Amusing Vincent Articles

Prosper Keating

Well Known and Active Forum User
Non-VOC Member
http://goodmotorcycles.com/

A mate sent me this link earlier. I had a look at the Vincent section and the articles really struck a chord. OK, there are a couple of little errors, where a writer confuses the Burman clutch with the Vincent item fitted to twins and a reference to swinging arm bushes but these may be quirks of dim memory of the details. No matter.

PK
 

bmetcalf

Well Known and Active Forum User
VOC Member
Amusing is the word. In the story I found, the "victim" was surprised that the brake linings were gone. Shame on him for not inspecting them as soon as he got the bike home. Vins aren't for those who can't (or won't) do even that much for themselves. Frankly, I wonder if it wasn't all fiction. Does the writer really think the RFM has two shock absorbers?
 

ET43

Well Known and Active Forum User
Non-VOC Member
Vincent story, my eye !

The author of this article, first written in a Used Bike Guide, or something similar, was at some time in the past a member of this club. His main passion were LC350 Yamaha motorcycles which he seemed to be able to restore and sell whilst living on the dole ( unemployment ) I crossed swords with him when I was the Hon Sec. He said that I had a Brown Nose, but I do not K*** A** to anyone. He found out that I was more explosive than he, so I invited him to take very long walk from the end of a short pier. His scriblings summed up his attitude, moronic,and I'm glad that he no longer belongs to this club.
You See, it's not only Prosper who rises to the bait.
Another ex MZ rider,
ET43
 
G

Graham Smith

Guest
I crossed swords with him when I was the Hon Sec. He said that I had a Brown Nose, but I do not K*** A** to anyone.

Phil

I don't think anyone who knows you could ever accuse you of kissing anyone's a**e!
 

Prosper Keating

Well Known and Active Forum User
Non-VOC Member
I don't recall the names Johnny Malone or Roland Barry amongst the motorcycle magazine contributors I dealt with from the late 1980s to the mid-1990s. Stan Barrett rings bells for some reason. I do remember a bloke who had LDs, but only because he fell off outside the pub a couple of times. Don't remember that he had a Vincent though.

Very few of the faces on the London bike scene at the time rode Vincents. Nobody had the money, even when they only cost five grand, or a grand and a half for a Comet. I'm not talking VOC scene. I'm talking getting drunk and stoned and racing through London on Friday and Saturday nights from pub to pub or to Chelsea Bridge on old motorcycles. I can only think of three or four with Vincents and most of those bikes were rather dodgy and doggy.

Hell, my Rapide was a serious heap, as some members here will recall. I did, once, see about 70 mph on it coming down off the raised section of the M3. But it looked good, parked with the rest of the lash-ups outside the pub, in the half-light. The first time I rode a decent Vincent was when I roadtested Rex Martin's Shadowised Rapide. And then I rode Alan Lancaster's old Prince to Brittany. I started realising that they were damn fine machines, as long as they were properly put together.

The guys who wrote these articles - which could do with a bit of editing - are describing experiences that were not unusual in the days when Vincents were, in the main, old bikes that were not worth a great deal and had been through the hands of motorcycling's financially and mechanically challenged. Most VOC members maintained their machines lovingly but there were a lot of awful heaps out there. There still are! I tried one out recently and it was an alarming trip down memory lane to when many Vins, especially Comets, were owned by apes whose tool kits were limited to a mole grip, lump hammer and a cold chisel.

In the end, they're not all that rude about Vincents. It is obvious that they aren't slagging the marque. They were just riding heaps.

PK
 
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