Basket Cases

[Julz]

Greg, you must be a great rider... you look far too relaxed for someone flying through the air, about to have the front wheel come down hard... and you are so confident, you don't even need to look at where you are going to land.

(Mind you - you do look good in the matching colour scheme riding gear).

Seriously though - what tweaks have you done to get it "dialled in"? Tuning? Gearing? Brakes? Footpegs (yes I've seen those pics)? Fork springs & oil? Rear shock spring rate & length?

Hmm... must look back through your posts to see.

[Greg Harding]

Merry Christmas Everyone,

Tim, Ah the fascination with my forks continues, if you get a chance to ride a KT, have a go. They are not as nimble as your TY175, but you will really like the power and how it comes on.

Julz, my tongue was stuck to my cheek, plus I was daydreaming! Probably a good time to share some Frankensense, there are certain handling traits that I like and always try to set up a bike to behave so it is easier to ride. The first thing is to gear bikes down, so I have time to prepare for what is coming up, plus the bonus is you have a gear for every occasion (closer together), 11T and 53T gives 4.818 final drive ratio.

Previously I have had several bikes in varying condition and have learnt that the popular bikes wear out parts that you think would never wear out. In the case of Franken KT , I was lucky as most of the parts were not very worn at all, for example the gears and selectors looked new. The forks on the other hand must have been used after they were badly corroded, David supplied me with very good chrome legs and sliders. The springs are within specifications and standard without any extra preload and 10w fork oil (the book says 10/40 motor oil). The rear shocks are blue seal Betors 340mm between centres with 40lb springs on the hardest preload setting in the circlip and suit my 85kg weight well.

The front brake has a custom built by me extra length cable, so that it pulls on centre or in other words the angle between cam pivot, cable end and outer cable end is acute with the brakes on. With the brakes off, the cable end of the brake arm only just clears the backing plate, I am using EBC grooved shoes. This works better than having the brakes pull over centre which means less force. The rear brake has a longer rod for the same reason.

Steve O'Connor has spent a bit of time on jetting the RL carby and the best compromise is 120 mains down from 140, 27.5 pilot down from 30 and the needle clip in the leanest position, The only part on the bike that is not mine is the air cleaner door (kindly lent to me by Bigdog), when the bike comes back, I will be making a custom door which allows more airflow as I think it is quite restricted.

Apparently Santa was originally GREEN and LEAN, this SANTA looks like he could be a trials rider!

[Greg Harding]

Hi Everyone,

Good news as Fred http://kawasakikt.tripod.com/FREDKT.html has an aircleaner door for me, so it will now be 100% mine!

We had a great time at bike camp, have a guess which bike I took this year?

Yes it is in the photo!

OK, a hint you ask, it is not GREEN!

That would make it a little hard. The photo will go full screen when you click on it.

Try this one:

[Guy53]

It's sitting at the bottom of the big '' barkless '' tree in the left center, but I cant quite figure the make

Guy

[David Lahey]

Thanks Guy. I couldn't see it till you gave directions. I reckon it is an Italjet

[Tim Stone]

I think you might be close David. I would have loved to say Air Cooled Mono! but the rear guard didn't seem to have enough clearance, the tank looks close though.

[David Lahey]

Is that your bike Tim?
Speaking of Italjets, has everyone seen the photos of the prototype Italjet twinshock on Trials Central? It is an early one (1980) using a Bultaco M199A frame and wheels

http://www.trialscentral.com/forums/top ... -the-pond/

[Tim Stone]

Sadly not David, but it does look cross between a TY250R mono and a SWM320,I do love the lines of this machine, sorry not to affend Reinald by including a TY in the same senntance as a SWL.

[Tim Stone]

Oh I just realised the Ilajey has GOLD rims, now Reinald will definitely want one.

[David Lahey]

Reinald wanted to fit gold rims to his SWM - maybe he wanted it to look like an Italjet :)