Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

I rear of the back cylinder are mu ch sho rter than those exiting the forward-facing exhaust po rts of the front cylinder. Frequen tly, the bikes were ru n in the United Sta tes and a t Brooklands wit hou t any ex h a us t pipes a t a ll, a n d the la ck of cylinder finning to an y great extent perhaps d enot es th e u se of alco ho l fuels e lse w he r e tha n i n It al y . 'T h is b ik e, tho u gh, runs on ga soline stored in the righ t half of the slend er, han dsome tank, with the oil su pply fed by g ravity from the left half, assis ted by a hand pu mp set in its side. The sys tem is total loss. The sing le cen tra l spark plug per cylinder is fired by a Bosch magne to th a t H arley only began fittin g to the bikes once hostilities had ceased in WWI. The thr ee-speed coun tershaftgearbox with all-chai n tra nsmission actua lly featu res a kick s ta r te r , th o u gh thi s was almost cer tainly added especially for or by the Italian Connection. The Wrecking Crew's bik es ra n suc h high co mpressions that they ofte n had to be tow -sta rted , but the cha nces o f finding someone to do tha t ha lf w ay up th e A p pen ine mo untai ns in the middle of the MilanoTa ranto mar athon mus t have been pretty remo te - hen ce the foot crank. Battilan i rebuilt the bike wi th a cornforta ble 8:I co mpress ion, so after he' d kicked it into life an d do ne a couple of explo rat ory laps to ensu re all was well, it was my tu rn. - I' m not exaggera ting when I say I was welty ner vous as I cla mbere d gingerly o n to th e co mfo rta b le , w e ll -sprun g leat her seat. After all, most bikes that can do 100 mp h nowadays actua lly ha ve brakes, whereas all that this fire-breat hing mo ns ter had was a prett y ineffectua l exp a nd ing-ba nd rea r s to p pe r a nd a n igni tion control in the left gri p. At least the Wre ckin g C rew ha d m a gne to cutou ts to ena ble them to slow for turns, an d I ' ll bet the y d idn' t h ave to ge t arou nd corne rs like the Misano chicane o r th e se m i ha i rp in a t th e e nd of t h e st ra ig h t. And from p eri odphotos . I noti ce that Ruggeri modified his bike so as not to hav e to grapple with that great American inv en tion, the foo t d utch. Battila ni likes hi s bikes origi na l, so that's wha t's fittedto it, but he has made one inco ns p icu ous co ncess io n to mod ern . times: The stee p ly dropped ha ndl ebars have a twis t grip at each end. Or iginally, the thr ottle wou ld have been on the left and the ignition contro l on the rig ht, bu t he's reversed them to thwart any confusion . I'm sort of glad he did that... Mo vin g off the ma rk on the Harley re q u ire s finesse a nd application : Press 'down on the left foot lever to engage th~ clu tch (w hich locks o n); select "Low" gear o n the ve rtical hand-gear-chan ge lever mounted on the left of the tank by pu shing the metal knob awa y from you; ret ar d ignition wit h the left t wi stg ri p ; then release the clu tch-pedal keeper and (Above) Even when idle, the Harley looks last. (Above right) Powered by a push rod v-twtn, the old Harley was capable of 110 m ph . (Right) Using the upright hand shifter Isn't an easy task. tr y to fiddle the thrott le in yo ur right twistg ri p in u nison w ith the act io ns of your left foot to prod uce a smooth takeoff. The wo nde r is that I only sta lled it once, since at the same time (if you wa n t to really accelera te) you have to adva nce the igni tion with the left hand . Th ere' s not much of a chan ce of ge tting bo red rid ing one of these bikes. Having flu ked a getaway the second time , I briefly considered skipping second gea r and shoving it straig h t into top (" High"). At thi s po int, th e u nwr it ten ethics of racer tes ti ng intervened , so , closing down the throttle and ignition, I g ra p pled agai n w it h th e clutch ped al wh ile moving the gea r lever through the n eu tr a l s lo t to second . As th e gear engaged w it h a lurch (thanks to an in sensitive boo t o n the clutch), I wa s almos t shoved off the back of the seatas the Harley leaped forw ard while I had a single hand on the steeply dropped bars. Fortunately, the track was empty, so the ensuing wo bble tha t took me from one side of it to the other d id n' t resu lt in a co llision . After ga theri ng my self up , I rather gingerly repeated the process to get into top. Whew! For tu na tely, the big V-twin engine . is so fle xibl e tha t my gear-changing episode was com plete. No more shifts for the remainder of my dozen or so laps on the bike. I was even ab le to take the tigh t left-hander before th e pits in top gear, with th e ignition backed rig ht off a nd th e eng ine seemi ngly firing about once every two second s . Then, if one advances th e left twist gri p and win ds th e ot her gra d ua lly ope n, th e acceleration in top gea r fro