Eventpost 20 - BMCA Winter Charity Trial Mucklestone

Today was the Winter charity trial at Frank Bourne's farm. As you can imagine the going was pretty slick after the recent rain but the sections were quite good and gave opportunity to put some open sections on that gave opportunity to have a blast.

I dont feel that I had that bad a ride and after the second lap I had dropped only 4 marks which was in the running however I had a small problem when I caught my right footrest on a root and ripped the footrest out of it's mounting.

At first it was still rideable as it was hanging downwards at 45 degrees but then on the last lap it dropped off completely and although I was able to ride a few sections one footed I did lose two 3's where there was little option but to paddle along. In the end I rode my Dad's Fantic for the last 2 sections once he had finished the trial so I guess officially my result doesn't stand.

Still it was fun and after the last trial I was pleased that be finding some grip and at least being competitive.

Bill Bourne was the outright winner on 2. Not unexpected as he was riding his own land and is a bloody good rider but the rest of the results were pretty close and I ended up 5th overall and 2nd in my class so all in all not too disappointed, though some welding work for Dad this week!!

Pictures are from sections 3 and 4 today.

Results

2 Stroke

1. Nathan Jones 17

2. Dave Dawson 19

3, Steve Neale 53

Unit 4 Stroke

1. Jim Pickering 10

2. Alan Borton 18

3. Brian Dale 25

4. Gary Hawkins 26

Pre Unit 4 Stroke

1. Bill Bourne 2

2. Pete Reed 32

3. Bob Greenhough 33

Eventpost 19 - Heightington BMCA

A very strange trial on Sunday indeed. After all the recent rain the stream at Heightington was almost unuseable so the event was largely held on the surrounding banks. The venue is pretty slippery at the best of times but this weekend it was as greasy as it gets.

As this is normally my favourite going, I was looking forward to the trial. As this was the first time that I had ridden the Sprite in really muddy going I was looking forward to seing how it performed.

Unfortunately I struggled more than I ever have getting any grip and duly had my worst ever result in a trial since I began riding I think!!!!

I am not really sure what the problem was, it could have been me being heavy handed on the throttle, the gearing may be too low, the trials 2nd gear was useful but I could have made better use of a 3rd gear had we taken the decision to put one in, we have recently removed some flywheel weight and put a quick action throttle on the improve the bottom end pick up.

Indeed it could have been any one of these things or a mixture of all of them but the upshot was that I rode crap and couldn't have found grip if there was a million pounds on it.

The end result was 117 marks lost against a winning score in the 60's from Dave Wood and a finish right down the order in the Expert class.

I wont do anything hasty and plan to leave it as it is for the nest trial just incase it was just rider and conditions not getting on well together.

Still, I actually enjoyed the trial and had great fun even though most of the day was spent either with my feet down or on my ear and thats what we do it for at the end of the day isn't it??

Spritepost 30

As I had the bike out today to check that all was in order for tomorrows trial I thought that i would do a few pics of it in it's completed state, if there is such a thing as a finished bike?

Fanticpost 6

The tank has arrived from Chris Stevens at Classic Trial and the new 300 seat has also arrived so it's now looking the part.

We now need to make a new bracket for the seat to attach to as the 300 seat is much shorter than the original 240 seat.

Also the colour match on the tank and side panels is a little off, so we may have to re-think this, either by spraying the side panels in the same colour or even doing something a little different on the sides.

I think we are looking at another couple of weeks for the rear wheel to be built, having had to order a new rear rim but it's looking like it will be ready to ride in a trial over the Christmas period.

I will keep the BLOG updated as we go.

Fanticpost 5

The Fantic is now making some progress at last following some extreme delays in the postage system.

I have the wheels away being reuilt with Terry Millichap who is lacing my newly powder coated white hubs into black anodised rims

The side panels have been received from the twinshockshop and any day now should see my tank from Chris Stevens at Classic Trial and a new Fantic 300 seat to finish the job off.

I am hoping that I can give myself the finished bike for Christmas the way things are moving.

I will add some more photos as soon as I have some

Eventpost 18 - Wilderley BMCA

Wilderley BMCA trial today and after the rain yesterday the going was quite muddy but suprisingly grippy.

Nigel Houlston put on a good trial today with good use of the ground and the hard route certainly gave a few challenges to the field.

I can honestly say that the bike was fantastic and didn't miss a beat all day and I think I rode well, certainly after a first lap mishap.

The result doesn't quite paint the whole picture of the day as I lost 5 or my 9 marks for going the wrong way on section 3 on the first lap, therefore I actually rode the trial for 4 marks which I was happy with.

