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1931 Henderson Motorcycle

#22
Gaolee said:
Until you have a kick start lever kick back on you. Then there's the bruise or worse to deal with. Compression release and good technique make a difference, but there's always that random time a cranky old motor decides to exact revenge on the guy who is bothering it when it just doesn't want to start. It's probably fairly low compression, so it probably doesn't kick back as bad as some. So, there's that.
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Bruise on your leg? What about the bruise on your stomach when the high compression Sportster with the magneto pitches you back over the handlebars?:laugh: The motors then were pretty low compression because I don’t think what passed for gas at the time would burn in a high compression engine.
 
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#23
Gaolee said:
Who needs a fancy 4x4 truck when you can have a Model T that can handle anything?
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One of my dad's brothers has a 1917 model T that he completely restored.
He also has a 1927 model A (handles dirt roads better than the T) that he restored before the model T.
It went from his hobby to a specialised woodworking profession after his retirement.
One of his other beauties is a pre-30's Nash Standard Six, Cabriolet.
He has lots of cars and projects to work on.

His main car is a Toyota Land Cruiser that he got shipped from the USA in a container together with some Nash and Ford parts.
 
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#24
Not to derail, but you guys will identify with this story. It's a heat wave in France. 100F and humid. ...and my motorcycle jacket zipper-pull broke while I was out running errands. So I was trapped in my jacket at the store, sweating profusely(understatement). luckily my phone started ringing loudly and it was in my inside pocket so I couldn't answer it. I tried some Harry houdini maneuver unsuccessfully which only made more people stare and give me extra space. Big sweaty American... Then I went about my chores, which didn't make anyone think I was not a madman, as I was stocking up on Gaspacho (I bought 10 cartons) and citronella candles, I bought two jumbo flat packs. Yeah today I was the weirdo on the bike. Just thought I'd share! :D
 
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#25
A little about starting those oldies from someone that rode them for many years. My last chopper was a 1952 H.D. 74 C.I. It was originally a pan head engine that I put a set of Shovelhead juge and heads on. Surprisingly enough , it was almost a bolt on change. The only thing that I had to do was plug one of the oil holes that ran oil up the panhead jugs as the Shovelhead jugs were oiled from an outside line that tapped into the R.H. engine cover. The old Harley engines had a distributor on them and were originally set up with a cable that worked off of the left hand grip to re tard the timing on start up. I eliminated that grip and cable and simply reached down and gave the distributor a slight twist. The over the handle bars thing I guess was possible if you didn't dufus the timing and while I got kicked a bit a couple of times that I didn't re tard the timing , personally I think the over the handlebars stuff is a bit of a wives tale. In all my years of riding , I never saw anyone actually get kicked that hard.
My bike had no choke and if it sat overnight , it required about 4 kickthroughs to prime the engine. After that , even on the coldest days I rode , it always started on the first kick. After the bike had been started once , all it ever took was one kick and I was off and running. I used the same Bendix model carb. on all three bikes I owned and it worked perfectly for 20 years without a rebuild. If I'm not mistaken , the O.P. has a thread about which motorcycle to buy and I have a picture of me and the next to the last version of that bike in it. The only change I made after that pic was taken was to take off that horrible Girder front end and put the old extended narrowed glide front end back on. The girder looked cool but it was the worst handling piece of garbage I ever rode.
Edit: Found the pic. Here it is. The distributor is behind my leg.
upload_2018-6-27_19-20-0-png.png
 
