Front wheel drive BSA

[malcolm aldrick]

Remember seeing an A65 outfit with front well drive at the 1974 TT, I don't think it finished though, but must be in the competitors list for that year?
Wonder if it is still around, seemed to be good engineering for those days

[Bill Lymburn]

I remember seeing a front wheel drive BSA some years back at Brands,might have been when they had the 1000 bikes there, the first thought was it must have been so heavy with the Forth Bridge engineering by the front wheel

Peter, weight at the front was probably welcome to aid with grip and under steer. No bump or roll steer problems here though. The back and the sidecar look pretty lightweight. What the passenger's activities were baffles me. Anybody see it in action?

[sidecarracer51]

Bob, fantastic, I've never seen that photo before. The photo I've seen was only of the front. However, there was another that I saw at the TT in about '75ish and the BSA engine sat at an angle about 15 degrees to the left if you looked at it from the riders position.

There was an A65 outfit like the one you describe ran in Batley club hill climbs at Baitings Dam, Ripponden late 70s, early 80s, if I remember correctly, it was road registered, I can't remember who owned or ran it.

[RP]

Yep - Dave Skinner was at the Festival of 1000 bikes at least in 2009 with this outfit.

[rotary294]

Yep - Dave Skinner was at the Festival of 1000 bikes at least in 2009 with this outfit.

Dave also has (and for a long time) a lovely nimble 650 Triumph powered BAT (Phil Williams ?) outfit,that he has hillclimbed since God's dog was a pup!

[RARING TO GO]

Has anyone tried front and rear wheel drive?

[Bill Lymburn]

Has anyone tried front and rear wheel drive?

As a young man in industry I was heavily involved with Lucas Hydrostatic Transmission systems. This was a hydraulic system used to transmit power, usually, from an electric motor through an indirect route(hydraulic pipes) to a hydraulic motor to the drive an appliance. The pumps were axial with variable tilt swash plates and the motors were axial with fixed swash plates. These pumps and motors could vary in size and number of cylinders to suit the application, from driving Rolling Mills down to ancillaty services. In 1974 I had the idea to make a brakeless three wheel drive sidecar using an Imp engine to drive the pump. This would have allowed the engine to be positioned in line or transverse or indeed anywhere. Brakeless, because conventional brakes would not be required, putting a little reverse angle on the tilt plate of the pump would give any amount of braking required. Rules probably would have required an additional auxilliary brake but it really would have been superfluous. I wrote to Lucas for their take on the situation and got a long letter back praising my idea but saying it would not be practical because of the size of oil reservoir required to keep the oil cool whilst transmitting about 100 hp. I took their word for it, dropped the idea and built another conventional outfit. It was not long after that the Hydraulics Industry was pushing and patenting similar hydraulic drive systems for heavy plant and latterly for motor cars. Would like to think I had something to do with it, but I think it was natural progression and evolution. Below, hopefully, is an animation of such a drive system but does not show the oil reservoir required. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxZFSNITK-c

[RARING TO GO]

Bill, I am very au fait with the drive system as it is used on jet aircraft as CDS (Constant Drive System) to run the 115v 400 cycle electrical system that needs to turn at a fixed RPM. The Swash plate pump is used on the DC-9 Hydraulic system also.

[Richard Rollings]

All these people seeing the front wheel drive outfit... and no photos?

[RP]

Here you go Richard - http://www.motorsport-imagery.com/2011- ... #h2e74e001

[RARING TO GO]

That looks neat and well preserved.