Average age Vincent owner/VOC member - Number Vincents owned.

What is your age?

  • 35-45

    Votes: 5 4.2%
  • 46-55

    Votes: 10 8.3%
  • 56-65

    Votes: 37 30.8%
  • 66-75

    Votes: 48 40.0%
  • 76-85

    Votes: 16 13.3%
  • 86-95

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 15-35

    Votes: 4 3.3%

  • Total voters
    120
  • Poll closed .

Vincent Brake

Well Known and Active Forum User
VOC Member
Unless my memory is playing tricks on me (possible!) wasn't a DVD made several years ago of how to strip and rebuild a twin?
Cheers Bill
Not the rebuild, Bill.
Its still in bits n bobs. As far as i know.
For this is a movie of sometimes 10 years
 

andrew peters

Well Known and Active Forum User
VOC Member
Hello All

My comments on how to encourage more members, based on my own experience of owning a Vincent for two years.

1. I struggled to find and buy a Vincent. Even though I attended a club meeting where they lamented the demise of rallies and meets because of not enough attendees and enthusiasm. Even though two of the attendees had Vincents in bits and were clearly never going to put them back together they would not sell them to me. If you want to encourage new riders sell the dismantled bikes that you are never going to put back together and ride.
2. The manuals are impenetrable. A Haynes type manual with photos and instructions written in a modern idiom would be a boon for new riders. This is something the club could encourage. I believe it would be highly valued.
3. Get rid of the obituaries in MPH. I am interested in the future of my bike. Publish articles on how to maintain a Vincent. Look to the future not the past.

Having lit blue touch paper I will retire.

Kevin
It is true that it's not easy to find the bike that will be Yours. I joined the VOC and it still took me nearly 4 years to find My bike.. I attended as many meetings as I could, my local section doesn't have regular meets and I live on an island so any meeting is a long way away... I found at least 4 bikes, in bits.. all owned by guys in their 'later stages of life' and those bikes had been in boxes at least 30-40 years! I can't say these guys will Never put those bikes together but I know 'restoring' a Vincent is a very expensive business, and I suggest many older owners really don't have the finance or even knowledge to put those bikes on the road. Actually I, personally, would warn against taking on a box of bits, I avoided this task, it can/will be Very expensive... probably cheaper to buy one ready to ride (I did that in the end... and still spent a ton of money getting the bike right and how I wanted) In the end my ''wanted'' Ad in MPH paid off. In fact I was offered a few to choose from, although all of them were many miles away from me and a couple on another continent... However this is where club membership is invaluable. One e-mail was enough to find a member who knew the bike and could vouch for its condition and the sellers credibility. So I confidently bought a very expensive bike totally unseen....
Now I speak as a 'Younger' owner.. I was 'only' 52 when I started looking for my Vincent.. I shouldn't say the local section was 'clicky' .. in fact they were very welcoming, however maybe I wasn't taken seriously? I didn't look rich? No, probably they just didn't know me, many members are of a slightly different generation, and of course many are old friends and I'm not even Canadian! Why would I be trusted to take away one of their 'babies'... I could be a chopper guy!
There are always going to be obstacles when trying to break into a circle of guys that have history together and history with their bikes.. I even suspect one of our local members is scared to sell his bike that he's not ridden since the 70's.. he is part of a group with a connection... he can't give that up... Another Vincent owner, he says he always wanted a Vincent... he bought it in boxes in 1979... he can't part with it, or afford to rebuild it! Another twin, not far from me.. not for sale.. it has to stay in the family... only one member of the family knows of its existence... in bits since 1968...
These are valuable bikes, and many Vincent owners don't need the money.. they are comfortable with their old bikes and memories, they were never cheap and these old bikes aren't in sheds behind terraced council houses... Vincent owners aren't just a generation or two away from todays motorcyclist. For many years finance has been the quick and easy way to get on two wheels, visit the dealer and without even a couple pay-stubs you can come out with a ride and a debt! You only need to look at the situation Harley Davidson is in as a manufacturer, they are seemingly stuck with their stereotype owner/buyer.. the grey bearded 'Biker'.. If they can't attract new younger riders then what chance does Vincent have... Our (Vincenteers) image, as many people may perceive is elitist, wealthy and ''better than you!" Our bike have status, yes, admit it... many riders simply don't even aspire to ownership, they think, they know, a Vincent is far beyond their reach.
How does anyone justify ownership and using such a valuable machine? is it really a better bike than, for example my BMW R90S? a Honda 750, a Kawasaki Z900, a Commando, or Bonneville... even a Honda Cub! a brilliant little bike and you could buy all of those bikes for the price of a Black Shadow.. and have just as much fun riding and mixing with real motorcycle enthusiasts.
Do we need a 'better' manual to help with the maintenance and repair of a Vincent? I'm not sure, I managed just fine.. I bought all the books, I have a computer and the big one, I have many good friends all over the world that will help me as much as they would as if I were a family member... I thank you all, at 7 o'clock I'll be banging spanners and metal drip trays in appreciation.
Obituaries.. Yes, of course.. they are family members.
 