STOP PRESS - after posting this last night, the results showed that I had finished 2nd, however later on I received a 2nd set of revised results as there has been a counting error on the 1st set and I found that I had won the trial. The resvised results are shown below;

Results

Hard Route

1. Dave Dawson 9

2. Nathan Jones 11

3. Dave Jones 14

4. Pete Reed 21

5. Gary Hawkins 24

6. Alan Borton 24

7. Graham Roberts 31

8. Steve Thompson 48

9. Bob Greenhough 54

Easy Route

1. Roy Jones 0

2. Andy Lane 3

3. Dave Hammersley 6

4. Colin Smith 7

5. Joe Owen 7

6. Ray Barrett 7

7. Ian Bullock 8

8. Tony Bradley 9

9. Al Ussher 10

Spritepost 29

The tank has been received back today and I am chuffed to bits with how it has turned out.

Thanks really has to go out to Piers Dowell (Piers Dowell Custom Paint Schemes) Tel 01568 750477 - also check out his web site at http://www.piersdowell.com/ for the type of work he completes.

Tomorrow will be the first run out with the bike in it's finished state at the BMCA trial at Wilderley- I am sue it wont be long before I am reporting a dent or a badly scratched tank but it is just how I imagined it would turn out and I am really pleased with it. I will post results and pics from tomorrow's trial tomorrow night.

Incase you will be there, it looks like I will have this and my Fantic on show at Alan Wright's Classic Bike Show in Feb at Malvern.

Spritepost 28

I tried my best to keep it under wraps but as Piers has just sent me the first photos of the tank I felt that I needed to share what it's going to look like!!!

It has just been flatted to have some more lacquer coats so will not end up looking dull as in the photo but you can see what the finished paint will look like.

The idea came from the original Sprite logo being on a Union Jack background and I really wanted something that would be identifiable yet different - i think that has been achieved with this???

I think the airbrushed Sprite and Villiers logos really set it off rather than running stickers as I had originally planned to do.

Let me know what you think, either by comments on the site or to davedawson444@btinternet.com

Spritepost 27

I mentioned a few weeks ago that a couple of modifications had been made to lighten the clutch and also to lengthen the carb manifold in order to achieve a little more bottom end punch. Here are a couple of pictures to show the midifications done by Alan Nicklin.

The Manifold is a couple of inches longer than standard but also moves the carb out to the left to allow the air filter to fit to the side of the frame.

The clutch is now a lot lighter thanks to better routing of the clutch cable which now comes over the engine and the end of the cable runs round the wheel and directly on to the clutch arm. This has allowed us to put all the springs back in the clutch and still achieve the light feel that I was looking for.

This was a prototype, however I understand that Alan is making a batch of these to fit onto the engine mount for all frames using villiers engines.

Spritepost 26

Today the ignition system was bench tested by Simon Bateman and it was discovered that the sender unit at the flywheel had broken down for the second time.

It has been replaced again and the engine has gone back together with a huge spark present so we will have to just see if it was merely bad luck and run with this set up to see how it holds up. Any further failure and I think it will have to find the bin to make way for another ignition system.

One other small modification this week has been a couple of aluminium inserts above the springs to act as preload in the forks as the front felt like it was sitting a little low under my excessive weight. This should make the front sit up a little better and make the front end feel a little lighter.

The tank went off to Piers Dowell Custom Paints on Sunday to be sprayed and should be back with me next week. I have commissioned a paint job that will certainly make it stand out in a crowd and you will certainly recognise it from the other bikes at any event that you see me at!

I will take some pics and post the finished product when it comes back. I think this will add the finishing touch as it now feels like I intended when I had the idea to start the project.. You never know Dad, I might actually be happy with it now! What will you do with your days when this and the Fantic are finished????

Eventpost 17 - Classic Experts Trial Rhayader

I nearly rode the Classic Experts Trial today. Got entered, turned up, kit on, started bike all OK then it stopped and that was it....... Spectator for the day!!!

For some reason we think the electronic ignition has broken down for a second time and after checking the ignition, flywheel etc etc etc it just would not start.

As this is the 2nd ignition system I have had on the bike from Simon Bateman at Nametab I fear that we will now have to give up and look at alternatives as reliability seems poor and a few more days like today with 18 quid entry and petrol for car and bike it is going to be a costly exercise unless it gets resolved soon.

I am thinking Rex Gaunt or PVL systems unless anyone advises something else. Will ask around and keep the BLOG updated with progress..

