Back to the Future?

[jmeyn]

I'm pretty sure that was tried, and discarded because of manufacturing/sealing problems. I'll try a search. Has anyone else heard about oval forks?



Seems like a flexible steering head puts the flex in the wrong part of the chassis.

[jmeyn]

Girder forks can be tuned for stiffness in twist and fore-and-aft bend, with more flexibility in side-to-side bend. It's the back wheel that's the problem.



Seems like what's needed is a sprung frame pivot raked the same as the fork pivot that meets the ground at the middle of the wheelbase. Looks to me like the axis would pass pretty near to the swing arm pivot center. Hmm...

[rsheidler]

Yeah, manufacturing would be a bit tricky -- can't just chuck a chunk of steel in the lathe!

[rsheidler]

This from an article by Steve Anderson -- For more info CLICK HERE



"The valve gear is as simple as it can be for a four-valve boxer: A single camshaft mounted high in each head opens each pair of valves via a very short pushrod and a single rocker arm with an extension for each valve. Valve lash can easily be set through screw adjusters. The camshafts are chain driven from a jackshaft under the crank; the jackshaft also carries the oil pump."



OHC would likely have made the engine wider, compromising cornering clearance. Also would make valve adjustments more difficult. My best friend's wife does her own valve adjustments on her R1150C.



Bob

[john]

Actually, i have a book that goes through harleys history. i found it very interesting to find a picture in there of a harley that looked very nearly like a CB750. It was in inline 4. harley made it as a prototype but ditched it. this was a year before the CB750 came out.



Could you just imagine if harley had actually produced that bike? especially if it outperformed the hondas......the motorcycle industry could be worlds different then it is right now.