The 2024 Telford Classic Dirt Bike Show Episode 5

In this penultimate Episode from the 2024 Telford Classic Dirt Bike Show we take a look at yet more interesting classics which include a superb Wasp 850cc Sidecar motocross outfit, a fantastic Wasp solo scrambler built by Mark Ramplee, a nice Honda XL412, and a super rare and fully British built 1980 Wilcomoto 500.

Yes another warm welcome back to classic dirt bike TV now uh as you know we’re gradually making our way through all of the footage from the 2024 tford classic dirt bike show and I must say thanks to everybody out there who have left mainly positive comments uh with regards the

Previous episodes that we’ve just posted and uh it’s nice to know that you appreciate all of my hard work here at cdb TV now we should just about have enough footage to bring you two more episodes which should just about wrap up this year’s uh tford event so let’s jump

Straight into our penultimate video which of course is episode number five okay so to start this episode five of our tford 2024 coverage we’re going to check out some of the Fantastic bike building skills of Mark rampley who puts together some extraordinary uh machines but uh first

Let’s take a look at this superb structure here which is a 1984 RT warp sidecar outfit and uh this of course has a big 840 CC fourstroke Yamaha uh twin engine to power it and so the story of this particular machine was the it was found some years

Back and it hadn’t been used for quite some time and uh Mark said that the bike was in a dreadful State when it was first found and then the whole machine was fully restored by the guys at wasp and then the word is that soon after the outfit then suffered a quite serious

Crash which once again LED it to it being fully rebuilt and this of course here is the finished result but as you know uh wasp motorcycles have been building these fantastic sidec car motorcross outfits since the early 1960s when the company was then founded by the great Rob rut

Who was actually a sidecar grass trck racer before he then began to build his own chassis in the mid 1960s and more than 50 years later and with a total of over 5,000 sidecar solos and even quad frames being built since then wasp as you’re aware are most definitely the

Guys to talk to if you need a one-off or bespoke chassis built for your latest bike build project but as I said straight away you can see that this bike is powered by what would have mean a very reliable Yamaha XS 650 twin motor but of course this engine

Here has been given the Big Bore tuning upgrades to to beef up the power and increase its ccs and in the past I’ve certainly seen these fourstroke 650 EXs Motors at board and tune to increase their power and this motor here is certainly no different in that respect and it’s now a whopping

840 CC but you can see that this engine here does have the Halco tuning stamped on the engine cover so they’re obviously the company who have done all of the upgrades on this motor although I don’t know anything about who or what hco tuning are all about but uh this excess

Engine more than likely got all of the mods that you’d expect on one of these Yamahas with a big Bard kit and possibly even high lift cams and massive carburetor upgrades as well but I do know that these XS 650s are again very popular choices for power plants in these sidecar chariots

Probably because because of the yamaha’s uh Power and its reliability but H when you look at this engine here all nicely bolted into this lovely wasp chassis you can see that it’s almost a Cathedral of power in its own right but as I’ve said in the past about these wasp outfits

Although I don’t know much about their construction or even their complexities of how they’re all put together but you just can’t help but admire the intricate engineering that goes into putting these machines together now of course the front suspension on these trikes is slightly different from one of your solo machines

With these yss piggyback shocks fixed to this kind of leading link type of front fork Arrangements but again a relatively modern single pot uh front uh disc brake and this particular brake here is by AP uh racing so uh this disc brake system it should be up to the job of slowing or

Stopping our was racer whenever it’s required and also here at the back it’s another pair of yss shocks and again another single pot AP Racing hydraulic stopper at the rear which you can see is again all very well engineered and bolted together now the all important passenger

Who is essential as part of the team to keep these outfits all balanced either stands sits or more or less Chucks his weight from side to side in this compartment and basically the passenger gets chucked around like a a rag doll and generally scares himself shitless in

This compartment as the race insues and he or even she is certainly a braver man than me to volunteer for such a task but without doubt you’ll certainly see this outfit coming from a long way off with this rather striking blue metallic flake paint job here on the the

