When life throws you a curve ... Lean into it ...
At one of the early Register meetings at Levels - when we still had a register in the SI...Hugh Anderson came down with an ex works outside flywheel 350 Manx. He unloads proudly and wonders why no one is going into raptures....looks 2 pits over and there's another one!!
Geoff Mardon had found and restored one too. Hugh won the first 350 race from Geoff, but after some tuition at lunchtime on the differences between car and bike lines, Geoff beat Hugh and was satisfied....
Hugh was surprised to put it mildly.
Nice....I have meet Hugh a couple of times and stayed at our house one meeting. Nice guy and really humble (still owes me a clutch lever though)
Wow beating Hugh on equal machinery that's an accomplishment. but everwhere you go, everyone always wants to beat the ex world champ even if it was 30 long years ago that he was a world champ.
There was also one in Aussie as well for a time which could be where Geoff's or Hugh's one went, i guess.
I like the story like the story when Hailwood was reintroduced to his very special 7R. Allegedly immediately turned and walked off in disgust, As it had broken down when he was leading and cost can him a whitewash of the TT races one year. Allan Bramwell i think, had it i his tasty colection.
Added another Outside flywheel Proboscis...........
Hugh was just a young'un compared to Geoff - Geoff was 3rd in the World Speedway final in '52 or '53....then did years racing cars including taming the Stanton Corvette and development driving for George Begg's F5000's....then went classic bike racing for fun in his retirement. Still doing restorations. Legend.
And bloody Bramwell broke for parts what had been my Manx...that bike had won 4 NZGP's incl the last at Cust and the 1st at Ruapuna !!! Bastard.
Not so old but it is a Honda and built by the factory as a race bike sort of there is a guy in the UK who makes a replica look a like chassis for these motors as well.
http://www.d-mengineering.co.uk/inde...=article&id=71
http://www.replicaframes.co.uk/
This page is well worth a look
http://www.cmsnl.com/classic-honda-g...l_media1Page=2
George Begg Bloody hard case, successful but unaffected can't ever remember him not laughing, or smiling
As i guess as he is, er... still probably dead. Now it might be time to let it go.
He may have felt bad about it. I guess that one died (the Norton)so others could live.
Just like in the Lion King
Honda RC148/9
Yes. The 125/5 which is not coincidentally very similar to the 50 twin.
The RC148 is the great surprise of 1965.
It is a five cylinder, in principle two and a half 50 cc twins.
Bore and stroke are 33 x 29 mm for a total capacity of 124 cc.
Drive to the camshafts is by gear train between the third and fourth cylinders. Power is 34 bhp at 20,000 rpm. There are eight speeds in the box, and the engine has wetsump lubrication.
The four exhausts of cylinders 1, 2, 4 and 5 sit in the normal place, left and right of the bike, the exhaust of cylinder 3 sweeps up and around the lefy hand side of the engine, crosses through the frame, to end up under the right leg of the rider.
Dry weight is given as 85 kg.This was most definitely the pinnacle of Honda's 125 development, and in particular it shows Honda's first attempts at playing with crank layout and firing orders to influence power delivery...
You see, the crankshaft ont the RC-149 was really unique. The left three cylinders had a crank layout with 120-degree spaced throws (just like many three-cylinder engines), but the right two cylinders has their crank throws at 180-degrees!!! Honda was never very forthcoming as to why they did this, but when I asked Irimajiri about it all he did was smile and say "Power delivery and breathing." That was all he would say on the subject, period.
Power was given as 38 HP @ 20,500 RPM, but the engines were known to have turned as much as 24,000, though they didn't make more power up there. The large amount of available over-rev capability was to allow Honda's riders to stay in a lower gear if necessary between corners, and minimize shifting... After all, they were racing against bloody two-strokes!
Yamaha put Phil Read and Bill Ivy up against Honda in 1966, but it didn't matter. Luigi Taveri won the title for Honda - both the manufacturer's and rider's.
This was to be the last time a four-stroke won the 125cc World Championship.
Honda withdrew from the 50cc and 125cc championships in 1967 to concentrate on the 250, 350, and 500 titles. Never again would the 125 class hear the wailing howl of the Honda Fives, and the 125cc class would forever be heard as the yowling sqeaul of two-cycles...
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Bookmarks