Rebuilds...

[david bowen]

When doing a rebuild I put the wire into the FT22AS before fitting to bike

 

[vibrac]

lets see (times have moved on) one stop wire, one rear wire, one left hand indicator wire, one right hand indicator wire and good practice says one earth wire = one large diameter tube for FT22AS? or a hole bigger than it should be? -Ah! I know it has 2 legs....

 

[Len Matthews]

Hi David,

No, I lived in Central London and then Edgware ( N.W.) I was with the N.London section when it was at " The London Apprentice" in Old St. (?) then when it moved to Kentish Town. Two of the members of that time are still around. Peter Biles and Seymour Moss.

I sold a Comet I had to Peter, which he and his daughter campained in various Race events.

Regards
Richard

Talking of racing Richard, I still owe you for a Clutch Cable that you loaned me during the Shannonville road races in 1977. This event was part of the Shadow Lake Rally in that year and the only time I actually won a sidecar race (with certain Herr Schupp as ballast). To be fair, there were only two more outfits on the grid, one of which was a Kawasaki that had some form of pivoting sidecar mounted on the right side and carried no passenger. This meant, although the Kawasaki could outgun the Vincent it was severely handicapped on right turns so Schupp and me could easily sweep past. It was a fascinating day all round; after the event I had the privilege of transporting Paul Richardson back to Shadow Lake in my sidecar. He wrote of that experience in MPH and mentioned something about the piercing beam from my headlamp lighting up the road ahead. Little did he know that I was praying that my battery would hold out as the dynamo had expired some days before!

 

[Oldhaven]

Talking of racing Richard, I still owe you for a Clutch Cable that you loaned me during the Shannonville road races in 1977. This event was part of the Shadow Lake Rally in that year and the only time I actually won a sidecar race (with certain Herr Schupp as ballast). To be fair, there were only two more outfits on the grid, one of which was a Kawasaki that had some form of pivoting sidecar mounted on the right side and carried no passenger. This meant, although the Kawasaki could outgun the Vincent it was severely handicapped on right turns so Schupp and me could easily sweep past. It was a fascinating day all round; after the event I had the privilege of transporting Paul Richardson back to Shadow Lake in my sidecar. He wrote of that experience in MPH and mentioned something about the piercing beam from my headlamp lighting up the road ahead. Little did he know that I was praying that my battery would hold out as the dynamo had expired some days before!

Interesting what triggers old memories. The Kawasaki belonged to my Navy friend David Coffield, who used to do Sunday rides with some of us from the Tidewater Virginia and DC area in the 70's. He had one of the first of the fast Z1 Kaw's and the interesting sidecar, and was always a bit miffed when the old relics got more attention than he did. We had several Vin's parked in my garage one day plus the Kawasaki, and my big bloodhound wandered in and raised his leg on the Japanese motorcycle's tire. I made sure he did not forget that for a while. He and his wife Marty accompanied us to the '77 rally. I remember meeting a fellow there on a white tanked Norvin that crashed rather badly during the race. We ended up going to the hospital with him. He had borrowed my wife's leather jacket for the race, and it ended up the worse for wear, but we were glad it helped him a bit anyway. I can't remember his name or if he is still riding Vincents.

Ron Franklin