Tank and on those side panels which I’m pretty sure are all still being made in fiberglass probably because these will be much cheaper to produce than plastic and of course a whole lot lighter as well and uh if you were ever to order an outfit or even a solo motocross bike

From wasping naturally you can have it painted in whichever color it takes your fancy but I must admit this this metallic blue here is quite a nice looking color and radically different from your run-of-the-mill normal motorcycle color schemes but uh going uh by my past experiences with these wasp outfits I do

Remember that the the chassis on these were made from CSF 5 hydraulic grade steel tubing and then of course the were bent and shaped and then bronze welded by those wasp engineers and just to finish off the look of the frame it was normally then bright nickel

Plated but taking a look at some of the other parts on this bike now that gold colored rectangular box here at the front is obviously an oil cooler just to try and help keep that excess Yamaha motor cool although that other little square box on the floor is a bit of a

Mystery because it doesn’t seem to be any wires or pipes or anything going to or from that box but it might even be an emergency sick bag just in case the passenger gets a bit woozy when he’s being chucked from side to side during a Race So this is usually where the real

Magic happens up here in the rider or driver’s cockpit with your usual set of bars and grips and levers but I expect that those handguards will be an important component to protect the driver’s Knuckles from being battered by stones and other debris that will be thrown up from the

Track although as I mentioned these uh side car outfits here are not my usual bread and butter uh machines for my channel and I certainly don’t know an awful lot about them but for me it’s the engineering that goes into building these uh outfits that’s the fascinating

Uh part and when you consider that was been have been putting these creations together since the 1960s then you can understand why orders are still being taken for their skills and expertise right so this is another Mark rample creation and this is a 1965 Ren Tut wasp

Rt4 chassi with of course a Triumph twin 350 engine another fantastic solo machine more than likely used as a trials bike but I suppose you could do other things with this machine as well but uh this is as I said was built by the very skilled hands of Mark at rample

At Tri R motorcycles now if you’re a regular visitor to my cdb TV channel you may remember that lovely wasp solo of marks that we featured at last year’s tford shown it appears that marks come up trumps once again with this uh little beauty here but once again this bike has a wasp

Designed rt4 solo chassis with what I assume it has the motors engine oil inside the frame not unlike of course the Rickman chassis of their day which usually meant that you don’t have to have a separate oil tank on the bike thereby reducing the weight ever so slightly but you can

See by the welding here that these frames have been superbly engineered and the welding on this particular frame here is absolutely first class now the engine that powers this wasp is a twin cylinder Triumph 350 four stroke another quite common trials bike uh Power Plant on these 1960s British

Built machines now the fuel is fed into the motor by an Amal concentric carburetor which naturally feeds both of the cylinders through a Twin Branch type of intake although for me the engineering on this bike’s exhaust system is absolutely superb and this is just a piece of sculpture in its own right as

It sort of bends and twists its way around that Triumph engine and then of course it just joins up into this lovely crafted alloy collector box with of course that exhaust guard there made into a sort of t- shape which I expect is to stand for Triumph but of course after it goes

Through that collector box the exhaust then exits here at this left hand side with more perfectly shaped aluminium and another kind a wired guard there just to help keep your leg from being scorched on that exhaust pipe but again another fantastic piece of engineering from Mark

Rampley now the bike’s fuel tank is what I think is more or less the same fiberglass kind of parts that are used on the three- wheeled outfits although I just can’t help thinking that they maybe a smaller and kind of Slimmer fuel cell would have been a much more practical

Part than this kind of bigger capacity unit especially if this bike’s main purpose was to be used in Trials events but uh nevertheless here at the front of our rt4 350 wasp I’m not entirely sure as to what make our model Forks are bolted onto this chassis they certainly have

The look of maybe a pair of Italian seran or something similar to that although again I’m just really guessing but as you’d expect on a 1965 designed motorcycle it’s old school drum brakes and of course a nice pair of Steel chromed Wheels there as well so these uh rear shocks are again a

