Basket Cases

[David Lahey]

Sorry Paulo. I didn't mean to discourage you. Variety is the spice of life and it is great to see and hear people riding Suzukis. I think the RL has an amazing motor.
It was meant to be a comment on the way the Japanese did things back then. It was the same with the Kawasaki KT and the Yamaha TY. They rushed into production to catch the popularity wave in Trials riding with products that were generally reliable and well finished, but didn't perform as well as the established and more-sorted brands, for various reasons. The trials world could have been so different if they had continued development of their production trials bikes in the way it happened with their MX bikes. Just look at the fantastic trials bikes all of the Japanese brands produced as works development bikes, but no trickle-down to production bikes.
Yamaha had another couple of goes, with the TY250 mono in 1984 and the TY250Z in 1993, but in each case it was about 10 years between each new type of bike, while the others put the improvements developed in their works bikes into production very quickly.

[paulo]

No worries, i knew there were better bikes around at the time, but i like a challenge and i think the rl is one of the best looking bikes of the era.

[Kombivan]

Montesa is best looking, Ty not bad looking, rl was ugly but a beautiful bike to ride. then bultaco i guess is on par with the
ossa's

[paulo]

I'm not seeing the ugly?

Anyhow, if we all agreed on everything the world would be a very bland place

[Greg Harding]

I'm not seeing the ugly?

Anyhow, if we all agreed on everything the world would be a very bland place

Hi Everyone,
Paulo, with you 100% Your RL is beautiful

Overwhelmed by the positive vibes

The steering head has been cut and the angle improved, the swingarm has also been lengthened to maintain the same wheelbase. Hopefully these mods will improve the handling.

Just out of curiosity, how much did you take out of the Steering, either in angle or how you went about It? Also, how much did you add to Swingarm? Thanks in advance.

[paulo]

G'day Greg,

I actually got the dimensions for the chop from takhli44 from this forum. He modified 3 frames and liked the way the 3rd handled so i copied those dimensions. His original post is below. I took all the gussets off my frame and then replaced them when i was done to try and make the frame look original.

The swingarm i think was lengthened about 30mm? I basically just added enough to take the wheelbase back to original after speaking to a mate of David Lahey's up north who had also modded the steering angle on his rl250 and found the bike was overly prone to wheelies before he stretched the swingarm to suit.

Btw, that bike in the pic isn't mine unfortunately, although i hope to get there soon. I'm lacing wheels up at the moment. Cheers Paul

This is what I did and it works pretty well. Remove the two gussets at steering head, make 2 bars (I used square tube) long enough to reach from forks to rear of bash plate welded together at the same width as the inside of forks. Place bars between forks and clamp other end to CENTER of bash plate. Install axle to keep forks from spreading. Hacksaw just behind steering head top to bottom leaving a bit at the bottom uncut. Use come-a-long to pull axle toward bash plate. Make and shape filler strips to fill gap in frame and weld in place. Reinstall the gussets removed earlier.

I cut through top gusset. I did 3 frames at slightly diffrent angles.

As measured from center of front axle to center of lower bolt for engine mount bracket in down tube.
Frame one: 20-1/8 inches Frame two: 20-11/16 inches Frame three: 20-5/16 inches. These measurmens are with the tubes pushed up about 1/8-3/16 inch above triple clamps and forks at full extention.

All 3 worked, frame one fender would just touch fender to exhaust in certain conditions, frame two was comfortable and I use it on my spare bike, frame three I really like and use it on my main bike. Think I took out about 3 degrees and frame one had (as close as I could measure) about the same angle as a 98 Montessa. There is very little diffrence in how these frames ride but quite a lot of diffrence from stock. Also I cut a lot off the steering stops. Turning aproches that of a modern Beta.
Don't let competition get in the way of having fun.
Takhli44
B grade participant


Posts: 84
Joined: Mon Apr 30, 2012 12:19 am
Location: USA

[Kombivan]

The RL was the best bike I ever rode over fair sized rocks and I guess the longer rake and shorter swing arm must have had somthing to do with that as I could never understand why it handled so well on rocks. The rocks were about 2'-3' round in an old quarry and went for half a kilometre to ride this far consistantly over large rocks and not put the foot down once shows the RL to be a well designed bike. So i don't dislike the bike I dislike the looks of the bike on the exhaust side.

[paulo]

How could you not like this?

[Jon V8]

Not posted on here for a while,I'd like to wish you all a happy new year of trials,keep your feet up !
I've recently started a new project,a short stroke 500 Ariel based on a John Bartram frame and swinging arm.Should be so light it will need tying down in strong winds... Alan Whitton is supplying hubs and forks etc,and it will have a Holtworks tank.Mick Ash has supplied a new cam and timing gears,and the Burman gearbox I bought recently has his gears already fitted.Costing a few quid to do,but should be nice when its done.... Hopefully a picture is attached of what I have so far.

[TriCub]

Not posted on here for a while,I'd like to wish you all a happy new year of trials,keep your feet up !
I've recently started a new project,a short stroke 500 Ariel based on a John Bartram frame and swinging arm.Should be so light it will need tying down in strong winds... Alan Whitton is supplying hubs and forks etc,and it will have a Holtworks tank.Mick Ash has supplied a new cam and timing gears,and the Burman gearbox I bought recently has his gears already fitted.Costing a few quid to do,but should be nice when its done.... Hopefully a picture is attached of what I have so far.

Sort of interesting. Is that type of machine classed as a classic or just something with an old engine.