That Montjuic of mine

Many thanks for the comprehensive reply.

You've got a lot on there, best of luck keeping all those plates spinning...:thumb2

Edit - Did you sell the 916 ??
 
Andy,
Have a word with Paul Hamon who runs Alton.
He makes the electric leg kit for the Notrun

They’re on the list of people to contact. Andover Norton also sell them though they may be the same manufacturer who, I believe, is French.
 
Many thanks for the comprehensive reply.

You've got a lot on there, best of luck keeping all those plates spinning...:thumb2

Edit - Did you sell the 916 ??

The 916 is still in the garage but once we can get a ticket on it the wife wants rid of it.
 
Some good stuff here Andy; don't know how i've missed this; when your a busy kind of guy it's hard work doing nothing; i thought i was getting stuck in cleaning and polishing; although i have now run out of autosolve polish with half the back wheel on thr GS done;:D. That electric leg sounds a good idea.:beerjug:
 
Some good stuff here Andy; don't know how i've missed this; when your a busy kind of guy it's hard work doing nothing; i thought i was getting stuck in cleaning and polishing; although i have now run out of autosolve polish with half the back wheel on the GS done;:D. That electric leg sounds a good idea.:beerjug:
 
Saturday update:

It’s sort that LC day today so the obvious starting point was tank and carbs off.

That quickly showed up why the left hand cylinder cut out whenever the choke was turned off. Funnily enough the left hand needle had the same shitty deposits on the needle and the same crud in the float bowl.

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I think the lesson here is to clean the tanks on both the LC and the Montjuic and drain the carbs if the bikes will be left standing. Who’d have thought it?
 
There’s no point in messing about with bottles of cheap fizzy drink when £20 gets me a 1l bottle of 81% phosphoric acid so it’s ordered and this is one battle I’ll win 😀
 
I think the lesson here is to clean the tanks on both the LC and the Montjuic and drain the carbs if the bikes will be left standing.

Who’d have thought it?
.......Who indeed ??!!....:blast..:)D)


Lots of nice bikes Andy and I get that you/your Mrs are busy, but it seems to me that, as carbs etc are gummed up, you hardly ever ride these things.:nenau

Are you perchance by nature a 'stuff' person...like my Mrs ??....:eek: :eek:....
 
They used to be dragged out fairly regularly but circumstances have overtaken us a lot of the time and me being busy working when the sun is shining has seen them neglected. The crap in the carbs has to have come from the overspray in the tank which is annoying but at least the other bikes haven’t suffered in the same way and start/run whenever needed.

If I can get my outfit sorted and road legal I’ll be selling it just to make room in the garage and make it easier to get bikes out because that thing completely blocks one garage door and it’s been impossible to move for 3 years due to not having a back wheel in it. I’d had half a plan to extend the front of our garages by about 5’ this summer which would have made things far easier but not knowing when I’ll be back at work has put that on the back burner unfortunately.

Part of the reason for buying slightly rarer than normal bikes was because they won’t lose money and it’s not long until we both retire at which point we’ve got plans to sell up and buy somewhere with a bit more land and a big fuck off lock up that’s more accessible when it comes to getting bikes in and out.
 
Boredom has set in while I wait for the tank to miraculously clean itself so I searched through boxes of old crap and found some 25mm long Dzus fasteners that I knew I’d bought for a race bike many years ago and they now hold the fairing in place on the Monty.

I’m considering checking the static timing in case it’s a bit out then I’ll strobe it when the bike is running. It was right when I checked the valve clearances about 4 years ago but there’s no harm in checking and Rupe Paul reckoned it was a touch out when he rewired the bike so it’ll kill an hour.
 
Well it had suffered a bit by having a tankful of cheap fizzy drink but I decided to drain that out and see what was occurring...

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Probably best described as better out than in

I’ve now swirled a litre of so of Xylene around and left it to do its worst.

I’d managed to source a new instrument bracket because the old one was broken but they’re normally like hens teeth so £45 for this one seemed fair.

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The new one us now fitted and even if it looks no different I know it’s been done.

After that I refitted everything, gave it a wash and realised that the aluminium wheel cleaner I’d used on the previously tatty looking wheels was very good at removing paint. I’m not bothered because I’ve got spare wheels and new bearings sitting here so I’ll decide which are best and get them refurbished and sprayed silver again.

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I need to find the side panel badges, fit the transfers on the side panels then apart from draining the Xylene, flush it with unleaded and that’s it ready to start.

It still looks the dogs bollocks in my eyes but do I still want it? I don’t honestly know
 
It still looks the dogs bollocks in my eyes but do I still want it? I don’t honestly know

I believe these are a bit like supermodels - glorious to look at but fail to give them enough attention and you'll quickly know all about it!

