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Messages - cardan

Pages: [1] 2 3 ... 94
1
British Bikes / Re: Excelsior - or even Waratah - around 1924
« on: June 13, 2026, 02:46:45 AM »
I have a new thought that fits in well with this old thread...

During the week a friend showed me photos of an "unidentified" frame, which the owner sort-of-thought was Excelsior but maybe not. It certainly looks Excelsior, style-wise, but the unusual feature is a "double tube" arrangement to support the tank. I went to my magazines but couldn't find a mention of this feature, which is presumably around 1923-24 since the final drive is by belt. For 1924 there were a couple of barely-mentioned models that are contenders: a 247 Villiers and a 250 (not the long-standing rather boring 293) JAP. My guess is that it is one of these. (Apparently Blackburne engines that came with the bike were clearly too large...)

I found one photo of a surviving Excelsior with a 247 Villiers https://www.carandclassic.com/car/C1468206 and I fancy I can almost see the front end of the "double tube" arrangement under the tank. Tank, fork etc look identical.

Can we verify that the "double tube" is an Excelsior feature? The frame is Excelsior 247 Villiers 1924? A couple of years later the Excelsior Minor (see above) used much the same layout, but with the 147 Villiers and a funny front fork  [edit: but without the double tubes].

Cheers

Leon

2
British Bikes / Re: My 1951 G2 Trials
« on: June 08, 2026, 01:29:01 PM »
Nooky's Nuts have excellent product. I haven't tried them lately, but mostly, worldwide, postage to Australia has gone from reasonable (pre-covid) to prohibitive. So many things I can no longer source at a half-way reasonable price. What a pity!

Leon

3
British Bikes / Re: My 1951 G2 Trials
« on: June 07, 2026, 12:20:23 PM »
You could try Classic Fasteners in Adelaide: https://www.classicfasteners.com.au/

Do you need anything special, or just plain nuts?

Leon

4
British Bikes / Re: Matchless overhead cam parts
« on: June 07, 2026, 07:50:42 AM »
Thanks for persevering! Very interesting.

It's a funny engine, depending on how you look at it either advanced (ohc) or primitive (oiling and other stuff). Somehow the the presence of a set of timing gears to get up to the back of the engine, but still needing a magneto chain from there, seems a bit weird. But interesting none-the-less.

Do you know anyone who needs the engine parts - they're probably available.

Leon

5
British Bikes / Re: Matchless overhead cam parts
« on: June 06, 2026, 03:11:00 AM »
I like the head - viewed from above, the angle of the inlet and exhaust ports look to give a nice swirl.

The "sideways" nature of things does seem weird, particularly for a vertical single cylinder. But there was precedent in the sporting ohv Douglas twins, beginning with the Sports model in 1920, running through the Dirt Track and into the 1930s. Like the Matchless, all very sideways! Even earlier was the racing Matchless ohv V twins in the 1914 (?) TT, which used an unusual MAG (Motosacoche) twin with sideways heads. I wonder if the Matchless designers had one of these engines in mind when they began work on the LR in the early 1920s.

The missing bits - particularly all the top end of the valve gear - is certainly a problem, but it's the sort of thing that lurks in sheds as a curiosity, interesting but useless!

Leon

6
British Bikes / Matchless overhead cam parts
« on: June 05, 2026, 01:51:07 PM »
Here's some unusual bits: lumps of a 1920s overhead cam Matchless single, engine number L/R 1618

I don't think I know of a complete survivor in Australia, so I guess they're a bit rare? Or perhaps I don't know much about Matchlesses! Any interest?

(Edit: OK, there is at least one! https://club.shannons.com.au/club/bike-news/old-bikes/matchless-lr2-a-rare-beast/ )

Leon

7
British Bikes / Re: Tiger cub valve timing.
« on: June 03, 2026, 10:00:21 AM »
Brilliant. Enjoy.

Leon

8
British Bikes / Re: Albion gearbox BF436 - where used?
« on: May 28, 2026, 10:39:31 AM »
Penrite Transoil 250. It's oil, it's really thick, and it comes with a tube in the cap to squeeze it into the box.

Leon

9
British Bikes / Re: Albion gearbox BF436 - where used?
« on: May 25, 2026, 12:34:58 PM »
I love a good map! Hope to see an illustration or photo of the Albion Works soon.

In the past week I've been looking at the relationship between Precision (Moorsom St), Sun Cycle & Fittings Co. Ltd (Aston Brook St) and A.H. Haden (Princep St) in relation to frame lugs. Interestingly these three are clustered just to the northern side of Birmingham, while Albion (Upper Highgate St) is a couple of miles away on the south side. It was a hot bed of manufacturing in the early days.

Leon

10
British Bikes / Re: Albion gearbox BF436 - where used?
« on: May 24, 2026, 10:33:33 AM »
Quote from: cardan on May 22, 2026, 07:52:30 AM
... it mostly used the same remote lever in a tank-side gate as the horizontal "Gen 2" (mid 1915 to 1919).

It didn't, actually: the Gen 3 has a Gen 3 lever. But no matter...