Fanticpost 4

The re-ground forks have come back now and the bike is on it's wheels so not far from being ready to try in a trial.

Just waiting now for tank and side panels to come through from John at the twinshockshop which should arrive in the next few weeks.

Fanticpost 3

Things are moving at quite a pace on the Fantic, but we have now ground to a halt waiting for suppliers to get the bits to us that we need.

A couple of additions this week are a really neat brake pedal, brake arm, chain guard and chain tensioner all made by my dad's fair hand.

Once the new head gasket arrives this week the head can be secured and the exhaust fitted then we are waiting for the forks to come back from re-chroming and the front end can go back together.

It will then be the tank that causes a delay to the final build as this will undoubtedly be another couple of weeks to get the final replica tank so we may have to use the original tatty tank for a while to get it out and try it.

As you can see from the pics it certainly is coming along nicely!

Eventpost 16 - Shatterford BMCA

My Sprite has been back to Alan Nicklin this week for a few mods to be done (thanks Alan!) the issues I had been having with the bike being a little sluggish off the bottom were looked at and a new carb inlet manifold, some flywheel weight removed and some work on the carb slide have resulted in the engine being transformed.

Another nice touch has been a wheel to route the clutch cable in a more direct line and make the clutch lighter - if fact it now feels as light as a hydraulic clutch on a modern bike - perhaps the cramp from over using the clutch will now subside!!

Anyway, the bike is running and performing well but I am afraid I let it down myself this week. The trial was very easy and as normal I found myself losing silly marks due to concentration towards the end of the trial - in fact 3 laps for 1 mark and then 9 marks on the last lap was the result of taking things too easy and not concebtrating on the task in hand. I think Alan Nicklin and Steve Hay were both clean and I would have been fairly satisfied with 1 or 2 marks lost but slack marks on sections 6 and 7 plus a 5 on the easiest section of the trial (dont know why but the observer must have seen something he didn't like) made for a spoilt afternoon out..

I am afraid that this happens far too often in easy trials when i think about what I am doing on the first couple of laps then go into my own world and undo all the good work on the last lap thinking about what's recorded on sky for when I get home!!

This week I am planning to ride the Classic Experts Trial at Rhyader which is a single lap road trial so I should be able to focus on what I am doing and see if a harder trial brings out the Dave that can ride a bit!!

Anyway - thanks this week go to Bully for the pep talk - mate, I know you read this so thanks for the words of wisdom!!

Fanticpost 2

The majority of the work has been done already. We decided to leave the geometry of the frame as it was but make some adjustments that would help the overall handling of the bike;

• The footrests have been moved down and back to lower the centre of gravity and make it more stable.
  
• The top yokes have been cut to move the handlebar clamps forwards and make the steering more precise and quicker


• The clutch lever has been lengthened and a new cable stop has been machined to keep the cable in line with the lever


• The engine was in great condition so it has just had a cosmetic make over with the head and barrell shot blasted and the cases rubber down and sprayed silver


• The frame has been to the powder coater's and we decided to make it a little different by doing it in white.


• The fork stansions have gone off to be ground and re-chromed and the lowers have been stripped and polished


• New wider footrests and rear shocks have gone on


• The tank has been sent away to be used as a pattern to make a thermoplastic replacement as original replacements were not available from the usual supplier
  

We are now waiting for a perts list to arrive from Steve Goode motorcycles which includes controls (cables, levers, twistgrip, grips, new tyres, fork seals and dust covers, new carb jets and airbox hoses, air filter etc etc)

As you can see from the pictures, the build has started and it's looking good already. I will ost more pics as it comes together

Fanticpost 1

We have a new project on the go......

I had been thinking about a twinshock for a while and was thinking about the common Majesty or TLR 250 route, however the prices seem to be getting silly for a tatty bike, let alone the 3-4K that sorted bikes seem to be fetching.

So I asked around and there seemed to be a general feeling that the 240 Fantic was still sensible money for an investment and were quite well sorted in standard trim.

I looked at a few and finally settled on this one off ebay. Although it looks a little tatty, this is merely cosmetic and the engine actually runs very well with no rattles and knocks and has bags of power (in fact, I think it may need some work doing to actually soften it down a little as it feels like riding a motocross bike after the docile engine in the Sprite)

So, of course my dad has something to do now to keep him off the streets and it's already stripped down and work has started on the restoration along with the odd jobs that I wanted doing like moving the footrest position, altering the bar clamps on the top yokes etc etc...

I had thought of making it look very different with an alloy tank, small seat and different coloured frame etc. but I think that it should really have the original appearance to retain it's value so it will be restored to original appearance wherever possible.

