Muff to Crankcase shims and gaskets

[Monkeypants]

In regards to the extra power and speed of the Shadow, I think the marketing end of the Vincent company was always going full bore, as evidenced by the giant 150 mph speedo fitted to the Shadow. Im not sure there are very many stock bikes that could really achieve a top speed over 120mph, unless the rider was110 pounds and willing to ride at top speed stretched flat out, clad only in underwear, no shoes!

On the Sulby Straight at the Iom on my lowly Rapide I managed to pass two Shadows, both riders flat out on the tank. My Smiths speedo showed 115 mph and Iknow by Gps comparison it reads a tiny bit high. I talked with the owner of one Shadow afterwards, lovely bike fully redone by Patrick Godet 2 years earlier.

Another favourite from the 50s was "cruise all day at 100mph". This statement appears here and there when discussing Vincents and might be attributable to magazine writers rather than the Vincent marketing arm, but Im sure they loved to read those words in print.
The full phrase should be "cruise all day at 100 mph, blow your engine to kingdom come " or "cruise all day at 100 mph, lose your license for 5 years!"
How about, "cruise all day at 100 mph, refuel and reoil from a tanker!"

I suppose it is no different now, the 1/4 mile time for the plastic fantastics touted in bike mags always seems to be about a second or so faster than the real times for the same bikes listed on sites like Dragtimes.

Glen

 

[davidd]

Following Ed's advice: Phil, are you doing this just for break in? If you are I would advise against it. My racer has 11.5:1 mechanical compression ratio and the big end is not a problem even after a thousand plus racing miles at full throttle. I would encourage you to collect the good data that you are doing now, but if the piston is not hitting the head and the engine starts and runs well, I do not think the mechanical compression ratio means much except as a reference point.

David

 

[vince998]

20% power increase from slightly increased compression and carb size? I suspect that a bit more than "some of the improvement was due to this selection of parts", assuming all Raps were 45 bhp and all Shadows 55 bhp. Pity they weren't supplied with a Goldie style certificate showing measured power, that would be interesting now.

H

Heart Breaking is what it would have been.

 

[vince998]

In regards to the extra power and speed of the Shadow, I think the marketing end of the Vincent company was always going full bore, as evidenced by the giant 150 mph speedo fitted to the Shadow. Im not sure there are very many stock bikes that could really achieve a top speed over 120mph, unless the rider was110 pounds and willing to ride at top speed stretched flat out, clad only in underwear, no shoes!

On the Sulby Straight at the Iom on my lowly Rapide I managed to pass two Shadows, both riders flat out on the tank. My Smiths speedo showed 115 mph and Iknow by Gps comparison it reads a tiny bit high. I talked with the owner of one Shadow afterwards, lovely bike fully redone by Patrick Godet 2 years earlier.

Another favourite from the 50s was "cruise all day at 100mph". This statement appears here and there when discussing Vincents and might be attributable to magazine writers rather than the Vincent marketing arm, but Im sure they loved to read those words in print.
The full phrase should be "cruise all day at 100 mph, blow your engine to kingdom come " or "cruise all day at 100 mph, lose your license for 5 years!"
How about, "cruise all day at 100 mph, refuel and reoil from a tanker!"

I suppose it is no different now, the 1/4 mile time for the plastic fantastics touted in bike mags always seems to be about a second or so faster than the real times for the same bikes listed on sites like Dragtimes.

Glen

I once did 100MPH for roughly an hour on my D together with a bunch of modern bikes. funnily enough, oil consumption wasn´t an issue but fuel consumption was!!! It used almost a full tank.

 

[Monkeypants]

Thats not half bad fuel economy, about 30 mpg, better than I thought it would be at that speed. Did you act nonchalant afterward and ask the modern bike riders if they always cruised at such low speeds?

 

[b'knighted]

Having run at 90mph on a police bike speedo with a smallish Jap bike struggling to keep up with its speedo showing more than 100mph, my question would be "what speed did they think they were doing?"