War..... fastest indian

[v50man]

D. O. G. Dog.

 

Get over it........................

[helicopterjim R.I.P.]

D. O. G.  Dog.

 

Get over it........................

81829[/snapback]

 

 

Dyoji?

[dangerous]

D. O. G.  Dog.

 

Get over it........................

81829[/snapback]

 

 

Dyoji?

81833[/snapback]

WTF???

Ok so what the ell are you lot on about?

[Guest slowpoke]

I saw the movie and thought it was quite good. As a former owner of an Indian the accomplishment that Burt Munro did in very meager circumstances is something that all motorcyclists should be proud of. There are not many quality motorcycle movies and this is one.

[Guest Nogbad]

I saw the movie and thought it was quite good. As a former owner of an Indian the accomplishment that Burt Munro did in very meager circumstances is something that all motorcyclists should be proud of. There are not many quality motorcycle movies and this is one.

81880[/snapback]

 

I must go an see this one. Sounds like it could be an inspirational bodging movie as well as a bike movie.

[Lex]

My goodness, I get busy and don't stop by for a few days (OK, weeks) and you guys get off on a long discussion about what has become a favorite movie of mine. If you don't like this movie I can only conclude you were expecting a hardcore motorcycle move, it is not that. It is a movie about an exceptional human and his accomplishments.

 

I am very lucky to live on the central California coast for several reasons, one of them is the local motorcycle community. This is just another example. If you've seen the movie think about the two characters who show up after Burt gets to Bonneville, Rollie and Marty. Most of you have seen Rollie Free before, he is the guy in the famous picture of the Vincent Black Lightening running at Bonneville with the rider totally horizontal and wearing nothing but a bathing suit, helmet and tennis shoes. Marty is Marty Dickerson, also a Vincent rider and (to this day) Bonneville record holder. Marty just turned 80 and shows up pretty regularly on local rides. He is still fast, on our last ride I finally got past him but my 100 HP Ducati Vs. the 30-35 HP single he was riding gave me a slight edge. Yes, I passed him on a straight. Marty, Rollie and Burt were pretty good fiends.

 

Anyway, we took over the local art house movie theater here in San Luis Obispo (the Palm) last Saturday and watched the movie with Marty as the guest of honor. After the film Marty give us a slide show from the old days at Bonneville and a bunch of background about Burt and the adventures they all had. He also explained something that help the movie make a lot more sense, the writers really condensed all of the trips Munroe made (nine, I think) into a single trip so the movie wouldn't be 6 hours long. Yup, the ever creative Kiwi actually found a piece of wood on the side of the road and used it to hold up one side of the bike trailer to get to a place were he could fix the trailer. I'm very sorry to say the scene were the cop stops Burt on a public road is BS, Burt did his testing on an unused part of the salt flats. He was creative, not stupid.

 

My favorite part was when Marty talked about Burt and the ladies, the movie kind of hints at this but it was very toned down. One slide showed Marty, Rollie, Burt and a fourth guy in booth at a restaurant. Burt was positioned away from the isle, Marty explained that if they let Burt sit on the outside he would grab the waitress! Another slide showed the real version of the scene where the Bonneville folks chipped in to give Burt some money. In the movie he gave the girl a nice, little kiss. In the slide the kiss looked more like a couple of teenagers watching the submarine races.

 

Finally, the group went off to a very nice local riders house have lunch and see the bike. Yes, the bike. Somehow the World's Fasted Indian wound up in the small town were I live. The owner was kind enough to bring it to the party in SLO town. I'm pretty sure the bike has been cleaned up a bit, lots of things were polished and I get the impression Burt Munroe was much more concerned with performance then style. Here is a picture:

 

 

Great flick, bring the wife/ girlfriend and the kids, just don't expect the downunder version of On Any Sunday,

 

Lex

[Lex]

Here is the bike with half the body on.This is the final version of the bike, note the scoops in front of the rider have been replaced by an opening at the front and the "triple tail" (the real cause of the high speed instability) is gone.

[dangerous]

Lex, thats awesome to read, cheers for that.

Heres a link of the bikes used in the movie from a BEAR's meet local here last year http://community.webshots.com/album/296325135CUQmiB

I havent seen the bikes you posted, tell me more about them, are they copys or the real thing... as the origanal bike is here in NZ, and dosent look like that one of yours, its not red... its rusty as.

[Lex]

Lex, thats awesome to read, cheers for that.

Heres a link of the bikes used in the movie from a BEAR's meet local here last year  http://community.webshots.com/album/296325135CUQmiB 

I havent seen the bikes you posted, tell me more about them, are they copys or the real thing... as the origanal bike is here in NZ, and dosent look like that one of yours, its not red... its rusty as. 

81947[/snapback]

 

DD,

 

According to the people I have spoken with this is the bike that set the records. Marty said Burt got smart after his first couple of trips and just took the engine home to Invercargill*. An interesting point, the bike in these pictures doesn't have the SOHC or the later DOHC conversion he built. This bike is supposed to have the original cases, but I doubt a speed freak like Munroe cared much about things like authenticity, he just wanted to go very, very fast. I'm nearly sure this is the fastest chassis and bodywork but the fastest motor my well be the one in the bike in NZ. The people who made the two Ducati powered replicas used in the film came here to measure and photograph the bike in these pictures after the owner refused to let them take it home to NZ to use as a model.

