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Bully fanatic wrote:I missed this one. I guessed M85 as soon as I saw the frame because I have one sitting outside my front door with no engine or tank and seat in or on it. Not mine though.
at one stage in our youth Bullylover? Something in my memory is telling me you had a 250 Alpina of some sort before the model 213 and I think Greg said you had owned onesherpa wrote:Hi David, with regards to the Piuma I went from a 199A Sherpa to a 349 White Cota and then the Piuma. I felt more at home on the Italjet I guess because of it's Bultaco origins. I rode a couple of the early green italjets which I really didn't like as they sort of felt heavy and unresponsive. The white bike was a completely different animal, feeling a lot lighter, more nimble and with better power. Comparing it to a Bultaco back then it had it's advantages, six speed box, primary kickstart and better brakes. Maybe the Butaco felt a little more stable and planted and maybe a little stronger bottom end power, overall probably not a lot to pick between the two and more about how each bike would have been set up.
Cheers Greg
Alpina that I did the similar transformations on between riding to work/Uni and riding Trials. I didn't swap tyres though, because the only trials tyres I could afford were Bridgestone "Trials" tyres that were fine on the road. I remember my 325cc model 99 Alpina being capable of scary-fast riding on dirt roads with the road gearing on it. One day out near "Honda" Hill out behind Ferny Grove I had the great pleasure of cruising up that hill in great style on that like it wasn't even a hill. Honda Hill was so-named either because 
s were the only bike that could get up, or because s were the only bike that couldn't get up, depending on whether you liked s or not. My riding and high-school buddy who showed me where Honda Hill was on his 
RL250 was an accomplished Trials rider and also had no problems on the hill. Fond memories. Alpina though the reason for that had little to do with the bike, actually because I was a total Novice Trials rider. Alpina escapades were not quite aligned though, because I had mine in 1975/76. It would have been two or three years old in 1975 when I bought it for $450 and while it ran, was fairly run down. By the time I sold it, it was a good thing and looked quite nice. Alpina that I was aware of was bought new in 1978 by my friend Darcy Redman. It was his model 212 Alpina. Darcy was a senior TAFE teacher at the newly-opened Mt Gravatt TAFE College. He came from somewhere up near the Bunya Mountains and had been involved in the running of the early Bell State School fund-raising trail rides when a popular bike for that area was the CT110 because it was light and low geared. His model 212 would have been like a Superbike to ride after a CT110. I learned a life lesson from Darcy Redman about s vs Japanese bikes but didn't know it was a life lesson until about 15 years later with the advent of Twinshock Trials and P65 Trials. The lesson was about why he bought a new Alpina when I had bought a new 
IT175.
Cota 348 that had a problem with the original fuel tap. Maybe it was the famous Monotesticle fuel tap that s came with for a while. Alpina tank up today getting it ready to line it with epoxy resin. have a plastic cap that is missing when you get a bike. I've been making them from a stick of nylon that I scored from somewhere back in the 1970s. Well this time, this Alpina need two stop tips and I only had enough of that original nylon rod left to make one of them. Alpina tank with model 85 basket case has 87 as a part number. Alpinas. The 85 is 250cc and the 99 is 325cc.
