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On reading over the posts concerning what has been learned from the Cannonball, my hat is off to those with technical help and opinions, particularly Mark and Slojo. Lubrication was a very big topic, along with bearings, con rod changes, and so forth. Very little was said about cooling, which is a major problem with the old bikes, due to the shallow and sparse fins on the barrels, and the use of cast iron as opposed to aluminum as on newer machines.
American manufacturers were fixated on nickel plating on early machines, which is light in color and somewhat reflective. A century ago, Albert Einstein and others were studying the blackbody effect, which proves that radiation (including heat) will pass from one medium to another most efficiently through a black dull surface, less so the lighter and shinier the surface is. European manufacturers painted their cylinders black. George Brough plated cylinders, leaving the plating on the bottom section, but stove enameled the finned portion black.
It may not be original, but I would be finishing the jugs black on a bike I was planning on using for this event. Black tires are not original on most pre-16 American bikes either, but I didn't see any Cannonball riders running the wear prone white ones.
The original unrestored bikes generally performed well. Rusty cylinders with old baked on oil are closer to black. Also, consider the magneto carnage. Radiant heat from those red hot engines may have been a major cause. Similar magnetos are still used in piston driven aircraft, but are cooled by altitude and backwash from propellers.
The old wood stoves that heated houses, along with their smoke stacks were finished in flat black. When central heating came in, it was better to keep the heat inside the oven, and stoves tended to be finished shiny white, the other end of the spectrum. Was this a co-incidence? Frankly, I don't know.
Pete
American manufacturers were fixated on nickel plating on early machines, which is light in color and somewhat reflective. A century ago, Albert Einstein and others were studying the blackbody effect, which proves that radiation (including heat) will pass from one medium to another most efficiently through a black dull surface, less so the lighter and shinier the surface is. European manufacturers painted their cylinders black. George Brough plated cylinders, leaving the plating on the bottom section, but stove enameled the finned portion black.
It may not be original, but I would be finishing the jugs black on a bike I was planning on using for this event. Black tires are not original on most pre-16 American bikes either, but I didn't see any Cannonball riders running the wear prone white ones.
The original unrestored bikes generally performed well. Rusty cylinders with old baked on oil are closer to black. Also, consider the magneto carnage. Radiant heat from those red hot engines may have been a major cause. Similar magnetos are still used in piston driven aircraft, but are cooled by altitude and backwash from propellers.
The old wood stoves that heated houses, along with their smoke stacks were finished in flat black. When central heating came in, it was better to keep the heat inside the oven, and stoves tended to be finished shiny white, the other end of the spectrum. Was this a co-incidence? Frankly, I don't know.
Pete
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