No longer 100% original, but still largely unrestored. The thread in the seat cover lasted about 50 years. The cover itself is not too bad. The original Dunlapillo seat foam is still pliant and just now starting to get crumbly on the edge. All cables but the clutch cable are original. I have a NOS cable from Somer Hooker that I need to fit. Yes, this bike, built very late in 1952, came with solid Bowden levers. The brake lever, my father loaned to someone way way back, and of course, they never returned/replaced it. I have a Michael Breeding solid lever, but not fitted. When we put my fathers Shadow back together in the early 80’s, the only wiring I could salvage was the wires to the Speedo bulbs. I have heard that Rhode Island Wire makes a good harness, courtesy leg work from David Dunfey, I believe. The kick start rubber is a natural rubber John Bull, I think it will outlive me. Lots of little bits were chromed by my father back in the day. Original clutch would oil up when we first put it back together, but once we placed an o ring behind the nut, just smashed in there, no special machining, and non setting Permatex on the splines, it had been flawless for decades, now the o ring has hardened and is letting oil by. A lot of the mileage in the 80’s was done with Specialloid pistons, until I burned a hole in one while chasing a Porsche up a grade in the 90’s, now it has the Kemp Omegas. My father put about 17k miles on it before he took it apart in the late 50’s. I think the speedo indicates 27k now, but I stopped replacing broken cables way back. I estimate it has about 40-50k miles total. My father tore it down after an engine seizure, and had the big end replaced with an Alpha back then, but got married and family duties soon after got in the way of putting it back on the road, until Bill Easter told us about the 1980 Bass Lake rally. I was of college age, got the Vincent bug, and we pulled the bits out of the depths of the garage. It was back on the road just in time for the 1982 Shadow Lake rally. No other major engine work, I think one other piston/liner work, and a valve job. The gearbox does have an issue, won’t shift into third or fourth, crapped out on the way home (to Ireland at that time) from the Italy International in 2017.
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