Experimental Knucklehead

[IRON]

Experimental Knucklehead pictures

What do you suppose is the purpose of this little hand crank thingamajig
on this experimental knucklehead?

Ride Free!
IRon

[Rubone]

Exhaust valve lifter for starting. If you ever have ridden a big single you know why its there!
Robbie

[IRON]

Makes sense - a compression relief lever.

[Buzz Kanter]

Exhaust valve lifter for starting. If you ever have ridden a big single you know why its there!
Robbie

That was my same thought Robbie. Either for halping you get the piston into position to start it OR to kill the engine by lifting the exhaust valve and dumping the compression out.

[BPK!!]

"If you ever have ridden a big single you know why its there!"

I'd like to re-phase this statement: If you ever tried to "start" a big single and some English twins for that matter! BPK!!

[Robert Luland]

I had a 67 BSA Starfire single lung that would try to take your leg off if you didn't use that decompresion lever. Nasty motorcycle.

[Rod]

My '63 FLH will give you a hard time kicking when cold. My Triumphs ( 65,70,73) were easy.

[Rubone]

My '63 FLH will give you a hard time kicking when cold. My Triumphs ( 65,70,73) were easy.

Your '63 had a manual advance timer. It was intended to be used. The triumph's (I assume twins) all had automatic advance timers on them. No need to learn a technique. And parallel twins are notoriously easy to start. Ever try to start a Gold Star, or even a Victor?
Robbie

[fillibuster]

Well, we had this A John Deere, .....

[Jerry Hatfield]

The engine is a "sloper". Early-nineteen-thirties British and Continental singles were built this way. In the mid-thirties all the leading foreign marques switched to a vertical cylinder.

Harley-Davidson and Indian almost certainly subscribed to one or both of the British motorcycling weekly magazines. The trans Atlantic influence on American motorcycles was also evident on the 1934 (first year) Indian Sport Scout which featured the engine and transmission as primary load-bearing elements of the "frame." The Sport Scout "diamond" frame arrived just as the trans Atlantic firms switched to a conventional or "cradle" frame like Indian had popularized with the 1920-1931 Scouts and all Chiefs. Fashions come and go, huh?