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New member, familiar face (hopefully!) 9 years 1 month ago #1107

  • CACole
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Hi, Randy! I'm familiar with you from your youtube videos. Question: What are your pros and cons on doing a needle bearing conversion on a 67 Hornet? After restoration, I don't plan on thumping it too hard. But, you never know! I've got a twitchy throttle hand! Thanks in advance. Aaron.
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New member, familiar face (hopefully!) 9 years 1 month ago #1115

  • OhioTed
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Randy exits "the culvert" during our Reliability Run.


RandyII.JPG
Never met a motorcycle I didn't like.
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New member, familiar face (hopefully!) 9 years 1 month ago #1129

  • randyscycle
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Aaron,

Thanks for asking, and I'll give you a quick rundown of the roller bearing conversion:


My intent for my '62 BSA Star was to really ride it (A lot)and longevity was part of the plan here. Sometimes I find myself on the Interstate trying to do 70+. While I have seen a few failures of the plain bearing, I can honestly say that all of them I've personally witnessed, were really due to lack of oil changes, too much end float on the crank, or other controllable factors. I've not seen one fail for no reason, in other words. Planning many miles on this bike, I really didn't feel like having to potentially go back into the bottom end 20,000 miles later to re-shim the crank, so that was the bigger deciding factor for me.

When properly set up, and properly maintained, the BSA bottom end is as good as anything of the era, in my opinion. That being said, I wanted to try the roller bearing and see if it was any better in the long run.

I've been quite happy with it in its first 1200 miles, and along with the roller bearing mod, I also added an external oil filter (from M.A.P. Cycle in Florida, SRM oil pump, and had the crankshaft balanced and reground. The balancing had the most notable effect in smoothing out the vibration. The roller bearing seems to make the revs a bit more effortless too, so as far as "feeling it in the seat of your pants" that is about the only real place I notice it. Oh, and the oil pump moves some serious oil. I've never seen a stock BSA oil pump return like that!

Now, the cost is another matter altogether. Since there really is only one place doing this work in the US, you need to pay his price. The only other alternative is to ship the whole kit and kaboodle (crankshaft, cases, outer covers, and a few other pieces to SRM in the U.K. The cheapest shipping for that much weight I could find a year ago was around $500 one way. That was pretty much a dealbreaker there, but the SRM price to do the work was actually cheaper. They also pioneered this conversion. Because they pioneered this conversion, they also seem to have a monopoly on the production of the Torrington conversion bearing and do not sell it to anyone except one person here in the States. Hence the reason I had to farm out the conversion.

Long and short of it:

Would I do it again? Probably not for something I wasn't going to ride all the time.

Would I recommend it? Again, if you are planning on a lot of mileage or RPM, then yes.

Is it a good investment? Well, no......at least not financially. :)

Time will tell, but I certainly see it as a major improvement in design, over the original if you plan on taking the use of your classic BSA out of its original habitat.
"I'd be more concerned if it wasn't leaking. That means its empty."
Last Edit: 9 years 1 month ago by randyscycle.
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The following user(s) said Thank You: CACole

New member, familiar face (hopefully!) 9 years 1 month ago #1131

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Ted, Sorry I hadn't been around this corner of the 'net in a bit and missed this post. I thought I'd set it up to notify me of replies, but I guess not.

Anyway, thanks for the heads-up, and I'll see if I can coax those pics out of Clark at some point.....:) Maybe a trade for some Rally pics of years gone by?
"I'd be more concerned if it wasn't leaking. That means its empty."
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New member, familiar face (hopefully!) 9 years 3 weeks ago #1134

  • CACole
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So, Randy. Who is this one person? Is it Limey Lucas?
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