Motorcycle General Discussion

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by Neil Wyatt on 11/08/2016 20:54:13:

I hope he had a well-padded saddle

.

Then you would certainly feel for Rollie Free

**LINK**

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rollie_Free

MichaelG.

[MadMikeParticipant @madmike]

Guy Martins speed so far is only a shakedown run, using quarter throttle and about 15psi boost on the turbo. He/they will undoubtedly continue with a programme of testing until the actual record attempt at the end of the month during the annual Bonneville Speed Week. They currently are aiming to set a new record which will be in excess of around 376mph. Their target speed is apparently 400mph. The increases from 376 to 400+ mph require massive power increases, and I guess that is the direction they are heading in. Cal Rayborne's record was set in a specific vehicle class, as all the records are. It is somewhat irrelevant unless it is the same class as the current attempt.

[HopperParticipant @hopper]

Posted by MadMike on 11/08/2016 23:57:33:

Guy Martins speed so far is only a shakedown run, using quarter throttle and about 15psi boost on the turbo. He/they will undoubtedly continue with a programme of testing until the actual record attempt at the end of the month during the annual Bonneville Speed Week. They currently are aiming to set a new record which will be in excess of around 376mph. Their target speed is apparently 400mph. The increases from 376 to 400+ mph require massive power increases, and I guess that is the direction they are heading in. Cal Rayborne's record was set in a specific vehicle class, as all the records are. It is somewhat irrelevant unless it is the same class as the current attempt.

I think you will find that at the time Cal's run was the fastest any motorcycle had ever gone, regardless of class. It stood for five years until the Yamaha two-strokes came along and the rest is (very smokey) history.

Now 400mph makes more sense for a twin-engined, blown, 4800cc, 21st century machine. What a coup for Triumph if they pull it off, as they almost certainly will. Putting the Bonneville back in Bonneville, sort of. Great to see the old name reclaiming some of its former glory. Will give the boys at BUB and Ack Attack something to worry about!

[HopperParticipant @hopper]

Posted by Neil Wyatt on 11/08/2016 20:54:13:

Posted by Hopper on 11/08/2016 09:31:21:

That's nice. Almost 10mph faster than Cal Rayborn in 1970, in a single-engined, unblown, nitro-burning 1400cc Harley Sportster powered streamliner. That's 46 years of progress for you!

I hope he had a well-padded saddle

He only did a couple of runs before a valve seat exploded a few hundred yards from the final line. I'll bet his saddle was well padded after that.

More likely, stuck inside and old jet fighter fuel tank with an over bored over stroked Harley engine at full chat he would have barely noticed! Rolled across the line and still took the record.

[WindyParticipant @windy30762]

Posted by MadMike on 11/08/2016 23:57:33:

Guy Martins speed so far is only a shakedown run, using quarter throttle and about 15psi boost on the turbo. He/they will undoubtedly continue with a programme of testing until the actual record attempt at the end of the month during the annual Bonneville Speed Week. They currently are aiming to set a new record which will be in excess of around 376mph. Their target speed is apparently 400mph. The increases from 376 to 400+ mph require massive power increases, and I guess that is the direction they are heading in. Cal Rayborne's record was set in a specific vehicle class, as all the records are. It is somewhat irrelevant unless it is the same class as the current attempt.

When pushing the unknown you take things steady at first until everything is to the teams satisfaction after all a life is at stake.

Sam has paid the ultimate price when things go wrong

**LINK**

[HopperParticipant @hopper]

Speaking of world's fastest bikes, here's a great old pic of Burt Munro, the real one not the movie one, with his trusty lathe. Looks to be an early ML7 with all the belt guards removed. No WHS in Burt's life! Amazing that he built that engine, making his own heads, pistons, cylinders, con rods etc with such limited facilities, his lathe and a hacksaw and file basically.

Check out the old pre-pop-up electric  toaster on the shelf behind him, and what looks like a coffee or more likely tea jar. The wife of an old newspaper editor friend of mine told me that when she was a young cadet newspaper photographer in New Zealand, she used to go and take pics of Burt every year when he was heading off to America for Bonneville. She told me he lived in his shed (rented out the house to get money) and had a greasy, crusty bed in the corner with a tarp strung over it to keep the rain from the leaking roof off it. She said he always had a big pot of soup bubbling away on a burner in the corner and reckons it was probably the same pot of soup from one year to another, he just added a few vegies and bits of meat to it every couple of days and kept it going. She wasn't as impressed with Burt as some of us are, to put it mildly.

