John Reed spaceframe Montjuic

Otto

Otto

Full member
Location
Holland
HI All,
I am Otto a new member from the Netherlands. I hope someone can give me information about a frame I recently bought.

In 1981 the Superbike magazine has built a Monty with a John Reed spaceframe. In 1983 it was a price at a competition. In 1984 til 1987 Andy Jessopp racet it in IoM and several circuits in the UK.
in 2009 it was in a shed that went on fire. It was sold on eBay . In 2010 only the frame with swingarm was sold to Frits in the Netherlands but he dit nothing with it. When Frits died I bought it.

Does anyone now who owned the bike between 1987 and 2010? Who won the bike in the competition?
who has photos off the bike.
And special, does the engine still exist?

I hope to make the history complete and rebuild the bike.

Regards, Otto
 

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I seem to recall the nipples on the bike cables weren’t quite as ‘firm’ as on the mag model. I had at least one clutch cable failure during my ownership. 😜
 
back in a previous life I bought a Honda* from a random woman in rural** Oxfordshire -when she saw the SFC in the van she told me that she'd won a monty in a competition in superbike but it had vanished, along with her Harris Ducati, when her landlord sold the contents of her lock-up during a dispute about the rent***. May've been bullshit, but Superbike can't have had too many Monty competition prizes...

* Numbered, limited edition, HRC assembled, spares or repairs, 300 quid - genuine barn find
** took the hire van up 2 miles of green lane to get to her house
*** I suspect that means he was trying to recover unpaid rent :)
 
sfc1000uk said:
back in a previous life I bought a Honda* from a random woman in rural** Oxfordshire -when she saw the SFC in the van she told me that she'd won a monty in a competition in superbike but it had vanished, along with her Harris Ducati, when her landlord sold the contents of her lock-up during a dispute about the rent***. May've been bullshit, but Superbike can't have had too many Monty competition prizes...

* Numbered, limited edition, HRC assembled, spares or repairs, 300 quid - genuine barn find
** took the hire van up 2 miles of green lane to get to her house
*** I suspect that means he was trying to recover unpaid rent :)
Click to expand...
Hey, Andy, what do you remember off the seller? Can this be true?
 
I bought this pile of junk circa 2008 from a guy in the Wirrel in Lancashire, when I stripped it I discovered that the frame was a lash up
and the engine was built repaired scrap parts, crankcases were junk, crank was junk, head was warped. I stripped and kept any viable parts and I sold the frame to a guy in Elgin , north of Aberdeen and he couldn't do any thing with it either.
Glenn
 
Gbarnes3 said:
I bought this pile of junk circa 2008 from a guy in the Wirrel in Lancashire, when I stripped it I discovered that the frame was a lash up
and the engine was built repaired scrap parts, crankcases were junk, crank was junk, head was warped. I stripped and kept any viable parts and I sold the frame to a guy in Elgin , north of Aberdeen and he couldn't do any thing with it either.
Glenn
Click to expand...
When you say “lash up” bad welds/ not straight?
 
Gbarnes3 said:
I bought this pile of junk circa 2008 from a guy in the Wirrel in Lancashire, when I stripped it I discovered that the frame was a lash up
and the engine was built repaired scrap parts, crankcases were junk, crank was junk, head was warped. I stripped and kept any viable parts and I sold the frame to a guy in Elgin , north of Aberdeen and he couldn't do any thing with it either.
Glenn
Click to expand...
So what parts did you keep Glenn as from the photos of the cremated bike it looks fairly complete?
I can add that at the Manx in ‘84 the crankcases split, I think it was on the alternator side, and I had them welded by Steve Overton. AFAIK quite a few of the bored out Monty’s of that period suffered a cracking issue. Can’t comment on the head, although again it’s not uncommon for a 500 head to warp if the head gasket blows.
it looks to me like the frame and swinging arm was heavily modified by someone after the fire.
 
It’s strange we were only talking about John Reed/ Uncle Bunt at the local bike meet this week. I remember seeing a Meriden Twin he’d customised at the NEC in about 1981 or thereabouts.
 
I kept the crank, the cases even although they buckled probably during the repair process, the front and rear wheels, the head and barrels, gearbox
I no longer remember all the issues with the frame other than it was not thought out and that it appeared to be almost impossible to get the engine out without damaging the frame paintwork
 
Gbarnes3 said:
I kept the crank, the cases even although they buckled probably during the repair process, the front and rear wheels, the head and barrels, gearbox
I no longer remember all the issues with the frame other than it was not thought out and that it appeared to be almost impossible to get the engine out without damaging the frame paintwork
Click to expand...
Did you bought the burned bike in 2008?
Like Andy J said, big bore monty's are build to braek down. And I have seen a lot of poor work on Laverda's. That doesn't mean that all is bad done.

I also strugle with the engine and the frame. I want to improve that. Andy said he has done a bit also. I was worse than it is now.

What parts do you still have? Maybe you want to get rid of it?
I realize it's an difficult bike but I like to rebuild it.

Do you know names off the guy's you bought and sell it to/from?
 
Andy J said:
So what parts did you keep Glenn as from the photos of the cremated bike it looks fairly complete?
I can add that at the Manx in ‘84 the crankcases split, I think it was on the alternator side, and I had them welded by Steve Overton. AFAIK quite a few of the bored out Monty’s of that period suffered a cracking issue. Can’t comment on the head, although again it’s not uncommon for a 500 head to warp if the head gasket blows.
it looks to me like the frame and swinging arm was heavily modified by someone after the fire.
Click to expand...
Those crankcases split, alternator side, even on standard 500 when raced. They do not need overboring.
My TT2 engine prepared by Cavazzin has preventive welds around the right hand crank bearing and apparently, according to van Dijk, inside the crankcase.

Maurice Ogier had a set of cases cast but needing machining to try and get around the problem. He told me about those when I enquired in view of buying his bikes.

Paul
 
Andy J said:
So what parts did you keep Glenn as from the photos of the cremated bike it looks fairly complete?
I can add that at the Manx in ‘84 the crankcases split, I think it was on the alternator side, and I had them welded by Steve Overton. AFAIK quite a few of the bored out Monty’s of that period suffered a cracking issue. Can’t comment on the head, although again it’s not uncommon for a 500 head to warp if the head gasket blows.
it looks to me like the frame and swinging arm was heavily modified by someone after the fire.
Click to expand...
Andy,
I don't think there are much changes between the burned bike and my frame. What changes do you see on te photo's.
There are a lot of changes between the ladypictures and the competitionbike. I can see there is welding done for that.
 
Can someone tell me:
On the pictures off the burned bike there is no mount at the front off the engine. I think there was a subframe/loose part.
Was it there? Does anyone know howe that looks like? Who forgot to delver it with the bike?
 
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