mike wilson

If you don't like the looks of the pictured, create your own. http://www.vincentmotors.com/CNF/ (I went through most permutations and still came out with nothing that I would pay £20K for)

Big tick and a gold star 8-) I also agree with you.

No stumpers here. Company and model, please.

My father once had a bottle of Cardxu. Cardhu whisky that had been aged in a pitchpine cask. Tasted like Retsina.

It might have been diverse 300 years ago but it's rapidly becoming as monolithic as North Korea. There is no such thing as overwhelming violence in a guerilla war. Which is what we are in although most of our representatives have yet to realise it. We _are_ going to lose the "war on terror" using the tactics deployed at present. The only people "shocked and awed" are the innocent civilians of all types who are in the middle of it.

No damage = not a bodge. My brother's brother-in-law has a hill farm. Very occasionally, he needs to use a tractor to do some work. One day, the clutch was stuck engaged. Many days later it was still stuck. So.... He bores a hole in the bell housing at the back of the flywheel where the friction material runs. Then carefully drills through the flywheel until friction material starts to show. Then, with my brother holding the clutch out, he belts the friction plate with a drift through the holes. The clutch, she is freed. Blanking plug in the bell housing and it's ready to go any time it happens in the future. Hole in the bell housing = damage = bodge.

You've mixed that one up with "skunk". 8-))))) Fiddling with yourself doesn't count.

For UK subscribers: Flexible hose for attaching to your grease gun http://www.cromwell.co.uk/static/publicati.../pages/1005.pdf End fittings and nipples http://www.cromwell.co.uk/static/publicati.../pages/1007.pdf Grease nipples if you need many http://www.cromwell.co.uk/static/publicati.../pages/1222.pdf Home (for ordering) http://www.cromwell.co.uk/index

Just things that I've seen in xxyears of VMCC events. I had a hand in the cutting up of patches (sidecar outfit had a puncture in rear tyre. before he could stop, the tyre spun on the rim, dragging the nail round and round. about 30 holes and no spare. QD Norton wheel didn't, either...) and jokingly suggested the throttle cable fix, which worked. Most of the rest is the sort of scary stuff that kids do to keep bikes running in fields whilst they learn about IC engines and haven't yet realised their vulnerability. Some people never learn.

Where do you want to start? Shims under brake cams, fence wire wrapped around the cylinder between the fins and then wrapped around the exhaust pipe to hold it on, wood screws used to hold tin chaincases to aluminium crankcases, gorilla snot used to hold sheared off brake system bolt heads in place for MOTs, broken throttle cables tied around thighs so that you could accelerate by moving your knee outwards, bicycle inner-tube gaiters used on motorcycle tyres, cutting up repair outfit patches to deal with multiple punctures, brake shoe lining material cut off other shoes and epoxyed to ones that you can't get replacements for, house paint slapped on over rust, grease, road dirt and bugs, seat covers made from supermarket plastic bags. Just off the top of my head and I claim ownership of _none_ of them....

Propanol is the stuff. Old name propyl alcohol. There are two forms, propan-1-ol and propan-2-ol. Number 2 is the iso kind and that's the one that combines with water to make it mix with petrol. Your local chemist will probably sell you a bottle if you explain what you want it for. You put loads of water through the engine every time you run it - it's in the air. I find that I have to drop the float bowls of my V65 at regular intervals to drain water out. It's not coming down the cables, so I can only assume that it is condensate caused by the drop in temperature as the fuel evaporates into the airstream.

The aeroplane engine manufacturer Anzani had close connections with Buchet. There are some pictures of him on Buchet and Buchet-engined machines here. http://www.hydroretro.net/etudegh/moteurs_anzani.pdf Another potential source of information: http://lesmotocyclettes.free.fr/moto/buchet.htm And, finally, a _much_ better picture - with, presumably, Fournier riding. http://www.tracesdhuile.net/forum/communiq...-grt-vt943.html About halfway down the page. No brakes, no throttle, direct drive (although it might have a 3-speed hub), possibly a magneto cut-out, a pullover and possibly a cotton and leather helmet. Not yer average cheese-eating-surrender-monkey.....

The only worrying cosmetic flaw I can spot is on 41, where it looks like an oil leak has marked the l/h pipe/silencer. Just spotted the rusty steering stem, also. Plus plenty of water marks. Someone has been riding this in the rain! Other marks I am attributing to the low resolution we suffer with digital images. IAC, it looks like this machine is yet another non-starter for me. I just won't fit. The search for a Spada continues.

Not with an FI engine. You can have positive pressure right up to the valve head. The more air you can get past the sensors, the more fuel will be added and the more power made. Right up to the limit of the injectors to deal with it, or the limit of the software. Modern engine intake design makes allowances for this free form of super charging at higher road speeds. On a carburetted engine this would not work as negative pressure is needed to, er, extract (OK, Pete?...) the fuel from the jet.

Oil return line. Looks like it has offshoots for valve gear lubrication, to help stem the dreaded Vincent top-end rattle. I've heard Vincents described as "...like two gas stoves being dragged over cobbles" and "A collection of solutions looking for their problems", both of which seem apt. Undoubtedly good-looking machines, though.

I think the legally-required reflector attached to the rear end will be the problem.

The Graiseley Hill products win hands down for cosmetic quality. Nobody (not even Sunbeam) could match the quality of their paintwork and plating. Mechanically, I am not so sure. The Leader's pretty good at generating its own fog.

Does the S stand for "Skunk"?

The kneecap is not so much the problem. You can have it removed. All it does is protect the joint - which is where the real damage occurs. Overextension, twisting, stretching all damage the ligaments that hold the joint together. 26 years ago gone July and it won't really get much better now. Still very careful with it and it's the one part of my body that I'm constantly aware of. I _really_ don't recommend joint injuries. Given the choice, break your leg.

The Hesketh's not obsolete. The Scura is.

But for simple elegance combined with stark mechanical beauty, is there anything to rival:

Only if he can cruise at the legal limit. With low emissions.

_Mr_ Wilson????? I can't find anything about area of squish bands. Got a reference? I would say that two strokes can run bigger squish areas due to the superior design of their cylinder heads, which offsets some of their disadvantages. Primary compression not being one of them. Unless you have a super/turbocharger, a fourstroke has much less impetus for the mixture to be propelled into the combustion space than a two stroke. If you argued that the tortuous path the mixture has to follow through the ports is a hinderance, I might agree. I do agree that four strokes are not able to employ the elegant simplicity of a two stroke squish band but need to make allowances for all the paraphernalia that has to be included up there. It's just another step in their unnecessary complexity. 8-)

My preferred pattern would be: 8 6 2 4 10 9 3 1 5 7 Hair splitting?

It's one of the disadvantages of working from web images, which can hardly be defined as high quality. Looking at it after the event, you can see the difference between the soviet frame and engine and the other parts - but only because you know. An excellent quiz. I did look on the autosoviet site because of the chain on the right hand side (not normal for Japanese bikes) but didn't spot this.