Thread: Jawas Abound!

Looks like you had a great time in that museum BT

Did they have any Adler motorcycles there?

Have you ever visited the Birdwood Museum, or National Motor Museum, in SA?

Hello Fred,

I did enjoy myself. Most of the bikes on display were of Czech origin. CZs and Jawas mainly. There was a beautiful Czech bike powered by a JAP engine. The most expensive bike manufactured in the country at that time. I think it was the same Prestwich motor that George Brough used in his Superior. If you are interested, I can post a few photos.

I have not been to either of the two Museums you mention. Next trip.

I will keep an eye out for an Alder at the Deutsches Museum in Munich next week.

I took a hundred or so photos of tractors in the National Agricultural Museum today. I could post a few if there was any interest. Here is an example. A 1917 Fordson.

BT

Originally Posted by Anorak Bob

Hello Fred,

I did enjoy myself. Most of the bikes on display were of Czech origin. CZs and Jawas mainly. There was a beautiful Czech bike powered by a JAP engine. The most expensive bike manufactured in the country at that time. I think it was the same Prestwich motor that George Brough used in his Superior. If you are interested, I can post a few photos.

I have not been to either of the two Museums you mention. Next trip.

I will keep an eye out for an Alder at the Deutsches Museum in Munich next week.

I took a hundred or so photos of tractors in the National Agricultural Museum today. I could post a few if there was any interest. Here is an example. A 1917 Fordson.

BT

Yes please to both

The National Motor Museum in Birdwood SA is a fantastic place to visit, quite easy to spend a day (or two) there. Used to drive past it every time we went to our houseboat at Walkers Flat. Haven't been there since we moved to Vic, now some 11 years ago, must make the effort to re-visit on our next trip to Adelaide.

Argh. Indians, Jawas....Your forcing me to relive my youth.

I got into Indians because they were (then) much cheaper than hardly dangerous's...

And a 250 jawa was my only transport for years. Rode it from sydney down the hume at 50 mph to the hells angels gig at broadford then back up the princess. The things you do when your young....

Then I bought my first ducati. Clearly didn't get smarter with age...

Ducati? Nice when they work. The new Superquadro V twin motor is 1200cc, drastically oversquare and puts out about 190 HP at the crank.

A mate does pro suspension work. One of his jobs was on a Vincent 1000cc which had been bored out to 1600cc and put out 180 bhp. Disc brakes, fuel injection etc. Intended for a class of classic racing.

I've just seen this thread, so it's a bit late, but one of the most impressive motorcycle museums I have ever seen is the Deutche Zwierad Museum in Neckarsulm (NSU).

The museum, which I saw first time in 1985 is 4 floors of heaven in an old Schloss on the Neckar river. This is where the NSU factory once was along with the Wankel rotary (I think).

If you wish to see some mind blowing NSU 500 singles with Kompressor and towershaft drive to the cams on the head (Konig or king drive in German) then this is the museum.

They also have a Megola, one of 12 in existence I believe. Five cylinder engine inside the front wheel.

The Near a car (Neracar?) is also there along with the world's first patented push bike.

About an hours drive from Stuttgart, which I know is not quite in Munich, but Stuttgart is about 220 Klm's from Munich. I took the ICE train from Munich to Stuttgart last year, just over an hour, including about three stops and slowing down to about 150 through stations, brilliant!

Mick.

Sounds tasty.

My car mech. recently sold his Hesketh. Produced by an English aristocrat by way of a Vincent copy. Only a few hundred were made. This one went for $28k but he tells me that an original Vincent 1000 in good nick can fetch up to $300k these days.

I knew a chap who was into nearacars years ago.

There was a rapide somewhere recently for about $39k as I recall in SA, found in a shed needed full restoration. Somewhere odd like the trading post or the bike version of carpoint. The factory gave some of the tooling to the club when they shut so they were remaking parts some time back. If you rev them over 8k you need to ditch the crowded rollers and fit the caged bigends from a velocette apparently, according to Phil.

I don't know anything about new ducatis. They have become fashion accessories, endless limited editions and contrived style. No care. Ducatis are not unreliable, they are high maintenance, there is a difference. My darmah was my only transport for years. Had a left arm that could turn coal into diamonds. Sydney commuting on a bevel, young people aren't silly enough for stunts like that.

The hesketh was never much good, expensive, not fast enough and as I recall they had some common problems. Then again they are British....

