John Renwick Epimetheus

He wears an asbestos boot that side. . . . . as well as put tinfoil round his leg on top of his leathers! to stop his flesh being cooked!
 
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Do you realise that if your boot heats up while you are on the bike at speed, you cannot get away from the pain. My left ankle still shows the result of a second degree burn.
 
Great film clip , absolutely enjoyable would love to see more of those two fire makers .....
 
jan nelder said:
John has since died, and that bike didn’t sell at Bonhams auction.
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So that’s two interesting bikes you’ve reported on that did not sell Jan.

How was it overall? Were things selling? Did prices look to have dropped further or levelled off some yet?
 
What does the market for classic motorcycles mean ? - If you sell them, you no longer have them. The reason many old guys have nice motorcycles is - they had them when they were young and kept them. A Garden Gate Norton might be a better fashion statement than an MV Agusta in 2050.
 
Little story
Many years ago, well twenty odd actually. I went sprinting at an old army camp in Hampshire with my mate John & my eldest lad. John was there with a Vincent sidecar and a big weight strapped to the sidecar floor. Now my friend John was a good mate of John Renwicks & welded up the first of his Konig sidecar chassis. My friend also went on to race sidecars. John Renwick always liked to develop & push the boundary & had used this setup at Brighton in what was the longest running motorcycle event until recently. Well we went along to watch John pilot this rocket ship up the climb. It was impressive, wheel spin & drive & the Vincent roar, fantastic. We went over & had a chat latter & looked over this impressive machine. The engine was already larger than standard & the detailing was superb! And then I spotted a schrader valve on the tube attaching the sidecar to the bike. Ah said John you weren't supposed to see that!
John had been playing with nitrous oxide & also Water injection & the Vintage club rules & probably Brightons didn't allow such things lol.
 
My brother has built a lot of Vincent engined speedway sidecars. His comment about them is 'nearly every bolt on them is a special'. Phil Irving was involved in designing both Vincents and Velocettes. With both of them, you are in the hands of the dealers. Other British motorcycles have parts which are more interchangeable. In both Vincents and Velocettes, the designs are good, but they are a pain.
I have actually seen a Featherbed frame with a KTT Velocette motor and gearbox successfully installed. I think there were lots of spacers in the mounts.
 
acotrel said:
My brother has built a lot of Vincent engined speedway sidecars. His comment about them is 'nearly every bolt on them is a special'. Phil Irving was involved in designing both Vincents and Velocettes. With both of them, you are in the hands of the dealers. Other British motorcycles have parts which are more interchangeable. In both Vincents and Velocettes, the designs are good, but they are a pain.
I have actually seen a Featherbed frame with a KTT Velocette motor and gearbox successfully installed. I think there were lots of spacers in the mounts.
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No. There are no more special fasteners on a Vincent than on any other British marque.
 
I think it is pretty bad when guys cut the gearbox off a Vincent engine to put a Norton gearbox behind it. If I had a Vincent and wanted to race it, I would find a good close ratio 5-speed gear-set and copy it. The bikes my brother builds are all speedway sidecars. I think some people fantasise about motorcycles. No Triton is ever as good as a Manx, and a Norvin is horrible. I have seen one normal 1000cc Vincent road raced. It was owned by an Englishman who always raved-on about Vincents. He raced one ar Calder raceway, and on about his first lap - he chucked it up the road at the end of the front straight. The next time he raced the bike was a Vincent sidecar. In about 1962, I saw Arthur Pimm win a road race on a 1000cc Norvin against 500cc Manx Nortons. When Orrie Salter returned to Australia with the 500cc Rennsport BMW sidecar, he made all the Vincent sidecars look stupid at Phillip Island - and the Vincents would have been using methanol.
 
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