 

The bike in your picture clearly has his first body work, Marty said Burt first cured the high speed instability by cutting off the "triple tail" and grafting on part of an aircraft (external) fuel tank Burt (of course) managed to scrounge in Salt Lake City, the nearest large town to the salt flats. None of the high speeds or records set at Bonneville were set with the triple tail, it was just too unstable at speed. I would guess they decided to use the original body work in the movie because A, it was in New Zealand and B, it looks cooler.

 

I would be very surprised if he didn't have a chassis at home for road testing, I would guess that is what is still in New Zealand. As you can see from the bodywork he got some sponsorship after he started setting big speed numbers, that probably allowed him to buy/ build a few things like a back-up chassis instead of being on the incredibly small budget (pretty much nothing) he started with.

 

What I'm most surprised about is that nobody has drawn the link from Burt Munroe to John Britton, another south island Kiwi who didn't let little things like impossibility stop him from reaching his goals.

 

 

Lex

 

* About the only large city in NZ I haven't visited, after we went to Dunedin in "summer" we lost our desire to go any further south . ;-)

[dangerous]

IIRC the movie was based on Burts 1st trip or two to the US, and he visited there for a 9yr period... so I'm thinking that the engine and bike that is in NZ is that bike, I have never seen the body work you have there so I'd say that that bike is his later creation, give it back ya bugger

got any more pic's?

[zappa]

DD,

 

According to the people I have spoken with this is the bike that set the records. Marty said Burt got smart after his first couple of trips and just took the engine home to Invercargill*. An interesting point, the bike in these pictures doesn't have the SOHC or the later DOHC conversion he built. This bike is supposed to have the original cases, but I doubt a speed freak like Munroe cared much about things like authenticity, he just wanted to go very, very fast. I'm nearly sure this is the fastest chassis and bodywork but the fastest motor my well be the one in the bike in NZ. The people who made the two Ducati powered replicas used in the film came here to measure and photograph the bike in these pictures after the owner refused to let them take it home to NZ to use as a model. 

 

The bike in your picture clearly has his first body work, Marty said Burt first cured the high speed instability by cutting off the "triple tail" and grafting on part of an aircraft (external) fuel tank Burt (of course) managed to scrounge in Salt Lake City, the nearest large town to the salt flats. None of the high speeds or records set at Bonneville were set with the triple tail, it was just too unstable at speed. I would guess they decided to use the original body work in the movie because A, it was in New Zealand and B, it looks cooler.

 

I would be very surprised if he didn't have a chassis at home for road testing, I would guess that is what is still in New Zealand. As you can see from the bodywork he got some sponsorship after he started setting big speed numbers, that probably allowed him to buy/ build a few things like a back-up chassis instead of being on the incredibly small budget (pretty much nothing) he started with. 

 

What I'm most surprised about is that nobody has drawn the link from Burt Munroe to John Britton, another south island Kiwi who didn't let little things like impossibility stop him from reaching his goals. 

Lex

 

* About the only large city in NZ I haven't visited, after we went to Dunedin in "summer" we lost our desire to go any further south . ;-)

81985[/snapback]

 

 

 

The two replica's where made at the Britten Motorcycle factory in Christchurch NZ

As far as I know they are not Ducati powered I saw it at the bears racing last year and looked like an Indain motor

[dangerous]

The two replica's where made at the Britten Motorcycle factory in Christchurch NZ

As far as I know they are not Ducati powered I saw it at the bears racing last year and looked like an Indain motor

82052[/snapback]

Correct they are engines built to the same specs as Burts, there were also Ducati powered bikes built and used as the running bikes in the movie, duno were they are now tho.

[ferguzzi]

Finally saw the movie last night in London. I have to agree with all above, it's a great story , but the movie itself is good too, you don't have to be a biker to enjoy it. Hopkins really pulls it off.

It reminded me a bit of "the straight story".

I'll watch it again.

[callison]

V50man. Did you hate "On Any Sunday" as well?

[Lex]

IIRC the movie was based on Burts 1st trip or two to the US, and he visited there  for a 9yr period... so I'm thinking that the engine and bike that is in NZ is that bike, I have never seen the body work you have there so I'd say that that bike is his later creation, give it back ya bugger 

got any more pic's?

82001[/snapback]

 

Interesting, this movie is still being discussed. I've been tied up elsewhere for a while so I'm quite late in responding to the questions above.

 

Dangerous: The first, and most important, thing you need to do is stop thinking the movie is a documentary. It is a fictionalized version of real life. The movie covers thing that happened on all nine trips. The scene where he set the record of 183.586 MPH was in 1967, the incident with the trailer wheel being replaced by a chunk of wood happen on his drive back to LA on his third trip, the incident with the cop on the highway never happened. Condensing a life as rich and exciting as Bert Munro's into 90 minutes requires a LOT of creativity and a willingness to sacrifice truth for beauty. The bike in the pictures I posted is the bike (chassis and body work) that set that record. In my mind that makes it the world's fastest Indian. Your opinion may well be different. The engine is another story, it may be the engine in the bike in NZ is the one that set the records, I don't know. I know he took the engine back and forth, the bike stayed in the US.

 

The bodywork on the bike in your picture was replaced (if I understand Marty correctly, the next time I see him I'll ask to be sure) on the first trip. The "triple tail" caused the bike to wobble uncontrollably at the speeds that Bonneville allowed Munro to reach. Marty said Munro just cut off back of the bike and replaced it with part of an aircraft (external) fuel tank. Typical of his direct solutions to problems. Anyway, the triple tail bodywork shows the bike (or at least the body work) in NZ never went fast at Bonneville, it was not possible to ride it at speed.

 

Lex