In 1923, two Italian engineers, Piero Remor and Carlo Gianini, designed an inline four-cylinder motorcycle engine that was mounted transversely. It was an important moment, for from that beginning have descended all of today’s inline-four motorcycle engines. Technical Editor Kevin Cameron and Editor-in-Chief Mark Hoyer talk about the origins of the modern in-line four sportbike from Rondine to Gilera to today. Illustration by Jim Hatch/Hatch Illustration
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Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6CLI74xvMBFLDOC1tQaCOQ
Read more from Cycle World: https://www.cycleworld.com/
Buy Cycle World Merch: https://teespring.com/stores/cycleworld
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SportsTranscript
00:00:00This is the CycleWorld podcast. I'm the editor-in-chief Mark Hoyer. I'm with Kevin Cameron, our technical editor.
00:00:06I say that every week. Thank goodness I get to say that every week.
00:00:10We're back with another episode.
00:00:15The last one we did was two-strokes. What if two-strokes survived and were running on the street?
00:00:20People are reacting to that one. It's just gone up. We're excited.
00:00:26You should check that out. This episode is sponsored by Octane Lending.
00:00:31It's our pairing company. You can shop for a motorcycle on octane.co. There's a link in our description.
00:00:38Go check it out. It helps us out if you check it out. Go look at it if you're shopping for a bike.
00:00:45You can show up at a dealer pre-qualified if you qualify. It's a great tool.
00:00:50We hope you get the bike of your dreams. Visit CycleWorld.com and figure out what you want.
00:00:55Go to octane.co and buy it. Head to the dealer.
00:00:58We appreciate their support. It wouldn't be happening.
00:01:01This show, Kevin Cameron and me buying milk wouldn't be happening without our pairing company.
00:01:05We appreciate that and hope you guys do too.
00:01:10On to the topic. The inline four-cylinder sport bike was invented in the 1920s.
00:01:17We're talking about all the good stuff. Double-O, overhead cam, liquid cooling.
00:01:24It was invented by two engineering school grads, like kiddos, just wet behind the ears, just out of school.
00:01:34We got a Jalera inline four. Spectacular, beautiful, awesome sport bike race bike.
00:01:44Kevin has done a remarkable amount of research on this, as you might imagine, over the years and also for this podcast.
00:01:51It's a nice pile we got going here. Thousands of words. Let's hit it, Kevin.
00:01:59Oh yeah, I can do that. He's wrestling papers. What do you know?
00:02:08Those two fellows were addressing some concerns at that time.
00:02:15One of the concerns I became acquainted with when I bought a 500 AJS single and found that those Englishmen who talked about big singles propelling you by firing at every telegraph post weren't far wrong.
00:02:32Thump, thump. It wasn't very comfortable. It was simple. It was inexpensive. You could afford it, but it was a rough way to go.
00:02:47Today, singles, of course, have balancers. They're a lot smoother operation, but what companies like FN, Fabrique Nationale in Belgium, a weapons manufacturer, by the way, built in the way of a motorcycle was an inline four that was longitudinal.
00:03:11The wheelbase was rather tremendous. In accounts of these inline fours, and a lot of people built them because they were propulsively smoother, more thumps and little or smaller ones.
00:03:29What everyone talking about those early fours has to say is that once you get a long wheelbase bike swinging, get the chassis swinging, it's hard to get it to stop.
00:03:48In those early days, when motor vehicles were in the minority to horse-drawn vehicles, all the streets were covered with horse manure. A few drops of rain and you had a situation in which rear wheel step out was likely.
00:04:11I mean, the emissions problems with animals.
00:04:15Yes. Unregulated.
00:04:18Put a catalyst on that.
00:04:20Beast. The other problem was that those inline longitudinal fours were conceived at a time when engines made, people weren't concerned with the power as much as they were, is it running?
00:04:40At all.
00:04:42Yeah, they weren't making a lot of power. So the front cylinder and the rear cylinder were not, they were cooled by accident anyway.
00:04:51But as soon as things got moving, the front cylinder was cooled nicely and the number four cylinder was cooled hardly at all.
00:05:02And so these two gentlemen, Carlo Giannini and Piero Remor, turned the engine sideways, made it air cooled so that all four cylinders would have an equal access to cooling air and therefore that problem would just be solved.
00:05:31And when you look at any of the great inline transverse fours, that's what you see.
00:05:39They were air cooled in the early days and they were able to cool them because the cylinders were all getting their share of cooling air.
00:05:51So they built, oh, then of course the long wheelbase slows down the steering a lot so that if you have sporting intentions, you want to flop your motorbike over for a turn and not wait while the front wheel starts to move to the left and then it starts to swing the whole chassis and the rear wheel begins to follow, you get a right now action.
00:06:20So, but it's strange the kind of engine that they built.
00:06:26This was 1923 and over at FIAT, Guido Farnacca's experimental engineering team of brilliant people who went, when they left FIAT, as they all did, they went to other manufacturers in England and France as well as Italy.
00:06:53They all did great work and what came out of that experimental group was they had learned that the flow coefficient, that is cubic feet per minute per square inch of valve head area,
00:07:11was better for a single intake valve flowing into a hemispherical chamber than it was for what had been traditional during World War I, for example, for inline aircraft engines.
00:07:24The Germans built thousands and thousands of these.
00:07:28A pentroof head with a valve seated on a flat surface, two intakes on a flat surface.
00:07:36And so to make this work to their advantage, they looked at the biggest valve that would fit in the cylinder bore and they were pitifully small.
00:07:49So then they said, what if we begin to swing the valve stems out like this and now the combustion chamber, instead of being a flat disc, becomes a hemisphere with a lot more area for valve head.
00:08:04And with that concept, as well as many others, FIAT built the wonderful 404 racing engine with two valves per cylinder and they gave it a 96 degree valve stem included angle, which means a deep chamber with a large angle between the valve stems.
00:08:32That's where we get those widely splayed, beautiful overhead cam cases too.
00:08:40It's when they splay them out on a hemi, it gives you that very wide and…
00:08:44Yes, it's lovely. We grew up thinking that that was the living end.
00:08:50Yeah. And in fact, no, it's not. Not so much.
00:08:54They were right. Anybody that's got a Superflow flow bench can verify what Fornaca's men learned in the early 20s about airflow.
00:09:06Well, why do all these engines have four valves now? Because they have larger bores and they can crush the two valve engines by just having so much valve area.
00:09:21Yeah, their flow coefficient isn't that great, but the area is what makes up the difference.
00:09:30Anyway, when Remore and Giannini did that initial thing, okay, what are the biggest valves that will fit into this cylinder bore?
00:09:42Instead of going the way that Walter Beckia and people at Fiat had done, namely this, they built a little alcove out over the cylinder and they let the excess width of the exhaust valve be in that little alcove.
00:10:03And it looked Mickey Mouse, and it was.
00:10:08The engine also had a strange, massive central flywheel.
00:10:15See, these fellows being engineering graduates had not spent a lot of time with engines in front of them on a bench or on a test bench, so they were just doing the best they could.
