The two hundred quid Kwacker - part doh!

I've finally gotten round to getting the Ninja project up on to the workbench. In great optimism I had told myself that a fresh battery, fresh fuel and a drop of easy start would waken the beast. I was indeed right but then it all went wrong....

Finally up on the bench and getting some attention.

In the spirit of a skinflint project a friend donated a useable battery that was pretty much of correct dimensions. I gave it a charge, removed the airfilter to get maximum injection of easy start and put a couple of litres of 98 octane in through the filler. 

Fresh battery and a top up charge.

All the right warning lights came on, the motor cranked over a lot, spluttered a lot and then she burst in to life. Happiness, she sounded sweet as a nut and revved up fine so it looked like I wouldn't have to rebuild the carbs, good news.

Out of the workshop and on to the track round the back of our house, a gentle ride up and down and then stop to check all is well - I hadn't checked the coolant yet so didn't want to overheat her. Onto the stand and hmmm... a suspicious steady drip of oil.

Lights on!

Off came the sidepanels and a steady stream of rather milky looking oil was leaking down from the cylinder head area. Head gasket gone, so that was why she was laid up in the first place....

Alas the milkiness of the oil signifies that coolant has mixed with the oil where the head gasket has failed. With any luck no serious damage caused but it does mean flushing the cooling system, flushing the oil and a new head gasket.

And a suspicious oil slick.

And this, sadly is where I admit defeat. With several other projects on the go the dream of a dirt cheap classic back on the road for minimal effort has faded. Whilst fitting a new head gasket might possibly only take me one evening of work there is a chance I could have to go in deeper than that and don't want to get too sidelined away from other ongoing jobs. So, if anyone fancies a dirt cheap eighties classic then get in touch!

I'd still maintain that all the people who say that the hobby of classic / vintage motorcycling is unaffordable are wrong. Sure, on a limited budget you're not going to step right in to the scene and pick up a ready to go thirties thoroughbred for a song but there are plenty of bikes out there for not much money that you can have a lot of fun with and are fairly decent cheap daily transport too. 

The oil is coming from the cylinder head.

Spider's web is gratis with the bike. The oil in the cases looks
slightly emulsified.

Pure eighties. Quite a nice looking bike in my eyes.

Great number plate too. People you overtake will look at it
and think 'wink', definitely.

If Michael Knight were to give up Kitt for two wheels this
is 100% the bike he would ride.

Modern British Motorcycles

This little album of collectors cards was published in 1953 by ROSPA (The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents). Obviously enough the aim of the album was to impart hints and tips for safe riding; it's a cute little publication though and gives a nice cross-section of the products of the British motorcycle industry at the time.

Click on each page to get a larger, better resolution image. 

Bob Jackson Super Tourist

Voila! the latest bicycle project to roll out of the shed. A while back I bought myself a Bob Jackson Super Tourist frame, mainly because it was going cheap, but also because I had it in my head to build up a nice tourer. The frame hung around for a while patiently waiting in line for attention and then early last year I slipped a disc in my back. As I recovered I started cycling again but all I could ride was my full suspension mountain bike on account of its upright position and comfortable ride.

I had a light bulb moment and realised that I could build up the Bob (not really sure what to shorten it to, BJ just won't really do, will it?) as an upright comfort town bike using parts that I mostly had lying around.

Seeing as I had some On-One moustache bars and Dia-Compe inverted levers kicking around I decided that the style should be English porteur. I've still to fit mudguards and a front rack to complete the look but it is largely there. 

The good thing about being a hoarder of old junk is that every so often things do actually come in useful. I was able to build the bike up almost entirely from stuff I had lying around. It's a rather eclectic spec, granted, but there is a satisfaction in using the unwanted to create something useful. The only parts that had to be bought were tyres, chain, cassette, bottom bracket, pedals and seat post.

Wheels are Mavic Kysirium; an unusual choice for a tourer but they are strong and I've mated them to 700 x 35 Schwalbe Delta Cruiser tyres to soften the ride. There's also a lot of comfort flex in the Jackson frame, movement on the forks is quite disconcerting at first until you get used to them and gain cofidence.

I've been using her as a gravel bike, and a general workhorse for escorting the kids to school and shopping. The ride is indeed comfortable but brisk, undoubtedly mudguards will increase practicality and a porteur rack at the front will really just be a weighty decoration but overall I'm very pleased with this one. Only fly in the ointment is the downtube gear levers, I used them because I had them but bar mounted shifters would be far nicer. They are sixties Campag items and with modern chain and cassette it's an eye opener how little you actually need indexing on the levers, good old fashioned friction ones still give a very precise and accurate change.

