Have You Ever Done Something Impressive?

Once, my bike would not start and when I rejoined the connector at the cut-out switch - I shot my mate in the leg.

A guy I once knew bought an HD panhead complete with mousetrap clutch booster. He complained that the clutch pull almost took 2 hands, and had been messing with it for a week trying to get it right. I asked him for a 1/2 inch wrench and moved the mousetrap down the frame tube so the rod between it and the clutch lever was a straight pull. Clutch pull was now smooth and easy. He was so amazed he offered me his last Colt45 malt liquor....I let him drink it.

Fast Eddie said:

I used to run a beat up old van that was addicted to Easy Start.

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My nearest neighbor Jack started everything with Easy Start. Tractors, his old farm truck and even his lawn mower got the treatment. He didn't just give it a whiff. He soaked it down. I told him that this was not a good idea but he loved the stuff. One day he asked me to look at his riding mower as it was throwing oil like mad. The area around the engine was an oily mess. I moved lots of oil soaked grass clippings and found the gasket, that's between the engines cases, had blown out. That Easy Start must have ignited in the crankcase. He's lucky the gasket failed and the bottom end didn't explode like a grenade!

MikeG said:

A guy I once knew bought an HD panhead complete with mousetrap clutch booster. He complained that the clutch pull almost took 2 hands, and had been messing with it for a week trying to get it right. I asked him for a 1/2 inch wrench and moved the mousetrap down the frame tube so the rod between it and the clutch lever was a straight pull. Clutch pull was now smooth and easy. He was so amazed he offered me his last Colt45 malt liquor....I let him drink it.

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My old boss was a Harley mechanic from back in the AMF days. He was full of stories of how badly customers had messed up their mouse-trap clutches. He had contempt for the whole system because the common man just didn't understand it.

When I was 35 years old I was introduced to windsurfing by a few friends all of whom already had 3 or 4 years experience. When you are a beginner, you can only sail boards that are big "aircraft carrier" type boards that float regardless of whether the wind pushes them forward to drive them onto a plane. There are some odd implications both good and bad regarding these higher volume boards. They are slow because they have a lot of drag as they push through the water, but you can stand on them in very light wind and move along slowly too. "Short boards" are the opposite, they are fast and maneuverable in a decent wind, but if the wind dies down, you are swimming next to them because they need wind to drive them up onto a plane....

I had been given basic instructions by my friend Joe over the course of my first few times down to the sailing site, and I had no gear of my own but I had the use of his very old and antiquated aircraft carrier type board and sail. I was just getting the hang of sailing the board but hadn't graduated to a short board yet, which takes a lot more skill which at that point I had very little of.

One day I was down at the beach waiting around to see if the wind that was forecast would kick in that day. There were some gusts coming through occasionally, but not enough for any of the shortboard guys to sail on really. My friend "Bill", who was a type 1 diabetic decided to be optimistic so he rigged up his shortboard set up to be ready because he thought the wind was starting to build. After a few decent gusts came through, he decided to catch a gust and went out as the rest of the crew on the beach began rigging up their gear. I also rigged up my "aircraft carrier" and was getting ready like everyone else. The wind only blew for about 10 minutes and then started to drop. It blew just long enough for Bill to get way out there in the middle of the channel. None of the shortboard guys even tried to follow "Bill" out because there just wasn't enough wind hitting the beach. Pretty soon the near calm also extended out to the most exposed water and "Bill" was no longer sailing along on top of the water. He was hanging on to his board looking for a gust to come by so he could sail back to the beach and get out of there. He was out there bobbing up and down with his gear for over 15 minutes. Rolf was down at the waterline looking out in Bill's direction off shore. I went down to join him and Rolf expressed his concern to me because Bill wasn't trying to fold his sail up and paddle in. Since my board floated and I could sail in a very slight breeze, I said to Rolf that I'm probably the only person here who has a set up that could sail out to him and see if he's OK, so I ran up to the rigging area and brought my stuff out to the waterline.

