A passion for bikes is inborn l think so.

[thehelmsman]

Mini bike age 10, Honda 90 scrambler age 12, Honda 350 age 15, Honda 750 age 16, had a Virago, a Vulcan. Here in Thailand, nothing big yet. Sort of think I deserve a Harley, but the Triumph Bobber looks bad ass.

[soihok]

Honda 750 at 16!

Nice one.

[transam]

As a kid I was a lathe operator at AMC (Amalgamated Motor Cycles), making bits for Norton, AJS and Matchless. I reckon every part was made at the factory, even chroming parts. I used to love walking around the place in my spare time watching all the operations, one was an ol' fella whose job was to balance the crankshafts on his apparatus, another who machined the front fork damper internals, and believe it or not he was the only guy skilled enough to perform this operation, seems he had the "touch".... fond memories...

I had a Lambretta at the time....

[Kwasaki]

14 hours ago, Damrongsak said:

But Honda got it right with the NSR500. 2-stroke, 500cc V4 with about 200 horsepower.  10 world championships, over 100 race wins.  Amazing engine.

 

More info and a good engine pic:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honda_NSR500

Yep l think Japanese design engineer's are some of the finest in the world.

l'm fan of MotoGP watched VR rise up through the ranks and world championships.

My take is with the development of 4 stoke's motorcycles they were gradually erasing any advantages the 2 stoke power had.

 

Finest motorcycle engine ever made IMO,  now 1000's are allowed again wish Honda would bring it back there struggling a bit these days.

 

[Kwasaki]

19 hours ago, transam said:

Yep chain driven overhead  cams...Even back then we could buy  tuning stuff for them, had carb ram pipes (manifolds) made up for mine...

This is how l remember the use of the RC name from Honda going into the international world Superbike & MotoGP to the present day,  the prefix RC has also been applied to a few production motorcycles available to the public, not the RC166.

 

I read motorcycle history most of the time from the beginning,  here's an extract of the latest RC in 2016 available to the public,  here's hoping to win lottery.  

Honda has a rich history of World Championship-winning technical achievement.

It has also periodically offered the very best of its race-derived innovation for public consumption.

Take the oval piston NR750 and exotic V-4 RC30 and RC45 models.

They have fueled the aspirations of many if only fulfilling the fancy of the financially affluent few.

It’s been quite some time since we’ve witnessed such a collaborative flagship machine from Big Red and its Honda Racing Corporation, but the $184,000 RC213V-S street-legal MotoGP replica has brought an end to this dry spell with all the subtlety of a major tsunami.

[Kwasaki]

2 hours ago, thehelmsman said:

Mini bike age 10, Honda 90 scrambler age 12, Honda 350 age 15, Honda 750 age 16, had a Virago, a Vulcan. Here in Thailand, nothing big yet. Sort of think I deserve a Harley, but the Triumph Bobber looks bad ass.

Lucky guy in UK l was skint on 16th birthday mine was a 600 Panther with sidecar & ' L ' plates.

[transam]

25 minutes ago, Kwasaki said:

This is how l remember the use of the RC name from Honda going into the international world Superbike & MotoGP to the present day,  the prefix RC has also been applied to a few production motorcycles available to the public, not the RC166.

 

I read motorcycle history most of the time from the beginning,  here's an extract of the latest RC in 2016 available to the public,  here's hoping to win lottery.  

Honda has a rich history of World Championship-winning technical achievement.

It has also periodically offered the very best of its race-derived innovation for public consumption.

Take the oval piston NR750 and exotic V-4 RC30 and RC45 models.

They have fueled the aspirations of many if only fulfilling the fancy of the financially affluent few.

It’s been quite some time since we’ve witnessed such a collaborative flagship machine from Big Red and its Honda Racing Corporation, but the $184,000 RC213V-S street-legal MotoGP replica has brought an end to this dry spell with all the subtlety of a major tsunami.

I remember watching Mike Hailwood at Brands Hatch doing his stuff on the RC166, that was something to watch, and the sounds were my heaven shifting through the gears....I have a tear.....

[transam]

I just found out about a V8 bike that actually raced...........Brill....

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrS9-4s9Wvg

[Kwasaki]

Don't start me off l'll bore you all to death.  

 

This was first V8 motorcycle in records and set the land speed record 219 khm in 1907.

 

[soihok]

Wow.

219 kph on that.

That chap must have been well hard.

[Kwasaki]

Also the Moto-guzzi W4 l think was and Norton Nemesis were V8's.

[Kwasaki]

l think some guys here would this  

 

 

F' ing ell a 48 cylinder Kwacka  .

