Joined: 22 Dec 2006 Posts: 168 Location: Langley, B.C.
Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2008 10:54 pm Post subject:
Yes, one wonders where all of these specials and prototypes go.
AJS is rumoured to have made at least four roadgoing 1936 500cc double overhead cam aircooled V4s, yet no trace of any of these bikes has been found.
My friend Dan Smith wanted one badly and looked for years, to no avail. He finally decided to go down in his machine shop basement and build one
http://thekneeslider.com/archives/2006/10/31/motorcycle-builders-air-cooled-ajs-v4-engine/
Right now he is building a plumber's nightmare prewar series A Vincent rapide. Of the eighty built there are about 40 or so still around, but prices are in the $200,000 range, so Dan is building his own, probably for under $5,000. It will be beautiful and most likely a lot faster than the original.
I'll have to get him interested in building me a roadgoing Manx!
Joined: 22 Dec 2006 Posts: 168 Location: Langley, B.C.
Posted: Thu Jul 17, 2008 8:45 pm Post subject:
I got the bike yesterday and it is beautiful. I seem to have misplaced my camera at the moment, so I haven't any photos yet.
I spent yesterday afternoon and all of today on it. I started by polishing alloy and chrome and general cleaning. The bike wasn't all that dirty, it just hadn't been really cleaned and polished for a few years.
The previous owner (mechanically inert by his own admission) hadn't ridden the bike for three years. He said that it had been running progressively worse each summer and he was not up to fixing it, nor did he want to spend any money to have it worked on. He is just not interested in motorcycling, which is great for me!
I put fresh oil in the bike and started it up. It only took a couple of kicks, but it would only run on one cylinder. I put new plugs in and the bike fired up in one kick and ran pretty nicely on two cylinders, but would not idle. I checked the idle mixture screws and they were turned out 5-6 turns each, so I guess the owner had been playing with them in an attempt to solve rough running problems. I set them at about 1 1/4 turns and the bike settled in to a nice idle. The bike revved up quite nicely sitting in neutral, but out on the road it ran horribly. It would misfire, bang and pop then shut down altogether. Then it would restart fairly easily only to go thru a repeat performance.
I took the carbs off and boiled them in soapy water. When they came off I noticed the bolts were just a little over finger tight. This was probably due to gasket compression over time with no routine maintenance. I thought I had found the problem, air sucking in at the carb to intake connection!
That will definitely make for all sorts of rough running and low power.
I put the carbs back on expecting great results, but there was no change.
Then late this afternoon I started to play with the Boyer. While fiddling on the left side of the bike (too lazy to get up and look at the right side where the key is) I pushed the bake pedal down to make sure I had the key in the on position. This bike is wired so that it requires the key on for the brake light to work. With the pedal down, there wasno brake light. I reached over to turn on the key, but it was already on!
I fiddled with the key some and the brake light came on, but got dimmer and brighter as I wiggled the ignition the key. Then I removed the ignition switch and replaced it with a jumper wire.
The bike started in one kick and sounded different immediately. Cracking the throttle brings a response I could only dream of on my Commando, which is no slouch. This is one fast revving engine.
I took it out on the road and was completely blown away by the power level. It does not have the low down pull of the Commando or the Vincent, but once in the power band it just wails! I now see what all the fuss is about with the 650SS.
Unfortunately it also vibrates, and I'm not accustomed to many vibes with my other bikes being Vincents and the Commando. At 60mph it is tolerable, at 70 and beyond it gets a bit much. A friend who is quite knowledgeable on these bikes suggested that if I really want to ride the bike I should pull the (fresh ,1500 miles) engine down and have the crank dynamically balanced.
All in all, I am very impressed with the bike and I haven't really got into the featherbed handling subject yet. I haven't ridden it enough to say one way or the other on that, but the power is much greater than I was expecting. One other thing I will add is that the bike feels very light and tiny compared to the Commando. I have read listed dry weights between 390 and 420. In pushing it around the shop it seems noticeably lighter than either the vincent or the Commando, at least that is my take on it.
The thing is way too fast and noisy for a machine that is forty years old, and I guess the same could be said of Commandos.
Joined: 22 Dec 2006 Posts: 168 Location: Langley, B.C.
Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2008 3:02 pm Post subject:
Continuing my comarison between the 650SS and my 850 CommandoMK111, the vibrations of the SS have really put me off any thought of riding it long distance. Several people have told me the 650SS will vibrate quite badly and this one really does. Others have claimed that the nice thing about the 650SS vs the Atlas was the relative smoothness of the 650.
Today I took the bike up to about 80 mph then pulled the clutch in.
The vibrations at this speed are awful, however they remained unchanged with the clutch in and idling at 80 mph!
Clearly most of the vibration I'm experiencing is in the wheels . It feels like they are out of round, or crooked or both. I'll check both with dial guages, I'm hoping to find a big run out. Wheel balance may also be causing the problem, that will get done as well.
I report my findings. It's not going to be as smooth as a Commando, but it might be close.
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At the end of 1967 the Norton Commando was announced.
The Norton Commando was greeted with a certain amount of scepticism because on first sight the commando appeared to comprise of the old Norton Dominator twin cylinder engine mounted at an inclined angle in a set of new cylinder parts.
It was not realized that the new Norton Commando Isolastic method of engine suspension damped out all engine vibration and produced a machine which had uncanny smoothness for a vertical twin. In due course the critics were silenced and the Norton Commando had the distinction of being regarded as the first of todays so called superbikes. There can be little doubt that the original design concept of the Norton Commando has proved correct, since comparatively few modifications of any real consequence have been made since production commenced during 1968.
Now nearly 40 years later Norton Commando riders like us are a breed of our own, and as far as we are concerned its still more fun to go for a blat on the old Norton Commando, and fast. As a Norton Commando owner and enthusiast, my goal here is to promote and give credit to those who keep the Norton name going.
It is more deserving to give credit to the Commando itself, for after all these years it continues to be respected. The original Commando designers like John Favill are those who deserve the credit for developing this incredible motorcycle.
The Norton Commando Roadster and Interstate of the late seventies, never died. Although the Norton Villiers factory dispersed the tradition lived on. Today Kenny Dreer in the USA is developing the new 952 CC Norton. What a great looking bike this is, and its engineering is still based on the original layout. It will be interesting to see how the new 952CC Norton does in todays tough motorcycle market. One thing is for sure, I would own one if I could afford it.
