COVID-19 Rebuild

[Graham Smith]

Not Vincent, but you might find it of interest.

Restored 1930s motorbike sat in boxes for decades

Ralph Goodson, from Derby, says lockdown gave him the time to finally complete the restoration.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[vibrac]

I knew at the start of this lock down that I needed a long project Ben was 25 miles away with the racer so I dug out a bike that had been in my shed for 30 years a set of pipes I had for 40 years and a gearbox stashed away since the early 60's
It was a bike whose engine came from the Mc Candless Bros (Fetherbed) of NI and it had been modded, raced and tweeked so little was standard I think the words are "And now for something completely different"
I certainly met some challenges some (stuck clutch flywheels) solved on here, some frustrations some silly mistakes, learnt a lot, had help from Marcus with some bronze turning and made new contacts and friends .
Not that it finished yet a non standard sprocket/tooth/chain caught me out before I got to the rollers. but its getting there. An interesting diversion from Vincents

,raced

 

[Chris Launders]

Mine's a bit more freestyle than that, a friend left 1/2 a 1979 Harley Sportster in my garage about 25 years ago so I've bought what was left off him. There was the steering head, down and back to the swinging arm mount, the swinging arm and most of the engine, so no frame from the steering head back above crankcase height.

So going through all my redundant parts from other projects and a bit of lateral thinking it now has a tapering box section top frame member like the Vincent as an oil tank, the rear subframe is modified AJS, the rear wheel is heavyweight Royal Enfield, Norton short Roadholders with long Roadholder sliders and Atlas yokes (3/8" wider than earlier ones) a Triumph conical hub with the earlier cast iron hub 2LS brakeplate, the tank is a Harley one piece stretched about 4" the back to look similar to my 11-50 Brough tank, the silencer is a 680 Brough one with custom made pipes.
I've thrown the original primary and sprocket covers, the primary is now a 1986-90 Sportster one that looks more like a Vincent one and fabricated a sprocket cover which carries the kickstart support boss and the brake pedal, when that's finished there will be a shallow dome over the sprocket centre like an Indian.
I made the valance on the rear guard and the whole front guard is the first one I made for my SS100 project but rejected as I'd used a "C" section instead of "D" section one, the seat frame is just bent up from strip and is a copy of the big Brough seat.
Not done a lot since the photo was taken as been busy on other things but I have fitted the twin fillers for the tank and a hinged cover over where the oil tank filler is and also fabricated alloy fishtails plus made a "cast" rear number plate and also made up an alternator using a Kubota one as in a McDougulator, it also has an 8" Lucas headlight on tubular stays. The idea is it will look like a late 1930s Brough SS100 updated just after the war with the a swinging arm and tele's.