Misc: Everything Else Early (B?) vs. late (C?) kickstart levers

greg brillus

greg brillus

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I can't imagine a worse material for making such a highly loaded part such as a kick start crank, especially with such a small diameter and fine spline........ This is probably why they gave up and went to steel/chrome much easier to machine for a start. Not a fan of stainless, I so wish all the hardware supplied now was plated steel and not stainless.........only good for wheel rims and spokes.
 
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oexing

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Well, there is stainless and stainless. I guess most of your knives at home , gear in hospitals and so on are stainless, hardened too. I do most parts in stainless when alu does not seem suitable. Never had any problems with that and I hate to need chromers as you can expect a lot of costs and frustration even if you do all the grinding and polishing for sure. Great to have very few parts on the Vincent with chrome, but the kickstart lever is one of these.

Vic
 
Robert Watson

Robert Watson

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This one was/is the same, HRD all over, straight seat lugs, touring mudguards, etc. It spent most of its life in a very small interior BC town. The grandson of the Original owner now has it.
20180523_133622_HDR.jpg
 
john998

john998

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Hello, my Rapide built in late 1949 had one when bought by me it in 1965. It was in use up to a few years ago until I realised what it was. It was then replaced with later one as too rare to use. John.
 
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GBewley

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I want to thank everyone for their input, especially those of you with the experience of later bikes with the B starters. I am trying to organize myself to build some of my bikes and wanted to use one of these levers (I have a few) on my B Shadow. The bike came to me with it, but as I got it in about ‘11 and it was last sold prior to that in ‘83, I just wondered If this would have been possible. Going with it...
 
Robert Watson

Robert Watson

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Albervin said:
Was the gear change modified by the owner?
Click to expand...
If you are asking me Alyn about the picture I posted. No, it was not modified by the owner, It was done by me! Having fought the B gear change linkage on my B (the one in the hotel lobby in 2003) I gave up on it and changed to a one piece and hung the original on the wall (No it is not for sale). I recommended that the owner of this bike did the same, and also told him not to sell it either.
 
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