Vincent Black Shadow failure today...

[minimutly]

Well I can say I've ridden one, and for some reason one that has a connection with someone called Ronnie Free, but more than that I don't know. What I do know is that the front brakes (new shoes) were useless, the gearchange horrible, and trying to hold on to the handlebars too tightly was pointless. Did around a mile and a half and the soggy feeling clutch never got up the hill to the impromptu Vincent meet we were trying to get to, so a quick about turn and back to the stables.
Shame, I was looking forward to opening it out on the open road to give it it's head. Will hopefully get another chance soon....

 

[cheb]

Rollie Free, the chap who rode prone in speedos to get that last ten of an mph.

 

[arther dailey]

sounds like you got home safe and time for a thorough check over before next outing ? defo on the front end /brakes so at least you could stop safely , enjoy .

 

[johnik]

friend of mine,s grandfather bought one....just before he got invited on a day trip to France, he took said bike to bits, wrapped it in greased paper, put it in the loft and kissed his wife goodbye. like many others he never returned, my friend said the bike is still in the loft and refused to sell it to me on the grounds that a scruffy oik with long hair would be unable to afford such a ride...he would have been right of course and as far as i know, the bike is still there.

 

[frank horton]

I was raised in Stevenage and always wanted to be an apprentice mechanic for George Brown..
it was George that did the riding but it was his brother who was the ace mechanic as far I I know......
THEY later sold Honda.....I wonder why....?

Over the years I aquired 5 twins,.....1 was a Norvin,....
spent a fortune on them....
remember the saying about old English bikes, bee's in ur hair and OIL on ur shoes....hahaha...
Talk about badly designed garbage....Typical old English cheap cock up....
Yes they were fast for the time but very delicate...
My best move was I sold the lot to one guy after they started to really climb in value.....
Bought my first house for cash with them....
Somewhere still have a couple of HRD cast ally badges from the MK 1 Comet...

No wonder the Japanese took over....

Slightly different experience......
The most memerable ride was going to San Francisco up Pasific Coast Highway on a Dresser glide in the mid 70's.......

 

[johnik]

I was raised in Stevenage and always wanted to be an apprentice mechanic for George Brown..
it was George that did the riding but it was his brother who was the ace mechanic as far I I know......
THEY later sold Honda.....I wonder why....?

Over the years I aquired 5 twins,.....1 was a Norvin,....
spent a fortune on them....
remember the saying about old English bikes, bee's in ur hair and OIL on ur shoes....hahaha...
Talk about badly designed garbage....Typical old English cheap cock up....
Yes they were fast for the time but very delicate...
My best move was I sold the lot to one guy after they started to really climb in value.....
Bought my first house for cash with them....
Somewhere still have a couple of HRD cast ally badges from the MK 1 Comet...

No wonder the Japanese took over....

Slightly different experience......
The most memerable ride was going to San Francisco up Pasific Coast Highway on a Dresser glide in the mid 70's.......

similar story here, i had a fleet of BSA,s, all my mates drifted towards Japanese stuff, i finally relented and bought a Honda. imho the British stuff had character where the Jap stuff just got you there and back

 

[Nomad]

Sad to hear it failed to live up to expectations. I suspect like a lot of legends it was spectacular for it's time but compares poorly to modern machines

A Vincent has always been on my wish list as the family used to race them, I've come close to buying a couple of times but it never happened.
Prices have dropped a huge amount in the last 20 years so there's still time but it's now a long way down my list of priorities.

A photo of me from a few years ago...

 

[Domdom]

similar story here, i had a fleet of BSA,s, all my mates drifted towards Japanese stuff, i finally relented and bought a Honda. imho the British stuff had character where the Jap stuff just got you there and back

Getting there AND back is under-rated
I've ridden a lot of bikes, including a Back Shadow, Ariel Square Four, numerous Nortons, my Dad's Matchless G80, BSA Bantams, a BSA Super Rocket, etc. So many over my numerous years. Even a 1925 Scott, 500 water cooled thing. Oh, and a James 175 "thing", rather nasty.
Old Brits have a lot of character for sure. It just depends on how much Character a person can put up with.

