Coytee Posted November 2, 2020 Share Posted November 2, 2020 Wasn't frightened by the bike... When I was young, my father bought me a Yamaha 60 cc trail bike. Grew up with the bug.... when I turned 18, I bought a YZ-465 when they first came out. I was at a friends house and they had some mini-bikes (briggs/stratton engines) and maybe someone had a 125... this 465 could launch itself past any of these with a blip of the quarter turn throttle. We were going around their home made track which had a jump in it. I was catching some air not realizing that I was now going faster than the pour soul in front of me. As I landed, I was heading right to her rear end and was going to create an ugly accident.... This bike had the double leading shoe front brakes, which I hit. Never in my life had I done a front wheelie but it was the only reaction I had and the front wheelie was the result. I was aware enough of what was going on that I let up a bit so I didn't flip over and in the end, it looked (LOOKED) like I was a really good cool rider when in fact, it was nothing more than a panic move that ended well. I don't think she even knew what was going on behind her. Later in life (when I moved to the farm here) I got one of my dream bikes. Bought four boxes full of bits/pieces where the bike had been TOTALLY disassembled. If it came apart, it was apart. Which let me go through literally every nut/bolt gasket, bearing (which I installed new when I redid the engine) and I had my very own 1983 Maico 490. We had recently finished the house here and while I was trying to heat the engine halves to take the old bearings out and replace.... I put the engine halves into our oven (the wife did some tile that she painted with 'oven enamle' or something like that.... so why not a motorcycle engine??) This was the same bike that I bought a new seat for.... took the old seat when her brother & sister in law were visiting.... cut a circle out of the old seat, slapped some icing (cake icing) on it and put it on a plate. Sister in law went to cut a piece but it wouldn't let go (that darn foam rubber is snappy!!) She was praying I'd leave the room because she wanted to throw the piece of cake away.....but didn't want to hurt my feelings. Got the piece on her plate.... got her fork... OMG, this is a spongy cake!!! Finally, she gets a serrated knife out to cut the cake and I had to turn my back looking into the refrigerator to keep from busting out laughing..... until she started to approache her mouth with the piece of 'cake'. It was then that I saved her. I would SO MUCH LOVE to have had a camera going on that with the backstory. It is laughed about today, even by her. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coytee Posted November 2, 2020 Share Posted November 2, 2020 BTW, oven trick didn't work....had to use a propane torch to directly heat the case & it worked like a charm. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grasshopper Posted November 2, 2020 Share Posted November 2, 2020 Had to use oxy/acetylene on bearings of some power equipment [Stihl weedeaters]... Heat the casing and they just fell out. They were a no go w/o ... as far as the OP No... I didn't ride that H2. It scared me before I got on it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NADman Posted November 2, 2020 Share Posted November 2, 2020 Bikers, Ever Ridden a Bike That Scared You? None of the dozens of bikes I've owned and ridden in over 60 years scared me - at the time.I'm over 70 now and when I think back, every one should have scared the sh*t out of me. Very lucky to be alive and mostly in one piece. Take care riders. 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edgar Posted November 2, 2020 Share Posted November 2, 2020 37 minutes ago, NADman said: None of the dozens of bikes I've owned and ridden in over 60 years scared me - at the time.I'm over 70 now and when I think back, every one should have scared the sh*t out of me. My ZX-11 would occasionally remind me that it was a better bike than I was a rider, but it never actually scared me. What did scare me was the clueless people in three-ton Suburbans, driving 75 mph while texting, darting in and out of traffic and nearly turning me into road kill. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ceptorman Posted November 3, 2020 Author Share Posted November 3, 2020 3 hours ago, JJkizak said: Anybody ever buy one of those Chrysler bikes that went 400MPH? JJK Tomahawk? Weren't they like 250K? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OO1 Posted November 3, 2020 Share Posted November 3, 2020 3 hours ago, JJkizak said: Anybody ever buy one of those Chrysler bikes that went 400MPH? JJK a WW2 Spitfire with a Rolls-Royce Merlin engine had a top speed of 369mph - Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edgar Posted November 3, 2020 Share Posted November 3, 2020 4 hours ago, JJkizak said: Anybody ever buy one of those Chrysler bikes that went 400MPH? JJK Never actually tested above 100 mph. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodge_Tomahawk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wvu80 Posted November 3, 2020 Share Posted November 3, 2020 3 hours ago, Coytee said: and I had my very own 1983 Maico 490. Wow! Hang on to that thing as it's considered the best big bore ever made. It's more than a classic, it's a legend! Tell me this doesn't look sexy! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billybob Posted November 3, 2020 Share Posted November 3, 2020 29 minutes ago, RandyH000 said: a WW2 Spitfire with a Rolls-Royce Merlin engine had a top speed of 369mph - In a dive, it was a good bit faster... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OO1 Posted November 3, 2020 Share Posted November 3, 2020 why ride when you can fly ? