Beezerpost 14

A couple of slight enhancements done to the bike this week....

1. The location of the chain tensioner was a little dubious as it was mounted near the swinging arm and was located inside the chain quite close to the tyre. I was always a little concerned that in muddy trials this would be prone to being caught by mud on the tyre and potentially being dragged downwards. Mechanic Pete had the bike this week and changed the location of the mounting point to the inside of the frame where the footrests are located and this has allowed the chain tensioner to run outside the frame and cranked inwards. I have added an X Block tensioner pad and will give it a try this weekend in its current rough form to make sure that it works before tidying up the welds and painting it up.

2. The NJB rear shocks were OK but I found them a little dead in action and wanted something a little more adjustable and lively on the rebound. After taking a look around I decided to give the latest Betor pro shocks from Sammy Millers a try. The certainly look good and initial thoughts are that they have achieved what I was aiming for but proof will be in the riding so will update the BLOG tomorrow night - will let you known how they perform. Note - I was intending to give the 'Magicals' a try that Mick Andrews is doing with Alan Witton, but none are available at the moment and as you know if you regularly read my BLOG, I didn't have the patience to wait a month at least for them!

3. The Sammy Miller footrests that I put on when it was built were used because, to be honest, they were the only ones I could get hold of at short notice when the original Hebo ones didn't work because I had ground the backs down to fit the old frame. They work OK but aleady have started to point downwards. This week I went to BVM in search of something new.... I was tempted to buy some Raptor's but at about £170 I found it had to justify the cost! After checking out all that was on offer I chose the S3 pegs that you see in the photo. They are very similar in size and shape to the Raptors but not made from titanium and at a reasonable £45 they look like a bargian if they hold up OK. They come with 2 red shims to allow a small amount of movement in the positioning on the mounting bracket which means that you can adjust the height by about 5-6mm depending on where you place the shims. I have them at the lowest position with just 1 shim being used on my mounting brackets.

Tomorrow (Sunday 2nd Aug) I am going to the Northen Bike Championship trial at Llangollen. First time on a road trial since the Sammy Miller trial last year on the Ariel. Hopefully the rain wont be too bad! Will update the BLOG tomorrow night....