The 2024 Telford Classic Dirt Bike Show Episode 6

Ok in this last and final Episode from the 2024 Telford Classic Dirt Bike Show we take a look at our remaining few examples from the two day event including a fantastic little BSA Bantam trials bike. A 1979 Maico 400 twinshocker, a super rare American made ATK 257 two stroke and an Austrian made KTM 125LC from the mid 1980’s.

Okay so welcome back to our final posting from the tford classic dirt bike show 2024 and I do hope you’ve enjoyed all of the previous five episodes that we’ve shown you and uh in this episode here it’s slightly longer than the previous one so we can manage to fit all

Of the remaining bikes and that we filmed over the two days of the event so let’s get straight straight into our first mechanical subject which is a 1981 250 Reed valve Michel that belongs to Peter Williamson so you may remember that we also had a look at Peter’s other

Immaculate alpha 1 Michael that was sitting on Bill Brown’s wolf Sports stand in a previous episode and this is Peter’s other machine this 250 Michael twinch are all decked out of course in this nice yellow livery and unfortunately once again sporting a pair of those now popular black wheels which

I’ll certainly have a word with Peter about why he’s putting black wheels on a an old twin chock Scrambler which as I’ve mentioned before for me is absolute blasphemy when it comes to these kind of Classic Bikes but nevertheless despite Peter’s little misdemeanor and his lack of judgment with the those black wheels

This is still quite a tidy looking bike that’s got some Quality Parts bolted onto it and even the yellow color schemes not even that bad either but it still has the black Michael frame as you can see in the stock Michael re swing arm as well which is quite rare to

Still see on these older Michaels because Riders do tend to to swap these for the much shinier lighter alloy swing arms which although they will be a bit brighter to look at and considerably lighter as well the alloy swing arms are quite soft and I don’t think they can

Take the punishment on the track that the steel ones can and many other Riders who have tried those alloy swing arms usually revert back to the much heavier and stronger steel items but certainly this uh 250 read valve Michael two-stroke engine is one that I’m quite familiar with because I

Did have an identical 250 engine in my 81 Michael when I raced it all those years ago but it was a a great little uh Power Plant okay maybe not as powerful as it’s Bigger Brothers the 400 440 or maybe even the big 490s but uh if you

Just wanted to have a bit of fun at the weekend then this engine certainly made a fantastic Club Riders motor now here on the clutch and transmission side these uh 81 read valve 250 still had the old school primary chain to connect both the crank and the

Clutch together and as you know these primary chains could be a bit Troublesome from time to time if they weren’t checked pre periodically and if they were neglected it could even in worse cases just break alt together but I have to say in all the years that I

Owned my two Michaels that particular scenario it never really occurred but Peter’s uh 250 here certainly has some quite nice upgrades on it with these bullet Alloys procket guard and rear brake lever and of course that replacement CNC machined alloy ignition cover there as well now the front forks on Peter’s

Michael are more or less your standard 81 mro items which even for that year these were still quite decent suspension units and Peters also fitted a pair of these Black Fork Gators just to try and help protect those precious stanions from stones and other pieces of crap that get thrown up from the

Racetrack and as we move on to the rear of our 250 Michael it’s a nice pair of Swedish made Oland uh Pig back racing shocks uh probably uh these will be as good a pair of rear suspension units that that you’ll ever get for one of

These older twin shop bikes and uh these once again are all fully rebuildable and tunable to suit The Writer’s own particular style and weight but this uh yellow uh color scheme is yet another kind of theme that you can have for your old twin shot

Michael and I must say that in the past I’ve certainly seen these old Michael in black and even blue and even white and red and uh it seems these days if you can just imagine a particular color then they can have your old Michael decked

Out in it although on the day of the show I’m not exactly sure if Peter’s 81250 here was being offered up for sale or maybe just as a display item but nevertheless this is still a very nice piece of Kit regardless of those black wheels and uh moving right along onto

The elderfield motorcycle stand which uh they were calling their Bargain Corner show specials and uh the guys at elderfield always bring along one or two of their Red Rockets to tell alord each year and this first bike here was certainly a cracker all done up in the

Moto Fox Graphics I think it’s a 1979 CR 250 and this bike had actually been reduced from what was £1,000 to 7,950 so certainly it’s a massive reduction in the original uh purchase price and of course true to their sales pitch on the day of their Bargain Corner show

