classic motorcycle forum

A picture would be really helpful.....

Thanks, Mick, I reckon that nails it quite nicely; and excellent resource, too.

JFerg

I've had this for years, on the basis that it is the same pressing as used by New Imperial in the late twenties and therefore useful.  I presume that makes it as Birmingham product.  There is a separate oil tank with exit only, which means it was for a total loss lubrication system.  The gear quadrant "mounts" look like blanks, ie; appear never to have been tapped or have had studs on them, so however the gear change was arranged, it wasn't via a gate on the tank.  It looks like original paint, and the logo of the star and banner is quite distinctive.  There is no trace of lettering at all.  What's it from?

JFerg

Wetdog,

Send me the engine number and I should be able to date it.

JFerg

John,

Apparently there are two types of B&L pump; the big one and the little one.  Sounds like you have one of each.  I had the impression that the body castings were different, but it makes sense and would save a fortune in creating a "smaller" pump by simply reducing the bore. 

Early B&L were all the "large" type, notorious over-oilers, and the problem was reduced with the later "small" pump.  I will start to pull some apart and measure.

Thanks for the good guidance.

JFerg

Further to Cardan's comment on another thread, a brief explanation of "Ever Onward".

Barr and Stroud made precision optical equipment in Glasgow, binoculars, rangefinders etc, and this business dried up in November 1918.  They cast around for something else to do, and took a license from Argyll Motors, a Glaswegian company building Glaswegian Peter Burt's single sleeve design into multi cylinder car engines.  B&S wanted to break into the proprietary motorcycle engine business of JAP, Sturmey Archer, Blackburne et al.  Their success was decidedly limited.

Ever Onward's engine was despatched complete with carb and magneto.  The original intention is unknown, and was certainly never realised, because the engine was still basically new when Warren obtained it in 1967.

Believing that the engine deserved to be more than a static exhibit, he built a vehicle for it.  It is a Norton frame with Douglas 'guards, but there are contributions from Cov. Eagle, Enfield, Levis, BSA, and sundry others unknown.  It is all early twenties and quite true in that respect.  Ever Onward is the result, emerging in 1968.  The "name" is a statement of fact, not a brand or slogan; it is "Ever Onward", not "the Ever Onward"

Purists are entitled to tut and disparage it as the bitzer that it certainly is.  Whether it is more or less of a bitzer than was produced by any and many of the small "makers" (or subsequent restorers) could be argued at length and does not matter.  To me, what matters is that one of the most technically interesting engines of the Vintage era is being seen and heard by a wide audience because the thing gets used as the various original makers intended.  Unusually for a flat tanker, it has decent brakes, so can and does get ridden in suburban traffic.

Sleeve valve technology has not had a lot of development when compared with poppet valves, but can by no means be dismissed as the work of crackpots.  Harry Ricardo was a great enthusiast, and to this day the most powerful spark ignition engines ever built, the Bristol Centaurus and Napier Lion aero engines, were single sleeve Burt engines.  Also, to this day we're still having trouble with poppet valves, despite the many millions of engineer-hours that have been applied to them over the last century.

JFerg

The bike is in fact "Ever Onward", a fabulous machine if ever there was one.

The lubrication system is typical mid-twenties, automatic with a hand pump for use on long hills.

Oil feeds by gravity from the oil tank to the Best and LLoyd pump mounted on the timing case.  This pumps oil up, via the ineffectual needle valve regulator, to the sight glass, where the flow appears as splutters through the beak.  From there it is gravity fed into the crankcase.  Integral with the regulator is the hand pump.  This is pressed down to prime, pumping by spring action when the toggle catch is released.  Although reputed to have come off a BSA, I am now fairly confident that it is a B&L item.  It's awfully similar to the one shown in Radco's book.  Radco further shows the truncated needle, so I am thinking that's not the culprit either.

I accept the two stroke oil argument, but my problem is that the stuff runs everywhere.  I don't burn that much of it, but leave a trail...

Barr and Stroud recommended "Shell TT", which is anyone's guess for SAE rating, but as a 1920's engine oil it would have been far heavier cold (which is how Ever Onward drinks it) than any modern 50 weight.

A fellow sleeve valve zealot and multiple Minerva/Knight owner runs 50wt in his cars.  They blow no smoke and the exhausts are dry, but they are wet sump engines, not total loss.

I **think** I have attached some pictures, but can't be too sure....

JFerg