Hitchcocks Forum

Does anybody have the slightest explanation as to why the factory continued making those totally useless ally center stands and then fit them to the twins.Only Herculese could lift them up onto the stand and I'm getting tired of making stands for them that you can actually use. I know we are not as strong as we were when younger but the pipe smokers at the factory could not have just been smoking tobacco

They were obviously using up all the surplus aluminium from the scrapped Spitfires and Huricanes after the war!

Making them from scrap ally would have cost more than making them in steel

I've often wondered, with the massive amounts of aluminum on the later bikes (center stands, casquettes/top yokes, fork sliders, wheel hubs, oil coolers, "cooling" discs, rear frame brace on the Interceptor), why the factory retained iron barrels on the twins. Seemed there was no shortage of alloy!

Iron barrels were quieter. Alloy needed a cylinder liner which at the time was more expensive to produce. I think only the Rootes Group at the time made some engines for Commer trucks with cylinder liners. Of course, I may be wrong. I thought I was wrong once, but I was wrong.

Norm the steel ones before them also needed Mr Universe, I ditched the one off my 53 frame. We've got the Indians to thanks for a decent centre stand.

Hi Chris the latest one I have to make a new stand for is a 1950 500 Twin and that is a steel one and you are right, just because it is steel, doesn't make it any easier

It's true, my old 51 Bullet had a steel stand that was a brute to get the bike onto. You almost had to lead lift the bike. I struggled with the relatively light weight single a twin would be a guaranteed rupture.

Well, Leon, you’re not wrong this time. The engine was known as TS3, it was a 3 cylinder opposed piston two stroke diesel, three pairs of pistons with rockers and rods driving a crankshaft mounted under the cylinders, very distinctive scream to it fully laden with the ‘pedal to the metal’. I seem to remember that they used wet liners rather than the sleeves you would expect in an ally cylinder, (I might be wrong here ). Caterpillar Tractors used wet liners back in the day but I’m sure you’re right that steel sleeves were not used in steel cylinders (not until you entrust a re-bore of your M120 Panther to an apparently blind machinist, don’t ask…)

http://www.oldengine.org/members/diesel ... s3/ts3.htm or Google TS3 engine. Sorry for getting way off topic here. Adam

Bizarre looking motor. Is that a blower attached?