Specials now elderfield motorcycles as you know is a small family run aair who have been in business for more than 30 years specializing in all manner of off-road Motorsports and they more or less do absolutely everything with regards repairs uh Restorations or rebuild for all manner of uh motorcycles

And of course they do specialize in the repair maintenance and restoration and supplying parts for these Honda Red Rockets so these are definitely the guys to speak to if your old red rocket is needing a facelift but just uh prior to these Honda Red Rockets being introduced to

Europe in the late 1970s Riders at that time were quite content with their European B tacos husk veras and even Michael but when Honda delivered these Red Rockets to dealerships around the UK then most Racers just couldn’t wait to trade in or even sell their trusty European steeds so that they could then

Own the latest off-road rocket ship that came from Japan and even straight from the crate with absolutely no adjustments or upgrades whatsoever these Red Rockets did start winning races almost immediately and the rest as they say is just motocross racing history and not only were these

Bikes flying on the track they were also flying out the dealership doors faster than Honda could even make the bikes but uh no question uh these 79 CR250 Rockets certainly had it all because even just standing still these bikes it looked fantastic and they of course had that super strong

Steel tubular chassis that was both reasonably light and flickable but the star of the 79 Red Devils was that it had that super quick 250 two-stroke engine that was lightninglyrics red so it was pretty fair to say that the Motocross world had never seen anything like them

Before and in fact uh even today uh these Red Rockets are still very much sought after for classic or twinshock racing and it’s almost impossible now to still find an original unmolested bike with all of its 70s Parts it’s still intact and that’s where the likes of the

Elderfield guys come in who can either Source New Old Stock parts or even have the originals remanufactured just to enable you to keep your beloved red rocket rooster on the racetrack and certainly these few examples that the elderfield guys have uh put together are absolutely stunning

Okay so there’re maybe not all of them got their original bits and pieces still bolted onto them but uh what do you expect on a 45y old dirt bike these days it’s only natural that things like exhaust and suspension parts and other consumables are going to wear out and have to be

Replaced with even a pattern or remanufactured part which doesn’t uh really bother me in the SL this because I think it’s much more important that we keep these old bikes on the track where we can still see them perform uh for the reason that they were built for in the

First place as an off-road uh racing uh motorcycle so there you see it a very nice collection there of what is still an iconic bike from the late 1970s and it’s all thanks again to elderfield uh motorcycles now as rear bikes go this was yet another little gem that I managed to

Unearth at this year’s tford show in this 1999 americanmade ATK 257 was sitting on the DG Vintage Restoration stand and it’s thanks to Young Aon for helping me dig the bike out so that we could have a decent look at it because after all my last encounter with blocking the walkways off

Tford I had to certainly work fast on this bike this time around just in case my ass got kicked again by security butth once again because this is such a rare and quite interesting bike we’re just going to take a little sneaky preview of the bike in this clip

But uh once we’re completely finished with all of the tford uploads we’re then going to make this bike at the very first full feature on my channel immediately after but I’m sure that you’re already aware that ATK motorcycles was the brainchild of Austrian born motorcycle engineer horse Lightner who moved his

Entire family to America so that he could further develop his motorcycle engineering skills and it was actually Lightner who put together his anti-chain tension system for off-road bikes that really put him on the motorcycle engineering map and it eventually led to him setting up his own bike Building

Company which he naturally titled ATK in relation to his anti-chain tensioning system which to give it its initial title was originally called the anti- tension kitten and tribe or simply a ATK for short and uh throughout the 1980s and early 90s Lightner certainly designed some fantastic ATK machines with most of

Them using Road tax uh two strokes or even the big road tax four Strokers which in the USA were certainly the most popular using the big 560s or even the bigger 605 Thumper motors which at that time weren’t exactly cheap to buy and if you

Were lucky enough to own a big ATK in the states at that time then you were certainly a very special person indeed and so our uh particular 1999 ATK has one of the later rotax two-stroke Motors and this is a 257 CC power plant with a counterbalanced power valve and a

Six-speed wide ratio gearbox and by all accounts this was a very Compact and Powerful little beast for just 25 7 and because it was a liquid cooled two-stroke built by rotax it was as you know unbreakable and so much so that these motors were also used to power

Cart Racers as well but we’ll dive more into the engine at a later date but up here at the front end of our ATK it was a pair of Pioli conventional uh 46 mm Forks so these were quite a sturdy pair of front legs for such a light two-stroke bike such as

