Vintage motorbike

[“Bill Hancox”Participant @billhancox]

Both my late dad and I were avid bikers. In 1939 my dad was 15 years old and very mechanically inclined. His first bike was a 1925 Harley Davidson. He saw the advert in a national weekly magazine (Saturday Evening Post). The ad stated that the bike was running rough and the asking price was $50 CAD. The gentleman who owned it lived in Toronto which was 1500 miles from my dad's home at the time. Dad called the man and spoke to him at length with regard to the the bike and the rough running condition mentioned in the ad. The man was so impressed by my father's honesty and sincerity over the phone that he agreed to dad's proposed terms and sold it to him under the following conditions. The following day, dad wired $5 to the man. The balance was to be paid at the rate of $5 per month for 9 months (paid in full). When he received the $5 deposit, the man sent the bike by rail, freight collect to the local train station. A few days later, my grandfather and dad picked up the bike with granddads' horse and wagon. The freight bill was $4.97. Turned out to have a burnt valve which dad promptly fixed. Amazing but true story of the mutual honesty and trustworthiness that was prevalent in those days. Not so today. Here is a photo of my dad's brother sitting on the bike shortly after it arrived.

[OuBallieParticipant @ouballie]

Neil,

You will have to elaborate if you do not mind, those words are too high falutin for me :-;

MichaelG,

Ah, I take your point, and expensive to replace.

Just be careful if it lets go whilst chewing.

Happened to me with a filling, and that disappeared South before I had time to register.

The only way I can think of putting those yellow things where I want them to end up, is to use the keys ala : – ) but that only allows a few.

Geoff – More progress made with FeedRodMotor, photos tomorrow.

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by OuBallie on 22/10/2014 23:29:52:

The only way I can think of putting those yellow things where I want them to end up, is to use the keys ala : – ) but that only allows a few.

.

Geoff,

Here I am, using an original iPad with iOS 5.1.1

Cursor is positioned, Smiley icon selected from the menu bar; pop-up window appears with a selection of Smiley things, select one and job's a good-un.

Sorry but I can't understand the problem you are having.

Note: There are a couple of behavioural oddities

• sometimes the menu icons need tapping twice
• sometimes the editor "freezes" … hiding the keyboard, and then going back into the editor seems to fix this.

Can you describe how it's not working for you

MichaelG.

[ronan walshParticipant @ronanwalsh98054]

A right impressive bit of work.

[Cyril BonnettParticipant @cyrilbonnett24790]

After years of triumphs and a BMW I finally bit the bullet and purchased a Norton.

A Norton Mk3 Interstate, delivered by a factory van to Ernie Pages shop in Edinburgh, quick going over by factory mechanics 2 off, "take it round the block mate and tell us what you think"

First left hand turn and wha hey we were off like the clappers, reason throttle cable too short and that was just the beginning, a month later they dropped the price by £200, then breaking while entering a motorway service station the bike felt if it was going to fall apart, on investigation the 'chromed' front disk was losing its chrome.

The list goes on leaking rev cable that had been 'fixed' since the 2c model, exhausts that came loose at 80mph, after they had been 'fixed' Isolastic suspension that used to make the Edinburgh taxi drivers laugh.

The front forks developed black smudge marks that never went away; Ernie Page replaced them with a set off his window 2C model as Norton wanted me to send the forks to them. Reply was that the castings were porous!

Its finally trick was late at night travelling across the M8 heading back to barracks it developed a loud clatter, a quick neutral and engine switched off and coasted to the side of the motorway. Kicking it over, yes it did have an electric starter, aptly named 'prestolite' it sounded if a tappet had come loose. On inspection the right hand exhaust had developed about a quarter of an inch play. Abandoned for the night and picked up the next day with a land rover we took it to Ernie's shop, a valve spring (Japanese) had lost it spring sending the exhaust valve through the piston.. A week out of its guarantee Norton didn't want to know, Ernie paid for its repair and said sell it.

Edgar Brothers, Leith Walk had a customer looking for a interstate so a deal was done and I became the owner of a Honda 750F1 straight out of its crate, 500 miles over the weekend a service and off to Berlin by road, the first UK soldier to ride his bike through East Germany, in the winter.

The Honda tramped along at over 100mph on continental roadsfrom for four years doing over 120,000 miles and apart normal service replacements and a turn of the key and it purred into life, never missing a beat.

Norton certainly ended my boyhood dream!

[ronan walshParticipant @ronanwalsh98054]

Cyril , i have to agree with your appraisal of the norton or other british bikes of the early 70's until the bitter end. They were in the main, overstretched 1930's designs that were overtuned to try and keep up with the power and speed of the latest japanese stuff. I find british bikes pleasant and reliable if they are softly tuned and not ridden at 90mph everywhere. Bikes like the bsa golden flash , or the b-series singles , the triumph thunderbird.

