The June meeting will be Saturday, June 11th in Corona, starting at 4 PM. There will also be a ride to Lake Elsinore and Ortega Highway leaving at 1 PM. Details in K17.
For the ride, we had 100% Vincent participation. Almost the same 5 as last month, (l-r) Tom Gross’ B Rapide, Steve Doherty’s Touring Comet, Josh Bogage’s C Rapide, Dave Marshall’s Rapide special, and Mike Aleksander’s Rapide. Thanks for the photo, Josh.
The May ride and meeting will be Saturday, May 7th, in Redlands. The ride starts at 10 AM, and the meeting starts at 2 PM. See K17 for details.
We had 5 Vincents on the ride, along with a Velo, a Guzzi, and a Honda. The Vins, left to right: Mike Aleksander’s Rapide, Bill Easter’s Shadow, Steve Doherty’s Touring Comet, Dave Marshall’s custom, Tom Gross’s B Rapide.
Scott also sent a couple of pictures of the ex-Len Hardy Black Lightning. The first picture is from 1972, when the bike had covered 32 miles. The second picture is from 1976, after Len had changed the speedo because he couldn’t see the small yellow numbers on the original speedo, the bike at this time with less than 50 miles. Note the factory breather tubes from the primary and off of the top of the engine.
Scott from Canada recently started a K17 subscription, and sent some pictures of his very nice looking Touring Shadow, before and after versions. Click the thumbnails to see a larger version of the pics. Here is a short history of the bike in Scott’s words:
“Here are some more pics of my Shadow. This first one was taken moments before it was disassembled for restoration September 1992 so as you can see it is a real Touring model. Brent Mayfield, the owner at the time, told me he had ridden the bike up and down the street just before the picture was taken and then they tore it apart. Brent did a lot of the paint work and had all of the original fasteners replated and then turned everything over to Mike White who rebuilt the motor and then did final assembly of the complete bike, finishing in early spring 1993. Mike told me it was the last and best complete Shadow that he ever did! I can attest to it being a typical Mike White quality engine, it started for me second kick after it sat as a museum piece all those years.”
Here is another video from Lou Fischer, BonnevilleStories.com, the same gentleman that did the Terry Prince video. In this one, Marty talks about his experiences at Bonneville, including his association with Burt Munro.
Here is a video about Terry Prince and his life long association with Vincents.
The ‘April’ section ride will be the eleventh John and Brigette Leavens Memorial Tour, Sunday, May 1st, departing at 11 AM. The starting point is Starbuck’s in Malibu, located in the shopping center at the corner of PCH and Webb Way. The ride will run up PCH, and will include a refreshment beach stop, a visit to the Aviation Museum of Santa Paula, and lunch at Logdon’s restaurant located at the museum. The ride is jointly sponsored by the So Cal VOC and the Morgan Plus Four Club. All vehicles, whether two, three, or four wheels are welcome.
A few of the Vincents that went on the ride.
The April meeting will be Saturday, April 2nd at noon, at Bill Melvin’s home. See K17 for details.
Sunday, March 20th, from 9 AM until 4 PM, the Queen’s English All British Car Meet and Auto Jumble will be held at Woodley Park in Van Nuys. It will be a non-judged “meet” designed for the enthusiast and serious collector alike. All British marques ( cars and motorcycles) are welcome. If you would like to show a car or bike, you can pre-enter at their website, or pay when you arrive. Spectators are free. See their website for all the details.
When the So Cal Section hosted the 1991 International Vincent Rally, a special booklet was produced and provided to the entrants. Here is the story from that booklet, of a high mileage Touring Rapide, as told by Al Mark.
“In the summer of 1954, a young blueprint rider in Los Angeles purchased a new Touring model Rapide, engine #8920 from Hawthorne Motor Sales in Hawthorne, California. At 2000 miles, the shifting fork pins had to be replaced due to a fault in the hardening. The rider arrived at the shop at 7:30 AM and had the gearbox out of the bike when the owner, Marty Dickerson, arrived. Marty replaced the pins and the rider had the bike together and running by 12:30 PM. Except for primary chains and adjuster springs and clutch linings, that was the only internal repairs done to the bike until it was overhauled at 100,000 miles. At 46,000, the driven rear drum separated and was replaced with a ribbed Shadow drum. Normal maintenance was performed at regular intervals. The first set of points lasted 72,000 miles and the generator was serviced at 30,000 mile intervals. Three voltage regulators were used and the electrical system never failed. After 4-1/2 years of being used on a delivery schedule the owner turned to driving trucks and the Vincent was used for transportation to and from work. In late 1959 the engine was rebuilt. It was in remarkably good condition for the type of use. There were few freeways at that time and over 90% of the mileage was accumulated on city streets. Dag colloidal graphite in 50 weight Valvoline oil was used throughout the first 40,000 miles in the engine only. K.L.G. FE50 plugs and Union 76 regular gas worked well. Champion plugs would foul immediately. Tires lasted 15,000 miles, primary chains 30,000, and rear chains 15,000. Purchase price new was $1,260 plus tax and license. In 1960 it was sold to Joe Powers for $600. The machine’s present whereabouts is not known. I certify these statements to be true and correct. Al Mark.”