Vincent bodging

clevtrev

Well Known and Active Forum User
VOC Member
No.
You just reminded me I did the same, and forgot to replace it when I had time. Like you said "if it ain't.........
There's a recent thread about soldered nipples coming adrift, perhaps we should all use this type.

H
I won a tin of those, some years ago, at a Dutch Rally. I think the Dutch Ladies donated them.
 

Howard

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VOC Member
I think we're in danger of getting our wrists smacked by Graham, for being frivolous again.

I "bodged" the Egli gearbox last night. It was over travelling (not sure why it should start now) - to my amazement I'd got a G61 not a G61/1 so I made up some ears out of an old tv stand - I save all sorts of metal bits for re-use.

We've got a postal strike locally so I'll get a proper job from the VOCSC when they sort themselves out.

H

ps The bodge works so maybe I'll replace it when I change the solderless nipple.
 

mercurycrest

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VOC Member
In the mid Seventies, someone brought me a D Shadow to get tuned and running for him. He hadn't owned it long and had previously given it to an "old cycle expert" in Portland Oregon to restore for him. I must say, it sure looked nicer than my D Shadow with all the newly chromed parts glittering in the sun... Too bad that it didn't stop there! Get out your parts book and for starters, open to page M002. Now imagine just about everything there that could be chromed was! The bike had broken liners, timing case spindles that you could turn by hand and things I can't even describe done to it. I busted my butt trying to get that bike running, it was a good thing parts were cheap and plentyful from Good Old Doug Hollis back then. When I finally got the bike near as I could to sorted out, the owner picked it up, rode it a half dozen times and then parked it with the rest of his collection of about 25 bikes. As far as I know it still is setting in the same spot, next to a C Comet (a not so bad rebuild), both with white sheets over them, for the last 30 plus years.
Cheers, John
 

Hugo Myatt

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VOC Member
Bodges

Many years ago, at a small petrol station in rural Suffolk, I came across a Black Prince or Knight parked at a petrol pump. There was no sign of the owner. The clutch cover was necessarily missing and the clutch had been converted to Lightning spec. However instead of a Ferodo friction disc there was a replica roughly cut from a piece of three-ply plywood and with over extended 'ears'. I waited around for a while in the hope of meeting the owner but he/she didn't show. I have often wondered how this 'modification' worked in practice.
 

b'knighted

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VOC Member
In defence of bodging

Bodgers were skilled craftsmen who made chair legs, rails and splats using improvised pole lathes, so a good bodge should not be scorned. (http://www.ukcraftfairs.com/guide-to-bodging.asp)
Isn’t it a lovely language – “a three inch nail had been skelped into the rocker tunnel” Skelped is a new word to me but it is easy to understand.

Surely any improvised repair (like ring pulls to space a cover) that gets you home is totally justifiable. I have been told stories of old time repairs like stuffing a flat tyre with grass to get home after a puncture or improvising a bit of fence wire to hold a chain together when a spring link has been lost. I once lent the Mole Grips (like Vice Grips) from my Comet tool kit, to a RAC/ACU pupil who had the gear lever drop off his Ariel Arrow the day before his driving test. He passed and went on to become a motorcycling journalist!
Surely a bodge should only be criticised if it damages parts or prevents rectification. Otherwise it should be praised as part of the conservation process or a continuation of the wartime spirit of “Make Do and Mend” which is surely in keeping with the age of our machines.

The most horrific bodge I have ever seen committed on a Vincent involved hacking off the gearbox to convert a twin into a pre-unit with a different make of gearbox.

Cheers
 

Hugo Myatt

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VOC Member
Plywood clutch

John,
Perish the thought. This was twenty years ago. Curiously though, the garage was one of the two close together at Stanton on the A143. I had hoped to see the owner ride away.I reckoned the bodge must have been good for at least two or three yards.
 

Len Matthews

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VOC Member
Once I laid out almost £800 to have the rocker tunnel reclaimed, lead free seats installed, new liner / piston / push rods / Mk2 cam and followers I didn't notice any difference in performance. Just goes to show that they can still run pretty well when the engines are well clapped.

I'm surprised that Mk.2 cams made no difference to performance. Usually they really liven up a Comet even though the exhaust noise is bordering on the intolerable!
 
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