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Islander Posted November 3, 2020 Share Posted November 3, 2020 7 hours ago, JJkizak said: Anybody ever buy one of those Chrysler bikes that went 400MPH? JJK Has anyone ever seen more than just the one Tomahawk? It was built as a kind of engineering/adverting exercise, and I don't know whether any of them were ever actually sold. That claim of a 400 mph top speed is just that: a claim. It's likely based on a calculation of how fast it possibly could go, based on its power to weight ratio, or something like that. It doesn't appear that Dodge could find a test rider willing to take it up to top speed, or even half of top speed: just 200 mph. The dynamics of such an unknown frame/engine/suspension (and so on) combination are in the limbo of known unknowns, unknown unknowns, and so on. For example, with two wheels at each end, so close together, it's entirely possible that a slight difference in dynamic wheel balance could could cause a serious instability that would only become apparent at very high speed and would quickly become forceful enough to spit the rider (driver?) off. Instead of spending possibly years to make it into a functional and safe vehicle, at great cost, perhaps including the lives of a test pilot or two, Dodge seems to have decided to just call it a "rolling sculpture", because who cares how a sculpture handles? Now if you want to have am actual road-going Viper-powered bike, maybe instead of a mob of Dodge engineers, you should turn to some English guy with some machining skills and engineering abiliity. His name is Allen Millyard, and he built his own Viperbike, and it's street legal! In one video, he mentions that he has put over 9,000 miles on it, and it seems to be kind of practical, if you could imagine that. As the line in the Kinks song goes, "Imagination's real!", and Allen Millyard made real the bike he had imagined. This first clip is 14 minutes long, and shows how he designed and built suspension components for the front and rear ends, and how he overcame the various expected and unexpected problems. At one point, he calls (or appears to call) NASA. They're not very helpful, so he improvises, with great results. OOPS! I managed to include the link twice. Both videos are the same. Millyard Viper 8 Litre V10 Motorcycle - Part 1: 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Islander Posted November 3, 2020 Share Posted November 3, 2020 So how fast is the Millyard V10 Viper bike, you ask? Well, so far it's been run up to 207 mph, so that's not bad for something he put together in his shed from scratch. He and John Britten would probably have got on well. The runs were done at Bruntingthorpe, which is an airport where lots of high speed runs are done. It appears that more speed is possible, but when dealing with those kinds of speeds, baby steps are not a bad idea. Apologies for the crap video and audio. There are several more videos about this bike, including one that's an hour long. They're easy to find on YouTube. 8000cc Millyard Viper hits 207mph!: 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billybob Posted November 3, 2020 Share Posted November 3, 2020 Dang...cool! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
parlophone1 Posted November 3, 2020 Share Posted November 3, 2020 Former East Germany MZ150 ccm two-stroke. Broke my arm on that thing. Incredibly high center of gravity, frame flexes longitudinally, on any kind of slippery surface it just rode all over the place. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ceptorman Posted November 3, 2020 Author Share Posted November 3, 2020 4 hours ago, Islander said: So how fast is the Millyard V10 Viper bike, you ask? Well, so far it's been run up to 207 mph, so that's not bad for something he put together in his shed from scratch. He and John Britten would probably have got on well. The runs were done at Bruntingthorpe, which is an airport where lots of high speed runs are done. It appears that more speed is possible, but when dealing with those kinds of speeds, baby steps are not a bad idea. Apologies for the crap video and audio. There are several more videos about this bike, including one that's an hour long. They're easy to find on YouTube. 8000cc Millyard Viper hits 207mph!: That's incredible. I saw the Britten at the Barber Museum, amazing engineering. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woofers and Tweeters Posted November 3, 2020 Share Posted November 3, 2020 42 minutes ago, Ceptorman said: I saw the Britten at the Barber Museum, amazing engineering. Saw the one at Barber, and another one that was in Memphis at a museum that was a part of a Guggenheim tour. I was fortunate enough to be racing at a track in Colorado on the same weekend that someone brought a Britten to the track. Someone actually did a few hot laps on it. What a great bike. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coytee Posted November 3, 2020 Share Posted November 3, 2020 I guess if you're badazz enough to go 200 mph, you're badazz enough to have a pink bike.... 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ceptorman Posted November 3, 2020 Author Share Posted November 3, 2020 3 hours ago, Woofers and Tweeters said: Saw the one at Barber, and another one that was in Memphis at a museum that was a part of a Guggenheim tour. I was fortunate enough to be racing at a track in Colorado on the same weekend that someone brought a Britten to the track. Someone actually did a few hot laps on it. What a great bike. At the Moto America race at Indy last month, they added a new Senior Superbike class, exhibition laps only. There was supposed to be a Britten turning laps, but no show. I would like to be there next year to turn a few laps on that track. It has to be a 35+ year old SBK, or any significant race bike. I haven't mentioned this adventure to my wife yet....anyone have a spare dog house? 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ceptorman Posted November 3, 2020 Author Share Posted November 3, 2020 1 hour ago, Coytee said: I guess if you're badazz enough to go 200 mph, you're badazz enough to have a pink bike.... I'll bet James (Woofers and Tweeters) has gone 180+ on a bike. I've seen about 160...............on the street! 2 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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