Re: MPG

On Tue, 26 May 2009 21:23:57 -0600, robert bowman wrote:

Curly Surmudgeon wrote:

I like BMW's boxer twins and the BSA 441 Victor too.  Let's not leave
out the Suzuki RE5, Ariel Square Four, Lotus Europa and Suzuki GT750
either. All are examples of excellent, unique, mechanical engineering.

The Europa is too sophisticated for me. I'm more a Super Seven type.

How about the Elan? I melted three Europa heads trying to get the valve
timing right for 1.5-2 atmospheres of boost before success. Tricky to do
without modern electronics. But the result was a lot of fun! 1,400lb go-
cart with about 260hp, extremely low polar moment of intertia (midship
engine) and braking that was other worldly.

The Pantera was it's big brother.

I used to see a water buffalo around town, but not recently. I never
saw a RE5. Just as well. I remember when the Mazdas started showing up
at SCCA events, whining softly.

The Wankel is a nasty sounding motor even with two resonators, a
catalytic converter and muffler but they run extremely well. The bike
fit the same mold, noisy but light weight and lots of power and broad
torque. It didn't buck and kick at low revs with throttle in high gear.

The Kawasaki 750 2-stroke (3 cylinder) was a death machine. I didn't
keep it long or I'd have killed myself. Just too damned fast and didn't
have today's braking, suspension or handling characteristics. One
immutable law of motorcycling is that the vast majority of riders will
push the envelope until the untoward happens.

I have the scars, screws and pins to substantiate that...

Ever heard of "Earl's Forks"?

--
Regards, Curly
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