00:10:30In their second try, the massive central flywheel was gone because, as all sport bike riders know, an inline four crankshaft is the flywheel.
00:10:41So there were a lot of wacky things about this first engine.
00:10:47Well, that alcove, I want to go back to the cylinder. What he's saying is that the combustion chamber and the valve are basically going to be shrouded, they're over the block, right?
00:10:58The exhaust valves were. The intakes were all vertical, parallel to the cylinder axis, and they were within the circle of the bore, but crowded over to one side.
00:11:10Then the exhaust, to make adequate intake and exhaust valve diameters, the exhaust were too big for the bore.
00:11:17So they just built this little room off the side of the head in which the excess diameter of the exhaust valve operated.
00:11:30And you can see that that Bacchia and company over at Fiat were working on the same problem that these fellows were, and they came up with two different answers.
00:11:44And probably Giannini and Remore didn't have a flow bench, but it appears from history that probably Fiat did have one because the 1920s, Harry Westlake in England began his airflow work in 1926.
00:12:03And I believe that the U.S. Army's Air Development Center at McCook Field in Ohio, as they say it there, was a very well-equipped research station.
00:12:19And I think they could, in fact, I've seen pictures of their flow rig.
00:12:22So the joint was a chump in terms of engine design.
00:12:27And these two guys made a try with their own solution.
00:12:32They weren't happy with it.
00:12:34So their next engine, oh, this had a single overhead cam and rockers.
00:12:38Their next engine was symmetrical and it had inclined valves and rocker arms.
00:12:44Their third version, how could two engineering students afford to do this?
00:12:50Yeah, that's what I was going on.
00:12:52This is a question, you know, because if somebody graduates from engineering school, their big problem is not how to build engines, but how to pay off 70 grand in education loans.
00:13:05But we can assume these fellows had some family money.
00:13:10And also, every time they would run out of money, a wealthy count of the Italian aristocracy would show up and say, what are you fellows doing here?
00:13:25It looks like you could use some help.
00:13:27Why, yes.
00:13:29Why don't you sit over here?
00:13:31We'll bring lunch.
00:13:33And that's how this project moved forward.
00:13:38And of course, what we have to remember is that today the internal combustion engine is regarded as a problem, as being reprehensible, something that should be done away with.
00:13:49But at the time, in 1923, the world was being revolutionized by portable power.
00:13:59Power for boats, airplanes, trucks, cars, motorcycles.
00:14:05And it was terribly exciting.
00:14:08This was the sort of Silicon Valley action of that time.
00:14:14In the textbooks, we see pictures of Otto and Daimler and all those guys looking all old and grim, like, you know, they're having to pose for 10 minutes to get the exposure.
00:14:30And they look like they're on death's door.
00:14:33But when they were doing their work, they were hot young guys staying up for 30 hours to get their thing on test and see if their future was going to be wonderfully prosperous.
00:14:46So, I just love it that these counts showed up at just the right time, heaven sent.
00:14:58And they tried to race the things, but it was a tough one.
00:15:04Because one of the most expensive things to create is reliability.
00:15:10Because reliability testing means designing a test method, running your engine until something fails, analyzing and then redesigning the failed part and resuming the testing.
00:15:27And in the early days, everything failed.
00:15:31So, an enormous amount was learned.
00:15:35And the persistence of these people was marvelous.
00:15:40Of course, you could see that in the early days of the semiconductor world because they would, the yields, each time they would increase the number of switches that they could put on the silicon chip, when they would begin manufacturing them, the yield would be like 5%.
00:16:01And so, they had to do a tremendous amount of R&D in order to reliably transfer the design to the physical reality of the chip.
00:16:12And the same thing with internal combustion engines.
00:16:15The connecting rods break, bearings seize, bolts stretch, all these maddening things.
00:16:22Well, we'll have to, we'll just have to keep on pushing.
00:16:26So, at some point, these young fellows got in touch with Piero Taruffi.
00:16:34And he wrote a little red book, which I bought a copy of when I was in college about the art and the technique of motor racing.
00:16:44And it's actually got a lot of great stuff in it.
00:16:48Taruffi was called the Silver Fox because he had prematurely wonderful white hair.
00:16:58And he knew everybody, including Mr. Jalera.
00:17:04And there got to be talk about, well, do you suppose this four-cylinder thing might have actual merit?
00:17:13And would you like to buy our whole project?
00:17:18And in the end, supposedly, Mr. Jalera said, give me one reason why I should even look at this thing.
00:17:29You guys can't finish races, you're nowhere.
00:17:33So, they reintensified their efforts.
00:17:39And they came up with an improved design of liquid-cooled, supercharged, transverse four-cylinder, a whole race bike.
00:17:52And it was quite modern looking.
00:17:54The chassis made you immediately think of Rob North and the Triumph BSA triple racers.
00:18:01And the cylinders were leaned forward 60 degrees to make room behind them for a three-lobe roots blower.
00:18:12Which blew like five or six pounds of boost into the intakes.
00:18:21And in the early days, they were making 60 horsepower at 8,500 RPM.
00:18:29And these aren't very exciting numbers in hindsight.
00:18:36But you have to realize that they were doing this at a time when 500cc racing singles were making 38 horsepower.
00:18:46So, they're bearing down on this.
00:18:50Tarufi and another rider take the bikes, they built six of them, to the Libyan Tripoli Grand Prix and finish 1-2.
00:19:05And that was enough for Mr. Jalera.
00:19:09He said, come here boy, I'm going to make you a star.
00:19:14And with real R&D help from a professional organization with all kinds of machine tools and welders and fabricators and all the good stuff that you need for R&D.
00:19:30They were able to win the 1939 European Championship, which was the Ulster TT basically.
00:19:40And they not only defeated the supercharged BMWs in Sweden and Germany.
00:19:48But at the Ulster, the Rino Serafini, I love those Italian names because they all sound like they were composers and artists.
00:20:01That's where I've seen names like that.
00:20:04The names are so musical.
00:20:06Serafini would pull up alongside whoever his rival was at the moment, look over grinning.
00:20:14And then just turn the throttle and effortlessly pull away.
00:20:21So infuriating.
00:20:24Yes, but what they had done was they had made an unreliable lash up of ideas that were not necessarily all properly thought out and coherent.
00:20:40They had made it into a usable machine that you could say, air up the tires, put in the gas, check the oil, let's go racing.
00:20:49And that's what you need.
00:20:51It is a romantic idea that people stay up all night the night before the race and the engine is spread out on the floor of the van and parts are rolling away.
00:21:04And occasionally these things do work, but you wouldn't want to live your life that way.
00:21:09Or as Bud Axlin, who was a longtime associate of Kenny Roberts and who worked on Yamaha and Suzuki cylinder and pipe R&D programs, once said, he said, yeah, all-nighters are part of racing, but I don't want to live there.
00:21:30And your race bike doesn't want to live there either.
00:21:34You want something that is solidly reliable.
00:21:38The materials are good.
00:21:40The heat treat is good.
