Restoring a Terrot 1955 !!

[Tifa73]

Hi everyone, ive just joined hoping to get some help and advice on restoring a Terrot 125  1955. We bought it about a week ago and had it shipped from France.
My partner has restored cars and bikes before but we thought this would be a challenge, and its living up to it !! Whilst waiting ( impatiently ;-) ) for the email to activate joining here I did read through JoeJoyce 's post on the Terrot 1953 and got some good info from that. But we were hoping to get a bit of advice on a couple of things. Parts are a bit of a problem and the seat, Dunlop rubber needs help !!

We are so looking forward to restoring this pretty little bike, but we would love to get a little help.
I will try and put a picture on, but just in case I struggle, I will keep trying.

Thank you for reading :-)

[cardan]

Well it looks like it's mostly there, which is a good start. Since it's a fairly modest thing, be careful not to pour too much money into the restoration: maybe think of painting some of the bits that have been chrome and are now rusty.

Good luck!

Leon

[iansoady]

I agree - it's so easy to spend a fortune which you'll never get back.

On the other hand, the work itself is its own reward. Or that's what I always tell myself.....

That bike does look complete but is too far gone for the oily rag treatment.

[Rex]

That seems a fair assessment to me. I hope that, like so many old French bikes, it's not been run until it can run no more, then left against a wall for decades, then sold to the daft English?
Sorry to sound negative, but the French "classic bike scene" is nothing like the UK's, and spares can be difficult to impossible to find, even for bikes like post-war Terrots.
Best of luck, really.

[Tifa73]

Thank you for your replies, we hope it hasn't been run beyond help too, Rex. We will be watching the costs of this too !! We, or rather I !have found a lot of parts available in France obviously, but our French unfortunately is not very good ! It was listed that it had been left in a barn etc , but we like a challenge lol.

We are really struggling with the saddle. Here are some pics. As you can see the rubber has perished. Ive even tried researching how Dunlop came to make this saddle and what rivets were used not as thought we could make one ! We really don't know what to do about the saddle. It needs replacing, but I have not found one that is in decent enough condition. I have spent many hours searching. I thinking using a new different seat would be the only option ? I do know of an upholsterer who makes tonneau covers, if that's possible.
The paint job isn't too much of a problem as my partner is a paint sprayer by trade and is in the car trade too.

Thank you so much for your help
:-)

[Rex]

As you're not going for the 100 point resto, and the bike is never going to be a Brough value-wise, I'd look on Ebay for something similar and adapt to fit.
How about those small single saddles as sold for Bantams, or the little seats as used on trials reps?

[mini-me]

Try Sammy Miller, I sure he does repro dunlop rubber saddle tops.

I'm sure some one does,as for making one yourself, forget it.

[chaterlea25]

Hi and welcome,
I got a replica Dunlop saddle kit of parts from John Budgen the Ariel parts chap
http://www.johnbudgenmotorcycles.co.uk/saddles.htm

If I remember correctly most of the French parts suppliers were mentioned in Joes thread
Google translate helps a bit

Cheers
John

[murdo]

Welcome. Looks to be mostly there so it should be an easy restore. A clean up/sand blast and some shiney new black paint will see it looking good.

[Rex]

Well, yeah, but that doesn't help if the engine or gearbox is knackered and needs unobtainable parts, or the fork stanchions/bushes are worn out, or the sprockets hooked,or the flywheel mag isn't working and needs parts, etc etc.
Save the shiny black until it's all working OK.

[murdo]

Well Rex, I agree. 
Sometimes if the black bits are shiney it gives more incentive to get the knackered bits working, or new bits made.

[JoeJ]

Hi, I thought I'd weigh in and give my opinions...and I do feel honored that my name was mentioned about restoring a motorcycle because my progress has been SOOOOO slow.

I find that there are enough sites and people on the sites that know english and make finding parts much, much easier.  I've bought 2 fenders, oil tank and tool box, gas tank (a 35 year hunt!) and a number of smaller items either from ebay.fr or lesanciennes.  A big part of it is just getting lucky that someone posts exactly what you are looking for, or at least close to it.

Leboncoin has a great many parts but I have only had 1 reply out of about 25 emails I have sent, so I don't use that site much.

There are some other places that sell retro parts (listed in my posting) and a couple sell the Dunlop seat you are looking for.  Unless you want to wait for who-knows-how-long for seat in great condition I think replacement parts are the way to go. When I get to that point I'll be buying replacement parts for a new seat, computer cables, brake cables and exhaust pipe.

Terrot.org is also an option, though they don't encourage the buying and selling of parts.

Hope this helps - I love your bike.  Looks like a great restoration project!  Joe

[JoeJ]

Any updates or progress we should know about?

[JoeJ]

Great looking bike.  Will look great when fixed up!

[Rex]

Are you using Santa's PC Joe?