Black Shadow Carbs

[Hugo Myatt]

Mighty perplexed by all this. Ideally I should like to revert to original 1 1/16 carbs on my Rapide, which had worn out Shadow carbs when I bought it. Currently it has Mk. 11s. Foolishly I sold the Shadow carbs in the seventies. From the tiny photograph in Old Bike Mart the Surrey Cycles Rapide carbs appear to be handed Mazak carbs although the top feed float chamber seems to be a modified bottom feed item. I was sorry to read that they have sloppy slides. Question: are the Surrey Cycle Rapide carbs made by Burlen? I have hesitated to put in an order for Shadow carbs because of my preference for originality, however if the Rapide carbs are not up to muster I would rather have a decent pair of Shadow carbs. I always thought that Rapide inlet stubs were made in aluminium alloy whilst the Shadow stubs were bronze to accommodate the heavier brass front carb. I had no idea that any rear carbs were made from anything other than Mazak. Question: are inlet stubs, both 1 1/16 and 1 1/8 and both front and rear available ? (Russ?) I am with Len in that a pair of Shadow carbs correctly handed and cast in brass would be very desireable. Mazak (or monkey metal as we used to call it) carbs always seemed to wear out the thread at the top of the body very quickly and the knurled ring would lift off. Amongst the curiosities I have collected over the years is an original rear Rapide carb with a short arm top feed float chamber, which has a fitting for a single petrol pipe rather than the familiar banjo fitting.
Confused of Pinner.

 

[Tom Gaynor]

Vincent carbs

The rear carbs with adjusters on the right were used on many bikes, so the large sales volume allowed the making of a die to die-cast them. The front carbs with adjustment on the left were only used by Vincent. Amal sand-cast them in brass because the number sold wouldn't be high enough to recover the cost of a die.

Hello Vic, as I said in my previous comment the carbs displayed at the GCM were both front ones with the adjusting screws on the left. Dick Wheeldon told me that Burlen were aware of this and production versions would be correct. I'm still puzzled as to why they were cast from two different metals.