Wacky 50

I´d say you are right about carburration Trevor -- Andy´s 250 Alpha was quite sensitive to climate change. To be fair I'll not mention the carb maker here: it ran too rich at some throttle openings and shut downf, such that I had to have absorbing foam at the bottom of the fairing otherwise I'd have been a menace. Fortunately there was always lots of "bucksheesh" foam where ever I went. A good packing above the bottom of the fairing, underneath the engine, kept the back wheel -- and the track -- dry.

Sad indeed, Trevor, that our elite decided to ditch our motor & motorcycle industry in favour of Financial Services.

How many motorcycle companies did we have before WW2? And what is left now ...? and what of the cars -- Morgan & MG about all that´s left?

Shame on the dimwits in Westminster.

The Japanese made big business on what we lost but it took British engineers and racers to develope good-handlhng frames and suspension set-ups to be competitive. I remember the Japanese engineers at a GP meeting foamiing at the mouth because Barry Sheene installed a 9 pound weight just ahead of the engine and won. I think they nicknamed that one "The DucK" because of its strange shape and with four resonant pipes meandering all over the place and where the ridfe needed to have his feet. I think it was Steve Parrish who said it frightened him.

Cheers!

JayBee...

When I very first saw this picture it was rotated 90* to the left, giving the impression of a flatish surface, but the trees were then wrong? Anyway it was all eventually corrected and the next problem, which circuit but there are very few remaining banked tracks around now. The best I came up with is the Autodromo Terramar near Barcelona, Spain`s ghost oval.
I`m not sure if I could even crawl up the incline on that banking, but I find it an extraordinary and dramatically haunting image, just a single machine at some speed, running with its own shadow. It must have been quite an experience for the rider.

Trevor.

I think the photo is still wrong Trevor. The trees are leaning at 45o and the riders shadow would mean the sun was directly overhead.

john bass wrote:

The Japanese made big business on what we lost but it took British engineers and racers to develope good-handlhng frames and suspension set-ups to be competitive. I remember the Japanese engineers at a GP meeting foamiing at the mouth because Barry Sheene installed a 9 pound weight just ahead of the engine and won.
JayBee...

I don't think the factory would want the public to know that Barry had new frames for his works bikes made in Essex.

Spot on Ned...

Without British riders -- Barry and Mike Hailward and many others --  the Japanese would never have won a GP....

I forget the star rider's name who went overseas  to where 5 Japanese 'engineers'  were puzzling how to get their engine into a British made racing frame -- with wheels attached -- ready for a GP and they were scratching their heads still more when he threw the heap onto its side on the floor, laid the engine in situ,  put whatever he could find under various points -- as packing --- slide in the bolts, put the bike upright  and had the job done in about 20 minutes.

There are too many "Engineers" in the world today who can do fancy things with a computer, can pass fantastic exams and deliver marvellous papers at Institutions and universities but haven' t a clue when it comes to a simple technical exercise. For example,  I had a Chinese Engineer wanting a job with us  in Montreal and asked him to describe the  FORCE that has a wheeled vehicle accelerating (coasting under its own weight "W")  downhill with a slope angle of "Theta degrees."

I know it was a nasty thing to do at an interview but it definitely proved my point. This young Engineer had distiguished himself with brilliant pass marks from a  Chinese university and scribbled several theorems across my blotter (we had desk blotters in those days and no computers)  whilst I lit up (I smoked quite heavilly on such occasions) and told him to take his time.
It was all beautiful stuff, he filled my blotter and I didn´t know where to sart to check on it all:  like measuring the internal energy and potential energy  of the vehicle`s height on the slope at start and finish  of the  vehicle`s displacemenz on the slope -- plus the kinetic energy before and after the coasting --- plus the wind drag caused by the frontal area  varying at start and finish of measuring etc...etc... etc ...

He was quite shocked when I told him he had not understood the question:   I had only asked for the FORCE that was available for a vehicle coasting downhill  -- not what might have been asked....

