Vintage motorbike

Advert

Vintage motorbike

Home Forums Miscellaneous models Vintage motorbike

Viewing 25 posts - 51 through 75 (of 177 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • #166056
    Phil P
    Participant
      @philp

      The Tri-Greaves reminded me of a trials bike I built and rode about 30 years ago A "Tri-Field"

      It was a 500cc unit Triumph engine in a Royal Enfield, very low compression ratio and special wide ratio gearbox internals etc. The tank was from a BSA Victor.

      Phil

      trifield.jpg

      Advert
      #166057
      Phil Whitley
      Participant
        @philwhitley94135

        Hi all, Just read back and see that Michael knew about the queens chickens, and also probably AllJunkSpares and BitsStuckAnywhere.. My Friend Richard had a greeves with the cast frame and leading link forks, but it had a 197 villiers engine (9E?) like this one

        http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Greeves_20DC_197cc_-_Flickr_-_mick_-_Lumix.jpg

        Them were't days tha knaws!

        Phil.

        #166058
        Clive Hartland
        Participant
          @clivehartland94829

          In my, ;Yoof' I had an Ariel NH 350 which had the rigid frame converted to one of the first McAndless rear springing.

          All the, 'Tramp' of the rigid fraame was gone and the ride was nice and soft. I reconditioned the engine with new bearings and piston and cylinder and a new carb. It had to go when I was posted to Hong Kong.

          My next bike was a Triumph Tiger 100. The engine was good but the ride a bit twitchy, later I had a Norton 500 Dominator, duff engine but a nice ride. I wish i could have put the Triumph engine in the featherbed frame of the Norton. That would have been a bike of interest.

          Clive

          #166060
          John Stevenson 1
          Participant
            @johnstevenson1

            Innards of a Jones engine.

            Not bad for coming out of a 12' x 10 shed.

            #166064
            Michael Gilligan
            Participant
              @michaelgilligan61133
              Posted by Phil Whitley on 09/10/2014 08:31:51:

              … I take your point!

              Phil

              .

              Thanks, Phil

              yes

              MichaelG.

              .

              This thread is developing nicely … Well done Nick, for starting it.

              #166065
              Bill Pudney
              Participant
                @billpudney37759
                Posted by John Stevenson on 09/10/2014 09:38:49:

                Innards of a Jones engine.

                Not bad for coming out of a 12' x 10 shed.

                What with all those straight cut gears and ball races, I'll bet that there was quite a racket when it was started!!

                cheers

                Bill

                #166066
                Michael Gilligan
                Participant
                  @michaelgilligan61133
                  Posted by Phil P on 09/10/2014 08:48:23:

                  … a trials bike I built and rode about 30 years ago A "Tri-Field"

                  .

                  Great to see that one, Phil

                  One of my [all-too-many] abandoned projects was to build a Tri-Field … I had picked-up a Crusader Sports, with a reasonable chassis and an engine that had been "worked on with a Hammer and a BreadKnife" … unfortunately I couldn't find a Triumph engine at an acceptable price, and I moved it on.

                  Somewhere "in the Archives" I may still have a set of sketches for the engine plates …

                  MichaelG.

                  #166069
                  Mike Poole
                  Participant
                    @mikepoole82104

                    Triples seem to be quite smooth, my T150V was much calmer than my mates Bonnie. My Hinkley Trident has balancer shafts and has a slight left right rock when idling at lights etc. the T150V did not seem to do this as I recall. I had a 250 desmo for the weekend once and the vibration was fierce, the other thing that made that bike hard work was the rh reverse pattern gear change, I had mastered swapping from left to right but the reverse pattern threw me completly so I almost came to a stop before I had decided which foot and which way to change, glad to give that back to my mate.

                    Mike

                    #166070
                    Ian S C
                    Participant
                      @iansc

                      Vibration was a major problem with the Britten motor cycle built in Christchurch, the bike, motor and frame(what there was of it) were scratch built, John was more an artist that engineer, but he had a great team, pity the big C got him, he was full of ideas right to the end.

                      Ian S C

                      #166072
                      OuBallie
                      Participant
                        @ouballie

                        Tony,

                        Those 'crash' bars reminded me that they where compulsory in SA and pretty useless at any speed over walking pace.

