For those who like old Motorcycles.

[MrWolf]

4 hours ago, spikey said:

BOF I may well be, but I just don't get all this "mode" stuff and whatnot on modern bikes.  OK, ABS I can see being well handy at times because however experienced you are, a patch of diesel on a wet bend at night can have anyone proceeding sideways up/off the road and it might just keep you on board.  But all the rest of it I really don't get.

 

I was actually nattering to a police biker a couple of months ago about this very thing, my feeling being that if you give the punters all this stuff to save them from themselves, surely it only encourages 'em to wring the bike's neck at every opportunity in the belief that the systems will save their asses.

 

He reckoned that among traffic police in general and police bikers in particular, it's about a 50:50 split on whether a lot of the technology is a Good Thing from the pov of keeping bikers out of hospitals.

 

This opinion brought to you by spikey, who famously got three "firsts" in his very first production race at Cadwell Park one fine Sunday in 1965 - first off the line, first into the first bend, and first on his ar$e ...

 

Your opinion that chumps think that:

A. They're invulnerable

B. That they can actually drive / ride 

Is proven entirely by the way car drivers behave in their gadget filled margarine tubs.

I have often thought that it would be better to bin the seatbelts, bring back bench seats, fixed steering columns and metal dashboards.

On that metal dashboard should be a sign, it would say: Drive responsibly or die horribly.

 

 

Edited November 29, 2020 by MrWolf

[Phil Traxson]

9 hours ago, rockershovel said:

 

 

The twin-Port styling died out after WW2, having no real performance advantage. Mostly they were dropped as manufacturers moved to swinging-arm suspension, although Panther persevered with them on the big “slopers” to the very end. 

And Honda did it with the RS 250 single around 1980, but with a 4 valve OHC  set up. 

[Kickstart]

35 minutes ago, MrWolf said:

 

I have often thought that it would be better to bin the seatbelts, bring back bench seats, fixed steering columns and metal dashboards.

On that metal dashboard should be a sign, it would say: Drive responsibly or die horribly.

 

 

Or just a random 1% of airbags being advised as containing shrapnel, with non destructive way to know whether any particular airbag is part of that 1%!
 

All the best

 

Katy

[Kickstart]

2 minutes ago, Phil Traxson said:

And Honda did it with the RS 250 single around 1980, but with a 4 valve OHC  set up. 

Not sure if the 4 valve head engines would count as twin port in the traditional sense. But certainly plenty had separate ports for each valve (including the ubiquitous Rotax singles).

 

All the best

 

Katy

[MrWolf]

Ah yes, the four valve head.

 

Didn't Excelsior manage that with the Manxman about 1934?

 

Nothing new under the sun..

 

Just too much too soon with the British industry, postwar of course they made the opposite mistake.

 

 

 

Edited November 30, 2020 by MrWolf
Stupid autocorrect

[MrWolf]

8 minutes ago, Kickstart said:

Or just a random 1% of airbags being advised as containing shrapnel, with non destructive way to know whether any particular airbag is part of that 1%!
 

All the best

 

Katy

 

I think there's enough room in modern steering wheel hubs for a more than effective Claymore...

 

That's quite delightfully brutal. My other half would love that. She drives a Triumph Herald, so she'll be okay.

[rockershovel]

5 hours ago, MrWolf said:

Ah yes, the four valve head.

 

Didn't Excelsior manage that with the Manxman about 1934?

 

Nothing new under the sun..

 

Just too much too soon with the British industry, postwar of course they made the opposite mistake.

 

 

 

 

Rudge made 4v pushrod singles of various descriptions for many years, and very nice they were too. 

 

BSA could, and should have had a SOHC 500cc twin in the late 1930s, the prototype was built and ran well by all accounts. Looked much like a Kawasaki W650 or W800

 

Yamaha TT600, Honda FT550.. lots of ohv 4v, twin-Port singles around from Japan at one time.

[MrWolf]

BSA certainly did have the OHC twin in rideable prototype form and were looking to launch in the 1940 catalogue. It would have been a good step ahead of rivals. With the level of innovation and new model investment that was going on in the thirties, how different our industry would have been had WW2 not literally cost us the earth.

 

Photo BSA motors / Roy Bacon / Niton Press.

[MrWolf]

I fitted this saddle brand new six months ago, cost me around £70. 

Five of the mattress springs have snapped, two more are missing in action.

Before you ask, I only weigh 13 stone!

Ignore the union flag on the base, I checked it out. Total c2ap made in Taiwan.

No wonder original Lycette or Terry saddles fetch a mint.

 

 

 

 

[New Haven Neil]

9 hours ago, rockershovel said:

 

snip< lots of ohv 4v, twin-Port singles around from Japan at one time.

 

I presume you meant OHC - and there still are around here!

 

 

TT 2021 cancelled 

 

Our extra bank holiday in TT week has been moved to MG week, hopefully MGP will go ahead as we prefer that anyway with its leaning towards older bikes.

[MrWolf]

Repaired with springs salvaged from another tatty saddle.

I wonder how long it will last? 

My inner cynic says that a lot of repro parts are only fit for purpose of you're only going to polish the bike and boast about it being "better than money in the bank".

Heaven forbid you might want to ride the thing.

 

 

[MrWolf]

Not had chance to go to the TT for a good while. It's one of the last races that isn't just a 200mph queue. I quite fancy the MGP though for the same reasons as you. 

That's another one for my time machine list TT from about 1929, 1938 and 1950.

