The CS1 was a Nortonmotorcycle between 1927 and 1939. Originally built as a TT racer, and Norton's first design of an overhead cam engine, it proved successful as a TT Replica road bike.
After the early 1930s redesign of Norton's cammy models by Arthur Carroll, the CS1 became an upmarket road bike. The 500 cc CS1 and its smaller sibling 350 cc CJ1 continued on until the outbreak of WW2 in 1939.
Many later touring CS1 models were upgraded for racing, by adding and subtracting all the optional racing bits for Internationals. The Norton catalog had a long list of such parts available. The identifying feature of 1930s CS1 Models is the stub fitted carburettor - Inter models had a bolt-on TT carburettor.
Development
The Norton Camshaft Senior Model 1 (CS1) engine was designed by Walter Moore in 1927, based on the Norton ES2pushrod engine and re-using many parts. The frame was a new full cradle design and with a close-ratiokickstart-less gearbox, 8-inch brakes, Amal TT carburettor, Lucas Racing magneto and a 3-gallon petrol tank. The CS1 was the standard for racing Nortons for the next 20 years. The magneto was moved to the rear of the engine and the bottom end was a traditional Norton design, but in the side of the crankcase was the oil pump housing and a pair of bevel gears to drive the long shaft which ran in a tube up the side of the engine to a second pair of gears driving the overhead camshaft.
Unknown rider Tim Hunt won the Amateur TT in following year on a Norton CS1, setting a new TT record. He later used the same motorcycle to win the gold medal in the Scottish Six Days Trial.
In 1928 a Junior version of the CS1 with a 348cc engine and designated the Norton CJ was entered for the Isle of Man TT. The bore and stroke of this engine was 71 x 88 mm and it looked promising but 1928 proved to be an unlucky year for Norton, as there were technical problems with Walter Moore's redesigned cambox and only one major race was won that year. 1929 also went badly with reliability problems and only one win in the Spanish GP of 1929.
In March 1931 on Pendine Sands Joe Craig and Tim Hunt achieved a best speed on the CS1 of 118 mph. Also in 1931 the Norton CS1 took the first five places in Junior and Senior events, starting what was to prove Norton's most successful period, and until the end of the 1930s Norton dominated international events with wins in both classes throughout the decade. Tim Hunt became the first rider to win two TT races in one week, with success in the Junior TT Race in 3 h 34 min 21 s at an average speed of 73.4 mph and also the Senior TT Race in 3 h 23 min 28 s at an average speed of 77.90 mph.
The puzzle page didn't identify this bike, but Google's Image Search found it.Team Obsoletehas a page about it. Renzo Pasolini came in second on this bike at the Isle of Man in 1968. No disk brakes. My custom Triumph Bonneville had a similar 4 leading shoe brake from an Italian bike.
Here we have a practice lap on this same bike 25 years later:
Team Obsolete at the Manx GP 1993 | Part 2 | Benelli 350cc On Board
Duke Video
YouTube blurb:
A look back at Team Obsolete's campaign in the 1993 Manx Grand Prix on the Isle of Man. Rider Dave Roper talks us through an on board practice lap around the world famous Isle of Man mountain course on the exotic 350cc, 16 valve Benelli-four machine.
Because I couldn't find a good counter-steer video, and we really can't have a post about motorcycles without a video, can we?
This question popped up on Quora this morning and it made me think, so I've copied my response for your amusement. Some of the other answers mentioned counter-steer, so I included my take on that subject as well.
Q: Why does a motorcycle turn when leaned over?
A: Good question. It doesn’t actually. You can lean a bike over and keep going in a straight line, but you need to shift your weight in the opposite direction to keep it balanced. But you are asking about turning, so this doesn’t matter.
I suspect that leaning and turning go together because of the profile of the tire. The outer edges of the tires are smaller in diameter than the center. When you are riding straight up the tires act like a cylinder and so roll straight ahead, like a can rolling across a table. When you lean the bike over, the tire becomes more like a cone and so it starts rolling in a circle, kind of like a funnel rolling across a table top.
I road for several years before I discovered the trick of opposite steer. Not sure how I managed to get around corners before that. In any case, you don’t actually move the bars, all you need to do to turn right is to push on the right hand handlebar. If you are traveling at any speed, like 30 MPH or better, the bar won’t actually move, but the effect of pushing on the handlebar is instantaneous and you will go zooming off to the right.
What is happening is the gyroscopic action of the front wheel is reacting to the pressure of your hand and pushing the bike over, which makes the wheels turn into cones which makes your bike follow the curve of the road.
Update January 2022 replaced missing video.
Update May 2023 replaced missing video. Previous video was taken down with this message:
This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Isle of Man Government Department for Enterprise
The title of the new video is near identical to the last one including all the stupid icons, and it seems to be the same video, so WTF?
The headline on the story on the Huffington Post reads 99 Per Cent Of Sweden's Garbage Is Now Recycled, which sounds really great until you find out that they are recycling it by using it for fuel, which sounds a whole lot like the incinerators everyone used to use until we got fed up with choking on smog. Now incinerators were a bit primitive, their only purpose in life was to turn trash to ash. Any heat they generated was just another waste by-product to be disposed of as cheaply as possible, which meant sending it up the smoke stack with all the smoke. So we are making a little progress here in that we are trying to recover some of that energy and use it for something useful LIKE NOT BUYING OIL FROM SAUDI ARABIA*, which as you may know is the biggest source of problems on our planet. Supposedly we have developed some techniques for burning trash without generating as many nasty chemicals. CO2 is not one. You can bet that these plants are generating plenty of CO2.
