madbad jezza

hi, if you dont want to blow out mega bucks on a new ESC, do a search on ebay for a seller who calls himself auctions! he,s selling a complete BEC switch - the old type that run off the speed controller for when your reciever hasn,t got a BEC facillity. i,ve just bought one off him myself - for less than a fiver, you cant go wrong. they,re dead easy to wire in - even if your current speed controller hasn,t already got the connector wired in - as long as you can solder. cheers, james.

hi, i,m using silicone grease - bought from maplins (the electric people). this stuff feels thick at first, but then it seems to almost melt and it goes ultra thin - it doesn,t flick-off like other greases and its also capable of withstanding very high temperatures. the gear train and especially the diffs on my optima are sweet, and feel silky smooth. i also take my recievers and servo,s apart and grease all the electrical parts with this stuff too, because its also water proof. personally, i,ve never had any problems with this stuff, and for about £5 for 50g tube, i think it justifies itself ok. cheers, james.

hey guess what!, i,ve got issue number 2 - the one thats missing from your collection [] - strange eh!.

hey stephen - tell me about it........!!!!!!!!!!. i,ve had my marauder for nearly 2 weeks now, but i,ve only just got a decent starter motor for it. fair play, i remember these cars from first time around, and i can see why i didn,t bother with them - thank got for pull starters and electric starters!. dont get me wrong, i like this car, its a real beast - crude - but a beast all the same. i,ve got blisters on my hands from gripping the starter so tightly, and blisters in the other hand from gripping the car tightly aswell - the compression in this .21 engine is seriously high!. driving without any brakes - at all - is another new experience for me too, and its a little bit scary, as this car is no slouch!. it handles about the same as my rough rider - which is "lively" to say the least. mine hasn,t got those naff foam tyres though, its got proper spikey rubber tyres all round - and with no diff fitted either, its makes a pretty good "roost" wheel spinning across the lawn [] - wont be any lawn left soon, just dirt [:I]. just how tough it is,remains to bee seen.... its fun for the moment though.

surely the easiest and cheapest way to make a battery drain, would be to use an old motor?. if you wired in a battery connector on the motor, you could plug it straight up to the battery pack - hey presto, instant flat battery. i,m no rocket engineer though..... james.

hi, i think the best place to find that information, would be in the manual section - or maybe find a specific car in the listings, and do a parts compatibility check on those specific parts - if you know what i mean...[8)]. i wouldn,t be suprised if the parts were interchangable without too much trouble. tamiya are pretty tidy like that. you can do a part number search aswell - if you have the numbers handy - and i think you can find out what parts fit what cars that way too. have fun!. james.

[][], tell you what, i really missed this forum while the club was upgrading. larf..?,not arf!.

i saw it aswell, i figured it was something like a modified kyosho blizzard or a tank maybe - but i do have an over-active imagination somedays... the chap driving it looked like he was having fun though!.

ah, at least i always reply though - probably with another dazed and confused sounding email.....[].

i,ve also been looking for a decent motor for my turbo optima, and the le mans 240 was a motor that was highly recommended. are they still available?, and if so, how much are they and where can i buy one from?. cheers, james.

hey darryn, did i class as one of those "morons" with daft questions...[].sorry mate! - i think it was a bit early in the morning for me. its got no bids yet mate, so my offer still stands...[]. nice screen saver download though on your websitethingymajigwotsitjobbie - cheers!.

stefan, i think a standard size servo may fit - just. i,ve got a couple of spare sub-micro servo,s kicking about, which i thought of using, but i think that they might actually be TOO small!. i think its going to need at least a little bit of weight at the front end to help handling. there definately isn,t a lot of space in these bikes!. james.

so andy/chris, what are you going to do if you manage to get some kind of re-fund, then 2 weeks later the item turns up? [8)] - keep quiet about it??!![].

