Micrometers

[Chris Stevens]

A carb that has always interested me is the Gardner flat slide. They look nearly homemade, very simple. I have no experience of them though.

I think Gardner work very well indeed, but you need to rig up float chamber for them, and get the feeling not really practical for road use?

Seem to remember Lectron carbs were a thinly disguised copy of a Gardener, which were used on the TZ's Kenny Roberts won several world championships on.

 

[Chris Stevens]

if your in to british bikes l.eave as is otherwise go buy jap crap if u want something more modern and faster

Thing is the "jap crap" spelt the end of the British motorcycle industry, and maybe if when Edward Turner saw the first of the Honda Super Cubs, he had tried to match the engineering excellence of those little bikes, we would have still had a serious motorcycle industry, maybe even bigger than that of the Japanese today?

Mate with Mikuni TR7 has a collection of bikes, Black Shadow, Commando, Adventurer, BMW boxer, Matchless single, etc etc with most recent addition being an MT09 Yam, which he says is great to ride..............

 

[ronan]

The British industry made bikes for getting from A to B, and the sports models were tuned up and therefore unreliable versions of these commuter machines. The japs realized that the Americans, the biggest market, bought bikes for fun, to rasp around on once in a while, and made bikes to suit that market. Edward Turner had a couple of hits, the ariel sq4 , the speed twin. But he failed to see which way the wind was blowing and didn't move with the times.

His last bike design (which is in this months classic bike magazine btw), the dohv 350cc twin was flimsy and underspec, no electric start fer instance, and no balancing shafts on a 180 degree twin. Doug Hele was a completely different kettle of fish and if he had been given his head earlier, the british industry wouldn't have died.

 

[Chris Stevens]

Seemed that greed was a major factor in the Brit motorcycle industry failing. When times were good, rather than investing money in new machinery and up to date designs, the cash was hoovered up by the likes of the Dockers.

It was a great shame to watch the industry go to the wall, but pitting museum pieces like the Trident, Bonneville, and Commando against CB750s, H1 and H2's and Z1's could realistically only have one outcome.

 

[ronan]

Seemed that greed was a major factor in the Brit motorcycle industry failing. When times were good, rather than investing money in new machinery and up to date designs, the cash was hoovered up by the likes of the Dockers.

It was a great shame to watch the industry go to the wall, but pitting museum pieces like the Trident, Bonneville, and Commando against CB750s, H1 and H2's and Z1's could realistically only have one outcome.

True. Whatever happened to the gold plated Docker Daimler ?

 

[Chris Stevens]

True. Whatever happened to the gold plated Docker Daimler ?

Probably the same thing that befell the Ariel 3.....................lol