1923 Model J

Hi All,

Went to the Classic Bike Show today, not bad if one don't mind looking at overpriced bits of British Iron...

In the Bonham auction, there was a modern made board tracker. Early J bottom end and JAP speedway OHV top ends. I'm a bit surprised at the tappets coming out unstaggered from the much rounded timing cover... Is that right?





Patrick

waste of good JAP parts. What would you DO with a bike like that? It's obviously not authentic and looks wildly out of period, and I can't imagine what sort of competition it would be eligible for?

whether the pushrod geometry is authentic Harley I couldn't say, but it is badly wrong - JAP tappets aren't like that, and look at the resulting pushrod angles at the tappets, horrible. The carb inlets must be like a nest of snakes as well! Nice 'period' carbs, by the way....

I don't really care if modern chopper builders create unrideable freaks that have never seen a board, and call them board trackers, or any other odd name they dream up, as long as they don't screw up original parts in the process

Yes, that carb is truely awful. Odd to put so much work in a machine, then blow the whole effect on a detail.

it's not just one detail. The whole engine is a mismatched jumble of parts, and looks it. I'd be curious to see the rest of the machine?

Here you are:



In good company indeed, Excelsior twin, Norton inter, 2 Bultaco TSS 350 racers and a Guzzi 250 Gambalunghino 250!!!

Patrick

to be honest, that's the sort of thing that gets H-Ds a bad name. A completely unauthentic, fake machine, of no real use, in among genuine racers with real histories. The colour is wrong, the clutch is wrong, the engine is obviously wrong, the heads are enclosed-valve type butchered to expose pushrods at wonky angles which don't match the cut-outs in the barrel fins, the bike-pedal footrests distributed fore-and-aft of the Jawa clutch to simulate pedals are nasty, but most of all it simply doesn't belong there. If it was that German 8-valver, or one of BoS or Milwaukee Belle's road racers, that would be a different matter entirely

don't think much of the cable-tie around the clutch lever, presumably so as to make it easier to push around ( fixed single gear ) - leaving that on shows how much the bike is ridden! Speedway and grasstrack riders with countershafts do that for the same reason, but don't leave it in place unless it's necessary - bad for the springs and pushrod end

It should be on a stand with other poser's machines, not faking it alongside the real thing.... it's like that Hulster 8-valve thing, a crying shame that so much effort and ability should be expended on such a pointless ornament, although at least the Hulster was a competiton machine in its way, in the sense that it did win an award, which was presumably its whole reason for construction?