Whatever happened to....

[Garnet]

The Wooler Beam engine.



The top con rods go side to side and turn the pivot that then moves the silver con rod up and down to turn the crankshaft.
I'm not sure what the idea was but it WAS different.

Pic taken at http://www.sammymiller.co.uk/

[Bob Bennett]

The Wooler Beam engine.



The top con rods go side to side and turn the pivot that then moves the silver con rod up and down to turn the crankshaft.
I'm not sure what the idea was but it WAS different.

Pic taken at http://www.sammymiller.co.uk/

My guess is that with the two different lever lengths the pistons were a short stroke setup while the crank was a
long stroke, the result is a smaller dimension across the engine.

[Sibbo]

Thanks MS, the same sad story of British motorcycling manufacture .Broke with shot equipment and bugger all capital. They were still paying their war time debt to the US and the tooling was 1930s vintage .

Japan was the cutting edge of the Cold War and that seemed to have benefits . Did Japan have a debt to the US ?

[Major Softie]

Did Japan have a debt to the US ?

I don't believe so. The aftermath of WWI, and what the reparations scheme did to the economy of Germany, actually taught us a lesson. We believed that the economic recovery of our enemies was key to our peace and security, so we ended up doing "Marshal Plan" like development in Japan too. This was investment without repayment strings attached, much like the way we have poured money into Iraq (although, hopefully, better controlled).

Much later, after they became an economic success, Japan became a large holder of OUR debt.

[Major Softie]

The main advantage of the walking beam design is that the bottom end of the connecting rods (attached to the pistons) hardly move side-to-side at all (up-and-down in this configuration). I'm sure that would make pistons last a lot longer, and pistons had a pretty short life in most motorcycle motors. Still, BMW managed to make pistons last without all that added weight and complexity, and I can't think of any other advantage to the design. It was mostly used in steam engines driving paddle-wheels.

[Sibbo]

Did Japan have a debt to the US ?

I don't believe so. The aftermath of WWI, and what the reparations scheme did to the economy of Germany, actually taught us a lesson. We believed that the economic recovery of our enemies was key to our peace and security, so we ended up doing "Marshal Plan" like development in Japan too. This was investment without repayment strings attached, much like the way we have poured money into Iraq (although, hopefully, better controlled).

Much later, after they became an economic success, Japan became a large holder of OUR debt.

This link does a good job of describing the British problem.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-American_loan
Britain was in very poor shape, nearly bankrupt,in a far worse position than America realised .She could have bone with Marshall Aid too rather than having to pay back a loan ,even a greatly discounted one. It goes a long way to explaining the quality of British developments post war .

[DanielMc]

The one bike that BSA/Triumph really should have put into production was the Triumph Bandit/BSA Fury:









It was good enough to have slowed the Japanese tide, and technologically advanced enough to form the basis of a modular series of 2, 3 and 4 cylinder bikes.

More here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triumph_Bandit

[Sibbo]

I reckon the bike the British industry needed was the Honda 50 or the Suzuki 70 .Both step throughs that brought a whole new market segment to the Japanese. IIRC Honda has built something like 50 million 50s.

The Fury was a great bit of work but I guess when it came to big bikes I'd rather have seen a 500cc Velo Viceroy or a BSA B66.

[Major Softie]

Honda didn't sell umpteen billion 350 twins because they were fast. They sold because they were absolutely bullet-proof. Along with that they had power almost identical to that Bullet.


If that Bullet could go 50,000 miles without breaking or leaking any oil, then they'd have sold like crazy. But, nothing Britain was building back then could do anything of the kind. The Honda 50/70/90's sold for exactly the same reason.

[Sibbo]

Leaking oil ! Leaking oil? Unreasonable expectations ! That small requirement aside most of the Brit singles were bulletproof and lasted years .