more bike porn

[thaiguzzi]

Thank you sir.

7 hours ago, Justgrazing said:

1 .. That small cylinder that has a red wire and what looks like a braided airline to it and on the other side of the engine looks to have a long shaft protruding out the end .. What does that do .? 

That is a small air cylinder, purely for changing gear. Neutral - 1 - 2 & back to neutral, so used 3 times per run, hence plenty enough air. That red wire is a fancy coloured pneumatic air line running to a push button on the h/bars.

Hahaha. I had to look and double check - that shaft protruding is just a stay/bracket to hold part of the outer cover covering the whole primary drive & clutch up when running in competition. A big sheet of 8mm alloy plate - i don't think there is a pic of it here with it on - i'll check. It is bolted to the primary inner & engine plate.

7 hours ago, Justgrazing said:

And the upper tank is that the main fuel tank .? 

No, that is the oil tank, it's up there for gravity purposes, Pump is a stock '50's-70's Norton geared oil pump. The fuel tank is below it, right at the front, in front of the front tyre. Gravity is irrelevent because of the use of a Hillbourne  mechanical fuel pump. No battery on this bike - just how i like it on all my bikes if possible - minimal electrics.

7 hours ago, Justgrazing said:

The casing behind the clutch with the hose tapped into the top is that the gearbox .? ( 2 speed ?) it is hard to see but is that the drive side .. 

Yep, that is a 2 speed planetary gearbox taken off a drag car, and the drive indeed is from the opposite side to the clutch. The hose is purely a breather.

 

I was the main Goodridge hose dealer for Norfolk & Suffolk for 15 years, so they had a guy come down from Devon for the day during the dry build, and hosed the whole bike for free as part of the sponsorship. If i had to buy it, it would have been well in excess of a grand (English Pounds!).... Nice guys.

All the alloy sheet work inc the tanks were a freebie sponsorship deal from a local marine chandlers & boat builders that did all of our alloy tig repair work as well. Nice guys 2.0

7 hours ago, Justgrazing said:

3 .. The hose ( purple arrow ) to the throttle body/injector housing is that the pressure feed to the injectors .? if it is , the one between it and the engine is that an over pressure hose back to the top of that lower tank .?

Correctomondo.

 

7 hours ago, Justgrazing said:

Is there an electronic or mechanical element to the throttle body to maintain AFR or does it run alcohol ( Meth or Eth ) and just constantly over spray given that drag engines tend not to run for too long and alcohol has a bit of a cooling effect .. 

One wire on the whole bike - earth mag kill switch to the h/bars tether. No electricians were harmed in building this bike.

 Yeah, that's basically how mechanical Hilbourne injectors work, excess ge'ts sent back to the tank. First & only bike we ever built with this system, it worked pretty much straight out of the box, very little fettling involved, and surprisingly cheap for what you get. I think i paid around $1200 plus shipping for the pump & 2 injectors, which i did'nt think excessive. I remember the first time we went to fire it up, we were expecting maybe a couple of hours fiddling about and it fired straight up, and even settled down to a decent tickover!

 Indeed, bike ran neat methanol. The cylinder barrels came cast to us with fins still on, which we machined off to save weight and were'nt neccessary.

7 hours ago, Justgrazing said:

I take it the 2 vertical rods on either side of the engine from top of case to top of head are to stop the head blowing off the top of the engine .. High comp' ratio .?

Yep, hold down one off fasteners made by my own fair hand. They did the job, but look the business too. That top plate was 1" thick billet alloy i think, with a bit of inside clearance for the rockers. Can't exactly remember without finding some articles & paperwork on it, but i think we ran 14:1.

7 hours ago, Justgrazing said:

. Oh and love the relieving and lightening on some of the ally shields and bracketry on the clutch side ..

