Posting pics of Camels and other animals.

[Haboola72]

Just a trial to download image...
This is the first incarnation with sticky tyres , road gearing. Starter removed , battery and tray gone, X2 silencers , a long list .

Outside jobs. crank journal machined to take roller bearing on timing side , I had big problems trying to retain the plain bearing and it failed twice.
In all I took the motor apart 4 times. The roller bearing is quieter than i imagined and after 1500 kilometers seems fine!
Only other job was having the nylon swingarm bushes turned up.
I bought an early Excalibur 501 motor here in Spain and it's already paid dividends ,yielding a good stator, replacing the one on the bike which had loose rivets, something I couldn't fix .
More pix to follow if this works..

[Steve Brown]

Just a trial to download image...
This is the first incarnation with sticky tyres , road gearing. Starter removed , battery and tray gone, X2 silencers , a long list .

Outside jobs. crank journal machined to take roller bearing on timing side , I had big problems trying to retain the plain bearing and it failed twice.
In all I took the motor apart 4 times. The roller bearing is quieter than i imagined and after 1500 kilometers seems fine!
Only other job was having the nylon swingarm bushes turned up.
I bought an early Excalibur 501 motor here in Spain and it's already paid dividends ,yielding a good stator, replacing the one on the bike which had loose rivets, something I couldn't fix .
More pix to follow if this works..

Nice one. Maybe we need to organise as Sheikh says a 'Camel train in Spain'?

[Steve Brown]

Good work Steve, the bike looks great and I'm looking forward to seeing it in the flesh. Some mud would be the finishing touch.
Maybe we could arrange a Camel train for some midlands trails in the autumn.

It's got mud on it already! Ok, not a huge amount but it was on the green lanes within a mile on its first legal ride
Yes a midlands trail ride would be fun. I've been reading up on what's legal hereabouts. I'll soon be marking up an OS map and planning a route. Your sidepanels aren't forgotten either, I hope to drop them off this week sometime. If not I'll get them to you shortly.

[Steve Brown]

Maybe I should start with something smaller and more decrepit...

I've been practising falling off a DT125R Yamaha. It's much easier to pick up too..../quote]

I used to have a Suzuki DR125 for light 'off-road' jaunts over here. I found it more than adequate for me and then traded up to a DR350, which is even better (but much too risky now I'm at a certain age ). Plenty of light practice needed on a Camel, I would think, plus lots of work in the gym!

In truth any 125 trail bike is more capable than I am! I'm determined to do the laning thing on this though. After that, maybe the 'adventure' thing will do it for me? You're certainly right about the practise and the gym too, I am about to join my local gym... I could probably lose the weight of the starter motor I added to this bike for a start!

[Haboola72]

rsz_1pinup_full (1).jpg (494.5 KiB) Viewed 6362 times

Here's the bike today.
All bits that have been hacked , chopped, removed or replaced have spares .
The most critical of these is 6" of plastic cone removed in the airbox . I'm running a 100 main jet which works well
Things removed: Luggage rack, silencers, starter motor assembly, handlebars, battery tray, battery, all superfluous plastic panels, bashplate, footpegs screen and handguards and even the horn. About 20 kilos saved with the ridiculous aluminium silencers , and 17kilos with more conventional cans fitted.

You really notice the weight saved when riding.

Starter motor rebuilt with new bronze gear and shoes relined. All electrics now work including tank reserve light , kickstand and indicator warning beeper and even the neutral light (sort of ).
Worst bit was getting the decals right , problems with the plain bearing crankshaft journal, having a clutch nut go bang in 5th gear, centre stand cracking and sinking slowly to one side, live feed to the starter shorting out on the exhaust pipe, and bits working loose or dropping off. All currently rectified until the next crisis.

[Derek Wright]

Steve,
Bike looks great, will pop round to see it in the flesh soon unless you are passing ours on one of your test runs.
You'll have to tell me where the green lanes are, will check them out on the mountain bike first though.Think my Camel might be a bit heavy for me off road, front disc's a bit severe too, what is your front brake like, wondering whether to return mine back to a drum. Cheers, Derek

[Steve Brown]

Steve,
Bike looks great, will pop round to see it in the flesh soon unless you are passing ours on one of your test runs.
You'll have to tell me where the green lanes are, will check them out on the mountain bike first though.Think my Camel might be a bit heavy for me off road, front disc's a bit severe too, what is your front brake like, wondering whether to return mine back to a drum. Cheers, Derek

Thanks Derek, I'll be over soon! The front drum...feels rubbish! But, it passed the MoT without any problem, and the forks do compress when you pull it hard and there is some retardation too. If used together with the rear, I can stop the bike pretty well. As you and I are both familiar with British bikes I think we can live with these Mind you, the Kanguro X drum is larger diameter and I will be measuring one up soon to see if that is a straightforward replacement. Off road at least I think the Camel drum is adequate, certainly wouldn't want a grabby brake there. I thought the disc on the Morini trail bikes were meant to be a bit weedy too? You can try mine out and do a back to back comparison if you like.