Motorcycle General Discussion

[Curtis RutterParticipant @curtisrutter61973]

My favourite bike! 

My Current build/project

 

 

Edited By Curtis Rutter on 11/01/2017 10:56:26

Edited By Curtis Rutter on 11/01/2017 10:58:57

[Curtis RutterParticipant @curtisrutter61973]

My daily steed for work….

[HopperParticipant @hopper]

Nice one. All of them! Triumphs ain't what they used to be. (Thank goodness )

[Curtis RutterParticipant @curtisrutter61973]

Think my one was a bank holiday Friday bike! Was in the garage more times than it was on the road,it felt like. Had almost every component replaced under warranty by the time I got rid of it. But my what a bike, it handled so well and was such a pleasure to ride!

[John FlackParticipant @johnflack59079]

Somewhere in these folios is reference to the licence for three wheelers and sidecars in the past. I have no idea as to current regs but in the 1950/1960 period the motorcycle licence allowed its owner to drive a Morgan or other tricycle subject to it not be over 8Cwt or having a reverse gear . I know this to be a fact as I owned a 2 speed Morgan. When having car driving lessons turning up for lessons at BSM my arrival caused surprised to the instructors. Many Morgan owners with 3 gears and reverse could legally blank of the reverse and legally drive it on a m/c licence. I believe that post war Reliant owners used the same dodge!! For those not Conversant with the tem 2 speed the alternative ratios were obtained be having a sprocket either side of the rear wheel both connected to a prop shaft driven bevel box, the ratio change being by sliding dogs on a 1" square shafft. If someone could explain to an 80 something nig nog how to move a photo onto a post in simple manner, I guarantee a slight drool among like minded souls……………

[richardandtracyParticipant @richardandtracy]

In 1990 I legally drove a Reliant Robin on my motorcycle license without L plates when learning to drive a car. As it turned out, I bought a 2CV when I graduated to 4 wheels, so everything I learnt about 'real cars' was entirely null & void. The best advice I got for the 2CV was 'If you can hear the passenger screaming, you're not trying hard enough'.

Regards,

Richard.

[John Stevenson 1Participant @johnstevenson1]

Why do / did all Reliant owners used to have those flip top purses ?

Inquiring minds would like to know.

Was it a right of passage ?

[Cyril BonnettParticipant @cyrilbonnett24790]

John the engines were under a flip lid, so we needed a reminder.

My regal was a better than my triton in the snow and I could scare the pants of the girl friend by going round corners on two wheels, ( didn't last long).

Hit by a drunk reversing out of a pub it disintegrated like a WW2 movie, bits of body work flying past the windscreen needless to say it was back on the road with a new front end in three weeks, I finally got rid of it because a tank beckoned. Those were the days

[martin perman 1Participant @martinperman1]

Many moons ago when I was an apprentice one of my apprentice friends had a reliant regal, one lunch time he parked in a car park in town next to a high wall, on the other side of the wall was a delivery yard for a supermarket and a truck clipped the wall which collapsed on the regal, when my friend came back he had a chassis and a pile of fibreglass.

Martin P

[Cornish JackParticipant @cornishjack]

Aaaaaahhh! (or, maybe AAAAAGGGGGHHHHH!) – the 'Moggie threeler'. Saw one in Ripon in the 50s with the steering wheel replaced with the control wheel fron a P3 Neptune – com;plete with armament switches!! My only time onboard a three-wheeler was in the boot (!!) of my uncle's BSA version being taken to see the Wizard of Oz. We totalled FIVE on board!! My brother and myself in the boot, mother, sister and uncle in front. Mind you, this was Cornwall, 1943 wartime, so possibly things were a little different then.

rgds

Bill

PS   One of our Test Pilots at Boscombe Down bought a Bond Bug and reckoned it was quite 'sporty'. As I recall, one of the motoring journos described it as looking like like a 'demented wedge of Leicestershire cheese'

Edited By Cornish Jack on 12/01/2017 23:35:25

[John FlackParticipant @johnflack59079]

To Cornish jack……comparing a bsa trike with a moggie without experiencing both is hardly fair comment. Morgan is still around making trikes……………………..where is bsa????????????????????

If someone can tell me how to introduce a photo to this post I will show you why,……

[richardandtracyParticipant @richardandtracy]

Posted by John Stevenson on 12/01/2017 20:10:56:

Why do / did all Reliant owners used to have those flip top purses ?

Inquiring minds would like to know.

Was it a right of passage ?

Never had a flip top purse. Just like the Queen, I never carry cash. Unlike the Queen, it's because I haven't got any to carry.

I hated, loathed & despised the Robin. Mine was cowpat beige. The foot well was as wide as my two feet, so I usually ended up pressing all three pedals by accident. The ride was catastrophic. The cylinder head gasket blew every time the revs got high enough to equate to 60mph in top. It got rolled over onto it's roof one New Year and had the driver's handle pushed through the bodywork, so I couldn't lock it while parked on the road (every night). And no-one stole the d**n thing! A car caught fire next to it, but the fire brigade arrived & put it out before the Reliant caught fire. I was furious.

Eventually I resorted to selling it for a tenner because I couldn't stand it any longer. And got a real car. A Citroen 2CV. Yep, you can tell the depths of desperation I had sunk to.

Regards,

Richard.

