Random Picture Thread Vers.4

almost unique for it's barrel orientation wasn't it?

 

Just looked it up and it had a 4" stroke... so it wouldn't surprise the orientation was to prevent the bike becoming too tall.

 

That is a lovely looking bike, looks exactly like the one in that transport yard except his/hers was Black. all over.

 

it was exactly this, i know containing engines within an allocated space is a pain for a designer, you will remember how some bikes could suffer with front tyres touching water rad on extreme braking as packaging limits so small at times.

 

BSA also made a "sloper" single, as did Vincent.

 

yes, and more besides - was talking about the precise angle that was all. This varied slightly even within the Panther range i believe.

 

I understand this was the reason the bevels had quite a raked out front end to stop the wheel hitting the front cylinder - just looked it up and the 900SS had a 28° rake.

 

Me on my best mate's TT Panther. Last year he toured in France on it with a ride to the centenary of Autodrome de Montlhéry.

 

You are Prince Michael of Kent and I claim my £5!

 

i remember a joke from my teens about Panthers with their long stroke - they fire about every lampost!

 

1951 Vincent Comet

'Mighty Mouse'. 500cc.

"The addition of a twin lobe Marshall supercharger and an increase in the fuel mixture to 75% nitro with 25% methanol meant that the bike was now producing an estimated 125bhp at 9000rpm and returning a fuel consumption of four miles per gallon...

... won the ACU Championship outright in 1977 and the following year recorded the bikes best ever figures of 8.81/157."

(For those not au fait with Drag Racing, that's a quarter mile in 8.81 seconds, crossing the line at 157mph).

 

And because of that low down slow punch I believe they were primarily built for sidecar use.

 

This was Brian Chapman's drag bike. The single broke 10 seconds for the quarter mile, and Brian's later twin cylinder Vincent (Super Mouse) broke 9 seconds. Both fantastic achievements.

Brian was actually a carpenter by trade. He invited me to visit him at his home in Waltham Abbey and he showed me his workshop with builds in progress. Lovely chap.

 

Wow. And doesn't sound so different from John Hobbs.

I saw Mighty Mouse a number of times at the Pod. Can't remember if I was there for his fastest run though.

 

from Bike magazine, artist was shoba, I think

 

What an ugly kid!

 

The Trumpet obviously appears to be a racing version - which would presumably explain minor differences like the tacho drive. Otherwise it's a pre war Tiger 80.

 

Another difference which I admit I did notice, and which you can just about see in the photo, is that the lower part of the header has a bracket welded to it which was bolted to the frame down tube. But apart from that there was nothing holding it tight into the head