00:21:42The surface finishes are good.
00:21:44You've been through all those problems.
00:21:46And now you know that if you put the thing together, according to these protocols, it will run.
00:21:53And they talked about crankshaft life of 50 to 100 hours.
00:22:01This is wonderful for a race machine.
00:22:04So, whereas for a TZ750, we thought we were doing well if we got 950 miles out of a set of cranks.
00:22:13This was a roller engine because the sort of the plane bearing revolution was yet to come.
00:22:20And Jalera funded efforts to get a crankshaft that would be solidly reliable.
00:22:30They tried split and bolted rods on a one-piece crankshaft with hardened journals and all these rollers.
00:22:39They tried it with caged rollers.
00:22:42They tried it with crowded rollers.
00:22:44They had the German Hirth firm, which made radial spline couplings that can only go together one way.
00:22:54And they require fanatical machining accuracy.
00:23:00So, they're quite expensive.
00:23:02They tested with those.
00:23:04They tested with pressed together crankshafts that were simpler.
00:23:08And that's what they ran most of the time.
00:23:10For practice, for example, always a pressed together crankshaft.
00:23:14But the point here is that they went through all the steps to make a reliable engine.
00:23:21It's not enough to have promising drawings.
00:23:25And what happened during World War II is that there were several outfits.
00:23:31Continental, Bendix, Chrysler built promising aircraft engines in prototype
00:23:40and couldn't make them reliable enough for use at any time during the war.
00:23:45So, their priorities were clicked off.
00:23:48The buildings that had been allocated for their manufacturing were reallocated.
00:23:54And they were basically told, stand over there, there'll be a bus along to take you to the dump.
00:24:02Getting reliability is a very demanding operation.
00:24:10The US Navy, who had the problem of explaining to the parents of young men who went into the drink
00:24:18because their aircraft engines in their carrier planes were unreliable,
00:24:24they insisted on testing to destruction.
00:24:27And their method became the standard of the engine industry.
00:24:32Run it till it breaks and just keep doing that until it doesn't break.
00:24:39And Pratt & Whitney looked at it, even they took this a step further.
00:24:45Their method they called trampling problems to death.
00:24:50When a difficulty would show up, for example, studs breaking
00:24:56because the parts that the studs were holding together were flexing,
00:25:02they would have a meeting, decide on all the approaches that they could think of to solve this.
00:25:11And then they would take action on all of them.
00:25:14They would work on all possible solutions simultaneously.
00:25:18This wouldn't go over in the automotive industry.
00:25:21I was going to say, well, it reminds me of something that Dan Gurney said
00:25:25once all American racers got into aerospace.
00:25:29They built flying machines and had huge ovens to do carbon fiber
00:25:40that were like 100 feet long or more.
00:25:43Big autoclaves.
00:25:47Dan said, I really feel like Justin Gurney, his son,
00:25:54saved the company when he got us into aerospace.
00:25:57And once we got the government as a customer, it turns out the government's a very good customer.
00:26:02And so when you want to trample problems, it does take...
00:26:07Well, of course, this method of trampling problems to death
00:26:11is applicable when time has become more valuable than money.
00:26:16So, for example, here's our prototype engine.
00:26:20We want the Department of Defense to buy 100,000 of them for their airplanes,
00:26:24but we can't make it reliable.
00:26:27Then they're not going to buy any of your engines.
00:26:30So you have to do that method because it's the method that's going to work.
00:26:35And, of course, the European War began in September of 1939.
00:26:44And all this activity came to an end.
00:26:49We've seen before how the machine tools at Brough Superior
00:26:57were used to do finished machining operations on Merlin V-12 aircraft engine crankshafts.
00:27:07So all this resumed once the war was over,
00:27:12once all of the wreckage of the many B-24 raids on Italian targets was cleared,
00:27:23they came up with a design for an air-cooled four-cylinder racer.
00:27:35And the FIM had decided that supercharging was too expensive for the depressed post-war economy.
00:27:45So they said atmospheric induction only,
00:27:49meaning atmospheric pressure is all you've got to fill your cylinders.
00:27:53And early on, a grand old man of Italian racing, Nello Pagani,
00:28:01won the Italian 500cc championship on the Rondine without a supercharger.
00:28:14And the poor thing was, all it could manage was 48 horsepower.
00:28:19But he did win the Italian championship, and then all of that went to the museum.
00:28:25So this new engine had a dry sump.
00:28:29It was air-cooled.
00:28:31It had valves swung apart 100 degrees.
00:28:39And it had the steepest, tallest, most ecclesiastical-looking piston domes you can imagine.
00:28:47It just looked like the flame kernel from the spark plug,
00:28:54which is right in the center between the two valves.
00:28:58It's not the tip of the spark plug sticking down there.
00:29:01It's a circular spark port,
00:29:04which means the compression had to push some charge up in there and get it ignited.
00:29:11But imagine this terrifying piston dome, flame trying to spread around it.
00:29:19How much ignition timing did they need?
00:29:2260 degrees before top dead center.
00:29:26So intrusive, and so contrary to what would later be seen as fundamentals.
00:29:35Those deep hemi chambers and tall piston domes were just awful.
00:29:43But, Jalera had an endless program of improvements.
00:29:51They started out with a girder fork,
00:29:56and rear suspension with a dry friction damper with a big wing nut on it.
00:30:02There, a quarter turn, that ought to do it.
00:30:08So much sticking friction.
00:30:10So much friction.
00:30:12They couldn't phone up Jeff Fox and say,
00:30:15get over here and solve all these problems.
00:30:18So, but every time the likes would appear,
00:30:23there would be an increment of technology.
00:30:26And at first, it was Piero Remore,
00:30:32originally the student of 1923.
00:30:35But he huffed off at the end of 1949,
00:30:39because it seems that he,
00:30:40there was only one opinion that he could listen to, and that was his own.
00:30:46And also, it was, he did not understand the partnership
00:30:52of the engineer and the rider.
00:30:55The rider is giving this wealth of understanding.
00:31:01When I get, when I'm lifting up out of turn seven,
00:31:05this thing starts.
00:31:06Out of turn seven, this thing starts.
00:31:09And you need sympathy at that point,
00:31:13because the engineer's life is not at risk.
00:31:17It's your life.
00:31:19So they made this rapid progress.
00:31:23They got rid of the girder fork,
00:31:25and they put on telescopics.
00:31:30And once they had telescopics, they made the,
00:31:33they tried that for a while,
00:31:34and then they made the tubes bigger and stiffer.
00:31:38And at another point, they thought,
00:31:41what if we make the upper and lower fork grounds
00:31:44into one unit of welded sheet steel
00:31:47that has tremendous torsional rigidity?
00:31:50And then we slid the tubes up in there and clamped that up.
00:31:53That ought to be pretty good.
00:31:55Some of the bikes were built that way.
00:31:57I saw one of them like that.
00:32:00I stumbled into a,
00:32:02into a sort of Jalera retrospective at Monza.
