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

Spritepost 12

Incase you were wondering - we tried the Sprite on Saturday but couldnt get the engine to run as clean as I would have liked.

The bike felt lumpy on tickover and at felt choked up at the bottom end. On mid revs it cleared but then failed to rev out cleanly at the top end.

As I have heard a number of different stories about the 350cc conversion not working too well, I have decided to go back to an original iron head and barrel and run the bike in a more original state as a 250cc.

After riding round the trial today with Alan Nicklin who rides an iron barrel 250cc greeves I dont have any concerns about the amount of power the engine can produce when well sorted.

This will mean making a new exhaust but I think the end product will be a much more rideable trials bike.

Will keep you posted

Eventpost 4 - Billingsley BMCA

Rode today at Billingsley near Bewdley. The trial was laid out by Steve Thompson and the conditions made for a great trial that certainly spread the field out but gave everyone a really good test.

The sections were mainly based along a stream with muddy climbs and drops in and out of the water.

Overall I felt like I had a decent ride with few real mistakes and most of the marks lost I actually needed.

The hardest section (6 of my 17 marks) was section 7 which started in the stream over rocks then came out of the water round a fallen tree, dropped back into the water to go up a small waterfall then back out before a tricky drop across the stream to turn left up a couple of ruts to a steep muddy exit. I finally got it right on the last lap when it was possibly at it's hardest but by then 6 marks had slipped away.

I finished 4th overall and 3rd in the Unit 4 stroke class.

Results (Expert)

2 Stroke

1. Alan Nicklin 14

2. Mick Parkes 18

3. Chris Denny 29

4. Jim Pickering 33

5. Mick Metcalf 49

6. Nathan Jones 49

4 Stroke

1. Alan Taylor 8

2. Steve Hay 9

3. Dave Dawson 17

4. Dave Wood 19

5. Tony Perkin 35

6. Dave Jones 52

Pictures from today's event

Spritepost 11 - Before and After

Just a reminder of what has happened in the last 6 weeks!!!!

Spritepost 10 Finished ????

At last the bike is at a stage where it can be ridden..... I wouldnt say finished as it needs to be ridden to sort out carburation and ignition. The original carb has been put back on as it didn't run too well on the new carb.

We will take it out to our local practice ground tomorrow and see what needs to be done then if all is well I will ride it at the BMCA trial at Bewdley on Sunday and see how it performs in a trial.

I think you will agree that it looks fantastic and when you think about the transformation in just 6 weeks since I bought the bike you will realise just how big the debt is that I owe to my Dad for doing this project with little more than hassle from me changing ideas and making suggestions that ultimately meant more work for him

As he is retired and can now spend his time doing his hobby I am sure he has enjoyed doing this as much as I have enjoyed watching it come to life ..... Thanks Dad!!!

(For Info - that's Pete Dawson - Tel 01527 870365 if you want to commission him to do a restoration job)

Spritepost 10

Although we are still waiting for the rear sprocket to arrive from Talon, some of the final touches have now been done in preparation for finally hooking up the chain and giving it a run.

The modified swinging arm and the rear mudguard stay have been returned from the powder coaters and re-fitted along with the new longer rear shocks.

The rear brake arm has been made from 6mm bar rather than the planned cable to route cleanly around the shock and pull straight from the brake pedal.

Mods have been done to repair the top of the forks as the top caps of the forks had been damaged at some point in the past

Sprite stickers have been received (Thanks to Wal Fox for these) and add the nice finishing touches to the tank.

Pictures attached..

Spritepost 9

The wheels have now returned from the wheel builder and its coming together as you can see in the photo.

We noticed when the wheels went in, that the rear suspension didnt work as well as expected and noticed that the swinging arm was fouling on the frame so a modification was needed to shave some off the outside of the swinging arm and a plate welded in to give the necessary clearance. Whilst it will be away at the powder coaters to be re-coated I have decided to also get some longer shocks (360mm Betors) to give a little more clearance around the exhaust when under load and also lift the rear end a little.

We are now waiting for a rear sproket from Talon/Samy Millers so that we can get the chain on and make up a chain guard and refit the chain tensioner in the correct place as the universal Sammy Millar tensioner will need cranking over to meet the correct chain line.

The brake anchors have been made but the cable routing need to be sorted out on both ends as the front arm fouls on the bottom of the forks currently and I dont like the way the rear cable has to pull across from the pedal through the shock spring to the arm - perhaps the best way to go on this will be a cranked rod??

We managed to get a petrol tap from the Malvern show at the weekend so it is highly likely that the bike will get it's first trial to check things over this weekend at the BMCA trial at Bewdley.

Spritepost 8

The front section of exhaust has been received back from chroming and it has been the first opportunity to put the exhaust on with everything else in place. I was a bit concerned about noise and also where the end of the exhaust was to be located so we decided to go for a second silencer.

Dad managed for find a neat little back box that does the job nicely and as you can see from the photos, the routing of the exhaust looks really neat and sets the job off perfectly....