Thanx, yeah all the stuff like that was done mid week, late at night in my workshop, joint hanging out of my mouth, stoned. 10 hour day running the shop daytime, mates coming round tea time giving a hand, making cups of tea and rolling more joints, and me making stuff on the lathe or mill till near midnite. Drive/ride 7 miles home, feed the dog, pass out, and do it all again. For 1 and a 1/2 years.....

 Weekends were worse because although the shop only opened till lunchtime on a Saturday, i was in a backpatch m/c club and weekends were, er, a bit full on, so generally, Monday mornings i was completely shot to pieces.

7 hours ago, Justgrazing said:

You gotta Milling machine besides the lathe then .

The bike was built in 95-96 or 96-97 in my freehold 2,800 sq foot workshop on an industrial estate. That business ran from '88-2003.

So yeah, i had a big mill, 2 big lathes, surface grinder, 3 different blast media machines, polishing room with 3 hp polishers and linishers etc etc etc.

 

Edit,

 coupla more pics.

The bike was ridiculously over tyred for the hp it was producing. The back end inc wheel, tyre and wheelie bars were more in keeping with a 500 hp bike, not a 130 hp bike, and actually slowed us down, but hell, what did we know about drag racing when we first started out?

 

 

 

Edited October 19, 2018 by thaiguzzi

[Justgrazing]

28 minutes ago, thaiguzzi said:

I'm not sure i recognize the DOHC A10 Tribsa, i think i do, but i'm not sure. You got a pic from t'other side please?

What's tricking me is seeing the unit Triumph box with a bit of a unit Triumph primary case on t'other side.

Edit;

I'm now thinking i have seen this before and its a Triumph-BSA triple motor (T150) converted to DOHC with the A10 timing cover....

Note the excessive drilling/lightening holes on the engine plates & front wheel bacon slicer. Lovely bike though...

'Ere are mate 'ere's the other side of the Don Pooley bike .. You're knowledge of Brit iron has proved invaluable again answering why it has the unusual timing cover on it which proper put me off the track when I first seen it so its good you stuck around .. Concur with the slicer around the front brake ..

Yes I see the bike in the 80's incarnation is you're beloved Triumph .. S'funny I bumped into a bloke I used to work with 40 odd yrs ago who bought a brand new Jubilee Bonneville but it seemed to spend more time back in the dealership under warranty so 2 yrs later he part-ex'd it for the then newish Suzook GS750 , bikes came into the conversation with him saying the 2nd hand value of the Jub' is gold plated now and how he regretted selling it .. Yea back in the day when the best Plod had were Bee-eM bike's and Granada Jam sandwiches to chase you with .. No ANPR , no eye in the sky , no zillions of other road traffic , sigh .. Oh and the Tee-shirt ? Hahaha I probably wouldn't have noticed until you mentioned though no worries when we were kids my younger brother brought a poster home with a Swazi' on it , the Old Man went mad but we all learn our errors as that's life innit ( Jesus if you seen some of my past fashion faux pas ) but I did notice you is one tall geeza .. 6ft 5/6 in' .? Keep it coming Sir the knowledge on Brit' is always needed .. 

[Justgrazing]

21 minutes ago, thaiguzzi said:

Thank you sir.

That is a small air cylinder, purely for changing gear. Neutral - 1 - 2 & back to neutral, so used 3 times per run, hence plenty enough air. That red wire is a fancy coloured pneumatic air line running to a push button on the h/bars.

Hahaha. I had to look and double check - that shaft protruding is just a stay/bracket to hold part of the outer cover covering the whole primary drive & clutch up when running in competition. A big sheet of 8mm alloy plate - i don't think there is a pic of it here with it on - i'll check. It is bolted to the primary inner & engine plate.

No, that is the oil tank, it's up there for gravity purposes, Pump is a stock '50's-70's Norton geared oil pump. The fuel tank is below it, right at the front, in front of the front tyre. Gravity is irrelevent because of the use of a Hillbourne  mechanical fuel pump. No battery on this bike - just how i like it on all my bikes if possible - minimal electrics.

