I am starting the restoration of C Touring Comet. I saw in JPB book, page 50, that some Touring model Rapides were Chinese Red (mostly export). Does anyone know if this also applies to Comets?
Thanks.
I think that 17 Comets were painted red from the Factory. They were not necessarily touring bikes as mine had aluminum mudguards and straight bars with 20" and 19" tires. Many of these bikes came into Canada. There is a photo of Phil Vincent at the New York show with a red Comet and a white seat that was on the Indian show stand. I suspect Indian changed the seat cover for the show.
One of our section members has one of the 16 Red Comets. He had a careful analysation of the color and it turned out to be actually called "Chinese Red", It's the official color of China's Flag, etc..
I have not seen it. The work orders from the Factory usually say "Red/Black" on those twins that are done up that way so there is no confusion. But, I have only seen a few work orders written that way so it is a small sample. Justin MacKay rode his to the Bismark rally.
This is a black and white photo, but it is quite interesting. I would have said this is the bike off the Indian show stand. Looks like a transition model. The wheels do not appear to be painted. It must be fairly close to the year of manufacture because of the other vehicles.
There were several batches. Around engines in the 4400 range, they had Vincent embossed crank cases and "plain" timing covers/ inspection caps. The earlier ones with "transition'' cases typically had a Vincent timing cover.
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