Black Lightning 1C/2749 Found 2018

[davidd]

This has been a mystery for many decades. Where did this Lightning go?

Here is a recent shot of the bike:

The story is in the PDF attached.

David

 

[Graham Smith]

There's an article about this in next month's edition of MPH written by the Club's Machine Registrar.

 

[Simon Dinsdale]

Well i'm disapointed Bill has gone and published that in an external magazine and not waited before it was in MPH. I have been working on verifying this bike since the owner first contacted me in early January which was even before the photo of it in the 1950 NY show was published in Feb MPH. I recently let Bill know the bike had been found once I had clearance from the owner and put them in contact with each other.
Simon

 

[TouringGodet]

Looks like somewhere along the line, the exhaust pipes were replaced.

 

[Peter Holmes]

Sympathies all round on this one, I can readily see that Simon feels that he has had the rug pulled from under him, but Bill has had a strong interest in Lightnings for a very long time, as seen every month in MPH, for Bill it must have seemed like discovering another version of the Mona Lisa that had lain undiscovered for many years, and a little difficult not to release details in all the excitement, aren't there some lucky people in life to discover this one out of the blue.

 

[Graham Smith]

Sympathies all round on this one, I can readily see that Simon feels that he has had the rug pulled from under him, but Bill has had a strong interest in Lightnings for a very long time, as seen every month in MPH, for Bill it must have seemed like discovering another version of the Mona Lisa that had lain undiscovered for many years, and a little difficult not to release details in all the excitement, aren't there some lucky people in life to discover this one out of the blue.

It's worth noting that Bill wouldn't have known anything about the discovery of this bike had it not been for Simon. Simon is the only person in the Club who is able to authenticate any Vincent machine.

 

[Peter Holmes]

That does throw a different light on the situation, perhaps Simon should have kept the details a little closer to his chest before he shared the news. If you want to keep a secret best not to tell anybody.

 

[Simon Dinsdale]

That does throw a different light on the situation, perhaps Simon should have kept the details a little closer to his chest before he shared the news. If you want to keep a secret best not to tell anybody.

Peter. It didn't work quite like that. After the bike had been confirmed the owner asked to be put in contact with Bill so he could ask specific Lightning questions which I did. The owner and Bill knew I was going to write an article for MPH to follow up on the February's MPH article and I even let the owner have a copy first so he could check it over. I just wasn't expecting Bill to then publish something outside of the VOC before anything had been published in MPH.
Simon

 

[Albervin]

That is just plainly Bill blowing his own trumpet. It was only because of Simon that he found out about it and then gives Simon no credit. Not fair, not sporting and certainly not what one would expect from a senior member of the VOC.

 

[Peter Holmes]

It is a pity the timings have worked out this way, I always make a point of reading Bill's Black Lightning section reviews and find them most interesting and informative, I can imagine Bill was on cloud nine when this information turned up, and it would appear that he just could not keep to himself, but yes, I can now see that Simon has a right to feel a little aggrieved