Hmmmm?

[Bonez]

Sorry to tell you this, but a low oil level light is not going to save your engine when it's being used hard.
The horse will have already bolted.

Hmmm one would have though there would be enough residue oil in the engine to shut it down with out to much drama. Look at all those wee jappers that get trashed infront a the "bikie" crowd and still run for minutes on full throttle without seizing.

[Ixion]

Q: Know why the British don't make computers?
A: They couldn't figure out how to make them leak oil!

Don't bet on that. I've worked with computers that leaked oil . And leaked water. And one that I had to grease, with a grease gun, each month.

[onearmedbandit]

Just how old are you Ixion?????

[Bonez]

Q: Know why the British don't make computers?
A: They couldn't figure out how to make them leak oil!

To be fair 3 of my bikes leak oil. The CX seems to have a total loss oil system much like gas turbines. Pitty it doesn't have the performance. This intangable thing called character makes up for that I guess.

[Bonez]

Japanese bikes just never got owner ''involvment'' like British bikes did,a little too complicated for the hammer and screwdriver brigade.

I'm sure there are a few of us here that could argue that point till the cows come home. Another generalisation.

[Bonez]

Most troubles with the old Brits were down to the uncertainty of metallurgy in the day. Bear in mind we're talking 60 year old designs here. They just didn't have the understanding of the metallurgy , or the materials back then. Give those old guys modern steel and alloys and they've have been on a roll.

Yes, but other designs had been developed over that period, but the powers to be were too tight to ramp up new tooling for these designs.

[Motu]

Story about Triumph oil leaks....

I've never owned a Triumph,but I've owned bikes with Triumph motors...my next bike will be a Triumph without a Triumph motor.My Triton was built by someone well known at the time,he just threw it together out of some old parts,and always laughed about the bike when he saw me.But it had been fully rebuilt when I had it,the '61 T110 motor had late model Bonnie cams,pistons etc,pretty normal practice.It didn't leak a lot of oil,but I was constantly plugging leaks.We'll come back to this.

When I built the T100C motor for my Rickman I used a lot of late model Daytona parts,it was practicaly a Daytona in early cases....and it had a few leaks.You expect that from Triumphs though eh? I had a lot of unit 500 parts as they were easy to collect,no one wanted the girls bike.One day a mate and I were playing around with his old 3TA,actually a Tiger 90,and we were putting late model parts into it....including some Daytona cams.And then we found something we hadn't noticed before,and it explained my oil leaks....and gave us a good laugh.

Up until the late '60s Triumphs had a timed breather - the breather opened on the downstroke of the pistons,closed on the upstroke...common to a lot of engines back then.The inlet cam was hollow and a slot in one end drove a slotted breather disc,the breather just discharged on the road...also common practice and fuel for leaky British bike stories.In the late '60's the breathing system was upgraded - the drive side oilseal was removed and the engine breathed into the primary chaincase,a baffled outlet led to a hose which went over the rear guard...still no closed systems back then.This was a good idea,and meant you didn't have to worry about primary case oil level,and the breather didn't drip on the ground.And the inlet camshaft was now solid....ooops.

I was using solid camshafts with a timed breather - no wonder I had oil leaks! So I converted my old cases to the modern breather system and my leaks disapeared.I suspect this is what happened on my Triton too,but I had sold it by then.This is the sort of ignorance that fueled the leaky Triumph stories - but it was fun and we learnt a lot.I'm sure if modern bikes ran breathers straight onto the road we would have stories about leaky GSXR's.Tiz called progess,and it's good to be involved in the progression.

[Ixion]

Some of the Brits did leak a bit, and all leaked enough to get grubby with oil mist over a few thousand miles.

The gearbox to primary drive case seal on preunits was always a bugger, a sliding joint, very hard to stop leaks. And the ones with tin primary cases,they distorted very easily.

And a lot of joints and such didn't have oil rings or oil seals as a modern design would. Cos why, cos o rings and oil seals hadn't been invented when they were designed. So the designers had to work with felt packings and copper or fibre washers.

[Bonez]

Some of the Brits did leak a bit, and all leaked enough to get grubby with oil mist over a few thousand miles.

The gearbox to primary drive case seal on preunits was always a bugger, a sliding joint, very hard to stop leaks. And the ones with tin primary cases,they distorted very easily.

And a lot of joints and such didn't have oil rings or oil seals as a modern design would. Cos why, cos o rings and oil seals hadn't been invented when they were designed. So the designers had to work with felt packings and copper or fibre washers.

Breif history of o rings - http://inventors.about.com/od/ofamou...s/a/O_Ring.htm
http://www.oringsusa.com/html/history_of_o-rings.html

[onearmedbandit]

Funny thing is I got that joke from a Triumph (cage) website.

[Lou Girardin]

Yeah but having a oil warning light that comes on when the bikes already shat it's big end bearings is like having a pacemaker that takes 4 minutes to kick in.

Too fukin late!

It's a low level light, and high engine speeds will overheat the remaining oil quickly enough to cause engine damage.

[Edbear]

It's a low level light, and high engine speeds will overheat the remaining oil quickly enough to cause engine damage.

That's why a pressure guage is better. The lights are known as the "Sorry, it's already busted!" lights!

My 'F' uses oil, not much, but not sure just how much. I always check the oil before each ride, anyway. Doesn't everyone? Surely any high-performance 4-stroke engine will use some oil! Even Ferrari's, etc. use oil due to the high state of tune and the high revs they pull.

[scracha]

Big Jap bikes in the 60s. None that I recall. Depends on your definition of big I guess. Honda CB450 (rare) ; Suzuki T500: Kawaa 500; Megura, rare as. . But heaps of smaller ones. In that era the Jap two strokes redeined the definition.

So maybe that's the reason there's more big brit bikes from the 60's on Tardme than big jap bikes :-)

As for the 70's...methinks you'll find more big bore 70's jap bikes than brit ones on tardme.

[scracha]

My 'F' uses oil, not much, but not sure just how much. I always check the oil before each ride, anyway. Doesn't everyone? Surely any high-performance

No. Would car manufacturers expect you to check your oil every time you drove? I don't think so. This is the 21st century and gawd dammit I expect to get on my bike and ride it and maybe check the oil every 2 or 3 thousand kay's just like in my car. In fact..that's what I've managed to do for the past 15 years riding without any problems (2 smokes excepted).

[Ixion]

But there's more Brit bikes of that era around in total , than Jap bikes in total. Despite more Japs being sold then. Which is why I said about the 60s Jap bikes redefining "big". Back then the decision was between a Brit 650 or a Jap 250 or 350. The Jap 250s and 350s competed with the Brit 500s and 650s. Just two totally differnet appraoches to bike design. Like the crusier vs sprotsbike thing now. I'm picking in 40 years time there'll be a lot more 2000s crusiers left surviving than sprotsbikes.