Basket Cases

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Greg Harding
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Re: Basket Cases M49 Trial Preparation

Postby Greg Harding » Tue Nov 01, 2011 9:34 pm

Hi Everyone,

Paul, thanks for the advice about the fuelcap, have not tried it yet as I am concerned about damaging the fibreglass. For now, I have been doing what Brownie suggested, inverted the tank with diesel sitting on the underside of the cap hopefully to loosen it.

All day saturday was spent working on the M49 fitting all of the borrowed bits and pieces. Followed up with another great trial on sunday at Kyogle with SQTA gave me the oportunity to try out the M49. There is something about Bultacos that draw people and everyone has a story to tell, I find it is a very similar reaction when people discover that I own a Grey Fergy. The offers of help when I was having trouble starting it was a little overwhelming. A few firsts for me and the bike as it was the first time it had turned a wheel for over a quarter of a century! First time for me competing on a Sherpa T, the first time that I was riding the only Twinshock bike at a trial and the first time I have used six spark plugs at a trial!

The issues we had was the petrol was dissolving the resin used to seal the inside of the tank which then gummed up the strainer on the fueltap. So then it would run out of fuel, run lean and I think I was flooding it trying to restart, so another new plug would get it going. When I worked out what was going on, cleaned the strainer and all good for a while. This process was repeated several times and luckily never let me down in a section. The sixth sparkplug was a BP5ES, not right I know but the only one left seemed to work the best. The others were all B7ES, was I using the wrong plugs, which plugs are you other Bultaco riders using?

PS Decided to post a photo of this stupid looking thing in an effort to remember where it is!
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Re: Basket Cases

Postby brownie » Tue Nov 01, 2011 9:47 pm

G'day Greg,
I use a BP5ES on both Bullies and a 6 on longer rides they seem to work fine.
Have you tried that mikuni, my M49 seemed to run fine on it
Ross



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Re: Basket Cases

Postby David Lahey » Tue Nov 01, 2011 9:57 pm

Hi Greg I use BP5ES too and don't have problems with fouling even with the standard AMAL.
You know that is the luxury version of the M49 brake pedals in your photo.


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Re: Basket Cases

Postby Greg Harding » Tue Nov 01, 2011 10:23 pm

Hi Everyone,

Ross, yes I ran the bike with your mikuni and all the other borrowed parts, I am thinking the bike is about 60% mine! Dumb luck that I stumbled into a BP5ES as it was the only plug left in my toolbox.

David, luxury version you say, and all this time I thought it was Built Under Licence To Absolutely Cheapest Options!


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Re: Basket Cases

Postby brownie » Tue Nov 01, 2011 10:26 pm

David Lahey wrote:You know that is the luxury version of the M49 brake pedals in your photo.

You mean the one that gives about 1/2 an inch of travel before hitting the bottom tube



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Re: Basket Cases

Postby David Lahey » Tue Nov 01, 2011 10:44 pm

Greg Harding wrote: David, luxury version you say, and all this time I thought it was Built Under Licence To Absolutely Cheapest Options!

If you thought that brake pedal is crappy, you and Ross will have a good laugh when you see what came before it was "improved" to that one. I have deliberately kept most of the weirdest parts of my M49 original so people can see how things were done back then. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately for my feet) I had to fit normalish footpegs to be able to ride MA events. The standard footpegs are fixed, rigid torture devices that are like standing on the upturned blade ends of screwdrivers. I expect it would take about an hours riding to drill through the soles of modern trials boots. I have studied photos of Sammy Miller riding at the time of the early M49 and he appears to be wearing leather-soled boots (no wonder!). Maybe thats why he didn't foot much - his boots had holes that located them firmly onto the bladed ends of the footpegs. They are like something from a Roman battle chariot


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Re: Basket Cases

Postby David Lahey » Tue Nov 01, 2011 10:51 pm

brownie wrote:
David Lahey wrote:You know that is the luxury version of the M49 brake pedals in your photo.

You mean the one that gives about 1/2 an inch of travel before hitting the bottom tube

Ross you have brought back memories of my first Alpina. The brake adjustment had to be perfect to avoid what you have pointed out, and when the shoes got wet, the adjustment changed. Another memory of that bike from when I was a kid(M85 I think) was that it had a huge rear sprocket on it so I could ride trials and one day the chain derailed and the sprocket was so big diameter that as the chain came off, it managed to catch the end of the brake rod between two rollers and snapped the brake rod off. I think that was about when I realised it was important to make sure the chain was in alignment before going for a ride.


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Re: Basket Cases

Postby David Lahey » Wed Nov 02, 2011 7:08 pm

I took some photos of the M49 today. I realised that it is the first time I have cleaned this bike since 2007 and wanted to capture the look before it gets muddy this weekend at Conondale. The handlebars are 7" rise and for me feel perfect on this bike.
Attachments
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P1010068.JPG
P1010069.JPG


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Re: Basket Cases

Postby David Lahey » Wed Nov 02, 2011 7:22 pm

Bultaco developed the Sherpa T continuously, introducing improvements as they were developed. One such development was the arrangement of the frame tubes under the motor. The early M49 in the photos is the last Sherpa T that has the full central frame element under the motor. Part-way through the M49 model run (1968 to 1971) the central tube disappeared. Here are comparison photos showing my 1968 M49 and Cedric Van Heerden's 1973 M91 to illustrate how much ground clearance was gained by the change in design.
Attachments
P1010079.JPG
M91 showing frame tubes close to the undersides of the motor
P1010075.JPG
M49 showing the free space between the motor and the frame tubes


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Re: Basket Cases

Postby Mark K » Wed Nov 02, 2011 9:53 pm

David Lahey wrote:........ I realised that it is the first time I have cleaned this bike since 2007 ...........

I suspect you may have done just a little more than just clean your bike.
Alternatively, if cleaning your bike makes that much difference, maybe I should consider cleaning mine.




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