00:32:09So what happened when Remore left
00:32:15was that instead of hiring another haughty,
00:32:18I can calculate that type,
00:32:21from a university course,
00:32:24Mr. Jalera promoted Passoni,
00:32:30who had previously been a technician and a mechanic,
00:32:33and Alessandro Colombo
00:32:37to be the project engineers.
00:32:41And they were not haughty.
00:32:44They spoke to riders.
00:32:47They were willing to listen to reason.
00:32:52And when the prototype was first tested,
00:32:57it weaved terribly.
00:32:59It couldn't reach its maximum speed.
00:33:01This is why Cook Nelson
00:33:04was able to win the 1977 Daytona Superbike race
00:33:09on a Ducati,
00:33:11making not all that much horsepower
00:33:14against the Japanese transverse force,
00:33:17making 120, 125 horsepower.
00:33:21Their chassis weren't good enough
00:33:24to go straight to their top speed.
00:33:27They would start this,
00:33:29and that oscillation can diverge,
00:33:34and suddenly you're on the ground,
00:33:36and your breakfast comes on a tray next morning.
00:33:40So these,
00:33:44these problems were overcome.
00:33:47And the model that they had to guide them
00:33:51was the Norton.
00:33:53Because for the 1950 season,
00:33:56Norton were out of ideas.
00:33:59Their motorcycle,
00:34:01their racing motorcycle
00:34:03with its single-cylinder Max engine,
00:34:05was called,
00:34:07the frame was called the Garden Gate design.
00:34:10Garden Gates swing back and forth in the wind.
00:34:14And that's the way it's felt to riders.
00:34:17So they'd heard of these Irish brothers,
00:34:23Cromie and Rex McCandless,
00:34:26up in Northern Ireland.
00:34:28They had been experimenting
00:34:30with a Triumph-powered motorcycle
00:34:33and running it on all kinds of terrain
00:34:36and trying all kinds of stuff.
00:34:38And they said,
00:34:40we'd like to give you fellows and your ideas a try.
00:34:43And they built a twin-loop chassis
00:34:44with a swing arm,
00:34:46hydraulic damping,
00:34:48smooth, creamy,
00:34:50hydraulic damping at both ends.
00:34:52And Norton tested it every way they could.
00:34:58They tested,
00:35:00they took the bikes to the Isle of Man
00:35:02and tested them against the Garden Gate bikes.
00:35:04They took them to the M-I-R-A test track.
00:35:08And I think, yeah,
00:35:10they took them somewhere else.
00:35:12I don't remember what it was,
00:35:14but they said that the new bikes were,
00:35:16new chassis were better,
00:35:18such as the rider on the McCandless bike
00:35:23being able to pass on the outside,
00:35:26the Garden Gate models.
00:35:28They said, okay,
00:35:30well, you have to come down here
00:35:32and build all the frames
00:35:34because we don't have any welding equipment
00:35:36here at the factory.
00:35:38All we do is lugs,
00:35:39cast lugs raised
00:35:41by smearing spelter,
00:35:43powdered bronze and flux
00:35:45in the holes
00:35:47and sticking the tubes in the holes.
00:35:49The whole thing goes into the oven.
00:35:51Yeah, they sweat it in there
00:35:53and there's a...
00:35:55Furnace brazed.
00:35:57Yeah, there's a SIF bronze welding.
00:35:59Is that what we're talking about?
00:36:01Well, SIF,
00:36:03SIF is that silver,
00:36:05silver alloy.
00:36:07And it melts at a very low temperature
00:36:09and the metal that you're bonding
00:36:11is not red hot.
00:36:13And that's what
00:36:15the McCandless brothers used
00:36:17to make Norton's frames
00:36:19for the 1950 TT.
00:36:22And the frames were...
00:36:24Well, a lot of the tubings,
00:36:26when you're getting that rental tubing,
00:36:31lightweight,
00:36:33very strong,
00:36:35but not temperature resistant
00:36:37would become brittle.
00:36:39But I know the front,
00:36:41like the front frame
00:36:43on a Jaguar E-Type, for example,
00:36:45uses a square tubing
00:36:47and it's not electric welded together.
00:36:49It's glued together
00:36:51with brazing.
00:36:53Yeah.
00:36:54Because of the quality of the tube
00:36:56would be weakened by the heat.
00:36:58Yeah.
00:36:59I've seen the videos,
00:37:01they made black and white films
00:37:03about the British industry
00:37:05forging ahead
00:37:07in the 50s
00:37:08in the Triumph factory.
00:37:10And you see essentially
00:37:12probably a coal pile
00:37:14with a blower under it
00:37:16and a big guy
00:37:18with a leather apron
00:37:20stuffing tubes into lugs
00:37:22and then sticking it in the fire
00:37:24and taking it out
00:37:26and sticking it in the fire
00:37:28and then hitting it with a big hammer
00:37:30to straighten it out.
00:37:31Yeah, to seat the tubes.
00:37:33Yep.
00:37:35Rex McCandless worked
00:37:36for Shark Brothers Aviation
00:37:38up in Ireland.
00:37:40So he was familiar
00:37:41with all this new
00:37:43low temperature brazing
00:37:44and so forth.
00:37:45And he built the frames
00:37:47for the 1950 TT.
00:37:49He also made
00:37:51the rear suspension units
00:37:53out of
00:37:55Citroën parts
00:37:58which were
00:38:00hydraulic dampers.
00:38:02And you can see in the photos
00:38:04made in the
00:38:06shop underneath
00:38:08the hotel where they were staying
00:38:11these shocks had
00:38:13remote reservoirs
00:38:14on the side of them.
00:38:15Very modern looking
00:38:16but 1950.
00:38:18So
00:38:20the McCandless brothers
00:38:21were a real find
00:38:22for Norton.
00:38:23And what happened
00:38:24in 1950
00:38:25is
00:38:26that despite
00:38:28the Nortons
00:38:29making very low power
00:38:30in the high 30s
00:38:32because of the still
00:38:33terrible gasoline
00:38:34that you could buy
00:38:35which was like
00:38:3676 octane
00:38:42and the fact
00:38:43that the
00:38:44the Gileras
00:38:45were making
00:38:47more than 10 horsepower
00:38:48more
00:38:49than the Nortons
00:38:51the Nortons
00:38:52were winning races
00:38:54when the Gileras
00:38:55were not.
