NMTrailboss, a viking funeral would be in order, but it's not theirs so screw 'em. Part of me thinks that fixing the major problems while leaving the patina would be neat, while the other, bigger part of me thinks that hootching up the old wreck would be cool. I envision an Eddie Lejeune-style Rothmans replica, white frame, gold anodized alloy wheels, along with one of those fiberglass seat and tank covers (using an aluminum fuel tank under the cover) from the UK, along with a nice throaty aftermarket exhaust. Just not sure. What do you think?
Oh go ahead, cut the frame and make it turn! Me I might fix the master link clip that wore off some time this year. Damn montesa has been totally maitenance free except for the cage on one of the main bearings cracking at the worst time giving you the win for the year! Way to tough it out Chris!!!
TLR with higher compression, air box mods, pit-bike carb and CDI unit, with straight through large volume exhaust, performs pretty good. Handling can be improved by steeper steering angle, good rear shocks, fat bar converted top yoke, and ideally modern 38mm forks. Getting rid of the very poor stock suspension though will improve an otherwise stock bike a great deal, and is well worth doing even if everything else stays standard.
Don't put OJ up to soon, MWVTA has a second season coming. At least 10 events and may go to 12 or 14 if you and Bob would TM at SanYo for a vintage trials.