m almost a wa lki ng pace is literall y awe-ins piri ng . It is also terrify in g at fi rs t, becau se wi th th e kn owledge at the back of one's mi nd all the ti m e tha t there a re p ra ctic all y no b ra ke s, th e ri d er d evelops a s u d de n par anoia abou t stop p ing th is runaway two-wheeled train. In fact, provid ed you don 't try to em ulate Mike Hallwood an d sit it out wi th th e last of the la te breakers, things work ou t ju st fine - o n th e cond ition that yo u shut off soo n enough. I mu st ad m it that, to begin wit h, I was practically closing down for the next corner as soon as I' d exited th e p revious one. After a handful of laps, I'd di sco vered th e app roved tec hnique for getting th e bea s t a rou nd a turn , so th a t I wa s able to sp ee d u p g ra d ua lly a nd start us ing th e. cons iderable reserves of per· formance on tap fro m that lovely eng ine. Simply retard the ignition, then shut off whil e at the same time applyi ng the pr etty use less foot brake, give her a brief crack of throttle to set it up nicely for the co rne r, th en swing int o the turn. Care must be taken, however, no t to lean too far over - for, though the 28 x 3 four-p ly tires are of mod ern compound and man ufacture (the fron t a product of the Universa l Tire Co. stamped as "made in Elizabethtown, Pa. ," the rear a Bedford Cord), using the grip they offer to any th ing near their po te nt ia l can qu ickl y resu lt in gro und ing the low-slun g footpegs - which, fortunately, are hinged to prevent a nasty shoul d this hap pen. Once around the tu rn, accelerate smartly away while advancing the ign ition. With the throttle cracked wide open, th e engine flu ttered und er acceleration, indica ting the carburetion was a bit too rich , bu t otherwise the bike was superbly set up a credit to Battt lani and his frien ds, who res tored it to this delectable state. I've rid den a Bro ugh Su peri or with Harley-type for ks, an d I mu st say they ha ve to be th e bes t fro nt-end d es ign ava ilab le until th e advent of the telescopic fork. My ride on the Harley con firmed this view: Though Misano's smooth surface is a lo ng way fro m th e u n m ad e roads of Ital y in the 19205, or th e di rt tracks of the Midwest cou n ty-fair circu s, the eig ht-va lve s tee red positively an d smoo thed ou t the few bumps I was able to find . The bot tom- li n k fro n t-e nd des ign too k so me ti m e to g et r ight, . accord in g to Floyd C ly me r, w ho was one of the first H-D wo rks rid ers to race su ch a bike. He shortened the compression springs to lower the posiHan of the p ivo t in order to limi t fork tra vel and im prove high -speed handling. Accelera ting ha rd aro u nd Mi sano's lo n g lcft- hand er lea d i ng o n to th e st ra ight at abo ut 80 m ph, I found the H ar ley tr a cki n g even a n d tru e . The steer ing-head ang le loo ks to b e less steep tha n o n th e boa rd rac er s of the tim e, which would have improved highspeed stability. How eve r, that fabulous eng ine is the real gem: Pumping out a good 60 bhp in a bike weighing arou nd 270 pounds, it's not surprising that the Harley proved to have abo ut the same performance on acceleration as an average BSA Gold Star 500 of 35 years later. But, like the BSA, the Harley was a lmos t too good : Th e Wrecki n g Crew's do minance of Ameri can competition was such that, after a clean sweep in the 1921 seaso n, the factory soft-p ed aled its involveme nt with racing. The eightvalve w as pha sed out, and ins tead of' tive employing this sophisticated and effec design in future years, Milwaukee opted instea d for the less complicated pocketvalve machines - later superseded by the WR and KR side-va lvers . In tim e, th e XR750 OHV design restored some degree of engineering mode rni za tion to the Harley fold . But now tha t the XR's' iron grip on AMA dirt track success has been loosened somewhat by the Honda V-twin, it's fascinating to consider this question; Might not Harley's racing d ep ar tm ent again turn to the design that set them on the path to co mpetition glor y o ve r 50 yeilTS ago: an eight-valve V-tw in? 0" Harley-Davidson Eight-Valve 1000 S pecifications Engine .a-ve lve. pus hrod V·twin, four-stroke Dimensions 84 x 89 mm 989cc Capactity Compression ratio Output Ignition C arburetion 8:1 60 bhp at 4000 rpm Bosc h magneto 1 1/16-inch Schebler carburetor C lutch .multiplate dry Tra nsmiss ion Three-speed hand-change with all-chain transmission Frame Suspension Front Re a r single-loop cradle , bottc m-lmk girder fork rigid B r ake s Fr ont . . _ R ear ..none 6-inch expanding-bond drum Rear , . , Weight year Top s peed Owner 0\ 0\ ,...... o ,...... .... Q) ,..D Tires Front . r-, .28 x 3/ 4·ply Universal , ,28 by 3/4.ply Bedford E Q) 270 pounds (dry) u 1924 c 110 mph Henze Batnlaru. lmola. Italy Q) 13

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