Montgomery Wards Riverside / Benelli Cobra / Leoncino 125

This 100% complete bike is was sold in the USA in 1969 as a Montgomery Wards Riverside 125. It was also imported under the name "Benelli Cobra" and sold in it's native Italy as the "Benelli Leoncino." It is a 4 -speed right hand shift, 1 up, 3 down. This bike was laid up properly with lots of oil and so the internals are in good shape. The motor is a piston ported 2-stroke - no case induction or reed valve here. 125 cc. The motor turns over and shifts smoothly. The cylinder, piston, rings, crank and con rod have been inspected and are in excellent shape. 6V 60 watt electrics. Coils check for continuity. New points included. Carb is in excellent working order. 2 petcocks, both functioning and included. Gas tank electrolytically cleaned and sealed with Red Kote. Pictured with an old Yamaha seat pan. Original seat included.

 

sachs g3 performance clutch tuning

Stock Vs. Performance

Installation tutorial

So the stiffy springs went into the clutch part number 20 without too much knuckledragging and yep, not only do they work, they work better than stock, 'cause they're 15% stiffer. Testbed is my "problem child" sachs g3 w/ 505 /1A engine 48mm athena reed valve, 19mm Mikuni from a Kawasaki KH125 main jet 80 pilot 45 needle one notch from lowest, ghetto hacked biturbo pipe, stock gearing 43 mph top speed @ ~10K RPM. Frankly, it's ghetto as hell, and I know for a fact that I need new rings, but I digress. The clutch spline (No. 18) has been drilled and tapped for a set screw (w/ red loctite), plus two red loctited axle nuts tightened against each other on the end of the crankshaft (No. 12). So far, no problems with slip there. I have no tach so I'm guesstimating, but my guesstimate is engagement occurs ~1k, and the engine spins up enough power to make the clutch plates slip under extreme loads, but that's another problem most likely related to not having a shim in there. I'd say its a ~20% increase on stock takeoff engagement of around ~800 rpm. The bike takes off up grades that were previously impossible. As always, there is room for improvement. I look forward to hearing what people running superclutches or milled clutch plates have to say about their experience running these springs. If you're one of these folks that would like to replicate this experiment in yr own lab and report back with the lowdown, hit up OB1 to hook it up. Pix or it didn't happen:

Mods & Rockers 2012

In the Garage

Ryan's Ride

Mobilwerkstatt

Ariel Square 4

Indian Chief

These are from the 2012 Mods & Rockers rally in Cincy:

Bultaco

Right Hand Shift

This bike won best in show but the owner couldn't get it started....

Mini-P30!

Someday....