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Hey Y'all
I have 'unintentionally' purchased this rolling grasstrack chassis from Evilbay.
I put a spurious bid on it at the starting price thinking the forks and 16" alloy rimmed wheels would be good for a future project.
I've not collected it yet but the overall dimensions are 6' long and 3'10" wide.
The swinging arm assembly/rear end looks very bantam/tiger cub ish.
Its not overly pretty in the middle but built by a renown grasstrack racer.
The jury is out on how to procede
I need to see what the brakes are up to .... the rear hub looks like a Bsa Bantam hub with the drive'n'drum on the same side, as for the front, I can't make it out til I see it in the flesh. It does look a little more meaningful, although the actuating components seem to be missing. Quietly hoping its a 2LS but not holding my breath.
400 mile round trip to sunny Kent ..... great to meet the gent tasked with selling off his late friends estate.... a professional Frame builder called Tony Cooke, who had also been a life long sidecar racer, particularly at grass track.I saw some of his jigs that had been in his workshop and they were serious bits of kit. It was fabricated in the early 70's but never finished, and there is a top engine mount (head) already in place. The gent said it wasn't built for a big output engine, maybe 25 hp tops, said he'd ask around friends and family and get back to me.
The front hub could be MZ? The rear end assembly is small cc British, money is still on it being Bantam/Tiger Cub. The head set looks like a 1"bicycle system. The build quality is best described as professional ... a lot of knowledge and thought has been put into it's construction, that's why I'm keen to find out what engine the chassis had been built to house. His friend said he would ask about and get back to me, he seems to think it may have been a Honda, it which case it would have to be one from the late 60's early 70's range ... the down tube and spine location would lend itself more towards twin carbs and twin exhausts .... slopper???
It fitted well into the van.
Greetings from the United Kingdom of Great Britain ........ Stonehenge flyby in the pissing rain ...... now that's proper heritage, believe it or not it's actually older than Disneyland.
The rear subframe needs to be lowered a few inches and it can be narrowed by about 3" and still span the width of the monoshock hoop. A brace will be needed from the headstock to the far side of the chair. Chuffed
Well spotted, it was some dickhead in a hire van who was driving like a complete dork,I was glad when the road went back to dual carriageway and he got off my ass.
I've made a small start on the front end and blasted the leading link swinging arm and gave it a temporary coating of paint to protect the metal from further corrosion. The workmanship that has gone into that one component alone is worth more than I paid for the whole bike! It is hand made out of 15 different parts, the quality of the welds is spot on.
A friend has a '76 Suzuki TS 185 engine going begging, this is the 1st gen 6 stud head one with improved porting and a bigger carb, and knocks out 14 ft/lb of torque and just shy of 20 hp. So this could be a possible option.
I've had it confirmed, the outfit was built with a 125cc Honda engine as the power plant. so that kind of defines the performance parameters of the rig. So up to 25 hp tops I think. I've been thinking about lowering the overall ride height - 7" down as much as practical. Minimun height is 4" but anything below 7" is good. What are your thoughts Gents?
Nice detective work, it's great to be able to outfit the bike with what engine it was intended.
If you still intend on using it for grass racing I'd keep some ride height, but other than that a reduction in ride height would be advantageous for handling.
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