| There are probably thousands of self-taught | | | | small place called Invercargill.Can you imagine the |
| backyard mechanics just like the late Burt Munro, | | | | fun he must have had working night & day in his |
| who maybe work for years on inventions and | | | | little Workshop, making all of his special |
| projects that end up being unsuccessful and yield | | | | performance parts, building his engine, he certainly |
| little in the way of financial reward, but does that | | | | did things differently. For instance, it has been said |
| really matter, some may argue that without | | | | that he used an old spoke for a micrometer to |
| financial reward you cannot move | | | | measure things, he sand-cast parts in old tins, one |
| forward.Sometimes the personal reward & | | | | American report tells about how he cast some |
| self-satisfaction gained through | | | | pistons in the sand at the local beach! He even |
| painstaking project success is a far greater | | | | built his own overhead four-cam cylinder head |
| reward than any financial | | | | design to replace the standard two-cam system |
| gain. Financial reward is often not the panacea of | | | | and converted the engine to overhead valves. |
| success that so many people are conditioned to | | | | What a practical |
| accept today.Think about the weeks, perhaps | | | | designer & innovator he was.But do you want to |
| months of work that Burt Munro would | | | | know what the best part of all of this? It is still |
| have spent making his own engine barrels, | | | | possible to do all of this, just like Burt Munro did all |
| flywheels, pistons, cams and | | | | those years ago, as long as you have the skills. |
| followers and pressure lubrication systems, he | | | | The technology is more readily available today |
| also virtually hand-carved | | | | than ever before, allowing the home hobby |
| his own con-rods from a section of Caterpillar | | | | mechanic to manufacture high quality special parts |
| tractor axle. He honed, | | | | for old cars - motorcycles |
| refined and perfected his old Indian motorcycle | | | | and special custom projects.With very basic |
| to an inch of its life in | | | | workshop equipment Burt Munro was able to cast |
| preparation for the speed attempts, such was | | | | and produce pistons - conrods - cylinder barrels- |
| his focus & determination.His quest and passion | | | | alloy cooling fins - flywheels - oil pumps. An |
| was to highly modify and improve his treasured | | | | amazing talent from an amazing legend of a man. |
| 1920 Indian Scout Motorcycle to set land speed | | | | Would you like to learn about the special metal |
| records...and his major | | | | craft skills, and learn to make things similar to |
| aim, to eventually see how fast it would go at | | | | what Burt Munro did? |
| the Utah Bonneville Salt | | | | Then you should visit our web site now. The |
| Flats during the annual speed week event in the | | | | place to learn about metal casting info, download |
| USA. This was no mean | | | | your free ebook and join the hot metal ezine. Feel |
| feat for a humble bloke who lived way down in | | | | free to reproduce this article as long as it is not |
| South New Zealand in a | | | | changed and the web site link is maintained. |