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#27
sharkbait130 said:
A little about starting those oldies from someone that rode them for many years. My last chopper was a 1952 H.D. 74 C.I. It was originally a pan head engine that I put a set of Shovelhead juge and heads on. Surprisingly enough , it was almost a bolt on change. The only thing that I had to do was plug one of the oil holes that ran oil up the panhead jugs as the Shovelhead jugs were oiled from an outside line that tapped into the R.H. engine cover. The old Harley engines had a distributor on them and were originally set up with a cable that worked off of the left hand grip to dufus the timing on start up. I eliminated that grip and cable and simply reached down and gave the distributor a slight twist. The over the handle bars thing I guess was possible if you didn't dufus the timing and while I got kicked a bit a couple of times that I didn't dufus the timing , personally I think the over the handlebars stuff is a bit of a wives tale. In all my years of riding , I never saw anyone actually get kicked that hard.
My bike had no choke and if it sat overnight , it required about 4 kickthroughs to prime the engine. After that , even on the coldest days I rode , it always started on the first kick. After the bike had been started once , all it ever took was one kick and I was off and running. I used the same Bendix model carb. on all three bikes I owned and it worked perfectly for 20 years without a rebuild. If I'm not mistaken , the O.P. has a thread about which motorcycle to buy and I have a picture of me and the next to the last version of that bike in it. The only change I made after that pic was taken was to take off that horrible Girder front end and put the old extended narrowed glide front end back on. The girder looked cool but it was the worst handling piece of garbage I ever rode.
Edit: Found the pic. Here it is. The distributor is behind my leg.
View attachment 3107914
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Had a buddy with an old Ironhead Sportster that had 12 or 13:1 compression and a magneto. No easy way to dufus the timing for starting. Maybe over the bars is a bit of an exaggeration but he about got launched once or twice by it. I prefer to keep the kickback to a minimum by being a fat guy.:smug: My shovelhead has always been pretty easy starting though.

Edit: hmmm... Apparently, you can't use the term r-e-t-a-r-d even in connection with engine timing. I was wondering about that in your post.
 
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#32
Callused Finger said:
My father has one. It’s about half way restored. All there though.

...along with an Ariel square four, a couple /2 bmw’s and a Vincent Black shadow(!).

And a 1917 Stanley steamer in the garage.

I just have an old black and yellow ‘85 RZ350. Lol
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I would take a Kenny Roberts 2-smoke, thank you very much. Those are a hoot.
 
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#33
Gaolee said:
I would take a Kenny Roberts 2-smoke, thank you very much. Those are a hoot.
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I was a two stroke guy back in the day. My Kawasaki S-3 400 could do an honest 105 mph on flat land with no hill. The biggest downside was that even slow four strokes just sounded better. Both my old Yamaha, and later my Kawasaki were kickstart only. The only time I had a hard time start one of them was when it was nearly zero Fahrenheit.
 
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#35
Matt Liebenau said:
Had a buddy with an old Ironhead Sportster that had 12 or 13:1 compression and a magneto. No easy way to dufus the timing for starting. Maybe over the bars is a bit of an exaggeration but he about got launched once or twice by it. I prefer to keep the kickback to a minimum by being a fat guy.:smug: My shovelhead has always been pretty easy starting though.

Edit: hmmm... Apparently, you can't use the term r-e-t-a-r-d even in connection with engine timing. I was wondering about that in your post.
Click to expand...



Yeah , those old stockers came qith around an 8.1 to 1 compression so a sporty with 13.1 would be a bit dangerous to say the least. Didn't notice the re tard thing till I read your post. Political correctness has truly gotten out of hand. Think I'll go edit that post. If talking about the mechanics of timing on an engine using proper terms that have been in use for over 100 years gets anyone that riled , they really need to take a mechanics course.
Is your shovelhead a conehead motor? If it is they have an automatic spark advance built in upon start up of the engine.
 
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#38
Dr. Cheese said:
Off topic: After 22 years, I finally got my MC license back today!:hyper:

I took my test on a 200cc Vespa and I test rode a Triumph Tiger 1050 and Suzuki V-Strom today. I am about to try a KLR-650 as I am typing.:D
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I hear that Triumph has improved greatly over the years but the old ones shook bad enough to blur your vision at 70 mph. they were pretty quick though. One of the worst butt whippings I took on my bike was from a buddy that had a Triumph Trident with an 850 bolt on kit on it. Someone said go and all I saw was his tail lights getting smaller and smaller. Started catching up to him after about a half mile and would have had him if we had gone a mile or so.
 

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