Fantic Special
It’s amazing what you can achieve with some dedicated man hours. Phil Granby is a friend of Editor, John Hulme, and has assembled his new pride and joy and wanted to share it with you Dirt Doctor readers.
This 200 Fantic as we see it here started life as a box of bits in Peak Dale, Derbyshire before its total rebuild.
Phil was fortunate that he had many specialist companies around him who could help, starting with powder coating the frame at Kelcoat in Leek. The ‘TLC’ in the motor included new main bearings and a big end assembly. Many of the other components were scrap and new wheel spindles and the swinging arm pivot assembly were produced in stainless steel by Chris Barlow at nearby Wormhill, all the other fasteners are also stainless steel including a new rear brake pedal.
Starting the machine was made easier with the fitting of a Gas Gas kick-start lever. The wheels were in a pretty poor state and so they were rebuilt with stainless steel spokes laced to Morad wheel rims with the rear now tubeless.
To upgrade the machine’s handling, a 240 Fantic model front ‘end’ was fitted with help from Bill and Rosie Pye and at the rear a new pair of the tried and tested Rockshocks were fitted.
Fantic specialist, Bob Wright, supplied new chain and sprockets, control cables and to finish off the new look he supplied new mudguards which were fitted. Phil’s good friend Nigel Birkett supplied handlebars and grips as well as some useful advice on how to improve the Fantic 200’s performance. Whilst carrying out the renovation Phil enlisted the help of Mick Sheldon to reposition the footrests and fitted some new S3 ‘pegs’ for better rider comfort.
Not happy with the seat and fuel tank condition, Peak Auto Trims recovered the seat with new material and Steve Gagg based at Ilkeston used all his skills to fabricate the new aluminium fuel tank.
The machine certainly looks well and it’s quite obvious Phil has put many man hours into the project; it would be a shame for Classic Trial Magazine to get it dirty or would it – watch this space!