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George Silks Gearbox


atomant
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Ian, as far as I remember he was an ex Rolls guy who made pumps. He also had a thing for Scotts and updated the design and slotted it into a Seeley frame. At one point my dad was seriously thinking about buying a Silk.

Anyway he took some of the IP he'd developed for the road bike and made a trials bike with a monocoque chassis and a dual range gearbox. The jingoistic UK motorcycle press made a big song and dance about him challenging the Spaniards and then he faded away.

I have a test of the Silk road bike somewhere.

*edit* The idea of the s/arm pivoting about the gearbox sprocket has been taken up by BMW who use it on their (now discontinued) enduro bike.

Edited by TooFastTim
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Ian, as far as I remember he was an ex Rolls guy who made pumps. He also had a thing for Scotts and updated the design and slotted it into a Seeley frame. At one point my dad was seriously thinking about buying a Silk.

Anyway he took some of the IP he'd developed for the road bike and made a trials bike with a monocoque chassis and a dual range gearbox. The jingoistic UK motorcycle press made a big song and dance about him challenging the Spaniards and then he faded away.

I have a test of the Silk road bike somewhere.

*edit* The idea of the s/arm pivoting about the gearbox sprocket has been taken up by BMW who use it on their (now discontinued) enduro bike.

Thanks for the insight TFT - really interesting :wall:

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  • 1 month later...

My Dad helped develop the silk trials bike.

It got changed from a monocoque to a traditional tubular frame.

Even though the swinging arm pivot was same axis as the gearbox shaft giving consistant chain tension I remember a tensioner was still added as it seemed to make the bike smoother on low revs as it kept the tension more consistant.

My brother rode it in an A & B natioanl at Brimham rocks. Must of been about 1981.

The gearbox was the best. 4 gears + high and low ratio giving a total of 8.

Was great for those sections where you thought 'I need second and a half' select 2nd gear & high ratio and bingo!

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