This and uh here at the back end of the bike it’s a single olens mon shock mounted of course to this left hand side of the swing arm which was yet another hored Lightner Innovation because horse’s thinking was that if you mounted one single shot onto this outside of the

Swing arm it was so much easier to swap it out in a race situation as opposed to all of the hassle of disconnecting linkages and other parts of the shock was mounted in the center and the conventional uh fashion and looking at the bike from this rear view you can see

It kind of looks like there’s maybe even a shock missing from that other side but it was certainly an Innovative idea from hored lightener now uh as I said young Aon DG vintage Restorations had this little ATK Beauty up for sale on the day and uh obviously somebody seemed to know

Exactly what it was and uh they knew about its Rarity so they simply snapped it up so it’s quite lucky that we got these few pictures and clips when we did but uh as I said I don’t want to go into too much detail about the bike this time

Around because this will be the first full feature on cdb TV after we’ve completed these tford uh Clips so make sure that you look out for that coming soon but certainly a rare and very interesting bike this 1999 ATK at 257 right so this was yet another nice

Classic that was sitting on the DG vintage Restorations display this quite nice 400 CZ which was also being offered up for sale and and as far as I know has now been sold to a lucky buyer but again another good quality Czechoslovakian racer and a bike that looks like it

Could be one of those falta machines from way back in the day with that instantly recognizable coffin shaped alloy fuel tank and of course that upswept exhaust expansion chamber now I can’t actually remember if Aaron told me that this was maybe a 380 or a 400 because there was so much going

On over the course of the two days my head was absolutely buzzing with bike stuff but uh you can see that the carb on this engine has been changed from the original uh jof unit for this much better and more reliable Muni which as you’re aware those old jof carbs didn’t

Exactly have a good reputation uh for their quality but uh again you can see a nice porcupine cylinder head which I’m not actually sure if this was a stock standard fitting on this engine back in the day but a few of the barrels fins have also been removed which I do know

Have all been done at CZ HQ and not done in some aftermarket machine many years later but our CZ motor certainly appears to have all of its original bits and pieces apart of course from that carburetor so this alloy fuel tank is again correct for our Czechoslovakian

Racer and this bike is more than likely from the mid 1970s but uh there was absolutely no need for bolts and nuts and washers to hold this fuel tank onto the frame you just simply whipped the belt out of your trousers and then snapped it on to the tank but oh all

Joking aside could you think of a better cheaper quicker or even cost effective way to fit a tank onto a motorcycle because uh this was just a simple case of undoing the leather belt buckle and then the tank it was simply removed mov D but uh even for the early or even mid 1970s the front forks on these czs were pretty good considering the motorcycle suspension Technologies of its time and these old Czechoslovakian Racers also had quite good hubs and breakes for an old school drum and shoe Arrangement but

Even in this modern day I can still see these CZ hubs and brakes being used on project and other special build hybrid bikes so these must have been pretty good for bike builders to even consider using them in this modern day but here at the back end of our 400

FAL these are of course not the original shocks and in fact I don’t have a clue as to what make or model uh these are but the original suspension units that the CZ guys put on these bikes in the 1970s weren’t really up to much anyhow

And uh normally as soon as owners bought the bikes brand new then the shocks were usually the first things to get changed although this is uh yet again another fine motorcycle from Young Aon glad Hill and his very talented Associates at DG vintage racing and restoration so obviously somebody has

Appreciated their quality over the weekend because they sold both uh that lovely ATK and this falta CZ and that was just a couple of the many bikes that they brought along to this year’s show at tford so it just it goes to show you that some bikes can be a bit pricey for

Most owner Pockets but if you present a decent bike for fair money then you’ve certainly a better chance of securing a sale now you may remember in my last episode that we did have one more trials bike to take a look at and I think that we’ve certainly saved the best until

Last with this superb looking little BSA bantom trials bike that was called a wrap bantom and again it was a thing that caught my eye was this little bike’s Immaculate engineering and the quality of all of the modifications that have been made to the machine although

Uh the information about the bike that I was actually given on the day was apparently lost in transit so to speak but uh I’ll certainly try and at least let you have a closer look at this bike’s workings so this here is a little wrap bantom frame prior to painting or

Plating and of course this Frame here is built by drr engineering and uh it looks like these chassis are all bronze welded and the quality of the Ws and the general overall construction of these bantom frames and the many parts that are bolted onto them are about as good a