Pair of suspension units that I’m not too familiar with but uh you can see straight away that these are well made with their alloy bodies and their chromed Springs and they do have some kind of writing there on the shot bodies although it’s kind of hard to make it

Out here under the glare of that video lighting but without doubt these certainly look the part but certainly Mark never seems to fail to impress with the quality of the bikes that he brings along to the tailford show each year and in fact and should he told me that he’s already

Working on another special for next year which should be quite interesting to take a look at although I don’t know if this featured rt4 Triumph here it was actually built for a particular customer or even if it’s up for sale but one thing’s for certain that if you’re ever

Lucky enough to purchase one of these runt solos or even one of the psycher Motocross Racers then the one thing you will be assured of is that it’ll be very well put together using all the latest up-to-date materials skills and expertise so there you have it that a

Nice couple of duties there from Mark rampley okay so this was yet another interesting bike from this year’s tord show and this is Sean Smith’s 1974 Honda XL 412 CC uh four stroker so basically the bike consists of a stock standard Honda XL chassis from 1974 but that fourstroke motor there which was

Originally of course a 350 power plant has now been beefed up and bored out to give it 412 cc’s of Honda power but overall it’s quite a nice looking piece of Kit with its red color scheme and nice alloy fuel tank although will not get into those black wheels

Because we’ve already discussed that particular subject of putting black wheels on a classic dirt bike so we’ll just slid slip that particular debate for the time being so this Honda motor here as I said was originally the stock bog standard 350 which is now had

Surgery to take it out to 41 2 CC although I do remember remember that the great John Banks when he raced his Maryland Honda back in the day when that particular bike had much the same motor in it as Sean’s but it was also bored out to 500 CC which consequently led to

Most of the internal Mechanicals in the engine coming apart because it just couldn’t handle the increase in the power now Sha’s 412 Honda engine has a quite sizable 38 mm Muni carburetor to keep that engine fed with its fuel so that should keep that high compression piston

Happy as it Bobs up and down in that big bore cylinder and to provide all the Sparks for that big bang motor it’s an electronic CDI ignition system from electrics world and I expect that the remainder of this engine’s bits and pieces will also have had major upgrades

But uh Sean never actually listed them on the information that he supplied me on the day but as we move on to the bikes uh front Forks now I expect that uh these will be the original Honda units that came along with this 350 bike and they’ve certainly got some nice yss

Plastic covers on them there to try and protect the fork bottoms but I’m almost certain that these are the stock 350 drum brakes which although weren’t fantastic for their day they were still adequate uh for their time and again here at the rear these back drums had

Much the same uh effect as the front in terms of their stopping power and once more these did their job reasonably well and as we continue to move onto the back of Sha’s bike it’s a pair of dutch-made ryer shocks which appear to be very popular with the classic and the

Twin shock ERS these days so these must do their job reasonably well enough otherwise I don’t expect that these kind of guys would be buying them although I’ve never actually used them myself and once again another nice touch here on Sean’s Honda is this alloy fuel tank which I’m pretty sure was painted

Red on the Honda original bike and these 350s back in the day but uh it certainly without doubt gives the bike a completely different kind of look and those nice alloy anodise triple clamps there are again Quality Parts from Phil Denton engineering although despite those black wheels this is still a very

Nice looking bike from Sean Smith now uh this was another old classic that was being offered up for sale in the show and this was an early 1970s a Stormer possibly a 250 uh with of course that vilers motor now this bike here was being offered for sale for

2,250 and it certainly looked like it was a quite good original uh looking example which on the face of it appeared to still have all of its original parts it’s still intact but uh naturally it was in need of a bit of R and R which is uh recommissioning and restoration but

These old stormers certainly uh do make great starter bikes if you want to get into classic racing because they’re relatively cheap to buy and you can uh still get New Old Stock parts uh for these bikes and uh they’re quite a good bike to work on as well because

