Photos Classic Motorcycles and Traditional Knives

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Busy weekend, Barber in Birmingham on Sunday, then up to Wheels Through Time yesterday. Didn't get a ton of photos but snapped a couple of my new 77 and my Ancient (which seemed right at home at WTT) in between filming. Dale, Matt, Chris, and I made pretty short work of Dale's beautiful 1919 Harley-Davidson, original paint and a factory optioned narrow case racing engine. It last ran in 1929, took us about 2 hours of prepping it, new fluids, lubed the joints, nos tires, and the old girl fired right up with the original plugs untouched. Hands down the smoothest running 100 year old machine ever, it was like it had been running every weekend since 29, 1000cc twin and kicked over like a two stroke!

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How :cool::cool::cool: is that!!!!!!!!!! :thumbsup: I would have paid to go see a 100 year old Harley that hasn't run in 90 yrs fire up!!:):D;)
I can only imagine the anticipation and what I could learn just from watching and paying attention to the sequence for firing her up !
The Ancient is THE perfect choice for a blade to be shown BTW!:thumbsup::thumbsup:

Dave
 
The wife and I on our Honda Gold Wing Aspencade back in 1984 and the Buck 110 I carried when riding in those days..

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This was when I lived in San Diego, CA and lived only about four miles from "knarfeng's" (Frank) house. I wasn't a member of Blade Forums at the time and didn't know Frank. Woulda been a hoot if I had.
 
Modoc ED said:
The wife and I on our Honda Gold Wing Aspencade back in 1984 and the Buck 110 I carried when riding in those days..

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This was when I lived in San Diego, CA and lived only about four miles from "knarfeng's" (Frank) house. I wasn't a member of Blade Forums at the time and didn't know Frank. Woulda been a hoot if I had.
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Nice atmospheric period pic Ed :cool: With those cars etc you might expect Dirty Harry to emerge from somewhere barking "HALT!":D:D
 
Rode the 1970 Moto Guzzi this morning. It is running well. Then I took the Norton Commando out for a ride. It was running well until I turned back. Started feeling like it was running very rich, which quickly deteriorated into what felt like clogged jets. I guess I’ll spend part of Father’s Day getting to know these Amal carbs. 5BC3A053-4389-4280-AC29-41B553531A9A.jpeg

This BMW is ready to go as soon as the mufflers arrive. The old ones rotted out from the underside.905C5210-4A99-4F50-8E88-B6FD33E0F505.jpeg
 
Cool thread and cool bikes. That 90 year old start up was warming to me. My Dad has rode most of my life. '89 heritage softail '09 ultra classic. Most people look like this :eek:when they see the mileage. Ol man don't believe in trailering. They also look like that when they find out its age, its been very well took care of. It was his brothers, who passed away in 1990.he also had a 1956 Harley servi-car that his brother restored.Unfortunately he let his ex-wife (NOT my Mom) talk him into selling it:mad: I hated that b!+©#. I don't have one for myself at the moment. I wish to change that next year. Someone above mentioned the starting sequence on the 1919, I still remember the one to the servi-car : pump the primer bout 10 times,open throttle to half, full choke, leave ignition OFF, kick over 3 times, throttle to 1/4,choke to 1/2,advance timing to "that"spot, should fire on third kick, run on 4th, occasionally it'd run on the third. If not running by 5, turn off switch, open the choke kick 4-5 times and start over you messed up somewhere the first time lol:cool:sorry for the hijack, vintage bikes are something I love but can't afford right now. Edit: reading over my own post and realised it wouldn't have started, I forgot 1 crucial step :turn the fuel petcock to ON :confused:
 
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Travman said:
Rode the 1970 Moto Guzzi this morning. It is running well. Then I took the Norton Commando out for a ride. It was running well until I turned back. Started feeling like it was running very rich, which quickly deteriorated into what felt like clogged jets. I guess I’ll spend part of Father’s Day getting to know these Amal carbs. View attachment 926928

This BMW is ready to go as soon as the mufflers arrive. The old ones rotted out from the underside.View attachment 926927
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Those plain-bearing boxers are wonderful motorcycles. I put nearly 200,000 miles on a ‘72 R75/5. Mufflers were a regular replacement item. I lost count of how many sets of mufflers I put on the bike. I can think of five, but there could be more. Not that the mufflers were bad. Most bikes of that era didn’t run long enough for more than one muffler replacement, if that.