Yep, that is a 2 speed planetary gearbox taken off a drag car, and the drive indeed is from the opposite side to the clutch. The hose is purely a breather.

 

I was the main Goodridge hose dealer for Norfolk & Suffolk for 15 years, so they had a guy come down from Devon for the day during the dry build, and hosed the whole bike for free as part of the sponsorship. If i had to buy it, it would have been well in excess of a grand (English Pounds!).... Nice guys.

All the alloy sheet work inc the tanks were a freebie sponsorship deal from a local marine chandlers & boat builders that did all of our alloy tig repair work as well. Nice guys 2.0

Correctomondo.

 

One wire on the whole bike - earth mag kill switch to the h/bars tether. No electricians were harmed in building this bike.

 Yeah, that's basically how mechanical Hilbourne injectors work, excess ge'ts sent back to the tank. First & only bike we ever built with this system, it worked pretty much straight out of the box, very little fettling involved, and surprisingly cheap for what you get. I think i paid around $1200 plus shipping for the pump & 2 injectors, which i did'nt think excessive. I remember the first time we went to fire it up, we were expecting maybe a couple of hours fiddling about and it fired straight up, and even settled down to a decent tickover!

 Indeed, bike ran neat methanol. The cylinder barrels came cast to us with fins still on, which we machined off to save weight and were'nt neccessary.

Yep, hold down one off fasteners made by my own fair hand. They did the job, but look the business too. That top plate was 1" thick billet alloy i think, with a bit of inside clearance for the rockers. Can't exactly remember without finding some articles & paperwork on it, but i think we ran 14:1.

Thanx, yeah all the stuff like that was done mid week, late at night in my workshop, joint hanging out of my mouth, stoned. 10 hour day running the shop daytime, mates coming round tea time giving a hand, making cups of tea and rolling more joints, and me making stuff on the lathe or mill till near midnite. Drive/ride 7 miles home, feed the dog, pass out, and do it all again. For 1 and a 1/2 years.....

 Weekends were worse because although the shop only opened till lunchtime on a Saturday, i was in a backpatch m/c club and weekends were, er, a bit full on, so generally, Monday mornings i was completely shot to pieces.

The bike was built in 95-96 or 96-97 in my freehold 2,800 sq foot workshop on an industrial estate. That business ran from '88-2003.

So yeah, i had a big mill, 2 big lathes, surface grinder, 3 different blast media machines, polishing room with 3 hp polishers and linishers etc etc etc.

 

Edit,

 coupla more pics.

The bike was ridiculously over tyred for the hp it was producing. The back end inc wheel, tyre and wheelie bars were more in keeping with a 500 hp bike, not a 130 hp bike, and actually slowed us down, but hell, what did we know about drag racing when we first started out?

 

 

 

Excellent thanks .. I'll have a good peruse abit later and probably have a few more enquiries after that .. 

[Artisi]

On 7/29/2018 at 9:23 PM, tropo said:

If I click on a thread called "bike porn", I expect something like this. (Just remember most people get here by clicking a link on the Topics List on the front page, and there's no mention of which forum it's on).

 

 

Told my missus repeatedly, not to put her bike pic on the net, seem I was ignored once again. 

[thaiguzzi]

20 minutes ago, Justgrazing said:

Excellent thanks .. I'll have a good peruse abit later and probably have a few more enquiries after that .. 

Note the front forks and disc are identical to the ones on my T140 nowadays. Yamaha EXUP FZR1000. Same L/H leg shaved off caliper mount, as the Yam's obviously ran a twin disc set up. At the time, and maybe they still are, these were the best RWU forks on the market. Round tank in front of the rear tyre is a breather tank (mandatory for competition).

 

35 minutes ago, Justgrazing said:

why it has the unusual timing cover on it which proper put me off the track

Yeah, that is one cleverly engineered triple. Must have hundreds of hours in it. Impressive bit of kit.

