Show Posts

This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.


Messages - 33d6

Pages: 1 ... 58 59 [60] 61 62 ... 84
886
British Bikes / Re: Vintage enthusiasts/ restorers in bristol area
« on: November 10, 2011, 04:08:02 AM »
You are an obvious candidate for the Bristol section of the Vintage Motor Cycle Club. Ring Simon Bending on 01179 652503 or email sbendings@yahoo.co.uk
The VMCC has an enormous library, a BSA marque specialist plus membership has many other advantages.
Cheers,

887
British Bikes / Re: inlet bellmouth for type 5 amal carb
« on: November 10, 2011, 12:38:22 AM »
If I remember rightly the Amal 5 series carb is prewar, has a 7/8" bore and was used mainly on 250's or big woolly sidevalves.The  110 part of the id number refers to the particular engine it was intended for.

I'm pretty sure the bellmouth used on the later type 275 Amal is interchangeable. That bellmouth is part no 4/038. I'm fairly sure the type 275 is a later development of the original type 5 but don't hold me to it.

Cheers,

888
British Bikes / Re: Villiers 147cc engine in need of a gearbox. Albion?
« on: November 04, 2011, 11:45:19 PM »
Terrific. Nice to see you have a go. I can't emphasize enough the importance of using whole cork. Its the major secret.  If you want to see the difference between whole cork and reconstituted or laminated cork try simmering a selection of the various types in the way I described and see what happens to them. Glued up cork either falls apart or stays stiff in spots and spoils the whole process,
Tell us how you get on.
Cheers,

889
British Bikes / Re: Villiers 147cc engine in need of a gearbox. Albion?
« on: November 04, 2011, 07:42:55 AM »
Recorking clutches is remarkably simple using common bottle corks once you know the technique. These corks are getting harder to find but for example the last lot I bought came from a home brew beer kit and I believe some home wine bottlers still like to use cork so appropriate corks are still around.

There are four basic steps,

1 You must use whole cork. Do not use reconstituted cork (crumbed cork glued together to make something, eg, tiles) Do not use champagne or wine corks that are made from glued up slices of cork. It doesn't matter if you use 2nd grade corks, as long as they are made from a single piece of cork.

2  The cork should be a bit bigger than the hole it is intended for. A few Albion clutches have circular drilled holes most have a hole shaped to push the cork in sideways. Whatever you have the cork must be slightly larger than the hole.

3 To insert the corks you first soak them in really hot water until they go soft.  Just use an ordinary saucepan on your kitchen stove. This is a very clean operation. Heat the water up until not quite boiling, just simmering and then throw in your corks. They will float on the surface. After 10-15 minutes pick them out, squeeze to see how soft they are and if nice and squishy push them in the holes. The cork won't be hot, it never is. You can safely push the corks in with your bare fingers. Being too big the cork will press hard against the sides and not want to move.

4 When all corks are inserted put the clutch plate to one side for 24 hours to let the corks completely dry off. When dry the cork will return to how it was before you started. It will now be hard again so you can now trim off the excess with a very sharp knife and do the final flattening on a sheet of sand paper or depending on your workshop equipment, on a disk linisher or bench grinder. This is not precision engineering, getting the surface flat and parallell by eye is sufficient. The cork will compress and flatten out slightly more when the clutch is assembled.

There you go , how to select corks and recork a clutch in one easy lesson. I suggest you check it all out by drilling a 1/2" hole in a piece of thin steel and practice the technique. It really is very easy.
Cheers,

890
British Bikes / Re: 1936 Excelsior 250 Model D7 Pathfinder
« on: November 03, 2011, 11:19:34 PM »
Another lucky Excelsior owner!! Hi Ron, I don't know how many teeth are on the rear sprocket but I do know that D is the 1934 identifier for Excelsior.
Excelsior started alphabetical identification of each years range in 1931 with an A prefix on all frame numbers followed by the actual model number so as your description of your bike shows, the frame identification consists of a letter, a number, and then the actual frame production number.
So. we have an A frame prefix for 1931, B for 1932, C for 1933, D for 1934 and so on.
The above makes for very simple identification of any Excelsior from 1931 up to Herr Hitler stopping play. As you can see, by this system, if you frame number reads D7/**** I think your bike is a 1934 model.
How about a photo? Always like to see photos of Excelsiors, unfinished, incomplete, before restoration, who cares. I like Excelsiors.
Cheers,

891
Identify these bikes! / Re: c1929 Excelsior Villiers racer
« on: November 02, 2011, 12:59:25 AM »
I'm pretty sure he is riding a French Monet Goyon. Somewhere I have an envelope of poor quality photocopies giving the Monet Goyon history.They were a major Villiers user in vintage times and very active in the French small capacity racing scene. I believe they held World Records in the 175cc class at one stage. Unfortunately I can't read French very well and the photocopies are not good so I can't be that specific.
Cheers,

892
Identify these bikes! / Re: parts for Acme Villiers
« on: October 18, 2011, 11:26:11 PM »
Just make them. The steering column is easily made from a length of hydraulic tube and the tool box is a simple cylindrical job mounted under the saddle. Your rear stand is a little trickier but again, isn't complicated. The Acme is not a high speed racing bike where failure can be catastrophic. The originals were made out of ordinary materials, the same materials are still available to you to make new parts.
Cheers,

