For those who like old Motorcycles.

[spikey]

Ref "The Mighty Vincent" as it was at one time customary to always refer to it, I was recently talking to a pal from way back in my not-misspent-enough youth who had a C Rapide when I had my D shadow.  We both knew a chap in the early 1970s who I've always thought had three Vins, but apparently he didn't.  He had four - a C Rapide, a D Rapide, a Black Knight and a Black Prince.

 

And unless he's flogged any in the last year or two, it seems that he's still got them.  Plus an Egli Vincent, a Matchless G12CSR, a Velo Thruxton  ... and an LE Velo.  

[polybear]

28 minutes ago, spikey said:

Ref "The Mighty Vincent" as it was at one time customary to always refer to it, I was recently talking to a pal from way back in my not-misspent-enough youth who had a C Rapide when I had my D shadow.  We both knew a chap in the early 1970s who I've always thought had three Vins, but apparently he didn't.  He had four - a C Rapide, a D Rapide, a Black Knight and a Black Prince.

 

And unless he's flogged any in the last year or two, it seems that he's still got them.  Plus an Egli Vincent, a Matchless G12CSR, a Velo Thruxton  ... and an LE Velo.  

 

Bear's not jealous......

Ok, maybe just a weeny bit.....

[Kickstart]

22 hours ago, mike morley said:

 

I spent the entire afternoon running a shuttle service to Haymills and back until I found myself aboard a three-year-old Triumph Daytona 1200.  The nicest, most user-friendly bike I've ever ridden.

When the first new Triumphs came out I took a 1200 Trophy for a test ride from Clay Cross Kawasaki (my regular bike at the time was an FZ750).

 

Coming out of Clay Cross , at one point I was going up a hill in a 30 limit, and had to slow for car coming the other way. About to change down , I thought “nah, let’s see how flexible this is”, and changed up into top. And it pulled smoothly in top up hill from pretty low speed.

 

Later popped onto the M1. Traffic slow so into the overtaking lane. Which was travelling slowly so into the right hand lane. Which was travelling slowly also. Glanced at the speedo thinking I was doing about 70 to see the needle go passed 105 mph. The traffic wasn’t slow!

 

All the best

 

Katy

[mike morley]

1979.  Liverpool Pierhead on my way to my first ever Manx Grand Prix.  Up rolls a chap on a Vincent Comet with a Steib sidecar attached.  Get chatting to him while we wait for the ferry.  He's only had it a few days and loves it but he's a bit disgruntled because it cost him £50, making it the most expensive of the five Vincents he owned!

He was a painter and decorator and had the knack of finding customers with sheds containing interesting motorcycles to offer in exchange for the work he did for them.

 

That same MGP.  There was an Irish-registered Honda C90 and sidecar on the Island.  It's fuel supply was augmented by a 'normal' tank (possibly off a CZ?) mounted in the conventional position while the passenger was accommodated on a traditional plastic office chair with the legs cut off.  Everywhere you went you saw it.  Best was on the Mountain, where you'd come up behind it and be treated to the sight of the passenger getting up over the back wheel on right handers and hanging out on left handers. 

One evening we went to the Highlander.  Not long after we'd arrived a Craig Vetter Triumph Hurricane turned up, ridden by a stunning redhead wearing spray-on jeans.  She was gorgeous and, oh boy, did she know it!  Every red-blooded male in the vicinity began to converge on her but we were only half way there when the Irish C90 sidecar turned into the car park.  Instantly everyone executed an abrupt right hand turn to converge on it, to the disgust of the redhead on the Vetter Hurricane.

Turns out the C90 had been built for a rally in Ireland and they'd had such fun on it they'd decided to bring it to the Isle of Man.  Their target was, IIRC, a sub-two hour lap time and at that stage althought hey hadnt yet done it they were confident of doing so.

 

[ColinK]

As I started off the Vincent Black Lightening, here is the song about it - I can just about play the bass part now.

 

 

It was originally written and performed by Richard Thompson.

 

[New Haven Neil]

16 hours ago, mike morley said:

snip<

 

That same MGP.  There was an Irish-registered Honda C90 and sidecar on the Island.  It's fuel supply was augmented by a 'normal' tank (possibly off a CZ?) mounted in the conventional position while the passenger was accommodated on a traditional plastic office chair with the legs cut off.  Everywhere you went you saw it.  B

 

 

It is an odd trend, but (prior to the last wo of course!) various C70/90 Hondas have become incredibly trendy to come to the TT/MGP on, this last few years. Standard, or mint, and wildly customised versions, loads of the things!  110/125 Chinese engine swaps, loud pipes, loads of fancy kit, nitrous, anything goes really out of hand.  Generally prey in groups of 4-6, with riders in their 30's all laughing maniacally, having a whale of a time without ever going over 60.  The Honda Grom type bikes join in, there's a lot here anyway together with the Benelli copies (Chinese again of course) makes a change from all the BMW R1000RRRRR type things at TT, or swarms of T100's and Bonnies at the Manx!  We're an odd bunch, us bikers.

 

Just got the SWMBO's little favourite out of hibernation yesterday....no Vincent but it is 40!

 

 

 

[mike morley]

Ariel Arrow-engined BSA Bantam at Laxey, 2012 MGP.  I wonder how well the Bantam's  front forks coped with eight-pot, twin-caliper disc brakes!

[spikey]

3 hours ago, mike morley said:

Ariel Arrow-engined BSA Bantam at Laxey, 2012 MGP.  I wonder how well the Bantam's  front forks coped with eight-pot, twin-caliper disc brakes

 

I keep looking at that picture and thinking how much Bantam forks used to flex at the best of times.  Wondering what it sounded like with that ingenious zorst, what's in the bottle on the bars - and how much blue smoke it left behind it.

