Modeling and Motorcycles

[M Spencer]

Theyre actually FLAME TRAPS . " We used to say its purpose was to stop the cat sleeping in there!  " Dougs 500 had a habit of carb fires . Thats why you wear gauntlets .
Warming up the Bonnie on cold day I wondered why the crowd at the bus stations eyes were twinkling . Three Guesses . Everday use it pays , for keeping out rocks and
keepin IN flames . THAT though dosnt look like its in the habit of misbehaving .

twits are making anew BSA calling it a Gold Star . My preferance would be make anew REAL ONES maybe with six speeds . Favorite was a picture of a 350 in the I.o.M. with the single sided SLS brake .

Goldies WERE the ' Clubman ' class for years .

Cold fish , these Englishmen .

The last Clubman winner: Bernard Codd (BSA) .
sorry . 

Jimmy Buchan (BSA) 1955 Junior Clubman TT.
The leather mask save clenching your teeth .
To keep the flies out , there .

Brave Men , on that old rubber . The reckon the circuit to be maybe 10 mph less bumpy nowadays than the 60's  . Improved ? Less Testing , to traditionalists . Comercialiseations wrecked it , in my view .




The say . or used to , to ride it ' Like your running late for work ' .

[C.T. Schaefer]

To those who care, a close inspection will show that is not a GP but a 38mm DelOrto.  Works great!  That and a modern clutch have made a huge improvement in riding pleasure.  I am old enough to have seen the greats competing on the half mile against the Hardleys' and Turnips. Awesome competition! There are also a couple of good ones competing in the vintage road races over here.

[Rusty]

My motorcycle. 

[M Spencer]

Somebody appears to have made off with your mufflers , Bob .
Real early leg burner oil tank , best for the engine if not for the rider . They found em a bit hot for Aussies conditions , so put smaller ones in that didnt get the air  .
Phil Read got 155 at Daytona on what was essential a rewoked ' stock ' commando put together a little differantly .
Theres a forum on the Commandos . Most are overly blingified , in my books . It dosnt take much to gettem to stay together , but some idiots cant abide a Tacho .
Pity they didnt have rev limiters back then . A good Combat could pull 8000 . and some idiots did . 7200s about it .
Thoough English Production Race stuff running for the championship would use 7.500 and pull down occasionally to freshen .
But theyed get six months if they wernt to ; entusiastic  as well as near sited . Dont think they had tell tale Tach's then .

Cortina pistons get 920 (  on the 850 barrel ) or 960 if sleeved . Real Hi Tech .  W&S valve springs and essentially a millimeter of the heel of the camshaft  .
One of those devices that the result exceeded the sum of its parts . A Dalton had ' the First ' orange seat silver frame Knorton Commando - in N.Z. .
Watched from across the valley ' throttle on ' through the bends up the hill . Somewhat miffed - he never repeated it that I saw , Id hear it on the throttle up the straights
as he ' headed out 4: 30  Fridays - for the ( other ) coast . His desciple traded a H1 for a 'marked ' black Combat at a bike store . He Aviated that ( front wheel ) too . He ' got outa town ' too .
All ' The Ladies ' thought he must be James Bond ( Dalton ) or suchlike . Silver DB 5 Aston . Silver 750 Commando . Talk of the Town , for a few weeks . Did his image a world of good .

[M Spencer]

a 38mm DelOrto.  Works great! 

Was baffled as to how it started , Now we Know . Thanks .

B S A single bloke , said as he came out of a roundabout ( in an industrial area on a weekend )
( after having ' opened it up ' for a trifle  - then chin on tank . ) there was nobody around , heard something
and glanced over his shoulder , he saw
a V8 Kingswood ( 308 GM Black & White . ) came around it drifting ,  smoked  it out  of it and and past him , threw it sidways bloking the road . Jumps out and strides over
 Says ' It took a while to catch you up  ' -yells . " Look at this, look at this " dragged him over . ( He must have been about FIFTY he said ( back then ) ' He had Grey Hair ' ).
He's thinking ' calm down old boy ' ' Im for it now '  . Thrust his face at the fancy speedo , and says ," Not bad for an old one , Eh . A hundred and five , a hundred and five . Not bad Eh . "   
Slaps him on the back , then Gets back in his car, ecstatic ,  and buggers off .

Somewhat bewildered & relieved BSA rider ! . 



Apparently THIS is the first ' Goldie '  . Brooklands ' Gold Medal '  for a 100mph lap . There were ' Blue Stars ' too .


Daft Sods ,

8 Valve . Harley Davidson . Freddie Dixon .
( and George Brough  )

apparently there wasnt the current traffic density then . so BRAKES only slowed you down .

And a o.h.c. ' square ' four .

Pity they havnt got the gumption to do one ' modernised ' SAME DRAWINGS . rather than  Rehashed . As theyre a bit to hashed for my likeing , some of them .  Not entirely ' improved ' in fact .
We might tolerate a bit of elastication . But some smart snot with a computer hasnt the nouce to ' better ' them , in essence . End up a triumph of development over design , as was once said . perhaps .

One of these ' 59 Speed Twin ' developments GOT the U. S. Number ONE Plate . They weigh naff all - and will wind way out . IF you look after them .


SORRY . Just One more . Dave Aldana . 1974 Peoria TT . Norton . You have to watch those bumps .

[wwwarbird]

Here are a couple more motorcycles from my past. One is a Norton 750 Commando with the dovetail fairing. I used to drag race this bike at Island Dragway in New Jersey. Before that I had a BSA Rocket 3 that I rode to the Woodstock Music Festival in 1969, and before that a BSA Spitfire Mk IV that I also used at the drags.

 Bob, it's a good thing you turned your focus to modeling. "Drag racing" those particular bikes...(I wouldn't tell anyone). 

[M Spencer]

End up costing . Started as two 99's with those Dunstall barrels there . Fastest single engine ( 750 ) is 8.51 odd . But I believe a few boys from San Diego built one that ran that on its first outing, with scraps of their latestHigh Tech materials . Some sucker ended up with it as it went back , Recreational Vehical , from petty cash . A Red P 11 .It shouldve given low sonar emmisions , all said .Tyre alight for the full strip's bound to cost .  was past half way , anyway . Built down Oklahoma way - out from a rural border village . If anyone saw it in a county rag , down thataways . back 67 or so .

[John Park]

There's one big name missing so far - the Vincent HRD, or just 'the Vinnie'.  I never owned one, and only ever rode two - the 500cc single-cylinder Comet, a nice bike, and that wicked and vicious monster, the 1,000cc V-twin Black Shadow, whose clutch was described to me as being more in the nature of an 'on/off switch'.  In the brief experience I had of one, I managed only two kinds of getaway - a lurch that stalled the engine, or a tyre-mark thirty feet long on the tarmac.