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.”
Vincents at the 2011 Borrego Springs So Cal AMCA winter road run.
Above is a photo of my almost-new Rapide (I’d only owned it a few months back in 1954 when I took the photo), which I’d bought from Jack Baldwin Motorcycles in Santa Monica. I’d recently sent a copy of the photo to our sharp-eyed editor, Steve Doherty, and sure enough the first remark he made was, “Touring Rapides had a wider section tire on the front, which was normally a ribbed tire. How come your front tire wasn’t a ribbed tire?” Well, after some thought (remember this is 56-years later), I finally came up with the answer. Yes, my Rapide was brand new and stock, but after dickering with Jack Baldwin on the trade-in price on my old one-lunger Matchless, he knew I had been riding some dirt up in the Santa Monica mountains, so he asked me if I wanted ribbed or block tread on the front tire…my choice at no extra cost. I chose the block tread and never regretted it, even though at the time I lived in the Valley and commuted to and from the old Hughes Aircraft Co. over the Sepulveda Pass, which was not the freeway we know today. That was a really wild ride then, around the sharp curves and through the tunnel with other bike riders, especially at night while I was working the swing-shift. Some fun I’ll never forget!
The man on the far right in the photo in the Red Rapides entry, Don Mathews, is a long time friend of my father, Frank Doherty. Don recently started to send me copies of some of his old Vincent photos, and he sent a set taken in the late ’50s at Willow Springs. Lo and behold, one photo has Sonny Angel’s support truck in the background. Sonny still has his motorcycle shop down in National City, near San Diego, and has been going to Bonneville each year along with his brother Don to help support Max Lambky with the Vincent Streamliner effort. Nice dustbin fairing on the bike.
The upcoming Bonhams Las Vegas auction will be featuring a low mileage, fairly original, barn find Red Rapide, found in the Fresno area. I remember stopping by Hugh Darby’s place somewhere in central California, back in the ’80s, and he had a Red Rapide among his large collection. I’ve always wondered what happened to those bikes, and wondered if this Red Rap might have been his. I googled around, and found a few blogs with the same Bonhams info. One long time Vincent owner from Texas posted a comment on one blog, saying the bike couldn’t be all that original, since only the fenders and tank were red. I had to straighten him out, so I added a comment to say that it is pretty well known that not all Red Raps were all (or mostly) red. I know of many west coast Red Rapides that only had the tank and fenders red.
Here is a photo from the original LA Vincent club, on one of their club rides, and there are two such Red Rapides. The man in the middle, towards the back, still owns his to this day.