Basket Cases

[David Lahey]

Ouch!!! Sorry to hear about yr injury Andrew. Hope it heals well & soon. Greg's injury seemed to be healing well when I saw him a couple of weeks ago.

David, my guess is VA/VB125 Montesa hub.

Yes that's right John and from memory you might have had insider info

[Greg Harding]

Hi Everyone,

David, your Alpina is looking really nice, no wonder your bikes ride so well. Obviously you have been thinking Bultacos for a while and no, Colflat Rock bike is not a M49 or even a Bultaco.

Chippy, you are right with TLR250 if it was 2 years ago and you are right with TY250 if was last year, however we are talking about this year.

JC1, my guess for the hub was going to be Cappra ?????

It seems both Chippy and I are getting the injuries over and done with outside riding season. A little incident with a circular saw meant that I had 1 stitch in my thumb and 3 stitches in my finger, yes I was doing something that was not well thought out. The Doctor was excellent and very specific with instructions: He said keep it elevated to prevent throbbing as the pain was intense, especially in the thumb which I found reduced when I held it with the uninjured fingers. This made driving a manual quite interesting, other road users were very sympathetic and waved back mimicking my predicament, I am assuming you have worked out which finger! The Doctor also warned me that I may lose sensitivity in the finger, I think he got that bit right!

OK, here is another photo of the bike under the linb:

IMGP7725 - Copy (2).JPG (253.59 KiB) Viewed 5319 times

Now that is too easy!

[David Lahey]

looks like a KT250 now, and a different photo!

[David Lahey]

Must be the season for circular saws vs fingers Greg. My neighbour just did the same

I confess to a flywheel incident too so hopefully Chippy can have a laugh. Mark Casswell has a TY175 that was in a very sorry state when he first got it. I was doing some work on it and needed to get the flywheel off. Puller No 1 was destroyed without any progress, but it was an el cheapo one from China. Next stage, leave it sitting with penetrating fluid for a week then have a go with puller No 2 (a good quality one I've been using since 1976). Still nothing. Give it a good bang with the tension on. Still nothing. Right - out with the oxy torch. Put as much load as I dare on the puller and apply heating to the inner of the flywheel - still nothing. OK leave the tension on overnight and hope that as it cools it will pop. No chance. OK heat it again with the load on and give it a whack on the end. Still nothing. Let it cool again, take the load off, put the load on, take the load off, put the load on again, hit it again - still nothing. Heat it up again and load it, hit it, still nothing.
Getting boring isn't it? Yes I thought it was pretty tiresome at the time too.
Then the next time I loaded it up with the puller, gave it a half-heartred whack and it fairly flew off and went past me and fell on the concrete floor from waist height (the bike was on a bike bench). It was so unexpected I wasn't ready to catch it.
I hope that makes you feel better Chippy

[JC1]

OK this has nothing to do with a Bultaco Alpina. These are some 1970s Spanish rear hub photos for a friend to use for reference purposes. If anyone wants to have a go at identifying the hub, please go ahead. It's from a pretty rare bike though so don't expect it to be easy

David, I didn't recall the inside info - did I see it at yr place some time ago? - but I owned a VB125 for several years.

I should have complimented you on the Alpina too. Nice job.

Greg, you were right - the VA/VB125 is a Cappra

[Guy53]

I could not fine the topic where some of you posted the weight of different flywheel, I have an original one from a ( Canadian ) 1975 TY, that is a B model that weight 2.424 Kg . that's the one with the large thick steel band .

[David Lahey]

David,

Not only vintage/classic hubs, but vintage and classic newspapers on which to display them.

That's really going the extra mile.

Joe.[/quote

No extra effort put in with newspapers Joe, takes that long for them to be delivered up where David lives...

That's right Joe, they don't make newspaper like that any more. The modern stuff is way to flighty

[David Lahey]

OK this has nothing to do with a Bultaco Alpina. These are some 1970s Spanish rear hub photos for a friend to use for reference purposes. If anyone wants to have a go at identifying the hub, please go ahead. It's from a pretty rare bike though so don't expect it to be easy

David, I didn't recall the inside info - did I see it at yr place some time ago? - but I owned a VB125 for several years.

I should have complimented you on the Alpina too. Nice job.

Greg, you were right - the VA/VB125 is a Cappra

Yes you saw it at my place, and I think you also helped identify it for me via forum photos on OZVMX a few years ago. I knew it was made by Montesa, but had never even seen a 125 Cappra so was a bit lost. All the popular Montesa motocross bikes I knew of had the sprocket and brake drum on the same side. One notable feature of that hub is that it is quite heavy for a dirt bike hub, and exceptionally heavy for a 125 MX bike hub. I now think I'll do a weight comparison with a KT250 hub, because it might even be heavier that one of those

[Mark K]

...... OK, here is another photo of the bike under the linb: ..... Now that is too easy!

No ! Spelling limb is too easy.
Sorry, but I just had to take the cheap shot there.
Really I have no idea exactly what make and model that bike might be, but of recent times I have been pondering a much greater mystery. Why is it that you seem to have such a liking for posting pictures of such tiny tiny bikes so very far away?

I'm reminded of the story I heard about David Attenborough making a documentary in Africa about lions. Now in the finished product it looks like the lions are just a few meters away, but in fact they are filmed from hundreds of meters away, and filmed through special long range telephoto lenses. Now in the middle of one of these filming sessions the wind changed direction unexpectedly and all of a sudden, instead of being safely downwind, they found themselves dangerously upwind from the beasts. Several of the lions stopped what they were doing and looked directly at them, and started to make moves in their general direction.

The cameraman, being the true professional that he was, continued filming, but as he did, he reached back into his backpack, and pulled out a pair of running shoes. He kicked off his boots and started to put the running shoes on. David Attenborough said to him "You'll never outrun a lion even with the advantage of those running shoes."

The cameraman replied " I don't have to outrun the lion. I only have to outrun you!"

And I think the clue lies somewhere in there.

I know that you like to post pictures of powerful and savage machinery. I've also seen evidence that from time to time you've had in your possesion various bits of "silverware" ... One particular one looking remarkably like a piece of Japanese exhaust heat shield, and another resembling twin shock absorbers. These among others would seem to indicate that you have some sort of abilities with regard to handling and controlling the aforementioned powerful and savage machinery.

Now I do appreciate that you are apparently trying to allow those of us with not so much ability to handle these beasts, to see them in the wild from a safe distance. The problem is that unlike David Attenborough's cameraman, you've forgotten the long range telephoto lenses that let us see them like we were standing right there next to them. If you were to do that, then even if I couldn't recognise a particular bike I could just read the label and say exactly what the name on the bike says and still sound like I knew what I was talking about instead of saying "Bike? What bike? Is that speck next to the tree a bike?

[Greg Harding]

Hi Everyone,

Bike? What bike? Is that speck next to the tree a bike?

Mark K, is it possible you are overthinking this? It can't be that complicated or I would have no chance of understanding it!

Maybe Guess?