Terrot Motorcycles 1937

The Terrot brochure for 1937. A very full range of machines from autocycles all the way up to big v twins. Though thought of as French to the core the Terrot concern was originally set up in Germany in 1862 and then opened up a branch factory in Dijon in 1887.

The first Terrot bicycles were produced in 1890. Terrot were one of the pioneer motorcycle manufacturers building their first machine in 1902. Production continued all the way through to  1961, though they were taken over by Peugeot in 1958.

To the best of my knowledge Terrot motorcycles were never imported to the UK although they were a significant volume producer. This brochure is naturally enough in French. It is a fold out brochure, I've scanned it in the order the pages appear.

If your French is up to scratch and you'd like to know more you could do worse than visit the terrot.org site.

1937 Terrot brochure front cover.

1937 Terrot brochure pages 1 & 2.

1937 Terrot brochure pages 3 & 4.

1937 Terrot brochure page 5.

1937 Terrot brochure pages 6 & 7.

1937 Terrot brochure pages 8 & 9.

New Royal Enfield twins finally revealed

Everything new and exciting in the world of motorcycling seems to get announced at Eicma in Milan these days and so it is with the new Enfields.

The motor as finally announced is a sohc 4 valve 650 twin driving through a six speed box. Enfield seem to have picked up some flak for making it a 'small' engine at 650cc. This seems slightly unfair as it is a classic capacity and there have been some pretty successful bikes the same size in recent years, the SV650 and W650 to name but two. Let's be honest too, bringing a bike out with a slightly smaller capacity is a well used motorcycle manufacturer ruse to increase it later and pad out a few more sales as a result...

Hopefully the W650 is a fair comparison, if the Enfield has the same characteristics then they should be on to a winner. The fear is that with modern emissions regulations and lean burn technology the power is pushed further up the rev range and flexibility suffers - the six speed gearbox suggests this but then again six is a fairly standard number of ratios these days. We'll just have to wait for road tests.

Speaking of power I'm guessing that it will be somewhere in the region of 45 to 50 bhp. It won't set the world on fire but it is enough to be a bit more interesting and should easily propel the new models on at motorway speeds in comfort. Logically the 650 twins should be matched in performance to Moto Guzzi's highly successful V7 range, the market at which the new Enfields are squarely pitched.

The running gear of the new models holds no surprises at all as it is clearly from the Continental GT single - this always seemed to be the plan from the day the Continental GT was launched as the Harris designed chassis could obviously cope with a lot more power than the 535 single was able to deliver.

The models, as demonstrated by the informative (or perhaps annoying depending on your point of view) gif below, are the Continental GT 650 and Interceptor. The Continental GT 650 being the single seater and the Interceptor the one with the pillion.

For a few more details visit the RoyalEnfields.com blog where David has posted up more information and where I got the factual details for this article from - thanks David.

Indian 741

A nice old image of an ex-WD Indian 741 on holiday. The photo is annotated to the reverse 'Horse Shoe Pass August 1949'. Indian 741s were sold off army surplus in great numbers by Pride and Clarke in London. All Pride and Clarke ex WD bikes were re-finished from olive drab to their trademark shade of maroon.

Though very desirable these days Indian 741s were seen as a wonky option in post war Britain. Rather outdated with a hand change gear lever and performance that could be described as stodgy at best, an ohv British 350cc single would leave the 500cc v-twin 741 for standing. I know someone who has stories of ownership of a 741 back in the day and he maintains that it was the very worst bike he ever owned! Times and tastes however change and I for one would love to own a 741, though I think I would tweak the motor to 600cc Sport Scout spec....

Ossa 250cc Mick Andrews Replica 1974

Brochure for the '74 Ossa Mick Andrews Replica. Ossa motorcycles were made from 1949 to 1985 in Barcelona and were in constant hot competition with rivals Bultaco and Montesa. Over the years Ossa built some wonderful machinery, all two stroke powered. Though best known outside of Spain for their off-roaders there were always road bikes in the range and for a while Ossa were very successful in the road racing discipline.

Reading up on Ossa recently I was entertained by the model names, some great ones, the 'Phantom', the 'Desert Phantom' and the 'Wildfire' are up there. They did also make a 'Plonker' and better still a 'BLT Plonker' though sadly the BLT stands for 'Bolger Long Travel' suspension rather than Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato. The 500 twins they made were quite awesome machines and a road going 'Yankee' model is on my biking bucket list.

The company was recently revived in 2010 with a range of trials machines but sadly they only lasted until 2014 when they merged with Gas Gas and the name disappeared in 2015.