[thaiguzzi]

On 23/07/2017 at 10:27 AM, transam said:

As a kid I was a lathe operator at AMC (Amalgamated Motor Cycles), making bits for Norton, AJS and Matchless. I reckon every part was made at the factory, even chroming parts. I used to love walking around the place in my spare time watching all the operations, one was an ol' fella whose job was to balance the crankshafts on his apparatus, another who machined the front fork damper internals, and believe it or not he was the only guy skilled enough to perform this operation, seems he had the "touch".... fond memories...

I had a Lambretta at the time....

I have several books here on the British motorcycle industry, the politics, and  how inside the factories worked, but especially a bunch on Meriden.

 Quite unbelievable and insane how they got stuff out the door, and quality stuff too, on knackered, out of date machine tools. It was all jigs and fixtures in those days, so the bloke making the tappet blocks gets them exactly right because he knows how to wack the wooden wedge just right on the auto borer. He gets sick, put another lad on the job and that day's work is all wrong and scrap, because he did'nt know about the wooden wedge....

If you look at the countries that actually lost in WW II, Japan, Italy and Germany, by the mid 50's they are all running state of the art 1954 machine tools. Blighty meanwhile is running clapped out 30's stuff.

OT; When they cleared a Jaguar production line out in early 2000 ish, they found a manual lathe made around 1909!

[Kwasaki]

Anyone here alive that remember this. 

 

[thaiguzzi]

On 23/07/2017 at 0:37 PM, Kwasaki said:

Lucky guy in UK l was skint on 16th birthday mine was a 600 Panther with sidecar & ' L ' plates.

always like my big Panthers....

[Damrongsak]

On 7/22/2017 at 10:55 AM, CMKiwi said:

Now that engine looks like a beast or very close to a rocket....

 

  I wouldn't like to be sitting on it when it takes off, I'd likely fill my pants!

That Honda engine would look good on the back of a go-kart.  :)

 

I've been watching videos of Speedway racing lately.  Last night I was laying awake in bed trying to picture some of the action.  I realized that it worked better if I laid on my left side. 

 

 

[Kwasaki]

23 minutes ago, thaiguzzi said:

always like my big Panthers....

OK then seriously I liked it but as said UK at 16 yr had to have a sidecar till l passed my test,  the test was a joke compared to what my youngest son had to do.

My 3rd day out in the wet l skidded into the back of No. 230 bus no damage a bike as tough as they come.

Nearly ended up in a shop front on the opposite side of the road taking a left corner too fast with sidecar well off the ground. 

Edited July 24, 2017 by Kwasaki

[Henryford]

Bikes have been a passion for me all my life but after a minor accident here last year i think it's time to hang up my spurs (I'm 64). Another nasty accident at my age could ruin my retirement and is just not worth it. Sad but it's just too risky here.

[bangkokbanjo]

Bikes have been a passion for me all my life but after a minor accident here last year i think it's time to hang up my spurs (I'm 64). Another nasty accident at my age could ruin my retirement and is just not worth it. Sad but it's just too risky here.

What happened? Im thinking of just getting a scooter but the stories of death really are oft putting.

Sent from my SM-G920V using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

[transam]

2 minutes ago, bangkokbanjo said:

 

What happened? Im thinking of just getting a scooter but the stories of death really are oft putting.

Sent from my SM-G920V using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app
 

 

We have a bike and I don't use it in LOS, or rarely....Sad but stuff is too daft here for me...

[transam]

Although in the UK I gave up bikes in my teens l have in latter years been involved in restoration stuff regarding vintage bikes. My chum's business was bike restoration, so in my spare time l would go to his workshop to help out with putting our heads together over problems and l did welding for him in my home workshop. It worked out well as l could use his lathes etc for my Pontiac fun ride.

His main work was restoring Brough Superiors for clients. He also was commissioned to rebuild bikes destroyed in the British Motorcycle Museum fire. If you saw what turned up from that fire you would not believe it could be restored, l am talking a pile of twisted metal and a blob of aluminum, the guy is a genius... I was amazed that in the UK there were fabricators around the country that could make anything, a guy that could make a Brough Superior petrol/oil tank from scratch, we even had a new tank made for the OEC land speed record holder bike......I worked on bikes like this....In a minor capacity of course..

 

 

 

 

[Kwasaki]

1 hour ago, Henryford said:

Bikes have been a passion for me all my life but after a minor accident here last year i think it's time to hang up my spurs (I'm 64). Another nasty accident at my age could ruin my retirement and is just not worth it. Sad but it's just too risky here.

