This has character and soul by the steam shovel load!
Every time I look at it, every time I fire it up and every time I ride it I love it more and more.
I've ridden motorcycles since the age of 10 and nothing comes close to the experience of riding this.
The smell, the sound, the feel. Everything, it's brilliant!
mcmoonter, I have one of those engines sitting in the corner of my garage. Interested?...
Everything, it's brilliant!
Apart from the brakes that is 
grim168 - MemberRd 350 lc. I loved that bike but I also hated it. When it went it flew but it blew up on a regular basis. Bloody thing put the rod through the side of the barrel.
Same here. Great bike, but it ended up snapping it's crank on the local bypass at 70mph with my wife (then gf) on the back. Years of riding 2 strokes gave me lightning fast clutch hand reactions! Mind you, after I rebuilt the engine it started first kick.
Whilst I agree it's your experiences with something that give it soul, when it comes to motorbikes very few (modern certainly) Japanese bikes have soul, whereas Italian ones do for sure. Not too sure about modern Triumphs....
So let me get this straight - something has soul if it's crap, right?
this for me. I spend more time taking it apart, putting it together, trying to get it running etc.
Zedsdead - Member
mcmoonter, I have one of those engines sitting in the corner of my garage. Interested?...
Zedsdead - That engine was a bit special. 1400cc, stage three 'head.
If you've got something 60's and Cooperish my mate Simon might be interested.
http://www.theminiworks.co.uk/
Lobbydosser - Do you keep that in your kitchen?
you won't believe this but
Austin Maxi, long time ago, £300 with a years MOT, could get a DT175mx in back to go to Wales, commuted for a year from Maidenhead to Twickenham, odd trip to Wales, never serviced it, just topped oil. Anway after a completely trouble free year I sold it for £30 scrap, bloke with a lorry/crane turned up - chains through windows, lifted and off he went. Strangely enough about a month later, mountain biking in the shrubbery, went past a council estate and a bloke shouted 'bargain, bargain', there was my maxi, lights off, dinged to buggery etc, acro props across floor and holding roof up and this bloke was waving a demolition derby trophy - he'd won it and £50 ...................
[quote Lobbydosser - Do you keep that in your kitchen?[/quote]
No the guy I bought it from kept it in his spare room. (Along with his other one)
"Apart from the brakes that is"
Hah! That my dear boy, is a pair of Norton roadholders with twin leading shoe. Re-lined and works very well indeed.
As well as most of the bike the engine is also highly modified and tuned and with me riding will give you a good run for your money.
mcmoonter, I'm not sure exactly what it is but I wrote down the numbers on it. Definitely an alloy gearbox on the bottom of it...
When I get home I'll do a bit of research and let you know.
As well as most of the bike the engine is also highly modified and tuned and with me riding will give you a good run for your money.
to a very large extent, that'll depend what I throw my leg over
If you give me chance to find a frame for the TZ700 motor currently hiding in a tea chest, I somehow doubt it
Why wont motorbikes start hot?
Automatic choke, I expect. Makes the mixture too rich.
We could build you a frame for that TZ700 if your serious....
Interested?....
No with the XR it was a number of things, the bowl of the carb was right next to the pipe and the fuel would evaporate before you could get it into the cylinderwhen really hot. Same as the old DR 350. Flat slide carb would fix it but expensive and another can of worms. Some people would wrap the pipe in heat shield, or lean it over till fuel was pissing out of the breathers and thenm kick it to death 
An old Bridgeport Interact with an old Heidenhain control. Tried to pursuade them not to but they sold it while I was away on hols. For a couple of hundred £'s. Tempremental old beast but I knew how to make it work.
anything I ever had that had character or soul, including two VW Beetles, ended up costing me so much money that I began to resent the rusting pile of crap
How many of us actually had 350LC's then?
Oh, and CG125's? In fact I was thinking about CG125's the other day. They are the AK47 of the motorbike world. Reliable, pretty unbreakable and cheap copies of 'em are made all over the place!
W reg 350 LC here, blue and white with belly pan, mine for a year in 85. It had something, a wicked fat powerband for a start, but not much charm.
The Velocette Venom with Clubman gearbox that I also had on the other hand was soulfully marvellous ...terrible clutch, Lucas 'The Prince of Darkness' dynamo driven 6v lights and a top whack about 80 mph - though hard to tell with the Smiths speedo flagellating wildly! But when in tune and on a dry road I was Geoff Duke, grinding out the fishtail pipe on every right hander, Dunlop TT100s scrabbling for grip. I never got off it and walked away without looking back admiringly.