It was:  "W.sine of Theta"  -- (where W is the total weight of the vehicle and passenger there was never a need for mass as W/g because "g" cancels out top and bottom of the equation used in --
  --     accelerating force =  mass x acceleration  
       =  w/g x a  (where "a" is the acceleration and is equal to "g" in this particular case)

The force of gravity -- in this case  -- is the force asked for,  MODIFIED by the factor "sine.Theta"  which, if the slope was a uniform 30° would be half the weight W....

This "Coasting downhill" is a simple test for finding how much drag you loose because of scuffing brakes, dragging wheel bearings, with the rear chain on, perhaps chain friction loss and positively drag differences of  varieties of gearbox oil  by just coasting  down any old hill. You need several helpers to do the timing (unless you have a uniform angle of slope) and a fairly long hill is needed -- like you might find in a national park -- for example!!

The most spectaular result comes from using widely different tyre pressures.e.g. Say 40psi in both tyres and then both  at  15psi.  

All this fuss recently about published car fuel consumptions was not just the differences of Motorway to Rural and City roads it was because the car manufactuters used very high tyre pressures on a test track (MIRA for instance) -- and didn´t  mention the fact in their promotion propagander....

Got carried away there. Sorry!

Just remebered it was not Hurricane Smith on the Wall of Death at the Kurssal, Southend it was Tornado Smith.

Cheers!

JayBee.






.  







,

Racing in the rain always seems a source of great images for the sports photographers, this one is no exception. How on earth those guys can see where they are going in quite beyond me, never mind steering an outfit, brave guys!

Trevor

James (Jimmie) Switzer sent me this new `Wackie` from over there in Northern Ireland, it was featured in the May 2017 edition of the Irish Veteran and Vintage Motor Cycle Club magazine that is rather aptly entitled `Exhaust Notes`.
As you all can see it is a very odd thing designed only to be stood on? Seems to be an accomplished piece of construction for back in 1908, sadly I have no more information, be intriguing to find out more though.

Trevor

Wünderbar!

Prof Lowe -- famous for sound measurement and Technical Correspondence courses also made a stand up scooter which had its cylinder horizontal and very special suspension.. I had a picture of it in my MC Scrap book which was nicked during my stay in Military Hospital Nairobi. Top suspect: RAMC -- Rob All My Comrades....

I expect the robbery excuse is -- well, we know he won´t be needing it where he´s going.

And on a Sunday an´all ....
Cheers!

JayBee.

I guess this is not, in the wider accepted sense of the expression, a Wackie, but everything about it has a strange almost surreal, haunting yet serene atmosphere to it, the blacks and greys the gas lamp to one side. It`s all very indicative of Victorian/Edwardian London and all that is conjured up by that notorious period , the world of Walter Sickert and his sombre style of monochrome and dull colours?
The very elegant lady posing in profile almost steals the scene but the real subject here ie the very modern looking electric scooter she graces.
Haven`t we now come full circle with electric vehicles about to be unleashed on our streets, at least the one depicted here would have a person in full control all of the time!
I have absolutely no information to accompany this photograph, it may not even have been taken in this country, New York, or in Europe some where, any ideas  any one?
However, I love it so in it goes!

Trevor.

http://mashable.com/2015/06/15/1916-suffragette-scooter/#e4sTYzSfEZqZ

English socialite and activist Florence Priscilla, Lady Norman, CBE was given this Autoped as a birthday present by her husband, Sir Henry Norman. She used it to travel to her office in central London.

Many thanks Jimmie,
Your very much better picture clearly shows the engine, so the description for my picture was wrong, but that is a wonderful piece of social history which I had little knowledge of, so we can identify the lady, the date and location of London. I can just imagine Lady Norman motoring through the London streets scattering all before her with those voluminous skirts billowing in her wake, good for her, a fine gesture of defiance to the male dominated order of the day!

Trevor

Again we are believing all we read! Like my Uncle Jackie's death. Council said February, the certificate said December! Wonder if her family archives would hold the documents for the scooter! Dear me I am of a strange mind this day.

Wünderbar Jimmie!

I´d say that with that hat and the amount of hair beneath she´d surely be wearing the approved Head Protection of the age.

