CAR AND BIKE LOVERS THREAD - MARK V

richardandtracy

hacsart said:

Looking at your friends bike dillemma, I wonder if  that Box of bits was from several bikes, and passed through the hands ofthe Artful Bodger before he got it. I've seen some terrible 'fixes' on old bikes-  coarse wood screws to hold on chaincase covers,  etc.. I gather its an older BSA single? C12? B40? I've done an older c15 from the mid '50s (250cc single). I can remeber it took about 10 re-asssemblies to get the clutch/gearbox working, as Mr. Bodger had been in there, "improving" things  - amazing how the clutch even tried to work with the wring (size and number) of friction plates!!

The bike had only had one owner.. The owner is now a very elderly gent and loved his bike, but it had got into a state that was completely beyond him. I know how he felt - I have my 1984 Suzuki GSX 550 ESD rotting away in the garden even now. I can't bear to part with it, but it's beyond the time/money/effort I can put into it to restore it. I really need to grow up and let go of my late teens. It was my first bike after passing my test (got it the day after passing), and I used the running-in period to learn how to cope with 64 bhp after having been restricted to only 12 up 'til then. Most comfortable bike I have ever ridden, saving a showroom sit on a Yamaha FJ1100 (which later became the FJ1200).

Sorry, I digressed. The carb on my neighbours bike was an Amal, and.. Well, the engineering company I work for would never, under any circumstances, accept such a shoddy die casting (we have several hundred bigger die castings a month that are accepted to tighter standards than was considered acceptable for that tiny casting).

I got into bikes as the first wave of Japanese Brit bike lookalike bikes were disappearing and the more radical styles were appearing - the Yamaha RD350LC, Suzi Katana, RG 500 Gamma, and the engineering on them was streets ahead of the Brit bikes. I had an earlier generation Honda CD175 while my 550 was off the road for 6 weeks, and that was horrible. It had every Brit bike problem - gutless, heavy, bad road holding, poor chassis-ground clearance, looked like a derivative Brit bike, made from monkey metal, and dreadful to work on. I was delighted to get rid of it when the 550 was back on the road.

I am far from patriotic about bikes, you may have guessed. A colleague had a Triumph 800 trail bike a couple of years ago, and I found it hugely uncomfortable and over-complicated. Glad it was his.. I currently ride my wife's spare Piaggio NRG 50cc scooter which she commutes 12 miles each way on daily. The reliability is too poor to be able to only have the one, and the spare needs to be ridden regularly to keep it going. She can't ride a bigger bike without a full bike test, and doesn't want to take another test now she's in her fifties.

Regards,

Richard.

hacsart

no worries..  Yep, some Amals are a real disaster. SU was better,Solex too.One of the best "fixes" on an old Britbike is to mount a similar sized Mikuni.  far better starting and running, once you get the jetting right. Same goes for the timing. lose the points and drop in a Boyer or similar electronic ignition. Bearings are another issue - some of the older Brits used babbitt metal bushings, upgrade to beatings and balance the crank. Take the cases and skim machine the mating surfaces that will help with oil leaks. If you're running a BSA twin, look at the SRM crank needle bearing crank bearing and oil pump upgrades. Put in an anti-sump valve at the oil tank feed.. all kinds of things that help, and probably should have been don in the first place. To be fair the new Hinckley Triumphs are pretty darn good, and from what I read the new RE twins get high marks..

One thing I never understood, is why the Brits never switched to horizontally split engine cases. that would have solved nearly  pretty much all of the oil leaks....The Japanese got that right from the get gp..

Only got into Brit bikes as theye were cheap to buy used (and flogged), and they cold be fixed up easily enough to be sold on to buy more olf bikes, rinse, repeat.. was fun! My own street bieks were all Yamaha -strokes, save for one ex-police Harley (a 1937 UL 80ci flatehad, suitably bobbed, of course..)  There was a RE Super Meteor, a Triumph 500CC T100C and of course, the short summer of Vincent (now that was one well made bike)

hacsart

and speaking of Bantams...