Quality as you’re ever going to find and I must say it’s quite nice to see all of this engineering on the framework and the bronze welding just before it actually gets covered in any paint or maybe even nickel or chrome plating which it does tend to hide a lot of the workmanship during

Construction but uh here in this shot you can see that BSA bantom motor sitting inside the frame just prior to all of its other bits and pieces being bolted into place but more very nice bronze welding there again with a nice alloy bash plate just underneath the engine which is a very

Important part of any kind of trials bike as you know but by now you’ve probably worked out that this BSA bant motor isn’t your stock standard 125 150 or even 175 uh Power Plant this bike is absolutely bristling with brand new updated Billet alloy parts and uh the

Company that manufactures and builds all of these new parts certainly had samples on display for any interested parties to take a look C uh all secured of course in place just in case some of the sticky finger Brigade decided they would help themselves and uh when you put all of

These parts together along with the completed engine and the bik chassis this is exactly what you get a superb lightweight fully British built BSA wrap bantom a stunning p piece of motorcycle engineering that I’m pretty sure any trials Rider or even a trials bike collector would just love to own or to

Have one in their collection but uh certainly uh my apologies for not being able to name drop the person or the persons who engineer all the parts on this bike but certainly drr and aw Race Engineering certainly something to do with this bike’s construction and there is a

Contact number there on that airbox so it might be worth a quick call if you need any more information but uh I’m quite confident that aw Race Engineering are certainly the guys to talk to about this bike and when you take a look at this uh BSA Bantam motor you can see

It’s no ordinary uh BSA Bantam engine because because it has different engine casings and different ignition it covers and a few other upgrades from what was the original dkw designed engine from the 1960s but again the improvements that have been done on this motor are just absolutely first

Class and so the little bantams fuel tank is once again all handmade in aluminium and then it sculpted to enable it to fit uh neatly onto this uh brand new chassis and uh also at the front end of the bike more customade parts with these nicely uh made triple clamps that of

Course held the front forks of the bike which I’m sure have also been uh specifically manufactured to use on this rrap bantom Trails because they do look far too good to be one of of the more common sanis Maris or other makes of suspension units that you normally come

Across on these old British TRS bikes but here at the back I wouldn’t be too surprised if these shocks also haven’t been specifically manufactured to bolt onto our brand new Bantam chassis although over the course of the two days I certainly did come across some very nice old bikes that had some

Good parts and other upgrades bolted onto them but for me in terms of the nicest trials bike at the show then this was the bike for me that stood out with regards to its Quality Parts and engineering and maybe it’s because my own particular D1 BSE bantom was the

First ever bike that I owned there then maybe that’s what drew me into looking at this bike in the first place and uh if money wasn’t a factor and although I’m not really a trials bike fan I would certainly like to buy or maybe even own

One of these not to ride but just to sit and look at all the wonderful engineering that’s gone into building at this fantastic looking machine so next up as the rare motorcycles continue at tford this was yet another super rare ktm125 LC a model that they H told me only had

A production run of just 6 months and in that time they say that very few of these liquid cooled 125 bikes were actually made now the information that was posted on the bike the day that I grabbed these clips was that the bike was run by farioli corser from Bergamo in Italy and

The writer at that time was JPI andreani who they say won both races on this bike when it was raced at the NSC neider wbach which at that time was said to be the home of the 1981 German Motocross Grand Prix now I’m not exactly sure as to the

Actual year of this bike but it’s almost certainly a mid 1980s machine or thereabouts but the actual year of manufacturer wasn’t posted with the information on the day but certainly our little KTM here was just one of a few Immaculate Classics that were on display on the solo motorcycle stand who uh tend

To buy sell restore and even display all manner of vintage roads and dirt bikes and it’s uh certainly worthwhile a visit to their web page just to try and check out the hundreds of bikes that they have in their stocks but our KTM featured here as you

Can see has a light Steel tubular kind of chassis which is really much the same frame I think that was used on the earlier air cooled KTMs with maybe a slight redesigning of the engine mounting position so as to take this new water cooled motor but you can probably make out that

The bottom part of the KTM engine is pretty much the same crank cases and internals that were used on the old air cooled engines and obviously this top end here has the replacement liquid cooled barrel and head with a slightly re-engineered left hand side clutch

Casing just to enable it to take a water pump so as to pump the cooling fluid around that barel and head now the engines it’s still a simple piston Porter without of course the need for a read valve but of course this fuel is being fed into the motor by a big bing

