Ever Onward

[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

[rogerwilko]

Ahh yes, that  wonderful Centaurus powering the Sea Fury!!

[R]

It is perhaps worth pointing out that the Barr and Stroud engines were only ever supplied as engines, in rather small quantities, so there is no real make that can be associated with them ? Did the v-twin Brough version survive ?

And we diverge, but there was a story that came out of WW2  and the sleeve valve engined Typhoon. Apparently on startup they were somewhat tempermental - for which reason the pilots had written on the nose of the aircraft "If this engine catchs fire on startup, don't just wave your arms, do something about putting the bloody thing out".    Marvellous aircraft otherwise, apparently...

[JFerg]

The proprietary engine business was big; JAP never offered complete bikes until they started making speedway machines.  Many of the restored vintage bikes that are called "JAP" are called such because no-one knows exactly what it really is/was, nor who built it.

Barr and Stroud claimed a few "interesting" references, including Brough Sup; but I suspect that Beardmore-Precision were the only ones to produce more than a prototype.

JFerg

[R]

JAP didn't supply whole speedway bikes either ? - didn't Wal Handley have something to do with the all conquering JAP Speedway bike, and frame production ?  Prior to that, a number of manufacturers had had a speedway model, some doing quite well in the early years of Speedway (late 1920s).

Brough Superior certainly built a v-twin model with Barr and Stroud, but whether it went beyond being a prototype, like you say ??

I've ridden as a passenger in a Veteran Car Club run, where a little Daimler Knight cicrca 1911 purred along in front of us. Owner later said he'd initally had a bit of trouble after building it up, but some suzuki pistons and 2 stroke sleeves and modern oils solved some problems, and it became quite a reliable runner.