The World's Fastest Indian

*grunt*

Yeah that's how i feel today. Went to the bloody dentist yesterday, took another tooth out. FFS, this is the 21st century, and all every dentist has ever said is take it out. Now while i'll be the first to say standards have improved over 500 years ago, WTF!!!!????

*sigh*

Ok, moving swiftly in the other direction. Bikes. Yeah you know i like them :D

Something i've been doing for a while now is looking for people who really deserve my respect. Burt Munro is one of them.

In 1920 he bought an Indian Scout for $120. Then he started tuning it, racing it, tuning it, racing it more. The he started rebuilding parts. He hand carved conrods, used a two-gallon-can furnace to make his own pistons (!) and clutchplates and even redesigned the head, from a sidedraft to overhead draft design. Apparently the last was done at the sea, using sea sand (!!)

When he bought the bike, it was rated to go 55 mph, which in those days was fast for a bike. Once he was done, he set what stands as the fastest ever speed for an Indian 190.07 MPH. That's 304.11 KPH.

From the Indian website:
Burt began modifying his bike in 1926. His methods, to say the least, were unorthodox. He used an old spoke for a micrometer and cast parts in old tins although one American report has him casting pistons in holes in the sand at the local beach! He built his own four-cam design to replace the standard two-cam system and converted to overhead valves.

He made his own barrels, flywheels, pistons, cams and followers and lubrication system. In their final form he in effect hand-carved his con-rods from a Caterpillar tractor axle, and hardened and tempered them to 143 tons tensile strength. He built a seventeen plate, thousand pound pressure clutch and used a triple chain drive. He experimented with streamlining and, in its final form, the bike was completely enclosed in a streamlined shell.The leaf-sprung fork was dispensed with and what appears to be a girder fork from a 1925 - 1928 Prince substituted.



Now passion is one thing, but this is stupendous. His world speed record was basically set by a 63 year old man, on a home tuned 47 year old motorbike. His only safety measures were a leather football cap, and tucking his trousers into his socks. He spent 16 hours a day working, until his doctor told him to slow down, so thereafter he only spent 10 hours a day in his workshop.

We could ALL use a page from this man's book. From his passion and dedication, to his common sense approach to solving technically difficult problems, with ingenius, yet simple solutions. He apparently took a number of serious falls, some upwards of 200mph, yet after recovery he was always back on the saddle, doing what he loved.