new trophy sport owner...down on power.

[philtrophysport]

Hi,I'm new to this forum, please forgive my first post being a question,i bought a 1972 ETS 250 trophy sport recently and it goes well in 1st, 2nd and 3rd gears but when i engage 4th it bogs down and struggles to get past 55mph,with a good tail wind it just about tops 65mph max!...please can anyone give me a few pointers as to where to start looking to improve matters,i've changed the spark plug and have just ordered new points and air filter,i realise its a 40 year old bike but i feel its being held back form its true potential,any advise most welcome.
Many thanks Phil.

[stogadog]

Hi Phil. There may not be much wrong with it! There is a huge gap between third and fourth gears, I have a "normal" Trophy rather than an ETS and that does not like fourth gear unless I'm on the flat, doing at least 40 - 45 ish. Any incline at that speed I have to drop back down to third after letting it decelerate a bit first and then start all over again. There is very little difference between the Trophy and Trophy sport engines as far as I know. Mine will just about hit 70 but it's not mad keen on it. Around 70 was it's top speed when new so it does OK. I think yours should go a little better due to slightly different porting and less weight but probably not much more.
Have you got your timing right, checked your points etc, they could all have an effect at the top end of the rev range.
I would take it on the some flat road and rev it a bit harder in third and then see what you can get out of it. don't blow it up though!
Just out of interest was it one of the two that have recently gone from ebay?
Cheers
Andy

[philtrophysport]

Thanks for that Andy,i've just put new points and condenser in it and that does seem to have smoothed things out a bit,together with a new plug and blasted out air filter ,i took it for a quick spin this evening and it seemed to run a little better,i had one of these about 10 years ago and that one seemed much faster ,the speedo needle used to regularly go off the clock!...maybe that one was a one off,i will get round to cleaning the carb and checking the timing this weekend,i'll let you know how i get on,and yes i did get it off Ebay and rode it about 120 miles home so it cant be all that bad!!

Phil.

[Ring Ting Ting]

Hi,

I've owned a 250 Trophy Sport for a couple of years and the fastest it will go is 65mph on a good day (no headwind) and usually 60 is the max. it seems very happy at 50 to 55 and to get it up to 60/65 on the flat it has to be revved through the gears quite hard, which seems a lot of effort for little gain. Everything seems find e.g. points and carb are set correctly and the the air filter is ok. I have an original sales brochure from the 70s which states max speed as 82mph but also says "its not a rocket" in the text. I've spoked to a couple of other people with Trophy sports and 60/65 seems the norm.

Let us know how you get on as a little more oomph would be good.

Thanks
Mark

[stogadog]

It could be that both of your Sports have actually got Trophy engines or barrels on! From the outside they look pretty much identical so that could be what's going on. I've heard different things of Sports, some folk say they are faster than a Trophy others saying they are the same.
I've just managed to get a TS250 engine to put into my ETS project chassis - that should definitely be faster than my Trophy if I can get the engine mounted securely!

[philtrophysport]

I had a look at the spark amongst other things whilst checking my new bike over,and it seemed pretty weak so i set about going through all the connections,changing the HT lead/plug cap for a new one and finding that the old lead was barely touching the core screw in the coil,and after checking everything including timing and finding it all as it should be i kicked it over,observing the cold start procedure that i've used on previous MZ's,ie.choke full on with ignition off 3 kicks then choke off ,ignition on and fingers crossed and she started and ran quite a bit smoother than before and on the flat with no wind got up to 60ish with no bother,i reckon in the right conditions another 10>15 mph will be on the cards,so bearing in mind that any 40 year old bike will have tired and worn connections i reckon just a basic once over like this might well pay dividend,i'll keep you posted as to further developements..

I know beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but looking at the bike in my drive after the ride i thought what a pleasant and unusual looking machine it is ,my ambition is to go touring on it and i am looking for a pannier frame and panniers if anyone knows where i can get some from.

Phil.
ps...does anyone know the actual difference in spec between trophy and trophy sport,if any.