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Which Was The Best Twinshock Front Brake ?


bezaboy
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Too late for the yellow card Sparks, I had to yellow card myself from the lathe this evening following a skirmish with an Ossa ignition flywheel. An attempt to lighten one saw it stage a successful bid for freedom from the chuck. 7lbs of spinning mayhem flew across the bench like one of Barnes Wallace's finest creations. Fortunately the direction it took saw it trapped in the corner at the end of the bench where it finally span and bounced itself to rest. If it had come my way, I may well have a new head with Motoplat stamped on it...

A sharp lesson of a little knowledge and ambition far outweighing the skill set.... I did persevere and get it done, but it appears I've taken off too much after trying it on the bike...

I won't mention too much detail of the earlier attempt to pin and weld my broken BSA kickstart shaft, but the attempt to start the bike with the 'repaired' shaft, the subsequent cracking sound and accompanying cry of pain, and a kickstart hanging limply from the shaft, may suggest to some that it wasn't the success it first seemed to be...

Tomorrow will be a spanners only day

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Woody - Let's not have any more of this 'Now, I'm not an engineer' stuff.

You know what your talking about, more than most 'engineers' I know,

it's just false modesty to draw attention.

Any more and it's a yellow card.

Regards

Sparks

P.S.

What is an 'Engineer' anyway?

Chartered engineer?

Electrical engineer?

Electronic engineer?

Engineering Fitter?

Control Engineer?

Civil engineer?

Refrigeration engineer?

You name it, there's an 'engineer' for it.

Oh dear, I've upset someone, (or woke them up).

Na then sparks,

Tha knows full well that from thy end o t'country an engineer is the man that drives t'winding engine in t'pit..........

Or am I just old fashioned - 'cos my great uncle who manufactured motorcycles in the Colne Valley just outside Huddersfield also called himself an engineer, because he had been apprenticed at Bradbury's just across the Pennines, and then designed and built his own motorcycles where the sole bought-in components were the pistons, some of the bearings, the valves and springs, the tyres and tubes, the acetylene lamps, the saddle and the speedometers.

He also rode the first Bradbury fitted with a foot-change gearshift from Oldham down to London (Olympia) to be exhibited on the company's stand.

Edited by laird387
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Eh Up Deryk

Was it you I woke up?
Can't speak with any authority on this because I've never been down t'pit, up chimneys, yes, down t'pit, no. We were more textiles in this neck of the woods.

But I think the man who drove t'winding engine was called the 'Banksman', either that or just the winding engine driver, certainly not engineer.

I think your saying your Great Uncle was an all round machinist (on the machine tools of the day) so could call himself an engineer.

Woody, No Yellow Cards for having a go yourself, just Brownie points. Now, I'm not an engineer, just someone who has learned most things in life by the desperately hard school of trial and error, a few observations:-
When in any doubt, run very slow, with slow feed and small cut, most materials will still cut and risks will be much less.
If things work out you can increase speed a bit.
When cutting a large diameter (such as the flywheel OD), surface speed is up, so lathe RPM can go down.
Cutting speeds are not an exact science, witness the few speeds on older lathes.
Don't worry about the odd kickstart disaster, your bikes are a credit to you.

P.S.

Social Engineering
Genetic Engineering
Traffic Engineer
There's more when I can think of them
Not sure about Domestic Engineer, is that the same as Domestic Appliance Engineer ???

Edited by sparks2
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Thanks Sparks - good tip about surface speed of the flywheel, I hadn't thought of that. I think I had the speed about 800 if I can work out the reading correctly... I was actually skimming the face of it, theory being that if I keep the larger diameter, it will retain most of the inertia characteristic whilst being a bit lighter, helping it pick up a bit quicker but not losing inertia and causing it to stall easily. Feels as though I may have taken a bit much off riding it around the garden but won't know really until I get it out under proper conditions.

Three attempts at fixing the broken kickstart shaft now and three failures, but you don't know if you don't try... I enjoy having a go but know my limitations... and keep finding new ones. But I've learned from others and taught myself a bit so I can at least do most of the stuff on my own bikes now.

All part of the overall experience which culminates in what I enjoy most - riding trials.

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  • 2 weeks later...
 

Woody - Let's not have any more of this 'Now, I'm not an engineer' stuff.