 

 

richardandtracy

Nice render. Like the background HDRI too, seems appropriate.

hacsart

Thanks..

Some HDRI's work a lot better than others, which is why I tend to use the same  ones - that I know have good lighting and scaling..

hacsart

and as the Monty Python saying goes... "and now for something completely different.."

Yamaha Niken..

 

Robert Freise

I think I would take the Can-Am over that

hacsart

yeh.. me too.. although the thing got some good words in some of the bike mags.. its just a bit too out there for me.. (although it does have a weird Japanese sci-fi anime vibe)

Robert Freise said:

I think I would take the Can-Am over that

hacsart

So, by way of more "conventional" - 2015 Triumph 675 Daytona R - granted I still prefer the styling of the vintage ones..(which I remember, and in some cases , owned....)

 

DanaTA

I've seen a few "trikes" lately, they look kind of cool.  But that one seems that the two wheels are kind of close together.

 

On the Triumph, those front turn signals look like little arrows ready to pierce someone in a sharp turn!

Dana

hacsart

yeah, one wonders how that fits the Euro safety regs, they probably are on breakaway stems...

hacsart

Indian Chieftain Dark Horse..  Looking at my archived 3d files folder.. got quite a few GB of stuff  to go through and see what is worth keeping. Lots of stuff bought before I retired and had some fun money...

 

hacsart

and as a complement to the Indian..

 

hacsart

Silver or Blue?

Robert Freise

Always been partial to the blue

qbsa.s.f

Blue.

 

Make motorcycles with and without such a background ......

hacsart

like this?

 

hacsart

Using the Cobra.. some HDRI experiments ..

 

Robert Freise

Those sure look good

hacsart

Thanks.. pretty quick to render as well..

qbsa.s.f

DanaTA

I really like the nighttime images!

Dana

Robert Freise

DanaTA said:

I really like the nighttime images!

Dana

Same here nighttime images aren't easy to do and have them look right 

hacsart

Thanks.. Those are HDRI renders in iray..  Uisng an HDRI image as the environment.. Not all HDRIs' scale weel.though,  trial and error..

hacsart

1984 Rover SD1

PerttiA

I am just amazed of the selection and quality of cars in your collection 

hacsart

Thanks.. Most of my models were puchased  before I retired, and had fun money, but not the time to work with render them..  none of them came with textures, and in some cases have to be edited to break them up for texturing. (usually the wheel and tire are one mesh, no proper mapping)  Some are freebies, as well, but those are few and far between.  One of the UK computer graphcs mags back in the day (now defunct) regularly had  good models on their bonus CD's, which I archived.  Getting models of newer cars can be expensive.  Some are Sketchup models, but those  can take quite a bit of re-working to get a useable model. A lot of my wheels/tires caome from the 3D Classics bundle from rendo.  I have a few "generic" interior models that I can swap into models that either have a low-poly or no interior.. Careful camera angles and different textures hide that well..

PerttiA

Getting the models way back then may be one explanation for their quality and with quality I'm referring to how close the geometry of the model resembles the real thing, which seems to be hard to find in current market, even at the store that sells thousands of car models - Something in the geometry is quite often way off, making the model look like a caricature or a toon version of the original.

Personally, I'm interested in 50's to 70's european models, the Opel Rekord/Commodore 67-71 being my favorite as I have 5 or 6 of them with one Brasilian made copy on my yard.

hacsart

true.. the older models tend to be quad meshes, most of the newer ones are triangles, and mid-poly. easier and faster to model, but sometimes lacking.

richardandtracy

I remember the Rover 2000, thought it looked gorgeous at the time. Now.. not so much. Saw one episode of Top Gear when they took it to MIRA to see how smooth the suspension was by hanging raw eggs over the driver, and a rear door fell off.