Telford Dirt Bike Show

Good day out in Telford with Heath. Cracking autjumble and some great stuff to see and buy. Got a few bits for my Fantic too.

Bultaco 198B and KT Kwak in the jumble

Graham Noyces 1979 world championship bike:-

Martin Lampkins 1975 world trials championship winning bike:-

A few other nice looking machines:-

Keen to get the Fantic fettled and ridden now.

Trials and Tribulations

I've had trials bikes on and off since I was 14. Always Bultacos, but the last one was a change of direction with a 2003 Gasgas 250, which was nice but under used. I've always hankered back to Bultacos.

So, after some years of pestering by Heath, and two trips to the off road show at Telford, I gave in. I was looking for a late Bultaco when this Fantic came along:-

It was too good a deal to miss and yesterday a very nice man delivered it to Heaths place near Weston Super Mare.

It is an early 80s Fantic 200, in fact a 156cc 2-stroke Minarelli engine. It was THE bike to have back in the day.

Needs a bit of fettling, and the tyres changing, but its good to go. First job was to put the footrests back to where they should be. Road pegs :-

Returned to their rightful place:-

Looking forward to getting out on it. Bug thanks to Lee and Heath.

Magnetos Part 1

A magneto is what provides the igntion on most old bikes pre-1960s. Its a rotating coil inside a stationary magnet, when the contact breaker opens it sends a HT pulse to the sparking plug and, with fuel and air, it goes bang. Mine doesn't, at least it does when cold, and will run when hot, but it won't start when hot - a classic sign of imminent magneto failure. 

My magneto is a BTH KC1:-

The usual cause of magneto demise is the condenser which is buried in the armature. One remedy is to fully strip and rewind the armature along with a new condenser, or you can snip the old condenser out and fit an external one. This is my plan. Fit one of these:-

Still got to strip part of the armature but hopefully this should fix the bad starting.

More to follow.

Stoneleigh Militaria

Went to the big Militaria show today at Stoneleigh Park. Loads of things to play with and buy.

Started with a sarnie

Then it was into the show.

Nazi sign:-

MG42 with a healthy price tag:-

There were loads of guns, all deactivated:-

A nice Royal Enfield v-twin. 1914:-

A selection of Nazi daggers. Very expensive:-

And a couple of bellends:-

A good day out.

Crazy Horse Rally 2015

Took the customary ride to the Forest of Dean last weekend. Unusually it was quite mild although the wind did blow. A cracking weekend drinking beer and riding old motorbikes.

Metal Moths

As expected, the metal moths have been feasting on the chassis of my VW. This is one of several holes in the rear chassis rails. They always get bigger as you clean them back:-

This is after cleaning back with a flap wheel in a grinder, then spraying with weldable primer.

I couldn't figure out how to make a suitable template so decided to repair the damage in two goes (bearing in mind I have never welded a vehicle before). This is the first plate:-

Reasonably happy with the result. Theres plenty more to do, by which time I should be a competent welder.

TT

So I haven't used my 1913 Ariel TT model since I went to Ireland with Huw. Looking back that's six years ago! So its time for the old girl to come out of hibernation now she's 101 years old.

I've had the bike since 2004 after I bought it off an Ariel Club mate who had found it in Trowbridge (of all places). It had sat in an old mill for decades before the previous owner, on finding out the mill was due for demolition, saved it. It had its last tax disc still on the bike - 1924. So it had been used from 1913 to 1924 then laid up til Mick bought it. Mick fixed it up but never rode it much so I bought it off him, got it fettled and road worthy and enjoyed a good few years blatting around the countryside including a trip to Ireland and France. Then, in a `several pints of Guinness' haze, I managed to melt it on the road to Rosslare while charging along with Huw. I fixed it but its not been run since.

So, pre-flight checks went well, wheel bearings and spokes all seem good, greased the forks etc., but I couldn't stop a petrol leak from the tank. It looked like it was the tap but several fibre washers later it became clear that there was a hairline crack in a previous solder repair (from the 1920's, not a recent one). When I got the bike I had to solder up the petrol tank as it was leaking all over the place. This was quite an experience but I managed to do it successfully, so fixing a hairline crack should be straight forward. Probably...

Dug out my paraffin blowtorch and smaller soldering iron:-

The paraffin blowtorch is great - you have to pump some pressure into the reservoir while warming the evaporation tubes in the nozzle with a gas torch. Eventually it bursts into life but generally not before emitting a stream of burning paraffin in a nice arc.

I cleaned off the repair point and gave it a wash with Bakers Fluid to try to get it as clean as possible, then added some solder melting it into and onto the crack.

It takes a bit of heating to get the soldering iron to a hot enough temperature to melt the solder. The colder tank robs the heat fairly quickly.

After a bit of dressing and replacing the taps I put some white spirit in the tank to see if it was still leaking:-

So far so good. I'll let it dry out first then try it with petrol before I'm happy I've sorted it but it looks promising.