Spritepost 14

At long last, but well worth the wait, we are in a position where the Sprite will turn wheels in a trial tomorrow.

We have added the Norton forks, mudguard and stays and the front brake set up from the Cub to this bike which has improved the suspension set up and lifted the whole front end a couple of inches.

The engine is now back from Alan Nicklin who has done some work on the porting in the barrell, moved the spark plug hole in the head to the centre and plugged the original off set plug hole and done some work inside the crank cases.

The engine was received back on Thursday night and Dad had a full day on it yesterday to rebuild the engine and once in the frame, adapt the exhaust to fit the iron barrel - this has been left rough for now to see how it works and if all is well then a new one to this pattern will be made in stainless steel.

There is one modificaltion that will be required. The air filter is now in a dfferent position due to a different shape carb manifold on the iron barrel than the old 350cc barrel. This means that the air filter does not pass through the hole in the frame stay as easily as it was supposed to therefore the plate will need to be cut to take the filter better or alternatively we may go for an alloy airbox that sits in the space in front of the rear mudguard.

I took the bike to Red Marley this morning to run the engine in whilst we were marking sections out for the easter weekend trial. It certainly seems to have plenty of power and has a lovely riding position - overall I am happy with it and am looking forward to see how it performs tomorrow in a trial sitiation. I will post an update and some results as soon as I have them tomorrow.

Pictures were taken this morning before taking it out to run the engine in.

Spritepost 13

Incase you were wondering what is happening with the Sprite, we decided that the engine should return to its original 250cc capacity so the engine is now back out of the bike.

An iron barrell has kindly been donated to the project by Wal Fox and a head, piston and carb manifold has been purchased from Steve Gollings at Villiers Service (01384 265797)

Alan Nicklin has kindly agreed to have the engine and carry out modifications to the porting and the cylinder head.

Whilst the engine is apart we will put a lower second gear in the gearbox so that we know the engine is how it should be right from the off.

The only other thing on the bike that I had concerns over was the front forks, the lightweight MP's didn't seem to have the travel or the action of the forks on my Cub and as I had some new forks on order with Alan Whitton (Marzocchi internals in AJS/Matchless lowers) I have decided to put the front end of the Cub onto the Sprite. This will include forks, mudguard and muguard stays, brake anchor and brake plate.

It should lift the front end a fair amount and give a little more ground clearance too as the Norton forks are 31 inches long.

I will then put the new forks on the cub and have a new brake plate, brake anchor made up as well as adapting the forks to take the yamaha mudguard and stay.

Eventpost 5 - Cawder Ghyll, Skipton - Yorkshire Classic

Yesterday I rode my first Yorkshire Classic Championship trial at Cawder Ghyll, near Skipton.

The venue had everything you could want, rocky streams, climbs, roots, rocks, mud and even some moorland crossings between sections.

The weather started ok but soon the promised wind, rain and hail came in and the sections out on the moor were made even trickier with the wind almost blowing some riders off their bikes.

The sections were good traditional type sections with good use of the natural terrain and streams but when the weather came in and mud was dragged onto the rocks they became quite tricky and could easily take marks.

As usual on rocks I was not riding my best and felt quite stiff on the bike, trying to manual it over the rocks instead of allowing the bike to flow. This also causes me to get tired too soon and with it lapses of concentration make for silly mistakes and thrown away marks.

I started ok but on section 4, a steep climb out of the stream to a turn over exposed roots to the ends cards I landed the front wheel too soon on a cambered root and lost the front end for a slack 5. The other laps I made it out for two 1's and a 2 but by then the 5 proved too costly.

The rest of the trial was cleanable as proved by the winner on 1 mark but again lapses of concentration on relatively easy sections meant another 4 marks slipped away needlessly.

Overall a good trial and proved to me that I need to ride more on the Lancs/Yorks rocks to gain confidence and relax on the bike.

Picture taken from the Yorks Classic web site of me at the end of section 4.

Results

2 Stroke

1. M Driffield 2

2. S Thomas 3

3. C Gascoigne 4

4. C Winstanley 8

5. R Thorpe 23

Unit (up to 249cc)

1. T Calvert 1

2. M Smith 11

3. D Dawson 13

4. D Brookes 16

5. M Cocking 16

Unit (Over 250cc)

1. M Harrison 28

2. D Culf 33

3. T Baker 34

4. M Dickinson 35

5. B Whitaker 36

Pre Unit

1. D Emmott 8

2. J Ford 13

3. I Barker 23

4. I Myers 27

5. D Wear 27