Tom Miller engine found on Ebay

thay are fibreglass the tank is a big cafe racer stile one

i borrowed my bike to a young john spencer, hw had it for a number of seasons, bought it back no issues, if some one wants to borrow your engine then great, if it does break/ blows up, you fix it, u decide that for you ? risk.

anyway if it does you repair between you and continue.

Well if I was to rebuild it to as new, would any one be interested in buying it? Because if I rebuilt it and someone used it and raced it I would expect it to come back as it was when I lent them it.... rebuilt!.... after all I am not the one who is benefiting from it!

Hi Smiffy has done some research! I spoke to George this morning and his brain is working better than mine. The Eagle motor is a Tom top end that he gave to me in 1983/4 I built it onto a bottom end to run in team Smiffy . It was put into what I believe was Gail Smith’s (ex wife) bike, a disk brake added & was tested by George Farenden at Brands Hatch in 84. George remembers it as going well , later he lost the front a Clearways ( George has always believed that practice is to see how fast you can go).As he went down the clip-on broke went under the bike jamming the throttle open , the bike turned backwards into the gravel trap on full throttle filling the fairing, carb. And motor with gravel, for some unexplained reason at some time around this point the motor stopped. I can’t remember what I did after this, or how George can remember it all so clearly, but George always had the ability to think on his arse.
We did go on to build other bikes but I can’t remember resurrecting the water cooled motor. The Gail bike was later fitted with anti-dive front end with great susses, Mick potter used it and believed it to be a big advantage, it was a Smiffy take on the Garreli front end used by (all stand with hand on heart)ANGEL NIETO!! I would be interested to know if that was ever used again or if that front end/brake are still around.

haha that is great, well the bike I had that came with the Eagle engine was a full racer but fitted with a air cooled engine disc breaks it was a lovely bike I will dig out the photos for you to have a look at I am sure I have them some were! .................................

"Perhaps I'm a skeptic. But I notice the seller is in Cornwall, and it was a a year or two ago that a guy in Cornwall was advertising the Bantam raced by Mick in the TT. The photos were of a café racer and definitely not Mick's.
I wonder if Mick knows he has a fan club in Cornwall" Hiya Ned.... yes this is me hi again. The cafe racer was a bike that was built in memory of Mike Scutt and did not have anything to do with the full racer. You may have only seen the cafe racer, but if you had looked, there was about 5 or more pictures of the full racer! It was a very light and fast bike and handled very well and had a disc break so stopped on a 6pence! .... the bike was used by Mick after all!!!!

hi biggie, I spoke to my dad (Mick Scutt) and his memory is a bit vaig. Any chance you could private message me the pictures of the racer and ill pass them on to him, might jog his memory and get some history you never know.

Is this motor complete? The photos do not show a crank or piston. As we now know it’s origin to be Tom I should think the piston will be TZ 250, And I think the only place you can got TZ 250 pistons today is in the Yamaha dealership in Eldorado and the price is two buckets of rocking horse manure. I know I should be able to shed more light on the history but I am old and of failing memory.

Blimey Ted "you only just realised your old", I new this.

The memory bit comes as a natural development men go through, well thats what Di says, "I say its a result of being married", like I can never remember if "we were going shopping".

Mike suffers from this, as does one or two others,! .

I believe women call it "a man thing" or "selective hearing".

kind regards

Derek

Hi yeh its all complete it has a single ring piston erm I think this is the one? http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/YAMAHA-TZ-250-GENUINE-PISTON-4DP-11631-02-BO-NEW-/390077610378?pt=UK_Motorcycle_Parts&hash=item5ad26ff98a#ht_606wt_905
lol im 25 and I get lost just going into town! its when you start getting lost on the track when it becomes a problem hehe

Biggie, do you own this engine?

Is it yours to sell/loan ? Are you the man in Cornwall? I'm confused.com!

Hiya yeh Im all those things I own the engine and.... yes I would sell it

The piston on the web site looks to be from a V twin 250 not the type needed for the old TZ. These old type are the rare ones, tom will be very interested if you can find a supply of the old type.

