I don’t know much about bikes but do know some about homecoming queens. A lot of them don’t age very well so thank the bikers. The life saved could be your own. Mary Hart is a different story though. Hasn’t changed much through the years.
Touching a sensitive spot, our queen died 2 weeks ago, always was the workout lady in great shape, still looking great, pretty as ever even at 65, had brain cancer, an operation and died of a blood clot, and us ugly old farts are the ones to remember her, can’t attend the funeral as covid says no, I miss her so. I think she rode in a bonneville convertible in the high school parade.
Sorry to hear that. We lost a young pastor like that. Headache one night and gone the next day. Husband was a doc too with three kids. No warning.
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Our homecoming queen died of cancer, too. You’re right, us ugly, cranky people seem to last a long time, or maybe it just seems that way to everyone else.
And yes, it is Car Talk, not wheels talk, but I also enjoy messing with two wheel stuff and apologize to no one about it. A project car just won’t fit in my house and at my age tackling something as big as a car is a little much. Right now I’ve got a 67 Honda CB450 spread all over my half of the garage.
I owned a Honda CL 450 from that era (66? 68?). Trust me, don’t ask how I know, but at 412 lbs. that thing was a “Scrambler” in name only. It turned into an instant 412 pound paperweight and gave me instant homesickness half way up a tall steep hill (I mean steep hill). And that’s another thing, what idiots wouldn’t put rim locks on a Scrambler? They don’t sell tubes 165 feet above ground level.
I also owned a 1964 Honda 305 Super-Hawk. it was my first bike at age 15-1/2.
I’ve owned several Suzuki Moto-Xs and Enduros and an Ossa 250 “Six-days Replica”.
My 1977 Honda CB 750K (4 cyl air-cooled) is still parked in my northern garage where it’s been since my son was born in 1987 when I became a “responsible adult” with dependents and gave up riding. I crank it over when I am there. It’s still waiting for me to take it for a ride. It was fun. I lived to tell about it. I have too many other safer, more fun things to do now.
CSA
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I admit I’ve been unfaithful to my wife and she knows this. Here’s the “other woman”; a 1950 FL panhead that first saw service as a police bike. It’s going through a restoration of sorts also. It has the red spot lamps up front, special police oil tank, extra large battery to power the 6 volt vacuum tube transmitter and receiver, the rear fender luggage rack with the brass Pyrene fire extinguisher, and a hand lock which I mentioned earlier being used to catch speeders. It also has a rear wheel driven siren that had to be modulated with a foot pedal. It is said that if the siren was held full bore it would cause deafness and cause the eyes to “white out”. I’ve run that siren up with a drill and I have no doubt that it would cause someone to blank out. Also have a first aid kit with it but I’m sure the pharmaceuticals are fossilized. Owned this one now 43 years.
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I had a 305 scrambler for a few short weeks in Okinawa(Japan) and decided that it was the most driveable bike I ever road. Of course I have virtually no experience riding 2 wheels on interstate highways. As best I can recall that bike would top out at just over 120kph, about 75 mph and it was old and tired when I had it.
While I appreciate restored vehicles of any kind not really a Harley - Davidson fan . But there is a 1982 Honda CBX on Bring a Trailer that I would like to have .
Interesting. @ok440 seems to have poked a tender spot in some of us. For me, with a lifelong interest in mechanical things, old motorcycles are just fun to mess with. I’m not a dedicated rider of them, just a mechanical fiddler. For transportation on two wheels I use a 250cc scooter from Piaggio. Perfect for dealing with street and highway traffic here in coastal California.
I also owned at one time a 1950 Triumph 6T that was a chopper. Originally it was 650 CCs but I hogged the cases out and installed a Sonny Routt 800 CC kit on it. That made it a stump pulling beast although 11.5 to one compression it was pretty rough on the leg used to kick start it.
Routt was known for running a twin Triumph engined drag bike which displaced about 1600 CCs.
