New BT-H magnetos

Hi Kim, That bit at the end "Recommend this to a friend" missed out the word "Rich"

-- Dave Croft Warrington England

Probably has more to do with what the market will stand rather than the cost of manufacture. Mind you there are more expensive alternatives, have alook at this:-

"Nick Highfield" wrote

Hi Nick, I last did the MGP in 1986 and our budget then was £2500 for the fortnight. The bike cost then over £10k to build so all parts fitted were the best/most reliable obtainable pretty much regardless of cost to minimise the risk of mechanical failure. I would guess the costs these days to be somewhat higher :-) so £750 for a guaranteed spark would be more than acceptable as it is one less (critical) component to worry about over the fortnight. In the early 90s I think Tony Scott rebuilds on RC30 engines started at £10k and I know one person who blew 3 in practice for the TT meaning he did not complete enough laps to qualify, his costs probably exceeded £40k with nothing to show - its just a somewhat different environment from stationary engines!

I think I paid £200 for a BTH KD1 TT back in the mid 80s for the cammy AJ.

Paul

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Internal Fire, Museum of Power, Wales

I'm sure you will have seen this already Kim, but just in case:-

- and I bought a completely rebuilt Lucas KVR (IIRC) magneto (50o vee twin mag for a Vincent Black Lightening) for £80. Weeks wages then - but I still have it somewhere ................

I wonder what *that* would fetch on e-bay ;o))

Regards,

Kim Siddorn

See

An interesting thread :-) Could the assembled wisdom tell me what this mag fits please: BTH type KC1 also carrying a label "TT Magneto". ta Roland

Roland, Asking daft questions like that could if you are not careful get daft answers but tonight I made a part for my Mig Welder and it is now repaired so I could not be bothered :-))

Martin P

I'm feeling thick tonight so don't understand why that's a daft question even if no-one knows the answer :-) regards Roland PS is your MIG supersonic and are you a hedgehog?

Its in the word TT Magneto, and now I am going to be thick. Hedgehog and Supersonic!

My welder has a badlt designed wire feeder mechanism and over time the plastic tensioner has gone soft and has twisted so will not allow constant feeding of the wire so I have machined a stiffer block using Acetal, sorry about spelling, now it feeds well.

Martin P

"Nick Highfield"

Shouldn't be. When we raced the AJS in the 80s we were racing a bike with 50 year old electron casings which developed a new crack every time it went out. It was a continual struggle to keep the bike going. We were racing against a guy with a "Scott" that consisted of a brand new frame in 531 and a new engine running TZ internals. He was even winning the Classic as well as the Vintage races with it.

For all that though it is well worth going to the Island to see the singles at the Manx, replica engines or not they are ridden hard with Bob Heath lapping well over the 100 mph.

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Internal Fire, Museum of Power, Wales

year old electron casings which developed a

going. We were racing against a guy with

TZ internals. He was even winning the

the Manx, replica engines or not they are

Paul, I think it's a case of one rule for one and one rule for another. I can accept that replacement parts are necessary to keep some of these machines running but it should not be allowed to detract from original designs. In the case you quote, fine if you can manage to shoehorn modern internals into an old engine, not too hard to do with some British designs as not a lot changed over the years. When it comes to bespoke frames from 531 that don't even look like the original ones and are absent the vintage lugs that define it's history there is no way it should get by the eligibility committee. However when one alters engine design to incorporate such features as a full crank as opposed to the original design of overhung crank then something stinks big time.

Once all this started a few years ago I lost all interest in the classic scene. It all goes to prove the saying money talks and your post about cracked electron cases is relevant to me as earlier tonight I was sorting out some filing cabinets and I found the original works AJS drawings for the timing cover and rocker boxes for the 7R and G50. I was doing these for Team Obsolete in the States plus cranks and close ratio gearbox parts. I approached Sterling Metals in Coventry for prices and availability of replacement castings in Electron. We were quoted telephone numbers for these. I passed this on to Team Obsolete in NY and the next thing was we had 15 sets of castings delivered.

Incidently I also came across a load of spec sheets for BTH magnetos that I had forgotten I had. ___

Duct tape is like the Force. It has a light side and a dark side, and it holds the universe together.

"John Stevenson" wrote

We also gave up as it was becoming impossible to compete. Whilst things like the "Scott" were being allowed, Chris Vincent on his wonderful Panther outfit (600 Panther with Jag piston and megaphone like a bucket) were excluded for not being "in the spirit of racing" - can't think of anything more in the spirit - real reason was that he was showing the pukka race bikes up. Another tuner (Andy Savage I think) had his bike excluded after winning the championship because the tunnel covering the drive to the head on his Manx was a later type that leaked less!

Have not followed the Vintage/Classic at all since.

Ianucci was never short of money and he to give him his due he put some rare and interesting machines back on the track where they belonged

Paul.

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Internal Fire, Museum of Power, Wales

Magneto Case:

Made from Magnesium dichromated black to prevent corrosion in the atmosphere. Painted silver (Sikkens Autocryl) 2-part paint and 2-part lacquer.

What is dichromated black, is it black anodize or black chrome?

Lionel

SNIP

Which brings to mind a court case some years ago. Some American bought an old racing car at one of the large auction houses, Christys, Sotherbys I forget who. The car was from the Brooklands era and sold for many 100's of thousands of pounds. When he got the car home and checked it out it turned out it was not the original car. Everything had been replaced over the years. Was original racing number, but chassis, wheels engines etc, had all been replaced at sometime. I believe the court case argued around the point, just how far can you change a racing car through several racing seasons before it's not the original car. No idea what the outcome was.

Lionel

I'm a bit biased when it comes to Scott's. Dad and I uses to travel round the circuits with a guy called Colin Heath in the 1970's. He was desperately trying to keep his relatively standard machines competitive, not easy when you are dealing with a design which was basically obsolete by 1930! But the likes of Ian Pearce and Roger Moss took things a bit further and developed their bikes as one might imagine the factory would have done if they had ever had any money.

Been to the island once for MGP week, on the back of Vincent Rapide dad had at the time. Good number of years ago now, might even have seen you race Paul!

John wrote --

"However when one alters engine design to incorporate such features as a full crank as opposed to the original design of overhung crank then something stinks big time."

Hmmm. Been done since pre-war times on 2 strokes. In my early Greeves/ Villiers kart racing days we would add balsa packing glued on with Araldite to convert to full circle cranks (to increase primary compression.) Cost was rather different to the numbers being discussed here! Commercial Alpha cranks were beyond us at that time, but still have a couple lying around now.

Colin

I think what John was getting at is converting standard Scott two bearing overhung crank to a four bearing job. The Scott already has full disc cranks and is designed to avoid any unnecessary dead space in the crank case for the reason you state.

"Nick Highfield" wrote

Yep, thats them. the money they spent meant that no one else could compete, took all the fun out of it. Vintage and Classic is still pretty competitive stuff and people do like to think they have some chance of winning!

Paul

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Internal Fire, Museum of Power, Wales