Note the ignition ( std points cover) off the inlet cam, so run at camshaft speed.

35 minutes ago, Justgrazing said:

bikes came into the conversation with him saying the 2nd hand value of the Jub' is gold plated now and how he regretted selling it ..

If you check the monthly classic comics out, you'll be surprised ho

w low prices still are for stock (ish) T140's inc the Jubilee. 5k will get a clean T140J and less for nice T140V or E. As soon as you go pre OIF ie 63-70 650 twins especially T120's you can pay 10k and more. Weird. In a lot of ways a 750 is a better ride-every-day type of bike, it just does not have the kudos of the pre 70's 650's.

35 minutes ago, Justgrazing said:

Plod

The 80's were just fantastic times pretty much anywhere. Get away with murder. Excuse the pun/anology....

35 minutes ago, Justgrazing said:

did notice you is one tall geeza .. 6ft 5/6 in' .?

6ft 3 in & shrinking......

Edit.

Shrinking in height, and gaining in width....

Edited October 19, 2018 by thaiguzzi

[Justgrazing]

Colour scheme is spot on for this Matchless ..

[mogandave]

6ft 3 in & shrinking......
Edit.
Shrinking in height, and gaining in width....

So maintaining volume...

[melvinmelvin]

8 hours ago, Artisi said:

Told my missus repeatedly, not to put her bike pic on the net, seem I was ignored once again. 

or smth like;

 

 

or

 

 

[Justgrazing]

Found this and put it up as its a bit odd for want of a better way of saying it .. The front pipes are quite skillfully formed particulary the 360 degree spiral from the nearest cylinder but I'm not sure what its trying to achieve as it doesn't fit with the look or character of the bike apart from possibly a bit more torque from a slightly longer pipe run to the collector over all 3 downpipes exiting down under the engine in the traditional , neater more uniform way .. But any gain is marginal .? Also what looks like a coiled snake beneath the seat I can only think is a oil tank es'pesh when you see the oil filler pipe in photo 2 ..

The mix'n'match colours don't do it any real favours neither .. 

Edited October 19, 2018 by Justgrazing
Sp

[thaiguzzi]

8 hours ago, Justgrazing said:

Found this and put it up as its a bit odd for want of a better way of saying it .. The front pipes are quite skillfully formed particulary the 360 degree spiral from the nearest cylinder but I'm not sure what its trying to achieve as it doesn't fit with the look or character of the bike apart from possibly a bit more torque from a slightly longer pipe run to the collector over all 3 downpipes exiting down under the engine in the traditional , neater more uniform way .. But any gain is marginal .? Also what looks like a coiled snake beneath the seat I can only think is a oil tank es'pesh when you see the oil filler pipe in photo 2 ..

The mix'n'match colours don't do it any real favours neither .. 

Even got (gold painted) conical hubs -ugh.

That ain't bike porn. that is 'orrible.

Bloke who built it obviously done too much acid in a previous life....

Truly horrific and a waste of a good engine. Sorry.

Here's another take on the modern Triumph triple;

[Justgrazing]

15 hours ago, thaiguzzi said:

Even got (gold painted) conical hubs -ugh.

That ain't bike porn. that is 'orrible.

Bloke who built it obviously done too much acid in a previous life....

Truly horrific and a waste of a good engine. Sorry.

Haha thought that might draw some fire Guzz' .. Like I said it seems to be more display of pipe bending and welding than anything else and the tank .! What was he thinking ..

 

Front pipes for a triple how they should be done .. 

 

Honda RCV's exhaust snake .. You gotta admire the fabrication of that .. 

 

Closer shot of Pooley Triple timing cover engineering and gearchange linkage .. 

Edited October 20, 2018 by Justgrazing
Sp

[Justgrazing]

Norton featherbed bearing Wessy Godden 1000 V twin .. reputed to put out 115 horses this bike ..