 

1 hour ago, bangkokbanjo said:

What happened? Im thinking of just getting a scooter but the stories of death really are oft putting.

 

 

1 hour ago, transam said:

We have a bike and I don't use it in LOS, or rarely....Sad but stuff is too daft here for me...

I respectfully ask or rather not,  in please don't start off the Health & Safety ignorant mob on this thread it's about motorbikes,  bikers & motorcyclists are already fully aware of the dangers not just in Thailand but everywhere else in the world. 

[transam]

1 minute ago, Kwasaki said:

 

 

I respectfully ask or rather not,  in please don't start off the Health & Safety ignorant mob on this thread it's about motorbikes,  bikers & motorcyclists are already fully aware of the dangers not just in Thailand but everywhere else in the world. 

Yes you are right.....

[Kwasaki]

I think l know someone whose posted here that might like this,  if he don't already know.

 

ABC motorcycles established  in 1914 was a English motorcycle manufacturer and in 1918, built a 500 cc transverse-mounted flat-twin engine several years before BMW adapted the design. 

[transam]

3 minutes ago, Kwasaki said:

I think l know someone whose posted here that might like this,  if he don't already know.

 

ABC motorcycles established  in 1914 was a English motorcycle manufacturer and in 1918, built a 500 cc transverse-mounted flat-twin engine several years before BMW adapted the design. 

For sure there is a lot of unknown to most history out there. We restored a single cylinder bike that was completely copper plated, lovely looking thing from way back, l now wonder why the copper thing...It's on display at the British Motorcycle Museum...

[Kwasaki]

Some may like to know how motorbikes started.

 

 

Daimler-Maybach Petroleum Reitwagen is considered the world’s first internal combustion petroleum fueled motorcycle,  Reitwagen meaning “ riding car ”. 

 

Production in 1885..Engine Specifications  264 cc (16.1 cu in) air-cooled four-stroke single.

Crank start......Bore / stroke   58 mm × 100 mm (2.3 in × 3.9 in)…

Top speed  11 km/h  (6.8 mph).  Whow.!!

Power  0.5 horsepower  (0.37 kW) @ 600 rpm……Ignition type…Hot tube.

The first  Transmission…..Single speed, belt drive…

Modification in 1886 a Two speed, belt primary, pinion gear final drive (1886)

Frame…..Wooden beam….Suspension…None… Front Brakes… None. 

Rear Brake…Shoe type.

Wheels…. Wood spokes…Rims Iron over wood……..Rake, trail.  0°, 0 mm.

Dry Weight… 90 kg (200 lb)

 

If a two-wheeled vehicle with steam propulsion is considered a motorcycle, then the first was the French Michaux-Perreaux steam bicycle of 1868 1868.                             

This was followed by the American Roper steam velocipede of 1868, built by Sylvester Howard Roper of Roxbury, Massachusetts.

[Neilly]

Came across this the other day...I can imagine the power band on the 2 strokes was about a gnats chuff wide

 

 

[Kwasaki]

8 minutes ago, transam said:

For sure there is a lot of unknown to most history out there. We restored a single cylinder bike that was completely copper plated, lovely looking thing from way back, l now wonder why the copper thing...It's on display at the British Motorcycle Museum...

That reminds me,  I am not aware of any bike meet ups in Thailand but there were many at The Cricketers Arms Sarrat Hertfordshire England on Wednesday fortnights.

 

Once there l saw a motorcycle similar to below that only could be describe as antique,  it had a top & bottom copper made framed square headlight with glass in 3 sides and was a oil lamp light,  beats halogen err. 

 

 

[transam]

3 minutes ago, Kwasaki said:

That reminds me,  I am not aware of any bike meet ups in Thailand but there were many at The Cricketers Arms Sarrat Hertfordshire England on Wednesday fortnights.

 

Once there l saw a motorcycle similar to below that only could be describe as antique,  it had a top & bottom copper made framed square headlight with glass in 3 sides and was a oil lamp light,  beats halogen err. 

 

 

To me that is a beautiful machine.......I cannot find a copper bike photo we reincarnated...Drat, it is beautiful....Sadly I cannot remember the make...Will keep trying..

[Kwasaki]

26 minutes ago, Neilly said:

Came across this the other day...I can imagine the power band on the 2 strokes was about a gnats chuff wide

 

 

I never really got on with 2 stokes l probably wouldn't get on with nitrous on a bike either.

My youngest didn't mind 2 stoke cause he was stuck with small cc while going through the UK motorbike licence procedure, he went 4 stoke as soon as able.