Chimay and ukrm feckwits (longish)

Moi?

Realistically, I do think there is a certain amount of `union'
responsibility for the failure of British industry but a lot of that
is due to the half-assed class prejudice that was common in Britain.
Germany has a very strong union movement and is the world's industrial
leader; Rolls-Royce (aero engines) is strongly unionized and is still
a world leader.

 

My old man was there as well for a couple of years before he joined
the army: I'm all right Jack is a documentary.


As for the book, it's got lots of diaries in it, including Frank Field
reminiscing about what happened to people who dicked around on the
shop floor and were a danger to their mates. They were taken out to
the bike sheds and had certain things forcibly explained.

 

If you think a Blackbird is overpowered you have more problems than
you realise.
--
| ___ Salad Dodger
|/ \
_/_____\_ GL1500SEV/CBR1100XXX/CBX1000Z
|_\_____/_| ..91198../..24811.../..31928.
(>|_|_|<) TPPFATUICG#7 DIAABTCOD#9 WG*
|__|_|__| BOTAFOT #70 BOTAFOF #09 PM#5
\ |^| / IbW#0 & KotIbW# BotTOS#6 GP#4
\|^|/ ANORAK#17 IbB#4 YTC#4 two#11
'^' RBR Clues: 26 Pts:0500 Miles:1739

 

You are fucking joking. One is a piece of shit put together by imported
labour and the other is a pale shadow of its former self. You decide
which is which.
--
Dave
GS850x2 XS650 SE6a

Teach a man to fish and he and his pikey mates will have the
river cleaned out in a day.

 

A quality rant, Mr A.
Saved for posterity, or at least for some unlucky **** who gets to
inpect my hard drive after I pop my clogs.
--
Dave
GS850x2 XS650 SE6a

Teach a man to fish and he and his pikey mates will have the
river cleaned out in a day.

 

Ye gods, I though it was earlier than that. There's a certain gravitas
about the Office of Things That Go Bang, Shiny Boots and Olive Green
Things that Min of Def simply doesn't have.
--
Dave
GS850x2 XS650 SE6a

Teach a man to fish and he and his pikey mates will have the
river cleaned out in a day.

 

I should have known better than to question the writings of a journo

 

I do enjoy your postings when you're on form. Although it probably
irritates you to hear it.

Which is a bonus in itself, of course.

 

This isn't strictly true. BSA, Triumph and the others made massive
profits during the 1950s and early 1960s, but they chose to spend the
profits on bonuses and share dividends rather than investment.

By the time they realised their mistake, it was too late and falling
sales meant there wasn't much profit to re-invest anyway.

As ever, Bert Hopwood's marvellous book is essential reading here.

 

Read this just after writing my own posting. Working offline here, so
they'll appear simultaneously...

 

Define "overpowered". If you mean "more powerful than a Velocette LE" or
"allows you to exceed speed limits" then you're a fuckwit twice over.

 

<Sharpens stake>

 

In part, but also management became vastly top heavy, there were
constant efficiency studies, cost benefit analyses, time & motion and
all the panoply of management doing an immense amount of work, but
very little actually on managing the business.

 

OK, lets put this in context. Firstly this thread has been crossposted to
uk.r.m as well as uk.r.m.classic, so we are seing comments from the
non-classic guys. My comment referred to the modern biker fashions.

Phrases such as "be seen dead on" and "rather eat testicles" are
a clear indication that moderm bikes are about male image and fashion
rather than transport.

Where do I draw a line ?. - Well that is always going to involve
personal experiences, but from my owm bike history :-
The LE or its modern CG125 equivalent is great around town but too slow
on the open road.
My GS500 at 48 bhp has more power than the Dominator that I had in the 60s
but is a tad unwieldy in daily city traffic. 110 mph flat out on the
motorway is more than enough for me and it will outburn anything on
4 wheels at the lights.
The Electra Glide I had in the 70s was great on long trips on the open
roads between Joburg and Cape Town so long as I could ignore the
vibration, but a complete pig in traffic. Dont drop it though, you will
need 3 strong helpers to pick it up.

To conclude:- 50 bhp buys you 110 mph+ and can put a smile on your face.
Much over 60 bhp is never going to be used in practice on UK roads.
So IMHO the transport stops and the willywaving starts somewhere
around 60 bhp.

 

So my 100bhp Pan European is willywaving?

 

The amazing ignorance of this statement suggests that you have very
little experience of bikes of over 60bhp.

Right:-

My Ducati has about 66bhp (claimed), and a top speed of maybe 130mph and
I can ride it *right* on the limit. Yes, I quite like small relatively
low-powered small light bikes for this sort of reason.

Now - my BMW has 100bhp, claimed (and bMW figures are usually quite
accurate), and the thought of riding that with a mere 60bhp turns my
blood cold.

Now, I'm not denying that 60bhp puts a smile on your face. It's just
that more horsepower puts a bigger one. And *lots* of horsepower makes
your face split in half.

In brief - you're a bigoted ignorant fuckwit.

 

What a stunningly blinkered point of view. How good do you imagine a
Goldwing loaded with two people & a fortnight's worth of clothes would
be with 60bhp? How much harder would it be to overtake a truck on a
twisty B-road on a 220Kg Tiger if it only had 60bhp (especially when
2-up)? It's not all about top speed you know - in fact it mostly isn't
about top speed.

--
Krusty
www.MuddyStuff.co.uk
Off-Road Classifieds

'02 MV Senna '03 Tigtona 955i '96 Tiger '79 Fantic Hiro 250

 

Quite the opposite as it goes, I like to know when they are good.

What does irk though is that you lot never praise the really good ones.
I didn't work very hard on that one and bunged it out largely unfinished
because I couldn't be arsed to redo the prose and make it scan and flow
and stuff to make it work just right on the tongue and I wasn't really
that pleased with it. What happens? You lot love it. Conversely I
spend a whole evening putting my heart and soul into one and you lot
just ignore it. There is no justice in the world really there isn't.

 

I too was faced with this dilemma a few years back. I am happy to say
that choosing to stay was the right thing to do. Inflicting suffering on
lot is a pleasure unequalled by any other human activity, expect perhaps
sex, drugs, riding a motorcycle and rock and roll.

 

You are coming tantalisingly close to the point.
In both of the above cases you are probably actually using less than
60 bhp because the manufacturers mythical 100bhp can only be produced
at peak RPM. What you need is GRUNT, otherwise known as plenty of
midrange torque. Unfortunately this bit of engineering reality does
not fit well with the marketing idea of "what sells bikes" so your
engines have been designed to produce big headline numbers rather
than practical useable power.