I got in the water, I uphauled the sail and got going. I wasn't much of a sailor at that point, I could hardly steer the board, but the wind direction hadn't changed so it automatically angled me to take me straight out to Bill. As I approached him I got close enough to see that Bill was face down in the water floating next to his gear. I could see that when he inhaled, his body would convulse so as not to inhale the water. I began to fear he would drown before I got to him. I think he convulsed 2 or 3 times before I grabbed him. As I sailed toward him slowly I asked God to help me get there in time and the wind seemed to pick up pushing me faster towards him. Coincidence or not, it was appreciated. When I was about 15' away I released the sail and ran off the front of the board and dove in the water. I got to him, rolled him face up and pulled him to his board to use it as flotation for us both. He was semi-concious drifting in and out, and coughing but he was breathing thankfully. I started trying to wave down boats but there wasn't a lot of boat traffic where we were. I was screaming and waving for about 20 minutes, the whole time holding his body against his board to keep him above water. Those were the some of the longest minutes I can remember in my life at that point. Eventually, Bill said, "Would you Shut Up!". He had no idea where he was, but was lucid enough momentarily to tell me to shut up. Eventually a power boat saw me waving for help and came over to us. The pulled him on board and I instructed them to give him something with sugar to bring him around. He drank a bit of orange juice and started to come out of his diabetic stupor. I folded up his sail for them to take and told them to get him to the marina dock ASAP. I dove back into the water, swam to my board and sailed back to shore. The boat took off to the marina. Bill was going to be ok. Someone had called an ambulance and it was there waiting to assist when he got to the dock. All the sailor's went to the dock the check on him. By the time I got in to the beach, he was ok and the ambulance offered to take him to the hospital, but he came around quickly once he got his sugar level back to normal so he refused to go to the hospital. Rolf was waiting for me on the beach when I sailed into shore. All he said to me was, "He's ok". No one else ever said a word to me about it and it was never spoken of by anyone in my presence . Before Bill left the marina that day, I asked him if he was OK. He just looked at me and said... " Yeah, Thanks" and nothing was ever said about it again...

building the Norton feet forward frame: my bit of that project was tack welding the frame tubes , and the critical bits had to be spot-on so that the 2 front suspension arms for the centre hub rose and fell exactly vertically. All done with basic shims and a digital spirit level, and no frame jig. Worked out very well.
Current problem is getting a Buell-style rim front disc remade to replace the now worn one that came with the front end….almost no manufacturers are interested!

I tend to overlook my Avatar bike.

It was all that was left of Kenny Dreer's original New Norton Commando 952 prototype monoshock bike that he showed at the New York IMS, at the announcement of the rebirth of Norton. Not ALL of it, but as much as remained after the hollow engine with a stray EFI fuel injection body went with all of the R&R stuff to the infamous Gardner mob. I didn't want the cast wheels. On the off side, it had a Carbon Fiber primary case that ended up going with all the other VR880 stuff that he sold me, as I went with a known good MkIII engine. He did sell me the FCRs that are in the photo, but it now has Amal Premiers, they allow for air filters where the FCRs with the manifolds he made, didn't.

I used ZX6 forks, the front hub is a VR880, laced by Buchanan's. I also welded up a different top mount for the monoshock, as Kenny was using his OIF setup and his shock had a rather Rube Goldberg mounting, lower down, eating into the Commando oil tank's "personal space".
Oh, yes, I converted the MkIII transmission to Right-foot-shift.

This one won't be sold in my lifetime.

grandpaul said:

I tend to overlook my Avatar bike.

It was all that was left of Kenny Dreer's original New Norton Commando 952 prototype monoshock bike that he showed at the New York IMS, at the announcement of the rebirth of Norton. Not ALL of it, but as much as remained after the hollow engine with a stray EFI fuel injection body went with all of the R&R stuff to the infamous Gardner mob. I didn't want the cast wheels. On the off side, it had a Carbon Fiber primary case that ended up going with all the other VR880 stuff that he sold me, as I went with a known good MkIII engine. He did sell me the FCRs that are in the photo, but it now has Amal Premiers, they allow for air filters where the FCRs with the manifolds he made, didn't.

I used ZX6 forks, the front hub is a VR880, laced by Buchanan's. I also welded up a different top mount for the monoshock, as Kenny was using his OIF setup and his shock had a rather Rube Goldberg mounting, lower down, eating into the Commando oil tank's "personal space".
Oh, yes, I converted the MkIII transmission to Right-foot-shift.

This one won't be sold in my lifetime.

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We never see the left side view of bike, why?

