Dear old MCN

Those 'Johnny-come-latelys' I don't think so.

 

The Spagthorpe Borzoi 475cc twin, which had the infamous total-loss water
cooling system. A pump, powered by the engine, sprayed a continual fine
spray of cold water onto the engine's cooling fins. It wasn't a total
success. The need to keep topping up the water supply meant that its range
was very restricted. If stopped for more than a minute or so on a cold day
the resulting cloud of steam meant very poor visibility for the rider when
pulling away. The steam could also render the bike just about invisible to
other traffic with sometimes tragic consequences. The last three surviving
examples met up at an owners rally in 2002 (see linked photo).
http://tinyurl.com/Borzoi-rally

 

Yes, around 1987, I was working in a foundry that made some of the
engine castings.
Then around 93, I worked there again, and they were throwing out the
patterns as there hadnt been an order for years, and the phone number
they had was dead. I told the boss to save them, as they may be
worthwhile for future use, but I dont think he was too bothered.
That surprised me as they were classic car enthusiasts and had made
numerous unobtainable parts in their foundry.
Alan.

 

The one in the US?

<Gloom> I didn't. First rode one at Donington, in early '84. That was
my first ride on the monoshock GPz1100 as well. That blew my mind, I
don't mind admitting, and then I tried the 900R and spent the next
hour trying to shake my brain cells back into my cortex. The 1100 was
fast, but the 900 was in another league.

 

I used to do canoe slaloms there in the early nineties.
I don't remember seeing a bike factory. There may have been a trendy restaurant though.

 

I think if someone was to pester George Silk he'd probably make them a
new 700 even now. You'd have to finish a lot of it off for yourself
because he'd think that anyone keen enough to buy one would be a good
enough engineer to finish it.

I've finished off plenty of equipment supplied by his company when
they'd sent it out incomplete and the stock reply to any complaints
was that he'd knock a bit off the price.

 

George was probably busy designing on-site machining equipment for a
company called Furmanite at that time but his ego meant that he
insisted everything he designed was called a Silk followed by whatever
the model designation was. The real problem appeared when he left to
set up his own company making basically the same machines and
Furmanite stopped him calling them Silk so everything his new company
makes is branded as Mirage.

 

<googles>
Oo. Thats nice.
<searches ebay>
none ...
</sb>
</g>

 

Amazing. Seriously. I had no idea he was still alive. And now I find
there's a direct connection between him and a ukrm-er.

Wonderful.

 

Heh, I used to be on the xmas card list at Mirage but never received
any actual gifts.

He's an amazing bloke. I phoned him once to bitch about the lack of
power feed on a machine they'd supplied and the answer was that if the
work was beyond me I was to send it back. This was all well and good
except we're not talking a loose screw or a missing lever, the fucking
gearbox wasn't even there.

The last time I spoke to anyone at Mirage (about 6 months ago) his son
was running the business but George was still hovering over it all
like a hungry vulture.

 

At a recent Yamaha open day at Flitwick Motorcycles they had a few old
bikes there on display. One of them was a 1981 350 LC that had a little
history board in front proclaiming the LC to be the first Yamaha to use
that style of Monoshock rear suspension. I asked the owner if he'd ever
heard of the DT175MX, and he replied that the history board had been
written up by the shop's owners and not himself.

 

I must still have a "Ride the Red Revolution" sweatshirt in my mum's
loft somewhere. I won it in a competition at my local dealer's launch
party.

 

Oops.

 

It was definitely gone by then.

Yeah, ISTR one there in the early/mid 80s. Trying to remember the name
- something like The Chapel springs to mind, BICBW. Trendy but shit,
IIRC.

 

Not forgetting the fact that on a *very* cold day any water flowing off the
Borzoi's engine could freeze as it hit the back wheel, which caused, er,
serious handling issues. It was in fact the first vehicle to suffer from
black ice that wasn't actually on the road.

 

classic!

 

Classic as in a Talbot Horizon is a classic car?

 

I saw a Mk4 cortina today. Can't remember the last time I saw one of
them... well, before the one today, that is.

 

I used to have a MK3!

This one: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=1759808&id=747716578
--
Gavin.

GSXR600K1 | For Sale: Peugeot Speedfight 2 £700
Twitter: http://twitter.com/gavin_wilby
Blog: http://www.stoof.co.uk

 

Mark1 with a lotus engine ...