UK Government Brings I.C.E MOTORCYCLE BAN forward to 2030!

[Lucky Phil]

9 hours ago, Pressureangle said:

You've been here 2 weeks and your second post is supporting the destruction of the purpose of the list  you joined?

I had to laugh a few years back on another Guzzi forum some member waxing lyrical about electric bikes like old blokes who still want to look up to date, hip and "relevant". He'd taken one for a ride and was impressed by how when you stopped at an intersection you could sit there and hear the birds chirping, lol. When I get on my motorcycle what I want to hear when stopped at an intersection is a big V twin with free flowing mufflers idling underneath me. It's one of the joys of riding a big V twin, the noise it makes. The irony of owning one of the worlds most individual brands of transport and preaching about how you need to get rid of them is not lost on me.

Phil  

[audiomick]

Phil, I was allowed to take a Tesla for a short spin. If I had a motorcycle that went like that thing did, I wouldn't give a shit how it sounded.

 

The best V-Twin sound I ever heard was a Montjuich. A shop in Preston (I think) owned it, and a mate of mine got a ride on it. He rode it straight to my place to show me. I heard him coming on Kingsbury Drive, and I was inside on Dwyer Street. Sounded amazing, but too loud. I like the sound of my Guzzis too, but quiet is also good.

[Lucky Phil]

21 minutes ago, audiomick said:

Phil, I was allowed to take a Tesla for a short spin. If I had a motorcycle that went like that thing did, I wouldn't give a shit how it sounded.

 

The best V-Twin sound I ever heard was a Montjuich. A shop in Preston (I think) owned it, and a mate of mine got a ride on it. He rode it straight to my place to show me. I heard him coming on Kingsbury Drive, and I was inside on Dwyer Street. Sounded amazing, but too loud. I like the sound of my Guzzis too, but quiet is also good.

Mick, close to the bottom of my priority list for a car and motorcycle is outright acceleration. Any modern road car with more than 450hp and motorcycle with more than 100 hp is a totally pointless exercise. I have 200 hp motorcycle and it's less enjoyable to ride on the road than my 45 hp motorcycle and that's why it got retired off the road over 10 years ago with 800klms on the clock. I wouldn't own a Tesla even if someone gave me one.

The Supra forum is full of people modifying their road cars to make 600-750hp! Why. It's not like they have the ability or the environment to use it.

Phil

[audiomick]

22 minutes ago, Lucky Phil said:

..outright acceleration.

Outright acceleration is not quite the point. You're right, more than 100 hp in a bike is pointless on the road. The point is the way it gets up and goes from zero. Plant the foot, and it happens. No internal combustion engine can do what an electric motor can do. Maximum torque at zero revs. That has its attraction, and I would like to have a bike that does that.

[Lucky Phil]

3 minutes ago, audiomick said:

Outright acceleration is not quite the point. You're right, more than 100 hp in a bike is pointless on the road. The point is the way it gets up and goes from zero. Plant the foot, and it happens. No internal combustion engine can do what an electric motor can do. Maximum torque at zero revs. That has it's attraction, and I would like to have a bike that does that.

Yea, not important to me Mick, I like the challenge of getting a manual car off the line clean and smooth. One of the joys of motoring is a manual transmission and a clutch. That's why I didn't buy a Supra until they released a manual version and I'd never own an automatic motorcycle with the exception of a scooter. But then again a scooter to me is purely a functional thing designed for a specific purpose much like a fridge, washing machine or an electric car. A mobile version of a white good with the same emotional connection.

Phil

[audiomick]

49 minutes ago, Lucky Phil said:

...I like the challenge of getting a manual car off the line clean and smooth. One of the joys of motoring is a manual transmission and a clutch.

Yes, I know what you mean, and I will likely never own an automatic car or bike. I rode a scooter around the parking lot at La Trobe once, and decided that it was just dangerous. Not interested.

The electric driveline in the Tesla was a different beast altogether. I didn't get to cane it in the curves, but I think getting the most out of it would be not unlike finding the groove on a bike with an internal combustion engine and manual transmission. Anyone can ride fairly fast on a modern bike, but finding the groove is still an art. I reckon finding the groove with an electric drivetrain is probably just as much of an art and a joy.

My dad owned a late '70s Falcon with a 4.1 motor for a while, an XC, I think. I was young and reckless, and loved driving it at about 140 km/h on the dirt roads around the family home near Cobram. The "made" dirt roads were bluestone, and the big, fat Falcon would dance a bit on those roads at that speed. Or the feeling that the bike is just starting to slide a bit. Getting that right with an internal combustion engine is an art. Getting it right with an electric drivetrain is likely to be a bit different, but undoubtably an art in its own right. I'd love to be able to experiment.

 

Edit: this looks like the Falcon in quesition, for those who are not familiar with Australian cars. The car in the picture is a Fairmont, which was the "luxury" model, but it is the same colour, at least, and the body shape was the same for the series XA to XC, Falon or Fairmont.

By Jeremy from Sydney, Australia - Ford Fairmont XC, CC BY 2.0,

[Lucky Phil]

4 hours ago, audiomick said:

Yes, I know what you mean, and I will likely never own an automatic car or bike. I rode a scooter around the parking lot at La Trobe once, and decided that it was just dangerous. Not interested.

The electric driveline in the Tesla was a different beast altogether. I didn't get to cane it in the curves, but I think getting the most out of it would be not unlike finding the groove on a bike with an internal combustion engine and manual transmission. Anyone can ride fairly fast on a modern bike, but finding the groove is still an art. I reckon finding the groove with an electric drivetrain is probably just as much of an art and a joy.

My dad owned a late '70s Falcon with a 4.1 motor for a while, an XC, I think. I was young and reckless, and loved driving it at about 140 km/h on the dirt roads around the family home near Cobram. The "made" dirt roads were bluestone, and the big, fat Falcon would dance a bit on those roads at that speed. Or the feeling that the bike is just starting to slide a bit. Getting that right with an internal combustion engine is an art. Getting it right with an electric drivetrain is likely to be a bit different, but undoubtably an art in its own right. I'd love to be able to experiment.

 

Edit: this looks like the Falcon in quesition, for those who are not familiar with Australian cars. The car in the picture is a Fairmont, which was the "luxury" model, but it is the same colour, at least, and the body shape was the same for the series XA to XC, Falon or Fairmont.

By Jeremy from Sydney, Australia - Ford Fairmont XC, CC BY 2.0,

You're never going to believe this Mick in 100 years but I owned the identical car same colour Fairmont everything for about 8 years. No rear blinds though. I bought it after my car was wrecked and it was not my best buy. Plenty of rust. It ended up a genuine beater in the end and leaked so much water it had grass growing in the passengers side footwell carpet. My most vivid memory of that car was how seriously under powered it was. The early days of strangling legacy designed engines with emission stuff before the figured out making them clean and still having power. An overtaking manoeuvre on our country roads in that car was a fraught affair requiring perfect timing a wind up and foot to the floor.

Phil   

[audiomick]

On 6/18/2024 at 6:45 AM, Lucky Phil said:

...The early days of strangling legacy designed engines with emission stuff before the figured out making them clean and still having power.

Yeah. The one my Dad had went alright, but it had problems with the exhaust manifold, and the solution was a set of headers, probably simply because they were cheaper than the original manifold. I think that helped.

 

As far as rust goes, my HK Monaro was full of it. The previous owner, who bought it new, lived somewhere down the bay in Melbourne, so it spent its life in salty air. That didn't do it any good.