Q's about bikes in Blighty

 

...and other drive-on-the-left countries such as New Zealand.

1. Do they have the throttle on the left and clutch on the right hand
side of the bike? (ie, mirror images of the North American arrangement?)

2. If the throttle is still on the right, how do you wave at other
bikers?

3. Do you wave at other bikers at all? Or are there so many on UK roads
that you don't bother.

4. Is the kick stand still on the left?

5. How easy is it for a North American to get used to riding
on the "wrong" (for us) side of the road. Does it feel like Alice's
Looking Glass world?

6. From pix I've seen on the Net, sidecars in Britain are generally
to the left of the bike. Is this true? My Dnepr's hack is on the right,
and apparently neither KMZ nor IMZ makes a left-hand version. So are
there Dnepr and Ural rigs on UK roads with the sidecar to the right?

See http://tinyurl.com/yajcyr6  -- tiny for:
http://webhosting.web.com/imagelib/sitebuilder/misc/show_image.html?linkedwidth=actual&linkpath=http://www.motoadventures.org/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/ChileCarreteraAustralBritishSideCar.jpg&target=tlx_picbopu

TIA, Sean Quinlan (of Bog Irish descent, but stranded here in Canada
since the potato blight of 1845. Have never even smelled the fragrance
of a peat fire. Some day maybe...)
'06 Suzuki S40 / '85 Dnepr MT-11 hack rig / various derelicts in triage

 

Sean_Q_ wrote:

With far more skill than usually seen in NA



Personally I tend to nod, unless they are on Hardleys.



Yes (at least on all the bikes I've ever owned. TOG may have something else)


Depends on how stupid the American is, I would suppose. FWIW I'm
perfectly happy driving on the right as well as the left (obviously not
in the UK)

I shall leave this one to that small percentage of the insane.

http://webhosting.web.com/imagelib/sitebuilder/misc/show_image.html?linkedwidth=actual&linkpath=http://www.motoadventures.org/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/ChileCarreteraAustralBritishSideCar.jpg&target=tlx_picbopu  

You're not missing much IME.


--
Catman MIB#14 SKoGA#6 TEAR#4 BOTAFOF#38 Apostle#21 COSOC#3
Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright (Remove rust to reply)
116 Giulietta 3.0l Sprint 1.7 GTV TS 156 V6 2.5 S2
Triumph Sprint ST 1050: It's blue, see.
www.cuore-sportivo.co.uk

 

Catman wrote:

Throttle on the left was so American cops could make progress while waving
a pistol at fleeing felons.

ISTR an episode of Happy Days that mentioned a Brit bike with a left
hand throttle. Can't remember if it was a real bike though.

--
Eiron.

 


Google reports left hand throttle as something usual on snowmobiles (no
clues), amputee's bikes and typical of shite olde Indian septic bikes.

http://www.wgby.org/localprograms/indian/pages/hatfield.html

Indian's Engineering Firsts

Indian, over the years, was either first or the first manufacturer of
significance to adopt a number of features. Electric starting for the Indian
in 1914 was the first in the world. Rear suspension on the Indian was not
the first but certainly was the first motorcycle of stature and of any
significant sales to have rear suspension. That came about in 1913. The
first footboards on American motorcycles and probably in the world were in
1912. As a consequence of Indian's victory in the Isle of Mann international
race, they came out with what they called a "tourist trophy" model that had
a starting mechanism which was one of the earliest and these footboards
which was the first in the industry. I think they probably were the first to
use some kind of twist grip control. On the earliest engines, the speed was
controlled by adjusting the status of the ignition system. You would do what
is called retard the ignition, make the spark occur later if you wanted to
slow down. And you'd make the spark occur faster by twisting the grip
towards you if you wanted to go faster and that was the right hand grip. So
the very first Indians, the speed was controlled by the right hand. The odd
thing is when they decided to add a throttle, they already had the ignition
control on the right so they put the throttle on the left. Over the years,
the throttle became the speed governing mechanism. Indian never bothered to
move the throttle. So they went from right hand control of the speed with
the ignition to left hand control by the throttle and they just kept it that
way all the years running. They were the only motorcycle to in the world
with a left hand throttle.

And yes, policemen did shoot and drive:

http://www.brandchannel.com/features_profile.asp?pr_id=7

Indian had individual consumers but also the endorsement of organizations
such as the French and US governments during the war years and the New York
City police who appreciated the left hand throttle system, which allowed the
rider to shoot and drive at the same time.

 

Eiron wrote:

Was it really?

Yeah, I saw the same one. The Fonz proved that the accused wasn't guilty
of the bag snatch as he couldn't have taken his hand off the thorttle to
grab the bag the way it was described.


--
Catman MIB#14 SKoGA#6 TEAR#4 BOTAFOF#38 Apostle#21 COSOC#3
Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright (Remove rust to reply)
116 Giulietta 3.0l Sprint 1.7 GTV TS 156 V6 2.5 S2
Triumph Sprint ST 1050: It's blue, see.
www.cuore-sportivo.co.uk