JAP-powered grass track bikes.

 

The quite magnificent BRM V16 racer of the late 40's , early 50's is set to return .. the discovery of 3 unalloted chassis numbers BRM had hoped to use before abandoning the project has opened the door to allowing them to now be built .. the only existing one is considered priceless and museum'd apart from rare appearances like the Festival of speed but has been " measured " up for every single detail and spec' required and the drawings for the engine are still available so the possibility of the best sounding engine ever wailing again is a step closer .. 

 

Bottom pic' shows the 1500 cc lump with aircraft style centrifugal supercharger developed with R R and BRM .. and you can see the Achilles heel of it at the time .. the ignition system .. needing 4 magneto distributors it never overcame high speed misfiring at 10,000 rpm + though it could rev to over 12,000 .. which is patently obvious in the few vids of it running from the past where the mic' picks up the misfires .. 

No mention of cost but it would be surprising if you get much change out of a million .. 

 

With advances in ignition systems the 4 mag system can be replaced with something much more modern

This will solve the flaws in the original - can even place under magneto cap so it LOOKS like the original, using a crank trigger, small and easy to hide, but works

555

2 hours ago, canthai55 said:

With advances in ignition systems the 4 mag system can be replaced with something much more modern

This will solve the flaws in the original - can even place under magneto cap so it LOOKS like the original, using a crank trigger, small and easy to hide, but works

555

 

Oh yes for sure .. now modern digi' systems could over come the problems they had back then .. 

Details are sparse at the minute whether they will try and do something like that with it or keep the 3 that are to be built 100% true to the original .. 

Even available in the late '60's,

 

https://www.advancedautomotives.co.uk/lucas-rally-electronic-ignition-kit-pre-xflow-xflow-lotus-twin-cam--bda-4674-p.asp

Stunning Henderson 4 banger .. don'tcha just love that exhaust .. 

Equally gorgeous 1926 Ace 4 .. 

 

(Equally gorgeous 1926 Ace 4 .) What a great looking bike I have never seen one before. Although the Henderson 4 is nice the Ace is just a striking design for 1926. Thanks for posting and continuing my education.

4 hours ago, Randell said:

(Equally gorgeous 1926 Ace 4 .) What a great looking bike I have never seen one before. Although the Henderson 4 is nice the Ace is just a striking design for 1926. Thanks for posting and continuing my education.

 

No worries Randell .. that's what we're here for .. 

2 more Ace 4's there for you Randell .. 

The bottom bike is a 1928 German Windhoff that I've put up before and of a very similar layout to the Ace's apart from being shafty drive .. you will also note how tall the engine block is compared to the A's .. 

 

Quite a story behind Ace.  It was started by one of the brothers who began Henderson Motorcycles, William Henderson, who left in 1919 after Henderson was bought out by Excelsior - (not to be confused with the British manufacturer of the same name), though they kept the Henderson name and moved production to their own factory.  In a similar manner to George Brough, when leaving his father's company and starting his own Brough Superior one, William Henderson deliberately made Ace motorcycles better than Henderson ones, while ensuring that no parts could be interchanged between the two companies' machines.  William was killed while testing a bike in 1922, and his former trainee from Excelsior took over from him. 

 

1921 Ace 1265cc Four

 

1921 Henderson Model K 1264cc Four

 

1919 Excelsior Model 19 1,000cc Twin

 

Ace stopped production in 1924, and were bought by Indian in 1927.  The name Ace was used in their models up till 1928.

 

1927 Indian Ace 780cc Four

The other Excelsior, in the UK, stemmed from the very first motorcycle producers there, Bayliss, Thomas and Co. who added motorised bicycles to their Penny Farthing range in 1896, and began using the Excelsior name in 1910.  They went out of business in 1965.

 

1937 Excelsior Manxman 350cc  Lovely looking bike.

My Honda 1000cc "Project Big One" - The last bike I owned in 2010 in my home country. And probably the most reliable bike I ever had. Hope to have a "big bike" in Thailand in far near future.

Another L4 cyl .. the 1912 Pierce ..

And 2 late 20's Brough's of a similar longitudinal 4 banger layout .. 

 

1 hour ago, douglasspade said:

My Honda 1000cc "Project Big One" - The last bike I owned in 2010 in my home country. And probably the most reliable bike I ever had. Hope to have a "big bike" in Thailand in far near future.

This one for sale - 140K

On 11/17/2020 at 4:08 AM, Justgrazing said:

Well done to Joan Mir on taking the MotoGP crown at Valencia yesterday and also giving Suzuki a chance of their first World Title in 20 yrs depending on the final race at Portugal in this strangest of seasons .. 

Mir finished 7th but his title lead was enough to ensure getting crowned yesterday ..

Not so much for Rossi though in his 20th season in the top class .. a number of dnf's either coming off or from bike issues , nearly getting wiped out in Austria earlier in the season that he admits shook him , a brush with Coronavirus and ongoing mutterings that all is not well inside the works Yamaha team have all conspired to make this a season to forget languishing 15th in the standings with 65 pts with the last round to go .. 

Satellite Yam' rider Quatararo is getting Rossi's bike next season teaming up with Vinales while Rossi who will be 42 at the start of the next season is taking Quat's bike at Petronas .. 

And Honda's season hasn't been much better after Marc Marquez's crash at the season opener ruling him out for the rest of the year while his younger brother Alex has not been able to master the RCV .. Test rider Nakagami deputising for M'nM has been flying the flag as best he can but currently second bottom in the constructors table is not a good place for the world's biggest bike maker ..

