Funny, I had a similar conversation with another rider last year discussing what is "vintage"...at a time when (depending on the series) many twin-shock bikes are considered not. When I first started riding twinshock/vintage events in the mid eighties, my Honda TL was only ten years old. The "old" British bikes riding around then were often newer at the time then early air cooled monoshocks are today! Ironically it was the arrival of those latter bikes that changed the sport and preciptated that twinshock series way back...as a glut of bikes from the 1970's trials "boom" suddenly became uncompetitve. Maybe things are starting to come full circle? Good to see the older monos starting to get a little more love out there!
Yes, and Aircooled Mono class is a great addition. They are about 25 years old now. Get those old bikes out and ride 'em. They way I see it is it doesn't matter if you are on a British, Vintage, Twin Shock or Air Cooled Mono....you are riding Trials and that is what matters The only organization in the world that refuses to recognize the Twin Shock bikes are those Numptys over at AHRMA....don't get me started about them...
I too rode in the Nyact the last two years. For the coming year I had to go out and buy and rebuild a TY350 mono. I always wanted one, but by the time I got back into trials about 5 years ago after a 30 year break. The aircooled monos where to old for modern trials and to new for vintage. It took me a 1 1/2 to find one that was not a total wreck. So there is already some clubs that are letting in and are glad to have the air cooled Monos. NYACT and MAVT are only two of many that I know about. Ahrma is dieing for trilas so why worry about what they if let in or not. Buy it, Ride it, take it out of the shed and Ride it and have a good time doing it.
I get the feeling that AHRMA is nearing the end of the road in terms of organising classic trials events in the US. There seems to be too much BS and nit picking rules and regulation, which either increase the cost of competing, or simply means you cant compete at all on certain bikes! The way forward in the US seems to be ITSA sanctioned events, where levels of BS appear to be low, and its possible to compete on pretty much anything, with no need to worry about ridiculous AHRMA "rules"!
Cota like that was my first new trials bike..............came in kit form, with some of the parts in sacks..................lol
Im trying to figure out if the shocks are stock or not... from every Cota picture I have seen of the era... they dont seem to be.. they are rebuildable.. Ill get a better picture of them tomarrow.. perhapse someone can fill me in on them..
Im usualy pretty good about IDing shocks.. from 100yds away... They look like Curnutt's .. but 1.. black springs, and 2.. didnt think he made trials shocks.... The shock Lower Nifty alum o-ring upper bushing aluminum seal body.. that somone has obviously either tryed to, or has been in... has "PAT" stamped in the top of it.
If your shocks still work why worry who made them? But if you need to change them pay a little more for a quality replacement, and try to avoid very poor shocks like Betor or NJB.
Because they need to be rebuilt... the spring rate etc feels really good for how I am going to ride the bike.. I am in the market for shocks for the Bultaco... what are good shocks to look for?
I would imagine you can easily get seals, but you need to carefully inspect the damper rods, as if there is any marking or damage on these the new seals will fail very quickly. Might be better just to bin the old shocks and buy new ones, unless you are capable of making any replacement parts required?
I can make any parts needed.. no problem.. I know I can get seals... kaman bearing already confirmed that for me. Im more asking who made them just because Im curious and want to know..
While we are on the subject of shocks... My Cota 200 has Koni shocks in the rear... I assume they are not original. Any parts or manuals available? I tried the Koni site but nothing listed.