Phone camera on bars, 63 Super Rocket

[worntorn]

Here's a little clip of my 63 Super Rocket, taken on this evening's ride. Please excuse the poor video quality, this is a cheap phone in $5 handlebar mount. Lots of wind noise too, hard to shut that off.
But the SR sounds pretty good! Overgeared at the moment with 23 tooth engine sprocket.
Glen

https://youtu.be/7NfnV2JJ7TE

[muskrat]

G'day wt.
Great mate, sounds excellent.
I'll have to get one of those moving picture things one day.
Reminds me why I don't have a crono tacho. I like to see whats happening now not 5 miles down the road. I can live with a crono speedo as I never look at that!
Cheers

[berger]

musky I am with you on the tacho bit I couldn't cope with that, much prefer the smooth magnetic ones if mine had a chrono I could be doing 6000 rpm one second then all of a sudden blown engine and tacho stuck a 8000 rpm  only joking about the 8000 only had her to 7000 and that's way too much when you know what's going on inside the poor thing.

[worntorn]

That tach didn't work at all when I first got the bike. It would go up to a high rpm number and stick there. After using the bike a bit the tach started moving more and now the tach is almost useable.
Properly functioning Chrono tachs work a lot better than this one.
I'm not complaining, it's great to have it fixing itself, cause I sure don't know how to fix it!

Glen

[berger]

worntorn all I know is they are all sensitive to which cable is fitted, put the wrong one on my tacho years ago it didn't like it

[chaterlea25]

Hi Glen,
I am running with a 23 tooth engine sprocket, and find the gearing great,
Sounds just like yours, it will rev out in top gear if I want it to, and accelerates up a long road climb near home without a bother
I am wondering if the USA models had an 18inch wheel in 63 ? what size tyre is fitted to your SR?

John

[worntorn]

John, the bike has 19" rims fore and aft. They appear to be original, or rather they were before I fitted a complete 2ls 19" front from an A65.
When I got the bike I wondered if it was down in power as it would top out around 95 mph true speed( GPS)
Reading all of the magazine tests had me thinking this hi test version of the Super Rocket should do 110 easily.
Since then Ive learned a couple of key points-
1. The road tests for all bikes back then were full of fibs ( Instant acceleration in any gear, a complete lack of vibration at any RPM!)
2. The testers often weighed about as much as my left leg.
I think the bike is quite healthy.
It tests 98% on leakdown. It seems to have the Westcoast CR of 9 to one, measured with buret.
I'm not sure if it has the 357 cam in place still, one day I'll measure lift to find out. I suspect it does.
Since your bike is a 61, it would also have been fitted with a 357. Is that in place still?

The more I ride this bike the more I like it.
Smooth enough at 60 for all day cruising, with this gearing.
65 is a totally different story however!
One day I might tackle disassembly and send the crank out for dynamic balance.
I'm not totally convinced that it will improve it, it's not awful now.
And it is together and running!

Glen

[Slymo]

Chronometric speedos and tachometers are the ultimate imho. They are extremely acurate and very responsive but as they travel in clicks it is something you need to get used to. The good thing is unlike magnetic instruments you can (if the gauge is calibrated properly) rely on it being right from one end of the dial to the other. Magnetics are right at one spot then get progressively more inaccurate as they progress up or down the dial. They replaced chronos not because they are good but because they are cheap to make. To me chronos are the sign of a quality machine and the huge cost of obtaining them now would support that conclusion.  Lets face it we would all like a machine with a Bonniksen attached.

[Beeza]

Really nice, thanks for the post.
Thomas