Front brake hub

[chaz]

anything is possible, the easy waym my A10 has Aprilia 125 cast wheels and forks with discs front and rear, my ex neighbour at my old unit raced Frazer Nash cars, he developed a conversion to fit inside original drums and allowed him to leave braking 100 yards closer to the bends than the rest. I enjoyed the trial and error of helping him, the fact he was a great design engineer helped a mere machinist..

[AWJDThumper]

By army standards, the 7" B40WD front brake was very good - a few years later they replaced the B40WD with a bike with a 5.5" front brake and a much bigger engine!

[Allan G]

The military used a few bikes after the WDB40, mine was de-mod in 1980, incidentally I also had an ex military 250 canam. Another good bike but ugly as sin in military spec, the full off road spec was very nice. They also used DT175's which were more nimble.

[AWJDThumper]

I totally agree that the Can-Am Bombadier in the early 1980's was the ugliest bike every produced but the CCM-Armstrong MT500 that followed it in 1987 was the handsomest bike even with 5.5" front brake!! However, I'm slightly biased in that opinion!

[chaz]

well ,, the can am 250 did have good race pedigree. it was cloned from the AJS Stormer, when the factory shut, Fluff Brown took the business over but the frame design was "borrowed" and sold to Armstrong . due to legalities, it was then sold off and Rotax motors fitted to Can Am, As the Army/UK Gov rules changed there was no demand so Armstrong sold to Harley. This caused a major problem when all the Japanese 125s fell apart on the army (the replacements for the 250), that they had to go to Harley for desert storm replacements.
couldnt fault my Bombardier, siezed it, dropped it and it still ran. Fluff ended up with the contract to service the Army bikes around Salisbury Plain so what goes around comes around.
The Armstrong/Harley 500 on the other hand... Rotax powered was ok , but the CCM 500 could be taken out to 720cc.!! for a single dirt bike.
Fluff did have a can am 250 at one time with silver frame and polished ally tank that looked good. without the odds and ends fitted. I regularly visited and spent a while there meeting up at pre 74mx events on my AJs 250, 370 and 410s.

[Allan G]

I threw that one of mine half way down a embankment on one of the mountain bridalways in the Isle of Man, apart from a few scratches the bike was perfectly fine, I was a little worse off and bust my shoulder but those bikes were bomb proof. Had I the spare cash and a non military one came my way I'd have another.

[chaz]

just to add to the Rotax content of the bombardier, when I needed some parts for the engine, my "local" supplier was The Rotax Man, at Radstock. The very same man that set Jenson Button on his way to F1 via the karting circuit.

[AWJDThumper]

Despite having 3 x Rotax engined bikes, I have not heard of The Rotax Man before. Force M/Cs are the main Rotax supplier in the UK and Military Can-Am M/Cs the main supplier for the Bombadier. I tried to find out a bit more about The Rotax Man but have not got very far so far - was he mainly involved in parts for go-karts?