Enfield Tracker: War Pig Rennaissance

[beachcomber]

Clem, thanks...that's about what I think of it, too. 


Comber, the C5s have essentially the same frame as the older (iron barrel, AVL, and UCE) bullets, so the prevailing wisdom was that the additional wobble over the old models was due to geometry changes...I can vouch for nothing, having never ridden the C5/"classic" models.

I saw the Continental at Barber but didn't look closely enough at the welds to notice anything different.  Simply assumed the build quality would be as "good enough!" (India's national motto) as the rest of the bikes.  (India's second national motto should be "Don't look any closer!")  Too bad, because I thought the idea of a double-cradle frame might be one of the better aspects of this newer design...especially given the fact that this engine has not escaped the event horizon of its rather mediocre genealogy, despite the modest displacement bump and allegedly hotter cams.

I'm not knocking the frame design - just the execution ! A bit like looking at early Japanese frame welding !

All our Bike mags [ and European + US Cafe Racer ] are full of the mass launch they did in the UK centred around The Ace and Brooklands. Harris Performance [ UK ] were responsible for the design consultancy on the frame, RIGIDITY being their main design brief - so I think that can be declared as having a clean bill of health.

One interesting point that came out from one of the UK testers when he interviewed the Indian CEO - for YEARS [ 15 ? ] there have been rumours around the industry that Enfield were toying with bringing back the Twins - specifically the 750s. There was even a very strong rumour that there was a running prototype that the previous owners had produced. The question wasn't denied outright, sidestepped with "no plans for the immediate future". Which is what they said 2 years ago about the Continental GT. I discussed this point with the previous UK Importer / agents [ Watsonian ] - and the CEO's answer to tht question was "Wait and see", with a nudge, nudge, wink, wink.

Re: the frame headshake issue - you will probably be familiar with the 60's notion that "Triumph frames were hinged in the middle". They suffered violent headshake / tank slappers caused by the rear end whipping around. You could actually see this if followed one round a fast sweeping bend. No doubt why so many Triumph engines found their way into Norton and BSA frames !

The Vincent twins were also known for these tank slapper tendancies - I witnessed one at first hand when a good pal of mine lost his Shadow at 110 mph ! HE was OK - the bike not so, and yes the engine DID end up in a Norton frame ! I have always been amazed at how flimsy the rear end is on a Vincent - check the swing arm / shock mounts compared to a Yamaha TR1 / XV. This observation comes from 60 + years in speciality chassis design / construction business [ auto ] and designing spaceframe chassis'.

ALL that said, for ordinary road use and a bit of mud plugging the standard frames have been round long enough to be "good enough".

[mcv80]

  Just want to thank Mike aka Agentx for all the shout outs so far and to all that are following the final peg mounts should finished up by Sunday at the latest along with the alloy seat mount and other odds and ends. Will get the pictures up for all to see asap. I am just as excited as the rest of you, for this sure is a fun and interesting project to be working on.

Tom
McVay Motorworks
mcvaymotorworks@gmail.com

[AgentX]

So, ah, ya done yet?   

[AgentX]

Tom made up the mount for my spin on filter to put it in a less exposed location.

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[AgentX]

Seat and pegs.  Undertray and tail light integration are slick.

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[AgentX]

Pics.  Seat attaches using 3 captive dzus fasteners.  Subframe made of aluminum is about 7 lbs lighter, being conservative.

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[AgentX]

Tracker bars which will replace the clip ons.  Will have a totally new dash with a large tacho pod and a mini speedo, canted back towards the rider's field of view.

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[Zookrocker]

I think thats looking good Agent...I'm digging that rear section.  Nice aluminum work.

[AgentX]

New horn location is tighter up and neat.  Oil filter in a much better place than low and directly behind the front wheel.

[AgentX]

I managed to take some parts to paint before I split town.  May be back home at Thanksgiving to get some more done, if I don't get deployed by then...

Aesthetics question while I'm looking at wheel-building options:

Rims:  bare alloy Excels, or Sun gold ano??  Now I'm thinking that a painted tail section and gold rims might look good.