David, at 07:37 on Thu, Jul 07 1994, you wrote to Keith Richardson ...

 DD> I should have said "the motor LOOKS british".  It runs well and 
 DD> doesn't seem to piss oil everywhere :-)

The British twins with their vertically-split crankcases were next to
impossible to seal properly, although the triples (are they still called
Tridents?) had their crankcases split horizontally, and were fairly trivial
to keep clean.

 DD> Have you ridden a modern Japanese bike?  The handling has 
 DD> improved a great deal in the last 25 years :-)

I always thought British bikes handled very well when compared with
Japanese machines of 15-20 years ago, and my mind goes back especially to
one of the best handling bikes of all time, the Triton - a Norton Atlas
featherbed frame, with a Triumph 650cc Bonneville engine in it.  Mind you,
the 750cc Norton Lightning (I think that's what they were called, the ones
with the little fibreglass ducktail at the rear, and the rubber-mounted
engines) was almost unbeatable in the handling department.

Best of all though (IMHO of course) was (is?) the Ducati Darmha 900cc
v-twin desmodromic valve model, with its Italian frame, forks and brakes,
the fantastic motor which had buckets of torque, and the excellent (and
reliable) Japanese electrics.  Talk about handle...

Regards, Bill

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