Gorgeous though, and late 70s proddy racing personified.
 
It looks awesome Andy. :thumb

Isn't it actually a Formula 500 rather than a Montjuic?
Or is it a Monty with Formula bits added?
 
This is going to take a while but Tarka asked...

The question of exactly what it is has never really been cleared up. I bought it at the Bonhams auction held at the Stafford classic bike show without actually being there and the description said Montjuic but my head said don’t trust it so don’t pay much. I picked it up about 2 hours later but I did ride it from the auction room to my van :blast

As anyone around at that time knows, they’re the Slater Brothers baby version of a Jota, somewhere between an Alpino and the Formula 500 race bike and kind of road legal. According to the log book this one is a 1978 Alpino S which means it was the first stage of the Montjuic evolution before they named them the Montjuic MKI & MKII. A 1978 model should have had the handlebar mounted fairing from the MKI and a different seat, mine has the MKII parts so I assumed it was a made up one but lacking the engine internal changes.

I had the cam cover off to check the valve clearances and check which cams are fitted and they’re definitely the higher lift, longer duration S1 camshafts so that’s a bonus. I stripped and cleaned the carbs but they didn’t send that extra jet of fuel through as a pumper is supposed to do at bigger throttle openings so I bought a repair kit. Still no joy so I bought new carbs along with a selection of jets and they worked perfectly. At that point I checked the compression and it was up there in Montjuic territory so another bonus. It doesn’t have the close ratio gearbox that the Formula 500 was given so it didn’t start life as one of those.

Next step was the exhaust. The original was a fucking mess of rotten mild steel with plates welded on to fill holes. I tried to find someone who’d copy it for me and was about to bite the bullet and pay a lot of money to a Dutch guy reputed to make shit hot Montjuic 2:1systems when I was offered an original Sito 2:2 that was solid but needed some heat resistant paint. Job done.

That meant it ran reasonably well so I ran it around for a while but the rear shocks were rubbish, the electrics were nearly 40 years old and the paintwork was abysmal so I bought a pair of Ikon 7610 shocks which helped a lot. The bodywork went to a friend of a friend to be sprayed and it’s a perfect colour match, lovely deep finish but with fucking overspray inside the filler cap :blast

Once the bodywork was back I sent it for a full rewire which is a work of art to look at but brake light switches? Not there because a dull head motorbike magazine photographer who knows me told the guy doing the job I’d be racing it on the roads in European classic races :blast :blast

By then I’d got a spare set of wheels to refurbish and fit wets on when circumstances called for them, spare footrests and a couple of other bits and pieces but no valid MOT so it’s sat around for 4 years while other things have overtaken it and I’ve not had the time to take it to Chimay, Gedinne etc.

The wheels need sorting out, brake lights need doing but the guru only lives 10 away so that’s easily cured if I don’t put banjo bolt pressure switches on and splice them in myself.

So, Tarka, is it a Montjuic, what MK is it, in fact what the fuck is it? According to Slaters it was an Alpino S (as stated on the documents) that the owner took to them and told them to make it into a MKII Montjuic in every way after he crashed it and duffed up the footrests, handlebars, seat and tank in a no fault accident. It’s real but it’s not on their ‘official’ register of Montjuics because it was never actually made as one. They kept a list of every Jota and Montjuic made so anyone looking to buy one can check if it’s genuine or not.

If I don’t race it I’ll probably use it once or twice a year which is all well and good until I want to put something else in the Monty shaped gap in the garage. I won’t use it for UK track days because it’d be like putting a target on my back but a run out at the Spa Bikers Classic weekend every year would be fun and I could take three bikes over in my van :D

Paul - basic servicing is all they need but they’re bastards to ride with a narrower power band than a road going 2 stroke from that period.
 
Thank you very much for the info, Andy. :thumb

Quite a fascinating tale.
Given all of the known history, and the considerable effort and expense you've put into it, I'd feel that it was "part of me" by now, and could never sell it.
The regret and angst that would set in after parting with it would be horrendous....a life of sadness would result.
What you propose doing sounds the ideal option.
Thanks again....enjoy! :beerjug:
 
It’s still a bit of a mystery bike, Slaters say they made it into a Monty but never added it to their lists, the log book says Alpino S but I thought the S only had PHF carbs to make it more powerful than the standard version. When I asked Richard Slater if he remembered doing the engine internals he said no but if it’s got S cams and higher compression then it’s been done.

I slipped up a couple of years ago when I was offered an engine from a Formula 500 with a minced top end because it would have had a close ratio gearbox which the narrow power band would really benefit from.
 


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