I've been kicking around getting a less than modern trials bike, just for trail riding and dickin' around. Doubt I'd ever compete. My buddy has a modern Gas Gas I've tried once, and I found it a little more extreme than I expected. I want something I can drop my arse on if I feel like it (bad knees). A complete moto that I can start and ride at will, use as a trainer, yadda yadda. There's this Fantic 247 that looks pretty complete: I've seen quite few of these in my price-range. This one says it's a 1987 but I think it's actually a 1990. http://fanticmotor.free.fr/IDENT-TRIAL/Modeles-trials.html At any rate, I don't know alot about these other than the interwebs. Is this a pre-mix bike or does it have a separate oil tank like a Yamaha DT? Things to look out for? Are there seats available? At $1200 that's about as much as I'd want to spend considering how much I'll ride it. I'm all ears here...
Fantic went out of business long ago, parts scarce in USA, but some can be found, using the owner of tryals shoppe in NY as my source, or overseas... I have a pair of 83/84 of the 200, 2 shock versions of the bike. usually can keep you sourced in cables maybe brake pads, sprockets, and stuff like that I guess. if you break something it can be hard to find parts you know like gears/pistons/clutch stuff etc but with your use prolly run forever unless you are a maniac or crash prone? but is seems you can probably pick up more than one cheap enough to have spare parts, you know. YUP, you must use pre mix oils in fuel, every bike since the early 70's is that way, the oilers were extra weight, width and design hassle plus the tank and hose, and lastly IMHO not reliable.. I mean, I have watercraft and other 2 stroke machines that if it had an oiler when new, I've bought several of these jetskis as junk (broken engines) If I scrounged enough to get them running, I have removed the oiler, it is just easier to mix gas than find out nobody checked the oil on the last 5 tanks of fuel, and lose the engines... the 2 others I had that were running I removed the oilers because of interweb reports of the same issue I know about.... so that it didnt run ever again without oil in the gas... Fiberglass tanks, are an ISSUE if that has one, which I do NOT think it does, but be sure. Modern (USA and Canada that I know) gasoline with ethanol and/or all the other additives, eats the tanks apart from inside out. you can get a coating stuff for new fiberglass tanks, I do NOT believe it is successfully applied yet, to glass gas tanks that have had oil/fuel in them. sadly I don't know for sure.
That bike has been posted for a while. It came up during my multi month ocd craigslist hunt. Did you see the one in Arizona for $650? http://sierravista.craigslist.org/mcy/5009315183.html
...actually did see that some time back. There's been a few around SoCal here and there. I like the AZ price mucho bueno. I'd rather not have over a grand in a bike that needs work and hard to find parts for. By one and you got it for life kinda deal. Always had y heart set on a Cota of some vintage. Looks like the Fantic has left side shifter though. I like that...
On that note with what your talking about using it for if you could find a nice condition Beta Rev 3 and pick up one of the seat tank setups it would be a good option... Just a thought... Best of luck.
Mmmmm, I dunno, that thing is just....special.....enough that it could join the Scuderia Brewtus. But then again, one should never take advise from me.....
Rapid; some thoughts from someone who's been there (and is currently there). I bought a '92 Aprilia Climber 280R last Fall, from a friend. Paid $800. He told me it had been 'neglected' (perhaps not quite that bad but certainly got no love - ridden hard, put away wet, one of about 30 bikes in the barn). I had learned to ride on a trials-oriented bike (Honda Reflex TLR200) and wanted to get into trials competition at a low price. If things go well this season, I'll sell the Climber and get something much more modern. I got lucky and discovered the Tryals Shop (Ithaca, NY) thru this forum (and as Sting mentioned, above). Mike has parts sources for these older bikes (fortunately for me, because I never asked/checked about parts availability for the Climber). He's a nice guy and it wouldn't hurt to give him a call to see what he can source for that Fantic. I ended up doing a lot of maintenance things; fork seals & fork oil, transmission fluid, new air filter & filter oil, bleed brakes (rear master was empty!), new tires (the originals were still on!), repaired a hole in the rear silencer, chain/sprockets, etc. So, what started out as an $800 bike is now a $1200-$1400 bike. I ran my first competition, over Memorial Day weekend, and had a blast. If I didn't plan to compete (anymore), this bike is probably ready for "dickin' around" for years to come. My point is that these older bikes are going to need maintenance/TLC. That's going to add to your initial expense. If parts aren't available, that means you invested in a big paperweight or you become a CL whore, scouring for old Fantics. If you can find something a little more modern, you may have less work/maintenance/clean-up to do and should have multiple parts sources when something does break/wear out. If you do go with the Fantic, don't make the mistake of test riding something modern (like I did ). You'll quickly realize what a brick that Fantic actually is. HTH
Those Fantics were lighter than the Aprilias and were decent bikes, though crude compared to modern bikes. Air cooled (obviously). 6 speed. Clutch is better than average for that era. The tank is molded thermoplastic. The kick starter kicks forward, not back. The 247 is I think roughly 200cc. The 305, 307, 309 are all 250cc.