Edited May 10, 2021 by spikey
brainfart

[mike morley]

I saw it being ridden a few days later and there were expansion chambers inside those chrome 'silencers'

[spikey]

For ageing bikers everywhere, especially those who remember it coming out ... this is priceless

 

 

[polybear]

1 hour ago, spikey said:

For ageing bikers everywhere, especially those who remember it coming out ... this is priceless

 

 

 

Not exactly a Goldie or Vincent is it? 

[MrWolf]

1 hour ago, polybear said:

 

Not exactly a Goldie or Vincent is it? 

 

Looks like a Yamaha 80 or something. The video is taken from one of the Saturday night game shows IIRC.

[MrWolf]

Oddball Velocettes out for a run. Viceroy scooter and Vogue not quite a scooter. Not very Venom Thruxton, but at least being ridden and enjoyed.

 

 

 

[MrWolf]

Out and about on the 1949 BSA B33.

 

 

 

[spikey]

The only Velo Vogue I ever came across was owned by a very rum bloke indeed who was usually seen riding it with an upside-down pipe clamped firmly in his gob.  He was also the only bloke I ever saw wearing a Turbo Visor.

 

As I say, a very rum bloke ...

[MrWolf]

Amongst the many hoarders of motorcycles and motorcycle parts I have had the pleasure (?) of meeting over the years, one had a Turbo visor fixed to his front door as some kind of wind sculpture.

I immediately knew that the motorcycle for sale that I had come to buy wasn't really for sale.

[MrWolf]

Good grief Charlie Brown....

 

 

[spikey]

That's just prompted the memory bank to remind me of the time I had the misfortune to ascend the steps to the spares dept of the local dealer behind matey with the the Vogue (which he pronounced "vog-you") and his Turdo Turbo Visor. 

 

There was a new lad in the stores who knew no better than to comment on the abomination on top of matey's helmet.  Alas, this resulted in he and I both being favoured with a lecturette on the advantages of the product vis-à-vis the goggles worn by less discerning persons, and the necessity to balance its rotating mass by drilling holes in appropriate places, the better to make it spin ...

 

 

[MrWolf]

That makes me think of the bloke who collared me while the memsahib filled up her Triumph Herald and proceeded to: (A) Presume that the classic car was mine, (B) Tell me at length how his mate once had a Reliant SKIMMITTER...

 

He then proceeded to try and joke with the memsahib that "I had got her well trained" 

She gave him a look that would have scared the #### out of Medusa and he scuttled off before he got a 97 octane enema.

[rockershovel]

On 09/03/2021 at 23:23, MrWolf said:

I like that Harley, it's grown with you. I see that you have the same theory as me with the headlamp peak. When you only have one vague headlight, there's no point wasting any of it lighting up the treetops! 

The seat looks like it might have started life on a Triumph circa 1966?

 

Sometimes I like to turn up on a bike less coveted....

 

 

Norman B2. A special blend of rocking horse muck. Still hunting down the engine shields. It might then get a better paint job than the one it came with.

 

the seat on that bike is a genuine Sportster seat from the late 1960s, at least the base plate and sorbo rubber are, it has been recovered at some time. The seat mounting took a bit of work but I'm pleased with the result. Sporters have a general problem with seating position - the early 1970s adoption of a very low seat, combined with the moving of the footrest mountings onto the engine. This means that while they are quite tall bikes, they are cramped and chronically short of legroom, even for someone as lacking in that department as myself. 

 

It's Harley's version of the Ducati "squashed frog" riding position, or the Italian "clipons and conventional footrests" crouch. 

 

There are endless, circular threads about this on all Sportster-related forums everywhere. The answer is that the original Sportster was a mostly conventional sporting twin, when originally designed in the 1950s.  Most Sportster issues can be easily sorted out, by looking at the original bike.. the exceptions are the magneto ignition, which was infamous even in its day, the kickstart mechanism (which is plain dangerous) and the early carburettors, which are uniformly useless. The Evolution engine sensibly discards the kickstart, fits a CV carb which works very well, and uses the hydraulic tappets from the Big Twin and they are a great improvement. 

 

That bike has more-or-less evolved into a general ride-about. It's pretty much the modern equivalent of my old WL, or BSA B33 or A10. It's very reliable, as Sporters usually are if you don't stick your fingers in the engine. It doesn't leak oil to any significant extent, doesn't vibrate excessively and doesn't overheat. I keep meaning to sell it, but don't. It now has a windscreen, a Harley "QD" unit which really doesn't work as a QD but is very effective, now I have got the height just right.

 

Someday I will convert my 1200 flat track racer to a road bike. It isn't at all temperamental, being quite slow as racers go. It is much the smoothest Sportster I have ever ridden, having been built by an actual racing shop - like most things with Sportsters, accurate assembly and common sense are your friends. It has turned a genuine 110mph through the lights and is better handling than you might expect. It has an 8000 rpm rev limiter, but I'm not that brave..

 

[MrWolf]

There's a nutter round here rides a vintage Sunbeam racer on a daylight MOT of sorts. 

It sounds incredible!

 

[MrWolf]

At the other end of the scale, I must confess to having once owned two of these. In my defense, the pair cost £80.

 

 

 

[rockershovel]

2 minutes ago, MrWolf said:

At the other end of the scale, I must confess to having once owned two of these. In my defense, the pair cost £80.

 

 

 

 

the seller must have seen you coming...

 

Edited May 31, 2021 by rockershovel

[MrWolf]

1 minute ago, rockershovel said:

 

saw you coming...

 

 

Carted off to 'Normous Newark for £200 in about 2001

[MrWolf]

Helmets may save lives but they mess up your hair.