 

And this Triumph .. The black works well with the brushed tank and trad' Triumph badges but check out the attention to detail on it like the primary case relieving and the clear magneto casing is a nice touch .. 

Edited October 20, 2018 by Justgrazing
Sp

[Justgrazing]

Brough Superior Golden Dream vertical flat 4 , shaft drive n'all .. WW2 made sure it never went into production and Brough never really came back after that ended .. The gold bike is now on display in National Motorcycle Museum .. 

 

Edited October 20, 2018 by Justgrazing
Sp

[Justgrazing]

Couple of 70's Yam oddies .. Top one the XS750 3 was always a bit of a plain Jane back in the day and never a big seller this one though shows something can be done with one .. 

TX750 not to be confused with its smaller bro the XS650 .. A classic case if ever there was of trying to run before you can walk when building big 4 strokes .. 

A 360° 750 parallel twin , no problem the Brits been building big twins for years but Yamaha tried to go one better with a balancer set up to counter the inherent vibration aspect of 360°'s .. Said to be unbelievably smooth when it worked but wasn't blessed with being a reliable set up plus a number of other issue's needing recalls that it also suffered from seen it bomb on the sales chart and dropped quietly from the range by the mid 70's .. The French apparently took to them more than the UK which might be right as I've only ever seen one at a show yrs ago .. 

[Justgrazing]

 

 

70's Public enemy No1 with a make over .. and 12 to the gallon with those filters and 'zorst's on it when caned ..

 

 

Edited October 21, 2018 by Justgrazing
Sp

[Justgrazing]

The blue one by a very short head ..

[Justgrazing]

Cooled out Benelli 6 .. Love the quilted perch and the clock bracket which is a vast improvement over the ugly square housing of the standard bike .. Stupidly expensive back in the day and even more so now with £18/20,000 not an uncommon asking price for a top nick one .. 

[Justgrazing]

Turbo behind the side panel aircraft style .. 

[Damrongsak]

An acquaintance had a nice yellow Norton Commando 850 back around 1973/74. Had to sell it when he went back to school.  He and a friend took it out for a last joy ride.  Cop pulled them over for speeding.  The cop was impressed that they were doing 90 mph and pulling away from him.  He talked his way out of a ticket.

[melvinmelvin]

7 minutes ago, Damrongsak said:

An acquaintance had a nice yellow Norton Commando 850 back around 1973/74. Had to sell it when he went back to school.  He and a friend took it out for a last joy ride.  Cop pulled them over for speeding.  The cop was impressed that they were doing 90 mph and pulling away from him.  He talked his way out of a ticket.

cops aint what they were

wouldna been a bit impressed today even if doing 150 mph

 

[Justgrazing]

1930's French Kohler Escoffier OHC bevel drive 1000 V twin .. Tuned version was said to produce near 75 horses which ain't bad for the time .. Love the pinstriping around the oil tank filler neck and twin float chamber on the carb .. 

Edited October 22, 2018 by Justgrazing
Sp

[thaiguzzi]

On 10/21/2018 at 3:27 AM, Justgrazing said:

Front pipes for a triple how they should be done .. 

I really like this R III.

At first glance almost stock. Just a solo race seat with hump, the clip ons, rear sets  and the big Fontana 4LS front brake.

Lovely.

On 10/21/2018 at 3:50 AM, Justgrazing said:

Norton featherbed bearing Wessy Godden 1000 V twin .. reputed to put out 115 horses this bike ..

 

And this Triumph .. The black works well with the brushed tank and trad' Triumph badges but check out the attention to detail on it like the primary case relieving and the clear magneto casing is a nice touch .. 

Weslake v twins make a marvelous motor. Not the prettiest v twin. but i would'nt say no....

Nice motorcycle.

Indeed. I also like the Triumph.

I like a smattering of brass on a m/c if done right. In fact my Triumph will have new oil & petrol caps in brass soon, once finished. Some of my current mods are in saving weight here and there, and then like an idiot, putting it back on with a bit of brass!

