The "Good Old Days"...

[Motu]

Tickle,tickle....

[peasea]

Lucas.
Prince of darkness and frustration.

Met him again last Saturday. Had a dozen or so Meriden bikes over from Welly. Try and find a Zener diode on a Friday night in Brightwater. (Actually we did, got one in Wakefield, cost a bottle of port.)

I don't miss kicking the machine into action, buttons rock!

[peasea]

Amal carburettors.

ANAL carbs......best thing I ever did to my 686cc bitser was to chuck on a pair of 30mm Dellorto's. One twist, one kick, see ya.

[peasea]

I remember but dont miss....the boyfriends who owned the bikes

Bad fucks were they?

[peasea]

Some of the things I remember but don't miss about the "good old days" of motorbiking...please feel free to expand the list with your own recollections...

1. "Oil Proof Bikes"...ahahaha. Oxymoron. Specially if they were British. Don't park 'em where you don't want an oil spill...better to leave 'em on some dirt somewhere so the oil would soak away...(oh we were all nasty polluters back then...)

2. CVC regulators. Bastards of things. Before the days of anything solid state these used mechanical means to regulate voltage. Guaranteed to fail at critical moments and leave you without battery charging abilities...and lights eventually.

3. Separate engines and gear boxes linked by a "primary chain". Nothing really wrong with the concept but the chains were usually in an oil bath. Which leaked. Everywhere. See 1. above...

4. "Sprung Hubs" and "Linked Plungers". These were primitive attempts at rear suspension, pre swing arms. Basically they gave no suspension at all, despite one of my mates arguing that his sprung hub was better than a swing arm because it had lower unsprung mass. Never mind the fact that it had a total of about 2mm of travel...the less said about linked plungers the better. Ask anyone who owned a 1953 or earlier Ariel...

5. Whitworth threads on British bikes. Big fat coarse thread. Which stripped as soon as you looked at it. And broke, leaving stud stumps stuck in cylinder heads, crankcases and anywhere else possible...

Right that's just a start. Additions welcome...

One at a time:
1) I found a Toyota sealant that made Brits leak-free, generally speaking.
2) Rip out the original loom, fit two car coils and mount your zener diode on a fat slice of alloy, in the wind.
3) Only if the breather was of the 'timed' variety, drill three tiny holes into crankcase behind LH main roller, vent the primary ala the later models, fixed. Use sealant mentined above.
4)I'm having trouble arguing that one, please hold.....
5)Helicoils are a marvellous thing. Such thread-stripping, stud-breaking exercises only served to allow me to prove my automotive machining expertise. 1/4unc helicoils were fitted with aplomb, capscrews everywhere, problem solved.

NEXT???

[dipshit]

Petrol stations closed on Sundays.

[peasea]

Petrol stations closed on Sundays.

And the pubs, shithouse idea.

[peasea]

The 25 Club ruled the streets of Wellington.....

[peasea]

Triumphs all had 'six-bends'.
And you could line them up outside your flat, get on the piss and go hurtling through the pedestrian walkway under Wellington Airport.....

[Paul in NZ]

My Ariel suspension may well have been the Antsley system as you describe - but it was commonly referred to as "linked plunger"...at least in the world I moved in. Trailing links as you describe (hence linked) with spring loaded shock thingies to absorb impacts. Very little movement available there either so essentially, they did fuck all...and the seat on it was like a greyhound's back as well, so a long journey was quite challenging...

They probably did 'fuck all' because they wore out very (very) quickly unless religiously maintained - even then they wore out. Plungers wore out as well but being less sophisticated, you couldn't tell... Mind you, when new they were considered an improvement and saw stirling service under some dreadful conditions.

Besides, when most of us got our hands on these mehanical marvels they were already 30 years old and well thrashed.

Look in the latest 'The Classic Motorcycle' there is a wonderful article about a guy restoring a VB (600cc flathead single) with an Antsley link rear end (compare it to a Norton or BSA true plunger to see the difference) that the original owner roder for 250,000 MILES mostly with a side car attached... (new big end every 60,000 miles).... Sure it got rough but it kept running...

[Motu]

Most of the rigid,and um....unrigids had sprung seats - the ride was great,the bike just floating under you...although timing was important,ups and downs and stuff.The later trend to fit a dual seat gave an impossible ride....and so did the custom seat of a chopper.I of course threw all my sprung seats away - but my wife took great pains to find a sprung saddle,and pillion pad too for her Tiger 100.It was such a nice bike to ride...and be pillion on.We both did lots of miles on those two seats,never a sore bum like I get today.

[Big Dave]

go hurtling through the pedestrian walkway under Wellington Airport.....

Nowadays I have a very quiet urban adventure bike.

[Tone165]

what about earky CDI in Kawasaki H1 triples, and the dreaded "Power band"

one minute riding along..the next sliding up the road watching the display of sparks up ahead!

[Stampy]

Amal carburettors.

Swapping them for Mk2's

[pritch]

My first lesson was on a sprung hub Speedtwin (1953 model?). Rosebank Road Avondale, very quiet place to learn, it was all market gardens then but I've heard that it might have changed since.

Kickstarts are something I don't miss at all. On the two BSAs I owned B50SS and B50MX they were only there for ornamental purposes anyway. I can't even conjure up a convincing mental image of kickstarting a VFR...

I don't miss the little clusters of acid holes we all used to have in our jeans either. Nobody wore good trousers on a bike.