I have done something impressive, however it is not something for which I would ever want to become known. Many years ago I was involved in an industrial incident in which a man lost his eyesight. About 5 of us ended up in court for a compensation case. A considerable payout was awarded. About 6 months later, the victim hanged himself because he could not endure being blind. All that was needed to avoid the injury was to wear a face shield. However our safety regulations were prescriptive. I wrote to the Standing Committee on Law And Justice NSW - inquiry into workplace safety, and suggested safety regulations should be risk-based rather than prescriptive. My suggestion was adopted and safety laws changed in every Australian state and territory jurisdiction. These days we have almost zero industrial fatalities. Unions perform Job Safety Analyses prior to working.

BritTwit said:

We never see the left side view of bike, why?

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Because I didn't get a good "beauty shot" of that side. No real reason...

grandpaul said:

Because I didn't get a good "beauty shot" of that side. No real reason...

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Cool!
I like the pipes too.
Great melding of old, and new tech.

Your bike looks as though it has a lot of suspension travel. Does it self-steer much when you accelerate or brake ? - What is the rake on the steering head ?

acotrel said:

Your bike looks as though it has a lot of suspension travel. Does it self-steer much when you accelerate or brake ? - What is the rake on the steering head ?

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(in my best Robert DeNiro "Taxi Driver" voice)

"Are you talking to ME?"

I never measured the steering geometry. Also, I have no intention of testing it's high speed handling characteristics, it is the only Original Dreer New Norton Prototype Monoshock bike, and as such is way too valuable. I have 11 other bikes I can ride, 2 or 3 much more capapable of high speed stuff.

I have only ever read little about Kenny Dreer. His bike modifications are interesting, however it is sometimes a mistake to follow trends in motorcycle design. I have never ridden a road bike which has a lot of suspension travel. The TZ750 Yamahas were about the first road race bikes to have monoshock suspension. When you ride a motorcycle at high speed, the suspension usually pumps down and the bike becomes more stable. Most road race circuits are fairly smooth, however at ultra-high speeds they might not be.

acotrel said:

I have only ever read little about Kenny Dreer. His bike modifications are interesting, however it is sometimes a mistake to follow trends in motorcycle design. I have never ridden a road bike which has a lot of suspension travel. The TZ750 Yamahas were about the first road race bikes to have monoshock suspension. When you ride a motorcycle at high speed, the suspension usually pumps down and the bike becomes more stable. Most road race circuits are fairly smooth, however at ultra-high speeds they might not be.

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That's all fine and good, but this bike will never be in that position in my lifetime.

I can understand somebody trying to improve a road-going Commando, however the assumption that modern suspension might be an improvement, is the sort of thing I have believed and, as a result have done myself a disservice. Your bike is interesting.
The rider adapts to the bike. If the bike becomes better, the rider becomes better.

I’m a classic car mechanic and look after a number of private collections as well as a fleet of 1934 Rolls-Royce Phantom II’s for a well known Hong Kong based and headquartered hotel chain. A number of years ago there was a severe rainstorm and the underground car-park at the hotel was flooded with 9 new Rolls-Royces written off and a 1934 car flooded up to just below the steering wheel. The chairman of the company called me at home on the Sunday when it occurred and asked if anything could be done with the Rolls, which had just 6 months previously undergone a three year restoration. I said that it was only water and that engines produce this as a byproduct of combustion, as long as we could quickly drain it out refill the oil and get it running, it should be OK. As soon as the fire department pumped the water out of the garage, I spent the following 8 hours in a swimming costume with several gallons of kerosene and a spray gun draining and cleaning out the engine, gearbox and diff oil, carburetor, drying both ignition systems and numerous other components. I finally drove it out of the garage under it’s own steam and over to a climate controlled garage where I removed the seats and leather door panels and dried them slowly with weights on them to prevent warpage. I changed the oil and drove the car multiple times in the following days and It all came good in the end. The new cars were all written off due to the numerous computers for anti-lock braking, climate control, seat memories, fuel injection, etc., etc. being under water, but they were all replaced under insurance. The Phantom II continues to give good service till date - perhaps my finest hour.

driving it out under it’s own steam… how appropriate!!

Jan, I must confess, it did steam considerably until I could get it all dry.

When I was 17 I bought a BSA barracuda will a wrecked petrol tank but also a Starfire tank that'd split all the way round the centre fixing tube at the top
I bought an SIP 90 amp arc welder on the knock from my mum's mail order catalogue
I filled the tank as fully as I could with water
And in one pass I ran a weld completely around the tube sealing it up without blowing any holes
My mate was astounded and so was I but I never let on