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Monday, January 15, 2024

Flat Tracker

Speedway Motorcycle

The caption on this jigsaw puzzle is 'Speedway Bike With Weslake Engine'. When I ask Google I get a bunch of pictures of very similar bikes, but none of the engines match. Most of the ones I saw looked like they were overhead cam, single cylinder engines and the cam was driven by a shaft, ala Ducati (here and buried way down in a long post from six years ago). Shades of MV Agusta. The side of this one looks like a chain case, which kind of implies that the cam is driven by a chain. Which is the choice of any sane person. Shaft drive for camshafts is for rich kids. It's art, basically. Basically it's a bigger version of a fancy watch.

All arrows seem to point to Wikipedia's article about Weslake & Co. The short opening is about the company, but after that it's all about Harry Weslake. His life story is intertwined with mechanical engineering and motor racing. There were a couple of instances that stood out, but when you look at these histories (they're both the same) those particular instances are buried in a story that contains a giant heap of similar incidents. I haven't read them, they are too long for me. Maybe tomorrow if I get some sleep tonight.

1 comment:

Ole Phat Stu said...

I thought Weslakes had 4 valve heads; doesn't look like it in that photo.