Will keep the site updated as the bike takes shape..

Eventpost 15 - Ombersley BMCA

Not such a great weekend last week. I helped to put on the BMCA trial at Ombersley and we felt that we had marked a good trial out with some good use of the banks, cambers and roots at the venue.

The trial started well with a solid dab on section 1 after seeing Steve Hay take a 3, however finding neutral on section 2 when I attempted to change from 2nd to 1st after the initial steep entrance to the section left me with a 2. Still more was to go wrong when I got hung up on a root in section 3 leaving me in the wrong place for the steep climb at the end of the section and a 5 was on the card..

The rest of the lap went without further loss, however when I again misjudged the climb in section 3 on the second lap and had to bail out. Unfortunately I twisted my knee on landing and had to run back down the bank causing further aggrevation to the knee that I recently had the operation on.

This meant an early bath and a spot of observing. I am now sat here 1 week later and still have some swelling so I have decided to take a couple of weeks off to give it a chance to settle down.

Eventpost 14 - Peplow BMCA

First time out on the 'new' Sprite today and definately off to a good start....

Todays BMCA trial was at Peplow near Market Drayton, the ground was generally very dry and loose amongst the trees, making the sections quite tricky on the first lap until the lines appeared, then with the loose earth pushed to the sides or the sections it meant that as soon as you got off line the grip went and it became easy to loose the odd mark as the grip soon vanished.

After a good first lap with no marks lost whilst the sections were at their hardest I once again had a couple of lapses of concentration on the 2nd and 3rd laps including a 3 on section five when I just got off the line and needed to work hard to get it to the ends markers. After a few more careless marks I ended on 6 for the day, but felt that I could be in with a shout on that as marks were easily lost and many riders were losing odd marks here and there.

The bike was fantastic and I really feel that I have it how I want it. I sold the cub this week and now only have the Sprite for classic events so I am really pleased that it performed so well. It is noticably lighter now and it shows in the sections as it's much more flickable.

The pics are from todays trial and the results for the expert route are as follows; I did manage the win on furthest cleans from Pete Reed

Class A (2 Strokes)

1. Dave Dawson 6 (Most Cleans)

2. Dave Jones 12

3. Nathan Jones 13

4. Jim Pickering 13

5. Mick Parkes 18

Class B (Unit Construction)

1. Gary Hawkins 9

2. Alan Borton 16

3. Nigel Randall 17

4. Lawrence Alden 25

5. Keith Gardner 34

Class C (Pre Unit Construction)

1. Pete Reed 6

Spritepost 25

Believe it or not, 2 days after receiving the frame back and its ready to go ..... Personally I think it looks superb, even though I am biased!!!

Cant thank Dad enough for the time he has put in to getting it ready for this weekend. There will be one or two cosmetic finishing touches left to do like paint on the tank but I am really pleased with the outcome and can't wait for Sunday to see how it performs in anger.

Spritepost 24

Here are some pics of the bike in various stages of the build today..

Spritepost 23

The frame has returned from the powder coaters and it's looking great.

The build starts tomorrow and should be in one piece by the weekend!!!

Spritepost 22

A quick update on the progress of the Sprite...

The relevant lugs and brackets for the coil, side stand, chain tensioner, lock stops, chain guard and footrests have all now been added and the frame is going to the Powder Coaters this wednesday and the seat is going away for covering.

It is quite possible that the bike will be built ready to ride in this weekend's 2nd round of the BMCA championship.

I will post pics as the bike is being built this week and update the site as it comes together

Cubpost 8

I have finally decided that 4 stokes are not for me......

After building the Sprite I think that the nature of the 2 stroke engine suits my riding style more than the 4 stroke. Having spent some time thinking about this for some time I have decided to take one of two options;

1. Sell the Cub....... With the money spent to date I would need to get at least 5K for it and I dont know if there are many people out there willing to part with that sort of money, no matter how good the bike is.

2, Sell the engine and replace it with a 2 stroke engine.

Having looked around and weighed up the options, the best fit for my frame will be to have a BSA Bantam engine built to slot into it. I have decided that once the Cub engine is sold, I will get an engine built by Jim Pickering and after having ridden Jim's bike this weekend I have no reservations about the capability of the engine to do the job.

I have put my engine on E Bay - Item Number 230173872104 and already it has quite a lot of interest. When it sells next Sunday I will place the order for the Bantam engine and will update the progress on this site.

Incase you have forgotten, the pictures show the engine that's for sale