893
British Bikes / Re: montgomery j.a.p
« on: October 18, 2011, 11:06:11 PM »
Information is easy once you consider that Montgomery bought in all major components. You get info on all the seperate bits of the jigsaw puzzle. Your bike has a J.A.P. engine, Albion gearbox, Lucas electrics, Amal carburettor, etc on all of which info is plentiful. I would also bet it has British Hub Co wheels. About the only parts uniquely Montgomery are the frame and possibly the forks.
Both BMS and the VMCC Library have a selection of owners leaflets and catalogues from various years, you shouldn't have any real bother getting appropriate pictures. Supposedly Montgomery only used two types of frames throughout the thirties regardless of the engine size and regardless of the year.
Finally, you have one huge advantage. You will never have problems with rivet counters. You know, the person who looks at your restored bike and tells you its wrong because that model should have a chrome plated sump plug or some such nonsense.  Who will ever know what is right?
You certainly have the basis of a sweet bike.
Cheers,

894
British Bikes / Re: The Old Girls Running Like Clockwork
« on: October 15, 2011, 10:58:10 AM »
Hi Sludgetrtap,
I've been on holiday. Been playing around in France and Italy for the past six weeks. Not much motorcycling this holiday but more car oriented. Checked out Monza, the Mille Miglia Museum in Brescia and the Tazio Nuvolari exhibition in Mantua (he started off racing motorbikes,) and toured the Lamborghini factory.
The Triumph looks great. I'm very impressed.
Cheers,

895
British Bikes / Re: excelisor 1952 roadmaster
« on: September 23, 2011, 08:59:07 AM »
Precise dating info isn't found in the usual places but is around. I have it at home but I'm on holiday for a few weeks.
Off the top of my head the frame number prefix should be WDS but I can't remember the exact engine number prefix Villiers used for Excelsior engines so can't say whether you have an original or replacement engine.
If you can wait a few weeks I can be more helpful.
Cheers,

896
British Bikes / Re: Triumph Bronze Head
« on: August 10, 2011, 01:28:03 AM »
I think pride of ownership here is ignoring basic physics. The bronze head was an interim step between the cast iron head to aluminium alloy as we have today. It only existed because it could get rid of heat a little bit better than cast iron. If it was black it worked even better. Polishing it reduces its ability to shed heat. Dark surfaces radiate heat much more than shiny surfaces.
The theory behind the bronze head was that better cooling meant that when running on petrol you could raise the compression ratio higher than was possible with a cast iron head. All things being equal, a higher compression ratio gives more power.
Obviously if you blackened the head you maximized its ability to shed heat so the compression ratio could even be a little higher.
If you want to take advantage of the reason the bronze head exists, blacken it. If you just want show what you have keep it shiny but only run the standard compression ratio.
Cheers,

897
Identify these bikes! / Re: help needed with villlers super sport engine
« on: August 03, 2011, 12:48:58 AM »
The engine in the SOS is the Villiers 'Brooklands'. It was the top of the line of the 175 Villiers engines and supposedly was for racing purposes only being unsuitable for road use. That was probably true in 1925 when it was introduced given the quality of petrol and oil at the time but as things improved it did appear in a few road bikes. Produced 1925-34 so it seems reasonable one of the final ones could be fitted to a 1935 bike, particularly for a small manufacturer like SOS.
I've found it even harder to find Brooklands bits & pieces than Super Sport stuff.
Cheers,

898
British Bikes / Re: triumph tt @ 1927
« on: July 27, 2011, 12:04:39 AM »
I would suggest a visit to the Triumph site run by Peter Cornelius, the VMCC Triumph Marque Specialist is in order and for new spares check out Ian Jennings & Adrian Lockreys site.
You will find them on www.triumph.gen.nz and www.veterantriumph.co.uk respectively.
Early Triumph owners are very well served by these two for both info and parts. I admire them both for their quality.
Cheers,

899
Identify these bikes! / Re: help needed with villlers super sport engine
« on: July 23, 2011, 04:23:06 AM »
A prewar Villiers engine number includes an identifying prefix. Could we have the full number please?
And I'm sure someone could use it, perhaps you should also tell us where you live?
Cheers,

900
Identify these bikes! / Re: help needed with villlers super sport engine
« on: July 22, 2011, 12:55:37 AM »
The 175cc Villiers Super Sport was current from 1924-32. In it's day it was a very successful engine holding World Records and winning major races. It even powered an outright winner of the Durban/Jo'burg race. It is still an engine in demand.
As to value, that depends on where you live and the condition of the engine. A quick look at your photos shows this engine has no electrics, no carburettor and has a broken crankshaft. The latter is a major problem as the Super Sport had a drilled crankshaft using the Villiers Autolube system which is also missing. This particular crankshaft is much harder to find than the common petroil lubricated version.  It does have an inlet manifold which is a minor plus if it isn't worn out. The photos don't really show the  condition of the the remaining parts so its difficult to make any further comment.
Essentially you have the bare bones of a Super Sport, the crankcases, inlet manifold, cylinder, cylinder head and conrod, nothing else.
It certainly has a market but not for a great deal as basically you mainly have the easy to find bits, not the hard to find ones.
For further info can you provide the engine number?
Cheers,

Pages: 1 ... 58 59 [60] 61 62 ... 84