What age were you when you were first aware of HRDs or Vincents ?

Gordon Ryley

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For me it would have been 1946-7 when passing at lunch time on my way home from
school a demobbed soldier 3 stripes still in his uniform polishing this black /crome
motorcycle with HRD on the petrol tank, after my drippin butties on my way back to school
the soldier still caressing his steed I use to stop hang on his mothers gate for to long
because I was getting lines and being kept back after school, { I must not be late for school }
100 times I used to copy the lines beforehand i would have preferred the cane.
Gordon Ryley
 

chankly bore

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I must have been about thirteen. A mate down the end of the street had an Ariel Huntmaster. One of his neighbours was an old Speedway rider called Peter Castles. One Sunday afternoon Mr. Castles hung a Black Shadow together from pieces he had in his backyard shed. I'd never seen or heard anything like it before. The only thing I noticed was BIG, BLACK and NO FRAME. With no helmet Mr. Castles revved the thing, snicked it in to gear and roared off. The thing really did seem to rear back on the back wheel! By the time he'd strung it out in second gear he'd disappeared over a small hill and out of sight (but not out of sound.) Later on we were to acquainted with Ray McGrath, whose Speedway outfit was always in the forecourt of the local Caltex servo.
 

Bill Thomas

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I must have been about 13, 1960 ish,
Because Brother Ron gave me his old BSA 250 cc C11 when I was 14,
So he must have already be riding an "A" 500 cc Comet Special, The Works One !,
CUW 746 !, How I still remember that reg' number, I have no clue !.

The start of My Slippy Slope :) .
 
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Whiteshadow15

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I knew nothing other than the name until 2019 at 34. All I knew was that the were an old expensive bike.

Instantly fell in love with them after the collection find and have been hooked ever since. Certainly learned a ton in that time but have so much more to go. The amount of information on this forum has been a tremendous asset.
 

vibrac

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One overtook me (age 17) on road between Berkhampstead and Tring he changed up as he came past then his left hand went back to steady the box of groceries he held on the tank ( I can still see the ketchup bottle jumping up and down) and drew away into the distance.I wish I could remember what bike i was on I thought it was fast until then.
 

Peter Holmes

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Around 13, now 73, where did those 60 years go? There was a cafe on the corner of Princes Road and Headstone Lane, Wealdstone, (opposite the HMSO building) I was just tasting the freedom that your first racing style cycle can deliver, exploring local haunts, and also this cafe was on the route of my paper round, bearing in mind my father rode a Comet as a commuter bike, but don't get to excited, it was a James Comet 98cc, beautiful little thing, I really regret it being sold for tuppence!
Anyway, seeing a Vincent Twin parked up outside this cafe, alongside all the lesser machinery certainly sparked something within me, and it took about 4 years to realise my ambition, and that was a complete stroke of luck really, a mate of mine, Ian Gregory, had managed to convince his Dad to purchase for him (from Conway's) a Vincent Rapide, something he could lash a sidecar onto to pass his test, but first time out, with L plates, and never having ridden an outfit previously, he managed to crash it on the bend just past Soper's the sell everything store, and the Granada Cinema, and so traumatised was he that he never rode it again.
But that was my good fortune, by that time I had already passed my test on my much crashed and bashed BSA B31/ Watsonian outfit, and was ready for something more powerful and interesting, the solo B31 did not really do it for me, or the Norton 77 500, but after much negotiation, down from £100.00 (which is what Ian's dad had paid Conway's), down to £65.00, I had myself a Vincent Rapide, Hallelujah!
 
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bmetcalf

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My first experience was in the summer of 1967, age 19. A co-worker, in his early 20's, told a lot of stories (he had been in the US Navy in the Med) and had one about some bike called a Black Shadow being really fast. Naturally, I didn't believe him since I (Mr. Experienced) hadn't already heard of them! The US magazine Cycle World came out with that famous issue with several Vincent articles in1968 or so and I learned that he was right! Didn't see one until 1976 when I saw Gene Aucott's Egli parked in Daytona during Bike Week. A few months later, after buying a basketcase AJS 18 and wondering how the engine was supposed to be stopped, I noticed a Velo parked in front of a bar in Chicago, where I lived, and stopped to look at its mag to see what I could. The owner came out to make sure I wasn't going to borrow the bike, then bought me a beer and gave me Glenn Shriver's contact info. I joined the Section, went to rallies in 1977, 1978, and 1980, thought Vins were too complicated, then succumbed in 1980 and got my long-suffering Rapide.
 

Speedtwin

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Bit of back ground.
The last three generations our family have oil in the veins, motorcycle racing consumed our cash and all our time.
Come spring every weekend as kids we were packed into the Bedford van and taken to our summer playground,the paddock.
Getting there was always an adventure,dirty stinking ferries and long journeys spend sitting in heaps of smelly race leathers in the back of the clattering van.
My sister and myself in the back sharing valuable transport space with bikes and spares.
I did not know what a seatbelt was until I learnt to drive a car many years later.

My Grandad raced BSAs my uncle and my Dad, Nortons then Yamahas, so from the early age of six or seven I had officially started my bike apprenticeship.
All of our extended family raced.
My own son is now sixteen, he too has the Vincent bug and from he was 5 or 6 he knew his way around a bike, we have over the years utilised his small stature to crawl down inside the fairing of the race outfit to tighten the unreachable by an adult nuts and bolts he is also a dab hand at tea making and lock wiring.

My earliest Vincent memory is a sound.
I was sitting on a small oily wooden box bike stand cleaning the engine casing of my Dads bike in the paddock of the Temple 100 road circuit in Saintfield Co Down.
I must have been about eight or nine at the time.

The sound made the hairs on my arms stand on end.
I jumped and turned around to see my great uncle Brian on a Rapide, two down pipes and a home made silencer complete with a very homemade sidecar frame stop inches away from me.
On the frame was not a sidecar chair, but his NSU race bike tied on with a black rope.
He explained that his car a mini had broke down so he was using his work bike to move the race bike.
Yes he was well known for his 850 Austin mini bike transporter.
Turns out speaking to relatives some years on, Brian at the time was a brick-layer and used his Rapide and sidecar to go to work, move bricks and cement to site and occasionally his laborer.
Brian is in Vancouver Canada now.
Brian's Rapide was lost in the late seventies when my Grandads bike shop in Belfast was blown up.

That was it I had to have one.
Some forty plus years later a bought my first Vincent.
No racing anymore but plenty of cash still being converted into noise.

Al
 

kerry

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I was 12 years old and used to cycle past the works, since I have had several, some I had to sell in order to move home including the White Shadow I bought for £18000 in 1988 and sold for £11000 in the 1992 recession, I have to this day not found a classic bike to ride as exciting as a Vincent which can keep up with modern traffic too, the only exception is perhaps my Rocket Gold Star but that vibrates which is something I hate. please note the collection I recently mentioned has now been withdrawn from sale on the forum.
 
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