Friday, November 13, 2009

1958 Championship T-Bird Hill Bike

Listed on ebay HERE. This thing is pretty amazing, not just the HISTORY, but the modifications to the frame, brakes, and suspension are really impressive as well. The front frame has been modified to put the engine as close to the front wheel as possible, and the rear section has been heavily modified as well. The plastic rear fender would have been a 1970's addition, the bike probably had some type of alloy blade when it was winning the early 1960's hill climb's.

I just read some jj squabbling recently about unit 500 heads being a close fit to pre-unit cylinders and presto, here's the real thing. I've never seen or heard of this conversion before. It's running iron head type pushrod tubes. Benefits? Anyone know anything about this conversion??? This listing says the engine is a 80 inch. Shows what they know. Or am I missing something?

Mechanical disc brake sprotor from the early days! Not sure how it shifts with the brake set up mounted right on the gearbox shifting shaft. Study this BEAST closely and you can find all kinds of neat mods.

4 comments:

  1. late 500cc and 650cc heads have virtually identical combustion chambers, (dimension wise) but I think the early 500 heads had smaller combustion chambers, so maybe the earlier head would give you more stroke in comparison with the 650cc crank and rods.

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  2. Or maybe the unit 500 head was just a cheap replacement for the original Iron 6T head? Sure looks neat...

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  3. Top cup of the springs removed for more travel?

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  4. I think the 80 inch description came from the memorabilia. In the articles it mentions that he raced in the 80in class and the 45in class. The seller obviously can't do the calculation.

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