It lives

[griff851]

Finally after basically 16 years of not being on the road my beloved Bevel has hit the bitumen. Still not painted, but not to far off now. It has all the usual suspects in the go faster game. Straight cut primaries, ally clutch basket and drum, omega pistons, big valves with wasted stems, Carrillo rods, Yass Yass yada. I also had a play with the ports using the same theory as I used on the 250 single. Which I might add is giving me no end of problems with fueling.
Thankfully a Dellorto PHM has quite a large number of variables, not unlike injection mapping. So armed with good intention and determination I shot off down the road to the magical whine of straight cut primaries. The fueling was shit, but by attempt 4 I’ve pretty much nailed it, one more jet change to do. Now here’s the cool bit. A 40mm Dellorto on a 900ss runs around a 150 main jet, i’m down to 120. For comparison, a cbr 250 runs 105-112 mains. Which means there is a shit load increase in suckuum, better cylinder filling which means more torque, and it feels like it. I’ve got that push back in the seat thing going on and it doesn’t take long to get to 140kmph (still running it in, restricted to 5k for a bit). So i’m Pretty happy about that. I imagine it will run out of puff about 7.5k due to airspeed over the valve, but that’s a wait until it’s run in thing, and over 8k on a Bevel is wait for the bang time anyway.
The down side to the whole thing is suspension. My god, I’d forgotten how much suspension they don’t have. Fantastic on smooth corners like on rails, hell on earth on standard country roads. Now investigating valving. Yes Brad I have read the ms forum. Luckily i know Glyn personally through a mutual mate. Might have a good chat before doing anything. I believe he’s not in with Steve at the moment although he is in NZ this week, so should get a fairly unbiased opinion.

[Mr.R]

Nice one Griff.
On my old Bevel I run Maxton internals in the forks and Fournale air shocks, for almost modern suspension standards. I'm more than happy with how it works.
Before that I'd tried almost every permutation with the forks until around 23 years ago...
wHen I had a canter on a "Green Frame" that belonged to a friend, amazed with how supple the forks were and how well it steered, on returning I said/asked...
"F'ck me a bevel with forks that go up AND down what have done with them?"
The next day I removed my forks and posted them off to Maxton's.
...and the Fournale's are that good that you don't notice them working.

At the moment I'm rebuilding my little 250 Desmo, recently I contacted Maxton to ask about them working their magic on the 35mm Ceriani's?
They now make modern cartridges to fit inside the classic bike forks and supply new stanchions for close to the cost of re-hard chroming the original items.

Steve R

[griff851]

I have a set of Fornales, but they need servicing. I contacted the rep here, but he said they don’t do parts and i’d Have to send them to him, he was a bit rude about the whole thing. Bastard. Any idea how much to service them over there. On principle l’m not interested in sending them to the Aust rep.

[Mr.R]

Hi Griff,

I sent mine to the British importer who then forwarded them on to Fournale in France, it took 2 weeks and they came back like new. I can't remember exactly how much (somewhere under £300 inc' tax) but waaay cheaper than buying a new pair of top quality shocks.
Since they'd lasted 22 years before getting the slightest of leaks, I figured that it was well worth the cash.
As I live inside the EU I had to pay 20% VAT (Value Added Tax) but for customers outside of the EU this tax isn't applicable.

Steve R

[griff851]

Thanks Steve, might ask Phil if he’d mind passing them on.

[Whitto1]

Give Shock Treatment a call in Sydney 47739115 for comment or maybe GlennAllerton in Douglas Park .
Lets know how you get on.
Cheers

I have a set of Fornales, but they need servicing. I contacted the rep here, but he said they don’t do parts and i’d Have to send them to him, he was a bit rude about the whole thing. Bastard. Any idea how much to service them over there. On principle l’m not interested in sending them to the Aust rep.

[griff851]

Thanks all, i’ve Been in contact with Phil and he has been his usual very helpful self.
We’ve had a good chat about the world virus issue. Please look out for yourselves and consider others, remember we are all in this together always have been.