The British motor/motorcycle industry - discuss

[Stueeee]

The Quadrant for example. As a sales rep for NVT I visited a dev. shop somewhere in Brum and as I walked in I noticed leaning against a wall in the parking area a 4 cylinder bike complete with a pair of plimsoles strapped to the dual seat. Asked the question and was told it was a 4 cylinder trident one off.

A Triumph Quadrant and the BSA Fury/Triumph Bandit were on display at the National Motorcycle Museum some years ago in an exhibition with a load of other prototypes. I thought the Bandit was a bit ambitious with the (well known to be underinvested/ancient) manufacturing facilities they had then, But the Quadrant looked to extremely doable being pretty much two Daytona motors, rather than the one and half Daytonas of the Trident.

 

[Morrisman]

Just had a thought ,perhaps one reason for the Japanese reliability is that they very rarely get driven hard unlike the British bikes which were forever ridden " harry flatters " to get anywhere at all.

I rode my Honda CX500 at a steady 80mph all the way to the south of France, and back. It already had 40,000 + miles on it but never missed a beat. I did the trip more than a few times, 3 on the CX but also on a couple other bikes.

80mph was the best speed, not too fast, but not hanging around. Motorway down to Paris, then RN roads after that.

 

[mechman]

A bit off topic,
What was the name of the 8 valve head for the Meriden 650s? Can't remember if they were made by Cossy or Rickman or some name like that.
Norm.

 

[Robotstar5]

I rode my Honda CX500 at a steady 80mph all the way to the south of France, and back. It already had 40,000 + miles on it but never missed a beat. I did the trip more than a few times, 3 on the CX but also on a couple other bikes.

80mph was the best speed, not too fast, but not hanging around. Motorway down to Paris, then RN roads after that.

I had a couple of CX500's, giving a mate a lift one day he said the pillion's that big you could hold a party back here

 

[Rannsachair]

A bit off topic,
What was the name of the 8 valve head for the Meriden 650s? Can't remember if they were made by Cossy or Rickman or some name like that.
Norm.

Triumph did their version in the TSS, otherwise it was the Nourish that was the first.

 

[mechman]

A bit off topic,
What was the name of the 8 valve head for the Meriden 650s? Can't remember if they were made by Cossy or Rickman or some name like that.
Norm.

Just remembered, sure it was Weslake. Did Nourish take over from them?

 

[Rannsachair]

Just remembered, sure it was Weslake. Did Nourish take over from them?

Rickman originally asked Westlake to develop an 8v head. When the project was dropped, Dave Nourish acquired the patterns and developed the head

 

[OJCar]

T120 Bottom end with Weslake 8V head and 750cc barrels.
(and a few other modifications including a Seeley frame and Manx wheels)
Owned and ridden by the late Fred O'Callaghan.
Bike was originally a stock T120 bought brand new by Fred.

 

[redlig]

A bit off topic,
What was the name of the 8 valve head for the Meriden 650s? Can't remember if they were made by Cossy or Rickman or some name like that.
Norm.

I rode my Honda CX500 at a steady 80mph all the way to the south of France, and back. It already had 40,000 + miles on it but never missed a beat. I did the trip more than a few times, 3 on the CX but also on a couple other bikes.

80mph was the best speed, not too fast, but not hanging around. Motorway down to Paris, then RN roads after that.

Did a 24 hr test at Snetterton and was amazed how well they handled with the right brand of tyre. Typically I don't remember the details.
I do remember entering Coram bend 1/2 way through the test to see a fellow employee picking a CBX 1000 out of the undergrowth having,unknown to me , attemted to ride round me the previous lap. 2 firsts in one go .I was the first British guy to ride one ( in Germany a few months before import)and he was the first British guy to "bin " one. And we called it work.

 

[redlig]

I rode my Honda CX500 at a steady 80mph all the way to the south of France, and back. It already had 40,000 + miles on it but never missed a beat. I did the trip more than a few times, 3 on the CX but also on a couple other bikes.

80mph was the best speed, not too fast, but not hanging around. Motorway down to Paris, then RN roads after that.

They were the dispatch rider bike of preference despite the problems the had.

 

[Erie Fred]

Or possibly the worst of all worlds.

Now if you could just re-program the ignition box to make a nice missfire every so often.....

 

[Morrisman]

They were the dispatch rider bike of preference despite the problems the had.

I heard they had soft cams, or something like that, mine seemed okay though, it had 47,000 miles on if I remember.

Got to admit I ‘killed’ it eventually. For some reason I decided to make a stretched out ‘feet forward’ bike out of it, Quasar style. I cut the swing arm to stretch it about 10”….. and found it was just rust, held together by paint.