                        I found out when I T-boned a drunk vagrant who had wondered into the road during a Transvaal cloudburst, and I was tippy toeing as well speed wise.

                        The only time I rode without my race car full face Bell was the day I bought the bike, and then only because I just didn't feel happy with it on.

                        One thing the dealer didn't tell me was that the gearbox was sequential, so I floundered for a while before I somehow found out.

                        During one particularly spirited ride, changing up at maximun revs third to fourth I think, my left hand was jerked free from the grip due to acceleration forces, and in a LH sweeping bend, leaned well over.

                        Now that caught my attention somewhat!

                        Did have a good Robot 'dice' with an American muscle car, side by side all the way into top gear, before I had to turn off.

                        Ahh, the adrenaline days. Good memories.

                        Geoff – Got lost last night trying to find that effing pub! Useless SatNav!

                        #166073
                        Nick_G
                        Participant
                          @nick_g
                          Posted by OuBallie on 09/10/2014 11:30:54:

                          Did have a good Robot 'dice' with an American muscle car, side by side all the way into top gear, before I had to turn off.

                          So a European designed 1200 cc car would have totally cained you then.! laugh winkwinkwink

                          Nick

                          #166084
                          Phil P
                          Participant
                            @philp

                            I built quite a few trials specials when I was riding back then.

                            This one was an ex army BSA B40 engine in a Royal Enfield frame I called it a "Sabre" which was a play on the letters of BSA & RE

                            sabre.jpg

                            I think one of my favourites was this Royal Enfield Bullet. It started life looking like this when I bought it.

                            bullet before.jpg

                            A few weeks burning the candle at both ends produced this.

                            bullet.jpg

                            Phil

                            #166093
                            Gordon W
                            Participant
                              @gordonw

                              Some very nice bikes here, a bit modern for me tho'. Can anyone remember the chap , lived near York, who built a vertical twin OHC Norton ? That was a big beast. Our home built grass bikes were never pretty, all entered as JCS Special, jubilee clip special. That gives some idea of the standard.

                              #166101
                              Clive Hartland
                              Participant
                                @clivehartland94829

                                While I was at Donnington Base Workshops I met a Bill Doran who co-owned a garage in Wellington. His partner was his mechanic and Bill rode in the Isle of man TT races but gave it up when he got married. I got lots of help and advice from both of them when doing my NH 350. A motorcycle was essential for a young soldier as you could not afford the train fares and the bike allowed you to travel at any time. I often went over Holme Moss in all weathers to get to Sunderland where my parents were stationed. That ride over the hills dodging sheep and high winds was an experience.

                                Clive

                                #166105
                                Mike
                                Participant
                                  @mike89748

                                  Gordon, your JCS name for your grass track specials reminds me of a reasonable successful grass track special in 1965, when I was a sub-editor on Motor Cycle News. The owner called it Shy Tot. Think about it……

                                  #166106
                                  OuBallie
                                  Participant
                                    @ouballie

                                    Now now Nick, behave!

                                    Now maybe possible, then absolutely not devil

                                    I would have gone for one of the new fours, but couldn't afford it what with circuit racing.

                                    Geoff – Will never forget the feeling of 'freedom' riding gave me.

                                    #166107
                                    Tony Pratt 1
                                    Participant
                                      @tonypratt1
                                      Posted by OuBallie on 09/10/2014 11:30:54:

                                      Tony,

                                      Those 'crash' bars reminded me that they where compulsory in SA and pretty useless at any speed over walking pace.

                                      I found out when I T-boned a drunk vagrant who had wondered into the road during a Transvaal cloudburst, and I was tippy toeing as well speed wise.

                                      The only time I rode without my race car full face Bell was the day I bought the bike, and then only because I just didn't feel happy with it on.

                                      One thing the dealer didn't tell me was that the gearbox was sequential, so I floundered for a while before I somehow found out.

                                      During one particularly spirited ride, changing up at maximun revs third to fourth I think, my left hand was jerked free from the grip due to acceleration forces, and in a LH sweeping bend, leaned well over.

