A lovely home built racing special - oops it's 4 stroke

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PJ7jy5h4fA&app=desktop

i like the way he flicks the starter belt off with his foot..

Ah, the BITZAs in the good old days of noise and tyres only replaced every 3 seasons.......

The GP sidecars were one hell of a mix of bits as were the grasstrackers 0f those times...

Cheers!

JayBee.

Thinkning of BITZAs the mind-pic returns of the 250 AJS powered grass tracker I made out of all the bits
people gave me instead of paying real money for the midnight hours of welding I did for them..

This 250 AyJay engine, 1937,  had twin exhaust ports although it was still only a two valve head. I put the Comp Ratio up to 9.5:1, drilled out the Amac carb main jet to 1/8" inch (same as for the old 1927 500 Triumph I had later fror road racing) and ran it on Victor Martin Track Fuel. It never broke down in two seasons of grasstracking and I sold it still in working order when I packed in grassing to go full-time studying in 1960.

The front wheel was Matchless as were the forks. The frame, a thrown out MOV Velocette,  which I hacked the back end off and attached the necessary bits ... to intall a Sunbeam s2(?) swinging arm. The gearbox was Norton and the rear wheel Arial. The tank was Honda and the saddle from an Enfield Bullet.

Sounds daft now but then -- in those good old days -- it was rather splendid.*** It gave me an enormous amount  of fun finishing frequently in 2nd or 3rd spot in heats and semi-finals... Point was I was only really interested in the 500 JAP´s performance and instead of nashing the teeth and kicking the toilet wall down I was out there among the lads having a go and learning the circuit ... and I´d be both feet up on the 250 whereas on the 500 it would be full-lock broadsiding.
 
I have  pictures somewhere....****

Cheers!
jayBee.