Name that bike

This 'ere

http://www.ctsu.ox.ac.uk/ascend/cgd.jpg

is my grandad on his bike, possibly taken in the 50s (mum reckons,
though it looks a tad older to me). Anyone know what it is?

Last time I did this with someone else's dad, the apparently-obvious
Hurley-Pugh Manxman Clubman was identified in about 5 mins. The clock is
running!!!!

Thankoo!

 

Is it ****.

It's a Gixer Thou. Any idiot can see that.

D.

 

It's something Timo would use as a commuter, and then get shouty about
if it stopped working.

 

1925 BSA is my guess. After that the funky brakes seem to have
disappeared. Couldn't the motorcycle museum ID it for you?

 

Tosspot wrote:

It's not burnt anywhere near enough for that

 

It is indeed a Spagthorpe - the Maladroit, of 1923. Made in limited
numbers and withdrawn from sale to the public after six months. Some
machines were kept by the War Dept for off-road trials but it came to
nothing in the end.
The Maladroit was distinguished by being the first production motorcycle
to successfully drive front and rear wheels *with two different
transmission systems*.
As you will see from the picture, the front wheel was driven by a
hydro-mechanical train; hydraulic pressure taken to a motor on the
headstock and converted to mechanical drive via cable to a gear on the
front wheel hub. All so very simple, but in hindsight could have been
further simplified by carrying the hydraulics further and mounting the
motor on the fork leg.
That anybody in the design department was getting a backhander from
Smight's Clock Works is a foul calumny.

The photograph obviously shows a well-worn example of this motorcycle,
as can be seen from the rear wheel, where the drive fins are eroded
entirely away. What looks like a brake rim isn't; in fact a series of
fins were radially attached to this, in line with the gas discharge tube
from the gas generator (often wrongly referred to as the engine). In
service the fins got worn away rather rapidly by the high speed gas jet,
the metallurgy of the time not being up to the job. One of the
designers, Mr F. Whippley, pondered applying this system to an aircraft
but couldn't quite see how it could be done at the time.
The rear wheel fins drove the wheel, and in turn, the entire bicycle
forward with no clutch, gears or conventional transmission needed.
When cross-country travel was needed the front drive was engaged and the
machine could comfortably traverse rutted and ploughed fields. The huge
advantage of the two-drive system was that each had inherent slip and
torque wind-up was never a problem.

In service it soon became clear that failure modes were unexpected and
severe. Many owners reported being struck on the back of the head by
discarded fins from the rear wheel when travelling at speed and one
unlucky rider lost a slice of buttock by such misadventure.
In cross-country mode with the front drive engaged all was well for the
first few weeks of use, but with the start of the shooting season and
the machines being put to harder use a certain shortcoming became clear.
Under some conditions of load and bump, it was possible for the front
wheel drive motor to stall and reverse, leading to an almost
instantaneous halt of the front wheel. This was bad enough, and on mud
was't really a problem, but if the front wheel happened to skip onto a
rocky ledge just at that moment and then went into reversal, the frame
wasn't strong enough to resist the two opposing forces and promptly
buckled in the area of the rider's nads.

The mounting hospital bills were causing some concern in the accounts
department, and it was decided that even for Spagthorpe the innovation
shown in this machine was costing too much. Production halted at machine
number 65, with a further 12 machines being built from spares by
enthusiasts.
--
Dave
GS850x2 XS650 SE6a

"It's a moron working with power tools.
How much more suspenseful can you get?"
- House

 

Why dont' you **** off and mind your own?
--
Dave
GS850x2 XS650 SE6a

"It's a moron working with power tools.
How much more suspenseful can you get?"
- House

 

He's on a roll, obviously reading the bygones of yesteryear on the
UKRM home page has put him in some sort of malaise.

P.

 

Conversely, I like it immensely.

 

Like much humour, sometimes it comes down to 'the way you tell it'. The
simple "it's a Spagthorpe" crack is one thing, a long and artfully
constructed piece in the style Pip is another.

Having said that, I don't go for the fantasy Pratchett genre stuff.


--

+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
| Pete Fisher at Home: |
| Visit my Home Page : http://www.flarefox.com/Lesbordes |
| "Do not adjust your mind - there is a fault in the reality" |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------+

 

<visits www.spagthorpe.com>

Ah, you may have a point. I must be remembering snippets from the MCS of
yesteryear.


--
+----------------------------------------------------------------+
| Pete Fisher at Home: |
| Voxan Roadster Gilera Nordwest * 2 Yamaha WR250Z |
| Gilera GFR * 2 Moto Morini 2C/375 Morini 350 "Forgotten Error" |
+----------------------------------------------------------------+

 

There's no need to talk about Champ like that.

Me too. So <fx:raspberry> to Bear.

 

<Snip>

*Applause*
--
_______
..'_/_|_\_'. Ace (b.rogers at ifrance.com)
\`\ | /`/
`\\ | //' BOTAFOT#3, SbS#2, UKRMMA#13, DFV#8, SKA#2, IBB#10
`\|/`
`

 

<considers being offended, realises it's just the facts, ma'am>

 

<small voice>
I quite like 'em.
</small voice>

 

If you don't like it, don't read it. **** nose, I don't read everything
you post. You might be surprised to know that not everything that comes
out of your keyboard is golden prose either, but I don't slag you off
for it.

I shall continue to post the occasional instalment of Spagthorpe history
as and when I feel like it, whether you like it or not.

In short - go suck a Zoob.

--
Dave
GS850x2 XS650 SE6a

"It's a moron working with power tools.
How much more suspenseful can you get?"
- House

 

<round of applause and cheers from the back benchers>

 

Well, I do, you see. I'd be the first to agree that his output has
decreased in quality over the past few years, mind. He looks like
he's making as much as he can out of it before his faithful fans wise
up and go elsewhere, tbh - and that's a bit sad as the bloke has(had)
a good mind.

Slightly at a tangent (like that was unexpected), Elly came home from
the library with a Tom Holt book the other day. "What's he like?" she
asked. "Like early Pratchett, but funny" was my response. Now she's
halfway through it, she sees my point.

 

But he went seriously screwy IMO. His early stuff managed to walk the
fine line of suspending disbelief, and were indeed funny and original.
By the time he'd got to, say, Snow white and the seve samurai, or
whatever it was called, I could harldy read his stuff anymore. It
wasn't clever, it wasn't funny, and basically he didn't make me want
to believe in the world his books created any more.

Shame.

--
_______
..'_/_|_\_'. Ace (b.rogers at ifrance.com)
\`\ | /`/
`\\ | //' BOTAFOT#3, SbS#2, UKRMMA#13, DFV#8, SKA#2, IBB#10
`\|/`
`