1954 Road Rocket Road Test "Cycle"

[Rocket Racer]

Had some technical details scanning this and resizing (an unfamiliar mac) but appear to have sorted.
The road rocket road tests are only commonly referred to from '56 as the bikes all went to export markets so the british press and writers didnt get to play with them.
I splashed out and got this mag off flea bay
The example is a west coast one, with the small tank and no rocket emblem, but does have the 54 only underslung pilot light.
Good to see appropriate respect for machine shown: aka dirt track and scrambling   

[Greybeard]

Great reading. Thanks.

[muskrat]

G'day RR, thanks for posting that, very interesting.
"separate oil tank 7 pints" Costly oil changes!
Cheers

[Rocket Racer]

I noted the mufflers are swept up compared to the drawing where they are level

[trevinoz]

Upswept pipes are correct, same as the Flash.
I doubt that the oil tank was any different to the Flash, 7 pints?
Thanks, RR.

[Rocket Racer]

I take no responsibility for any inaccuracies, not everything written down is a fact, although it sometimes seems like it. 

[edboy]

funny you should mention upswept exhausts. i have been looking at any period photo available, such as this excellent article, and confirms that all the new pattern downpipes i have are made too short. shame the photos dont show the chaincase side as i bet , unlike mine, you could take the chaincase outer cover off with the lhs downpipe in situ. worth a new ranting thread?

[Rocket Racer]

Perhaps on the unshown chaincase side, there's an auxiliary oil tank 

Yes these old articles are gold, the actual bikes rather than the factories sales materials intended bikes.

[peter small]

Thanks very much for posting the article very interesting

Pete

[RichardL]

Great articla. I wish it had mentioned compression ratio (unless I missed it). I am pretty sure "separate oil tank" refers to the standard tank, as opposd to some bikes which had gas and oil in the same tank (with separate chambers, of course).

Richard L.

[Rocket Racer]

perhaps the 7 pints is the 5 1/2 in the oil tank + the pint in the gearbox  + the 1/2 pint in the primary 

[worntorn]

It's a US article so they are likely referring to the smaller US pints (473 MLS) rather than Imperial pints (568 MLS)

Glen

[Rocket Racer]

funny you should mention upswept exhausts. i have been looking at any period photo available, such as this excellent article, and confirms that all the new pattern downpipes i have are made too short. shame the photos dont show the chaincase side as i bet , unlike mine, you could take the chaincase outer cover off with the lhs downpipe in situ. worth a new ranting thread?

picture of my original lh pipe from my '54 (the 128th built of around 500 made and exported in the 1st year). Yes room to remove the case without taking off