N.Z.-built four

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32967, 13 July 1972, Page 17

N.Z.-built four

■yEW Zealanders are genx erally not without resourcefulness and this image is certainly upheld by the veteran Christchurch motor-cyclist, Mr D. H. Crouch, who recently completed work on a machine powered by a fourcylinder, water-cooled fourstroke engine. It cost him a mere $260 for the parts but it took him more than a quarter of a century to build. And it was obsolete before it was even finished. Before the Second World War, Mr Crouch, who lives on Mount Pleasant, became annoyed by the short life of his 1939 Speed Twin. Being a car mechanic, he decided he had the answer — build a motor-cycle with a car engine as tfie power unit.

“I had to re-bore the Speed Twin at four and a half thousand miles. It really upset me. I knew a car engine could do a lot better than that,” he said.

A trip to Ashburton in a Fiat 500 car a short time later convinced him that a car engine would be the answer. “There were three of us in the car and it travelled at 55 miles an hour no trouble.” Mr Crouch started work on his machine after the war but progress was slow and he had other interests. When he stopped riding motor-cycles about 16 years ago. he lost his enthusiasm for the machine and it lay dormant for years in the back of his garage. However, when he retired the “bug bit again” and he had his first test run on the “Bitza,” as it is aptly named, in September last year. Minor improvements have been made and the machine is now in constant use.

The power is supplied by a 1932 749 c.c. Austin seven four-cylinder car engine. This produces only 13.4 horsepower but the power band is extremely wide. Although the "Bitza” weighs 4641b5, it can climb St Andrews Hill in top gear and can cruise “all day” at 50 miles an hour.

The side-valve engine fits very neatly into the frame of a 1937 Triumph. The frontal area is. surprisingly, not as great as that on some of the more exotic

Japanese multi-cylinder “superbikes.” Transmission is through a four-speed gear-box “which grizzles a bit but is fine in top.” To mate this to the engine the clutch had to be extended and a special oil bath primary chain cover had to be made to house the outrigger bearing. The suspension, at least at the rear, is unusual these days. A. B.S.A. plunger has been grafted onto the fixed rear forks. At the front, the conventional telescopic fork has been employed. The front mudguard is from a 8.5. A.; the rear from a Matchless. Fitting a radiator in the frame was a problem. This was overcome by cutting a slice out of the middle of a Ford 105 E car radiator. This allowed room for the carburettor, which is at the

front of the engine, and the down tube of the frame.

The brakes, single leading shoes at both back and front, are off a 1948 Triumph Speed Twin and seem to be quite equal to the task of stopping the fourcylinder heavyweight.

Mr Crouch admits that the bike does feel heavy when cornering slowly but is very pleased with the general balance. It has not cost him a great deal in terms of cash but he is quick to emphasise that he has had “an awful lot of help.” Now that the machine is completely finished, Mr Crouch intends to make full use of it. “That is as good as it will ever look,” he said, pointing to the new shiny black paint. "I never intended it to be pretty. I built it to use.” The picture shows the lay-out of the Austin Seven power unit.