Touring Guards

Shanghai

Well Known and Active Forum User
VOC Member
My C Rapide originally left the factory in "Touring" trim and was later fitted with "Standard SS" guards. (Yes I know that the SS was not original).
I now have the opportunity to convert back to the Touring Guards (which I can source 2nd hand) , however I was wondering about the stays.
Does anyone know if the current standard stays are compatible with the Touring guards?

If not:
What are the differences? Wider?

Thanks
Tony
 

bmetcalf

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VOC Member
KTB says wider at the front and doesn't address the rear specifically, but I assume wider there also.
 

davidd

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Dear Tony,

As David said wider at the front only. If you are checking on line I believe you want FT136/1AS and FT137/1AS. They are not too difficult to make, as they are the same as standard stays with a slightly different radius and length, but they are made from 1/2" tube. The nice part about making them is that you can weld the tabs on the stays where the holes are in the fenders. It is unlikely that the the new stays will hold the fender correctly. On the last one I did I had to place the tabs assymetrically on the stays to get the fender to be equidistant from the tire.

David
 

Johnbull

Active Forum User
Non-VOC Member
I asked a couple of questions on Series B Meteor mudguards on this forum some days ago but surprisingly got no replies. I now see that there are plenty of knowledgeable people around who may be able to answer my questions, so here goes again.

Mine is a 1948 Series B Meteor. It was originally bought in UK by a British serviceman who was soon after stationed to Malta and brought the Meteor to Malta with him. It was then sold on to 3 local owners, and I bought it some 25 years ago. Since I have owned it, and well before, this bike was fitted with a fairly slim front alloy mudguard blade. I have seen pictures of this machine as early as the early 50s and it has the same mudguards and stays.

I recently ordered a set of new mudguard stays from VOC spares, and sure enough the holes on the mudguards didn't match with those on the stays. Not by a mile ! I started thinking that perhaps at some stage some previous owner may have replaced the front mudguard with that from an AJS / Matchless CSR, but the CSR hadn't even been thought of in the early 50s. So what is this front mudguard off. I repeat, I have pictures of the bike with the same front mudguard and stays, taken in the early 50s.

Were the mudguards on the Series B Meteors perhaps of a slimmer profile than those of later models?
 

davidd

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VOC Member
Joe,

The Meteor was a low cost option to the Comet. It was supplied with no front prop stands and mag cowl. It was aslo supplied with Bramptons as opposed to Girdraulics. In order to keep the cost low, it used all the same parts as the Rapide, such as wheels and mudguards. It would have been very costly to supply a slim mudguard for the Meteor as it would have required purchasing more stock and issuing new drawings and part numbers. My guess is that someone very early on changed the front mudguard.

The Meteor would have had a special lower front fender stay that is similar to the one supplied on Series D's. Because there was no prop stand the lower stay could be rotated and used as an emergency stand to repair a front tire puncture.

David
 

Johnbull

Active Forum User
Non-VOC Member
Thanks David. Agreed about front prop stands. Again my one has the mag cowl and has had since the 50s. I imagine a previous owner will have fitted that.

The strange one is the mudguards. The mudguards I have are definately a matching pair and the rear is definately a Vincent / HRD item. I have just confirmed with previous owner Bill Kind that he always remembers the bike with those mudguards, and he has owned it since the 60s. It's very strange.

Most series B models, Meteors, Rapides and Shadows had Brampton forks as far as I know, so no problem there.

The front fender stays are all the same on mine, and the lower stay is also in two seperate pieces and not the sort that doubles up as a front stand. In fact I can't say I've ever seen such a stay on any post war Vincent.

I can't honestly imagine anyone changing mudguard stays just for the sake of it. There's something very strange somewhere. Now if I knew of some other British bike of the 50s that was available in Malta and that used an alloy front blade type mudguard, then I would conclude that the original item had been damaged and replaced, but both front and rear guards on my machine appear to have been a matching pair.

It's certainly a strange one. Does anyone have a picture of a Series B Meteor with original alloy mudguards ..... PLEASE.
 

davidd

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VOC Member
The only factory photo I have of a Meteor.

David

Meteor1.jpg
 

Albervin

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VOC Member
Is it possible that someone has fitted some Series A guards to the bike? These are much slimmer than the post war guards. The stays were flat at the back with the supplementary stays having a bit of curve. The front guard had a one piece U shaped bracket (again, flat section) at the rear. Some bikes had 2 pieces stays at the front but mine does not. These were called TT guards and were used on the TTRs. My bike has had the front alloy bracket replaced with a Meteor style bracket so the front wheel can be removed (the original is in a box with the original "falling over" side stand).
 

Tom Gaynor

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VOC Member
It is worth bearing in mind that while there was a standard Vincent specification that the factory aimed for, not every Vincent that left the factory met it. I know of Rapides with Shadow clocks which were NOT specially ordered, and presumably the factory had just run out of Rapide clocks. And I know of five or six bikes, which, like mine, were delivered with Birmabright section black enamelled steel guards, presumably because the factory had run out of Birmabrights.
FWIW my Shadow was despatched at the end of February 1951, but there's no reason to believe that this was the only time alternatives had to be found for standard spec parts when they were, for whatever reason, temporarily unavailable.
 
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