i24

Sorry, I never saw the bike and I don't know if anyone in the family knows what happened to it. The house in the background of the photo is "Mount Prospect". A farm in Constantia that was sub-divided in the 1970's. My Grandad worked as a manager there before he got married and started his own farm. The farm house still exists but it is derelict and due for demolition as soon at the developers', neighbours' and city council lawyers come to an agreement. Maybe the remains of the bike will be found burried on the property when the bull dozers move in.

That side car looks like the other photo I have seen. But that might just be the style of the period.

Thanks! Maybe you can also forward some links or contacts for those groups.

I have seen some other photo's of Grandad's bike, fitted with a side car, giving some ladies, presumably my Grandmother and sisters, a ride. It looked like a picnic situation. I think the bike got retired soon after he got married and established a farm. He died quite young, so there is not much knowledge in the family regarding the bike.

This is a photo of my Grandfather with his bike. It would have been taken sometime after the 1st world war. He participated in rally or race events at the time and won the silverware in the process. Can anybody identify the make/model of the bike?

First test flight of a prototype aircraft in IFR conditions?

A pro, riding rogue, trying to evade authorities, getting vocal and resisting arrest, might just upset his sponsors and leave himself without a job ...

Have you found a wheel yet? I may have one but the brake rim surface and bearing inner race on free body are worn. If you stuck, let me know and I will look for it.

No... They were attracted towards the guys riding 175's or 250's. There ain't no replacement for displacement...

No ... I think the girls in my day had better taste than that. Nothing sounds as painful as a 50cc without an exhaust baffle - like a sick mosquito on steroids. The worst thing is that it took so long for the thing to get out of hearing range

All the posters here seem to have two things in common. An interest in bicycles and the fastest 50 in the bike shed back in school days Mine was a circ 1966 Zundapp SS50. It was faster than most of the Jap bikes in the mid 70s and was quicker than a Honda 90cc 4 stroke. But the guy with the Kriedler was probably faster than me, even if it was just because his was newer and in much better condition. I bought the Zundapp from my brother as a non runner, for R90. It consumed piston rings on a regular basis and pistons themselves did no last much longer than 6 months. I rebuilt the gearbox twice due to mechanicals that were abused. First time just after I bought it to fix previous damage. 2nd time after some "friends" "borrowed" it at a party - they broke a shaft trying to hot wire it and push start it. In my attempts to tune it I found that fixing all the leaks in the intake track, restoring the airbox to factory spec and replacing the muffler insert with an un-modified factory part worked best. Then I spent hours cleaning out soot and muck from the exhaust. Cleaned it as often as I cleaned the chain. The key to this bike was resonant tuning of the intake and exhaust. The factory did a much better job of optimizing that than any 16yo could. Riding it required getting the revs up into the sweet spot, slowly feeding in the multi-plate clutch without the revs dropping, then peddling the gearbox to keep the revs up It was still much slower than everything else on the road, including Pucto buses.

Muddy?

I am not sure what they are trying to achieve. My experience trying to ride in single file in the middle of the lane, is that an SUV or a Taxi tries to overtake you by squeezing past in the 1/2 lane on one or the other side when you slow down for traffic or a robot. Not pleasant at all. You need to have eyes in the back of your head and while scanning the traffic for options for the inevitable evasive manoeuvre. That paragraph looks poorly worded, it achieves nothing and it won't and probably cannot be enforced. Maybe I should add a comment to the City website: http://www.capetown.gov.za/City-Connect/Have-your-say/Issues-open-for-public-comment/draft-traffic-by-law

I think it is a show piece, not actually intended to be ridden. Licensed or not, the exhausts are so loud that there is very limited opportunity to run the motor. Maybe the brakes are a work in progress? But I can think of other toys I would rather have in my garage - like an original airhead BMW.

It looks like the same bike that was on the DGR last week. Minimalist - no silencers (at all) and no front brakes... (no disk, no lever and no hydraulics).

