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

Eventpost 13 - Bromsgrove BMCA

Yesterday was the 1st round of the BMCA championship, held at Bromsgrove. As my Dad had put the trial on, we spent Saturday marking out the sections and found a good mix of sections ranging from tight, twisty turns in the woods over roots to natural banks and finally some challenging rocky sections in an area that was being used as landfill. The pictures show the variation in the sections.

I learnt a valuable lesson yesterday, as a potential good ride was spoilt by one incident where I listened to an observer in relaton to the route that a section was taking rather than actually looking at the route for myself. As you can probably guess I took the wrong route and has a soft 5 which I then allowed to get to my head and after throwing my teddy out of the pram I proceeded to have another 5.

This loss of concentration put paid to my day and more loose marks went by the wayside eventually clminating in a 3rd five and a total of over 20 and a finish right down the results.

Not a good start to the season but probably a good lesson for me.

Steve Hay won the trial as expected. I will update the results as soon as I have them.

Dadpost 2

He gets a lot of credit on this site for building and maintaining my bikes, in fact I am pretty useless at anything more than basic maintenance. Here is a pic of my Dad in his usual position - working on my bike for me!! Thanks Dad..

Spritepost 21 - Where it all started

Whilst I was moving house recently I found a couple of pictures of the Sprite when I originally owned it approximately 12 years ago. Thought it might be intersting to see them on here...

Spritepost 20

OK, so I know I said it was finished, but you can never settle until you have got what you want can you??? Perhaps that's why I have been married 3 times!!!!!

Anyway, the frame has now come back and I must say I am extremely pleased with the outcome. The frame builder was Roger Heap (Tel No 01527 4793001). It hasn't been the quickest project but having agreed to build a one off frame to my spec I was willing to wait.

In the end, Roger built me a Sprite replica frame to my own spec (basically a copy of the original frame with the dimensions and angles that we had achieved through trial and error during the last build) we had intended to go super lightweight with a very thin guage T45 tube but eventually settled on a Reynolds tube that was a little thicker guage due to the fact that I will never be the easiest on my bikes and at 17st we agreed to be a little cautious.

In addition to the frame and swinging arm, I had a new exhaust, silencer, sump guard, false rear mudgard, seat base, tank and rear mudguard stay made.

Fortunately the left over parts including my spare engine (shown in the photos) have gone to a good home. Richard Clarke has provided a new home following contacts with me through this site. I am sure that when Richard has finished his build, we will post some pics of the bike on here to show it in it's new guise.

So now the new project begins and good old Dad has rolled up his sleeves to start the job in hand. The pictures today show the parts on the day I collected them from Roger.

As we stand today, Dad has turned a swinging arm spindle, the polishing mop has been busy working on the stainless rear mudguard stay and exhaust and we are waiting for the bearings to come for the headstock and swinging arm.

The next job will be to add the brackets for the chain tensioner, chain guard and electrics, the seat base needs covering and then the first build will take place to see how it all goes together and give it a spin before stripping and powder coating before a final build. All sounds easy when you say it like that but I am sure it will keep the chief mechanic (Dad) busy for a while yet!

Eventpost 12 - Shatterford Dudley & Dist MCC

Its been a while since I updated my BLOG as in the last month we have been busy moving house. We moved from Lancashire down to Martley near Worcester last month (just down the road from where the Red Marley Hill Climb is held annually so it will make a nice change to have so many trials nearby since we are now in the heart of the BMCA trials region)

I have managed to get a couple of trials in with a ride in the AMCA re-union event at Aldridge where I dropped 2 marks and finished 4th in the trial on my Cub.

Last weekend I wanted to give the Cub a run out in preparation for next weekends inter centre team trial and the only trial I could find locally was a modern centre trial run by the Dudley and District MCC at Shatterford near Kidderminster.

I rode the Clubmans route as I was on a Pre 65 bike and to be honest was caught between the two choices with the A route being a little too harsh and the B route being too easy.

Still, the intention was to gain confidence in the bike again after riding the Sprite for a while and to give the new clutch modification a proper run out. After a lot of work by my Dad getting the plates and spring tension spot on, as well as replacing the bushes in the clutch we have finally got the desired result with a light clutch and consistant action that performed well throughout the trial.

I managed to complete the trial on clean which is always a good result no matter how easy the sections are and I was pleased to maintain concentration which is something I often suffer with in multi-lap trials.

Results (B Route)

Pre65
1 Dave Dawson 0 Marks
2. Mick Parkes 5 Marks

Twinshock
1. Rob Badland 6 Marks

Clubman (Modern Bikes)
1. Stuart Breeze 0 Marks
2. David Morris 0 marks
3. Edward Harrison 1 Mark

Over 40 (Modern Bikes)
1. CV Alden 2 Marks
2. Martin watkins 24 Marks
3. Alan Cowley 28 Marks