Factory people

greg brillus

greg brillus

Well Known and Active Forum User
VOC Member
What a great photo ........Not too many bikes made that could hold a candle to the looks of a Lightning........ Just fabulous.
 
C

chankly bore

Well Known and Active Forum User
Non-VOC Member
Further information from a Velo. owning friend who is having his house painted. The painter's dad was Peter Lightbound who worked at Vincent's as a machinist in the early 50's. Nice things happen when you ride your Vincent, part two; I pulled up outside work on the Comet on Steroids and a bloke in his 60's came over. I didn't have much time to chat, but his dad had the surname Walker and campaigned a Lightning in Scotland and England. He also owned a Shadow. Any recall, gents?
 
L

Little Honda

Well Known and Active Forum User
Non-VOC Member
Len Matthews said:
Paul Richardson, a wonderful man, attended the '77 Shadow Lake Rally in his Honda 400/4. During the rally a road race meeting was organised on the Shannoville circuit. Paul took the Honda round for a few laps. Such was the distance back to the rally site it was decided that someone would ride Paul's Honda back there and I had the privilege of taking Paul back in my sidecar. At about half distance an eatery was found; on the menu was Spaghetti Bolognese, "All you can eat" it said and Paul certainly made the most of that! Later, he wrote a piece for MPH describing the run back to Shadow Lake in the sidecar and mentioned something about the penetrating beam of my headlamp illuminating the road ahead. Little did he know that my dynamo had failed some time before and therefore I was praying that the battery would hold out which luckily it did.
Click to expand...
When rebuilding my first Rapide in the mid to late 1970ies, being a total greenhorn on Vincents, I often went to Paul´s and Frankie´s house in Orchard Rd. no.17 in Stevenage with Kurt Schupp and
others. Paul was what I imagined an English Gentleman was, being well educated and whitty, as well as most entertaining. He helped me a lot to get the missing parts for my bike, which was different
to nowadays, as then VOC spares were of lesser quality and availability, than today. One day, after many visits, I asked him about the sidecar outfit in his house´s yard, and he showed it to me: It was
a homemade special with an austin-7 engine built in, as George Brough had on offer in earlier years, but with one rear wheel and chain drive. I think, it was a modified Matchless frame. He wanted
to sell it, but (me Greenhorn) did not want it, because the door to my workshop at home was too small.... I still have a year-long communication by letter with him, the old gentleman and the young
passionate Vincent fan, which is most remarkable to me after his past as german prisoner of war - which never was mentioned between us until our last meet on his funeral in Den Haag.
 
Top