BigEd

Well Known and Active Forum User
VOC Member
VOC Forum Moderator
I have put a like on Andrew's post as he has made many valid points. It is best to buy a bike in one piece so at least you know what is there or what is missing on the outside. The inside may be a bit more problematic and it would be nice to actually hear it running or better still have a short test ride before you buy.
Regarding buying a"box of bits", I agree that this can be risky but that is exactly what I did as I bought it at a time when my financial circumstances were a little uncertain. The price for "the box" was within my reach and at least I had my "foot in the door." Over three years I assembled my "box of bits" and have since completed 50,000 enjoyable miles. At the time I just got stuck in and bought parts as and when I could afford them. It could have gone the other way and just been another transfer of a box of bits from under the previous owner's bench to a space under my bench. If you someone really wants a Vincent they need to be proactive and put some money down even if it is only enough to just get your foot in the door.
 

Chris Launders

Well Known and Active Forum User
VOC Member
One of the points Big Ed makes is being able to take a short test ride, this is fine IF you know what a Vincent should feel like, I had a Rapide back in the 70s and about 15 years ago was looking to have a Standard Vincent again (I've had a Norvin for over 20 years) anyway a friend who was terminally ill offered me his that I could have when he had departed but I never got to ride it until then.

It was horrendous, the first ride was about a mile and it nearly threw me off as it tried to go into a tank-slapper the first bump I hit slightly banked over (he had fitted a hydraulic steering damper after it had thrown him off) there were no brakes to speak of and it turned out the back end was jacked up as far as it would go and was fitted with sidecar springs at the back and sagging D springs on the front.

The point is he had never ridden another Vincent, this was how he got it and he must have thought this was what Vincents were like.
 

vibrac

Well Known and Active Forum User
VOC Member
I have bought more Vincents as pieces in boxes than together, and one D was actually in a basket!
since none were matching numbers I have at least kept Simon happy as I permed any one from five and sold a few.
Put it together and you know what you have, buy it already together and I always worry.
 

highbury731

Well Known and Active Forum User
VOC Member
I got mine as boxes of bits which had been in a back bedroom since the bike was broken up in 1962. I knew from the start that it was incomplete, very incomplete, but then I didn't exactly pay much. I keep tossing money at it, and it is gradually beginning to look like large lumps of a motorcycle. It's already taken a decade.... Where have I got to? The engine was almost completed when I discovered a stripped cylinder stud thread in the crankcase, so that will have to come apart again. I have heard about a really good mod for the cam lubrication.... that's an endless alley to go chasing up. Forks are all but together, and the wheels are OK, so maybe it will have wheels on it this year. But at the moment I have a broken foot, and will not be doing much for a while.
 

Bazlerker

Well Known and Active Forum User
Non-VOC Member
All of these comments are very interesting..but entirely beside the point, the aim of the poll is to provide some data to show that the membership is aging, eventually machines will be passed on to inevitably younger persons and that our systems, especially electronic should be up to date in order to attract a new breed of Vincent owner..a young person, familiar with technology, smartphone in hand who expects to interact with the club seamlessly in cyberspace. Coincidentally I was very pleased to see that my very dear friend Phil Mahood, who I have had the pleasure of knowing for over 40 years has just been announced (MPH 857) as the Computer Officer for the Club.
 
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