Edited By Hopper on 12/08/2016 13:01:14

Edited By Hopper on 12/08/2016 13:04:54

Edited By Hopper on 12/08/2016 13:05:27

[WindyParticipant @windy30762]

We have many speed competitors the like of Bert Monroe in this country to name one Peter Williams despite serious health and financial problems he is still creating speed machines his latest a gas turbine three wheeler that is nearing completion.

His aluminium fuel tanks and other ally pieces shows what can be made with little equipment.

**LINK**

Here is a link to his earlier efforts

**LINK**

[thaiguzziParticipant @thaiguzzi]

Posted by Hopper on 12/08/2016 12:35:21:

Speaking of world's fastest bikes, here's a great old pic of Burt Munro, the real one not the movie one, with his trusty lathe. Looks to be an early ML7 with all the belt guards removed. No WHS in Burt's life! Amazing that he built that engine, making his own heads, pistons, cylinders, con rods etc with such limited facilities, his lathe and a hacksaw and file basically.

Check out the old pre-pop-up electric toaster on the shelf behind him, and what looks like a coffee or more likely tea jar. The wife of an old newspaper editor friend of mine told me that when she was a young cadet newspaper photographer in New Zealand, she used to go and take pics of Burt every year when he was heading off to America for Bonneville. She told me he lived in his shed (rented out the house to get money) and had a greasy, crusty bed in the corner with a tarp strung over it to keep the rain from the leaking roof off it. She said he always had a big pot of soup bubbling away on a burner in the corner and reckons it was probably the same pot of soup from one year to another, he just added a few vegies and bits of meat to it every couple of days and kept it going. She wasn't as impressed with Burt as some of us are, to put it mildly.

Edited By Hopper on 12/08/2016 13:01:14

Edited By Hopper on 12/08/2016 13:04:54

Edited By Hopper on 12/08/2016 13:05:27

"Like" button pressed.

Excellent – a proper geezer, and character, and very talented individual who always impressed me.

[Ian S CParticipant @iansc]

Toaster, just about ever house(on the grid) in NZ had a toaster like that in the 1940/50s, that one looks like a "Neeco" Chevron Toaster, in 1949 it cost 52/6, there were a number of similar toasters.

Ian S C

[HopperParticipant @hopper]

Posted by thaiguzzi on 13/08/2016 04:05:28:

Posted by Hopper on 12/08/2016 12:35:21:

Speaking of world's fastest bikes, here's a great old pic of Burt Munro, the real one not the movie one, with his trusty lathe. Looks to be an early ML7 with all the belt guards removed. No WHS in Burt's life! Amazing that he built that engine, making his own heads, pistons, cylinders, con rods etc with such limited facilities, his lathe and a hacksaw and file basically.

Check out the old pre-pop-up electric toaster on the shelf behind him, and what looks like a coffee or more likely tea jar. The wife of an old newspaper editor friend of mine told me that when she was a young cadet newspaper photographer in New Zealand, she used to go and take pics of Burt every year when he was heading off to America for Bonneville. She told me he lived in his shed (rented out the house to get money) and had a greasy, crusty bed in the corner with a tarp strung over it to keep the rain from the leaking roof off it. She said he always had a big pot of soup bubbling away on a burner in the corner and reckons it was probably the same pot of soup from one year to another, he just added a few vegies and bits of meat to it every couple of days and kept it going. She wasn't as impressed with Burt as some of us are, to put it mildly.

Edited By Hopper on 12/08/2016 13:01:14

Edited By Hopper on 12/08/2016 13:04:54

Edited By Hopper on 12/08/2016 13:05:27

"Like" button pressed.

Excellent – a proper geezer, and character, and very talented individual who always impressed me.

Thanks. LOL, I just noticed too that he appears to be drinking his tea out of a paper cup. No washing up to do that way I'd guess. A proper geezer indeed!

[HopperParticipant @hopper]

Posted by Windy on 12/08/2016 20:19:45:

We have many speed competitors the like of Bert Monroe in this country to name one Peter Williams despite serious health and financial problems he is still creating speed machines his latest a gas turbine three wheeler that is nearing completion.

His aluminium fuel tanks and other ally pieces shows what can be made with little equipment.

**LINK**

Here is a link to his earlier efforts

**LINK**

Yes, another "proper geezer" as ThaiGuzzi puts it. I have watched the first video many times before. He makes it look so damned easy! I love his techniques of doing it all with no special gear. A bit of pipe and this morning's newspaper for a bender. No wheeling machine, just knock each individual dent out with an old hammer head and welding filler rods, what are they? Just use strips of the parent metal and get a perfect metallurgical match into the bargain. The man is an absolute wizard.

