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Malcolm

Yes! If you look carefully, you will see that there really is a mount for a footrest just ahead of the bottom shock bracket. Like so many details on these '61 bikes it was deleted soon after.

G

malcolmgb wrote:Also an interesting pillion footrest, when I used a similar rear-set position my then girlfriend put her toes on the swingarm, the naivety of youth.

Thanks LM

I love the look and sound of the P51 Mustang Great plane with a great engine....

To see them flying with a Spitfire and Hurricane running with the Red Arrows display team was magical.


G

LOUD MOUSE wrote:Great pics of the WWII planes. .............................lm

G-Man wrote:LM

Unfortunately it's just an aftermarket stainless-steel bolt-on. Even so, a stainless fender would have been quite an expensive fitment back in the '60s.

I think the bike had been crashed early on and then 'cafe-racered' by an amateur mechanic. Some of the ideas were good but the execution was a little lacking. The bike picked up a 350 kit, later hubs, racy mufflers and a later cylinder head.

Thank goodness MERLIN designed that 16 cylinder engine or the P-51 wouldn't be as good as it became.
I noticed that all three planes were early issue, (Spitfire, 3 blade prop, P-51, box cabin rather than Malcolm or clear bubble canape, P-47, box canape and RAZORBACK).
Each year we have air races at RENO, Nevada and I've attended several but this year LORI and I will be able to camp in our 35 foot 5th wheel camper at the airport and not need to travel back and forth to a hotel.
If you enjoys engine sounds you would be in heaven like me.
Back to bikes. .....................lm

G-Man wrote:Thanks LM

I love the look and sound of the P51 Mustang Great plane with a great engine....

To see them flying with a Spitfire and Hurricane running with the Red Arrows display team was magical.


G

LOUD MOUSE wrote:Great pics of the WWII planes. .............................lm

G-Man wrote:LM

Unfortunately it's just an aftermarket stainless-steel bolt-on. Even so, a stainless fender would have been quite an expensive fitment back in the '60s.

I think the bike had been crashed early on and then 'cafe-racered' by an amateur mechanic. Some of the ideas were good but the execution was a little lacking. The bike picked up a 350 kit, later hubs, racy mufflers and a later cylinder head.

Just a correction and way off topic for this tread.

The Merlin was a Rolls-Royce engine. Merlin was not a manufacturer but a model. It was also used in the famous Lancaster bomber. As it happens I live not far from one of the last two or three flying Lancasters. It turns out that you can rent the thing and occasionally it flies overhead. The sound of those four Merlins is unmistakable.

<https://www.youtube.com/watch?annotatio ... BM#t=3m11s>

This worth watching for some.

My own correction is the MERLIN was a inline V12 cylinder.
Above is "PRECIOUS METAL" a highly modified P-51 and it has counter rotating props and a V12
ROLLS ROYCE "GRIFFON" V12 inline.
Caught fire (on the ground) last September and is being made flight ready as I send this info. ..............lm



Thanks for the correction.
Here in the US that design (MERLIN) was build by several engine plants.
One being PACKARD. .....................lm

Tim Allman wrote:Just a correction and way off topic for this tread.

The Merlin was a Rolls-Royce engine. Merlin was not a manufacturer but a model. It was also used in the famous Lancaster bomber. As it happens I live not far from one of the last two or three flying Lancasters. It turns out that you can rent the thing and occasionally it flies overhead. The sound of those four Merlins is unmistakable.

The Rolls-Royce Merlin engines were designed and built around five miles from my house (except that my house wasn't here then) They have them in the RR industrial museum in Derby. Its a wonderful engine that could be mistaken for a Honda GP engine scaled up many times (and built 30 years earlier). The gear driven DOH camshafts were tapered. Thicker at the drive end and thinner as they got further away. 1000hp at the behinning of WW2 and up to 2000hp at the end. Omega in Birmingham still make pistons for them.

The Mustangs were fitted with Packard-built (under license) Merlins as far as I know.

The Canadian Lancaster flew at Duxford with the British version a couple of years ago.

G

LOUD MOUSE wrote:Thanks for the correction.
Here in the US that design (MERLIN) was build by several engine plants.
One being PACKARD. .....................lm

Tim Allman wrote:Just a correction and way off topic for this tread.

The Merlin was a Rolls-Royce engine. Merlin was not a manufacturer but a model. It was also used in the famous Lancaster bomber. As it happens I live not far from one of the last two or three flying Lancasters. It turns out that you can rent the thing and occasionally it flies overhead. The sound of those four Merlins is unmistakable.

Having got my kickstart cover completed, I needed a kickstart lever. The early ones are more slender than the later ones and much more slender than the various pattern ones that come along.

The kicker I had got hold off had a rusty pedal and I had been putting off dismantling it, but now was the moment. The pedal is held on with a wire circlip trapped in a groove between a thick, machined retaining collar and the shaft of the main lever. You have to compress that collar before the clip can be popped out.

I managed to fashion a 'compressor' using an adjustable wrench and got the two parts compressed quite safely.



Unfortunately the clearance of the wrench over the circlip was too tight and I couldn't get the clip to release.



Back to my junk pile I found a badly gouged rear chain adjuster that would 'fit' over the retaining collar. After removing one side of the adjuster and bending what was left to form a stand against the pedal, a bit of work in the the lathe to open up the hole meant that this could sit over the collar securely.

Although this "2nd prototype" felt a little flimsy, it did the job.



The counterbore underneath held the 'tool' in the right position and I was able to dislodge the clip which, helpfully, sprang across the workshop into a handy glass jar on the shelf....



The parts are now ready to go to the platers in my next batch. The lever and pedal for chroming and the spring and clip will go for zinc.

I'm going to make a sturdy version of this from 1/4" bar but for now my prototype has done its job.



G