World's most Expensive bike AJS Porcupine

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> "In the race it was quite definitely faster than the Nortons and I had little problem getting past Geoff (Duke) and Ken (Kavanagh) with just three Gileras only a short distance ahead," Rod recalls in his book, The Colemans. “I did get with them and found again that the Porcupine was just as fast as the Gileras but was down a little on acceleration from the slower corners, but not by much. I was just beginning to think I had every chance of second place behind Milani when the motor stopped.” The cause was yet another magneto shaft failure.
>
> Read more: http://www.visordown.com/motorcycle-new ... z1MZ2YTboF

World's most Expensive bike AJS Porcupine
 
Didn't someone pay $1m for an Ariel Sq4 that belonged to a band member.
Or maybe they just offered it ...

Sammy Millers watercooled supercharged ex-factory AJS V4 racer of the late 1930s would be worth more ? - if it ever came up for sale.

P.S. Most of the bikes in the current MotoGP championship are worth more than that - if you could buy one - and they race them and throw them down the road quite often. But then they are moderns....
 
Leaving filthy lucre to one side that Porcupine is one seriously beautiful motorcycle.
cheers
wakeup
 
hobot said:
> "In the race it was quite definitely faster than the Nortons and I had little problem getting past Geoff (Duke) and Ken (Kavanagh) with just three Gileras only a short distance ahead," Rod recalls in his book, The Colemans. “I did get with them and found again that the Porcupine was just as fast as the Gileras but was down a little on acceleration from the slower corners, but not by much. I was just beginning to think I had every chance of second place behind Milani when the motor stopped.” The cause was yet another magneto shaft failure.
>
> Read more: http://www.visordown.com/motorcycle-new ... z1MZ2YTboF

World's most Expensive bike AJS Porcupine

I havent "read more" cos that is a classic looking "MODEL" picture..... As in minature plastic or ally that someboby has used their great skills to "hoax" the market !! And i could be wrong !
 
If you look at the rest of the photos in the link, It looks pretty real

Dennis
 
This thread is from a little over three years ago. There were somewhere between 4 and 6 E95s made. 2 are owned by George Barber and are on display at his museum, one is at the National Motorcycle Museum in Solihull, England. The fourth was owned by Team Obsolete, and is probably the subject of the article. If there are two more, only the possible owners and people who are now dead know for sure.

I read somewhere that the designation E90 and E95 had their origins with Sunbeam, which AMC owned from the late 30s until 1943, when they sold the name off to BSA. The Sunbeam Model 90 had some notable race history in the late 20s.
 
There is a video on the same Duke DVD as The Right Line, which shows Mike Duff racing a late model 7R AJS against the 350cc MVs in about 1963. I'm amazed that it was so competitive. I think Duff rode as though there was no tomorrow, even so the bike was extremely fast for a 350. In the olden days most of us didn't even notice the smaller TT classes. I wonder how many 350cc Manxes still race ?
 
This IS NOT the Porcupine from the Team Obsolete collection. The one that Team Obsolete has, is very much still in the collection, and is distinctly different than the bike pictured here. It has it's original blue number plates and a different petrol tank.
And I highly doubt that Ianucci would ever get rid of it. It's got a ton of history, having won the Isle of Man TT, and it's not like he needs the money, so surely I'd be shocked if it ever came up for sale.
I've seen it in person 2 times in the past 2 years, and both times it was accompanied by Dave Roper.
 
I know this is an old thread, but a personal lamp just flickered on in my head. I'm pretty sure that Mike Duff rode a Tom Arter prepared Porcupine in the mid 60s, at Silverstone. Maybe it was one that had been sold off when AMC was collapsing prior to the Dennis Poore acquisition?? All I can remember about it was how loud it was, or maybe that it just sounded different to all the Manxes and G50s.
cheers
wakeup
 
These are pix of Team Obsolete Porcupine I took earlier this year at a Bike show in Brooklyn. Its also featured in this months (July '15) issue of Classic Bike Magazine.
World's most Expensive bike AJS Porcupine

World's most Expensive bike AJS Porcupine

World's most Expensive bike AJS Porcupine
 
Wonder how its cost compares to that of the Guzzi V8 or the vast fortune BSa spent on their titanium framed scrambles bikes??
I once read one of Mr Jack Williams 1950s A4 design note books for the AJS 7R and E95 bikes. I sent a copy to Peter Williams and suggested that it along with those he already had should be published exactly as they were because the one I read made very interesting reading especially the parts stating what he had requested for the bikes such as a car type crankshaft mounted shock absorber and a fully enclosed primary chain case with oil covering the lower run of the chain when at rest along with stating that a drip fed lubricated primary chain was probably no more than 90% efficient and lower still with incorrect lubrication. Of course anyone who has ever read a Renold design manual knows that correct lubrication involves pumping oil on to the inside of the side plates just as the chain is about to fly around the clutch. Clearly designers did not get their own way even in those days......He even stated that he had visited Dunlop to look at disc brake development so that was I suspect we could of seen on British bikes in the 50s.............
Yes I know idiots state our primary chains are 98% efficient. They are IF run correctly as per the Renold design manual and we do not come even remotely close to doing that. In fact I have a telegram sent by the UK National Physical Lab. in the mid 1930s to Renold stating that the 1 inch pitch chain they tested for 6 hours was 98.4 to 98.7 % efficient. Of course it was only carrying 25HP , running at slow linear speed, had sump and pump lubrication etc etc etc..I.E. it was being employed as per the Renold design manual. I suspect it was this testing that gave the 98% efficiency often quoted but WITHOUT qualifying the statement with IF RUN CORRECTLY.
 
They developed the SR II Rotateing Magnet Magneto for those things , and the G 45s , as the mass of the armature screwed the shaft .
Post 56 K2Fs have a thicker brass shaft , with the larger drive end bearing . Earlyer mathed bearing ones fail under duress .

Was told it was the Light Flywheels , as it were , that caused it .

Had a G 45 Mag on the T100R . Incidently told by Perry Coleman rode a Triumph Id put together for him at Pukekohe in the Classic Races .
Was just a old dunger road bike . But screwed down properly . though Id not wish to race a single loop frame Triumph on Tarmac ,
unless it was a ridgid rear end .

They played with a solid SILVER Head on a porcipine , for the conductivity . Nowonder it was Expensive ! . :shock:
 
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