00:38:56And
00:38:57Jeff Duke
00:38:58who was having
00:38:59his first season
00:39:00in Grand Prix Racing
00:39:02fresh
00:39:03fresh-faced
00:39:04boy
00:39:05that he was
00:39:10suffered
00:39:11tire tread
00:39:12separations
00:39:13because these
00:39:14motorcycles were
00:39:15moving right along
00:39:16and
00:39:18the tire technology
00:39:19of that time
00:39:20was
00:39:21cotton
00:39:22and
00:39:24glue
00:39:26jumped up
00:39:27glue
00:39:28and
00:39:30Gileras
00:39:31was able to win
00:39:32the
00:39:331950
00:39:34World Championship
00:39:35AJS had won
00:39:36the 1949
00:39:37Championship
00:39:38and then
00:39:39in 1951
00:39:42Norton had switched
00:39:43Avon tires
00:39:45and didn't have
00:39:46any more
00:39:47tread separations
00:39:48and
00:39:49Norton
00:39:50singles
00:39:52ridden by
00:39:54Jeff Duke
00:39:56500cc
00:39:57World Championship
00:39:58against
00:39:59four-cylinder
00:40:00opposition
00:40:02Now you can
00:40:03imagine how
00:40:04humiliating
00:40:05this must have
00:40:06been for the
00:40:07Italians
00:40:08and
00:40:10the
00:40:11likely
00:40:12response
00:40:13of the
00:40:14I can calculate
00:40:15that
00:40:16group
00:40:17would be
00:40:18to try
00:40:19to do it
00:40:20better
00:40:21some
00:40:22completely
00:40:23other
00:40:24off-the-wall
00:40:25way
00:40:26but the
00:40:27people at
00:40:28Gileras
00:40:29just
00:40:30they got
00:40:31rid of
00:40:32girder
00:40:33forks
00:40:34they adopted
00:40:35tallies
00:40:36they got
00:40:37rid of
00:40:38dry friction
00:40:39damping
00:40:40substituted
00:40:41hydraulic
00:40:42damping
00:40:43the
00:40:44early
00:40:45dampers
00:40:46were
00:40:47terrible
00:40:48they
00:40:49overheated
00:40:50and the
00:40:51damping
00:40:52went away
00:40:53so that
00:40:54as Jeff
00:40:55Duke
00:40:56says
00:40:57we
00:40:58would
00:40:59have
00:41:00to
00:41:01get
00:41:02rid
00:41:03of
00:41:04the
00:41:05dampers
00:41:06so
00:41:07that
00:41:08we
00:41:09would
00:41:10have
00:41:11to
00:41:12get
00:41:13rid
00:41:14of
00:41:15the
00:41:16dampers
00:41:17so
00:41:18that
00:41:19we
00:41:20would
00:41:21have
00:41:22to
00:41:23get
00:41:24rid
00:41:25of
00:41:26the
00:41:27dampers
00:41:28so
00:41:29that
00:41:30we
00:41:31would
00:41:32have
00:41:33to
00:41:34get
00:41:35rid
00:41:36of
00:41:37the
00:41:38dampers
00:41:39so
00:41:40that
00:41:41we
00:41:42would
00:41:43have
00:41:44to
00:41:45get
00:41:46rid
00:41:47of
00:41:48the
00:41:49dampers
00:41:50so
00:41:51that
00:41:52we
00:41:53would
00:41:54have
00:41:55to
00:41:56get
00:41:57rid
00:41:58of
00:41:59the
00:42:00dampers
00:42:01so
00:42:02that
00:42:03we
00:42:04would
00:42:05have
00:42:06to
00:42:07get
00:42:08rid
00:42:09of
00:42:10the
00:42:11dampers
00:42:12so
00:42:13that
00:42:14we
00:42:15would
00:42:16have
00:42:17to
00:42:18get
00:42:19rid
00:42:20of
00:42:21the
00:42:22dampers
00:42:23so
00:42:24that
00:42:25we
00:42:26would
00:42:27have
00:42:28to
00:42:29get
00:42:30rid
00:42:31of
00:42:32the
00:42:33dampers
00:42:34so
00:42:35that
00:42:36we
00:42:37would
00:42:38have
00:42:39to
00:42:40get
00:42:41rid
00:42:42of
00:42:43the
00:42:44dampers
00:42:45so
00:42:46that
00:42:47we
00:42:48would
00:42:49have
00:42:50to
00:42:51get
00:42:52rid
00:42:53of
00:42:54the
00:42:55dampers
00:42:56so
00:42:57that
00:42:58we
00:42:59would
00:43:00have
00:43:01to
00:43:02get
00:43:03rid
00:43:04of
00:43:05the
00:43:06dampers
00:43:07so
00:43:08that
00:43:09we
00:43:10would
00:43:11have
00:43:12to
00:43:13get
00:43:14rid
00:43:15of
00:43:16the
00:43:17dampers
00:43:18so
00:43:19that
00:43:20we
00:43:21would
00:43:22have
00:43:23to
00:43:24get
00:43:25rid
00:43:26of
00:43:27the
00:43:28dampers
00:43:29so
00:43:30that
00:43:31we
00:43:32would
00:43:33have
00:43:34to
00:43:35get
00:43:36rid
00:43:37of
00:43:38the
00:43:39dampers
00:43:40so
00:43:41that
00:43:42we
00:43:43would
00:43:44have
00:43:45to
00:43:46get
00:43:47rid
00:43:48of
00:43:49the
00:43:50dampers
00:43:51so
00:43:52that
00:43:53we
00:43:54would
00:43:55have
00:43:56to
00:43:57get
00:43:58rid
00:43:59of
00:44:00the
00:44:01dampers
00:44:02so
00:44:03that
00:44:04we
00:44:05would
00:44:06have
00:44:07to
00:44:08get
00:44:09rid
00:44:10of
00:44:11the
00:44:12dampers
00:44:13so
00:44:14that
00:44:15we
00:44:16would
00:44:17have
00:44:18to
00:44:19get
00:44:20rid
00:44:21of
00:44:22the
00:44:23dampers
00:44:24so
00:44:25that
00:44:26we
00:44:27would
00:44:28have
00:44:29to
00:44:30get
00:44:31rid
00:44:32of
00:44:33the
00:44:34dampers
00:44:35so
00:44:36that
00:44:37we
00:44:38would
00:44:39have
00:44:40to
00:44:41get
00:44:42rid
00:44:43of
00:44:44the
00:44:45dampers
00:44:46so
00:44:47that
00:44:48we
00:44:49would
00:44:50have
00:44:51to
00:44:52get
00:44:53rid
00:44:54of
00:44:55the
00:44:56dampers
00:44:57so
00:44:58that
00:44:59we
00:45:00would
00:45:01have
00:45:02to
00:45:03get
00:45:04rid
00:45:05of
00:45:06the
00:45:07dampers
00:45:08so
00:45:09that
00:45:10we
00:45:11would
00:45:12have
00:45:13to
00:45:14get
00:45:15rid
00:45:16of
00:45:17the
00:45:18dampers
00:45:19so
00:45:20that
00:45:21we
00:45:22would
00:45:23have
00:45:24to
00:45:25get
00:45:26rid
00:45:27of
00:45:28the
00:45:29dampers
00:45:30so
00:45:31that
00:45:32we
00:45:33would
00:45:34have
00:45:35to
00:45:36get
00:45:37rid
00:45:38of
00:45:39the
00:45:40dampers
00:45:41so
00:45:42that
00:45:43we
00:45:44would
00:45:45have
00:45:46to
00:45:47get
00:45:48rid
00:45:49of
00:45:50the
00:45:51dampers
00:45:52so
00:45:53that
00:45:54we
00:45:55would
00:45:56have
00:45:57to
00:45:58get
00:45:59rid
00:46:00of
00:46:01the
00:46:02dampers
00:46:03so
00:46:04that
00:46:05we
00:46:06would
00:46:07have
00:46:08to
00:46:09get
00:46:10rid
00:46:11of
00:46:12the
00:46:13dampers
00:46:14so
00:46:15that
00:46:16we
00:46:17would
00:46:18have
00:46:19to
00:46:20get
00:46:21rid
00:46:22of
00:46:23the
00:46:24dampers
00:46:25so
00:46:26that
00:46:27we
00:46:28would
00:46:29have
00:46:30to
00:46:31get
00:46:32rid
00:46:33of
00:46:34the
00:46:35dampers
00:46:36so
00:46:37that
00:46:38we
00:46:39would
00:46:40have
00:46:41to
00:46:42get
00:46:43rid
00:46:44of
00:46:45the