Clutch appears to be an aftermarket belt drive item based on a racing Norton design. Nice.

Clear mag cover is still available from Joe Hunt & Morris Magnetos for about $10-15.... Even a racy red one available...

This is a modern build, perhaps mainly a show bike, but i don't like to see open carbs on bikes that get ridden. Fine in the old days , even up to the '80's, because pistons & a rebore cost tuppence ha'penny....

On 10/21/2018 at 4:05 AM, Justgrazing said:

Brough Superior Golden Dream vertical flat 4 , shaft drive n'all ..

Not figured out how that works yet. More than likely 2 cranks joined together, a bit like a sq 4 Ariel.

 

On 10/21/2018 at 2:05 PM, Justgrazing said:

Top one the XS750 3

Always had a soft spot for the XS750.

I thought it was a decent seller, a good looker, and different from the crowd. And a shaft drive. And a triple 4 stroke.

On 10/21/2018 at 2:05 PM, Justgrazing said:

TX750 not to be confused with its smaller bro the XS650

The TX750 is a particularly pleasant motorcycle to look at, especially in that colour. Engine reminds me of the XS500 which did'nt do a lot either.

On 10/21/2018 at 4:49 PM, Justgrazing said:

 

 

70's Public enemy No1 with a make over .. and 12 to the gallon with those filters and 'zorst's on it when caned ..

 

 

NOW YOU"RE TALKIN' !!!!!!!! Oh yes!!!!!

[thaiguzzi]

20 hours ago, Justgrazing said:

The blue one by a very short head ..

Very nice yummy Commandos. Stunning paintwork. Very nice seats.

You can tell they are built by Americans - check the ridiculous lowered front end out on the blue one. And that bike runs the rear set footrests...

Stoopid. How can anyone do that to a Norton?

18 hours ago, Justgrazing said:

Cooled out Benelli 6 .. Love the quilted perch and the clock bracket which is a vast improvement over the ugly square housing of the standard bike .. Stupidly expensive back in the day and even more so now with £18/20,000 not an uncommon asking price for a top nick one ..

Never got the Sei. Never liked it. This does nothing for me sorry.

I mean an Italian company copying a basic plain Jane Honda design? Pretty horrific innit? It's a SOHC Honda 500/4 with 2 more cylinders added on.

I mean not only the engine, the whole bike looks like a f###ing Honda! Horrific. What were the style kings in Italy thinking?

And if i don't like in line 4's, i sure as hell ain't gonna like an in line 6...

17 hours ago, Justgrazing said:

Turbo behind the side panel aircraft style .. 

Craig Rodsmith.

Living Legend.

Possibly the greatest panel beater on the planet.

Check his dustbin fairing supercharged Guzzi out.

Check his hot rod car out - unbelievable sheet alloy work.

This bike in the pics was sponsored and paid for by Moto Guzzi. The build is on YT.

A lot of stuff on YT. THe guy is an Aussie living & working in Chicago. Not only is he a HUGE TALENT, he also has an incredible sense of humor.

6 hours ago, Justgrazing said:

1930's French Kohler Escoffier OHC bevel drive 1000 V twin .. Tuned version was said to produce near 75 horses which ain't bad for the time .. Love the pinstriping around the oil tank filler neck and twin float chamber on the carb ..

Concur.

Engine very pretty. Motorcycle very pretty. Nice colour scheme.

Like it. Want it.

 

[Justgrazing]

1 hour ago, thaiguzzi said:

Craig Rodsmith.

Living Legend.

Possibly the greatest panel beater on the planet.

Check his dustbin fairing supercharged Guzzi out.

Check his hot rod car out - unbelievable sheet alloy work.

This bike in the pics was sponsored and paid for by Moto Guzzi. The build is on YT.

A lot of stuff on YT. THe guy is an Aussie living & working in Chicago. Not only is he a HUGE TALENT, he also has an incredible sense of humor.

