When I was about 8, I'd never been on a motorbike, and a chap who came in our shop had a Vincent Black Shadow. I thought it looked like an antique (this was the early 60s) so I knew I wouldn't be impressed. He told me to hang on tight to his belt, and when he opened it up, it blew my mind. I did the same for my oldest son on my Norton Commando, and his younger brother rode on my BMW R100. I'm now 64, and I love my 36 year old BMWK75S, which I think was the Vincent of the 1980s. Nice to see you giving the Vinnie some gravy, and not mollycoddling it.
This is a motorcycle I would park in my livingroom in wintertime ! Sit in my chair with a good beer and just behold its shape and wonderfull engine , dreaming where to take it coming spring . It's that kind of motorcycle .
On that (indoor) vein - I needed a tank for a BSA A7ss Shooting Star at one point, in the late 1960s - met an old guy one Saturday morning in Ross Motors basement parts dungeon in Central Glasgow - we got talking and he said he had a tank might do me okay and he didn't need more than a couple of pints' price for it. So off we goes up to Maryhill (very select up there y'know) I/we follow him in a pal's minivan, he's in some old A35 (remember those?) and we end up at this terraced block, real posh as there's no outside lavs, this is modern suburbia at its.... most interesting? In we goes, he hollers in "I'm back got some young guys needing bits" and we quickly establish his tank is useless for the A7 frame, turns out he more or less knew that but he was keen to let us see his bike. We're called through to another room, it's got a double bed in it and beyond the bed before the window is - a B31. An OLD B31. Not a modern one with a swingarm. Plungers. A bike that now might fetch maybe (a very crazy) £5-6k? He's hoping we'll buy it. It's kind of a sweetie right enough but - it's still - a B31? Yech. We had to let him down easy as he thought he'd likely got a sale. He offered to start it but we declined. At that time we'd never heard of CO poisoning but somehow we guessed that an elderly single might generate a bit of smoke in that wee room... unattractive idea somehow. He'd asked for - £45. And we thought he was deeply misguided to expect two young scruffs like us to want an ancient wheezy 350cc single - for £45?? But the best bit was - we asked him "how did you get it up here?" It was up a stair with a turnaround halfway up. A narrow stair. Turns out he'd built it up there from a naked forkless frame a bit at a time - an unspecified number of years previously, over weeks, in the room where he and his wife slept. With no thought about how to get the assembled bike down those stairs... We left him pondering. The room smelled of - old bike. oil, petrol, old rubber pegs and grips - and they'd slept in that room in the smell and the oiliness for god knows how long. Never did meet his lady wife. She never showed face. Never did get a tank for that S.Star, it gradually disappeared in small sales of bits. Some to guys met - in Ross Motors, of all places... :)
The fly past was the best part Nothing better than a beautiful English country road with the most iconic brish bike of all. Thank you SO much for posting this
Not many people realise the japanese legacy of the Vincent . Yamaha purchased a Vincent 1000 to study for their first 'liter-v-twin' , the TR1 , XV1000 . Reviewers of the day 'slagged' the ugly-rear-end , which was a tribute to Vincent . They also essentially copied the rear-suspension , using one 'mono-shock' . The swing-arm and 'frame' were also Vincent-inspired . This chain-drive machine quickly evolved into the Virago-series and V-Stars etc of today . All the other Japanese-Cruisers were arguably a response to Yamaha and therefore Vincent . People moan that Vincent didn't carry-on , when in reality it changed the history of motorcycling in many-ways . Dave NZ
Got to be ridden,ride my B Series with Bramptons lovely ride,my 3 cylinder R3 and T160,real sounding bikes ,lucky to have grown up and ridden many in 52 years I have been riding.
You are truly fortunate to enjoy riding one of the greatest motorcycles in history. I knew of the Vincent long ago, when I "inherited" my brother's Sears Allstate scooter (Puch of Austria), and was enamored by the marque. I knew then that it was made of unobtainium. And now they most assuredly are. What an amazing motorcycle! Thanks for taking us along for the ride.
One glaring omission. A black leather petrol tank cover. Saw one of these in the early sixties and it certainly added the ‘wow’ factor to an already amazing machine.
That's interesting. I've been reading about Vincents for 20-odd years but never came across a tank cover. Nor on any other vintage bike I've seen. Was it meant to be put on when parked or on the go?
@@tryarunm The couple I saw were kept on all the time. It was at the height of the ‘mods and rocket’ era. The bikers were part of a group visiting South Shields (County Durham). I don’t know if they were commercially available or bespoke. Certainly made an impact on me and I was a Lambretta scooter rider.
@@briannickson6631 Thanks for the info. I live in India and Lambrettas were very popular here. They were sold here till I think the mid 1970's but were still regular family transport in the late 80's. The new V200 and V125 might make it to India now along with the e-Lamby.
I used to own a Comet in my younger days. I suspect some of these old bikes have no temperature control hence the run around the block, they will toast themselves if run all day.. He aid you can put the original dynamo back, but it's only 6 Volts so it won't charge the 12 Volt battery
When starting the Vincent with electric start, just crack the throttle a little bit, put one hand in pocket and press button. Don`t stand there waggling the throttle backwards and forwards.
Lovely machine, and with that electric starter becomes so accessible. A pity Philip Vincent didn't come up with one himself. It might have extended the bike's longevity for another decade. I found it unusual that she idles like a parallel twin whereas I thought she'd sound like a Harley.
