Remarkable Motorcycles

Herman

The Image Stimulator
Location
The Netherlands
Name
Herman
One of them is the BMW (this will put a smile on BillN's face) C1 (this will let disappear his smile).

Maybe some of you can post images of it?

Which other bikes are remarkable acc to you?

Let us know, thanks.
 
Every forum like this needs a @Herman , someone you know has started a thread in the distant past to which your picture relates (y).
Remarkable Motorcycles.jpg
 
Friends had Triumphs, Nortons, Motoguzzi an Indian and assorted Harleys. Mostly they spent their weekends with the bikes in pieces in the living room or garage if they were lucky. Those of us with Japanese bikes were out riding :)
 
Friends had Triumphs, Nortons, Motoguzzi an Indian and assorted Harleys. Mostly they spent their weekends with the bikes in pieces in the living room or garage if they were lucky. Those of us with Japanese bikes were out riding :)
Granted about the reliability. Triumphs and Nortons had the stereotypical reliability issues. All the same, if I had to choose based on styling, I would go with the British bikes over the Japanese or even the American bikes. The BMWs are interesting because of the piston orientation.
 
This was passed to me from an old friend who tuned and raced it for almost 50 years, it is one of three made by Norton in 1962 to race at Daytona, and is the only one left of the three. It is also one of the only Norton twins to get a World Championship point for finishing high in the 1967 Canadian Gp. I have not tried starting it in over a dozen years..:

Heinz bike right retouched.jpg
 
One of the old Norton roadsters, a 1962 650ss. Sometimes I joke that I have the world's largest collection of 1962 Norton bikes, this 650cc, the 500cc road-racer posted above, and two 500cc 88ss roadsters, although the 88ss bikes are not assembled and I doubt I will live long enough or care enough to put them together. Also there are four other Norton roadsters in disrepair stuck in corners, a few Triumph bikes, several of the Matchless marque, and assorted small Italian and Spanish road and off-road machines. My father used to be a dealer/racer of British bikes back in the late 50s/early60s, so I got sucked into the whole mess at birth.

norton parts a.jpg
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One of my favorite motorcycles, when I was a child I used to read about them in the magazines my father had laying about. It is called a Capriolo and it was made by Aero Caproni, a company that was famous for aircraft manufacture from the Wright Brother's era through WWII. After the war they tried making motorcycles and I heard they only made about 12,000 total, with one-tenth that imported to the USA where I live. The unique feature of this little 100cc bike is that it has a tower-shaft drive to an overhead camshaft, but the camshaft is what is called a "face cam", where it is a horizontal plate spinning like a phonograph record with two bumps on it to activate the intake and exhaust rockers as they come around. Apparently only two or three engines in history used this method of valve actuation. This bike was in the local paper's classifieds ad for a garage-sale. I recognized the name of the bike, showed up a half-hour early at the address and there was the widow of the original owner setting things up. I told her I was there to look at the bike and asked what the price was, she said make an offer and I said $100 and she said fine so I loaded it up in my van. it cost me $130 to transfer the title into my name !!! Not much to look at but the engine turns over, it is all original except for a bad paint job, and someday it will make a nice bike for someone to restore.

Capriolo a.jpg
 
One of my favorite motorcycles, when I was a child I used to read about them in the magazines my father had laying about. It is called a Capriolo and it was made by Aero Caproni, a company that was famous for aircraft manufacture from the Wright Brother's era through WWII. After the war they tried making motorcycles and I heard they only made about 12,000 total, with one-tenth that imported to the USA where I live. The unique feature of this little 100cc bike is that it has a tower-shaft drive to an overhead camshaft, but the camshaft is what is called a "face cam", where it is a horizontal plate spinning like a phonograph record with two bumps on it to activate the intake and exhaust rockers as they come around. Apparently only two or three engines in history used this method of valve actuation. This bike was in the local paper's classifieds ad for a garage-sale. I recognized the name of the bike, showed up a half-hour early at the address and there was the widow of the original owner setting things up. I told her I was there to look at the bike and asked what the price was, she said make an offer and I said $100 and she said fine so I loaded it up in my van. it cost me $130 to transfer the title into my name !!! Not much to look at but the engine turns over, it is all original except for a bad paint job, and someday it will make a nice bike for someone to restore.

View attachment 449804
If the engine turns over at least the internals are moving. Parts might be a trick to find, but this is a very cool project.
 
If the engine turns over at least the internals are moving. Parts might be a trick to find, but this is a very cool project.

I think it would run, it has spark. But before I tried starting it I would want to take the forks apart and check them, check all the fluids, maybe put a new ignition capacitor in it, it needs a battery, the carb cleaned and a general checking over. Before being ridden regularly of course it should be all taken apart and put back together. It shows very low miles of in the hundreds so I would not expect much wear on any of the mechanical parts. I am just glad to have one of these to inspect first-hand after seeing them in the old magazines since the 60s. That may be enough for me, but the bike is oiled down and in dry storage so if I don't get to it someone will after I go tits-up.
 
An old friend of mine posing on a 1961 Norton Manxman I used to have. Photo shot with a Voitlander Vito CL that was my go-to camera for a long time. This bike belonged to an old friend of my father's that bought it new, I was it's second owner. I beat the heck out of it and took it up to 100mph and more every chance I got, and used to love going around turns fast so I had to hang off one side and put a knee close to the ground.

Tim on Manxman Vito CL.jpg
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