13-Oct-2002, 04:25 PM
There were two other reasons the Cyclemaster smoked so bad. The first one was that it had a piston with no rings, like a model airplane engine. I think it was made from lignum vitae, a very hard wood. The second was that, to keep piston and cylinder wear down, they used a high oil content in the mix (8:1, I think).
Even after the advent of 2-stroke oil, there were still a lot of smokers. I had a 1960 Ariel Leader. It used a 16:1 mix and put out a lot of smoke at wide throttle openings. It used to clog up the baffles in the silencers. I inquired of Ariel if I could use caustic soda to clean them out and their reply was "yes, and by the way you can go to a 48:1 oil ratio too." Apparently, they had settled on the heavier mix because they didn't have the resources to do the endurance testing to see if less was ok - they relied on their customers to do it!
Frank Damp
Anacortes, WA
Even after the advent of 2-stroke oil, there were still a lot of smokers. I had a 1960 Ariel Leader. It used a 16:1 mix and put out a lot of smoke at wide throttle openings. It used to clog up the baffles in the silencers. I inquired of Ariel if I could use caustic soda to clean them out and their reply was "yes, and by the way you can go to a 48:1 oil ratio too." Apparently, they had settled on the heavier mix because they didn't have the resources to do the endurance testing to see if less was ok - they relied on their customers to do it!
Frank Damp
Anacortes, WA
Frank Damp (wife Eileen, nee Nixon)
Leyland resident 1941-1965, emigrated to the US in 1968,
retired to Anacortes, Washington State, USA in 1999.
Leyland resident 1941-1965, emigrated to the US in 1968,
retired to Anacortes, Washington State, USA in 1999.