Just had their latest newsletter, which listed this
A standard 750 Commando and a 750 Gus Kuhn on a dyno.
Gus (racing hero, owner of motorcycle dealerships up and down Clapham Road) would build you a racing Norton to your own spec. This one used in a 24hr race by Barry Sheene.
The racing Dommie wasn’t working - looks like wet sumping to me - geared pumps and a ball bearing on a spring - pffft.
All that work and another 2 or 3 horses. Confirms what I’ve been saying since the 70s. Bigger balls and clip-ons (so you lay on the tank behind a faring), nothing else required. Mick Hemmings never agreed with me.
Some time ago, Paul Lewis bet £10,000 anyone (not licensed racers), on any bike, one standing lap of Mallory against him on any Harley tourer. I don’t think anyone challenged him.
He ran Oxford HD dealership. A proper nice no shit bloke. If anyone said HDs were slow he’d challenge them to ride pillion with him.
And that’s when 80 cu.in. was the bigger end of a Harley. There’s 145 cu.in. engines out there now with quite a bit of low down grunt. Bigger and bigger is just sales marketing in my mind.
I used to hang out with Paul in the early 90’s. He came on a trip round all of Britain’s counties (4 days, no motorways) on with a borrowed Moto Guzzi California with his mate on the back.
Going through the Welsh mountains a bloke in a GSXR1000 shot past. Paul took off in pursuit. About half an hour later we caught up with him in a village where he’d stopped for a smoke. “Took me a little while,” he said, “but I got him.”
Just more torque or does that guy on the Blade simply not trust the bike?