                                      Now that caught my attention somewhat!

                                      Did have a good Robot 'dice' with an American muscle car, side by side all the way into top gear, before I had to turn off.

                                      Ahh, the adrenaline days. Good memories.

                                      Geoff – Got lost last night trying to find that effing pub! Useless SatNav!

                                      Ah happy days indeed, from a distance of 40 odd years I can't for the life of me see what the crash bars were meant to do, but I do remember that all the lads with bars used to think it was a good idea to scrape them as you went round a corner, now that was dicing with danger looking back on itsmiley.

                                      Tony

                                      #166108
                                      OuBallie
                                      Participant
                                        @ouballie
                                        Posted by Neil Wyatt on 08/10/2014 19:04:19:

                                        > How the heck do you insert smileys at the end of a sentence?

                                        Practice

                                        Neil

                                        GRRRRR!

                                        Geoff – Life's too short to practice

                                        #166114
                                        Howard Lewis
                                        Participant
                                          @howardlewis46836

                                          A beautifully restored example! A lot of time and effort has gone into this machine.

                                          For good balance on a twin, it should be a 90 degree twin, as, if statically balanced, the secondaries are balanced out by the other cylinder. Which was one of the reasons that the Brough Superior lived up to its name.

                                          Narrow angle twins are very difficult to balance, nor are the Induction and Exhaust pulses equally spaced, which makes tuning to optimise performance more difficult.

                                          Howard

                                          #166121
                                          Kenneth Deighton
                                          Participant
                                            @kennethdeighton43272

                                            Hi Gordon , the mans name was Ernie Jackson and he lived of Nunnery Lane York, he built a 1000cc OHC twin in the late 1940's by grafting two singles together and it was before Norton's ever made one . I was in my early teens and used to visit his workshop and hover around to see his motorcycles , it had a left hand twist hand grip which operated the steering damper, he also converted a 500 cc single OHC from shaft operation to chain drive. I hope someone can find them and put up some photographs.

                                            Ken.

                                            #166123
                                            ronan walsh
                                            Participant
                                              @ronanwalsh98054

                                              Someone who does amazing motorcycle engine projects, and in a home workshop is allen millyard. Below is a link to a page about his build of a 5 litre v-twin. He has previously made a 2 litre v-8 splicing together two kawasaki z-1's.

                                              Allen Millyard Builds a 5 Liter V-Twin

                                              #166128
                                              Neil Wyatt
                                              Moderator
                                                @neilwyatt

                                                > Did have a good Robot 'dice' with an American muscle car, side by side all the way into top gear, before I had to turn off.

                                                > So a European designed 1200 cc car would have totally cained you then.!

                                                I managed to 'fishtail' a Marina once!

                                                Neil

                                                #166129
                                                JimmieS
                                                Participant
                                                  @jimmies

                                                  Anyone with an idea of building a trials bike from scratch should have a look at Charlie Prescott's web site http://www.bsaotter.com

                                                  #166134
                                                  Nick_G
                                                  Participant
                                                    @nick_g
                                                    Posted by Neil Wyatt on 09/10/2014 20:50:27:

                                                    I managed to 'fishtail' a Marina once!

                                                    Neil

                                                    With snow on the road presumably. cheeky

                                                    I had a coupe one in blue in the early 80's

                                                    Nick

                                                    #166137
                                                    daveb
                                                    Participant
                                                      @daveb17630

                                                      I never fishtailed the Marina but did it quite a lot in the E Type, I once did a U turn when I intended to turn right. Both these cars had torsion bar suspension but that is where all similarity ended. The Jaguar was SO beautiful, what a pity it didn't handle as well as the Marina.

                                                    Viewing 25 posts - 51 through 75 (of 177 total)
                                                    • Please log in to reply to this topic. Registering is free and easy using the links on the menu at the top of this page.

                                                    Advert

                                                    Latest Replies

                                                    Home Forums Miscellaneous models Topics

                                                    Viewing 25 topics - 1 through 25 (of 25 total)
                                                    Viewing 25 topics - 1 through 25 (of 25 total)

                                                    View full reply list.

                                                    Advert

                                                    Newsletter Sign-up