00:46:46dampers
00:46:47so
00:46:48that
00:46:49we
00:46:50would
00:46:51have
00:46:52to
00:46:53get
00:46:54rid
00:46:55of
00:46:56the
00:46:57dampers
00:46:58so
00:46:59that
00:47:00we
00:47:01would
00:47:02have
00:47:03to
00:47:04get
00:47:05rid
00:47:06of
00:47:07the
00:47:08dampers
00:47:09so
00:47:10that
00:47:11we
00:47:12would
00:47:13have
00:47:14to
00:47:15get
00:47:16rid
00:47:17of
00:47:18the
00:47:19dampers
00:47:20so
00:47:21that
00:47:22we
00:47:23would
00:47:24have
00:47:25to
00:47:26get
00:47:27rid
00:47:28of
00:47:29the
00:47:30dampers
00:47:31so
00:47:32that
00:47:33we
00:47:34would
00:47:35have
00:47:36to
00:47:37get
00:47:38rid
00:47:39of
00:47:40the
00:47:41dampers
00:47:42so
00:47:43that
00:47:44we
00:47:45would
00:47:46have
00:47:47to
00:47:48get
00:47:49rid
00:47:50of
00:47:51the
00:47:52dampers
00:47:53so
00:47:54that
00:47:55we
00:47:56would
00:47:57have
00:47:58to
00:47:59get
00:48:00rid
00:48:01of
00:48:02the
00:48:03dampers
00:48:04so
00:48:05that
00:48:06we
00:48:07would
00:48:08have
00:48:09to
00:48:10get
00:48:11rid
00:48:12of
00:48:13the
00:48:14dampers
00:48:15so
00:48:16that
00:48:17we
00:48:18would
00:48:19have
00:48:20to
00:48:21get
00:48:22rid
00:48:23of
00:48:24the
00:48:25dampers
00:48:26so
00:48:27that
00:48:28we
00:48:29would
00:48:30have
00:48:31to
00:48:32get
00:48:33rid
00:48:34of
00:48:35the
00:48:36dampers
00:48:37so
00:48:38that
00:48:39we
00:48:40would
00:48:41have
00:48:42to
00:48:43get
00:48:44rid
00:48:45of
00:48:46the
00:48:47dampers
00:48:48so
00:48:49that
00:48:50we
00:48:51would
00:48:52have
00:48:53to
00:48:54get
00:48:55rid
00:48:56of
00:48:57the
00:48:58dampers
00:48:59so
00:49:00that
00:49:01we
00:49:02would
00:49:03have
00:49:04to
00:49:05get
00:49:06rid
00:49:07of
00:49:08the
00:49:09dampers
00:49:10so
00:49:11that
00:49:12we
00:49:13would
00:49:14have
00:49:15to
00:49:16get
00:49:17rid
00:49:18of
00:49:19the
00:49:20dampers
00:49:21so
00:49:22that
00:49:23we
00:49:24would
00:49:25have
00:49:26to
00:49:27get
00:49:28rid
00:49:29of
00:49:30the
00:49:31dampers
00:49:32so
00:49:33that
00:49:34we
00:49:35would
00:49:36have
00:49:37to
00:49:38get
00:49:39rid
00:49:40of
00:49:41the
00:49:42dampers
00:49:43so
00:49:44that
00:49:45we
00:49:46would
00:49:47have
00:49:48to
00:49:49get
00:49:50rid
00:49:51of
00:49:52the
00:49:53dampers
00:49:54so
00:49:55that
00:49:56we
00:49:57would
00:49:58have
00:49:59to
00:50:00get
00:50:01rid
00:50:02of
00:50:03the
00:50:04dampers
00:50:05so
00:50:06that
00:50:07we
00:50:08would
00:50:09have
00:50:10to
00:50:11get
00:50:12rid
00:50:13of
00:50:14the
00:50:15dampers
00:50:16so
00:50:17that
00:50:18we
00:50:19would
00:50:20have
00:50:21to
00:50:22get
00:50:23rid
00:50:24of
00:50:25the
00:50:26dampers
00:50:27so
00:50:28that
00:50:29we
00:50:30would
00:50:31have
00:50:32to
00:50:33get
00:50:34rid
00:50:35of
00:50:36the
00:50:37dampers
00:50:38so
00:50:39that
00:50:40we
00:50:41would
00:50:42have
00:50:43to
00:50:44get
00:50:45rid
00:50:46of
00:50:47the
00:50:48dampers
00:50:49so
00:50:50that
00:50:51we
00:50:52would
00:50:53have
00:50:54to
00:50:55get
00:50:56rid
00:50:57of
00:50:58the
00:50:59dampers
00:51:00so
00:51:01that
00:51:02we
00:51:03would
00:51:04have
00:51:05to
00:51:06get
00:51:07rid
00:51:08of
00:51:09the
00:51:10dampers
00:51:11so
00:51:12that
00:51:13we
00:51:14would
00:51:15have
00:51:16to
00:51:17get
00:51:18rid
00:51:19of
00:51:20the
00:51:21dampers
00:51:22so
00:51:23that
00:51:24we
00:51:25would
00:51:26have
00:51:27to
00:51:28get
00:51:29rid
00:51:30of
00:51:31the
00:51:32dampers
00:51:33so
00:51:34that
00:51:35we
00:51:36would
00:51:37have
00:51:38to
00:51:39get
00:51:40rid
00:51:41of
00:51:42the
00:51:43dampers
00:51:44so
00:51:45that
00:51:46we
00:51:47would
00:51:48have
00:51:49to
00:51:50get
00:51:51rid
00:51:52of
00:51:53the
00:51:54dampers
00:51:55so
00:51:56that
00:51:57we
00:51:58would
00:51:59have
00:52:00to
00:52:01get
00:52:02rid
00:52:03of
00:52:04the
00:52:05dampers
00:52:06so
00:52:07that
00:52:08we
00:52:09would
00:52:10have
00:52:11to
00:52:12get
00:52:13rid
00:52:14of
00:52:15the
00:52:16dampers
00:52:17so
00:52:18that
00:52:19we
00:52:20would
00:52:21have
00:52:22to
00:52:23get
00:52:24rid
00:52:25of
00:52:26the
00:52:27dampers
00:52:28so
00:52:29that
00:52:30we
00:52:31would
00:52:32have
00:52:33to
00:52:34get
00:52:35rid
00:52:36of
00:52:37the
00:52:38dampers
00:52:39so
00:52:40that
00:52:41we
00:52:42would
00:52:43have
00:52:44to
00:52:45get
00:52:46rid
00:52:47of
00:52:48the
00:52:49dampers
00:52:50so
00:52:51that
00:52:52we
00:52:53would
00:52:54have
00:52:55to
00:52:56get
00:52:57rid
00:52:58of
00:52:59the
00:53:00dampers
00:53:01so
00:53:02that
00:53:03we
00:53:04would
00:53:05have
00:53:06to
00:53:07get
00:53:08rid
00:53:09of
00:53:10the
00:53:11dampers
00:53:12so
00:53:13that
00:53:14we
00:53:15would
00:53:16have
00:53:17to
00:53:18get
00:53:19rid
00:53:20of
00:53:21the
00:53:22dampers
00:53:23so
00:53:24that
00:53:25we
00:53:26would
00:53:27have
00:53:28to
00:53:29get
00:53:30rid
00:53:31of
00:53:32the
00:53:33dampers
00:53:34so
00:53:35that
00:53:36we
00:53:37would
00:53:38have
00:53:39to
00:53:40get
00:53:41rid
00:53:42of
00:53:43the
00:53:44dampers
00:53:45so
00:53:46that
00:53:47we
00:53:48would
00:53:49have
00:53:50to
00:53:51get
00:53:52rid
00:53:53of
00:53:54the
00:53:55dampers
00:53:56so
00:53:57that
00:53:58we
00:53:59would
00:54:00have
00:54:01to
00:54:02get
00:54:03rid
00:54:04of
00:54:05the
00:54:06dampers
00:54:07so
00:54:08that
00:54:09we
00:54:10would
00:54:11have
00:54:12to
00:54:13get
00:54:14rid
00:54:15of
00:54:16the
00:54:17dampers
00:54:18so
00:54:19that
00:54:20we
00:54:21would
00:54:22have
00:54:23to
00:54:24get
00:54:25rid
00:54:26of
00:54:27the
00:54:28dampers
00:54:29so that
00:54:30we
00:54:31would
00:54:32have
00:54:33to
00:54:34get
00:54:35rid
00:54:36of
00:54:37the
00:54:38dampers
00:54:39so
00:54:40that
00:54:41we
00:54:42would
00:54:43have
00:54:44to
00:54:45get
00:54:46rid
00:54:47of
00:54:48the
00:54:49dampers
00:54:50so that
00:54:51we
00:54:52would
00:54:53have
00:54:54to
00:54:55get
00:54:56rid
00:54:57of
00:54:58the
00:54:59dampers
