www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eb4BEkMeHR0
Make yourself a cup of tea, settle down and watch this.
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Brilliant, I love these short films.
The AA bikes - Triumph?
Last edited by: ToMoCo on Thu 23 Oct 14 at 21:18
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Is the track at the begining of the film Crystal Palace?
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>> Is the track at the begining of the film Crystal Palace?
>>
It is.
It's funny to see how upright the bikes had to be cornering on those skinny tyres, no getting the knee down back then, let alone the elbow like the top guys do now.
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I remember watching John Surtees there, I could almost be one of the boys at the start of the film.
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And how intimate and "amateur" it all seems; can't imagine kids getting that close to their heroes these days.
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>> And how intimate and "amateur" it all seems; can't imagine kids getting that close to
>> their heroes these days.
>>
Get yourself to Scarborough - you can almost reach out and touch them.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=48LoPqNS_Go
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Cool clip. I loved that type of bike; Of the ones I had a 1959 Matchless G12 and a 1954 Dominator 99SS were my favourite. There's a Dominator in that first clip.
I don't have the self-control for modern bikes. In the past I've tried my sister's Fireblade and her R1, and almost killed myself on both.
Whereas I really used to enjoy riding the old stuff.
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I enjoyed the clip but in the same breath thank the Japanese for progressing the design/engineering of bikes so much over the last 30 years. Those old bikes were generally dreadful by any measure.
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BMW are still pretty prominent. Their design (at least the mainstay of their model range) goes back to early 20C:)
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The latest liquid cooled engines bear little or no resemblance to anything that when before only the cylinder configuration..there won't be any component that hasn't been changed over the last oil-heads and they themselves were radically re-designed in 2009.
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Minor details. And nothing to do with Japanese design or engineering, good as it is.
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British bikes were solidly dry sumped with split crankcases until the japs came along and taught us wet sumps were fine and solid crankcases didn't drip oil.
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Japanese crankcases were also split, just a rather more sensible horizontal join rather than vertical.
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>> Japanese crankcases were also split, just a rather more sensible horizontal join rather than vertical.
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Fair point; but Harley crankcases have been vertically split since 1903, and yet do not have the same penchant for voiding their contents as Brit bikes always did.
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I've not had a Harley and didn't know they were vertically split. Do you know why they, unlike British bikes, don't drip?
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>> Do you know why they, unlike British bikes, don't drip?
Better castings and more careful assembly would be my guess.
Had an American friend, a Chicago Sicilian hipster, who bought a Norton 650 twin when he was here. He had it tricked out like a Harley, with steerhorn handlebars. The engine was a bit of a disgrace as he soon noticed: it leaked oil from every joint. He didn't keep it long.
He was an artist, but had done so much advertising work that he called his paintings 'my artwork' like an ad designer. I have one on the wall here, a present, and a treasured possession. The artist's liberal use of LSD is perceptible to the knowing eye.
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AC, assuming that was a 650SS then the glory of riding one far outshone the need to scrub the driveway from time to time.
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>> I've not had a Harley and didn't know they were vertically split. Do you know
>> why they, unlike British bikes, don't drip?
>>
I think AC is on the money; decent mating surfaces, and of course the fact that like pretty much everything else American they are over-engineered. To be fair, they can leak if provoked (the primary cover on the big twins is a notorious culprit) but by and large they hold their liquor fairly well. Generally speaking, the less stressed the top and bottom ends are on any motorcycle engine, the less they will be prone to leakage. Much also depends on how old the factory tooling is, and how well they were screwed together in the first place. The 1970's Triumph Bonneville 750's made by the Meriden co-operative were notoriously leaky bikes and IMO it was a combination of those two factors.
Some older bikes are designed to mark their territory to a degree. My side-valve WLC 45 has a primary chain which is lubricated by an adjustable drip feed from the oil pump; if this is set to be on the generous side, the surplus will collect in the bottom of the primary cover and will seep out when the bike is parked on its side stand. The cure, if you're so inclined, is to replace the chain primary with a belt drive and turn the oil feed off. It works well,and apart from eliminating the oil seepage it also reduces transmission noise; this however can be disconcerting because you hear all the other rattles and squeaks which go with a 70+ year old machine!
It's not all positive; whilst broken primary chains are extremely rare on these bikes the replacement belt is fairly narrow and can fail if suitably provoked or if you don't get the alignment absolutely spot on; experienced owners usually carry a spare which can be fitted quite easily.
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Minor details ? !!!
blackfootonline.com/_rozmarketing/industryupdates/2013/90_yrs_BMW_Boxer_engine.pdf
I think this might enlighten you....they don't even look the same any more.
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Thanks R.P. that was very interesting; I never knew that BMW produced I.O.E. heads for a while.
I find it fascinating that BMW make changes to their bikes and are called cutting-edge innovators and pioneers although Harleys had already been in production for 20 years when they started; yet H-D make similar changes, often pretty much along the same time-lines, and are ridiculed as dinosaurs.
Time heals a bit, too. The R69 was indeed a fine bike but the R50 which followed it was a gutless thing albeit very well put together. I had an R65 for a couple of years, lovely little bike.
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Came across an R45 the other day, never knew they existed. Owner said it was a bit underpowered, but went well enough if you wrung its neck. Revved quite high IIRC.
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I had an R45 for three or four years before I got the current machine. It was underpowered but we did a few trips on the continent with it. It cruised well at 70 with me and all the camping gear on board.
It got me to Italy, Switzerland, Spain and Austria without any fuss. Sold it after I got a Gold Wing 1200 Interstate which pulled like a train but was too big to move around at home..no reverse !
The Goldie financed the current Honda in 2004.
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Look at Life - Motorbikes 1960 style - ToMoCo