 

1 hour ago, thaiguzzi said:

Concur.

Engine very pretty. Motorcycle very pretty. Nice colour scheme.

Like it. Want it.

Thanx Guzz' for the heads up on the bloke behind the Turbo'd Guzzi I'll have a read up a bit later .. What caught my eye was the turbo out the back which was the fashion in some WW2 war planes and what a super neat job he made of it .. 

 

A cute 500 SV Zenith .. 

 

A later Kohler with essentially the same engine sporting twin carb's .. This looks more of a competition type bike .. 

 

 

[Justgrazing]

Love the quote about towing a Kenworth truck .. No figures for this available but depending on boost no surprise if its 250+ horses & corresponding torque .. And I bet it sounds like Armageddon with that exhaust .. though I ain't sure about the practicalities of that front tyre .. Awesome machine though .. 

 

Back in Black as AC/DC once said .. 

[Justgrazing]

8 hours ago, thaiguzzi said:

Never got the Sei. Never liked it. This does nothing for me sorry.

I mean an Italian company copying a basic plain Jane Honda design? Pretty horrific innit? It's a SOHC Honda 500/4 with 2 more cylinders added on.

I mean not only the engine, the whole bike looks like a f###ing Honda! Horrific. What were the style kings in Italy thinking?

And if i don't like in line 4's, i sure as hell ain't gonna like an in line 6...

Hahaha thought the Benelli might draw some fire .. You're preference for lumps of no more more than 3 cyl's has been noted .. Yeah sure the engine is little more than one and 'alf of a Honda 500/4 .. even the architecture of it mirrors the Honda .. And sure they were shrill to the ear unless you put a 6/1 on it , not that fast , had suspect reliability and were ridiculously expensive to buy .. and that hideous OE clock housing .. Even though the big Jap' 4strokes bikes were better bike's  the Sei so summed up the mid 70's for me and I wanted one so bad but the price was way beyond me .. 

 

9 hours ago, thaiguzzi said:

Not figured out how that works yet. More than likely 2 cranks joined together, a bit like a sq 4 Ariel.

Spot on mate .. in essence like 2 Be-eM boxers one atop the other geared together .. Wiki' have got a bit of info about it ( thats what I screen shotted ) but its such a rare bike from 80 odd yrs ago now info is not too freely available .. 

[Justgrazing]

On 10/19/2018 at 5:19 AM, thaiguzzi said:

Thank you sir.

That is a small air cylinder, purely for changing gear. Neutral - 1 - 2 & back to neutral, so used 3 times per run, hence plenty enough air. That red wire is a fancy coloured pneumatic air line running to a push button on the h/bars.

Hahaha. I had to look and double check - that shaft protruding is just a stay/bracket to hold part of the outer cover covering the whole primary drive & clutch up when running in competition. A big sheet of 8mm alloy plate - i don't think there is a pic of it here with it on - i'll check. It is bolted to the primary inner & engine plate.

No, that is the oil tank, it's up there for gravity purposes, Pump is a stock '50's-70's Norton geared oil pump. The fuel tank is below it, right at the front, in front of the front tyre. Gravity is irrelevent because of the use of a Hillbourne  mechanical fuel pump. No battery on this bike - just how i like it on all my bikes if possible - minimal electrics.

Yep, that is a 2 speed planetary gearbox taken off a drag car, and the drive indeed is from the opposite side to the clutch. The hose is purely a breather.

 

I was the main Goodridge hose dealer for Norfolk & Suffolk for 15 years, so they had a guy come down from Devon for the day during the dry build, and hosed the whole bike for free as part of the sponsorship. If i had to buy it, it would have been well in excess of a grand (English Pounds!).... Nice guys.

All the alloy sheet work inc the tanks were a freebie sponsorship deal from a local marine chandlers & boat builders that did all of our alloy tig repair work as well. Nice guys 2.0

Correctomondo.