00:55:01so
00:55:02that
00:55:03we
00:55:04would
00:55:05have
00:55:06to
00:55:07get
00:55:08rid
00:55:09of
00:55:10the
00:55:11dampers
00:55:12so that
00:55:13we
00:55:14would
00:55:15have
00:55:16to
00:55:17get
00:55:18rid
00:55:19of
00:55:20the
00:55:21dampers
00:55:22so that
00:55:23we
00:55:24would
00:55:25have
00:55:26to
00:55:27get
00:55:28rid
00:55:29of
00:55:30the
00:55:31dampers
00:55:32so that
00:55:33we
00:55:34would
00:55:35have
00:55:36to
00:55:37get
00:55:38rid
00:55:39of
00:55:40the
00:55:41dampers
00:55:42so that
00:55:43we
00:55:44would
00:55:45have
00:55:46to
00:55:47get
00:55:48rid
00:55:49of
00:55:50the
00:55:51dampers
00:55:52so that
00:55:53we
00:55:54would
00:55:55have
00:55:56to
00:55:57get
00:55:58rid
00:55:59of
00:56:00the
00:56:01dampers
00:56:02so that
00:56:03we
00:56:04would
00:56:05have
00:56:06to
00:56:07get
00:56:08rid
00:56:09of
00:56:10the
00:56:11dampers
00:56:12so that
00:56:13we
00:56:14would
00:56:15have
00:56:16to
00:56:17get
00:56:18rid
00:56:19of
00:56:20the
00:56:21dampers
00:56:22so that
00:56:23we
00:56:24would
00:56:25have
00:56:26to
00:56:27get
00:56:29rid
00:56:30of
00:56:31the
00:56:32dampers
00:56:33so
00:56:34that
00:56:35we
00:56:36would
00:56:37have
00:56:38to
00:56:39get
00:56:40rid
00:56:41of
00:56:42the
00:56:43dampers
00:56:44so that
00:56:45we
00:56:46would
00:56:47have
00:56:48to
00:56:49get
00:56:50rid
00:56:51of
00:56:52the
00:56:53dampers
00:56:54so that
00:56:55we
00:56:56and so that's how we got on the subject but yeah 13 thou and if you make a
00:57:00piston round which I just I discovered I'll say it folks velocette when I first
00:57:06got my 500 velocette it had been rebuilt by somebody down in New Zealand and they
00:57:14sleeved the alloy cylinder this had a Alfin you know aluminum cylinder with a
00:57:22iron liner they they resleeve that liner and they took the piston that was
00:57:26oversized being the thrifty clever people they are and put but unfortunately
00:57:32put the piston in a lathe to cut it down when I when that seized I was like why
00:57:37did this seize and I took the engine apart and I measured the piston and the
00:57:41bore wasn't round it was tapered it had waves in it and there were many other
00:57:46things the deck was out five thou from the factory I'm pretty sure the engine
00:57:51case had been welded together 12th out the the drive side main bearing boss had
00:57:56been welded in 12th out so I had 17 thou out of true between the cylinder
00:58:01and the crank all of these things were wrong the only thing that was actually
00:58:06round in the engine was the piston and it shouldn't be and that's what it
00:58:11shouldn't be and that's why it seized so because I when I began to understand a
00:58:17little bit about pistons I wanted to measure a bunch of them and you find
00:58:23that the skirt the least clearance is down at the bottom of the skirt because
00:58:29the skirt has a slight taper because the bottom of the skirt is cooler than the
00:58:35top so there's a slight taper on the skirt and then you get to the ring belt
00:58:39and it just then it just dives inward because the heat is going to expand to
00:58:46the top of the piston more anyway what Julia finally did is said okay you can't
00:58:52make the pistons that will work we give them enough clearance not to seize they
00:58:57shatter and so they went to Borgo and Borgo had all the diamond turning and
00:59:03taper and oval stuff and they said okay here these pistons should work better
00:59:08and they did and Jalera went on to win a large share of the 1950s 500
00:59:19championships and in 1963 I think Scuderia Duke persuaded Jalera to let
00:59:28them run the 1957 bikes which were sitting in a bank vault somewhere and
00:59:38they were still competitive because MV had no competition after 1957 I mean why
00:59:49would you improve your your motorcycle if it wins races with ease so that was
00:59:56that was the era of the Italian the unstoppable Italian fire engines it was
01:00:13a bit of a distortion because MV from 57 on didn't have much competition not
01:00:20until Honda arrived in 66 and 67 at which point MV rose to the challenge
01:00:30they put everything they could gather into this motorcycle the move the
01:00:36motorcycle the rider forward move the engine forward lighter weight more
01:00:43flexible torque curve they they did a lot of things right and they won both of
01:00:48those championships against Mike Hailwood on the mighty RC 181 Honda so
01:00:57but it's good it's fair to say it's fair to give Jalera credit for cross the
01:01:01frame in line four absolutely and then and then forging ahead with chassis
01:01:07improvements to match that horsepower that they're making yes which would
01:01:11otherwise have been pointless you know MV Agusta carries the torch and
01:01:17comes to the party and in 1969 we get a Honda CB 750 inline four-cylinder
01:01:23motorcycle that we can I had taken care to put the words Honda for on the lips
01:01:32of millions of people worldwide because Honda had made a name for themselves
01:01:37that's what that GP racing was for for to to create a household word well you
01:01:46even got sixes out of it eventually yes sixes fives you name it so but it is
01:01:55it's fascinating to me to see how these projects which often begin in a sort of
01:02:03amateurish cobbled together way they either learn as they go or somebody like
01:02:13Piero Taruffi who knew everybody says I got somebody who wants to wants to have
01:02:20a look at your project might make a few suggestions if you wouldn't be insulted
01:02:26I'm just imagining this but in both cases the pre-war Rondinet I had the the I
01:02:39went to one of those pronunciation websites so it's definitely three
01:02:43syllables well this is cool what he's saying in English is Rondine that's how
01:02:48we would spell that it looks like it should be Rondine so if you want to
01:02:53Google that Rondine sounds like it should be a Chuck Berry song it does but
01:03:03they gathered momentum they gathered sophistication and they were able both
