Motorcycle racing - Mark and Sam in particular

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Love to read more on the Dave Morris bike and the Suzuki was that when John Reynolds won the British Championship

And me. I raced f1 and f2 side cars for a couple of year i enjoyed the engineer side of it just as much as hanging on the side of the thing.

The story about Honda was interesting as I was involved in the early days of 'Single cylinder race series' with a rider called Bob Newby. Bob had developed the Mularney Manx Norton which has a history going back to the time when Mike Hailwood was driving in F1 for the Surtee's team. His engines (Cosworth DFV's) were prepared by his Manx engine builder Bill Lacey, an Ulsterman as was Sid Mularney.

Bill Lacey contacted Sid and mentioned that the DFV combustion system would make for an interesting development to the Manx. Sid went ahead and had patterns made to form a Manx cylinder head with the DFV chamber, 4 valves and DOHC. The base engine he used was a 350cc Manx works development bottom end with a one piece crank and a split plain shell rod bearing. On to this went a Cosworth BDX piston to give a 92mm bore. The engine capacity resulted in 485cc with the short stroke of the 350 bottom end.

Bob rode this bike to numerous Classic Racing Motor Cycle Group 1 championships, always engaged in fierce battles with John Cronshaws much modified BSA Gold Star. On the inaugural Single Series championship he was racing what was basically a 1950's era Manx against modern Honda engined Specials. He led the series until the last race at Cadwell Park where he had a poor start but managed to carve his way from the back before crashing on the last lap. Honda officials were at the meeting and when Bob stripped the bike in the paddock to check for crash damage the Honda officials were surrounding him taking photographs.

As you can see in my avatar picture, I also rode in the CRMC Championship with the ex-works BSA as ridden by Bob Heath, Graham Horne and Tony Smith in the late 1960's. These bikes were built and run as 'rolling test beds' for engine development work for the World Moto Cross series with Jeff Smith and John Banks. The BSA mirrored the Mularney Manx by using a single piece short stroke crank, split rod plain shell bearing, but retained the 2 valve layout. It did have a titanium rod and titanium valves though. The BSA revs to 11,000 short of the Manx's 12,500 though!

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This is me grinning like a Ceshire cat having ridden one of the handful of road going Ducati Supermonos.

The bike has one cylinder but two con rods. The second con rod is connected to a counterbalance shaft to kid the engine that it is still a V twin. My good friend Alistair Wager of Britaliamoto builds these bikes.

Great thread OP!

Keep the stories coming!

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I remember Sid showing me around his workshop located in Leighton Buzzard in the late 60's, he showed me the 4 valve head I think?

Tony

Looking forward to the next thrilling installment Barrie...

Thanks very much Barrie a very enjoyable read cannot wait for more when Dave was racing he never seemed to get the press coverage he deserved.

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