I once rebuilt the engine of a Honda XL 250 in my varsity res room. The motorbikes parked under under an affdak in a the corner of the carpark. I borrowed a tin shipping trunk from my buddy. One weekend I stripped the engine out of the bike, put the engine and parts in the trunk and took it up in the lift to my room. The frame and the rest of the bike stayed in the shed. The trunk was stored under my bed. I could pull it out in the evenings and work on the engine, but all the parts and evidence had to be packed in the trunk and stowed under the bed again before the next morning. It stayed there for a several weeks as I has to order parts and get some machining done. Eventually the reassembled engine was carried downstairs in the trunk and reinstalled into the frame. Vroom vroom, I had wheels again! And the tin trunk went back to my buddy - ready for the next bike emergency. I never got any complaints from the cleaning ladies or the Matron so I assume they never found out...

I got one for my steel bike. The size was about right for me. The shape is good and it is comfortable but the padding is very thin. After a few hours it gets a bit hard. I am not sure if the Spez original has more padding?

Maybe try a recumbant bike or trike. Anyone got one Cois can tset?

I know of a sad incident where a cord like this killed a technician. The high voltage overhead wires to a rural location were damaged by cable thieves. The consumer had a small generator for this eventuality. The operator got hold of a cable with two male plugs on it and wired the generator into the DB. The part he got wrong was to fail to isolate the main switch on the DB. The technician was repairing the cables when the operator started the generator. The 220V from the generator went backwards through the substation transformer and got converted to 1000's of volts and killed the technician. The investigators blamed the technician for failing to ground the cables before working on them, as required by standard procedures. A very sad outcome for all.

I did, and I got wet...

Chief de-icing officer, Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, Nairobi

You can still turn over the engine by hand and make sure it is not ceased solid. You could use the kick start if it had one. Otherwise put it on the centre stand, in top gear and turn the back wheel to turn over the motor. Then attach a battery and jumper cables and turn it over on the starter motor. If you can get a compression gauge, take out the plugs and measure compression while it is cranking. But check that it has oil before you do anything. To get it started might well require striping and cleaning the carbs, petrol stop cocks, filters and strainers and maybe the tank too. That's half a weekend's work or more, depending on how time you spend googling info, watching Youtubes of CX internals and drinking beer. The availability of internet resources and on line suppliers have made this kind of project a lot easier than it used to be. PS: Also check if the brakes work. It is possible the fluid has leaked out, or the some of the hydraulic cylinders have ceased, or both. All fixable, but it takes time and some money. PPS: Check if the clutch works. Turn the back wheel with the bike in gear, as above and pull the clutch leaver. It should disengage.

I used to commute by motorbike. I went through 3 chain driven bikes before I got tired of messing with chains every 2nd weekend and shopping for sprockets once a year. Then I bought a Motor Guzzi V50 and commuted 80000km's on it. . I still have the MG over 30 years later. I ride it once or twice a month but do more millage on bicycles. In the meantime they have invented o-ring chains. So next time I might look at a chain driven bike again.

If you want a bike that you can ride/commute on a regular basis. Buy a 2nd hand Japanese bike that's licensed and running. Remember to budget for helmet, gloves, jacket etc.If you tired of fixing bicycles and want to play with something else, buy the CX500, try fix it, maybe break it, but enjoy the project. You could end up with a nice bike but it will be a while before you need the helmet, gloves, jacket etc.If it has got papers, and the engine turns over and makes reasonable compression, without any obvious knocking noises, it's probably be worth it ... But if there are significant issues, discounting from R15K to R5K is not likely to offset the extra time and money required. Also do some homework on parts availability. Is there a mail order supplier in Europe somewhere who can ship parts?

My son has a Transalp 700. Very nice bike, he commutes on it every day. But it is a bit heavy for traffic. His has been re-geared for touring, which does not help. I believe some of the parts can be expensive and there are not always generic alternatives available in SA. But it is so reliable that has yet to be a problem.