Edited By ronan walsh on 26/10/2014 21:23:34

[davebParticipant @daveb17630]

I had a Matchless 350cc single in the sixties, never had a problem with it. I replaced it with a Matchless twin. It wasn't an improvement, it vibrated horribly and bits often fell off, usually quite important bits. I then bought a Honda 750/4. I never did get the Matchless back on the road, it finished up in a skip.

[HopperParticipant @hopper]

LOL, Cyril, porous fork leg castings — that's nowt. I had a 1969 BSA Thunderbolt twin that had a porous cylinder head casting that never could be cured of leaking oil. Found out later there was a whole batch of them made like that.

Shame, It was a beautiful. looking bike and lovely to ride.

[Max DesmoParticipant @maxdesmo86741]

Here are some bikes I'm working on at the moment

[OuBallieParticipant @ouballie]

MichaelG,

I do exactly as you describe and it works on all other Forums, except on this one.

It make absolutely no difference whereabouts I position the curser, ALL smilies end up as in this reply.

Geoff – Good progress made fitting the electric motors on the milling machines.

[OuBallieParticipant @ouballie]

I've started reading my collection of Model Engineer again at last, and enjoy the 'Motor Cycle News' articles by 'Phoenix', busy with Volume 37, but need to dive into my dictionary every so often as he uses words that went out of fashion a long time ago ie 'averring' and 'assaying' amongst others.

Riding old 'bikes must be akin to driving old cars, where brain needs to be 'in gear' all the time, unlike with 'moderns'.

Geoff – I love driving my oldies.

[Steve GParticipant @steveg24616]

Ah yes Ducati, I rebuilt a 900ss for a friend. Once completed and the engine running in the frame, the kick starter spring broke after a weeks worth of use. Now, the Ducati 900 ss engine is built around that spring, so other than a nice looking bike, the bungee on the kick starter lever was norm!

It also had a rubbish oil filter system that caused a rapid demise of the crank bearings if not spotted early, and the bevel gear shimming, no-one in the UK supplied shims at the time or even knew what they were for, was done a treat if you made them yourself. Now Italian electrics, that's another story, but I did like the Desmo valve gear… So I stick to Nortons.

But I digress from turning an milling.

[davebParticipant @daveb17630]

Posted by OuBallie on 27/10/2014 10:58:55:Riding old 'bikes must be akin to driving old cars, where brain needs to be 'in gear' all the time, unlike with 'moderns'.

Yes, because the gear change and brake positions are reversed and the gears are upside down. I got a telling off from a police riding instructor for braking in a bend, I told him I wasn't braking, I was changing gear but the controls were all in the wrong place. He was not amused. I had not ridden a bike for a long time and although the last bike I owned was Japanese, I started off on British bikes. I believe this confusion is known as reverting to type

Dave.

[Mark P.Participant @markp]

I did a right hand gear change conversion on my mates 900ss. Worked a treat.

Mark P.

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

I have absolutely minimal bike experience, and having only ridden an MZ and a moped once or twice when I rode my brother's CM250 around the block I started in second and then changed 'up' into first and couldn't understand why it wouldn't go very fast…

Neil

[JimmieSParticipant @jimmies]

Google 'classic 50cc racing bikes….homebuild' On the old classic car forum you will find an excellent example of home workshop engineering.

Sorry folk but I am unable to provide a direct link.

[MikeParticipant @mike89748]

Try this for a direct link:

**LINK**

[JimmieSParticipant @jimmies]

Thanks Mike.

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by OuBallie on 27/10/2014 10:38:16:

MichaelG,

I do exactly as you describe and it works on all other Forums, except on this one.

It make absolutely no difference whereabouts I position the curser, ALL smilies end up as in this reply.

.

Sorry, Geoff … I can't think of any reasonable explanation.

Which iOS version are you using? … perhaps someone else has seen the same problem.

MichaelG.

[OuBallieParticipant @ouballie]

iOS7.1.2

It's never worked as it should.

Geoff – I have an idiosyncratic iPad

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

> iOS7.1.2 It's never worked as it should.

That's what you get for buying cheap imported Chinese goods

Neil

[Gordon WParticipant @gordonw]

I had a Ducati once, 50cc and 2 speed. What' all this off topic rubbish about smilies?s

[OuBallieParticipant @ouballie]

Just to wind you you up Gordon

Geoff – Waiting for another pulley to get the TS motor bolted in place.

[CirclipParticipant @circlip]

Posted by Max Desmo on 27/10/2014 09:54:42:

Here are some bikes I'm working on at the moment

OK., so which Guzzi is it?

Regards Ian.

[HopperParticipant @hopper]

Then there are the home workshop engineers building 12" the foot working scale models of exotic old racing bikes that are simply not available any other way. Some beautiful pieces of work there, done in the home workshop for the most part. One of the notable examples is the 500cc Moto Guzzi V8 GP racer replica. At what, about 60cc per cylinder, with double overhead knockers and so on, the machining would be quite in the realm of model engineering.

[Author]

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