Flyer Production

Awesome Kool bike, love the paint job. Do you have a baffle in the exhaust pipe or straight through?........................Curt
 
curtisfox said:
Awesome Kool bike, love the paint job. Do you have a baffle in the exhaust pipe or straight through?........................Curt
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I always run a baffle on street bikes. Just a simple slip in design that is retained with one screw. The bike is still loud but I would call it respectfully load and not obnoxiously loud.
 
Picture from El Mirage dry lake bed last weekend. My brother and I ran APG175cc and APF250cc. I ran 82.568 mph on the 250. The lake bed was as smooth as a pool table!

El Mirage 2015 by Pat Dolan, on Flickr

Here we are after our final runs. Both of us were geared too tall so the bikes couldn't rev up to max rpm. Let's just say we left some speed on the table. We'll be better prepared next time. I built the tow chassis, my brother Rich built the engines and wheels.

El Mirage 2015 by Pat Dolan, on Flickr

When it comes to racing, does it get any better than this? Cold clear morning and the track is all mine!

Morning Run by Pat Dolan, on Flickr
 
Who'd have thought years back when you two brothers were boys riding your bicycles, maybe with playing cards on the spokes to make them into "motorcycles",... that it would come to this? Cool as your bikes are, more cool yet is your partnership, brothers forever.
SB
 
Great to hear that you both made it to the El Mirage and got some racing in. Not much better than a cold morning and a clear track and your there to share it.

Thank you for taking us with you.

Steve.
 
fasteddy said:
Great to hear that you both made it to the El Mirage and got some racing in. Not much better than a cold morning and a clear track and your there to share it.

Thank you for taking us with you.

Steve.
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Hi Steve,
It's a pleasure sharing with you guys. I was sitting there ready for my morning run and the guy in front of me scattered his engine so they had to walk the track before I could run. The dust cleared and I could see conditions were perfect, just perfect. Glad I thought to have my chase driver stand behind me to take that picture. So smooth my suspension hardly even got a workout. Anyway, our bikes are legal to race and we are into the 80's pretty solid and consistantly.
 
The exhaust has a nice sound: strong and healthy. After El Mirage could you run that highly modified engine and bike next year at the Bonneville Salt Flats or does the whole deal have to be rebuilt or tuned up? Thank you.
 
zean said:
The exhaust has a nice sound: strong and healthy. After El Mirage could you run that highly modified engine and bike next year at the Bonneville Salt Flats or does the whole deal have to be rebuilt or tuned up? Thank you.
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Hi Zean,
The engine in my race bike is what I consider a race spec 250cc. Still, it idles fine and runs nice and cool. Running at El Mirage is not that hard on our engines for a number of reasons. Since we run a single speed machine and are geared tall we leave the line rather slow and at low rpm. The only time we reach redline is between 3/4 and 1 mile, run through the 138 foot time trap, then shut it down. So you can see time at full rpm is very short. I made two runs on a basically new engine. I still consider it as new and ready to continue racing.
Bonneville is a whole different animal. There you must reach top speed in one mile and then continue on at full rpm for an entire mile. Your speed is then an average over the course. If you set a record or do multiple runs over the course of a week you spend plenty of time at full rpm and that is much harder on the engine. Still, we have ran engines through two complete speed week events at Bonneville and then retired the engine to street duty. Pretty amazing service life for a splash lubricated engine with a big fat cam.
 
Alright guys, I have said this before but my brother Rich is always trying something new. Usually it's a direction I wouldn't normally go, but once he does it I finally understand. This is a good example, a motorized cycle truck. This build used a spare early Sportsman 200 rear triangle, a standard loop down tube rolled forward, a flat side Flyer tank and a custom manufactured head tube. The forks are early Worksman brazed cycle truck forks. The front Wood box, from what I understand, came from an abandoned mine.

Sportsman Flyer Cycle Truck by Pat Dolan, on Flickr

Sportsman Flyer Cycle Truck by Pat Dolan, on Flickr

It's a real mix of parts. The saddle uses a 1930's wire type springer frame with a Sportsman saddle grafted on. Engine mounts are modified Sportsman 200 and the bike, I mean "truck", uses an electric starter. Not shown is the front wheel kickstand. Bike is designed to 150 pounds of parts, groceries, beer, whatever. Cool build Rich, now lets get it fired up!

Sportsman Flyer Cycle Truck by Pat Dolan, on Flickr
 
I like you brothers choice in boxes! I too did a cycletruck a few years ago and used 2 old dynamite boxes for the front!
 

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Hey Dan, cool dynamite boxes and that's a nice Cycle truck. Looks like a Worksman.
As far as doing more of the Flyer cycle trucks, I made another set of frame pieces at the same time as we did Rich's frame. Figured I would do another for myself but base it on my pedal bike frames instead of the Sportsman 200. Then I would use a clamp in mount for the HF79cc or GC160. Right now the extra parts are collecting dust.
I worked at a couple huge manufacturing plants years ago as a maintenance mechanic. Really could have used a motorized cycle truck. Way cooler than a golf cart to haul tools around.
Funny, but now that I think about it Rich better get that cycle truck out of my shop before my wife gets her hands on it. I can see her running all over town and to the grocery store with it.
 
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Well if your wife gets a hold of it at least Rich has a back up bike. I remember when a lot of businesses had cycle truck bikes to do their deliveries. Corner grocery stores, drug stores, tobacconists, bakeries and every store in between. One of the benefits of being so old you remember when rocks were soft.

I often wonder if there would be a market for them again either gas powered of the more acceptable electric powered. Still it's beautiful bike and a tribute to both your skills.

Steve.
 
Another Bonneville Flyer build. This one has a 212cc Hemi head Predator. Raw finish, early style Sportsman Wide Glide forks with friction shock. Rope start and simple all the way. Indian style tank and bars. Beautiful honey color leather seat and matching grips.

Bonneville Flyer #12 by Pat Dolan, on Flickr

Bonneville Flyer #12 by Pat Dolan, on Flickr

Vintage Hauler by Pat Dolan, on Flickr

This build has excellent road manners. Easy to start and very powerful. Handles nice and tight. I find it revs just so smooth and because of the high compression when I snap the throttle close it has excellent compression braking. Spent about an hour putting it through it paces and when I rolled back in to the shop and shut it down I could tell we both got a good workout! Yep, that was fun.....
 
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