Time to dream big

Grandpauls thread "The stuff dreams are made of" got me thinking. Given a blue sky approach what would your dream bike be? To kick things off I have a couple.

The first would be something like a modern road going version of a mid 50s 500cc Moto Guzzi GP bike, with lights, in other words
500cc DOHC horizontal cylinder, about 90mm bore, 4 valves, 40/45 bhp
5 speed gearbox
Fior type front suspension
AUW ready to rock and roll, say under 300lb
18" Cast alloy wheels
single discs front and back
As slim as possible, with a low CofG
The emphasis being on roadholding, steering, braking
No bodywork

The second would be a sort of sporty touring bike
In line 700 to 900 V twin, SOHC, 60/70 bhp emphasis on torque
5 speed gearbox, with shaft drive
Fior type front suspension
AUW ready to rock and roll, say under 400lb
18" Cast alloy wheels
twin discs at the front, single at the back
As slim as possible, with a low CofG
The emphasis being on roadholding, steering, braking, high speed stability, highish comfortable cruising speed with reasonable fuel consumption
No bodywork

Waddayarekin?

What do others think?
cheers
wakeup

ludwig said:

And then what would you do with it ?
Stare at it with a beer in your hand like most members do ?
Stop dreaming .
Wake up .
Get on the road ..

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I know you have a beauty of a lightweight Comeandgo, but have you never dreamed "what if.....??"
The single would be for fun on a weekend, and the V twin would be for long trip fun when I'm not riding the other one. None of my bikes has ever been stared at by me!! They have all been for riding and enjoying, rather than polishing and thinking about how much money has been spent on them. I must admit the single was a dream for about 30 years, I even have some drawings somewhere, but it's really a younger mans motor cycle. The V twin sort of grew from the single when I realised that I'm not into pure sports bikes any more.
In practical terms my best real world bike would be a 650SS with a disc brake.
cheers
wakeup

Sounds like a DR780 motard (53/50) and an Eldorado to me.

My dream bike is a 1940's type Harley Davidson with a 3 cylinder Kubota (turbo) engine.
A clutched auto would be a bonus,ultimate long distance tourer for the Outback.

Why dont you get a Tonkin Tornado and have him put cast wheels + Brembos on instead of the spokes + drums?

http://www.stevetonkinclassics.com/tornado.html

Hmmm, disappointing I thought that people here would have a bit more imagination.

gortnipper said:

Why dont you get a Tonkin Tornado and have him put cast wheels + Brembos on instead of the spokes + drums?

http://www.stevetonkinclassics.com/tornado.html

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A beautiful and highly desirable motorcycle, for sure. Although acotrel may disagree! However there are a couple of differences from my spec, 1/ its got boring old telescopic forks, with all the nause that they entail, and 2/ Not too sure but that motor looks to me as if its got a vertical cylinder. Apart from that its spot on.

If I was going down that route (replica GP bike) I would prefer something like a Seeley Condor, or one of it's modern incarnations.

I did have almost my ideal touring bike, a Honda NTV 650. It handled well was very comfortable over a long distance, but didn't really have the beans for long distance, two up cruising. At the risk of offending anyone here I'd rather not have anything that ever had anything to do with HD.
cheers
wakeup

Go for it wakeup as what else we got but our limited time here so stay as high as ya can I say in planning plotting dreaming and collecting and doing stuff no one else has. Men can't carry babies so got to create some how else.

I only wish my Atlas would not shake so much!

A featherbed Roadholder leaves little to be desired......except to shed the shake.

texasSlick said:

I only wish my Atlas would not shake so much!

A featherbed Roadholder leaves little to be desired......except to shed the shake.

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That's why I preferred my 650SS, smoother and faster!
cheers
wakeup

wakeup said:

texasSlick said:

I only wish my Atlas would not shake so much!

A featherbed Roadholder leaves little to be desired......except to shed the shake.

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That's why I preferred my 650SS, smoother and faster!
cheers
wakeup

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Faster? Wish we could see 'bout dat!

cheers

Slick

texasSlick said:

wakeup said:

texasSlick said:

I only wish my Atlas would not shake so much!

A featherbed Roadholder leaves little to be desired......except to shed the shake.

Click to expand...

That's why I preferred my 650SS, smoother and faster!
cheers
wakeup

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Faster? Wish we could see 'bout dat!

cheers

Slick

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When first run the motor had a Dunstall racing cam, and h/c pistons and had been put together by a friend who definitely knew his way around Norton motors. In the short time between finishing the running in and the motor developing an awful racket, which turned out to be the Dunstall racing cam giving up the ghost, it was a very fast bike. One time I was stopped by the police on Andover by-pass and told that they had clocked it at 125mph. The police car was an unmarked MGB GT V8 (a "Q" car!). At the time the speedo on the bike was a chronometric Smiths and it had been indicating 125 mph just before I was pulled over. The policeman let me off with a fairly comprehensive bollocking, a two cigarette bollocking in fact, which was a bit startling, but he said he was a motorcyclist himself!
After the cam lost its lobes, I rebuilt the motor with a standard Commando 2S cam. At the time they were available for magneto motors. It got standard comp pistons, double speed oil pump drive, C'do rocker spindles etc etc, I suppose it was pretty close to a 650cc Commando motor, if you know what I mean. After that, and carefully running it in it would do a reliable 115mph. It would cruise nicely at 85/90 on a good day, when we were in a hurry. The Dunstall waste of space cam had a real surge in power over 4,500 and was pretty flat under that, it was supposed to be a racing cam after all. With the 2S cam it was more like a Commando. really flat torque curve, revved cleanly up to about 6,500 I don't remember going over that.
When I had the 650SS I had several opportunities to ride Commandos, and almost always came away from the Commando ride preferring my SS except for the better brakes on (most) of the Commandos.
cheers
wakeup

wakeup said:

Hmmm, disappointing ......

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If I have enough years left I would like to someday build a lightweight Commando along the lines that Ludwig has done.
In the meantime, this dream needs completion. Rolling chassis done and tested for 5,000 very enjoyable miles ( using an original Vincent engine)
The hope and expectation is for a 100/100 engine - 100 horse and 100 ft lbs torque or thereabouts.

Weight is going to be around 330 dry +- 5 lbs.

Glen

If I was to dream up motorcycles, they would probably end up pretty close to these:




Just imagine..............
No moving parts other than the rotor bearings to wear out.
as I get older, the simpler the better is quickly becoming my motto.

Just imagine..............
No moving parts other than the rotor bearings to wear out.

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SwisSSHHH goes the passing gear >>>

http://bangshift.com/videos/watch-eric- ... cle-video/

'500cc DOHC horizontal cylinder, about 90mm bore, 4 valves, 40/45 bhp'

Sounds good however a good 1959 model AJS 7R (350cc) turns out about 40 bhp and it is a two valve motor. 4 valves typically gives 10% advantage, so a 500 should give at least 55bhp. What does a SOHC 4 valve Jawa speedway engine turn out ? I like the look of that Vincent engine, however big is not always better. A good Aermacchi 350 racer would probably give it a big fright on most race circuits, unless it is set up like the Irving Vincent with the trick frame and 1400cc motor with EMS.

The Vincent is 1360 CC . The complete bike is about a eighty pounds lighter than the Irving Vincent even tho it is road legal while the Irving Vincent is not . A power comparison is impossible to do until I get it together , broken in and dyno tested. The 1300 Irving Vincent used an earlier version of the TerryPrince heads I am using.

Glen