Hi Ted yeh your rite I have found 2 new ones that came with the engine and there a bit different I cant get over how thin the piston ring is!

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Bsa-Bantam-125cc-water-cooled-race-engine-Tom-Miller_W0QQitemZ330537300872QQcategoryZ108839QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp4340.m263QQ_trkparmsZalgo%3DDLSL%252BSIC%26its%3DI%26itu%3DUCI%252BIA%252BUA%252BFICS%252BUFI%252BDDSIC%26otn%3D8%26pmod%3D330532472245%252B330532472245%26po%3D%26ps%3D63%26clkid%3D7624864859545427028#ht_600wt_932

actually i feel this is an absolute bargain, i have an even valuable bantam engine from the high-priest, been offered a lot more for it than one can imagine, so don't be surprised on what your bikes are worth

This guy is discrediting his sale by saying about the speed ( a real numty), see my reply to trevor or mike - on men who exaggerating facts, this guy does not need to do this - i mean 125mph on a bantam ?
discredits him and his sale, as everyone in the know, know,s this bike never did close to 125 mph, ! - more like 110mph at the island and down hill with a wind behind, but still was very quick.


I have a similar story with a complete engine from Fred Lauchburry his very first engine with a shrunk on Alum Barrel from late 50s early 60;s era, and an ex Clive Horton RSW MK4 Honda, came from HRC in japan, to be used for british championship, we bought it from him, as it was never sorted it suffered crankcase porosity, but only used to leek when hot, so was difficult to find, it was discarded as it just kept seizing, we purchased it as a basket case back in the day (end 1979 start 1980) dad had it injected with resign after he found the problem on the bench with a blow torch,
Its amazing what people are pre-paired to pay for an investment with History, and what we have been offered for this piece of history is mind blowing, anyway lets move on, I feel anything around 2k for a works formula Bantam Engine is realistic / bargain price.

some one realistic about racing, or an investment should snap this up !

regards Derek

"his guy is discrediting his sale by saying about the speed ( a real numty)".... hay fella I dont take kindly to people calling me names, there is know need for it and you know im on this forum and I am going to read it so why do it? have you got something against me? and as for 125mph thats what I have in with the history that it was in motor cycle news for reaching 125mph how is that discrediting to a RACING engine???? what should I say here is a bsa tm wc 125 racing engine but if you are planning on racing it dont bother its slow!

I have taken the engine off ebay as it just ends up on here anyway If you are interested pm me You know all about it now its only taken 4 years and a few of you taking the piss the first couple of times I had it for sale along with the race bike like it was so unbelievable that someone could have a TM WC engine who wasnt from this site! I know there rare but you didnt even give me a chance

This is all a bit to confusing to me you say that my dad raced this engine?? He never had a w/c the article that i think you are referring to regarding speed is of his A/C disc valve motor that was clocked at the highlander in the TT at 126. Tom only started to build W/c at the end of 70's early 80's for Peter and Ned and has never built a W/C that has raced in the TT. Like i said before send me the pics and i will get as much of the correct history as possible for you rather than guess work.

Hiya I am not sure if your dad had raced the engine but what I have is that he raced the bike but it did have an air cooled engine in it when I sold it but apparently the wc motor was in the bike
for some time im still trying to find the picture of it iv been through loads of them!

just out of interest where did you get the bike from?? dad has no idea where his went but would like to know what happened to it/ where it ended up.

Ian

Hi I got it from norfolk erm I think he was called J evans

hi no not ringing any bells with him at the moment but can remember 1 bantam going to Andy clements but could have been sold/passed on few times since then. Why did you buy it???

Well I love old brit bikes and at the time I had a few bantams and restored about 4 of them, I had a wanted add in the local paper and this person rang up a few weeks later and said he had been on holiday in cornwall and saw the add. He said, if you like bantams you will love what I have! so off I went in a merc vito van and when I got there I saw the full racer and the cafe racer and they were mint not a mark on them and he sold me the 2 bikes the Eagle motor a trailer for them because the parts that came with them filled the whole van took about an hour to load! he had a hell of a work shop too!

Please read my pm...