harley eight valves

[jurassic]

and they said i was crazy

[sveger]

John Camerons ex Freddy Dixon 8 valve?

Just came across this photo from Brooklands where Dixon have a sidecar attached to his eight valve.

Sverre

http://AmericanMotorcyclesNorway.blogspot.com

[Eric]

Cameron 8 valves

Here picture of cameron eight valves. Cameron write on the back "The 8 valves showing Esso-Jawa speedway transmission as i ran it at Bonneville Speed Trials".

[Eric]

Italian 8 valves

Here shot from french magazine "MOTO d'EPOQUE et d'exception" of the 2 Italian 8 valves.
Are they original or not ? i'm not an expert but they are beautiful.

[HarleyCreation]

Herb,
I'd appreciate your thoughts on the Percy Coleman 8 valve photo I posted on the I beam fork post.
Is this bike just a Kiwi build or did it come from the factory with crossover drive and a single/45 gearbox.

I don't have a definitive answer, but I would say this.

It's seems doubtful to me that H-D would have used a Single/45 gearbox in an eight-valve UNLESS Percy Coleman requested them to build it that way.

Are there any other eight-valve photos showing such a set-up?

If not, that reinforces my belief that Coleman either asked for it that way or built it that way himself.

If the bike still existed, you could look for extremely good worksmanship. Not to say Coleman couldn't do top-notch work because maybe he did, but the Factory was setup that way and those guys were expert craftsmen.

How many original period eight-valve Harleys exist?

[c.o.]

Thanks for the clarification Tommo. I was wondering about the originality of the bike. It's always nice to hear the true story. Thanks for taking the time to tell it.

[Tommo]

Cory
That's the ex Charlie Ogden bike that was bought by Bill McNamara and restored by him then later on he sold it to Glen Bator for a figure that is reputed to be between $250,000 and $300,000 USD.
It's history is well known in the Sydney, Australia area and Bill bought it off Charlie's widow at Redfern sometime in the late 80's early 90's and took about 10 to 12 years to restore it.
Missing was the cylinder barrel lubricating ring, inlet manifold, countershaft and clutch, (which were all supplied by Michael Lange as repo parts) and most importantly both top ends from the crankcase up.
I supplied, as a sample, a complete nos deflector plate 8 valve cylinder that I had so a pattern maker here in NZ could make patterns and new cylinders were cast here in NZ. All the machining was done here in NZ by Steve Raffills and he made all the bits required to complete the top ends. rockers, rocker plates, valves, exhaust deflector plates, etc, etc, etc.
Bill had the tanks and handlebars made by someone in Australia and what parts that are not mentioned here came out of Charlie Ogdens shed.
With all the bits Bill got from that shed was a HD 2 speed clutch hub rear wheel that Bill dealt off but was later to find out that this wheel was fitted for most of this bikes racing life and I'm sure Bill rues to this day that deal that led him to part with a major piece of this bikes history.
In all the bike is about 50% original, 50% repo but it is a very nice example and probably only the Renzo Battilani 8 valve in Italy has more original parts than this bike has.

[c.o.]

Check out lot #76 on this page...... http://www.jwoodandcompany.com/2009/..._2009_lots.htm

[Tommo]

Herb,
I'd appreciate your thoughts on the Percy Coleman 8 valve photo I posted on the I beam fork post.
Is this bike just a Kiwi build or did it come from the factory with crossover drive and a single/45 gearbox.

[rwm]

here is a shot of the top. 2nd photo was sent to me from eric in france he has a 2cam site

[milw.pirates]

Knuth Specials

When you say "2 original bikes" do you mean "Knuth Specials" or something else? Seems to me on a original photo of one, it has a number on the tank: like "No.2" or some other number, as if in a series.

Herb,
You are correct,2 Knuth Specials,I seem to recall that 2 were to have been built and 1 was found some years back at Davenport,not sure if the other has ever been found. any body else ever hear of this?

[HarleyCreation]

these are BAE-BAF style heads and barrels, from what I have read 2 original bikes may have been made,1 has been found, the head castings on this are pretty clean,fin casting is off,(tells me it's mike smith repop tops)

When you say "2 original bikes" do you mean "Knuth Specials" or something else? Seems to me on a original photo of one, it has a number on the tank: like "No.2" or some other number, as if in a series.

[milw.pirates]

BAE-BAF top end and barrels

This one looks like it could be a "Knuth's Special" altho it's a long time since I looked into that subject. There are a couple old photos of Knuth Specials in the 1930-'41 (Knucklehead) book. There I flubbed the description but then updated it in the 1903-41 color book from info provided by Chuck Wesholski. Like Chuck said: They WERE special!

these are BAE-BAF style heads and barrels, from what I have read 2 original bikes may have been made,1 has been found, the head castings on this are pretty clean,fin casting is off,(tells me it's mike smith repop tops)

[HarleyCreation]

See my earlier append -- the race was at the Chicago Speedway near Maywood. It was won by Carl Goudy on the new Big Valve Ex. Otto had wanted to run his standard racer, probably the one he used at Venice and Dodge City, but HD had him use the new 8-valve. He set the 100 mile record before eating a valve. There was some confusion in the record keeping and Excelsior protested that Bruggerman had been leading, but the FAM gave the record to Walker. Bruggerman eventually finished 2nd.

Bob Turek
# 769

That is an important part of the story as most books state that Sept. '15 100-mile record was set by Walker on a pocket-valve, but in fact it was an 8-valve! Thus confusion upon confusion....

[HarleyCreation]

what are these

This one looks like it could be a "Knuth's Special" altho it's a long time since I looked into that subject. There are a couple old photos of Knuth Specials in the 1930-'41 (Knucklehead) book. There I flubbed the description but then updated it in the 1903-41 color book from info provided by Chuck Wesholski. Like Chuck said: They WERE special!