An old pal of mine has a collection of old Brits, which is where I got to ride the Vincent. Genuinely lovely to admire, along with an old Alvis he has. But in all honesty, I wouldn't want to own any of them. They ride "differently" (read that how you will) and I kind of shy away from things like old brakes that require stopping distances to be measured in Counties rather than yards. Electric start is definitely under-rated too. My pal ended up in hospital courtesy of the Vincent kick start.

For a bit of fun I wouldn't mind a smallish engined old Brit, nothing too big. Doesn't have to be fast to be fun. But it would only ever be for local rides, whereas I would take the Jap stuff across continents without worries. Maybe an old AJS 350cc, something like a Model 16 would be OK.

But the best bike I had, which is very personal I know, was a Honda CBX. What a machine.

Of course, should a certain Mr Millyard wish to bestow a custom Kawasaki Z1500 upon me, who am I to argue with such a genius?

 

[Robotstar5]

..........An old pal of mine has a collection of old Brits, which is where I got to ride the Vincent. Genuinely lovely to admire, along with an old Alvis he has. But in all honesty, I wouldn't want to own any of them. They ride "differently" (read that how you will) and I kind of shy away from things like old brakes that require stopping distances to be measured in Counties rather than yards.

A friend of mine found that, he had a Goldstar from new and I called in to see him one day, I was on my GS850 and asked him if he'd like to try it, off he went, when he got back he said the brakes are good (triple discs), he started braking for an island where he normally would on the Goldie and stopped 100 yds before the island

 

[Robotstar5]

similar story here, i had a fleet of BSA,s, all my mates drifted towards Japanese stuff, i finally relented and bought a Honda. imho the British stuff had character where the Jap stuff just got you there and back

Flip side here, I got my licence in the mid 70's and went the Jap route while most of the older lads had British iron and been a Jap rider all my life ever since until I bought my first British bike recently.

We used to spend a lot of time at the side of the road fixing British iron when we went anywhere

 

[Rannsachair]

My experiences are likely a bit different for folk of my age. Passed my test on a Tiger Cub, then onto a 59 Triumph 500, then a T140V then a BMW R100RS. My dad's uncle was a Japanese prisoner of war on the Burma railroad, so I was not allowed a Jap bike when I lived at home and all my friends were on X7's, RD250's then onto Jap 4's. I had rides on friends bikes: GPZ900R and GSXR1100 stood out at the time. I had one Japanese bike: a CB550 F2 which broke down a few times and I preferred the old British bikes. I have had very few breakdowns over the years and my bikes were my daily transport: the 500 Triumph commuted from Perth to Glenrothes every day (around 45 miles) I only recall one breakdown in tens of thousands of miles a failed ignition coil. The T140v Perth to Dundee as a student, no breakdowns bar running out of fuel due to a leaking fuel tap.

My Dad commuted to work every day on Matchless singles from Kirkcaldy to Glasgow for years, apart from punctures he had no breakdowns he recalls.

The worst things about any old bikes are poor rebuilds by folk not knowing what they are doing, lack of maintenance and lack of use.

And here's me eyeing up Velocette 500's as a bike I always wanted, lets hope it will be better than this Vincent experience....

 

[minimutly]

I was raised in Stevenage and always wanted to be an apprentice mechanic for George Brown..
it was George that did the riding but it was his brother who was the ace mechanic as far I I know......
THEY later sold Honda.....I wonder why....?

Over the years I aquired 5 twins,.....1 was a Norvin,....
spent a fortune on them....
remember the saying about old English bikes, bee's in ur hair and OIL on ur shoes....hahaha...
Talk about badly designed garbage....Typical old English cheap cock up....
Yes they were fast for the time but very delicate...
My best move was I sold the lot to one guy after they started to really climb in value.....
Bought my first house for cash with them....
Somewhere still have a couple of HRD cast ally badges from the MK 1 Comet...

