My £60 Vincent
In OBA 98 Jim talks about the Fleet St Norton (Out & About p82), he ends the story by saying “I wonder where it is now?”. I suppose we could all say that about a particular bike we have owned. In my case it’s a Series C Vincent Rapide. I paid pounds for it and received dollars when I sold it. (Decimal currency came in February 1966).
My main machine was a 1964 Norton Atlas, which I rode at various times to Melbourne and north to Mackay in the 6 years I owned it, but back to the above-mentioned Vincent. I’ve always had a second bike. I had previously got rid of a 48 Inter and the “Hurdy Gurdy” as I called it, was next cab off the rank. A bloke did a lot of partying those days, and most of my mates rode bikes, so kegs had to be carried on the tank of a bike if no car was available, and of course out in the bush after drinking said kegs, one was prone to falling off. So a second older bike was handy for this. My old Inter Norton had a dent in the tank that took a 9 gallon keg just dandy.
When I say a second older bike, the Vincent wasn’t that old; it was a 1953 model and its keg carrying duties were in 1965, so it was only 12 years old. It must have had a hard life, other than the one I gave it, because it had a bodgie back guard and the chrome and duco looked pretty shabby. I must have liked it a bit, because I had and still have of course, the Vincent H.R.D. tattooed on my left arm. I used to lean it in the gutter outside my parents house in Martin St, Harbord, whereas my Norton would be in the shed.
Those days we used to ride down to 7 Mile beach at Gerringong and race each other along the beach at low tide. The word would go out to the Homebush boys and the Centennial Hotel bikies that drags were on at Gerringong. Someone would have checked tides so it was low at 6am or thereabouts and the sand firm. We would lob at Gerringong pub on Saturday arvo and try to drink it dry, before buying a keg of beer and out to the beach about dark. A fire would be lit and contents of keg drunk. When morning came, mufflers came off and the drags began. The bikes were probably slower with mufflers off, but boy they made a terrific noise early in the morning. Once again a second bike was ideal for this as I would never take my good Norton on the beach. Sometimes blokes would lose control and end up in the water.
Another thing that happened to me on the Vincent was thus. I had a pillion on and we were riding along a road that connects Condamine St to Pittwater Rd in Manly NSW. The road crosses Burnt Bridge Creek. The abutments had sunk and there was a hump as you came off said bridge. I was “up it” a bit, and unbeknown to me there was only one bolt holding the back guard up, though it did have all the stays that Vincents have. So we hit the hump at speed, the nut came off, the bodgie back steel guard dropped onto the tyre, which then got swept around between the tyre and road. With a tremendous roar and a shower of sparks, down we came. The big old machine cleared us thankfully and spun up the bitumen. There is/was a tennis court just there.
As we picked ourselves up, I noticed the players stopped playing and then realised the noise was only a couple of bikies, so just kept playing! Eventually with the caning the old Hurdy Gurdy got, it had no spark. So I took the maggy over to Allparts, Sydney. They had exchange magnetos; the bloke told me the one I received would be suitable for the Vincent. It cost 10 pounds, that was half a week’s wages for a carpenter, which I was. I fitted said magneto on the bike at my parent’s place and kicked and kicked. The bloody old thing wouldn’t fire. Eventually something gave way in the kickstart mechanism, and the kickstarter slipped and my heel hit the concrete in my father’s driveway so hard I thought I’d broken it. Now there was a bloke who had been pestering me to sell the Vincent to him. When this happened, I hobbled down the road to the telephone box and called him, “You want that bloody Vincent? Come get it”. I got what I paid for it, but by then it was dollars, $120 of ‘em. Later on, he told me the maggy was for a vertical twin, so it wouldn’t work on a V twin. Blast!
I still have a rocker box cap complete with cold chisel marks used for tightening and a manual to remind me of my Vincent-owning days. In a trip down memory lane the other day, I opened the manual at page 127, that told me how to fit magneto and time the spark, after 55 years here my greasy fingerprints are still all over the page.
“With a tremendous roar and a shower of sparks, down we came.”