  

We were watching the Moto 2 on Thai TV from Portugal , camera shot of the starting grid ,had to look twice an MV Agusta, ridden by Stefano Mamzi of Team Forward  Racing , he come home 19th .

Good to see MV back on the track .

Maybe Moto 2 but some good close racing.

On 11/21/2020 at 11:02 PM, Damrongsak said:

JAP-powered grass track bikes.

 

Sidecar grass track 1000cc bike

Ps stumbled on a website that  said sidecar speedway is retuning to the UK  next year, been in Australia for some years ,I thought it was tried in the UK  a few years ago, but they said it was to dangerous. 

^ Also poular in NZ!

1930 Matchless Silver Hawk .. near 600 cc very narrow angle OHC V4 .. beset with overheating problems from badly distributed fuel mixture ( too lean to some cyl's ) and two rear cyl's directly behind the fronts but within the same casting is always going to result in them running hotter anyway which piled on the overheat issue .. said to be unbelievably torquey and capable of pulling top gear from walking pace but the overheating problem were never sorted .. not a big seller and expensive to make it was dropped 1935 .. fabulous looking bike though .. 

 

A 1948 Nimbus from Denmark, 4 cylinders 750cc and shaft drive .

The company also make vacuum cleaners. 

Drop dead cool late 30's Zundapp 800cc flat four .. 

And period engine drawing of the Windhoff on the last page .. 

 

On 11/11/2020 at 8:48 PM, canthai55 said:

 

That would go a lot faster if he took the searchlight off the front, lowered his left arm and tucked in his shirt.

Not strictly bikey but maybe bike related for if anyone could possibly be luckier than Rossi after his double split second brush with death at Austria earlier this year then that might well be F1's Haas team driver Romain Grosjean after his huge accident on the 1st lap at the Bahrain F1 G P yesterday .. clipping the front of an unseen Alpha Tauri Grosjean's car hit the Armco hard at an oblique angle breaking in two on impact with the nose and driver cell actually passing through the gap in the lengths of barrier and erupting in a fireball by fuel from the split fuel tank .. 

It takes 3 or 4 seconds to get out of one of those things when they are on four wheels the right way up .. how Romain managed to get out with the driver cell wedged on its side in the Armco in a ball of flame with thankfully little more than light burns and shock really is truly remarkable .. 

Red arrow shows where R G's head would've been .. 

 

I think the Ferrari bit seperated from the HAAS bit. ????

Well done B P for the write up on Brit' Excelsior bikes .. another of their range not well known was their strokers .. a twin and shock horror a triple .. enlarged version's of both were fitted in the fibreglass Berkeley micro sports car of the late 50's , an ill fated rival to the frogeye Healey Sprite .. the twin was taken out to 328cc and the 3 banger to 492 .. 

by all accounts the 492 could hit 80mph .!  not sure I'd fancy that on 50's tyre's and drum brakes .. 

 

 

 

14 minutes ago, VocalNeal said:

I think the Ferrari bit seperated from the HAAS bit. 

Haha yea .. and I seen one of the pink Merc's ended upside down abit later .. 

Did you see the barrier after they'd removed Grosjean's car .? 'Looked like it had been hit with an RPG .. 

By all accounts Ross Brawn F1 M D has ordered an investigation into why they compromised in the way they did .. 

 

JG was saying about the V4 Matchless overheating ,reminds me of the Arial squarer 4 

The bike has had few mods done to it since  the original design, was done in 1929 by  God ,Edward Turner,went in to production in 1930 as a OHC 498cc engine.

Val Page was asked by ET to do something about the overheating of the rear 2 cylinders ,he put a cooling channel on the front cylinders ,and added fins to the cylinder head ,he also changed the engine doing away with the chain driven OHC to a OHV engine,  the engine was then  bored out to 600cc and 1000 cc.

Production went on to 1959 ,after finally sorting out the over heating problem by separating the cylinders and redesigning the head .

The early 70's the Healey brothers brought the remaining  squarer 4 parts and made a modern version ,they only made 28 and ceased in 1977 .

The photos, the first one a 500 cc supercharged  engine did a 110mph lap at Brooklands,that was 1933.

Then a 1000cc 1939 modal ,and a 1973 Healey 1000/4.

25 minutes ago, kickstart said:

JG was saying about the V4 Matchless overheating ,reminds me of the Arial squarer 4 

The bike has had few mods done to it since  the original design, was done in 1929 by  God ,Edward Turner,went in to production in 1930 as a OHC 498cc engine.

Val Page was asked by ET to do something about the overheating of the rear 2 cylinders ,he put a cooling channel on the front cylinders ,and added fins to the cylinder head ,he also changed the engine doing away with the chain driven OHC to a OHV engine,  the engine was then  bored out to 600cc and 1000 cc.

Production went on to 1959 ,after finally sorting out the over heating problem by separating the cylinders and redesigning the head .

The early 70's the Healey brothers brought the remaining  squarer 4 parts and made a modern version ,they only made 28 and ceased in 1977 .

The photos, the first one a 500 cc supercharged  engine did a 110mph lap at Brooklands,that was 1933.

Then a 1000cc 1939 modal ,and a 1973 Healey 1000/4.

 

???? .. nice looking bike that bottom one K S ...

1930's AJS S3 500cc narrow angle Veetwin all Guzzi style ..

1928 AJS 632 inline 4 prototype .. 

Said to be the only one in existence .. 

 

Not sure if this is the right category, please correct if not.

Randell

 

 

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My Father - late 40's - Indian 45