Tracking down a family bike

stevee

Well Known and Active Forum User
VOC Member
Steve, Did you make up that front stand yourself.....?......It looks very much like the ones on the "A"'s ..........Greg.
HI Greg
Sorry didn't make the stand - I think it may have come from (the late) Alan Swainson or failing that Conways. You will notice the deliberate mistake seen in the photos of my 'B'Meteor where the front mudguard struts and the stand are held onto the Brampton with a single bole on each side - now corrected!
I am certainly no expert (and would welcome someone who really knows correcting me) but I think that there were 3 types of stands on the pre-war and post war Meteors - one shaped like an 'H' (what Glenn Shriver refers to as a Mark II) and two others where there is a continuous bent strip of metal - either tubular (which I suspect went on post-war Meteors) or a strip which was C shaped in cross section (perhaps the Mark I ?) I have attached one picture of the H and the tubular types The tubular one has of course straight side arms unlike the angled one on the 'D'. Hopefully also attached is a picture of a 1937 unrestored bike where the C shape of the metal strip is just about visible
Simon - Thanks so much for all of the info and for starting this connection going
Steve
Front stand 3.jpg
IMG_1812 (1).jpg
 

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Jim Richardson

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VOC Member
PFC is an Oxford registration and they were issued in 1950.
Oxford had two Vincent dealers who were Avery and Kings. Avery took 23 Vincent's but appeared to stop been a dealer around March 1949. Kings though was one of the biggest dealers of Vincent's in the UK. They had branches in Oxford, Manchester and Birmingham. Across all 3 locations Kings took at least 900 Vincent's. Their Oxford branch taking just over 400 Vincent's.
Looking at the series B Meteors there was 126 made. Of these 106 were sold in the UK. Kings Oxford took 21 Meteors and of those 15 had PFC registrations.
Date wise (not engine number order) the last 11 Meteors all went to Kings Oxford in May 1950 and as PFC was was the Oxford registration been used at the time that explains why PFC is common on Meteors. Why Kings took all the last Meteors I don't know. Maybe Vincent did a deal with them to take all the last Meteors so the factory could just concentrate on the Comet.

Simon
I bought my C Rapide and Comet from a chap in Freeland, on the A40 just outside Oxford, he had just sold a Shadow, his neighbour had sold a Prince. The Oxford British Bike club has several Vincents and a ComDom, Ray Elgar lives at Cassington, close to Oxford on the A40.
Neither of my bikes came out of Kings, but Oxford does seem to be a bit of a Vincent hotspot.
Not too far away is Leatherslade farm, where a local Vincent Branch met, also the hideout for the Great Train Robbers.
 

Chris Launders

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VOC Member
"Leatherslade farm, where a local Vincent Branch meet, also the hideout for the Great Train Robbers" I suppose that's just a coincidence is it !!!
 

vibrac

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VOC Member
"Leatherslade farm, where a local Vincent Branch meet, also the hideout for the Great Train Robbers" I suppose that's just a coincidence is it !!!
Ron Kemp lived there after the robbers before he moved to Aylesbury so I guess thats the connection, The other bike firm in oxford was Leytons they sold my Triumph Trophy in March 1952 that has an SFC number my first VOC section was Oxford upstairs room in a pub on the way into town .
Nothing with a petrol engine is liked in the town environs all the petrol heads must be in the surrounding villages I know Ray is.
 
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