I remember having to always put newspaper or something under most of the Brit bikes that I owned over the years. I think the worst was my old GoldStar BSA. In cold weather it developed a problem that the mechanics referred to as "wet sumped" and it would pour oil out through a breather in large amounts.

My old Harleys were even worse! Newspaper wouldn't cut it, drain pans front to rear were required. They would leak oil from the engine, tranny, chaincase, you name it!

All bikes that I owned back in those days shook like a dog crapping a log chain! We owe a lot to whoever came up with the counterbalancer.

Lucas electronics, now there is another story! It is nice these days to go for a ride without filling my saddlebags with headlight bulbs, taillight bulbs, Zener diodes, and voltage regulators.

Bobbe Seymour once told me a joke about why the British drink warm beer, it had something to do with Lucas wiring in the refigerators over there.

Ride safe

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John Drury
NTSGA #3

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www.genejones.com

Not long ago I came across a website that had some interesting stats about different features that became available on different motorcycles over the years. They listed Indian as the first with electric start and it was back in 1914 I believe!

Indian was also the first to use a twist grip throttle. They listed the british Scott as the first bike to have a foot shift.

Ride safe

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John Drury
NTSGA #3

I guess Harley didn't trust the reliability of that first starter because the bike also came with a "kick starter" backup. It's a good thing that it did, because the charging system wouldn't keep enough juice in the battery and I still had to kick-start much of the time! I never had a weight problem in those days!

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www.genejones.com

You were one of the Triumph aficionados I was referring to in an earlier post, did you see the picture of the Tri-Kaw?

Funny, the Kaw W-650 looks more like a Triumph than the Triumphs!

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John Drury
NTSGA #3

BMW, Triumph,

You wouldn't have liked the original Triumphs, they had the Day set-up on the pedals! LMAO!

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John Drury
NTSGA #3

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Don't matter who's in Austin (or anywhere else) Ralph Mooney is still the king!!!

My first Cushman looked just like this. It was a 1953.

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John Drury
NTSGA #3

[This message was edited by John Drury on 13 December 2005 at 02:40 PM.]

Something like this?

These bikes are actually German DKW copies, after the "Big One" Harley Davidson, and BSA were given the DKW factory to split up. The bike became the H-D Hummer over here and the BSA Bantam in England.

That tank shape is used on H-D's to this day, but credit should go to the Krauts for the design. I had a 1957 Hummer, it was the 165cc version and had a telescopic front end a 6V electrical system. It was a fun bike!

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John Drury
NTSGA #3

[This message was edited by John Drury on 13 December 2005 at 04:19 PM.]

So this is where my Sportster descended from...

Any idea what year that bike is? Sure is perfect, no doubt a total piece-by-piece every nut and bolt restoration, the only way to do it.

[This message was edited by Jim Phelps on 13 December 2005 at 04:52 PM.]

That one is a 1949, I think it was the last year for the rubber band front suspension. After that they went to a Hydra-Glide type setup.

They also dropped the Bosch electrics around this time. My 57 was Delco, also 6V. All of the Hummers used the German Bing carburetors.

I remember my 1968 Sportster had a Bosch regulator, but a delco generator, and a Fairbanks-Morse magneto, no battery.

Sitting at a light at night we had to keep them revved to around a thousand RPM's to keep from getting hit in the ass by a cager.

The regulators would go bad after a couple dozen trips through the two bit car wash. After forking over $65- a couple times at the H-D shop I wised up and went to a V-W dealership and got the same thing for about eight dollars. A mag could be had off of a Wisconsin V-Twin for about thirty bucks, and the Tillotson carb rebuild kits could be bought at any snowmobile dealership for a few dollars.

As far as the Sportster tank...........well, now you know the rest of the story.

BTW, the first year of the Sportster was 1957, the year after the last K Model wich was the same thing only a 750cc flathead.

A photo of me and my 68 PaintShaker.

[This message was edited by John Drury on 13 December 2005 at 06:00 PM.]

Thanks man, I put a lot of work in that bike!

H-D chrome back then was pretty sorry so I had all chrome stripped and replated.

I then chromed a lot of additional pieces, oil tank, rocker boxes, headlight and taillight housing, voltage regulator cover, kick stand, and spokes, with nickel plated spoke nipples, along with every bolt head and nut on the bike.

The paint was the Royal Maroon from the 1969 Lincoln Mark III. It was truly a beautiful bike!

I had a ton of money in that one!

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John Drury
NTSGA #3

Here's another one of my favorite bikes, my 1982 FXB (all belt) Sturgis Shovel, (me and the wife rode it to the 1982 Sturgis Rally where it drew lots of attention)!

www.genejones.com

[This message was edited by Gene Jones on 17 December 2005 at 12:06 PM.]

I remember those bikes, very smooth running machines!

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John Drury
NTSGA #3

I will be glad when it warms up a bit so I can get back to riding them instead of looking at pictures of them!

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John Drury
NTSGA #3

Now that you mention it, there are a lot of paralells between the two activities, for instance a motorcycle has handle bars / most steels get played in bars! A motorcycle has spokes / most players in Nashville have played at the Broken Spoke! A bike has a gas tank / steel amps have a reverb tank! I could go on and on! As Jay Leno would say, there are a lot of eerie similarities here LMAO!

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John Drury
NTSGA #3

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John Drury
NTSGA #3

Not the average Beezer for sure. I have always been a proponent of the V-Twin motorcycles.

My other bike is this Ace1100, one of Hondas finer efforts. Can't imagine why they dropped the bike from their line up after only 5 years.

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John Drury
NTSGA #3

And they upped the displacement to 962cc's!

Check it out at www.nortonmotorcycles.com

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John Drury
NTSGA #3

My extreme condolences on the loss of your son-in-law.

My heart also goes out to Kevin Hatton for what he is going through. I sent him a seperate e-mail to that effect.

I would also like to express my condolences to the family of Mike Hailwood, for those of you that aren't familiar with the name, googol him.

Mike was the most successful motorcycle racer of all time. I believe he won the Isle of Mann TT in Great Britain a record six or seven times. Mike rode motorcycles on the road and race track for many years without a serious incident. He was known by all in the motorcycling world as "Mike the Bike".

He was killed in a car wreck in his mid size Beemer in his late forties.

Bob, I started this thread in fun but it will no longer amuse me to post here, so I would consider it a personal favor if you would close it for me.

Thanks for the use of your forum and Happy Holidays.

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John Drury
NTSGA #3