First bike I ever rode was a small displacement Sears Allstate when I was about 13 and it had bicycle pedals to start it.
As for the flat head I started this thread with, someone years ago discovered they could use Corvair pistons on the 80 cubic inch ULH models by shaving .060 off the tops of the pistons. The yellow box under the flat head contains new pistons w which are actually made for the bike.
Wow, I owned one of those Sears Allstate mopeds. Sold by sears, it was actually a Puch (pook) (Austrian). I recall seeing Puch moto-x bikes in my dirt bike days, years later.
I bought mine slightly used for $65 or $85 after spotting it in a Sunday morning newspaper classified ad.
It had a small 2-stroke engine. It was robust and well made, not unlike anything else from that era (1958 -1959 ??). Mine was red, I’m not sure if they all were and it had large steel splash shields in front of the rider’s legs, as well as fenders. It had a speedometer, luggage rack, and I believe I recall lights.
It had a 2-speed transmission. A shift was accomplished by squeezing the clutch handle (traditional motorcycle type) in to disengage the trans and then twisting the lever/grip assembly to gear 1 or gear 2 and then releasing the (clutch) lever.
I loved that thing and bombed all over our neighborhood. Back at that time, our local police in our little village looked the other way when we bombed around on mopeds and in go-carts. Obviously, some of the good memories have stayed with me and bring me a smile.
It looked something like this, but I can’t find an image of one with the factory splash gaurds. Mine did have that little “pancake” muffler under the engine. It was quiet.
CSA
To tack on a bit of trivia. The USN patrol bikes were fitted with a sidecar. One sailor rode in it with a .45 Tommy gun. The bike operator also had a Thompson in a leather scabbard on the right side of the front forks. On the left side of the forks was an ammo box containing 350 rounds of 45 ACP.
While pondering whether or not to make this bike a civilian or military model I bought something that it would have been fitted with lengthwise on the front fender. Found it while rummaging this past weekend and got this originally from a guy in the Netherlands.
Some called it a “Pedestrian Slicer” with good reason…
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Now that’s a true watchmaker’s nightmare. Twenty four valves to adjust with shims, six carburetors to keep in sync. But when you park it at a biker bar, people will walk right past all the custom Harleys to get a better look at it.
Had a family once, tiger 650cc and tiger cub 100cc
How exactly did those old foot clutches work? Was it push to engage like the hand clutch on old John Deere tractors and various stationary engines? Or was it like a car clutch, release to engage.
Here’s a pic of the rocker clutch on my gray bike. Description following.
Not shown is the not connected yet heavy spring that connects the stud at top to the hole in the front of the pedal.
A long rod connects the pedal to the throw out bearing arm. When one starts the bike the heel depresses the half round pad and moves the back of the pedal downwards. This moves the rod forward and disengages the clutch. It takes a bit of oomph to override that spring which has a lot of tension. Once the clutch is disengaged it will stay disengaged until the toe is used to push the front part of the pedal; again overriding that spring. The spring travels in an arc so this means if one wanted to they can leave the engine running and the transmission in gear while they go inside for a beer.
The throw out bearing is inside the kick starter cover so it is internal to the transmission. It’s immersed in gear oil constantly so they hold up very well.
I’ve ridden foot clutch bikes for years and love them. The gear shift lever on the gas tank has a 1 N 2 3 4 pattern which changed in 1947 to somewhat of a reverse pattern.
They can keep you busy if you happen to be in heavy traffic with a lot speed variations and stop/go movement. One tricky thing involves the wind. If you put your left foot on the pedal and the trans is in gear and there’s a strong crosswind from the right it just might push you over and make things awfully embarassing. Or a non-operative front brake or a spool front hub with no brake on a hill which means the bike will roll backwards as the rider has no way of stopping it as one foot has to remain on the ground for balance. To me it’s second nature but I think most riders could learn it pretty quickly if they get past the poorly named “suicide clutch” moniker attached to this setup.