You know what your talking about, more than most 'engineers' I know,

it's just false modesty to draw attention.

Any more and it's a yellow card.

Regards

Sparks

P.S.

What is an 'Engineer' anyway?

Chartered engineer?

Electrical engineer?

Electronic engineer?

Engineering Fitter?

Control Engineer?

Civil engineer?

Refrigeration engineer?

You name it, there's an 'engineer' for it.

Oh dear, I've upset someone, (or woke them up).

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Very good, Gordo, thanks for posting.

But haven't we all got to have the 'knack' to keep a 20, 30, 40, 50 and more years

old machine running whilst throwing it at the mud and rocks (those of us not buying

new machinery these days).

Many years ago, someone, speaking down to me, explained in a patronising manner, that

to be an Engineer you had to be Chartered, ie a member of a Chartered Institute.

Until then, you were just a fitter, technician, turner, welder etc.

I have not been comfortable with the term 'engineer' since.

Not that I think a fitter, technician or turner has any less to offer society.

Deryk - just had it confirmed by someone who worked down t'pit, the winding engine driver

was called the 'Banksman'. ---- One up to me.

Regards

Edited by sparks2
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Very good, Gordo, thanks for posting.

But haven't we all got to have the 'knack' to keep a 20, 30, 40, 50 and more years

old machine running whilst throwing it at the mud and rocks (those of us not buying

new machinery these days).

Many years ago, someone, speaking down to me, explained in a patronising manner, that

to be an Engineer you had to be Chartered, ie a member of a Chartered Institute.

Until then, you were just a fitter, technician, turner, welder etc.

Not that I think a fitter, technician or turner has any less to offer society.

Deryk - just had it confirmed by someone who worked down t'pit, the winding engine driver

was called the 'Banksman'. ---- One up to me.

Regards

Hi sparks2,

It's a dialect thing - the man driving the winding engine at the pit on Lepton Edge, was my next door neighbour in my tender youth at Moldgreen, and he had the official title of 'Engineer' and his cubby hole bore the title 'Engineers Office'.

I do agree that pits in the Barnsley area most certainly had 'Banksmen' at the winding engine controls.

I agree with your sentiments, I suffered in later life with people working for me who bore the title Chartered Engineer, and were never short of a chance to remind you - but I knew the others in the department who had not subscribed to the Chartered Institute, others that I would trust my life to - and that could not be said of my Ch. Eng., associate.

One other local memory for you, my grandad worked in the boiler room at a mill in the Colne Valley, in the days long before popular clocks and alarms were readily available. His day started when the alarm clock provided by his employers roused him, whereupon he would go down to the mill and sound two long blasts on the works siren - the 'wake up' call for all the other workers.

Having done that one fine morning he looked at his own pocket watch and realised that he had sounded the wake-up just an hour early.

You can probably guess what all the workers felt when they rushed in to work only to see the actual time on the factory clocking in card board...............

Grandad was always a definite clock watcher from that day forth........

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Hi Deryk

Well, my friend and informant worked at Shuttle Eye, Grange Moor, in the sixties, not a mile or two

away from Lepton Edge, infact the neighbouring pit and he says it was 'Banksman'.

One -- One, I reckon.

Great banter, bye for now.

PS which mill in the Colne Valley?

Edited by sparks2
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Hi sparks2,

'Twas at Marsden and the name running riot in my memory cells is Bankdam, but it was all whilst I was a twinkle in his eldest son's eye - and Grandad's long gone, so I can't check.

My Mum was a hand warper in Moldgreen at a worsted mill, making pattern lengths on a series of pegs on the wall.

And if people are worried about going off topic, let's talk about a real old school engineer, Fred Duffield of Dalton who was a specialist repair and restoration engineer for BSA three wheelers, or my great uncle Richard, who manufactured motorcycles in the Colne valley, and rode one in the third Scott trial with one of his customers..............

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Hi sparks2,

Right in one - yes, I remember the book and, if it didn't make it into a film it certainly made it on to early TV (My Dad was a Radio and TV engineer so we had TV in the home long before the norm) - but I'm sure there was something about Bankdam in Grandad's exploit - was the book based around one of the local mills, in which case it was that mill that Grandad worked at.

We moved to Leeds when I was eleven, so I lost direct contact with life in the Huddersfield area.

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