Monday, November 28, 2011

Geoff's drag bike - Icarus

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A few days ago my buddy Geoff from New Zealand send me these amazing pictures from him and his drag bike Icarus he was used to race in the 60s. Just stunning, enjoy. Frank

Hello Frank,
I was surprised and delighted to see a couple of photos I took on your website, thanks to Google Analytics showing visitor links from your site. You have a stunning website which I'm currently working through. The photos of the old Triumphs and other classic motorcycles are simply wonderful. I'll add it to my blog list. Don't feel obligated to use it in the slightest, but I've attached a high res photo of another unusual race bike from the 60's. It's my drag bike - Icarus.

It started off as a supercharged 350cc Triumph twin. Unfortunately, the mean piston speed was sufficiently high that piston crowns regularly detached themselves at the oil control ring, not to mention other failures. To overcome these problems, I manufactured a short stroke crankshaft and mated it to a 500 cc barrel and head to make it an ultra-short stroke 350cc.

There were a few development issues but within a season, it was one of the 2 fastest 350's in the UK. There was a lot more development work to be done, but marriage, career and a move to NZ stopped further racing.

With best wishes,

Geoff James
Coromandel
NZ


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1 comment:

Geoff James said...

Hi Frank and thanks for putting up the photos! I might add that Icarus had a huge valve timing overlap to keep the exhaust valves cool when running increasing amounts of nitro. In fact, it was so noisy with a peculiar frequency to it that a lot of competitors claimed that half the combustion was done in the exhaust pipes which gave rocket assistance!

All the very best for 2012.

Geoff

November 28, 2011 at 7:16 PM

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