Rat Bike Project

[facthunter]

Let it Rest in Peace. It's too far gone and the Later Indians were made when the tooling was worn out at the factory, during the War Years. I think 53 was the Last year of REAL Indian Production. The 80  Cubic inch Blackhawk Had quite a few Issues. There were some BADGED English bikes Brockhouse (brave) and Royal Enfield Twins that carried the Name for a short time. The Brand was resurrected about 20 years ago and might have been built by Polaris. Nev

[nomadpete]

Will, go for it.

It doesn't matter what a project is worth in dollar$.

Just do it.

 

[willedoo]

1 hour ago, nomadpete said:

Will, go for it.

It doesn't matter what a project is worth in dollar$.

Just do it.

 

Thanks Pete, but I don't remember mentioning cost or value. It's something that's never entered my mind and won't. It's the journey not the destination.

[willedoo]

A bit off topic but I found this pic of what was left of my old 750 fastback that I bought new in 1972. It went end over end a few times at 100mph+ so that's why it looks like a bashed crab. The gearbox was ok and most of the motor except the crankcases were cracked. The fibreglass tank had stress cracks as well. Bought it back from the insurance company for $80.

 

 

[nomadpete]

8 hours ago, willedoo said:

I don't remember mentioning cost or value.

You didn't.

I was acknowledging that such projects are like other art forms - it's not done for profit.

[facthunter]

An appropriate Motorcycle, even in it's original form can be a work of art.  With some, you wonder what the designer was thinking.  Even it's Mother wouldn't love it. The essential thing is to finish what you take on, or it becomes a burden. Life is short.  You won't do everything you would like to. There's an urge in a lot of people to BE different but also to have something that Others admire and desire. Have and do WHAT YOU want rather than impress others. What suites them May not suit you. A second Hand 1947 Royal Enfield Bullet costing 5 Pounds was my trusty steed for Many Years. I didn't give a tuppenny for what others thought of it. OR what it was worth. I did all the work on it and for a lot of the time it was my only transport. Nev

[willedoo]

Crazy cams

 

[nomadpete]

My goodness! The wear must be crazy. Side thrusts everywhere!

[willedoo]

7 hours ago, nomadpete said:

My goodness! The wear must be crazy. Side thrusts everywhere!

I reckon they would have gone cross-eyed trying to design them. A simple construction requiring a complicated cam shape. This is the parts manual drawing; it seems to exaggerate the shape a bit.

 

 

Edited 7 hours ago by willedoo

[facthunter]

I think it's out of a Howard V twin, rotary Hoe.  A conical cam is not that difficult  to form . That Howard motor is petty crude. The  skew gear on the Mainshaft (not shown) is Bronze and there's not much Provision for Oiling the cams.  A few of them were Put in Motorbikes. Not that successful as they don't have a lot of Power and don't hot up well.  The crankcase is Cast iron. Nev

[willedoo]

I found this exploded view image that gives another look at the Howard cams. The image was named Howard Twelve, which could be right as I think the water cooled Howard Twelve and the air cooled Howard Eight shared very similar if not the same bottom ends. Second photo is a Howard Twelve.

 

[willedoo]

Here's a before photo of my old Howard Eight. It's a crusty old motor but I'd like to get it running again. It hasn't run for a lot of years, but there's still oil residue in the crankcase and timing chest and it still turns. Just the usual stuck valves and stuff like that. The Howard Eights are getting rare now but one good thing is that they share the same barrel, piston and rings as the single cylinder Howard Junior engine. Howard Juniors are fairly plentiful and a there's a lot of restorers doing them up, so new rings should be fairly easy to track down.

 

If I can get it running ok, it might be a rat bike contender. People put them in road bikes but they need a bit of serious work and some mods to fill that role. For what I want, it would probably do the job. This contraption I'm trying to build will never be registered on the road and unlikely to ever go beyond second gear. A couple of cooling fans would help it a lot. The Howard carburettor can go to a rotary hoe restorer and be replaced with a 38mm round slide Mikuni. The other issue is it's missing the magneto and you'd probably have to mortgage the house to buy one if you could ever track one down. The other alternative is set up a battery, coil and distributer ignition. VW distributors are cheap and it would be an interesting side project to  convert one. Just a matter of remanufacturing the drive and making a custom cam ring with the bumps at 205° and 155° instead of 180° to suit the 50° V angle.

 

[facthunter]

Use a one lobe cam and have two sets of points ( in the correct position) and use 2 coils. You then need a generator, Battery, Start method and a Gearbox and clutch, preferably with a reverse gear.  A Jo Hunt Magneto (Fairbanks Morse rotating Magnet) would be the best Magneto.  J.A.P.'s use 50 degrees  Nev

[willedoo]

Royal Enfield Musket V-twin:

 

https://www.musketvtwin.com/