Trials Australia Forums

Hi Everyone,

David Lahey wrote:Greg, that is a great find. Amazingly complete!

Yes David, I am really happy with it and even happier to have it offered to me!


Apparently it has sat for many years, the Bloke I bought it off said he could remember seeing his Father ride it when he was a kid but nothing since then so it came to me as is not running. Since then I have had the carby apart (and that was fairly clean inside) so I think the fuel was drained or used before being parked? The tank had very smelly old fuel in it and some rusty contents but does not leak! So I changed the air filter, pulled the spark plug and checked that it had spark. Compression is pretty good and magneto area is really clean inside but the mains (on flywheel side at least) has a bit of freeplay. It fired up easily and seems serviceable in the top end but hard to be sure as mains are growly? The chain was really stretched so I did not test ride but ran through the gears with bike on its mobile stand.

Now I have a couple of steel tanks that need the rust removed, time to do a batch........

WOW, i'd forgotten about the octagon shaped grips, i think i tried them, but with small hands they didn't work that well

I had those exact grips in 1975. Amazing they have survived on the RL. Must have been stored away subterranean.

Who else remembers the Hex grips and the plastic levers stage in the mid 70`s? Those levers were the worst. I never owned a pair but I knew people who did. The hex grips were also rather evil too!

Bully fanatic wrote:Who else remembers the Hex grips and the plastic levers stage in the mid 70`s? Those levers were the worst. I never owned a pair but I knew people who did. The hex grips were also rather evil too!

Yes the plastic levers were useless for braking due to flex and you needed a very light clutch action for them to work on that end of the bars. I have kept some plastic levers to show people who have trouble believing that something like bar levers could be so badly designed. At least they did what they said in that they are unbreakable.
I found the hex grips comfortable enough but couldn't get them to stick to the bars and I hate the feeling of grips that can move on the bars.

Hi Everyone,

David Lahey wrote:

Bully fanatic wrote:Who else remembers the Hex grips and the plastic levers stage in the mid 70`s? Those levers were the worst. I never owned a pair but I knew people who did. The hex grips were also rather evil too!

Yes the plastic levers were useless for braking due to flex and you needed a very light clutch action for them to work on that end of the bars. I have kept some plastic levers to show people who have trouble believing that something like bar levers could be so badly designed. At least they did what they said in that they are unbreakable.
I found the hex grips comfortable enough but couldn't get them to stick to the bars and I hate the feeling of grips that can move on the bars.

For me personally, one side of the hexagon fits perfectly on my fingers between my palm and my first row of knuckles and that is all! While we are talking 1970s, what about the outfits, do you remember moonboots?

Trials tread pattern:

Now I am happy to leave the space in between bare but feel free to add?

What about plastic sprockets, they make you chain last longer

I just came across an ad for some

Wow, what a find, two piles of puss advertised on the same page.
Not referring to Omodeis, just to avoid any confusion.

Very well said Rod!