Misc: Everything Else Series 'A' Very early Series A Comet picture

[Prince Duster]

Hi - think this is of interest. As we know, most records cite 1934 as the first year of the Irving/Vincent powered Series A Comet single.
Yet this shot, sent in by the daughter of factory worker Alvin Midgley, is from 1933.
The period caption on the back reads: ‘Taken at HRDs Stevenage 1933.’
Alvin’s daughter Kate says about her father: ‘He never said very much about his time there. But he was pals with George Brown and kept in touch with 'Tuck' Tucker-Peake for years.
‘He must have left HRD in the late 30s and went to work in aeronautics during and after the war, then for Borg Warner until he retired’.
Best wishes,
David, Gerry, Colin, Russell & all on Speed is Expensive

 

[Vincent Brake]

Well obviously he didn't ride it.
As by the looks on his face he wasn't allowed.

 

[Marvel]

Not seen that picture before. I wonder what the cam is driving?

 

[Marvel]

Must be a magneto as I can see the ht lead coming out the front of the cover and leading up to the spark plug. Or is it?

 

[Marvel]

Maybe a second magneto for a twin plug head as the rocker oil feed pipe routing looks odd to avoid the second plug.

 

[Simon Dinsdale]

The protorype series A is in the factory records books where it is written "experimental model" and the date on the paperwork is 9th October 1934. For the bike, the mudguards are described as Speedwell 5" which were the standard steel mudguards used on series A's and earlier pre A bikes for the time period. It also mentions BTH mag-generator, BTH lights and the tank as Grey & Stainless.

The development of the series A engine is discussed in Phil Irving's autobigraphy, the Philip Vincent Autobiography and also The Vincent HRD Story by Roy Harper & Philip Vincent where all books say the series A engine was designed in a quick 4 month period following the disastrous failing of the JAP engines that they used in the June 1934 TT. This all ties up with the factory records of the prototype completed in October 1934 just before the Olympia motorcycle show in UK.

The photo posted above doesn't have lights or the usual steel Speedwell mudguards. What it does though is have the appearance of a TT or TT Replica machine with an unusual Burman gearbox and the alloy race brakeplates. In Vincent HRD Gallery by Roy Harper on pg 48 there is a photo of a 1935 TT machine and it looks virtually identical, including the gearbox, to the photo posted here apart from the strange attachment / electrical device to the front of the engine. What the extra device on the front of the engine is I don't know but there is an electrical lead coming out of the front so were they experimenting with twin plugs and so two magneto's because as mentioned above the rocker oil pipes have been routed differently possibly indicating a spark plug on the timing side?

Rather than all the books, autobiographies and works records been wrong, I suspect this is a photo of a 1935 onwards TT or TTR bike and the 1933 date is wrong or was written a lot later from a faded memory.