They’re not that complicated to repair and of course these old a stormers weren’t exactly super fast in their day but they were light and you could certainly Chuck them around the racetrack and that villar’s two stroke engine although not that powerful was still quick enough if you had a top

Rider in the saddle although in terms of a cheap entry level classic Scrambler this is almost a perfect choice although this bike here was advertised at 2250 uh who knows you may even have been able to negotiate that price down a little uh with uh the seller but for me

This was certainly one of the more genuine Bargains at the show uh this year here right so next up on our tford Walkabout was this quite nice pair of Italian Moto v twin Shockers which only just managed to work my way around to get a few shots but again another bike

Manufacturer from Italy and a quite rare pair of bikes that you certainly don’t see too often here now in the UK now uh Tim who was the actual owner of these bikes only had these two Villas here on display although he also had a list of about another six or seven

Machines ranging from the late 1970s to the early 80s that he was selling and appears that Tim is definitely the Villa man here in the UK because he has lots of bikes and spare parts for these Italian built Moto vas but with regards this uh particular engine uh this is the bigger 480

CR and these Villas always had these big radial fins on the Barrel in the head and it was often quite hard to distinguish the smaller 250s from these Lar larger for 80s but further day these Villas were certainly quick although just a handful these bikes were brought over to the UK in the

1980s but in their native Italy and some of the other countries in Europe like France and Belgium these Villas were very prominent at Motocross events and they even won titles in their native Italian Motocross championships but this other Villa here is a smaller uh 250 MX with an alloy

Fuel tank but many of these Villas did have plastic tanks for their time and some were even translucent so uh even looking at them from the outside you could quite easily see just how much fuel was inside the tank but certainly this is another example of these rare

Moto vas and actually these 250 engines weren’t only used in these Villa motocross bikes but the they were put to good effect in cart racing as well so again that was all Testament to just how good these Italian engines were and in fact some of the other famous Italian motorcycle manufacturers like

Andelot also used these Villa power plants on their 1982 motocross race bikes and as I said it’s h quite a rare site seeing one of these villas with an alloy fuel tank rather than the more common plastic one which always seemed to be the more popular choice when it

Came into the fuel storage on these bikes but uh this one here that’s fitted onto the bigger 480 is a much more common fitment than that alloy replacement and again you can see a long alloy tailpipe on this bike and I certainly don’t remember them being this

Long but of course this could be another replacement or upgrade uh part but the shocks are certainly very good quality piggyback units and I’m pretty sure it was the old Cy coo shocks that Villa used to fit to these bikes at the factory back in the day but as you’re

Aware those cyos were pretty dire units but uh anyhow a nice pair of rare Italian Stallion there and they quite good to see them at this year’s tford show a 250 and of course a bigger 480 Moto V and I think both of these bikes will have been probably from the

Late 1970s or at least the early 1980s now you’ve heard me mentioning before that there was certainly no escaping the hundreds of Trials bikes that were at tford this year and uh in this corner of one of the Halls we had these lovely collection of Osa trials

Machines which were all up for sale so if you were looking to maybe add another classic TRS bike to your collection then this particular part of the hall was where to find all the bargains and one such model was this 1980s tr80 uh 350 big yellow gripper which was going for just under

£3,000 now as I said I’m certainly no trials bike person but I still thought that the price on this bike was quite decent money for one of these iconic 80s trials bikes and this one here certainly looks to be in proper original condition but more than likely this bike

Here will be maybe a 1981 bike because I do remember a friend of mine who owned one of these big yellow grippers back in the day and he always thought it was a fantastic little bike to ride but I’m not sure why this particular grippers and got lights

Fitted to it because you’d hardly think that you’d need them with that bright yellow color scheme because you probably see this bike coming in the dark from a long way away but it’s without doubt a striking bold color scheme that’s for sure but I’m certainly no expert on

