Silk 700 Mk1

[Enword]

Cant be many about, anyone on here had anything to do with em?

 

[PORKSTER]

Cant help but my dad owns a scott flying squirrel and always wanted a Silk to add to the collection

 

[Enword]

Cant help but my dad owns a scott flying squirrel and always wanted a Silk to add to the collection

You can definitely see the heritage from scott, I think the engine on the later model looked a lot better though, but could never get my head around Siamese pipes on a 2 stroke!

 

[Nasher]

First saw one at the motorcycle show at Earls Court in the 70's

Engine is a 2 cylinder 2 stroke based around the Scott motorcycles

It was unusual & I really liked them. Didn't have the dosh to buy one then - not sure I have the space or desire now (currently restoring a TZ Yamaha race bike from the same era)

 

[Stealaway]

You can definitely see the heritage from scott, I think the engine on the later model looked a lot better though, but could never get my head around Siamese pipes on a 2 stroke!

We are not talking about performance here. Siamese exhausts would have given it torque. It seem expensive but they are bloody rare.
It looks a solid bike and I sure you wouldn't lose any money on it ------- if you live long enough

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[Enword]

Not my cup of tea, but never known anyone who had one back in the day. Don't know what sort of numbers were sold.

 

[Mr B]

Are they not based on these.
Used to see them up in North Yorkshire when my dad took me to watch the Scott trial in the 70’s

https://www.motorcyclenews.com/news/2017/october/scott-flying-squirrel-two-stroke/

 

[Enword]

Are they not based on these.
Used to see them up in North Yorkshire when my dad took me to watch the Scott trial in the 70’s

https://www.motorcyclenews.com/news/2017/october/scott-flying-squirrel-two-stroke/

They are, back in the day I seem to recall it was an ex Scott engineer that started up Silk.

 

[TheTwoOfUs]

Barry Scully who was the works rider for Scotts when they tried a comeback to racing in the late 60s worked at Hadfields Steels in Sheffield where I was doing my apprenticeship. Just for information, Hadfields was where Meadowhall shopping centre is now.

 

[Boringfrog]

Saw this one at a bike rally/show earlier this year:

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[tonyidle]

Siamesed pipes have no effect on torque on a two-stroke. They also appear not to interfere with the various tuned lengths within a two stroke exhaust which I can only surmise is due to the pulse from the firing cylinder not 'seeing' the pipe from the other cylinder. They're used to good effect on some high powered engines. A friend uses snow mobile engines to power racing hovercraft and as supplied with three pipes into (what looks like but isn't) a simple cylindrical silencer produce around 120bhp from an 890cc triple. He blows individual expansion chambers for them mainly because mounting the original is near impossible within the regulations for the class and gains maybe 30 or so hp. Designing expansion chambers one per cylinder is hard enough & there's no design information for the alternative but there's no reason to doubt that the same gain could be achieved from a single pipe.

 

[PhilG]

Its one of the multitude of bikes out there that have gone into production without actually finding out if people are going to buy it when it gets built, assuming they don't go bust beforehand.
NEC will be full of them this week.

 

[NickandClair]

The look of the Silk reminds me of my CBX1000A, apart from the dirty great 6 cyl motor hanging off the frame.

 

[Enword]

Over the years Iv'e played around with fabricating expansion pipes & managed to gain & move power up & down the rev range, the most power difference was on a Polaris quad, from pretty average to the point of it leaving darkies on tarmac from all 4 wheel's But development was very time consuming & having to change the auto clutch setup as well.

 

[Enword]

The look of the Silk reminds me of my CBX1000A, apart from the dirty great 6 cyl motor hanging off the frame.

Do you still have it?

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[Yorick]

Its one of the multitude of bikes out there that have gone into production without actually finding out if people are going to buy it when it gets built, assuming they don't go bust beforehand.
NEC will be full of them this week.

They aren't going to be built.

 

[NickandClair]

Do you still have it?

No sadly, she's moved on to pastures new. Just wasn't being used and as you know, does them more harm than good being parked up.

 

[icantremember]

The look of the Silk reminds me of my CBX1000A, apart from the dirty great 6 cyl motor hanging off the frame.

I had a CBX new in 1981 .. great 6cyl engine which certainly got folk interested and fine in a straight line, but not the best around the S bends.

 

[MillieMoocher]

I was very lucky back in the 70s (as a young boy) in so far as George Silk was a friend of my fathers, my dad being very much into Scott motorcycles.

George’s business remanufactured many parts for Scott’s, and George Himself was an enthusiast.

I seem to recall that he wanted to (in effect) reinvent the Scott for the modern day, and the Silk in its various guises was his attempt to do so.

The very early versions used a straight Scott engine, in a frame of George’s design made by Spondon engineering, in Derby.

He took me out on the mule when we were visiting once, in my eyes he was a Demi god (I’d have been about 13 at the time I guess) and the coolest guy on the planet with the best job. I’ll always remember his light purple coloured aviator glasses, looked like a film star!

The early bikes were marketed as Silk Scott’s, latterly the bikes were badged as Silks.

Never got to ride one myself but dad reckoned they handled like they were on rails...then again he was used to riding a bike with no rear suspension and girder forks!

I’ll see if I can find some pictures, but thanks @Enword for making my trip down memory lane of happy times

 

[MillieMoocher]

Here’s a link. https://www.silk-motorcycles.org/silk-company-history.html

George is the guy in the glasses on the front row, second from the right of the picture wearing the dustcoat

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