5 Classic British Motorcycles with 4 valve heads

This time we look at some early examples of motorcycle fitted with 4 valve heads

this time we at four classic British motorcycles that use four valves per [Music] cylinder these days we tend to think about motorcycles and indeed vehicles with four valve heads really starting to appear in the 1970s at the end and specially in the 1980s but the concept is of course much older and Grand Prix cars even dating before the first world war often employed four valves per cylinder and by the beginning of the 1920s in Great Britain you could go out and buy a sports bike with four valve heads the area of red Hunter full health AEL unveiled their four valve version of the red Hunter Sports Machine in 1931 it had in fact first employed four valves on a sloper version a few years earlier in the case of the red Hunter it was indeed a truly sporty machine with high mounted foot pegs and a close ratio gearbox the engine was a short stroke with a boring stroke of slightly over square dimensions of 86.4 by 85 giving 499 CC’s and there was a Thoroughly Modern pen roof combustion chamber compression ratio was relatively high for the period at 7.5 to1 when the option competition high compression piston was fitted that is standing compression was a more moded 6 to1 the bike made use of a Burman gearbox with foot change with only three close ratios but the test the time did praise the machine for its performance and value for money too it offered great performance at a relatively low price of just £55 and 15 Shillings and indeed sales were pretty healthy but unfortunately not healthy enough and would go bankrupt in 1933 and indeed Financial salvation would arrive in the guise of Jack Sangster he would reintroduce the red Hunter to the last and just a two valve guys the four valve been just too expensive to mass produce and there had been some problems with cracked valve seats a Popp which interesting would have flip many early Japanese for valers some years later and so the red Hunter for valve would disappear after just over a year of production so it’s hardly surprising if you’ve never heard of the machine before [Applause] yeah come on the rudge olster there’s no doubt that RJ are probably the most famous producers of four valve cylinder heads in the pre-war era the company started as RJ Whitworth a bicycle manufacturer in 1894 un likee so many others would move on to motorcycle production in 19 191 after initially selling rebadge verners in 1909 one of their best known early models was the rud multi this used a mechanically variable poly system which is in some ways similar to Modern CVT and would be very popular both in competition and in normal Road use although it should be noted that both zenf and FN produced similar systems a few years earlier but this system would soon be superseded by conventional gear boxes and production of it would end in 1928 V would produced their first fall valve engine at 350 in 1924 this 350 machine was simply known as the four having four valves per cylinder and a four-speed gear box the valves on this early version were mounted in parallel however competition version of the engine would use ragly mounted Valves and would be much more powerful and in 1928 gra Walker father of the late Sports commentator M Walker would use such a machine to win the uler Grand Prix garnering lots of publicity but also a fairly obvious name for the sporting model and so the R oler was born and further success was to follow when in 1930 R would take the first three places in the junior TT using prototype 350 engines fitted with radially mounted heads in the late 30s the company was taken over by Emi who would inject initially some cash into the company along the development of an updated Engine with fully enclosed valve gear but unfortunately at the start of World War II Emi switched the factory to the production of radar equipment and po most war production of motorcycles would not be start the Triumph of Ricardo Triumph’s Type R sometimes known as the Ricky or the Ricardo was introduced in 1921 and is generally recognized as the first production full valve motorcycle while the machine first appeared in 21 it wouldn’t actually reach full production until 1922 in 21 it was an official race special the machine was first seen at the 1921 TT although only one would finish but in November of that year major Frank B Alford broke the 500cc worldour record at an average speed of 76.7 4 mph on the Ricky along with the 50 m standing start at 77.27% .8 mph all great publicity for the forthcoming Road version the road version would use a much simpler cast iron Barrel allbe it with deeper Finning 1922 would see a revised version of the rookie with a shorter stroke and Druid front forks this revised version machine would play second at the senior TT but unfortunately thereafter the company seem to have lost interest in the four valve concept the Vero version would make 20 horsepower and have a top speed around 84 M hour but this production one was short ending in 1927 the excelsia msman now the name of this motorcycle may cause a little confusion for American viewers there being after all at least two American companies called excelia at one time or another however the British versions of the name were produced by messes bis and Thomas at the very dawn of the motorcycle industry so predating both the American companies the company was founded in 18 1974 and during the 1870s and 880s were one of the first British companies to produce bicycles but in 1896 they began importing manua engines from Belgium and fitting them in their bicycle frames making them one of the first manufacturers ever to produce a motorcycle in Great Britain the company was however relatively small so had to use customer engines throughout its existence with one or two rare exceptions of course during the 20s and 30s they had no engine manufacturing facilities so would design engines have the construct by companies such as Blackburn one very notable example of this was the mechanical Marvel so called this TT wi single featured four radial valves operated by individual push rods and although effective it was far too complex and expensive to mass produce to be used as a production machine the company needed something simpler they could sell to Clubman races and this would be the mansman the mansman used a bevel Drive single overhead cam with two valves per cylinder and was produced in 250 350 and 500 CC forms from 1935 until the outbreak of World War II in 250 form run a 249cc engine with a boring stroke of 67x 70.6 and in 1936 the machine even included a four valve head which took the bike to second place in 1936 and 1937 at the lightweight TTS but despite its name the maxman never actually won a TT race or would go on to be a popular choice for privateers and cob es being available in both Road and race forms the machine featured a four-speed gearbox had plunge suspension in the rear and G of fors at the front all in weight was 132 kilos or £291 for the 250 and £ 152 kilos £335 for the 350 after the war engine manufacturer Blackburn was getting out of the bike building business so excelsi would have to develop their own and development of a new version of the max with have a chain driven single over head cam was put in hand the Triumph TSS now this is a Triumph t140 Bonville and as most people aware it uses only two valves per cylinder but slightly surprisingly there was a four valve version built at Meridan and this would be the TSS now apart from obviously its for valve head the machine would also feature a number of developments over the previous model there was a revised crankshaft which was much smoother running as well as a revised and restyled head and Barrel cast and aluminium although this was notoriously porous the top end was based on a Harry weslake design and developed by Brian Jones between 78 and 79 with a machine finally arriving in 1982 performance was much better than the original t140 with Peak power ACC claimed 58 horsepower and a genuine 120 mph potential trium had hope that the TSS would help to relaunch the brand in the United States where tougher emission regulations had all but strangled the bonerville but unfortunately vents would overtake the TSS and the company would go into Liquidation in 1983 with just 438 tsss [Music] completed one of the bikes are collections of bikes would you like to see us cover in a future video maybe you get a bike who can use a test ride away get in touch below hope you enjoyed that video if you did don’t forget to like And subscribe and of course thank you very much for watching