this is quite an interesting thread, after all, nothing can be actually proved can it?. i mean, how do we know the seller posted anything at all?. if the parcel was posted and honestly lost in the post, how can that be proved?. if the item was insured, who pays up then?. i,ve got two things going on with my sales at the moment. i,m still waiting for an optima from america - which is dragging on, and now i,ve got to post my madcap to australia. i asked the woman in the post office about tracking the item, and she says it can,t be done?. so i said, how do i know if it gets there?, and she just said that someone will have to sign for the parcel when its delivered. if its not picked up and signed for after 5 weeks,they send it back to me. i,ve got the item insured, but once its posted, basically, its out of my hands. if the buyer says it never arrived and wants a re-fund, how can i prove other-wise?. the system seems full of loop-holes when you look at it from both sides, and relies on the honesty and good nature of the parties involved to settle any misfortunes. looks like we,re all in the same boat! [8)].

a chap from australia bought my madcap, so thats the end of that auction. cheers, james.

i,ve heard about mardave,s reputation for being very tough - a little crude maybe, but tough. we,ll see though, if anyone can break them, i can!. i remember the apache terry!, if i remember rightly, those cars were so cheap to buy, that they gave them away free with cornflake tokens didn,t they []. saying that though, i wouldn,t recognise the apache without a bodyshell fitted.

mmmm......i think i,m in the same boat as chris here.....i,ve been waiting for an optima (to keep my other one company), for a good couple of weeks now, and there,s no sign of it yet.... it is a bit odd though because i,ve bought stuff from the US before and its arrived well within 2 weeks. i even bought a 1/8th bike kit from hong kong last week - paid for it wednesday or thursday, and they shipped it friday - it turned up yesterday (wednesday). how can that be?, surely hong kong is further than america. its all a bit hit and miss sometimes, and what with this postal strike looming.... as for ebay helping with any possible re-fund, well i wouldn,t waste my time asking them!. they,re about as usefull as a chocolate fire place - even when you file a fraud complaint, they still dont do anything. as long as they get their share of the auction listing etc, i dont think they give a monkey,s about anything else...[!]. paypal did a spot-on job helping me get a refund for an ebay item last year. people slag them off, and yeh they are a bit sharky, but hey, i got a full re-fund in less than 3 weeks after i complained to them, which i thought was fair play!. it cuts it a bit fine though, if a parcel takes 30 days to arrive from overseas by ship/land, and there,s a 30 day limit to complain to paypal after the auction date....ooer..dont think i,ll think about that one too much......[8)]. dodgy old game sometimes innit!.

hey barney, the NIB one in my showroom is for sale. its actually on ebay at the moment - with a "buy it now" option. cheers, james.

hey terry, yeh, i know the "lug" you mean. on my rough rider runner i ground that off so i could fit a modern sport tuned 540 motor. and just like andy, i found i could no longer fit the plastic end cover. so all i did was drill another hole in the gear case at the front, so i could hold the motor in place with a screw. at the back of the motor, because i could no longer fit the cover, i sealed the motor in (around the joint) with clear silicone sealant. it sounds a bit of a bodge, but it looks ok and has worked ok so far........ it all depends on how much of a perfectionist you are andy...[].

cheers for the advice chaps, i am now the proud new owner of (what reads to be....) a very little used maraurder [] - thanks to ebay..its the one you pointed out to me andy []. it went a little over my maximum price - well, quite a lot over....but you all know what its like...[:I], so i,m afraid its "bye,bye" to the mad bison in my showroom []. i,m a happy little bunny........ cheers!. james.

does anyone know if its still possible to buy a new mardave marauder?. i know this is an old car, but you never know!. i,m not even sure if mardave are still around, let alone producing RC cars. anyone know?. cheers []. (failing that, anyone got a decent one they want to sell?).

wow, there,s tonnes of information on the yahoo site, and some fantastic looking bikes on the crazynut racing one, spot-on [][] nice one mate,cheers!.

these bikes must be bigger than i think then if your using some standard radio gear then rizwan....[:0] yep, the bike came with an after market oval (frame?) washer thrown in. the frame wears out pretty rapidly apparantly, doesn,t it?. here,s an interesting link i,ve found - there,s even a downloadable video clip of two of these bike racing!, well mint!. http://www.steliosh.net/rcmoto/index.htm cheers, james.

cheers on the offer of the forks andy, but i,m gonna get me some pukka oil damped ones....[]

well, i,ve just given dingball my address details so i can order the gizmo bits for the bike - cheers for the link []. now i,ve got a rough idea what i,m looking for, i,ll look around a bit more. i have actually got 2 sub-micro servos kicking about somewhere, and these are tiny!. i feel a plan coming together............ cheers []