Trail Rider Magazine

30 Trail Rider www.TrailRider.com Lectron Fuel Systems Lectron Fuel Systems Billetron Mini - Vintage Application Billetron Mini - Vintage Application By Kurt Flachbart By Kurt Flachbart Regular readers might recall the first feature we did on Lectron's Billetron Mini carburetor. Installed a year ago on our 1980 Yamaha YZ100 project, the results were outstanding. How and why did the Billetron Mini shine so well on that li le YZ? Well, first of all, the bike just seemed to run be er everywhere. From idle on up that li le bike runs so incredibly well. Our team enjoyed it extensively last season as a pit bike and ripping around the property surrounding Trail Rider headquarters. Running clean aside, if there was one trait about the Billetron Mini that really stood out, was how that carburetor added bo om end to an internal rotor 2-stroke, small-bore MX bike. Now to be clear, that li le YZ isn't even the slightest bit of a stump puller. What the Billetron Mini did was allow the bike to be lugged, tackling steep climbs without screaming the motor on the pipe, resul ng in out-of-control wheel spin. That's a win-win in our book. The inspira on for another Billetron Mini project began at the 50 th ISDT Reunion Ride held last fall in Vermont. The event drew hoards of small-bore Euro- pean bikes, many of them Sachs-powered Pentons. The most challenging sec on of the event was a long steep rocky climb that seemed to go on for miles. Be- ing aboard a big-bore 430 Husky, I enjoyed the climb immensely. Unfortunately, there was a sea of small- bore bikes badly loaded up, blubbering, bogging, and dying on the trail. Now the eleva on of approx- imately 2500 feet and temps in the 80s weren't enough to affect je ng that dras cally to cause so many fuel issues. Those who've run Bings for any length of me are well aware of how the needle and needle jets wear causing overly rich condi- ons. Another major contributor that's commonly overlooked while trying to sort out je ng issues on these old Bings is slide wear along with carb body wear. With the vast majority of these bikes now 50+ years old, no ma er how good you are at je ng, the fact remains, most of these carbs are just plain worn out. Being familiar with Sachs-pow- ered Pentons and DKWs, I was all too familiar with the idiosyncrasies of Bing carburetors, their wear points, and how they run overly rich when Bing carbs are worn beyond their usable lifespan. It was then I began to ponder how a Lectron Bil- letron Mini would work as a replacement for the 28mm Bing on my own Sachs-powered 1972 Pen- ton 125 Six Day. I too chased performance issues on this bike and even a er freshening the engine and installing a modern electronic igni on system along with spending hard-earned money at the Bing Agency on replacement parts, it never seemed to run well or run the same twice. Basically, it was a blubbering mess unless twisted to the moon.

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