Up until 1923 all Albion gearboxes were "lightweight", to suit motors like the 269 Villiers and the 293 JAP. For 1923 Albion introduced the "featherweight" box, a 2-speeder for engines with "Max 2 h.p." - 200cc. It looked just like BF436 (the subject of this thread), but had a remote lever, so no lug on the box for the lever. I think that came about 1925, but you could get plain, clutch, and clutch+ks versions from the beginning.

So there were Albion boxes that looked just like BF436 from about 1925.

Leon

11
British Bikes / Re: Albion gearbox BF436 - where used?
« on: May 22, 2026, 07:52:30 AM »
Yes the lubricator is a ripper, but I could imagine having a ritual where the oiler was filled before each ride and allowed to slowly drip in just to keep things topped up. Looking at period illustrations and survivors is seemed to last only for a couple of years after WW1.

Re the longevity of the boxes themselves, I call the model illustrated above "Gen 3": the first of the vertical boxes. It ran from early postwar (say 1919 but effectively 1920) to the end of 19221, and it mostly used the same remote lever in a tank-side gate as the horizontal "Gen 2" (mid 1915 to 1919). For 1922 there was an entirely new arrangement, with the gear change mechanism coming out of the front of the gb case rather than the end cover, with new change levers to suit.

Of course in Australia we often ran a bit behind the times. For example the 1922 models from Elliott Payneham here in Adelaide used the last of the 269 Villiers engines (Mk V) and the ageing horizontal "Gen 2" Albion gearbox. The gearbox was shown in their not-very-clear line drawing, listed in their parts list, and has survived on a couple of very original 1922 survivors. The saddle tank was pretty modern for 1922 though.

Leon

12
British Bikes / Re: Albion gearbox BF436 - where used?
« on: May 21, 2026, 01:43:39 AM »
Thanks for all the info, 33d6. Fascinating. (Yeah, it's probably sad to be fascinated by Albion gearbox numbers.) I went back to the VMCC Register and I see less chaos now I get the B, BA, BAA thing. Boy they must have made a lot of gearboxes. Have you ever seen a guess at the total number?

Mixed in with the "usual" numbers there are prefixes like MON, but if you allow the possibility that (say) Monet Goyon might have been amongst the thousands of customers who used Albion gear boxes... it makes me worry less. I certainly don't intend to pursue the serial numbers further.

From my perspective, I'm specially interested in the veteran and early vintage end of things. I think I have the nailed the early progression, from the early "flat" boxes (with the main and lay shafts in the same plane) through to the first of the "vertical" boxes (with the shafts above one another), which seem to have started post WW1, and their various change lever configurations. I suspect the switch was pragmatic: the vertical boxes were shorter, and could be squeezed into frames designed as direct belt drive. At the Bendigo swap meet last year I saw a 2-speed Albion box that was labelled "Levis". I pointed out to the seller that the word Levis was not cast into the gearbox itself, but into an adaptor that sat atop the box to allow it to bolt straight into the single-speed Levis frame. Of course I had to get to the bottom of that puzzle when I got home - see below.

Cheers

Leon

13
British Bikes / Re: Albion gearbox BF436 - where used?
« on: May 19, 2026, 05:27:08 AM »
Quote from: 33d6 on May 19, 2026, 03:55:49 AM

Any questions?
 
Brilliant! I have questions!

Do you have a spreadsheet? I love a good spreadsheet.

So take 1931 for example. Here's p1 and p2/3 of the spare parts list for 1931-on Midget gearboxes. They call the non-ks model "B.J.", and the model with ks "C.J.". The part numbers are like BJ1/BJ2 and CJ1/CJ2 for the cases.

Was the first number for 1931 BJ001, or BA001? I assume BJ001?

In which case, were there 9000 "B model" gearboxes built before 1931 - numbered BA001 to BI001? (From my BTH magneto spreadsheet I found that BTH skipped the letter "I" in their dating codes, to avoid confusion with the number "1". Maybe Albion skipped I, too.)

Cheers

Leon

14
British Bikes / Re: Albion gearbox BF436 - where used?
« on: May 18, 2026, 11:49:08 PM »
Quote from: 33d6 on May 18, 2026, 09:13:23 AM
Deciphering the Albion gearbox numbering system is another thing altogether and isn't very helpful as you still have to deal with the slightly different versions of the same box which the numbering system doesn't seem to recognise.

OMG - I had a look at Albion gb numbers in the VMCC Register and quickly gave up. I could see no real pattern in the numbering, but I guess somewhere out there is/was someone who spent the time to figure it all out! Given Albion's involvement with bikes, mowers, and all manner of mechanical devices, I guess they made tens (hundreds?) of thousands of gearboxes in hundreds of different designs. But it certainly seems that the particular box we're discussing is indeed motorcycle, from the early 1930s.

Leon

15
British Bikes / Re: Albion gearbox BF436 - where used?
« on: May 18, 2026, 11:37:27 PM »
Quote from: R on May 18, 2026, 10:03:34 AM
Gosh that gearbox is tiny !

Not just tiny... officially "midget"!!

I'd not realised the Excelsior version used foot change, something usually seen only on Isle of Man racers at the time! When hand change was used, there was a simple lever pivoting between the main shaft and the clutch cable boss - no external gate as used during the 1920s. Cheap and cheerful.

Edit: Here's a less shiny one https://www.andybuysbikes.com/archivehtml/6625exc.html# - foot change below

Leon

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