I went looking for some pictures of these super-efficient Swedish trash burners, but I didn't find much and what I found was pretty generic, industrial type installations. But other places in Europe are also getting into the act and some of their projects have a bit of, shall we say, flair, like the one shown above. Denmark in particular seems to be jumping in with both feet with these props that have escaped from a science fiction movie:
*whether Saudi Arabia is a problem or not depends, I suppose, on whether you think slicing up your neighbors with swords is an acceptable pasttime. I mean it's kind of hard to argue with history. Killing your neighbors has been the world's most popular sport for zillions of years. Widespread peace and cooperation is kind of an anomaly.
I was looking for information on magnesium, which led to motorcycle wheels, which led to wheel failure and testing, which led to crashes, which led to this story wherein the author makes a couple of good points. I was going to just pull the quotes, but I think the context helps..
By
MICHAEL CALVIN in The Indpendent,
SUNDAY 09 JUNE 2013
Robert Dunlop's last conscious act was to jam on the front brake. There had been a puff of smoke as his motorbike seized at 160mph and slewed sideways. He was launched over the handlebars on to the road, where he was struck by a pursuing rider. He died from severe chest injuries that evening. He was 47.
Thirty-six hours later Michael, his youngest son, won the race for which his father had been practising, the North West 200. His suppressed grief mutated into anger. In the five years since, he has ridden with a disconcerting fury and a grim sense of destiny. He has been on the ragged edge. Perhaps he will find peace in the achievements of the past week. Michael won four TT races on the Isle of Man, and surpassed his father's record. In another reminder that death wraps itself around his sport like a creeping vine, it earned him the trophy named in honour of Joey Dunlop, his late uncle.
Joey, a monosyllabic publican from Ballymoney, is biking's warrior king. No one has won more TT races, 26. He, too, died in competition, when he crashed into trees in Estonia after losing control on a rutted road sluiced by torrential rain. There were 50,000 at his funeral yet, to millions, the pursuit to which he gave his life is beyond redemption.
Had someone come up with the notion of the Tourist Trophy races in 2007, instead of 1907, the event simply would not have been allowed. It challenges the orthodoxy of the nanny state, defies the panoply of risk assessments, liability waivers, health and safety officers and ambulance-chasing lawyers.
Road racing is a world in which mundane objects and everyday occurrences are deadly. A dog off the leash, a patch of melted Tarmac or an ill-positioned telephone box can kill. Contact with a dry-stone wall, a telegraph pole or a traffic sign is usually fatal.
Its heroes are the wraiths of international sport, relentlessly ordinary men capable of consistently extraordinary acts of bravery and precision. Many sleep in caravans, tents or lock-up garages – the antithesis of the airbrushed stars of Formula One.
This is hardcore, and difficult to defend when the safety of spectators is compromised, as it was on Friday. Jonathan Howarth from Barnsley was little more than 10 seconds into his first TT race when he lost control on the descent of Bray Hill.
His bike disintegrated on impact with the kerb. A wheel and the petrol tank span into the crowd congregated beside a burger van. He slid on his belly into a lamppost. Remarkably, he suffered only minor fractures, and walked away. Eleven spectators were taken to hospital.
Rumours spread disconcertingly until an official announcement that no injuries were life-threatening triggered applause from fans around the 37¾-mile mountain course. This will sound callous, but there was "only" one death this year.
Yoshinari Matsushita, from Japan, who crashed at Ballacrye in practice, was the 21st rider to perish this century, the 240th victim of the TT since its inception. Death has no dominion when it is so common, but these men deserve our respect. They are important because they provide a bulwark against the sanitisation of sport, the mediocrity of conformity.
They ride at speeds of up to 200mph on the edge of reason and adhesion. The money is minimal and the motivation is difficult to articulate. John McGuinness, who won the restarted race, admits: "You don't care about anything but getting on the bike and riding."
I've had breakfast with these men, and wondered whether they would be alive at lunchtime. They are terrifying to watch. Michael Dunlop was once asked why he rode so fiercely. His reply said it all: "Because I'm a Dunlop."
Guy Martin on a Suzuki GSXR 1000 Superbike going around the course.
Stu put up a post and I've kind of been paying attention. It's been going on for the last two weeks. 200 MPH on a motorcycle on an ordinary road is kind of impressive. This might be the last real road race for bikes in the world, well, at least until the 3rd world gets into the act. I've watched several videos, and this is the one I like best. He doesn't actually manage to outrun the chopper, but the camera does lose track of him for a few seconds. Bonus is that nobody dies in this video. I don't like watching the ones with the bad accidents. Seeming them once was enough.
The Isle of Man TT was for many years the most prestigious motor-cycle race in the world. The racing is held on public roads closed for racing by an Act of Tynwald (the parliament of the Isle of Man). It is the oldest motor-cycle racing circuit still in use. The official lap record for the Snaefell Mountain Course is 17 Minutes and 12.30 seconds at an average speed of 131.578 mph
There have been 237 deaths during official practices or races on the Snaefell Mountain Course.
Stolen entirely from Kate.
Update January 2022 replaced missing video. I'm pretty sure I got the right one.
