COLLECTOR
Dave’s collecting habits are multi-dimensional. We dealt with his passion for a particular British two-stroke before, but he’s also got a thing about classic trials irons...
Bantam enthusiast Dave Lewis turns his hand to restoring – and hoarding – classic trials irons
Remember Dave Lewis, who we featured in ‘Collector’ in the June 2019 Issue? He had shed after shed (and his house) full of BSA Bantams with virtually every model year represented, not to mention the kind of spares stash the BSA factory would have been proud of.
Well, he also has a bunch of classic trials bikes dotted around the homestead, so we’ve been back to photograph them and talk to Dave about his second ‘collection’.
It transpires that Dave’s interest in trials actually predates his Bantam obsession. “I’ve always had a thing about trials bikes,” he reveals. “When I was much younger, I used to play football, but in the distance I could hear trials bikes and thought: ‘Why am I playing football when I could be riding a trials bike?’ So in 1972 I bought a 250 Bultaco, my first proper trials bike, off a guy I worked with at Rolls-royce. Shortly after, I changed that for a 1976 325cc Bultaco.
“A few years later, while I was still trialling, I was out and about, wearing a Bultaco shirt, and this woman stopped me. She wanted to know if I had a Bultaco and knew anything about them, so I explained I was competing with one. She said her husband had a bike that might interest me and invited me to pop over at the weekend. When I arrived at the house, there was a truck with David Coulthard’s F1 car in it. Turned out her husband worked in F1 and was taking the car on a promo tour. Anyway, he happened to own an F3 car, a sports car... and a Bultaco which needed restoring. It was a 1980 model, but he had no time to work on it so he asked me if I’d to restore it for him! I rebuilt it from the ground up. That was start of me restoring trials bikes.”
In the meantime, Dave got into his Bantam restorations but the trials interest was always there and returned with a vengeance when he got divorced in 2008 – for a second time. “I went to Stafford and a mate had a 2005 Montesa 4RT for sale there. He didn’t sell it at the show, so I bought it. I did five trials in eight days and ended up riding for a year. After one event at Hawkstone I thought: ‘Either I’m going to get hurt doing this or the bike is,’ so I sold it.”
That was 2011, but far from being done with trails, the experience only fuelled Dave’s passion for the sport. It’s just that, rather than riding them, he decided to channel his enthusiasm into restoring older bikes.
‘WHEN I WAS MUCH YOUNGER, I USED TO PLAY FOOTBALL, BUT IN THE DISTANCE I COULD HEAR TRIALS BIKES’
‘I PAID £275. SOUNDS A GOOD BUY – BUT IT ARRIVED A ON PALLET IN BITS’
“I’d always wanted a Yamaha trials bike so that’s why I bought the TY. It’s kind of got a bit out of control ever since...”
1976 Yamaha TY175
The first Yamaha to appear in a European championship trial was a DT250 trailie, in 1968. Two years later French trials rider Christian Rayer suggested to Sonauto Yamaha France boss Jean Claude Olivier that it might be a good idea for Yamaha to create a proper trails bike, based on the DT250. A prototype was completed for Rayer by the end of 1971 – but with a 360 engine.
Yamaha then hired Brit Mick Andrews, the 1971 and 1972 European Trials Champion riding a Spanish-built Ossa, to help develop the prototype, first with a 360cc engine and then a 250. Andrews finished runner-up in the championship on the prototype Yamaha and in the summer of 1973 the Japanese company launched the TY250 (T for Trials, Y for Yamaha) production trials bike.
The following year there was a full range of TYS, with the addition of a Japan-only TY50, plus a TY80, TY125 and TY175. Dave’s TY is a 1976 175.
“I bought it off ebay from a guy in Bishop’s Castle, which is near to me. I paid £275, which sounds a good buy – but it arrived on a pallet in bits, so it was a ground-up restoration.
I got forks and yokes from the States. There’s no rust on American stuff and it was as cheap to import as it would have been to get the original parts rechromed.
“The rest of it I rebuilt myself. The stainless rims are original, but I’ve respoked them. I sprayed the original tank and side panels. It’s got a new, original front pipe and a WES rear pipe. The seat is new old stock. It had chrome bars as standard, but I prefer the Renthals. The pegs are from Sammy Miller, the front mudguard is genuine new old stock and the shocks are Gas.”
1983 Montesa Cota 242
This is one of the last of this Spanish firm’s last twinshock models – and Dave’s Cota was another ebay find. “I do spend a fair bit of time on there,” he says. “I’d been to a jumble at Ross-on-wye, saw a tidy 242 there and realised I should have bought it. It was similar money to what I paid for this.
“Anyway, then I was consoling myself on ebay and saw this one come up for sale. I phoned the guy straight away and he told me the only reason he was selling was that he had a bad neck and couldn’t ride any more. I said I’d be over. He worked nights and finished at 5am, so I travelled overnight to be there waiting for him when he got home. We took the bike to a nearby industrial estate, fired it up and it sounded
fine. The shocks were knackered, but otherwise it was sound.
“It was up for £750, but he said to give him £650 and I could have it. What a deal! It was all white when I bought it, but I’ve tidied it up a bit and now have two different tank options – plus it’s got different forks and mudguards and a new sidestand. Although it’s called a 242, the engine is actually 237.5cc and everything about the bike is very similar to the Fantic 240 of the same era.”
1984 Yamaha 250R
A decade after Yamaha launched the TY twinshock, they launched a monoshock trials bike in two formats: one called the TY250S (S for street) a road-legal machine with full lighting kit, and another called the TY250R (R for, er... competition) which was the pure trials iron.
The bikes shared the same six-speed, autolube, two-stroke engine and a slim, diamond-type, high-tensile steel frame with linked single-shock Monocross suspension.
Dave says: “I bought my 250R off ebay, from a bloke in Wrexham. It was sat in a shed with a seized clutch, seized solid. But at least I got the bike in one complete lump, which is more than can be said for many of the bikes I buy. I already had a street model, so I had loads of spares. It needed a total strip and was then rebuilt to its former glory. It’s pretty standard apart from the Rock Shox.
“I started off on twinshock trials bikes, but with modern bikes you get better technology all the time. Even the old twinshock bikes handle better with modern equipment, like shocks. The Yamaha Monocross rear end is beautiful. There’s so much more adjustment, so you can set up the bike to suit your weight. And, of course, you can rebuild them. With the old Betor units you had on twinshock bikes, like my Bultacos, that was it – no adjustment of any kind.”
1984 Fantic Trial 300
Dave had owned a new Fantic 240 when he was competing in trials on a regular basis. “It was a really good bike, and