Welcome to new forum website member, StephenRF

[Vincent H.R.D. Owners Club]

@StephenRF - welcome to the online forum website of the Vincent H.R.D. Owners Club.

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[StephenRF]

Hi - I don't own a Vincent but I've had extensive experience of most British classic marques. But... my father bought an A Series (1936) which I think was a Comet but might have been a Meteor. He rode it from 1942 until probably '46 or '47. WS 5313.

I've posted about it on the Facebook site. It was a fabled bike and as a toolmaker and subsequently a development engineer he loved to explain to me all of its advantages. So it holds a place in my heart, not the least because when I had Triumphs, BSAs, Nortons, AJS, MZs, a Sunbeam and best of all a Velocette Venom, he would grunt a bit when we took them apart. That meant they just weren't in the HRD class (he never called it a Vincent). Though he did like the Velocette.

I believe his has long gone but until I find the original logbook I can't supply engine or frame numbers. I attach a picture of the purchase receipt. And one last thing - sometime during the War it split the big end eye in the conrod. My father heated and hammered the split shut, welded it up, bored the eye out, machined a new sleeve and big end pin and then made a floating bush Royal Enfield style because he told me he couldn't get the rollers during the War.

He loved the bike and had to sell it because he couldn't afford to fix it. A source of pain to him ever after.

 

[Marcus Bowden]

StephenRF my handsome, I too served an apprenticeship as fitter/turner and ended up in the toolroom of HMD Devonport, it was the best place to be as we had all the best gear there and whilst there rebuilt my Vincent three times each time renewing the B/E (Alpher's) I never got more than 50 k out on one, our Prof Higgins got to the bottom of it as he found the roller cages were machined on the skew so rollers were scuffing, what I like about your fathers idea of a floating bush B/E as I've just done the same with my series"A" Comet but have made the supply oil pump 3/16" wide gears so half as much again. The works tried white metal plain bushes on some Flashes but they failed as I think it was because the oil supply is intermittent but "A's" it was continuous. Mr Vincent said in his autobiography he wished he kept his gear pump system as it would have been better for the Picador project for a start as the pathetic flow of oil to cam spindles in why I fitted a Honda pump and my present set of MK2 cams have done over 300k miles, there is about 15 psi squirting up through the cams directly under the followers and the only noticeable wear is on the top of the cam as a little tit forms as when I had the followers stellyted in the yard in the 60's they left a cavity around the oil hole in front of the push rod socket so load bearing is that much more localised, that is why Gary Robinson (cam man Isle of White) use to stellyt over the holes.

"A" B/E. PLAIN bush Royal Enfield STYLE

Honda oil pump. taken from Forty Years ON

BANANAMAN

 

[StephenRF]

Hi - that's very interesting - the floating bush. I have a spare and a spare big end pin that he made. I'll see if I can find them and I will post pictures. It's alloy and has annular grooves. But I'm not sure how well it lasted. Though I suspect he was going fairly sedately, given the blackout, shrapnel (during 1944 and the start of the V1 and V2 raids) and cowled headlamp of wartime. I have his request for a petrol ration somewhere and that tells me which company he worked for on St Albans. Where there was of course a famous hull testing tank.

And the extra oil - yes very good idea. My Velocette always clattered first thing which was the delay before the oil got to the jets. Not great from a wear point of view. Your pump keeps the oil film at all times.... Pleased to see the Navy helping look after a Vincent.