James mays meccano motorcycle Friday 3rd jan 9:00 bbc2

[sidewinder]

James May attempts to build a motorbike and sidecar entirely out of Meccano to take round the Isle of Man's famous TT circuit. But designing a machine capable of carrying James and his passenger, wine expert Oz Clarke, around the daunting 37-mile course is not a task for the faint-hearted.

Fifteen thousand pieces of Meccano must be assembled to create a full-size, road-legal motorcycle that James hopes will be more than a match for the circuit's treacherous twists and turns, steep climbs and dizzying descents. And as in the real TT, the bike must race against the clock.


https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03njvbz

[Ribenapigeon]

Well heres hoping his meccano skills are as shit as his telly presenting skills.

[P.addy]

[Ribenapigeon]

I would Paddy but none of the telly companies want to take up my proposal of Great Thong Wearers of the Century.

[P.addy]

[ScaredyCat]

[1cyl]

I hope they used a torque wrench and some thread lock on all those nuts. I'd be worried about bits falling off due to vibration.

Novel idea. Hopefully be stronger than a K'nex or lego equivalent.
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[Al]

Looks riveting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxrJ67akNxU
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[sidewinder]

Looks pretty cool

https://i1128.photobucket.com/albums/m492/sidewinder11/e246574bb8a6b0c75173b15589af7cb7_zps578de43a.jpg

https://i1128.photobucket.com/albums/m492/sidewinder11/9de7ca005aedc36c362761f909c97858_zpsf8ed378e.jpg

https://i1128.photobucket.com/albums/m492/sidewinder11/2f05c146b9c2f91e38284dda4566941f_zpseb889a02.jpg

[MC]

Quite liked his toy programmes, manlab wasn't my kinda thing. Will give it a go
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Honda XR-125L '04

[Sable]

Seen a few programs with May on his own. IMHO he has ended up with 2 different presenting styles. He is either in Top Gear mode, where his personality blends with Clarkson & Hamster. Kinda enjoyable, mildly amusing captain slow. His other personality is wildy enthusiastic about some sort of technical (or other) wonder. When he is in enthusiastic mode he looks like hes genuinly really getting into what he is presenting. Ever see the Model Railway program he did? I really wanted them to succeed in that, and had hope it might. It certainly wasnt the obvious run of the mill 'oh look the trains broken and a helicopters just landed on it' kinda affair.

Never seen Man Lab, but sounds like that was Top Gear mode.

[MG]

https://www.bikechatforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=283239
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[Ribenapigeon]

[kestrel]

Fair play to them for completing a lap of the TT Course, although I seem to remember it taking around 42 hours to do so, not quite up to Superbike pace of around 17 mins per lap!
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[ScaredyCat]

[Dave70]

[metalangel]

[Polarbear]

[Suntan Sid]

Project fail!

The tyres aren't made of meccano!
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[tbourner]

I'm sure he's got Aspergers or something, he doesn't deal with people well when they don't see his POV, plus he goes really deep into learning about certain subjects like trains and old aircraft.

He's that guy we all know who's really interesting for about 5 minutes, then you just want to get away from him but he won't let you.
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[CG Sam]

[Pol Anorl]

Well.. it wasn't as good as I thought it would be..

a mere 15mph when it was running really good at one point, id expect it to sit at 15mph top speed easily...

fair play for sticking with meccano motors but I would have definitely gone for something with a bit more staying power for the hills.

None the less it was pretty cool, would have definitely stripped the sidecar weight off and left the sidecar frame.
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[BrownTrousers]

I thought the program was ... OK.

Bike looked pretty cool but I could have lived with more time analysing how they overcame some of the design & build challenges and less time watching him crawl round the roads holding up traffic.

I imagine part of the reason for the sidecar was they knew it would be very slow and therefore tough to ride consistently balancing on 2 wheels.
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[Supermoto_Fan]

Why did he invite Oz Clarke? He brought nothing to the programme and and as usual drank alcohol and brought James's efforts down.

I also think the sidecar was there for stability too more than anything else.
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[pepperami]

For all it`s failings (Oz Clarke) , I quite liked the programme .
Ten out of ten to all that built that bike , for making a bike that could actually carry people and move !

Mr May,....... what about a solo bike next time?
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