It had rotted from the inside out and it was somewhat scary that months before I had been tooling down hairpins in the Alps, loaded with camping gear and I could feel the bike flexing as I was on the brakes into tight downhill U turns…..

I asked the fabricator guy at work if he could help me sort it out but he reckoned there simply wasn’t enough steel left to safely weld to. The bike was basically parted out and the engine lived on in a mates bike.

 

[oldbikedavey]

There was 'Red Shift', which used a plywood monococque chassis, and, so I'm told, a most astonishingly sharp little 200cc Honda engined thing that used aluminium faced aircraft ply , possibly 'Hamelite' , which was pretty much unbeatable in Northern Irish ultralight road racing for a good few years...
Timber has to be good if they make trees out of it....

 

[dobbslc]

I heard they had soft cams, or something like that, mine seemed okay though, it had 47,000 miles on if I remember.

I thought it was the cam chain tensioner that went on them.
Looking back on it I think they are a good looking engine!

 

[Robotstar5]

I thought it was the cam chain tensioner that went on them.
Looking back on it I think they are a good looking engine!

A couple of engine pics for you 2nd one was taken while servicing it in the "garage" (my parents front garden)

Edit to add: just realised I still have and use the same set of feeler gauges so they are 45 years old!.

 

[redlig]

Did a 24 hr test at Snetterton and was amazed how well they handled with the right brand of tyre. Typically I don't remember the details.
I do remember entering Coram bend 1/2 way through the test to see a fellow employee picking a CBX 1000 out of the undergrowth having,unknown to me , attemted to ride round me the previous lap. 2 firsts in one go .I was the first British guy to ride one ( in Germany a few months before import)and he was the first British guy to "bin " one. And we called it wor

I heard they had soft cams, or something like that, mine seemed okay though, it had 47,000 miles on if I remember.

Got to admit I ‘killed’ it eventually. For some reason I decided to make a stretched out ‘feet forward’ bike out of it, Quasar style. I cut the swing arm to stretch it about 10”….. and found it was just rust, held together by paint.

It had rotted from the inside out and it was somewhat scary that months before I had been tooling down hairpins in the Alps, loaded with camping gear and I could feel the bike flexing as I was on the brakes into tight downhill U turns…..

I asked the fabricator guy at work if he could help me sort it out but he reckoned there simply wasn’t enough steel left to safely weld to. The bike was basically parted out and the engine lived on in a mates bike.

Biggest problem was the micky mouse cam chain tensioner that relied on a sprung plate with a hole in it through which a rod was fed that pressed against a tensioner lade, the idea was to grip the rod in one direction but allow it to take up wear in the other. . We were , the field guys, shown it before the introduction and, honestly, I told the jap guy that he must be joking but was assured R&D had passed it. What about vibration effect ? Ah all good. I think we replace more units than bikes sold. The following year we were being shown the next new models by the same Jap guy. We nipped round to warranty dept and stuck a doz.or so in a box and put a ribbon around it and presented it to the jap with a happy birthday card. didn't go down too well with the management but the grief we had endured out in the field was crazy. At show we would spend days with a continual queue of irate owners all with the same story. They would never listen to what we told the guy in front but would insist on going through their story again. Strangely if the user "Really" rode the bike reasonably hard it didn't have the problem. Also the front cam water seal was suspect and had to be replace by pressing in a ceramic one that was a TIGHT fit and needed a lead in ground on the leading edge of the steel seal case. You can imaging what the average realer was capable of doing trying to do that Some times it was work.

 

[redlig]

A couple of engine pics for you 2nd one was taken while servicing it in the "garage" (my parents front garden)

View attachment 440678

View attachment 440679

Edit to add: just realised I still have and use the same set of feeler gauges so they are 45 years old!.

I think that was the later CX which had been "seen too" .

 

[Stueeee]

Also the front cam water seal was suspect and had to be replace by pressing in a ceramic one that was a TIGHT fit and needed a lead in ground on the leading edge of the steel seal case. You can imaging what the average realer was capable of doing trying to do that Some times it was work.

Interesting- Fitting a new seal to a CX 500 came to me as a job after the bike's owner had broken one of the the ceramic seals trying to press it in. A quick measure up of the hole and the new replacement seal for this particular motor told me it would never go in without failing. I put the casing on the Bridgeport with a boring head and skimmed out (IIRC -this was a long time ago) about 10 thou' out of the hole diameter to create an achievable press fit.

 

[Keithmac]

Never done one but apparently the stator / alternator windings were a pain to access on the CX500?, engine out job?.

 

[OJCar]

Never done one but apparently the stator / alternator windings were a pain to access on the CX500?, engine out job?.

Engine out, it is inside a casing at the rear of the engine.