SoCal VOC

From John Hanson:

“Tommy Auger, a long time Vincent drag racer, has lost his long running battle with cancer.  I was fortunate to become friends with him after Dick Busby told me the Lightning I was restoring was the one Tommy rode to so many wins.  Even with throat cancer we learned to communicate all things ‘Vincent’ and drag racing.  He was a great inspiration and will be missed. RIP Tommy”

Here is a picture of Tommy on the restored Black Lightning, taken at the 2006 NHRA Hot Rod Reunion, where Tommy was the “Golden Age” award recipient.

Carleton Palmer mentions special Amal bars that some early Series A bikes had in his section review in the June MPH.  A few days later, Doug Sawicki of the Motor City section phoned me to track down information about an early Comet in California that has one of these rare optional setups.  I put Doug in touch with Chris McIntosh, and Chris kindly filled in some details and provided some pictures.  Turns out there are two variations, ‘clean’ bars and ‘tidy’ bars.  Carleton was describing clean bars, where the cables can be run inside the handlebars.  Chris has tidy bars, where the brake and spark advance both attach to a common clamp, and the lifter and clutch levers both attach to a common clamp.  It is possible to have both setups, clean and tidy.  Thanks, Chris, for sending these photos of your tidy bar setup.

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.”