Mahindra's New Goldstar 650
- Thread starter Monkeypants
- Start date
I have restored about 10 Square Four Aerials over the years. Every time I ride one the only word I can think of is "underwhelming".
Well this Square 4 compared to a Vincent, some good point's, Far lower Price, much less weight, very much lighter steering, will pull easily from 20MPH in fourth, lower seat height which is better for some, far easier to kick start, better side stand, better easier rear stand, and probably more,
I am a Vincent man through and through but I would NOT describe my first MK2 Square Four as "underwhelming" and only one Pheasant usually comes to look at my Shadow, three came to look at the Ariel, proof attached !
I am a Vincent man through and through but I would NOT describe my first MK2 Square Four as "underwhelming" and only one Pheasant usually comes to look at my Shadow, three came to look at the Ariel, proof attached !
Attachments
Last edited:
I think what attracted me to The Vincent when I was a 16 year old callow youth was the shear size of that beautiful engine, filling up the entire space between the two wheels, everything else looked positively puny by comparison, except the Ariel Square 4 that is, but for me it had to be a Vincent, I have never regretted the choices I made.
I would love the Birds in my garden too,
But round here they would eat them
.
But round here they would eat them
.
Some pheasants lay blueish eggs. Maybe they were thinking the ■4 was a giant egg.
Sorry, I had one for 3 weeks. Only bike I thought would benefit from a sidecar.
I suspect that is it. After reading period road tests about BSA's new " Roadburner" I expected a bit more. The engine is in great shape. The leak down test was excellent. It starts and runs very nicely. A10s just don't make a lot of power.
The other problem is that I have also have a Norton 650ss. The BSA lovers insist that the late Super Rocket is a match for the Norton.
Getting off the BSA and onto the Norton is like getting out of a 1960s VW bug and into a big block Corvette.
Getting off the 600cc Norton 99 and onto the 650SS, same result only moreso. The 99 is even more of a plodder than the BSA.
Many thanks to Doug Hele and his downdraught Norton 650 heads !
Glen
As with the Goldstars, all BSA a10 Rocket engines came with a factory dyno sheet.
To my thinking, it looks like a very generous and hopeful curve drawn by a steady hand used to quickly making up the dyno page for each new bike.
Here is a link to some modern day Dyno results for A10s. The gentleman who had this done owns five A10s, all meticulously rebuilt. After break in he decided to dyno tune them to get fueling and ignition spot on.
The results are rwhp.
His 1960 SR has had the 356 cam replaced with the 357 Spitfire cam that came standard in 61 on SRs and all Rocket Goldstars.
Looks like it added some hp.
The only engine difference between his 60 SR and my 63 or any stock RGS is one half point of compression.
So we could maybe say 29 rwhp for my SR or an RGS without much exaggeration?
Shame it doesn't make 30, it sounds much better than 29!
To my thinking, it looks like a very generous and hopeful curve drawn by a steady hand used to quickly making up the dyno page for each new bike.
Here is a link to some modern day Dyno results for A10s. The gentleman who had this done owns five A10s, all meticulously rebuilt. After break in he decided to dyno tune them to get fueling and ignition spot on.
The results are rwhp.
His 1960 SR has had the 356 cam replaced with the 357 Spitfire cam that came standard in 61 on SRs and all Rocket Goldstars.
Looks like it added some hp.
The only engine difference between his 60 SR and my 63 or any stock RGS is one half point of compression.
So we could maybe say 29 rwhp for my SR or an RGS without much exaggeration?
Shame it doesn't make 30, it sounds much better than 29!
Having spent a career as an experimental physicist, and having followed the unmasking of several fraudsters, I can say with a high degree of confidence that BSA faked their dyno data. I've analyzed a number of Gold Star dyno curves and they're simply too good to be true. My speculation is they carefully measured some number of engines as they did the development work on a new head, but they then created a "master" dyno curve from the results. Subsequently, they might have measured individual engines at a few rpm, but they then used the master curve to create the rest of the "data" for that engine.