No wonder the Japanese took over....

Slightly different experience......
The most memerable ride was going to San Francisco up Pasific Coast Highway on a Dresser glide in the mid 70's.......

Oil on your shoes - lol, yes got that yesterday…

 

[Domdom]

My experiences are likely a bit different for folk of my age. Passed my test on a Tiger Cub, then onto a 59 Triumph 500, then a T140V then a BMW R100RS. My dad's uncle was a Japanese prisoner of war on the Burma railroad, so I was not allowed a Jap bike when I lived at home and all my friends were on X7's, RD250's then onto Jap 4's. I had rides on friends bikes: GPZ900R and GSXR1100 stood out at the time. I had one Japanese bike: a CB550 F2 which broke down a few times and I preferred the old British bikes. I have had very few breakdowns over the years and my bikes were my daily transport: the 500 Triumph commuted from Perth to Glenrothes every day (around 45 miles) I only recall one breakdown in tens of thousands of miles a failed ignition coil. The T140v Perth to Dundee as a student, no breakdowns bar running out of fuel due to a leaking fuel tap.

You just listed my first 2 bikes. well almost.
Passed my test on an X7, then went out and bought the GPZ1100. Happy memories. Good I'm still alive too

 

[RonMig]

I had one Japanese bike: a CB550 F2 which broke down a few times and I preferred the old British bikes.

My 5th bike, from 1978 to 1991, was an R-reg Honda 550F2; fun times with it on hols and in the garden & never let me down, ran like clockwork 100%.

Me entertaining nephew and niece round the garden about 45 years ago...

and swmbo around 1981 before she was SWMBO (been together 44 yrs so far )

Eventually sold it to a mate for £500; he did about 400 miles, parked at the back of his garage & its still buried there...
I bet it would fire up & run lovely even now, with a new battery and a quick carb clean (ok,+ new tyres etc)

Other mates Brit bikes regularly vibrated themselves apart - nearly got bashed following one (BSA A10) when his silencer dropped off, bounced once in front of me, I ducked and it went over my left shoulder . We had to keep stopping for another one (BSA A65 Super Rocket) as his Carb would unscrew itself...

The Vincent V-Twin is revered by many and no doubt brilliant for it's day - just makes me think of that old phrase "never meet your heroes"...

And still, I've wanted my old 550F2 back ever since I sold it - - but probably best not to...

 

[Migmac]

Getting there AND back is under-rated
I've ridden a lot of bikes, including a Back Shadow, Ariel Square Four, numerous Nortons, my Dad's Matchless G80, BSA Bantams, a BSA Super Rocket, etc. So many over my numerous years. Even a 1925 Scott, 500 water cooled thing. Oh, and a James 175 "thing", rather nasty.
Old Brits have a lot of character for sure. It just depends on how much Character a person can put up with.

An old pal of mine has a collection of old Brits, which is where I got to ride the Vincent. Genuinely lovely to admire, along with an old Alvis he has. But in all honesty, I wouldn't want to own any of them. They ride "differently" (read that how you will) and I kind of shy away from things like old brakes that require stopping distances to be measured in Counties rather than yards. Electric start is definitely under-rated too. My pal ended up in hospital courtesy of the Vincent kick start.

For a bit of fun I wouldn't mind a smallish engined old Brit, nothing too big. Doesn't have to be fast to be fun. But it would only ever be for local rides, whereas I would take the Jap stuff across continents without worries. Maybe an old AJS 350cc, something like a Model 16 would be OK.

But the best bike I had, which is very personal I know, was a Honda CBX. What a machine.

Of course, should a certain Mr Millyard wish to bestow a custom Kawasaki Z1500 upon me, who am I to argue with such a genius?