[CirclipParticipant @circlip]

Posted by Hopper on 14/08/2016 11:12:29:

Posted by thaiguzzi on 13/08/2016 04:05:28:

Posted by Hopper on 12/08/2016 12:35:21:

Speaking of world's fastest bikes, here's a great old pic of Burt Munro, the real one not the movie one, with his trusty lathe. Looks to be an early ML7 with all the belt guards removed. No WHS in Burt's life! Amazing that he built that engine, making his own heads, pistons, cylinders, con rods etc with such limited facilities, his lathe and a hacksaw and file basically.

Check out the old pre-pop-up electric toaster on the shelf behind him, and what looks like a coffee or more likely tea jar. The wife of an old newspaper editor friend of mine told me that when she was a young cadet newspaper photographer in New Zealand, she used to go and take pics of Burt every year when he was heading off to America for Bonneville. She told me he lived in his shed (rented out the house to get money) and had a greasy, crusty bed in the corner with a tarp strung over it to keep the rain from the leaking roof off it. She said he always had a big pot of soup bubbling away on a burner in the corner and reckons it was probably the same pot of soup from one year to another, he just added a few vegies and bits of meat to it every couple of days and kept it going. She wasn't as impressed with Burt as some of us are, to put it mildly.

Edited By Hopper on 12/08/2016 13:01:14

Edited By Hopper on 12/08/2016 13:04:54

Edited By Hopper on 12/08/2016 13:05:27

"Like" button pressed.

Excellent – a proper geezer, and character, and very talented individual who always impressed me.

Thanks. LOL, I just noticed too that he appears to be drinking his tea out of a paper cup. No washing up to do that way I'd guess. A proper geezer indeed!

Wonder if it's REALLY necessary to see the same posting three times?

FOUR NOW

Regards Ian.

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Posted by Circlip on 14/08/2016 11:53:00:

Posted by Hopper on 14/08/2016 11:12:29:

Posted by thaiguzzi on 13/08/2016 04:05:28:

Posted by Hopper on 12/08/2016 12:35:21:

Speaking of world's fastest bikes, here's a great old pic of Burt Munro, the real one not the movie one, with his trusty lathe. Looks to be an early ML7 with all the belt guards removed. No WHS in Burt's life! Amazing that he built that engine, making his own heads, pistons, cylinders, con rods etc with such limited facilities, his lathe and a hacksaw and file basically.

Check out the old pre-pop-up electric toaster on the shelf behind him, and what looks like a coffee or more likely tea jar. The wife of an old newspaper editor friend of mine told me that when she was a young cadet newspaper photographer in New Zealand, she used to go and take pics of Burt every year when he was heading off to America for Bonneville. She told me he lived in his shed (rented out the house to get money) and had a greasy, crusty bed in the corner with a tarp strung over it to keep the rain from the leaking roof off it. She said he always had a big pot of soup bubbling away on a burner in the corner and reckons it was probably the same pot of soup from one year to another, he just added a few vegies and bits of meat to it every couple of days and kept it going. She wasn't as impressed with Burt as some of us are, to put it mildly.

Edited By Hopper on 12/08/2016 13:01:14

Edited By Hopper on 12/08/2016 13:04:54

Edited By Hopper on 12/08/2016 13:05:27

"Like" button pressed.

Excellent – a proper geezer, and character, and very talented individual who always impressed me.

Thanks. LOL, I just noticed too that he appears to be drinking his tea out of a paper cup. No washing up to do that way I'd guess. A proper geezer indeed!

Wonder if it's REALLY necessary to see the same posting three times?

FOUR NOW

Regards Ian.

Well now I know where JS gets his mugs from

Neil

[Ian S CParticipant @iansc]

When I was nursing at Kew hospital in Invercargill, I met up with Bert when he came in with pneumonia, don't think it was his first stay, I was just sorry I couldn't spend more time with him, staff weren't encouraged to get too close to the patients. One or two patients I remember, hundreds of others—–gone and forgotten.