Actually considering making something like that for myself. Our little -- `Hick' -- town sits on a hill and its OK walkimng down to but hard graft -- in 36°c, as now -- coming back.

Had a young bloke with a blonde square head -- his hair was cropped such -- stop and get out of his sports car and accuse me of making a rude sign of single digit at him for which he intended to call the police . My wife and I denied it and both said he had better prove it before we bring a charge of nearly knocking us down at a pedestrian crossing.

As if I´d do such a thing as the single digit...!!!?

Take care,

Cheers!

John-Boy......

Just found this detailed picture of the 155cc engine of the Autoped featured earlier, seems it is American made.

Trevor

Trevor, many thanks for the close up. Using your info I came across this - as did others I assume -

http://amhistory.si.edu/onthemove/collection/object_307.html

Was this the first use of a joy stick to control a motor vehicle?
Sorry, but as I have a strange (?) sense of humour:

American
Urban
Transport
Offers
Pretty
Exciting
Death

Wonder if the inventor of the windsurfing board ever rode an Autoped?

Not '50' but another wacky American Uno-Wheel job. Perhaps, with a little  decoration, may be  suitable for presidential/prime ministerial use by those who think the world revolved around them

http://theoldmotor.com/?p=147211

Head and block cast in one. Wünderbar! No more leaking head gaskets.

Leyland Motors -- when Norman Tattersall was Chief Egnineer -- had the same 'Combine head and block' arrangement with their 6-cylinder  0700 engine for which they built a new factory. It was -- of course a 6cyl in-line diesel (oh yukk! our poor lungs...!) and the machinery to bore cylinder, machine combustion chamber and valve pockets -- from below -- all in one go -- came from Germany.

Like a lot of "modern" wonders it was a good engine, good performance, excellent fuel consumption and high reliabilty but like a lot of British engineering wonders it probably came out at the wrong time. Ford were making virtual Throw Away engines, dirt cheap that lasted only a fraction of the Leyland (all their series engines)  longevity and because Ford Service  sponsored replacement cost was minimal....  

Leyland never went into series production witzh the 0700 and as we all know they had to be rescued by the government.

That was the problem with our Automobile Industry, even though we had some marvelous brains in charge of engineering departments there were too many of the opposite (as the late Bill Lomas said of his Chief Engineer at Royal Enfield).  along with their fantastic degrees and titles their heads were in the clouds -- down below were the real engineers. .

Sorry! Put it down to living too long...

I got carried away there but look at Standard-Triumph -- I had a Triumph Herald (from Simms garage) to go 200miles  to Leyland and a Ford Corsair to go 8 miles  to Ford Rainham (later 16 miles to Dunton) and one moring, flat-out on the M6 the near-side front wheel bearing broke up and the wheel seized. Fortunately no traffic. With the steering wheel at full lock against the skid the Herald went from the fast lane across three lanes  into the  emergency track ...
   Could not blame the engineering nor the bearing manufacturer for that one....

Sorry!
Got carried away again.

Cheers
JayBee.

It takes a bit of believing, but a wooden piston! Could of course be a precursor to the carbon piston, but may need a little more development work from this first effort?
Trevor

Monowheel dedication

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/cars/features/meet-daredevil-aiming-break-speed-record-monowheels/

Imagine if the transmission seized solid the rider would be in a vertical centrifuge and either hís guts would be in his brain-box or down in his feet...

... or perhaps he´d be seperated in the middle ...

... and i thought road racing two wheels was scary...!!

Yuk!

JayBee!

Replica of a Roper Steam Velocipede.

http://www.bmf.co.uk/news/show/the-velocipede-rides-again

Look for the monowheel in the background just after the start.

And you thought the heated seat was new!

Scan down and you will see this interesting piece of advice on tyre safety, worth a read.

BMF Technical Notice: Tyre Safety

Wünderbar...!

JayBee.

The electric monowheel has arrived but how do you pull a wheelie!

Wow!
Thanks Jimmie!

JayBee

Michaux-Perreaux Steam Velicipde - they don't make them like that today.