Old motorcycle engines for SHTF
 

As most of you know, Im a Brit bike rider, after completing this last project, a 70 Triumph TR6R Chopper, I looked around the garage and realized I had 4 extra engines worth of parts. 3 Triumph ,1 Norton. I reassembled a Unit 650 Triumph engine,(thats the type where the engine and transmission share a common case) and mated it to a stand and mounted a pulley to a 10KW generator,I removed the primary cover for this to mount the belt where the chain drive sprocket was. .I mounted another running to a fan to cool the engine.I set the beastie to run up to 3500 rpm. It runs EVERYTHING in the house, including heavy load tools without so much as a sweat. These engines are lightweight magnesium and aluminum with cast iron cylinders and can use a single carb. they are around 45-50 hp and the Nortons even more so. the parallel design has both pistons coming up at the same time and long con rods give a lot of torque. Triumph used these engines in WW2 for generators and they work well today. The point system is easy to maintain and if the crappy Lucas generator doesnt work, dont fret just mount a battery charger to the gen set. Im sure newer Japanese engines would work well also, but they dont make their power in the lower rpms,a Harley would work very well also.so instead of keeping engines laying around,put them to work. you can do all of this without hacking them up and can use them in a bike again later. I did use a Mikuni carb on mine that was set up for alcohol use ,dont use the Amals.

Re: Old motorcycle engines for SHTF
 

A 10kw genset would usually have about a 20-22 horse engine.

So your engines could run something much larger.

Re: Old motorcycle engines for SHTF
 

HP * 3/4 ~ kW

Re: Old motorcycle engines for SHTF
 

I had a KTM dirt bike with a 500cc two stroke rotax motor and amal carb it was the best dirt bike I ever owned and I had them all. After I adjusted the float level it always started first kick ,ok maybe it took two kicks sometimes but usually the first. It was 11 to 1 compression a lot for a two stroke and it had gobs of low end and of course legendary 2 stroke top end. I still have the bike sitting inside the barn haven't riddin it in 10 years. Maybe that bike might have been even better with a Mikuni.......but as far as I'm concerned and anyone who ever rode it would agree, it was an awesome combo !!

BTW GB, the first of many bikes I had was a BSA 441 victor, that was 40 years ago..... OMG!!

Hey GB, did you mate the 650 to a stamford generator.....one of, if not my favorite generator.

Re: Old motorcycle engines for SHTF