stainless exhaust
- Thread starter derek
- Start date
Try Bob Culver , he has the original Vincent tooling.
Nothing against Bob ,but that didn't line up with the mounts either.
Obviously not all Vincents have exactly the same dimensions.
The Armours pipe is 30 thou diamater smaller than the silencer.Grinding off the Goldstar type welded on clamp and using a 'full circle' stainless type cured the problem.John
What did Bob say about the bad fit ?
I haven't used Armours since a bad experience with a set of pipes & silencers I bought off them for a '69 Bonny I was restoring. They were such a bad fit they might as well have been for a different bike but the guy at Armours was belligerent in his denial of responsibility. He said my bike must be a bitsa or something , despite the fact it was 1 previous owner to me and had full history !! They wouldn't even fully refund , only with a 25% restocking charge. So , they lost a customer , permanently !!
I haven't used Armours since a bad experience with a set of pipes & silencers I bought off them for a '69 Bonny I was restoring. They were such a bad fit they might as well have been for a different bike but the guy at Armours was belligerent in his denial of responsibility. He said my bike must be a bitsa or something , despite the fact it was 1 previous owner to me and had full history !! They wouldn't even fully refund , only with a 25% restocking charge. So , they lost a customer , permanently !!
Bob Culver (as far as I know) does not supply stainless pipes. Years ago, an advertiser in MPH used the phrase "our pipes are guaranteed to fit". A brave boast considering the variations in one engine to another. Re. Armours, a chrome pipe they supplied for a Comet was spot on whereas a set of S/S twin pipes from them was another story!
I also have had a very bad experience with Armour's pipes. I bought two sets at the same time, complete with silencers, and found that the stub pipe on the long pipe was the same diameter as the pipes themelves so that the short rear pipes would not fit into the stub on the long pipe. They had done the same with the pipes on the front of the silencers. They admitted the fault (they could hardly do otherwise) and found that all the Vin pipes on the shelf were the same. I waited for them to make a new batch and then took the originals back and came home with two more sets in which the sockets were of the correct diameter. They looked alright until I tried to fit them when I found that the rear pipes were much too short and would not reach the stub on the long pipe. Once more a phone call and a trip down to them at which stage, in order to try to help us all, I offered to bring down an engine/gearbox unit so that they could make a jig to ensure that future sets fit. I got a rude reply that they already had a local Vincent owner and did not need help. The third set of pipes fitted but the stubs on the long pipes to take the rear short pipes are too far forwards and they are obviously different from original. However, by far the worst was that when checking them out before fitting I found that both sets had the holes in the long pipes where the short stub is welded on only about 3/4" diameter. Had I fitted them without checking the bike would have been one of those slow ones due to a severly restricted exhaust flow on the rear cylinder. It took several hours with a solid carbide burr to open out the holes to the correct diameter. If any of you have seen a moder computer controlled tube bending machine in action then you will realise that with the correct equipment there is no problem making very intricate shapes repeatedly accurate to within thous. Somehow we need to get a batch of these made. At the same time on a different thread we also need mudgueards that fit and this should be easy for people with the correct equipment. If it is too expensive for any one parts supplier to fund this then perhaps the VOC should put some of its funds into sourcing and getting made parts which fit. The money would almost certainly be better spent than with Stocks and Shares although just now is not a good time to sell those.
With regards to manufacturing tolerances being the reason that some pipes do not fit, (a word this forum will not accept). Try slackening the cylinder head nuts on an assembled engine with no pipes on. Make every thing really loose and then try to move the heads. Each one is constrained by the tops of the cylinder liner and four studs which hold everything together. We are talking total movement here of tens of thous, not more.
With regards to manufacturing tolerances being the reason that some pipes do not fit, (a word this forum will not accept). Try slackening the cylinder head nuts on an assembled engine with no pipes on. Make every thing really loose and then try to move the heads. Each one is constrained by the tops of the cylinder liner and four studs which hold everything together. We are talking total movement here of tens of thous, not more.
Last edited:
exhaust pipes
time traveller,
Very interesting, and I whole heartedly agree that action must be taken to manufacture these very simple items (exhaust and mudguards) to an acceptable fit. How can the VOCSC advertise that they have built a complete machine from obtainable spares!!! How about CAMSHAFTS???
time traveller,
Very interesting, and I whole heartedly agree that action must be taken to manufacture these very simple items (exhaust and mudguards) to an acceptable fit. How can the VOCSC advertise that they have built a complete machine from obtainable spares!!! How about CAMSHAFTS???
I have contact with a company that does tube manipulation for the Aerospace industry , this should be childs play for them. The only issue is price , but I will talk to them and find out.
Easy enough to bend tube. What is not so easy is to bend tube to fit a multitude of different Vincents out there.
Heads with exhaust ports 1/4" out to the next one, muffs a trifle long or short, cases not at 50 degree angle. Only needs a couple of thou at the port for the silencer to point a a passing car.