mike wilson

My, he's strong. I would have to keep my arms straight.....

Where did you see that? He looks comprehensively toasted to me. If there was even a vestige of hope, I would have expected the paramedics to be all over him.

Not to be sniffed at.

I seem to be suffering from the worst of both worlds.

Silver coloured or coppery?

Useful info, from a PhD Chem, although it might be slightly outdated. http://www.off-road.com/offroad/article/ar...l.jsp?id=290242

If you were right, I expect we would see many more machines with pegged rings.

Halfords own brand 30A relay £4.99 If you are feeling particularly anal, you could wipe a smear of RTV or grease around the joint. Buy two and have a spare....

I don't think I did. The chain is on the other side, there are frame gusseting differences; but it's a racing machine, so who the Hell knows? I was just going on the "whispering death" soubriquet. If anything ever looked like it would sieze at the hint of a cloud in the sky, that machine is it. The Jawa looks more like it but was only ever watercooled from what I can find out. Time to break out the book of Russian motorcycles.....

It's the obvious thiings that trip us up really badly, usually. 8-) WRT your point about breaking in - yes, if all rings were keyed they would probably break in quicker. But they would also wear out quicker, too. As they rotate, wear is spread around the ring. This is a _good thing_ .

One person's fun is another's bilious abomination. In case I am just thick, could someone please explain: 1. the lack of front mudguard 2. the wildly offest double choke carb 3. the odd brackety thing under the gearbox 4. last, but not least, by a long, long way, the ski pole

"The very successful twin cylinder 125cc led to the square four 250 Suzuki RZ 63, essentially two of the 125 engines coupled together. Known as ‘whispering death’ due to its ability to seize without warning, the 250 never finished higher than third throughout its career and the project was shelved." Hmmm?

I didn't know Guzzi had a factory in France. 8-)

Non-keyed rings have the _ability_ to float but they don't necessarily do so. It's my _impression_ that a lot depends on how the individual tolerances match up on a piston/barrel combination, as to whether this happens. Certainly, ones I have seen that have had significant damage (not necessarily siezure but noticeable scratches in the barrel) seem to "key" themselves into one orientation. Keyed rings (on two strokes) don't rotate but they are keyed only to prevent the end of a ring finding itself floating past a port, springing out of its groove and then being trapped by the edge of the port, bringing everything to a rapid stop or causing severe discomfort to the piston and barrel.

Something on clearances wrt lubrication might work well at this point.

The Dunlop factory around the corner has just closed shop. Don't think it made tyres but occasionally we would get a whiff of "green" rubber. Revolting.......

I wouldn't worry too much at the moment. There is a lot of working out to do before it gets enacted. For example: the retailer buys a tyre. It sits in stock for 18months before someone buys it. Would you pay full retail price if you knew it had 18 months less life than a fresh tyre? Who is going to keep stock of unusual, low volume sizes (that's _all_ motorcycle tyres , btw) when they might lose money on them because of poor turnover?

Not too difficult when you move away from one-off, "back room" work. After all, pistons are not circular in plan nor do they have straight sides. Only by a few thou' but they are critical dimensions for maximum durability. It is the modern capability for mass accurate machining, in many ways, that has brought us to the reliability point we are at now. My car is up to 160,000 miles, doesn't burn oil, has never had the head off and still does 50mpg. A couple of generations ago, that would have been very much the exception.

This is a very much an "it depends" question. Keep a tyre in an inert, temperature and moisture controlled atmosphere, in the dark, and you get a much higher life expectancy - depending on the actual tyre, as they are all subtly different. There's no way to put an actual number on it without extensive testing, though. I have expected this sort of legislation for quite some time. The legislators will probably take a "worst case" scenario to be on the "safe" side.

People want to buy it. A bit like petrol.

Looks like you are right. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soichiro_Honda

1969 Jawa 500cc

You should look again. http://www.amazon.com/Manifold-Destiny-Gui...e/dp/0375751408 Look at the price......

The hydrocarbon sauce will make it tastier than McDonald's, too.

It's better than Biggles Glencarron.