Vincent Racing Calendar

Virago

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I am surprised no-one has mentioned the George Brown Memorial Sprint this weekend, at East Kirkby in Lincolnshire. There will be lots of old sprinters in action, including re-built Super Nero, according to the September Old Bike Mart, bottom of page 3. Might see you there. Phil and Anne.
 

roy the mechanic

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Personally I am pleased that there is no great Vincent attendance at goodwood. Most of both cars and bikes are "goodwood cheaters". They are N O T eligible to race under C R M C rules!. For my tuppence worth it should be avoided like the plague!
 

champion

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http://www.nationalsprintassociation.org/gbmsprint.html
George Brown Memorial Sprint - Free for Vincent Riders!



I am shocked that Goodwood do not support Vincents more, a Vincent was the bike to win at the one race in period.
It annoys me that the purpose built Vincents are not invited back, because of loud complaints by people manufacturing purpose built Manx Nortons.
I can not imagine a day when Valentino Rossi would get banned for being faster than Lorenzo and Marc if they complained...

Having attended The Revival every year since 2007, I feel that it is now an event aimed at bankers and brokers who love money, not historic motorsport.
It therefore shocks me that they do not love Vincents - if for no other reason than because they are very expensive.
Will not be attending this year, in spite of being offered tickets due to being up in Nottingham this weekend. I will however watch the motorcycle race (Barry sheene Memorial Trophy) live on the internet.

Roy - Having mechaniced in the St Marys Paddock at goodwood for several years, it is incredible the amount of cheating which goes on!
 

greg brillus

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Racing and cheating go together......Bikes and cars..........Don't.........Any time I have been to an event that includes both cars and bikes, the bikes always end up the poor cousin. By removing the Horner's from an event like that, they turn a race meet from something interesting into something boring.......Isn't it called "Tall poppy syndrome"..................o_O
 

roy the mechanic

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My pal Tony was C R M C clerk of the course for several years. At one goodwood he said "see the guy on the 500 M V? I'd have black flagged him for being too slow. He was being overtaken on the straight by a bloke on a 250 aermacci! When I looked at the programme the mv was ridden by Freddie Spenser.When we got to the paddock, where we both knew most of everybody, the M V was actually a 750 road bike with yellow plates which means it's a 500! Worst of all it had the swoopy meggas of Ago's bike. My interest in this syle of B S !"racing " was soon quelled.
 

vibrac

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Personally I am pleased that there is no great Vincent attendance at goodwood. Most of both cars and bikes are "goodwood cheaters". They are N O T eligible to race under C R M C rules!. For my tuppence worth it should be avoided like the plague!
The CRMC rules are not the gold standard for instance (and a niggeling instance for me) Ben cannot race his K100 BMW with the CRMC because its wheels are too small and its water cooled (both standard fitments) so there we have it a bike based on an 80's touring bike thats won the BHRC championship and who's purchase price was under £1K banned. up against race replicas and they are worried?
 

timetraveller

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A few notes concerning yesterday at Goodwood; there were three Vincents racing. The first was a Grey Flash (replica) owned by a gentleman from Dorset who's name I don't have. The engine had been guilt by Mike Hawthorn. The bike went well but did not finish as it lost compression after many laps and it is assumed that either the piston or a valve has failed. The second was a twin, owned and ridden by Patrick Walker (no relation). This bike showed a good turn of speed but eventually succumbed to clutch slip. The clutch is a multi-plate one bought from the Spares Company and on dismantling did not show any signs of oil or wear. My guess is that stronger springs are needed to cope with the extra power as the force required on the handlebar lever was very light. Finally there was the Robert Lusk twin, which I help out with occasionally. This was lying third in the race and had put up the second fasted lap time when the gear change linkage came loose. This was fixed on the day but there was no more racing for bikes yesterday. Vibrac will be happy to know that they use straight 40 grade Castor oil for lubrication. Today is forecast to be wet. Both the twins use the John Emmanuel modification on their steering heads and the Flash owner immediately ordered one. More noteworthy is that Patrick Walker does not use any form of steering damper, friction or hydraulic, and finds that the bike handles well enough. The 30 lbs/inch springs on the front of the Robert Lusk twin seem to be about right but a bit more testing will be required to show up whether they will do for the rest of us. Note that these bikes probably weigh less than a fully equipped road going Comet so we are homing in on what will be required for those with this steering head mod.
 

greg brillus

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It would be good to see some pictures of their front ends, that is, side on showing the relative position of the links, and how much travel is left for the spring boxes. I have found it depends also on the shock absorber used, plus what length lower eye bolts are used. With the new front end mods and a new Thornton coilover on the rear, it has raised the height of my bike considerably.
 

timetraveller

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The important thing at the front is to ensure that when the rider is on the bike the lower front link is just pointing upwards at the front. The Patrick Walker bike looks to be using an original Vincent damper with the short lower eyes. The Robert Lusk bike has Thorntons front and rear. Part of the days testing at Brand Hatch a week ago was testing the Thornton coil over damper at the rear. This has been modified so that a spacer can be inserted at the lower end between the piston rod and the lower mounting. Both riders were just touching the exhaust pipes and so a spacer with an extra 4 mm thickness was fitted to pack up the rear end. This gave 6 mm on the wheel spindle and solved the problem. However, this is all on top an already modified upper mounting which gives more than an inch of packing backwards so I cannot tell you the exact amount of additional spacing which has been used without measuring it. I can do that next week if wished. Regarding the total travel at the front. A cable tie was fastened around the inner spring box where it just touched the outer box. Then, after the race, we could see just how much it had been moved down. It was all the way to the bottom suggesting that either it was not tight enough and had slipped (it seemed tight) or that there was no more movement possible without shortening the outer spring box. Note that this is with 30 lbs/inch springs with 3" of pre-load. At the moment we think that that is too much pre-load but as that would mean even more movement at the front end and thus compound the problem with total travel. We already have 36 lbs/inch springs made which are what Chrislaun found to be suitable for him on his road bike. He also used 3" of pre-load so at the moment my guess is that what we are homing in on is a spring of about 36 lbs/inch with less pre-load for lighter bikes.
I did some experiments on my own bike about four months ago and wrote something up for MPH which Graham has accepted but not yet found space to include. In that, I show the path movement of the front wheel spindle, real not theoretical. Following that I removed the front damper and let the wheel fall as far as it can without the limit of the damper. I found that it can drop another inch but if this is done then the first half an inch of movement moves the wheel spindle forwards, which is what we are trying to avoid, but only be 0.1 of an inch. Provided that this first half an inch is used up when the rider sits on the bike that might be acceptable. We seem to be heading for a combination of damper length and lower eye height which will allow at least the extra half an inch of drop, and possibly the whole inch, combined with springs in the 30 to 36 lbs/inch range to provide the maximum possible movement and hopefully the most comfortable and safe ride possible.
I'm sorry that I did not take any photographs but perhaps Vibrac can do that tomorrow. It is not as easy as it sound though as in the pits the bikes are normally on their racing rear stands and thus the bikes are tilted. I can take picture of the Robert Lusk bike next week if you wish.
 
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