Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Others: Introduction (Updated 21 Feb 2010)
Yes, okay, so we admit it: not everything we ride was built on the other side of the pond, and while it might seem to dilute the content, it doesn't half do a good job at setting the context.
Take Amanda's FT500 for example. Replaced the Yam XJ750 Seca that she really just couldn't get in with: far too fussy, busy and complicated than it had any right to be, she grew to hate it. The FT has not been without its teething troubles – it's a classic bike, for heaven's sake, at twenty-seven years old – and it arrived just in time for the cold snap, but she loves it. Simple, light, easily manageable.
If you wondered where AmV38's editorial came from, a pitch for Harley to build a set of single-cylinder cases to use Sportster engine components, look no further than this. As simple as it is, imagine how much better it would be with a 600cc Harley single motor in it?
As part of the deal, I've ended up with an XL500 - the original trail bike that spawned the FT - which will hopefully hit the road sometime in the summer as a street tracker in the current Japanese style (the bike to the right from the Japanese shop Matsumaru – see link above), and will slot in between my bicycle and the Buell for nipping to the post office and local errands.
And then there's a XS1100 outfit, although that's too loose a term currently: it's dead, running on three cylinders, hasn't got the sidecar fitted and will take weeks of work and hundred of pounds to finish, but will be an excellent moving shot and video platform when it's finished ... if it's ever finished: it's not a priority.
And then there's a Triumph 3TA with a 500cc big bore kit, bolt-on hardtail and an engine in a hundred pieces, that will be a Tiger 30.50 one day.
At least Graham's T140 Bonnie is in one piece, even if it's SORN'd.
Other stuff will come and go.
Quick update: having realised we can't post images in the comments, I reckoned it was worth slipping in a pic of a conceptual Buell Blast-powered Mac Motorcycle referred to by Lofty in the comments.
This is what would have been their "Spud": a minute's silence, please, for what might have been.
It remains to be seen whether they'll continue with an alternative powerplant. Sadly Harley have ruled themselves out of supplying Blast motors, which I'd have thought would be an avenue worth exploring, and could even provide the basis for a range of Harley-Davidson singles – even resurrecting the Model A, B and C designations – but Harley will have a long term survival strategy that will take precedence over everything else right now.
Take Amanda's FT500 for example. Replaced the Yam XJ750 Seca that she really just couldn't get in with: far too fussy, busy and complicated than it had any right to be, she grew to hate it. The FT has not been without its teething troubles – it's a classic bike, for heaven's sake, at twenty-seven years old – and it arrived just in time for the cold snap, but she loves it. Simple, light, easily manageable.
If you wondered where AmV38's editorial came from, a pitch for Harley to build a set of single-cylinder cases to use Sportster engine components, look no further than this. As simple as it is, imagine how much better it would be with a 600cc Harley single motor in it?
And then there's a XS1100 outfit, although that's too loose a term currently: it's dead, running on three cylinders, hasn't got the sidecar fitted and will take weeks of work and hundred of pounds to finish, but will be an excellent moving shot and video platform when it's finished ... if it's ever finished: it's not a priority.
And then there's a Triumph 3TA with a 500cc big bore kit, bolt-on hardtail and an engine in a hundred pieces, that will be a Tiger 30.50 one day.
At least Graham's T140 Bonnie is in one piece, even if it's SORN'd.
Other stuff will come and go.Quick update: having realised we can't post images in the comments, I reckoned it was worth slipping in a pic of a conceptual Buell Blast-powered Mac Motorcycle referred to by Lofty in the comments.
This is what would have been their "Spud": a minute's silence, please, for what might have been.
It remains to be seen whether they'll continue with an alternative powerplant. Sadly Harley have ruled themselves out of supplying Blast motors, which I'd have thought would be an avenue worth exploring, and could even provide the basis for a range of Harley-Davidson singles – even resurrecting the Model A, B and C designations – but Harley will have a long term survival strategy that will take precedence over everything else right now.
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4 comments:
Fantastic little Yam. Would make a great little bar hopper. Fancy something similar with a Buell Blast engine perhaps.
Isn't it just. I can't help feeling that Harley could produce a very simple entry-level motorcycle with very few new parts: crankcases and a crank ... and a frame, obviously. Alternatively, supply Buell Blast crankcases to anyone who'll promise to build a bike round them, and use that R&D.
I can't remember their name but there was a UK firm that had got to the design stage with a series of Blast engined bikes and may have even built something. They looked real cool but of course they can no longer have the Blast engine. Didn't you short feature them in Am-v about a year ago?
Indeed there was: Mac Motorcycles were going to build a range of bikes round the Blast motor and there is some press speculation that they'll use an alternative power plant. I think we ran a small news piece.
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