[New Haven Neil]

We came here in 1986 for TT, and got a bit hooked, moved here in '02.  The local branch of the VMCC is quite active as you may imagine!

[steve1]

Found these images on the hard drive. Taken at Bridlington station.

 

steve

 

[MrWolf]

That is a very nice and not often seen pair of Nortons. 

A civvy Rotary has to be a rare beast. The other looks like a late ES2 in the model 77 type frame.

[spikey]

OK, can one of you guys who is up to speed with modern bikes and the riders thereof solve a mystery for me?   If I were to be approaching a junction or whatever on a bike and needed to change down through the gears, I would delight in doing so as I had always done i.e. by blipping the throttle on each change.  Nowadays, it seems to be the Done Thing to just close the throttle and change down, which I've sometimes noted causing the expected (at least by me) apparent snatching. 

 

What's that all about then?  How's it work?  Why not do it properly and take a pride in so doing?

[MrWolf]

That I think is more about the myths surrounding modern gearboxes. On an old gearbox it paid to blip the throttle when changing down so that all of the gearbox shafts were rotating at similar speeds, allowing the non synchromesh gears a better chance of meshing smoothly and preventing snatch on the uptake of the clutch. Your engine braking was thus also smoother and didn't try to lock the rear wheel.

Now of course we have synchromesh gears and blipping the throttle to ensure a smooth change isn't quite so necessary, so it isn't even taught anymore. That said, the effect is still the same when you drop the clutch and it not only puts strain on every moving part and risks locking up the rear wheel particularly if the road surface is imperfect.

When you consider the cost and complexity of repairs to modern transmissions and how fragile some of the parts seem to be, you would think that people would be a little more careful. But, I notice a total lack of mechanical sympathy, let alone knowledge amongst a lot of riders (who can usually quote every specification of every sports bike available this season) which is where a lot of the old wives tales about reliability start and one reason tyres last less than 1000 miles.

Of course, some people aren't that bothered. The bike will be out of fashion before the clutch explodes. 

[spikey]

7 hours ago, MrWolf said:

 

Now of course we have synchromesh gears ...

 

Eh?  On bikes?  Since when? 

[MrWolf]

6 minutes ago, spikey said:

 

Eh?  On bikes?  Since when? 

 

I was talking more generally about gearboxes. Most motorcyclists with little mechanical sympathy do about 10000 miles a year in a car that probably isn't theirs anyway and the few miles they do on a bike, they treat it in the same way.

[MrWolf]

Back to The Ladybird Book Of Swearing At Motorcycles.

Whilst replacing the rear brake shoes on the BSA Star Twin, I found that although the previous owner had replaced the combined drum and sprocket, they had re-used the original (possibly over 70 years old)  Hoffman carrier bearing. This is a little worrying for a start as the only way to remove the old bearing is to bash at the inner race. A new one can be fitted by pressing on the outer race. 

I have always replaced wheel bearings on my old bikes as a matter of course, but this was the first time I have ever found one truly worn out. The drum and sprocket were oscillating and when you pressed the brake you could feel it through the pedal. The brake shoes are dead as a consequence. I suspect that the bearing was wrecked by rough treatment. For the sake of saving about £8 on a bearing, someone did something that wasn't just bad engineering practice, it was potentially dangerous. 

The good news is that I ordered a new one from one of the many British bike parts suppliers on Tuesday morning and it arrived today.  Back on the road just in time for the predicted weekend of bad weather!

If it does chuck it down over the weekend, I will be checking the bearings on Miss Riding Hood's Speed Twin, as we didn't rebuild it. The B33 is okay, we have already done that one. 

 

 

Edited December 2, 2020 by MrWolf
Stupid autocorrect

[steve1]

Given how popular the last pics were, here's some more from the archives.

 

steve

 

[MrWolf]

You don't see many Ariel singles in the swingarm frame.

[New Haven Neil]

We used to call riders that don't blip on down changes gearbox wreckers.  They do.  I think it is the modern training methods, all about having a head on swivels and nothing about riding the actual bike.  Observation is all and good, and yes I know they over emphasise it in the hope they do some observation after they pass, but the general skill of riding seems to be ignored.

[spikey]

That Ariel looks nice, but clock the resting angle of the front brake arm.  Never ceases to amaze me how often you see that. 

 

Anyhow, the snap of Tiger Cub prompts me to ask what was that 250 single called that Triumph had around 1969/70?  I bought one of 'em in 1975 that had been stood in a bloke's back yard under a plastic sheet for a few years since he went off the idea of two wheels.  Did him the great favour of removing it from his sight, which made him happy.  Had to push it home nigh on two miles in the pouring rain which didn't make me happy.  But it only cost me a tenner, which did make me happy.

 

Getting it sorted was a doddle and IIRC cost me very little other than time, and surprise surprise I really liked riding the thing.  Sounded nice too, and fetched a very good price when advertised in the back of MCN.  They ought to have sold well, but I bet they didn't ...

Edited December 2, 2020 by spikey
typo

[Kickstart]

1 hour ago, New Haven Neil said:

We used to call riders that don't blip on down changes gearbox wreckers.  They do.  I think it is the modern training methods, all about having a head on swivels and nothing about riding the actual bike.  Observation is all and good, and yes I know they over emphasise it in the hope they do some observation after they pass, but the general skill of riding seems to be ignored.

People don’t do it in cars (and it is advised against in some car owners manuals as it is using extra fuel) so people are out of the habit. Remember watching a bike track day and cringing at a guy having the back end all over the place as they just slammed it down the gears.

 

All the best

 

Katy