Every bike that I toured on had an Opinel and a SAK stashed on it someplace, usually in a tool roll or in a BMW tool tray. In addition, whenever I went on the road, I had my Tapio Wirkkala puukko and a small Anza hunter in the tank bag.
 
Travman said:
Rode the 1970 Moto Guzzi this morning. It is running well. Then I took the Norton Commando out for a ride. It was running well until I turned back. Started feeling like it was running very rich, which quickly deteriorated into what felt like clogged jets. I guess I’ll spend part of Father’s Day getting to know these Amal carbs. View attachment 926928
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Sometime the main jet unscrews when running. Amal has a very practical hex key to fix that without dismantling the carbs. Anyway, past carbs were made of cheese and ham and get soon worn out and become erratic, a change for a new improved set by Burlen give you an amazing and unkown before even idling!

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Henry Beige said:
Those plain-bearing boxers are wonderful motorcycles. I put nearly 200,000 miles on a ‘72 R75/5. Mufflers were a regular replacement item. I lost count of how many sets of mufflers I put on the bike. I can think of five, but there could be more. Not that the mufflers were bad. Most bikes of that era didn’t run long enough for more than one muffler replacement, if that.

Every bike that I toured on had an Opinel and a SAK stashed on it someplace, usually in a tool roll or in a BMW tool tray. In addition, whenever I went on the road, I had my Tapio Wirkkala puukko and a small Anza hunter in the tank bag.
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The BMW’s were made to last and are super smooth at highway speeds especially when compared to most anything else from the time. Your ‘72 R75/5 would be one that I’d love to find someday. I see a red 75/5 around here sometimes, but it is always going the opposite direction.
 
Jolipapa said:
Sometime the main jet unscrews when running. Amal has a very practical hex key to fix that without dismantling the carbs. Anyway, past carbs were made of cheese and ham and get soon worn out and become erratic, a change for a new improved set by Burlen give you an amazing and unkown before even idling!

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Beautiful knife. I have been keeping my eyes open for one to come up for sale. Yours is especially pretty. The jigging is especially nice and so is the coloring.

Is that the Amal Carb hex key for the main jet in your picture? I’m checking out the new carbs by Burlen right now.
 
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Travman said:
Beautiful knife. I have been keeping my eyes open for one to come up for sale. Yours is especially pretty. The jigging is especially nice and so is the coloring.

Is that the Amal Carb hex key for the main jet in your picture? I’m checking out the new carbs by Burlen right now.
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Thank you for your appreciation. This knife is very special to me as it is a gift received from the hand of Charlie @waynorth. I agree, she is wonderful to hold and fits my hand as few knives do. :)

Yes, this is an Amal hex key that allows to check the jet from the carb scavenge screw hole. If you get the new Premium carbs it is quite useless, the quality of manufacture is way better than on old Amals. You can get the pair with the exact settings corresponding to your machine (model/year/etc).
I changed those in 2012 and they're still ok (I am currently rebuilding the engine and hopefully back on the road in August). Not cheap but a real improvement.
(ps you don't need the choke to run. The Commando starts whatever the temperature. Tickle, tickle, then a long swinging kick and first miles at reduced speed to allow temp to build is all she needs. Except an Atlas, no such engine! :D)
Very different of a Guzzi or a Beemer (watch that gearbox! that will be my next task :().
If you don't have one already, the NOC's Commando Service Notes can prove invaluable.

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