Video=silent movie-Building a pre WW1 motorcycle

[Steve Swan]

Hi Steve,

Is there an alternative method to make a cylinder? Could one
be machined and bored out of a cylindrical solid section of iron?

with all the irregular shapes and angles an IoE cylinder has, i can't imagine any were machined.

[Steve Slocombe]

Dear Eric, I believe Harley still put out crankcase and gearbox casting, and various forgings for the frame and other parts. You can see outside company casting logos on cylinders, flywheels, engine cases and gearbox cases around 1930. Bruce Palmer's book shows several outside forging companies, identified by their different logos, on Harley frames 1930s to 1960s. The 1938 Harley factory tour book still shows several large stamping and pressing machines though, so Harley still had some serious machinery they used themselves.


I also liked the child putting the rear drive belt on the Rover. There seemed to be no attempt to align the piston ring gaps. The running bikes had Hertfordshire license plates, which I don't think was where they were made. My encyclopaedia says Rover built bikes 1902-25, with the pre-1914 500 cc side valve single well thought of. There were three Rover's on the last Pioneer Run in England. Our next is on Sunday March 24th 2019 if you want to see 300+ pre-1915 belt drive bikes on a 50 mile run.

[exeric]

I meant to say that H-D was more vertically integrated than most factories, and did a lot of those specialized tasks in house, or acquired companies that did specialize in a singular trade. Also, was there a connection to the high end Rover automobile?

[AFJ]

Very enjoyable to watch! Early on it said that this firm was the only
one that casted it's cylinders. How did other manufacturers do it?

I suspect that the Rover claim of being the "only firm that cast its own cylinders" is just advertising hype.
I can think of several firms in Britain who did their own cast iron work on cylinders. W.E. Brough (Brough 1902-1926) in Nottingham and Butterfields (Levis 1911-1940) in Birmingham. Of course many British motorcycle makers used proprietary engines in the early days made by firms like Precision, J.A. Prestwich and Villiers. Making your own "everything" was not the only way to make good motorcycles.
AFJ

[MikeW]

I'd not seen this before, and my thanks too for posting the link. In addition to the comments above, especially in relation to the lathe operator's long sleeve over that fierce lathe chuck, note the safety gear on the workmen ladling the molten cast iron - cloth caps, ties and shirt-sleeves. And who needs a torque wrench? Just swing on the end of a box spanner which looks like the spark plug wrench which came with my old lawn mower. And who needs a piston ring compressor? Just squeeze them closed with your fingers. More generally, compared to the cabinets and shadow boards full of every conceivable tool that grace some of our home shops, apparently a not-too-clean wooden bench and 2 or three tools, including the wooden mallet, were sufficient to assemble the already machined motor parts. And has been said, most of the motor was assembled dry, although I think he put a squirt of oil on the piston. (The absence of lubrication might have been to speed up the action for the camera.)

Was the cylinder boring technique usual? Setting up the casting to spin accurately would seems to be more time consuming than anchoring the casting and centering the boring tool over the bore - but I'm no machinist.
Mike

[Steve Slocombe]

Dear Eric, yes Rover made cars and bikes, stopping the bikes in 1925. A US example might be Pierce and I'm sure there are others.

More comments on the video - I noticed no gaskets or shellac being used, perhaps to speed up the movie. Also no shimming of flywheels etc. Why don't my bikes go together like that?

[AdvenJack]

All Great Comments and Observations! You all are full of outstanding information!