Two silver and red RD250Es and and black and red ( and blue frame) 350LC. Fair few Jap 4strokes since and just bought an Aprilia Tuono - V twin goodness. If I saw an RD or LC at the right price..... Hmmmmmm I just might ...
molgrips - MemberSo let me get this straight - something has soul if it's crap, right?
yes, exactly!
well, sort of.
not crap as such, but flawed. like my old mini that would only start if i pressed the accelerator at just the right moment after turning the ignition. or the tv that would only work if i slapped it in just the right place.
something that only works because you know how it likes to be slapped.
Mini's (as a group) have soul because we all have a memory associated with them - your first car, your friends first car, the first time you drove alone, the first time yor friend drove somewhere without a parent or driving instructor, etc.
my mini had a soul because only i could make her start. my dad used to try, but his timing was always off. he had to back her off the drive before he could get his audi out of the garage - but he didn't know how she liked it - so she wouldn't start, so he'd wake me up 2 hours before i had to go to college, so i'd get up, and fire her up first time in my pants, and then take her for a noisy thrash to staverton and back (in my pants) - cos i knew she'd complain later if i started her cold and stopped her before she had time to warm up.
even my dad loved her - he said she smelled just like his first car, and he wanted to make her happy.
my mini was an unreliable rusty heap of shit, i got my first xxxx xxb* in her, and i loved both of them.
happy days.
(*comet hally bop overhead)
"It had something, a wicked fat powerband for a start," That's a first for more or less all 2 stroke Yamahas. I had an RD250, an RD400 and an LC350, and they didnt have a 'fat powerband' between 'em. Still loved them all though.
Anything steam powered.
We could build you a frame for that TZ700 if your serious....Interested?....
I once [maybe still] harboured a desire to build the thing into a bike but the practicalities [mainly financial] of doing it are overwhelming
It doesn't have any carbs or a radiator & I'd have to get some exhausts manufactured - I do have a big box of spares though, cylinders, pistons, gears etc.
Besides it's an ugly brute
Over the winter I'm going to strip it, photograph it & rebuild it before banging it on eBay
I reckon it'll go to either Japan or the US for a tidy sum
Coffin tank RD400
Anything steam powered.
Ohh yes!
I had a short ride on the footplate of a smallish tank engine last year. Loads of levers and wheels to fiddle with, intense heat, that smell, noise and rumble-clunkyness.
Now that thing was virtually alive. It breathed and cuffed and rattled.
The driver only tapped the throttle to get it going, must have been no more than 5% open, and when he hit a straight bit he just tapped it open a tad more and with each 'chuff' it felt you went 20 tards down the line. The tourque was incredible, I've never felt anything like it. The driver reckoned it would fairly easily out-pull a diesel shunter. Wonderful....
Triumph triple engines, mmmmmmm.
"I once [maybe still] harboured a desire to build the thing into a bike but the practicalities [mainly financial] of doing it are overwhelming
It doesn't have any carbs or a radiator & I'd have to get some exhausts manufactured - I do have a big box of spares though, cylinders, pistons, gears etc.
Besides it's an ugly brute
Over the winter I'm going to strip it, photograph it & rebuild it before banging it on eBay
I reckon it'll go to either Japan or the US for a tidy sum"
We can also make up exhuasts from sheet. A radiator we can do too. Carbs we can get hold of.
Go on, you know you want to. The frame we build would handle way better too....
If you don't want to do it then I could be interested in the motor without a rebuild. What's the history behind it?
If you don't want to do it then I could be interested in the motor without a rebuild. What's the history behind it?
My brother tells me it came from Mal Carter's place in Halifax when he shut up shop in the early eighties, other than that, ?? - it's obviously a 73 or 74
not really sure what it's worth - I'll need to do some research but I certainly haven't got the time or money to build it into a bike or to have someone do it for me
I'll stick to trying to get my Seeley G50 ready for next season, racing again at 52 ???? - that's going to cost me enough
uplink, we have been involved with things like the G50 and all I can say is that you'll have a hell of a lot of fun!
Personally, I love old clasics and I hate to see them sitting somewhere getting polished and never used.
Me? I use mine as much as I can. My mate rides a Kwacker 1100 and rides the ragged ass off it, and I do my best to keep up. Funnily enough we always end up at the planned stop at about the same time. I push it, lean it and rag as far as I can. You know why? Because it's fun! If you want to sell that lump let me know, I'll make darn good use of it.
Might even give you a go once I've built it.....
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