Another carburetor that came and went so fast most of us didn't notice. A google search brought this story from The Oz Laverda racing site.
The carburetor was the work of a man named Red Edmonston. Red started racing Triumph motorcycles in the 1940’s and after 13 years of racing and breaking bones, he decided to move to California and work with Triumph as a road manager as well as open a Honda dealership to provide for his young family. During the 1960’s, Red continually became frustrated with the fuel delivery systems for the motorcycle industry. Most of the carburetors being manufactured and sold on motorcycles were complex to tune, and required a constant effort to keep tuned for proper operation of the motor. This was primarily because of the multiple and overlapping circuits (different jets for the differing throttle positions) that caused the air fuel mixture to be very rich at different throttle positions. These early carburetors could not adapt for altitude changes either, which added to the constantly differing air-to-fuel ratios and tuning problems. Besides the frustrations that many had with keeping their motorcycles running at optimum, these crude fuel delivery systems also cause the motor to run very inefficiently and with significant harmful emissions.
In the late 1960’s, after many years of racing, managing race teams, and selling motorcycles, Red began his long career of inventing, designing, and manufacturing carburetors for the motorcycle industry. In short, Red has had a significant impact on the motorcycle industry over the past 40 years. Red has held nearly 100 patents and has invented and manufactured nine different carburetors, each of which has shared some similarities while each subsequent model continually added improvements in functionality and performance. The history of the Red Edmonston’ carburetors spans many years and a great deal of experience and improvements:
· 1968-1969: The Lake Injector prototype and final production model carburetor.
· 1970-1971: The Pos-A-Fuel prototype and final production model carburetor.
· 1971: The Pos-A-Fuel with remote float bowl production model carburetor.
· 1973-1974: The Lectron prototype and final production model carburetor.
· 1976-1977: The E.I. Prototype and final production model carburetor.
· 1978: The Blue Magnum production model carburetor.
· 1980: The Bank of Four Blue Magnum model carburetor.
· 1981-1982: The Qwik Silver prototype and production model carburetor.
· 1982: The Qwik Silver Bank of Four carburetor wins Daytona super-bike race.
· 1993: The Qwik Silver II production model carburetor (sold to Edelbrock).
6 comments:
here's a Blue Magnum carburetor shop rag on eBay. https://www.ebay.com/itm/265115122792?hash=item3dba17bc68:g:-QMAAOSwsU5gbT6N
It seems a bit unfair for that "history" not to mention the Ron Gardner carburator originating in the late 40s, and still very much in production, and
in use on some of the most competitive classic racing bikes today.
The Lake and Posa Fuel versions are little more than copies of it.
Wow, that shoprag is obscure.
Some fellas who build seriously fierce H-D big twin street bikes forcefully recommend the Lectron to this day. My only experience of the carb was on a mild '60s Sportster that did run good, if you devoted the requisite two hours to starting the damn thing. (The starting issue had little/nothing to do with the carburetor choice, I think.)
You may remember when Lectron was the carb of choice on flat track bikes in the "restrictor plate" days of AMA seeking parity between the HD's and the Hondas. I would guess that's the source of certain builder's insistence on using them. The Lectron fell completely off of my personal radar until just a couple of years ago when some friends discovered they worked wonders on late model KTM two-stroke off-road bikes. I just returned from a Utah vacation with these folks and marvel that the Lectron is doing it's thing. In my conciousness I still see big heavy dirt-trackers...
You're prob'ly right in most cases, but the builders I hear evangelizing for Lectrons aren't the nostalgic type. One guy especially is hard to shut up about the carb's performance, straightforward tuning, reliability, etc etc blah blah. Not sure he'd know a thing about Lectrons associated with FT racing.
He (like the other fellas I'm thinking of, actually) is a diehard Shovelhead guy who (of course!) claims to put a hurt on Evos and Twinks at every opportunity.
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