Worlds fastest Indian,

worntorn said:
The Irving Vincent is more along the lines of the special I have been building,
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The 1600cc 4 valve irving Vincent is reported as dynoing out at over 180 bhp....
 
Horners show the 1600 at 165 crankshaft hp on their site, although they were working on a four valve head. Last I heard it was not producing as much power as the two valve head, but they may have worked thru those problems by now. Their 1300 is somewhat similar to the 1360 Im building, at least as near as I can ascertain, they are very secretive.
The Renwick bike uses nitrous and is a pretty wild machine by all accounts. I believe the youtube video showed it producing 180 RWHP on Renwick's dyno.

Glen
 
Yep, see the link to the original old Avon film of the actual event, three or four posts back.

Glen
 
You would have to think that camaraderie would be half the lure of Bonneville - all those like minded souls. ?
And for a small town boy to go to America and race, in the 1950s, that was - exotic....
 
When Burt was in the US, he often stayed with Marty Dickerson. Marty is a fellow speed demon, of the Vincent variety. When I was last at the N Cal Vincent rally I had a good chat with him.
Burt would describe his experiences and mechanical discoveries in great detail. Marty thought this was pretty interesting stuff, so he recorded Burts ramblings on an old reel to reel recorder.
When Anthony Hopkins wanted to learn about Burt's character, he used the hours of tape Marty had. That is in part why the character seems so real- a great actor with access to the actual subject, who was indeed a colourful and unusual person.

Marty served as a consultant on the film, but I don't think they paid him much. The reason I say that is because the Vincent club members recently chipped in to buy him a set of false teeth. This improved his life greatly, so much so that, at his advanced age (around 80?) he went out and set another record, this time using Steve Hamel's Bonneville Vincent twin.

Marty and Rollie Free (first man to break 150mph, 1949, the bathing suit bike, Vincent Black Lightning) were portrayed in the movie as the two fellows who helped Burt when he first came to Bonneville. This is true to life, although Rollie was portrayed as a large Cigar chomping man, when in reality he was a small cigar chomping man.

Both Marty and Rollie set many speed records there, as far as I know all on Vincents.

Glen
 
Its easier to grit your teeth and go faster - when you have a set of teeth.
Sorry, couldn't resist it. !

Interesting stuff, thanks.
Speed is obviously something that gets in the blood.
Although that old saying kicks in here - "speed costs, how fast do YOU want to go ?".

Rollie was famous before the war for his Indian exploits.
May even have been a bathing suit episode....
 
From Heyes Hardware store in Invercargill NZ.

The 2 Munro bikes are in a glass box so the pictures have a lot of reflections, sorry.

The now deceased owner was aparantly a friend of Burts and has his Indian and Velocette on display along with heaps of other old bikes, cars and mechanical things.
It's is well worth a trip there to see all in the working hardware store. And NZ south island is bloody beautiful, and the people are very friendly.

Worlds fastest Indian,


Worlds fastest Indian,


Worlds fastest Indian,


Worlds fastest Indian,


Worlds fastest Indian,


Worlds fastest Indian,


Worlds fastest Indian,


They have one of the red streamliner bikes used in the movie with a 750 Ducati engine.
The museum in Invercargill has one of the replica Indian bikes that was shown in the movie without the streamlining, complete with patina. And the other red streamliner with Ducati engine.

The frame of the Velocette has holes drilled all over it and the holes at the front engine mount have been filled with cork or something and painted black to look like metal,,,,,,

http://www.ehayes.co.nz/burt-munro/

graeme
 
Rohan said:
Without even looking at that, from the small size of the fairing and low profile, and other similar bikes, and the type of engine used, it would have been somewhere in the 65-70 bhp bracket or thereabouts. Or maybe a shade more - anyone know what fuel he was using ?

So how does the calculator see it. ?

BTW, someone with his original type of Indian, with NO modifications, jokingly refers to his as the worlds slowest Indian.
Not one part the same...
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Re; - anyone know what fuel he was using ?

I’ll have a look at this website , it says metahnol.

http://www.ehayes.co.nz/burt-munro/
 
Great pics Graeme, thanks for sharing those.
Reflections on the Velo make it look transparent almost, quite something.

It say he converted his Scout to 4 cam - timing cover doesn't show any sign of this ??
 
Look at the holes in the Velo frame,,,, it is nearly transparent.
I was amased that it would hold together.
If you see it in real life you can see the corks (or something that looks like cork or wood) that's been placed in the holes and painted black so the frame looks like metal at the lower front engine mount.
hobot would be impressed!

Worlds fastest Indian,


Worlds fastest Indian,


Worlds fastest Indian,


Worlds fastest Indian,
 
holey hobot is impressed by Burt's lightening stuff to breakage then recover, remake part a bit stronger them move on to lighten the next piece til damage and injury, then recover and repeat till nothing bad happened. I've not read all that much on Burt but have seen lists of fractures and dislocations and spinal whiplashing episodes. I've my own photo collection of Burt's Bikes and the snazzy Buck Rodgers extended mufflers always impress me.
 
One Good Run by Tim Hanna would be a must read for you hobot, and anyone else who hasn't read it.
Hacksawing Triumph cranks in half to get 270 degrees then welding it up, finding no more power so he put it under the bench.
Carving rods from truck axles.
Making his own wind dyno.
Scrounging material from where ever he could.
etc
etc

I can't imagine where he would have gone if he had money for machinery and materials.

graeme
 
hobot said:
... lightening stuff to breakage then recover, remake part a bit stronger them move on to lighten the next piece til damage and injury, then recover and repeat till nothing bad happened.
Click to expand...
Sounds exactly like Colin Chapman's philosophy.
 
If it blows up before the line it's too hot .
If it blows up after the line it isn't hot enough.
if it blows up ON the line it's just right.
BURT MUNROE

Worlds fastest Indian,
 
The Indian stand at the International Motorcycle show in NYC had this on display as one of the record setting machines. There is some debate as to whether it is or isnt. This is the only picture I got of it.
Worlds fastest Indian,
 
According to Tim Hanna's book , One Good Run . He left the record Chassis in America , when sold he couldnt bear to part with the original Jeffersons Axe ;
Er , Engine . So built a replacement to supply there .
My take is that as the engine was continually developed , the ' spare ' engine wouldve been built with discarded original parts from earlyer succesful runs , as in
used in the succesful record attepts or runs . as it was taken out in capacity twice , later .And suffered a number of letting goes over the years .

The engine retained in NZ would be a evolution of the original ? , useing some ? original components . The leftovers ( leftbehind original parts / barrels etc )
being incorpoated in the engine sent to the US for fitting in the record chassis .

After a while ( back ) in NZ he found he needed a test chassis for engine development , so created a replica of the original ( now in US ) chassis .

Then theres the two or three replicas built by Britten for the Worlds fastest Indian film .
 
As mentioned previously...

If you look at pics of those things, unless the gearbox is the original 1920 Scout item, there isn't actually much 1920 Scout left there - most parts have been listed as changed or improved, or blown up. The rear wheel may be in one version - but may have just been fitted for show later on, much later on - you'd doubt that a clincher rim with loose-type ball bearings would be good for 200 mph...
 
Bearings ! Bearings . :shock: Theres nothing wrong with those bearings ? I havnt had to grease them for 40 yrs . :?
Similar story on the beaded tyres . Old Story was he used Knobblys with the knobs sawn of and rasped them smooth .

Would have to check when he changed to modern rims , but it was when the wheel bearings gave out .
 
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