[Cornish JackParticipant @cornishjack]

JF – valid point made but I wasn't comparing … conflating , maybe? The only similarity was layout – two in front, one at the back as distinct from the Bond and Reliant. The Moggie 4 wheel heritage would be a guarantee of something special

rgds

Bill

[Edward CrouchParticipant @edwardcrouch25793]

This is my boringly reliable machine. Thing is, it's anything but boring!!! I'd just got back from a weekend in Germany. Love my old VFR.

[Cyril BonnettParticipant @cyrilbonnett24790]

Once took seven people to the local disco in my reliant van my brother reckoned I was trying to gas them all???

It was also pretty good in the snow as long as the snow didn't build up next to the front wheel which then stopped you turning, found that out going under the railway bridge at Crianlarich with a crunch, going across Rannoch moor in a blizzard showed up more faults as the snow came in around the door windows and little brother sitting next to me looking like a snow man asleep. Sleeping on the corrugated box section floor in the back was painful even with a mat on it and we used to cook inside on a petrol stove, fumes!!! with the built in air conditioning no chance, the handbrake failed (my story anyway) when we were half way up a mountain and we sat and watched the red van slowly trundle off down the track and into a ditch where it remained resting until our return in the evening and found it none the worse for it's private unaccompanied outing. Why was it red? so I could find it in the car park.

Now if you wanted a real go anywhere van the Renault 4 was the bees and knees, even had a hatch where my fag smoking brother could stand up and have a puff while we were driving off on one of our adventures, thinking back it might have been made like that so you could carry long bits of wood , sold it for spares and got twice what I paid for it.

The bike I enjoyed most though was a Yamaha XJ650 Turbo, not as fast as the other turbo bikes around at the time but it would sit at 100mph all day two up with camping gear on the way to Italy, the first set of tyres lasted 1200 miles and I drove it all year round up here in the Highlands it was surprisingly good in the snow.

3rd gear and a fistful of throttle was mind numbing fast especially along naughty single track roads!

 

 

Edited By Cyril Bonnett on 20/02/2017 00:19:28

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

From the BMW Magazine [iOS App]

.

MichaelG.

[davebParticipant @daveb17630]

The Zundapp had similar styling, probably necessary due to the pressed steel frame, the mudguards were not quite as fancy though. Dave

[John Stevenson 1Participant @johnstevenson1]

The true reason that BMW's and Zundapps came out with these designs is a little know fact from post WWI.

After WWI they had the Treaty of Versailles where basically the allies took all the fighting vehicles off them and banned them from building warship, planes etc.

The little know fact is that they also took all the rulers off them so they couldn't draw a straight line and since then everything designed and made in Germany had been designed from curves and arcs.

Look under the bonnet of any Merc or BMW and you won't see one straight line.

[Ian S CParticipant @iansc]

Back in the mid 1960s I had a Fiat 500, that thing could really handle snow, one night I went into Dunedin from home in Mosgiel, there was a lot of snow on the road, and no wheel marks of other cars, when I got over the hill I came across a road block manned by a policeman, and he seemed rather suprised to see me coming down the hill, he said there was a road block on the other side, but no , they later found the policeman on that side had run off the road in the snow, and as his car didn't have a radio, he had to walk back to Mosgiel 3 or 4 miles away. later that evening I went back the way I'd come, there was about 6 or 8 inches of snow.

Ian S C

[Involute CurveParticipant @involutecurve]

Over the winter I've been spending some time restoring my old 1956 500 MSS Velo, purists will notice its far from original, its got a Venom piston and cams etc, I've kept all the mods carried out over its life, but cleaned them up and replated or painted them and brought some of them up to date as it where, and it now has 12v electrics with electronic ignition, these I see as sensible upgrades because this bike like all my others will be ridden often not just polished and looked at…..

Shaun

[duncan webster 1Participant @duncanwebster1]

That's beautiful, reminds me of my Venom, sold more than 40 years ago. SWMBO won't let me have another one!

[ronan walshParticipant @ronanwalsh98054]

I always wanted a Velocette, a real one, not the le200. The black velo with gold pinstriping has a genuine class of its own.

[garyParticipant @gary44937]

nice bike shaun,which ignition did you fit, i am well on with restoring my 1937 mss. cant make up my mind old magneto or electronic. regards gary

[Involute CurveParticipant @involutecurve]

I got my electronic ignition system from Mike at Grove classics, it replaces the whole Mag body including the drive gear etc, its basically a boyer, the one I have is 12v but they do a 6V version, during the rebuild I also refurbished the dynamo and fitted a solid state regulator, ill see haw this goes over the summer, if I have problems Ill replace the dynamo with an alternator

The restoration is a complete nuts a bolts rebuild inc engine and gearbox, wheels have new rims and spokes, new shocks rebuilt forks repainted everything, fitted new bearing and bushed throughout, etc etc these things have a way of escalating………….

Shaun

[Chris Evans 6Participant @chrisevans6]

Gary, if you want to keep the appearance of the mag take a look at "Thorspark" electronic igniton kit.

I have an old one piece mag/dyno on a 1929 BSA Sloper and could not get anyone to work on the mag so fitted the Thorspark. It is simple to fit and is around £150, two years now problem free. I did have to make a deeper points cover for mine but think most will fit in standard covers. Downside is hiding the coil which can be specified at 6 or 12 volt.

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