Came across pics of this Commando…

I suggest many of you guys could not even ride a 50 BHP Manx Norton, in the way it was intended to be used. If I was a billionaire, I would buy a 1929 Tim Birken Blower Bentley, and park it in the middle of a car park full of electric cars. - Just to make a statement about progress. What we lose cannot come back. A GTHO Falcon did not really cost much.
Many people do not know what speed is until they ride or drive something which was fast in the old days. A Bentley at 120 MPH would be horrifying. It is all relative.
I drove one of those Falcons. My Mazda 6 is probably faster. But in the Falcon you really know you are doing it.
 
I watched Tom Phillis and Kel Carruthers race in the 1960s. Today they would look slow, but back then they were on the limit.
I think that if I got on a modern bike to race, it would be silly - I would almost immediately go into a corner miles too hot.
I once rode a VFR400 Honda, I did not know it was speed limited to 180 KPH. It was capable of cornering much faster. I was wondering what was stopping it.
 
acotrel said:
I suggest many of you guys could not even ride a 50 BHP Manx Norton, in the way it was intended to be used. If I was a billionaire, I would buy a 1929 Tim Birken Blower Bentley, and park it in the middle of a car park full of electric cars. - Just to make a statement about progress. What we lose cannot come back. A GTHO Falcon did not really cost much.
Many people do not know what speed is until they ride or drive something which was fast in the old days. A Bentley at 120 MPH would be horrifying. It is all relative.
I drove one of those Falcons. My Mazda 6 is probably faster. But in the Falcon you really know you are doing it.
Click to expand...
We're not worthy
We're not worthy
 
Is it more fun to ride a slow bike at its limits or a fast bike at your personal limits AL?
 
acotrel said:
That is a really sweet motorcycle. I would love to own it. It is good in so many ways. A Commando engine is wasted in that frame. When I ride a powerful motorcycle, I like an adrenalin rush. You cannot do that on public roads.
Click to expand...
Come and ride with me and my mates and you get a big adrenalin rush up in the fast tight twisties, oooh that's right you don't ride on the road Al.
 
Al is living in the past, we all love our Nortons but there are also a lot of great modern bikes made for our conditions, fast and handle great with modern rubber to make them stick like glue to the tar, my 2016 Thruxton might not be the fastest but for a twin shock bike but it handles pretty good, smooth to ride and a very torque motor to give me my adrenalin rush, but so does my old Norton, built for my needs and rush, gets me into enough troubles lol.

Ashley
 
Last time I pushed a motorcycle as hard as I could, I ended up with a broken hip socket, broken collar bone, and impaled on my back on a cut off sign post... The key to being an old motorcycle rider on the public roads is to "look good even when you are going slow"

If you do find that you can't resist pushing as hard as is possible, you should seek out a racetrack to do that... It's still not safe, but it much safer than mixing with cars and trucks on public roads.

As far as that harley engine in a norton frame, I'd like to take it for a spin. It would be an interesting comparison...
 
MikeG said:
Is it more fun to ride a slow bike at its limits or a fast bike at your personal limits AL?
Click to expand...
That is an interesting question. On public roads the performance of the motorcycle is not very relevant. However, I would never road-race a modern motorcycle. When I ride a motorcycle on a race circuit or on a public road, I like to make it go as fast as it can. With an old British motorcycle, the skill levels required for genuinely racing a Manx are probably the same as for riding a MotoGP bike. However in recent years, many of the best riders in MotoGP have come up from Moto Cross. It seems to indicate, they ride on their reflexes. I don't think that is fun. When we race motorcycles - the first things we need to do is lose our ego and learn to be systematic.
I know what Marc Marquez was doing, but John Koscinki was smarter.

 
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I do not race to win races. I am only ever there for the dogfight and to develop the motorcycle. The dogfight is fun because of the psychology it involves. Development is what my life as a scientist is about. Making a Commando perform better is interesting. I probably think differently to many other people. I am very good at recognising patterns. My brain can be in about four places at the same time and still make sense. I think it is a result of training - not native intelligence. My son is a mechanical engineer - he has never written a computer programme and he cannot look at a note on a sheet of music and make his finger press the correct key on a piano. learning a language uses the same part of the brain.
I have loved doing every job I ever had, because I always went to where I could do interesting things.
 
You probably believe I think I am clever. However I believe I am a total idiot.
I suggest we all need to become smarter.
 
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