31 replies to this topic

[TeDeum]

Looks very familiar. Is it the 2T or 4T Villiers. I had a 4T briefly as a track bike, went like the clappers when we could get it going. At least that's how it seemed as 15 year old.

It's a 2T. The 4T had squared off cylinders. Had a dynastart. Current went into the generator and turned the engine over reversing the usual way of the engine turning the dynamo and creating current. That engine was used in the Bond 3 wheeler and I think the dynastart was developed for that. Dynastart Halo turns up in the lyrics of a T-Rex song Get It On. The Lovely Mrs TeDeum says I'm a mine of useless information!

Edit. Being a two stroke it was possible to start the engine running backwards if the timing wasn't retarded when you used the dynastart. I think this was how you got into reverse on the Bond.

Edited by TeDeum, 31 July 2010 - 09:44 pm.

[GHL]

Here's the bike I still need to restore - 1st bike I rode after passing my test - when I last rode it in 1988;



and now (well 2003 - but it looks no different...)




one of my other bikes from the 80's;



and of course a slightly newer bike taken a few years ago with my now wife on it... Father in Law's still got it and it looks no different (only 8000 miles or so on it!!)

[dave78]

Here is my mate's '61 Shooting Star that I helped him restore a few years back. This bike had 1 owner from new!! He had left it in his shed in 1984 and never got round to sorting it out. It had a genuine 50k miles on the clock..................




Here is me in '97 with my 250LC race bike (I was 18 at the time and yes I do have a better haircut now!) I Remember having a plastic tub full of all the original road gear which I sold (very cheaply) to fund my racing..... DOH!!! Wish I still had this in the garage now.............

[pete7]

Edit. Being a two stroke it was possible to start the engine running backwards.......

This reminded me of a funny little incident happened in a garage forecourt in Simonside, South Shields about 1970.

- Saab car (3 cyl 2 stroke engine ) pulls onto pumps and owner fills up with petrol

- somehow some fuel gets spilled I think and result is a small fire starts in engine bay

- owner of garage runs out of forecourt shop screaming - "get it away from the bloody petrol pumps!!!!"

- 3 or 4 of lads start pushing the car away from the pumps, down a slight incline

- get it a few yards away from pumps and hopefully out of danger when....

- suddenly the Saab, still burning, with no driver in it, OF ITS OWN ACCORD, tries to start up and REVERSES, LURCHING UP THE HILL back to the petrol pumps seemingly bent on self destriuction and meaning to take us along with it. It looked like it was possessed by an evil force.

Eventually the fire was put out and all was OK. But I had never seen anything like it and it really looked like the car had a mind of its own. Someone did say that 2 stroke engine was pre-igniting or something and then turning backward (it was not in reverse gear) but it was a shocking sight at the time.

I had forgotten all about it until now.............

Pete

p.s. some brilliant pictures appearing on this thread, please keep it going

[muddy]

It's a 2T. The 4T had squared off cylinders. Had a dynastart. Current went into the generator and turned the engine over reversing the usual way of the engine turning the dynamo and creating current. That engine was used in the Bond 3 wheeler and I think the dynastart was developed for that. Dynastart Halo turns up in the lyrics of a T-Rex song Get It On. The Lovely Mrs TeDeum says I'm a mine of useless information!

Edit. Being a two stroke it was possible to start the engine running backwards if the timing wasn't retarded when you used the dynastart. I think this was how you got into reverse on the Bond.

Bah, i should've known about the squared off cylinders. Of course. Memories are fading. I had another Villiers engined, bike a Francis Barnett. Another pig for breaking down. My best track bike was a YG1. We pounded it to the ground and it never missed a beat.

[wicklamulla]

Crikey, that's really useful stuff Chris. On talking to the chap who was riding the Kawasaki, he reminded me that the next Kawasaki 4-stroke after this "50s throwback copy" was in fact ........... the seminal, CB750-busting, 900 Z1. From one extreme to the other!

Your XZ650 is an absolute stunner! Light, bright and minimalist, with those classic highway bars. Remember when US proddie bikes raced with those bars - now that was a spectacle.

Many thanks for everyone's contributions so far. It would be good to keep this thread live and chuck in piccies as we meander around the summer shows and jumbles etc.

Its not just nostalgia either as I think the production racing scene would be made more exciting and distinctive by ditching the farings and GP paraphanalia and racing them like street bikes. Like they used to.

Imagine - Fazer 1000 v. Monster 1100 v. Tiger 1050s v. 1200GS v TDM900 at Oulton Park, Cadwell ..... or better still, the TT!
Pete

nah mate the XZ was a 550cc yamaha, v-twin shaftie......competition fer Hondas CX and VT 500's. The XZ was not popular though
http://www.google.co...ved=0CCIQsAQwAA

[pete7]

nah mate the XZ was a 550cc yamaha, v-twin shaftie......competition fer Hondas CX and VT 500's. The XZ was not popular though
http://www.google.co...ved=0CCIQsAQwAA

sorry, I noticed it after post - its the XS650 I meant ................I'm getting worse

[TeDeum]

sorry, I noticed it after post - its the XS650 I meant ................I'm getting worse

It's age related! I understand Pete.

[dapleb]

QUOTE(pete7 @ Fri 30th Jul 2010, 08:12 PM)
remember the Quazar?

Very well as I used to ride hosses past the owners/designers hooose every day and stop to ask him what he were up to while me hoss munched on his lawn. Can't remember the guys name but there were Quazars EVERYWHERE around his house and garden in various stages on incompleteness. This was in the late 70's and well into the 80's.

And I am guessing many years ago this was the yellow one in his garden that oi would look at most days as I rode past!. Apparently only 9 exist! Well he had at least 5 in bits in the garden. Horrific looking thing but always fascinated me as a yoof.

Brill day at national motorcycle museum. Some dude at entrance have us some half price entry vouchers. The dude in canteen gave us free chips even though the cook told him not to. Lots of Vincents. Nero and super Nero and a coin exhibition so Tishabelle was roight happy. If anyone has an Olympic wrestling 50p lettuce snow.  IMG-20161009-WA0000.jpg   136.31KB   0 downloads

[Studley Ramrod]

  Ewe look roight at gnome sat in dere.

 

Are they rare, them wrestling 50p's then ?

[dapleb]

Yeah right at home on that thing. :-)

Nah not that rare really. Kew gardens is the goodn. :-)

[Favs]

I got Kew babe .......

 

 

 

......in my change woo hoo

 

 

 

an some other collectables too

Still got this laid about & in this condition too (the paint on the wheels has been re-done).

 

Edited by Favs, 09 October 2016 - 06:44 pm.