MrWolf

20 minutes ago, rockershovel said:

 

That would be Ernst Degner, who went to Suzuki and won their first GP in 1962? 

 

See also Honda, where the influence of NSU (particularly pressed steel frames and link front suspension) was fully utilised 

You're right, it's a long time since I read about it. Having worked with people who had escaped from the Soviet Union and worked there since the fall of communism, I have seen and heard enough to know that I would have done the same thing as Degner.

Set it somewhere around Stickney / Barney / Eastville or other obscure Flatbilly territory. 

Longwool Drove or Longwool Drain.

Yes, I can say Flatbilly without fear of being taken to task. Dad's family were farmers from the Ancaster area. 

48 minutes ago, rockershovel said:

The NSU Max was a very advanced design for its time. The Japanese knew this and paid good money for German expertise in the 1950s, and you can see the results. BMW also had a Sound basic design, properly engineered at a premium price (another example of a motorcycle built by aero-engine manufacturers) and it didn’t do them any harm. 

Just when MZ were really starting to make inroads into the world racing scene, Yamaha managed to poach their star rider, giving him and his girlfriend political asylum in exchange for a pile of drawings. Who's the daddy on the fast two stroke scene for the next couple of decades? 

One of my friends has a 1981 Harley Davidson "Rubber Shovel", one of the ugliest yet most competent Harley's that I have ever ridden. It has plenty of go (and stop, unusually) and I can throw it down the same roads and with the same attitude I enjoy riding my old British bikes. Roads that everyone I know with a modern tourer / sports bike avoid like the plague. IMHO Harley are much maligned and their image and traditional approach has won them as many detractors as fans.

As my friend who owns four vintage Harley's often says: I love the bikes, it's just half of the people who ride them I have no time for.

Lonely Weekend - Billy And The Essentials

Call Me - Hillbilly Moon Explosion

7 minutes ago, steve1 said:

 

No, my local village in North Yorkshire..

 

steve 

I walked right into that one.

And I left my gun at home...

3 minutes ago, New Haven Neil said:

Like the NSU Supermax Mr Wolf, a friend has one, absolutely identical even to the rare dual seat, but it isn't as nice as that one.

 

Fantastic engine with OHC driven by coupling rods on eccentrics, superb engineering and it is a joy to ride.

That Supermax is often seen about on dry days year round and he doesn't hang around on it either. It's a quick little bike.

I was kind of lost on that one, I vaguely remember a dismantled CB72, but by the time I started riding in the mid eighties, the only sixties Japanese bikes we ever saw were down at heel cubs and the occasional (rather Germanic looking) CD175. 

Canterbury?

You're My Big Baby Now - Roy Moss

Nice job, that is some convincing canal soup.

It reminds me of a lovelorn girl who said: "He doesn't care, I might as well go and drown myself in the canal".

To which a cynic replied: " It might be quicker to drink some of it..."

One of my all time favourites that I shouldn't have let myself get talked into selling. The Excelsior F6S Consort Deluxe.

Alcyon obscurity.

Road going 250 Bultaco. I can honestly say it's the only one that I have ever seen. At a distance I assumed it was a typical Italian 175.

A very not British NSU. Nice to ride and nice to work on. Well made and we'll finished. Plus you won't find another ten in the car park.

I had a similar experience with a series C Vincent Rapide when replacing the timing gear outrigger plate. I suspect that Vincents being a machine built to aircraft standards, always being the revered and expensive choice of people who were into engineering, they never had any of the abuse that marques of lesser pedigree endured at the hands of learners, bodgers and tightwads. In fact, the amount of neglect and abuse I have seen on British bikes has to be seen to be believed. Yet they still ran, which says something for the robustness and quality of engineering at least.

The thing that winds me up about modern bikes (yes they do everything better, but a lot less people want a photo of it) is that if I want to change a spark plug on a lot of them, it's a drag.

Remove seat, sidepanels, petrol tank, hoses, wiring, more hoses, air box... Then realise that you need a special slim wall socket to remove the plugs from down a mineshaft. ("Naked" GSXR 1400 ) All misplaced patriotism aside, I will stick with old style bikes.

Endless Love - The Capris

Honestly I think that your version is both finer in scale and more crisp in detail.

How did you make the head of the ash shovel?

It isn't at all surprising when you look at the postwar world. It's not that Britain was incapable of making such things. The innovation of the 1930s that is still being reinvented proves that.

The problem is that just like our railways, the motorcycle industry had run itself into the ground during the war and received none of the promised rewards as the government changed and ploughed everything into the welfare state. Machinery and production methods were hopelessly outdated and the only way for British companies to survive was to turn out existing models to earn foreign currency during the export or die period. 

The situation never improved. For instance when AMC bought out Norton and moved all of their machinery down to London, they found that they couldn't make crankcase halves within tolerance and scrapped a lot before seeking out the retired machine operator from Bracebridge Street. He told AMC: "You forgot the bit of wood" The machine had been bought secondhand by Pa Norton back in 1911 and it was so worn that workers had thrashed a picture of wood between the back of the cutting head and the factory wall to take up the slack in the slideways.

Japan on the other hand had no such problems. The victorious allies, rather than leaving them to contemplate their arrogance at poking the bear and leave them in the stone age, decided to help rebuild their industries to modern US mass production standards and show them how to make it work. A delegation from the Nuffield Organisation, later BMC, showed Nissan how to make their new A series engine (prewar they produced the Austin 7 under licence) That was developed with government money and powered the Datsun Cherrys that outshone and undercut British Leyland in the 70s. 

Freed of the necessity to rebuild its industry, the Japanese government could pour money into the development and marketing departments of industry. Honda's development shop received around £35000 a month in subsidies in the early 60s

Add to this the blinkered arrogance of those who had the final say over anyone in this country who had a radical idea and it's not surprising that we fell behind. I'm thinking here for instance Norton's Joe Craig who was still following the single cylinder route for his racing machinery and wouldn't consider the idea of developing a DOHC inline four for the Manx frame. Or Edward Turner telling the British industry that the Japanese machines were inferior lightweights and we had nothing to fear. That finished our lightweight manufacturers and if you learn on a little Honda, why wouldn't you buy a big one once you had your license? 

As proof perhaps that development and investment was the way forward, that casing is die cast rather than sand cast. A process that creates a thinner, lighter component that is more accurate, more complex and far easier to machine quickly and accurately and although the tooling is far more costly, lower grades of alloys can be used in lesser quantity. It's just an all round winner.

The only way that should leak is due to metal decomposition or baboon attack.

8 hours ago, chuffinghell said:

I’m surprised you haven’t suggested a panzer tank 

Do you know what those things do to the gallon? 

Even less than b#ses.

There may be a big daft lump of iron appear on my layout, but it's one of ours and that's on you for getting everyone all enthused about Lowmacs. 

8 minutes ago, surfsup said:

 

What's stopping me watching it? Anyway, it's now added to my watch list. I wonder how long it'll run for at that price! 

Welcome to the club, membership is free!

Some 100% old school Triumphs.

4 hours ago, Paul H Vigor said:

I wonder what 'it' is!?  Hope it doesn't relate to the "White stuff.on top..."!?

Naaaaaasssty.....

I'm just starting on the landscape around the river on my layout. I'm certain that I will at the very least learn from you how to create water effects. I need a whole lot of well eroded limestone pebbles, I am guessing 3mm to dust. I have a good idea where to get some, so it's a good excuse to go out on a quick motorcycle trip tomorrow lunchtime!