twin triumph sidecar

[Madmax]

anyone seen this thing for sale on trademe
reminds me a cross between a farm mower
and something else used to scare small children
http://www.trademe.co.nz/Trade-Me-Mo...n-48451073.htm
would be fun to watch it race

[Motu]

Wow,that's cool! I don't remember that one,maybe it never raced in Auckland.It must have a jackshaft to run that left motor back to the gearbox,although it would only have two gears.Fairly typical of bikes from that era.

Speedway sidecars have a 1000cc limit,so unless you had a Vincent or HRD (same thing) or JAP Vtwin,you were stuck with a 650 twin as the biggest bike you could run,hence the ingenious way to get a 1000cc motor.

Many years ago I had a set of Triumph V4 cases sitting on my mantlepiece.Rumaging around in a scrap heap once I unearthed a couple of 650 cranks,and these two pre unit 500cc left cases welded into a V.Some years ago in Classic bike I see a letter from someone talking about a NZ V4 Triumph,there was even a photo of the bike - then I knew where the cases came from.I wrote an email,but heard nothing back.After many moves I seem to have lost them....

[Madmax]

looking at it struck me that if the passenger got his/her foot in the primary
drive it would get removed pretty quick!! still what a bit of history

[Madmax]

had a mate who was going to build a drag bike around
some norton cases! twin engine and blown
he got to the mockup stage then i lost track of him!
would love to have a go at a 3x kawasaki tripple though
but all the parts would cost to much
(some fast by gast stuff or purple haze stuff would be cool)
if they could get 8.2 on pump gas imagine what you could get
from there kit
(bummer you lost the cases)

[Warr]

Someone sure is kean to get hold of it..
Do you think it would still be competitive ?? !!

[Madmax]

Someone sure is kean to get hold of it..
Do you think it would still be competitive ?? !!

dont know about competive, i just think you would be lucky to surive
i have had rides on some strange bikes but that thing just puts the
shits up me
would be worth a try though

[Motu]

A speedway sidecar only turns right,the passenger hangs over the right hand side of the bike...left leg hooked on the rear guard,right hand on the front down tube,or atleast a handhold there,they come in behind the rider down the short straights....so nowhere near the primary chain.

There was a class called Thunder Chairs for a few seasons - a Triumph twin,a Norton and a couple of Jawa singles,it would be able to race with them...I'd like to see that! But Thunder Chairs has fizzled out....I was talking to Quince who was the driving force behind the Thunder Chairs a couple of weeks ago,he is real pissed off at the lack of support and is sick of holding everyones hands every race meeting.He's still keeping his bike though,and will probably get into it again when he simmers down.

[Ixion]

I think I would want armoured underwear. I suspect those primary drive chains don't last long! (looks like both motors have primary drives feeding a common crossshaft, and I suspect that is then chaindriven to the clutch and gearbox.)But the snatch effect of the motors (which could never develop exactly the same torque, or run at exactly the same revs) would be hell on the chains.

[Madmax]

a jap vtwin would be cool you can do just about anything with
them! our loss i guess

[Madmax]

there was a jap speedway bike with a spare grass track frame
listed as well i was intersested in the grass frame
(looked like a hagon copy)

[Motu]

A friend of mine is doing a couple of JAP V twins,one for a customer and doing his own at the same time.I was looking at it a couple of weeks ago - Carillo rods,BSA pistons,B50 I think,Harley double gear pump grafted on to run dry sump.It'll be interesting to see how they run with a bit of modern technology in them.

The Triumph could run,but it'd need a spruce up.Those forks have to go,they are crap,and a tidy up all round with more strengthening.Plenty of work could be done on the motors....all the way to full 750 twin carb motors.But I suspect whoever made it found it quite a handful as it is!

[Madmax]

have seen some cool stuff done to the good old japs
(have always been amazed you can still get bits for them)
if any one comes across a jap engine i want one for
display (single or twin)

[Madmax]

on a diffrent note i did a lost wax casting for a head on one once

[Motu]

I was looking at the head the other day - so incredably small for a 1000cc V twin....a couple of huge valves,a combustion chamber and a few fins,that's all you need eh?

[Madmax]

The heads i had to cast were four valve ones (a copy of a rudge or something) a single pushrod operated two valves, was quite a neat
idea i thought, was a one off job or i would have saved the moulds,
would like to do something like this again! but im stuck fixing file servers
at the moment
I really miss making stuff as an engineer