01:03:12pre-war and in the early 1950s to professionalize what they had built and
01:03:21make it solidly competitive and then dominant and this is one of the things
01:03:28that's that's very difficult Phil Schilling the late Phil Schilling once
01:03:34said that it is unfortunate to have to rely upon a wealthy sport for
01:03:42sponsorship because this person's wealth presents him or her with so many
01:03:50attractive alternatives that if your project doesn't tickle the fancy it's
01:03:59canceled you haven't been returning my calls yeah I've been busy with other
01:04:06other things look up I'll call you back I'm busy right now that's it project
01:04:13over but it's so delightful to see that pre-war transverse for which amateurish
01:04:23though it was evolved into something solid enough to win the Tripoli Grand
01:04:29Prix justify Jallera's desire to have a racing machine and then to have that
01:04:40design become solidly reliable same thing post-war out of the gate yeah out
01:04:47of the gate they just made it they just built it I was talking to Gary Braun who
01:04:53you know Gary's a he's a two-stroke pipe maker engine builder had a company that
01:05:00he was running himself called retro dining he was making chambers and doing
01:05:03other machine work and so forth and he works for Millennium Technologies now I
01:05:10showed him the I've got the Yamaha racing parts book and I showed him
01:05:16drawings of the cones you know because they give you pipe they give you pipe
01:05:19designs in this book to hop up your rd 350 or whatever you know TD 1 TD
01:05:25whatever it is you know and they give you these pipe designs and I showed it
01:05:30to Gary and he says that's I use that drawing to make my first pipe and he
01:05:37made it out of the wrong material like he kind of told me the story about how
01:05:40that all of this went but I said to him the important thing is you made a pipe
01:05:45you made a marriage and it didn't it didn't work and the next pipe was
01:05:52different and that's that's all we can ask for from somebody who's doing who
01:05:57wants to make things they're bringing it forward make something start don't
01:06:02don't plan forever make something and it doesn't work well change it and and
01:06:09learn from it and that's I think that's what's so inspiring to me about the
01:06:12Jalera program is it was sort of shooting for the moon with this inline
01:06:16four and they did something that people weren't doing they turned it across the
01:06:22frame and it had a flywheel but then it didn't have a flywheel and then we can't
01:06:27make our own Pistons let's just get somebody else just I I just that's what
01:06:32I love about racing is that when people pay attention and and do the engineering
01:06:38that is required that is required it just changes and things evolve and we
01:06:44get better and now we have you know 220 horsepower street bikes 200 horsepower
01:06:51street bikes with electronics and aerodynamics to actually work I mean
01:06:54we're getting we're getting aero on BMWs and Ducatis that is is from the
01:07:01racetrack now in that 1950 season when Jeff Duke had tread separations that was
01:07:07a state-of-the-art in tires they could not quite get 50 no 40 horsepower to the
01:07:17road through one tire today in MotoGP they have essentially 300 horsepower and
01:07:27they have come up with methods of getting that power to the road through a
01:07:34single tire so that's an enormous leap 300 divided by 40 times more power now of
01:07:43course the tires have improved they've become larger too but it's it's really
01:07:53remarkable that that such a change could occur but you just keep pushing and
01:08:00that's why in every race if you can get to the garages you will see the rider
01:08:06sitting like Christ at the Last Supper surrounded by his disciples the the
01:08:13electronics guy the the tire guy the suspension guy and the rider is saying I
01:08:22don't know what to do about this we are in turn seven and all this stuff is
01:08:27happening and they they conference oftentimes you've you've a journalist
01:08:32has made an appointment through the management to talk to a rider for 10
01:08:37minutes he can't make it because he's still in conference at the end of the
01:08:42day this is important stuff because this is where the understanding that leads
01:08:49the progress that's where we learn to ask nature the questions that can let us
01:08:56move forward when you get the new problem because you solve the old problem
01:09:00and it moves the problem somewhere else it's like when D'Alene you said for
01:09:03Ducati dealing you said the principal problem is a is the wheelie before they
01:09:10had arrow the principal problem was the wheelie and they they had to solve that
01:09:16problem because they had 300 horsepower or whatever it is all of the power and
01:09:21all and traction and they had a tire that could put it to the ground and they
01:09:26were losing time because the bike would wheelie everywhere so what are we gonna
01:09:29be able to steer yes fundamental in any case it's a respect mad respect to
01:09:39Jalera and all that accomplished and as we said in the beginning inventing the
01:09:46inline four-cylinder sport bike even even water cooling it when it was
01:09:51supercharged we have all the all the elements were there they evolved the
01:09:55chassis to 1978 standards as Kevin pointed out and just a wonderful piece
01:10:03of story and and having to study it so that I wouldn't sit here with my mouth
01:10:09open and nothing coming out that's my job I could see I could see this this
01:10:17wonderful progress that I had not known about in detail that they had attended
01:10:23so many details one after another after another and that's what it takes well
01:10:33thanks for listening folks that's Jalera for you I'm Mark Hoyer with Kevin
01:10:37Cameron once again check out the link in the description octane.co there octane
01:10:43is our parent company and sponsor and we wouldn't be here without them so check
01:10:47it out and we will catch you next time