Very NICE Graeme. Why on earth was the down tube chopped!!?? You've really taken on a challenge there and I bet it'll end up a beauty! .
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When it finished I might christian the thing Lazarus.
But coming from me that might be considered blasphemy
by some
. But it gonna be called nothing other than a piece of 'Spanish crud' until I finish it
Here's the story as told on the previous forum I believe;
"I thought I would put this out there as way of explanation of why
I'm so vague about all things Monty and this bike in particular As
I've said before this is my first Monty and in deed my first non-
japanese bike, road, trail or mx (except for the old El Paso (Duke)).
A local ad 'Yamaha RD350 engine and parts, $150'. It's nearby so I
call. Go around.
Me,"yep, I'll take them!"
Owner, "Okay. But you take the lot or nothing" he points to a corner
of the garage piled with the remains of several bikes. "My lease is
up and I'm moving out this week end. Either you take them or they go
to the tip".
It's a good thing I drive a ute.
I load up the bits, the engine and a lot of old DT250A rubbish,
frames (to become a source of down tube steel ) engine etc
- and the remains of the Monty. The frame is
butchered where someone has cut the left hand down tube and welded
in (badly) a square section of angle iron to form a box in the down
tube. There's an old side port, round case Monty engine included so
I guess that someone has tried to fit an old Monty side port engine
into the centre port frame.
I finish packing when another punter turns up - he's particular
interested in the Monty engine, he is disapointed - Me "$150 and it's
yours!" Him, "Done deal". So I end up with the Monty frame and bits
and a ute load of Yammy rubbish for nothing!!!
The thing with this Monty frame is that it is TOTALLY pulled down -
not into sub-assembles but pulled down into every constituent part.
For example the brake backing plate, the shoes are off, the cams
out, even those little plates on the end of the brake shoe are off
and floating around in a box of bits, screws, bolts, nuts and all
manner of unfamilar dovalackies. All bearing are out or off every
component. Why? Stuffed if I know. And evry thing is old well used
and dirt, greasey and rusty.
This is not a 100 piece jigsaw it is a thousand piece jigsaw.
I'm still not 100% sure what I've got. Iv'e got obvious enduro bits
and obvious MX bits. I've got two ignitions. A lightweight MX and
the heavy Flywheel off the enduro (I deduce).
Slowly I'm putting it together and making sense of it all. (without
a manual). With a bit of help from you guys I might be able to get
this relatively rare (compared to my Yammies) beast back up and
running as some sort of period representation of a classy Montesa
(if not perfect resto).
I'm also interested to have a ride - one way to experienced the
fabled handling of the Monty."So I basically had the frame, as seen above, no rear suspenion, rusty front forks, the wheels and a damaged tank. The cost of this was essentially zip. However, my guessimate to get this up and running is $2000-3000 (likely resale value, $2000 on a good day after a long wait).
Insane; yep, I feel it at times. But I am expecting a sainthood and honourary Spanish citizenship upon completion
.
Lyall O'Brien told me that the only way you'll lose a motor is if the things sucks air.
Do you believe him?
'Done and dusted'
You're already on that so it's gunna give you years of joy. Make sure the fly-wheel's a good fit, plenty of Loc-tite everywhere, lock nuts and you'll give ya other bikes away! They really are giant killers.........
Thanks for the tips. You might find a few PM's and emails headed your way as things go along.