 

One wire on the whole bike - earth mag kill switch to the h/bars tether. No electricians were harmed in building this bike.

 Yeah, that's basically how mechanical Hilbourne injectors work, excess ge'ts sent back to the tank. First & only bike we ever built with this system, it worked pretty much straight out of the box, very little fettling involved, and surprisingly cheap for what you get. I think i paid around $1200 plus shipping for the pump & 2 injectors, which i did'nt think excessive. I remember the first time we went to fire it up, we were expecting maybe a couple of hours fiddling about and it fired straight up, and even settled down to a decent tickover!

 Indeed, bike ran neat methanol. The cylinder barrels came cast to us with fins still on, which we machined off to save weight and were'nt neccessary.

Yep, hold down one off fasteners made by my own fair hand. They did the job, but look the business too. That top plate was 1" thick billet alloy i think, with a bit of inside clearance for the rockers. Can't exactly remember without finding some articles & paperwork on it, but i think we ran 14:1.

Thanx, yeah all the stuff like that was done mid week, late at night in my workshop, joint hanging out of my mouth, stoned. 10 hour day running the shop daytime, mates coming round tea time giving a hand, making cups of tea and rolling more joints, and me making stuff on the lathe or mill till near midnite. Drive/ride 7 miles home, feed the dog, pass out, and do it all again. For 1 and a 1/2 years.....

 Weekends were worse because although the shop only opened till lunchtime on a Saturday, i was in a backpatch m/c club and weekends were, er, a bit full on, so generally, Monday mornings i was completely shot to pieces.

The bike was built in 95-96 or 96-97 in my freehold 2,800 sq foot workshop on an industrial estate. That business ran from '88-2003.

So yeah, i had a big mill, 2 big lathes, surface grinder, 3 different blast media machines, polishing room with 3 hp polishers and linishers etc etc etc.

 

Edit,

 coupla more pics.

The bike was ridiculously over tyred for the hp it was producing. The back end inc wheel, tyre and wheelie bars were more in keeping with a 500 hp bike, not a 130 hp bike, and actually slowed us down, but hell, what did we know about drag racing when we first started out?

 

 

 

Impressive machine that .. even the trolley to move it about on looks the part .. 

I'll take it that it has a bespoke crank , rods , pistons etc and is a 360° set up ? did the crank cases and main bearings need beefing up as I'm not overly sure on this but did that Triumph engine have a main bearing on either side of the big end journals only as opposed to having a centre main between the journals also as is beloved of Jap para' twins ( didn't the Enfield Interceptor have 3 mains also ? ) .. I also presume the valve train and valves are specialised kit .. Also given how quick an engine like that can spin up is the magneto recalibrated to give it the necessary timing curve or is there a manual adjustment you can make while its running on the day and does the mag' have an rev limiter built in .. Is that the kill switch cord ( yellow ) hanging off the left handle bar ? And the frame did you do the frame also ..

To get it off the line obviously big revs but do you go max dictated by a rev limiter of the mag ( above ) and just dump the clutch which doesn't look like it's too progressive or near max revs and try and feed it a bit .. Yea I see what you mean about the wheelie bars and rear tyre .. Altogether a deeply impressive machine which I imagine wasn't cheap to put together not only in components cost but man hrs making bits .. And finally you were the pilot .?

Edited October 23, 2018 by Justgrazing
Sp

[Justgrazing]

17 hours ago, thaiguzzi said:

really like this R III.

At first glance almost stock. Just a solo race seat with hump, the clip ons, rear sets  and the big Fontana 4LS front brake.

Lovely.

Only other half decent shot I can find of the silver Rocket 3 .. 

 

And another 3 in Norton with a more conventional exhaust set up .. Check out that rear hub and rims ..

Edited October 23, 2018 by Justgrazing
Sp

[canthai55]

TZ750

Kenny Roberts said the yellow one was the most evil bike he ever rode

[canthai55]