tisdag 31 augusti 2010

The Riley Racing Carburetor

American hero George Riley was a racing virtuoso most active in the 1930 – 1940’s (no relation to British Riley Motor CO) George did his own everything, like the first OHV conversions for flathead racecars and side draft carburetors etc. George started out early on, in the 1920’s alongside pioneers Fred Offenhauser and Leo Gossen.

The Riley Racing Carburetor is made of strong 356 heat treated aluminium and the housings are anodized. They use Ford Stromberg main jets and idle tubes, and also Chandler Groves needle seats and adjusting screws. I'm not sure how many carbs Gerorge did but more than a few of them ended up on drag bikes and hill climbers in the 1950’s & 1960's - like George Smith’s “The Tramp” and Chet Herbert’s “The Beast” both ran dual Rileys on the quarter mile.

However, after the drag bike and hill climber golden era ended, every Riley carburetor seem to have vanished from the face of the earth, with the exception of a few stored in classic racing museums.

Balls out! Just how brilliant are these floats!? And they're not attached to anything inside the carb, they are free falling, like Tom Petty. And this makes the carb insensitive to angles, a totally genius construction, especially when mounted on a bike.

These carbs are going on a stroked Knuckle, and I'll post more pics of this project as soon as I've made some further progress - that made me sound pretty sober huh? Fantastic.

8 kommentarer:

  1. For what its worth, one of the guys at S&S mentioned to me that when they finished the re-creation of the Tramp, they had trouble getting it to run decent until they realized the Rileys were jetted for alky, not gasoline. It was their opinion that all Riley carbs were made to run on alcohol.

    SvaraRadera
  2. St.Lee, thanx for the heads up man. So, they decided to run The Tramp on gasoline now...?
    Ok, the original Riley manual says:

    "All Riley carburetor may be operated on either alcohol or gasoline or a combination of both..."

    When I got this pair the jets were drilled out for alcohol, but you can still buy the jets they used (Ford Stromberg)

    SvaraRadera
  3. hay there is a book with a ton of information about these carbs. Its called George Riley Racing scrapbook by Dan Iandola and it has a bunch of stuff that I think might be helpfull to you. thiers a ton of photos, lots of information on tunning them, blue prints,parts lists all kinds of information on the development of them thiers even some crude drawing from real early. the book has a ton of information on Riely and his racing machines. Dont no how hard it is to find or if your intreasted. found my copy in a single wide trailer in a scrap yard here in michigan. If you are intreasted and can't find a copy let me Know maybe we can work somthin out. email me rmarcus@wccnet.edu
    Sincerley some kid in Michigan thats into all things mechanical and potentaly dangerous.
    p.s. the shit you build is awsome and its an insperation for a young builder. sorry about the super shitty writing skills

    SvaraRadera
  4. Ray, thank you so much man. Yeah I've heard about that book but never found it. I got the original manual to the Riley carburetor but some of the things you mention is not in that one ...check your e-mail!

    SvaraRadera
  5. Hi I've been a lurker on your blog almost from day one.If I'm not mistaken doesn't Brandon hang out with you or work with you?I seem to remember pictures of him on here.I've been on Nelson Keino's closed motorcycle forum for going on a decade.Brandon is a member but rarely posts.The point of my email is to ask you for a huge favor.I just traded a few linkerts I restored for a mint Riley Racing Carburetor.I plan to run it on my stroked flathead.Is there anyway possible you would copy your Riley manual for me and either send it to me in a file online or even regular mail if you prefer.I can't find any manuals or descriptive books at all about the carb not even anything relevant online.I already think it's the greatest and hope to score another one in the future to enable me to run one Riley mounted to each cylinder on the right side of my bike.Well thank you for any consideration you might give this.

    Greg

    SvaraRadera
  6. E-mail me, you have my adress in my profile on here. I can't write it on here since I get too much spam.

    SvaraRadera

  7. https://scontent-mia3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/s960x960/89124676_10219527957648162_7580655021612597248_o.jpg?_nc_cat=106&_nc_sid=8024bb&_nc_ohc=wodbqQVYDsMAX9A38CL&_nc_ht=scontent-mia3-1.xx&_nc_tp=7&oh=79d30a0a42aa522c48a5cd2c365bd7fe&oe=5EFF81FD

    SvaraRadera