The first bike I rode was a James, very temperamental. We’d be under ten years old and couldn’t start it very easily. Mates brother or his dad often got the shout to come help us. Great fun

 

[Rannsachair]

My 5th bike, from 1978 to 1991, was an R-reg Honda 550F2; fun times with it on hols and in the garden & never let me down, ran like clockwork 100%.

Me entertaining nephew and niece round the garden about 45 years ago...
View attachment 506553

and swmbo around 1981 before she was SWMBO (been together 44 yrs so far )
View attachment 506549

Eventually sold it to a mate for £500; he did about 400 miles, parked at the back of his garage & its still buried there...
I bet it would fire up & run lovely even now, with a new battery and a quick carb clean (ok,+ new tyres etc)

Other mates Brit bikes regularly vibrated themselves apart - nearly got bashed following one (BSA A10) when his silencer dropped off, bounced once in front of me, I ducked and it went over my left shoulder . We had to keep stopping for another one (BSA A65 Super Rocket) as his Carb would unscrew itself...

The Vincent V-Twin is revered by many and no doubt brilliant for it's day - just makes me think of that old phrase "never meet your heroes"...

And still, I've wanted my old 550F2 back ever since I sold it - - but probably best not to...

See post 157 on https://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum...e-industry-discuss.135639/page-8#post-2410862, my CB5500 had not been looked after I suspect.

The original instruction books on my old bikes state under maintenance every 3000 miles: " Check all nuts and bolts for tightness and tighten if necessary" suspect a lot of people didn't or lost spring washers .

 

[8ob]

just makes me think of that old phrase "never meet your heroes"...

And still, I've wanted my old 550F2 back ever since I sold it - - but probably best not to...

Nostalgia just isn't what it used to be

Bob

 

[Domdom]

My 5th bike, from 1978 to 1991, was an R-reg Honda 550F2; fun times with it on hols and in the garden & never let me down, ran like clockwork 100%.

Me entertaining nephew and niece round the garden about 45 years ago...
View attachment 506553

and swmbo around 1981 before she was SWMBO (been together 44 yrs so far )
View attachment 506549

The Vincent V-Twin is revered by many and no doubt brilliant for it's day - just makes me think of that old phrase "never meet your heroes"...

This is so true. 2 of mine, a Ferrari 355 and an Aston DB9. Both of them "bite the back of your hand" beautiful, both of them an utter nightmare to live with.

Mrs DomDom and the Fezza

And to prove the point, broken down in the services on the M1. Wifey's FB post. It was like a supermodel, very high maintenance.

 

[oldbikedavey]

My experiences are likely a bit different for folk of my age. Passed my test on a Tiger Cub, then onto a 59 Triumph 500, then a T140V then a BMW R100RS. My dad's uncle was a Japanese prisoner of war on the Burma railroad, so I was not allowed a Jap bike when I lived at home and all my friends were on X7's, RD250's then onto Jap 4's. I had rides on friends bikes: GPZ900R and GSXR1100 stood out at the time. I had one Japanese bike: a CB550 F2 which broke down a few times and I preferred the old British bikes. I have had very few breakdowns over the years and my bikes were my daily transport: the 500 Triumph commuted from Perth to Glenrothes every day (around 45 miles) I only recall one breakdown in tens of thousands of miles a failed ignition coil. The T140v Perth to Dundee as a student, no breakdowns bar running out of fuel due to a leaking fuel tap.

My Dad commuted to work every day on Matchless singles from Kirkcaldy to Glasgow for years, apart from punctures he had no breakdowns he recalls.

The worst things about any old bikes are poor rebuilds by folk not knowing what they are doing, lack of maintenance and lack of use.

And here's me eyeing up Velocette 500's as a bike I always wanted, lets hope it will be better than this Vincent experience....

A Velocette is way, way better than any Vincent could ever hope to be......

 

[Greeves246]

A Velocette is way, way better than any Vincent could ever hope to be......

Velocette Venom . Still the only 500cc single to average over 100 mph for 24 hours.