Ian S C

[MuzzerParticipant @muzzer]

Posted by duncan webster on 11/08/2016 21:06:50:

There was a guy at Manchester Univ who did a lot of research into telescopic forks after several policemen came to grief riding big Beemers. I went to a lecture he gave many years ago, to sum up he reckoned teles were about as bad is it is possible to get unless the 2 sliding members were very well braced together to stop the front wheel tilting over, hence the massive spindles modern bikes have. He fitted a Beemer with leading link forks, I think it was raced by Gus Kuhn Motors, and by all accouns the handling was a lot better than standard. BMW then went onto telelever, which was quite neat and looked more conventional.

One problem with leading link forks is that the anti-dive effect varies enormously with movement. Clearly these days telescopic forks aren't a problem, given their prevalence in almost every class of bike currently available.

I recall being intrigued by a large BMW bike that called into our local garage in Harrogate back in the early 80s. It had centre hub steering(?) with a beefy swing arm from the front of the frame to a spherical bearing at the centre of the front wheel. It was massively engineered but didn't appear to be a home brew affair. Although it was being ridden on the road, it was a sort of off-road machine that you might imagine doing the Paris Dakar (no idea what those are called). The guy told me it was very good to ride, loads of movement and easy to control. It doesn't seem to have become established, presumably due to the cost-benefit not being justified.

The Triumph speed attempt is presumably a marketing initiative. Some years back, JCB worked with Ricardo and others to pull off a similar stunt using 2 very highly modified engines (JCB Dieselmax). The blocks were based on standard castings but apart from that there was very little in common with the production engine IIRC. The cooling was achieved by using large quantities of ice, rather than try to cool and recirculate pressurised hot water.

Murray

[JimmieSParticipant @jimmies]

Rodney Kinnaird built a racing 4 in the late 60's. In this you tube clip you can enjoy the scene/noise as he fires it up. And his unique method of disengaging the starter belt. What would the health and safety people have to say!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5PJ7jy5h4fA

Edited By JimmieS on 22/08/2016 21:44:22

[HopperParticipant @hopper]

Posted by Ian S C on 15/08/2016 14:36:42:

When I was nursing at Kew hospital in Invercargill, I met up with Bert when he came in with pneumonia, don't think it was his first stay, I was just sorry I couldn't spend more time with him, staff weren't encouraged to get too close to the patients. One or two patients I remember, hundreds of others—–gone and forgotten.

Ian S C

Maybe the tarp over his bed leaked a bit.

[Ian S CParticipant @iansc]

Quite likely, I could say more, but won't.

Ian S C

[HopperParticipant @hopper]

I imagine living in a shed in Invercargill's climate would tax anyone's constitution.

[Ian S CParticipant @iansc]

I lived in Invercargill for a couple of years in the 60s, it can get a bit raw, but it's not too bad. Found a place on Stewart Island where they grew Bananas.

Ian S C

[WindyParticipant @windy30762]

A local from York I know is on the salt getting ready to watch the fast chaps attempt to break speed records at the Cook Shootout there will be more from him as it proceeds.

**LINK**

http://landspeedevents.com/blog/2016-bonneville-shootout-september-15-20/

 

There is also record attempts at Elvington this weekend from the bizarre to outright speed machines.

Edited By Windy on 15/09/2016 10:41:18

[Bob RodgersonParticipant @bobrodgerson97362]

Take a look at my albums, there are some bike photo,s and restoration stuff in there. I'm currently working on an interesting project using castings rescued from a well known British Manufacturer at the time it shut down.

Not exactly bikes, but vehicle restoration, here are a couple of half shafts for a Humber car. They are almost finished, keyways to cut, keys to fit and oil throwers to make and fit. 

The hubs that fit onto the ends of the shafts are in a repaired condition and I wondered why one had a thinner key than the other. It wasn't until I went to try the hub on the shaft while cutting the taper that  I realised that one of the hubs must have been damaged and the taper had been re-cut, hence the larger diameter bore. Fortunately I tried the hub on the shaft while I was cutting the taper and realised its was,t quite the same as the first one I tried.

The splines were cut on my CNC mill and when finished required just a few minutes work with a file to ease the corner radius at the root of each spline to enable them to fit snugly in the diff.

 

Some of you might guess the Humber connection if you look at the pictures in my albums or you are a long term subscriber to Real Classic.

Edited By Bob Rodgerson on 15/09/2016 11:04:58

Edited By Bob Rodgerson on 15/09/2016 11:06:59

[WindyParticipant @windy30762]

A bit more on the Triumph and Guy

**LINK**

[WindyParticipant @windy30762]

Update on Guy Martin by the mail

**LINK**

[WindyParticipant @windy30762]

World speed record attempts are not easy to achieve unexpected problems can suddenly happen.

**LINK**

[Author]

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