The Most Original Black Lightning on the Planet?

Little Honda

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Non-VOC Member
Amazing that someone with racing experience would think that the sprung rear end was a disadvantage for sure he can never have raced in the rain against ridged bikes. In my experience, that is when the RFM really comes into its own.
Still think of how long it took Trials riders to get the sprung rear end message there is a lot of inertia in clubroom attitudes and I think even more back then and earlier for instance after all my wifes 1925 EW Douglas has an automatic oil pump but it would not sell without a swichable separate circuit and a manual pump because that was the perceived method .
Matching comparison timewise
 

Gene Nehring

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Ernst, that does set a standard, I have all the parts necessary to start my Lightning but it won't have a Works Order Form like yours but will have all original factory parts, previous machine registrar Gordon thinks it could have been a Cooper car eng ine as it only has matching HRD c/case numbers. The dilemma is what forks to fit for best handling, Brampton's or modified girdraulics with concentric bottom links?
bananaman.

banana man,

Is it the case that cooper car engines were not necessarily dispatched with engine numbers stamped on them? I have a set of early B cases with mating number only. They appear not to have any correct engine number stamped.

Best.
 
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Gene Nehring

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Interesting to see in the early pictures that the bike had dunlop rims on it with painted centres. Much like the regular machines. In the later picture with the current owner it shows the Borani raised edge racing rims. It does not mention anything about Borani in the dispatch sheets.

My impatience when writing coupled with a touch of dyslexia makes for interesting reading.
 

TouringGodet

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A number of Lightnings are noted as having steel rims in the Denis Minett notebook. Ernst’s bike, having the “Show Finish” notation, perhaps that explains the painted centre.
 
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