I did my apprenticeship in part on pommy bikes. I've never owned one...

Yes I think you are correct regarding Ducati bikes being high maintenance. My 450 single required an oil change every 2,000 miles, that was the easy part, cleaning the sludge out of the sludge collector in the crank throw was the hard part.

One of my mates had a 250 single and all he had to do to clean his sludge collector was remove the head and barrel. With the 450 having a larger diameter piston, I needed to remove the head and barrel, plus the piston. That was what I call high maintenance.

One day though, I had a bit of a problem, I was trying desperately to give the bike a service, which required me to change the oil and the sludge collector in the crank throw. I was desperate as I had a new girlfriend coming over and the general plan was that she and I would have some quality time doing what boys and girls do, then on Sunday we would go for a ride on the bike.

Unfortunately I dropped the sludge collector screw-in-cap into the crankcase, virtually never to be seen again, it seemed. With the help of a few mates and after pulling the hills hoist apart, and removing the wheels and replacing the axles. We placed both pieces of the hills through the forks under each axle sort of sidewaysand hoisted the bike upside down and started shaking it up and down to release the aforementioned cap from the bowels of the crankcase.

Just as we were doing this, the new girlfriend walked round to the backyard as we weren't answering the doorbell. She couldn't quite believe what she was seeing, five fellas holding a bike upside down and doing an intermittent jig on the count of 1, 2, 3.

I had no idea her father was a service station owner and was a mechanic to boot, plus, she had grown up with engines, and, as I later found out, could rebuild an engine and hand lap valves.

Yeah, high maintenance Ducatis!

Mick.

LOL. That's a gem.

But Duke has been working hard on extending service intervals and more recent models are more like the norm. They were crazy before - like change the brake fluid every 5k km kind of thing.

The Monster saved their bacon as a viable business. The Streetfighter, the 1198 and the 848 have all been well received and the Panigale has pushed them into the top rank of innovators at least in design terms.

We have several Dukes in the club and they seem reliable enough.

You don't need to clean the sludge trap every oil change. Even the manual said every 40,000, but most people never bother. Your likely to do more harm than good. The trick to singles is to rev them, flog it and you'll blow the big end, rev it and it'll last.

On the new ones they just moved the problems from the clutch and big end to the frame and regulator.

Many guzzi riders are ex ducati owners that have woken up to themselves.

I'll attempt to attache a pic on one of my toys.

Sweet.

Still in business I think?

I used to have an MV Agusta 125. Red too, of course; ideal for boy racers learning to survive in the urban jungle. If only the speedo hadn't died first time around the block. Brand new bike. Bought at the distributor's fire sale so no warranty.

As for systemic probs, every brand has them. Honda VFR regulators were good at melting too and cases are known where they started to burn. Riders learned to pay attention to a hot bum.

My Ducati manual said to do an oil change every 2,500 miles and clean the sludge trap every 5,000 miles, unless on dusty roads.

As about 80% of my riding was inland on dirt, I changed the oil and cleaned the sludge trap every oil change. Trust me, it was often half full of pure sludge.

Many a Guzzi rider is now a BMW owner, and so it goes

On my fourteenth BMW now, possibly the last one, but one never knows!

Mechannica Verghera Augusta (MV Augusta) The sound of a screaming 3 cylinder was only beaten by the sound of the screaming 4 cylinder MV, which was beaten by the sound of the Honda 250 6 cylinder.

I heard the 250 6 cylinder in France in another life, the wail was incredible, you could hear every gearchange right round the circuit. People were literally following the Honda 6 and not caring about the rest of the bikes.

Years later when the 500 3 cylinder came to Australia with Ago riding, you could hear the MV right round the track, every gear change. Whilst many watched other riders, about 90% just followed Ago and the MV wailing round the circuit.

Mick.

Ah, grand days.

And Honda leveraged off that bike to produce a 6 cyl inline 750. A mate had two of them.

Yes, BM has done very well to reinvent itself as a leading edge brand. The 1000 4 inline is top of the pops. Even the 800 twin sports goes like a cut snake (we have one in the club).

I've always liked parallel twin bikes; had a TDM 850 and it was a lot of fun. Just didn't quite have the grunt to overtake the sportsbikes in the club or the brakes to control re-entry into the stream. But the 160 rear tyre meant it was quicker side to side through tight twisties compared with the litre bikes with 190 tyres.

And now BM have the inline 6 1600cc tourer. Oooooh