These uh 350 big yellow grippers but this one here certainly appears to have all the correct original bits and pieces bolted onto it but whether it was actually sold on the day I don’t know but it certainly make a good weekend trials bike for somebody if they maybe

Wanted to get themselves into classic trials now sitting alongside the 350 gripper was this quite Immaculate uh 250 which I’m pretty sure were designated the TR uh 250s and again this bike here is almost Immaculate and whether it’s actually undergone a restoration recently I don’t know but I suppose if you were a

Trials Rider and a trials fan of these bikes then why wouldn’t you want to own both or even one of these fine specimens to put into your collection but uh as I mentioned before this was just another couple of the hundreds of Trials bikes that were dotted around the halls of tford this

Year and we’ve got just one more trials example to show you when we get to the last and the final episode from this uh show which we’ll post here on my channel very soon but to say the least I was very impressed with the originality and the general condition of both of these

250 and 350 grippers and uh if you were one of the lucky people who eventually managed to buy them both or even just one then for sure you’ve certainly got yourself a nice trials bargain okay so just to finish off this penultimate episode from T for 2024

We’re going to take a a very quick look around Terry pickering’s super rare 1980 British made built and manufactured wil camoto 500 now for those of you who are regular visitors to my channel will probably know a little about this bike already but for those of you who aren’t as

Familiar with this bike’s story then here’s a short resume so the Wilcox family from Herer in the UK who designed built and manufactured all of the parts to build this bike were heavily involved in motocross racing and the repair and the upgrade to motocross bikes and sometime

Later the family had a mad cap notion to just design build and then sell their own hemade dirt bike machine although this bike here wasn’t going to be a spare parts machine where they’d just buy in all the components from other manufacturers and then bolt them all together because the Wilcox family were

Brilliant Engineers so they just tooled up and made every single component themselves and the end result is exactly what you’re looking at here although without uh going into too much detail in this very short clip basically all of the bike’s parts were made by the family apart from this 500

CC Motors magnesium casings that were sourced to an outside Foundry who cast the casings and then the Wilcox family did all the Machining to fit the components inside but there weren’t many of these wiam motos built or even sold in some s it was as little as 30

Machines and others say it was slightly more depending on who you actually speak to but one thing’s for sure these British built machines are super rare and this particular bike here was found and then restored by Keith re now once the family had built the first uh prototype it was uh the

Legendary works Kawasaki writer Lawrence Spence who was the development writer for these wiom motos and I do remember Lawrence telling me about how quick this bite was but as with all prototypes or brand new machines that needed further development and a bit more testing but Lauren said that his first impressions

Of the bike were certainly good now one of the other quite Innovative Willcox ideas was to make this front hub and the disc as a single uh unit which was quite unusual because uh The Hub was made of magnesium and the disc was made of steel so it was quite Innovative to

Try and get these two different metals to combine to make this one single unit and again the Wilcox family even designed and built their own alloy swing arm and rear suspension system which for just a local kind of Backstreet manufacturer was quite some feet considering that it was Silling and

Lumber cutting that was their bread and butter day job now this big canister here fixed onto the top of the swing arm of course held all the gas and the oil for that single Monoshock uh rear suspension but there’s H just far too many parts and innovative ideas on this

Bike to mention them all in this short clip but uh this bike here was certainly getting a lot of attention over the two days because most people people just hadn’t a clue as to what it actually was and many of them even thought it was some kind of long lost classic from

Japan that they’d never come across before but Terry tells me that he has another two of these bikes awaiting restoration so he’s already secured a very big percentage of the few Wilco Moto bikes that were actually built and these already it turned down quite a few offers from from people trying to buy

The bike off them but how can you put a price on such a rare item as this because after all this is yet another long lost part of our British motorcycling history so there you have it that’s uh the latest batch of classic Racers from the 2024 tford classic dirt

White show as I said we still have enough footage to bring you one more episode so I hope you’ll join me for that very soon but for the time being thanks again to everybody for making the effort to watch my video content but until the next time it’s goodbye for now