84 type carburetor so the word is thatth when these little KTMs first hit the racetracks the austrians mounted the cooling system radiator behind this drill here at the front of the bike but when the bikes were raced at some of those wet and muddy European racetracks then these uh cooling intakes were the

First things to get blocked up and that of course led to the motors overheating and seizures were very common on these 125s earlier in their production so of course the bike designers at KTM had to find a better location for the radiator and uh where do you think they actually put

It that’s right uh fixed underneath the bike’s fuel tank here lying horizontally across the top of the engine and I can’t imagine what kind of difference that would have made with all of the heat being generated by the engine but uh maybe that’s why not too many of these bikes were actually

Made and I can’t really imagine that this would have been a an improvement over the more practical original location but despite that strange upgrade on this bike this was still a nice original looking machine and as far as I’m aware this was another classic that was being offered up for sale on

The day although as with many of the other machines I’m not exactly sure if this one here again it was actually sold but as I said a visit to solo motorcycles website might certainly provide the answer but uh as I said this uh was just one of about half a dozen lovely uh

Original looking motorcycles that were on the solo motorcycles uh display stand some very nice looking bikes and uh this was certainly one of more outstanding and rare machines a lovely 1980s ktm125 LC right so just to conclude our coverage from this year’s 2024 tford show we’re going to finish this Final

Episode by checking out this nice 1979 Mich MC 400 and this is yet another bike that’s been restored by Steve coflin you you may remember Steve he was the guy that had that nice 1988 RM250 Suzuki that we showed you in a previous episode but Steve certainly

Knows how to put a bike together and uh these old classics and this 79400 has had the full uh treatment with regards the frame and engine and all the other parts that are bolted onto this bike and this is probably for me one of the best examples of one of these 79

Michaels that I’ve seen in quite some time although uh even back in 1979 these uh 400s were still uh very quick race bags because of that uh brilliant light tubular steel chassis and of course this 400 uh two-stroke motor which as you can see has had the re valve conversion done

On the barrel but back in 1979 these micro Motors would have just been a simple uh piston uh Porter now although the read valve conversion it does help to try and eliminate the bogging down that you used to get going into the slow Corners with these engines uh which was a quite

Common niggle on the piston in Port uh power plants but I can certainly relate to this 400 micro engine because I did have the slightly bigger 440 motor in my old 1980 bike which of course didn’t have as good a chassis as these 79ers but the motor was certainly a peach of

An engine not as scary of course as the mighty 490 of course but the 440 did make a good club Racers engine but they do say that uh if you can’t get your hands on a 490 Michael chassan engine then these 79 frame and 400 engine combinations are still a very

Good alternative because uh they both had quite similar handling characteristics and engine uh Power and other parts like the front and the rear suspension systems were also similar in the way that they perform but uh Steve’s not fully put this old Michael twin Shocker back to its 79 Factory original

Condition because this bike here is still going to be raced as I believe so the old Cy coo shocks have been swapped for these top of the range Swedish made oland’s piggy backs which of course are far and Superior but you can certainly see that this bike’s been well prepped and built

By Steve although some jobs like this superbly painted fuel tank as far as I know were outsourced to professionals and uh as I remember I think it was CNG Auto Body repairs who worked their magic prepping and painting this lovely alloy fuel tank and actually prior to the bike

Appearing here at this year’s tford show it was also involved in a professional photo shoot soon after it was completed and you can certainly see some really snazzy pictures of this 479 bike with of course some lovely ladies in toll if you just take a look at Steve’s website at Steve coflin racing

.co.uk and you should also be able to pick up a few more in bits of information on the bike as well but uh certainly once again this is another top restoration from The Steve coflin uh workshop and uh this is yet another bike that we may just uh take a

Much more indepth look at here on cdb TV at later date so there you have it that just about it wraps up all of our coverage from this year’s classic dirt bike show and I do hope that you’ve enjoyed all six episodes that we’ve uh posted H but

Of course this is only a few of the machines that were actually at tford this year and although we did our very best to try and bring you as many as we possibly could we often uh can’t get access to some of the more uh precious uh motorcycle

Items but thanks again for tuning in and for your comments on the tailford show uh videos but as usual if these are the kind of bikes that you like to look at here on YouTube then why not consider subscribing to my channel so from classic dirt bike TV and the 2024 tford

Show it’s a goodbye for now A