1967 Seeley Fath

holtcorseaux

holtcorseaux

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Hello Everybody,

an interesting article about the Seeley Fath solo road racer built for 1967.

The Fath motor was a 500cc 80++ hp fuel injected inline crossplane four handbuilt in Fath's home workshop. Intially conceived as a sidecar motor.

Colin Seeley had the idea of building the Seeley Fath special at the 1967 TT. It was prepared very quickly and went out for the first time under John Blanchard at Brands Hatch in August.

Despite promising early results, including a fourth at the Ulster GP, Fath and Seeley had a major disagreement due to Fath having fitted a Rickman disc brake without consulting Seeley. That was the end of the partnership.

Fath went on to win the sidecar world championship in 1968.

Martin.
 

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With a sidecar you can get away with a much less tractable motor. It is easy to build a solo motorcycle which will scare you shitless. I don't think the solo bike that Fath built was ever raced - there is a big step between completing the bike and using it in anger. A lot of things are very good in theory. If Seeley was involved the bike would probably have been safe - perhaps. With new race bikes, it is always smarter to get somebody else to ride them first - if they get the nasty scare, you will know where it is coming from.
 
The 500 Fath 4 was raced in the British home internationals - I was there.
 
I know guys who have road-raced sidecars with the idle circuits in the carbs blocked-off, to get the bike to handle better by shutting the throttle in corners to kick the rear end out. You could never do that with a solo. What you need in a sidecar engine , you probably would not want in a solo. It is easy to theorise and believe that if you've got the best motor in the best frame, you might have the best bike. But it is not necessarily the case. Norvins are all shit and so are most Tritons.
 
Hi Acotrel,
well like I wrote, the Seeley Fath achieved a fourth place at the Ulster GP and Bernhard even saw it in British home internationals, which tells me that it worked also as a solo so early in its development..

But really what interested me about the article was the history, the Seeley connection, the pictures and the notion that a Swiss engineer conceived and built at home such an engine competitive at international level.

There are hundreds more such articles in a giant stack of 50-60 year old motorcycle magazines I bought.

Have a good day,

Martin.
 
Re; "Norvins are all shit and so are most Tritons."


Whoa there Acotrel , just because you build a crap Triton yourself doesn’t mean other people built theirs to the same crap standard as yourself:(
 
re; "well like I wrote, the Seeley Fath achieved a fourth place at the Ulster GP and Bernhard even saw it in British home internationals, which tells me that it worked also as a solo so early in its development"

I believe the late John Surtees did a test ride about 20 years ago, this was published in one of the British bike monthly’s.
 
Bernhard said:
Re; "Norvins are all shit and so are most Tritons."


Whoa there Acotrel , just because you build a crap Triton yourself doesn’t mean other people built theirs to the same crap standard as yourself:(
Click to expand...

Bullseye !!
 
Bernhard said:
Re; "Norvins are all shit and so are most Tritons."


Whoa there Acotrel , just because you build a crap Triton yourself doesn’t mean other people built theirs to the same crap standard as yourself:(
Click to expand...

And I bet they didn't crash it like Aotrel (Alan) seems to do all the time.
 
Hi Bernhard, thank you very much for those links, i have ordered the CB, very much looking forward to reading that. Will share when I get it, normally takes 1-2 weeks.

Have a good weekend,

Martin
 
There are not many of us who can ride a bike as well as John Surtees. There are people who believe that if you put the best motor into the best frame, you would have the best bike. That is not necessarily true. It is easy to build yourself a road racer which will scare you shitless.
 
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