My Black Rap Vin

Following on from the small sidetrack in another thread, here's the short story of my Vin:

I bought it in bits in 2000. lots missing inc front wheel, alternator, dynamo, clutch, front stands or cover, speedo, seat, etc. Fork blades had been drilled for some non standard brake stays too. What was there, was in pretty poor condition. But it was cheap (by Vincent standards) and I thought "how hard can it be? Its only a motorbike"! There followed a steep and painful learning curve...

It has an interesting history as it was owned by Bruce Main Smith from sometime in the early 50's to the mid-late sixties. He modified it quite a lot, in 1961 there was an article written showing it in its full dustbin faring and swinging arm suspension set up. The fairing wasn't pretty, Bruce called it 'The Pig' (a name I have found quite apt)! I still have the swinging arm and sub frame he made, but not fitted to the bike. At the time of the article, the bike was 10 years old and had already done 132,000 miles. I don't know what happened after Bruce sold it, apart from the fact it was taken off the road in the late 1970s and stayed like that until I bought it in 2000. Bruce recently sent me a lot of interesting old photos of the bike in various guises in his ownership. I'm considering talking to one of the bike mags as I'm sure he could tell an interesting story or two about it, then there's my own history with it, and it would be a fine bike for a test article too.

I decided to exercise a free hand re the missing parts, so it got a multiplate clutch, Alton alternator, Electronic ignition, 4LS front brake out of one of my racers, etc. I also fitted Thornton suspension from the US. The engine got MK11 cams and 8:1 pistons, Maughans crank assembly etc.

The Pig already had two front heads, opened out to 1 1/8 Shadow spec and in amongst the boxes of (mostly) rubbish that came with it, were two, rare, brass bodied front Shadow carbs. So these went on it.

Long story short, this 'first' rebuild of The Pig took 7 years. An engineer friend, who ran his own engineering business and was also restoring his own Vincent twin, helped me a lot with the engine and gearbox, and other engineering like front and rear ends. He was a good friend, and I took the easy route and got him to do most of the rebuild actually. Then, the week before I was due to demolish and start re-building my workshop, the gearbox went. I'd done 500 miles on it!

Despondent, I looked around for professional help, and really liked Godets attitude, so took The Pig to France. Long story short 2, Patrick ended up rebuilding the entire engine and gearbox again after uncovering fault after fault! The gearbox was totally shot, so he fitted a 5 speed set up.

When I (eventually) got The Pig back from Patrick, it was superb, really, really fabulous. I took it on a couple of track events and scared myself silly when I looked at the scrub marks on the side of the stupidly skinny front tyre (about the same as my mountain bike had). Then, when starting it during a run at Easter 2011, it spat back and caught fire (no Pig roast jokes please), I had done a total of 2500 miles.

As the insurance were paying, The Pig went back to France, to Uncle Patrick, for repairs. In an attempt to prevent future Pig roasting, he fitted it with 30mm Mikunis. I also had him fit 19" front and 18" rear rims with Avon Roadrider tyres.

He also rewired it and stripped and rebuilt the front and rear ends as he found yet more, err, compromised engineering. It has now basically had the full Godet treatment throughout.

With The Pig back home in England again, a quick road test revealed the carbs to be excellent. Then I noticed the tank lining was coming away inside the tank!

So, I have just finished stripping out the tank lining and re-plumbing the fuel pipes to fit a 2-2 Pingel fuel filter to catch any remnants of lining that may come adrift.

I am therefore hoping to be able to increase the mileage I've done on The Pig from the miserable 2500 I've managed to do in 14 years! Its been a real test of my patience at times, but what has kept me going is the knowledge that it is such a fine Pig WHEN its behaving itself!

Here it is after the first rebuild, the Thornton suspension springs were too long, making it sit too high, I later fitted Godet springs front and rear but kept the Thornton dampers which work very well:

And from the other side, showing off the lovely looking, but self combusting carbs:

Here it is after having the flames doused, enough to make you cry:

And here it is at Godets after the latest round of Godet fettling:


And finally, here's the latest efforts of mine to put some decent air filters on and re-plumb to fit the Pingel filter (out of sight behind the rear carb):

So there you have it, here's to the next 14 years, and hopefully a few more miles!

that black painted front brake really works well, great story..and wow that carb issue made me cringe...been there with a Velo..spit back onto a flooding carb...and woosh! I turned off the fuel and kept blowing..the power of a lung in full shock is good :lol:
Love the bike and thanks for the post.

Yes I know how you feel after your bike goes up in flames from backfire, my Norton went up in the 80s just after converting it to the Featherbed frame , no filters at the time and a leaking fuel tap didn't help, I was on the bike when it went up, lucky my fuel tank wasn't bolted down and was able to get it off after the fuel lines melted, to this day my tank is still not bolted down.

Anyway you have a very nice looking motorcycle there and it will give you a lot of mile trouble free, enjoy riding it.

Ashley

Years ago I was riding a Triumph Thunderbird and felt my legs get hot. The float bowl had snapped off. I destroyed my leather jacket trying to smother it. Luckily a passing motorist came to my aid with a towel.

A pretty bike. Many happy days with it.

Now everyone re-read the recent thread about fire extinguishers for bikes!!

Eddie, with that bike all done up/fettled the way it is now, it will run and run. 40,000 miles and counting since a 2004 top end freshening on my Oz Rapide. Most of the mileage has been two up with full luggage, and much of it thru Mountains. I also borrowed the engine from this bike for an additional 5,000 mile test of my Special project bike.
The engine now runs better than ever, mainly due to replacing the knackered Concentrics with new Premiers.
In all those miles my only problem on the road has been a broken speedo drive.

How do you like the Mikunis? I have them on the other Rapide and I find starting is a bit difficult with it at times. The Concentric equipped bike is very easy to start.
Most of the serious riders here have fitted Mikunis to their Vincents, or rather they have taken their tired out bike to John Mcdougall for rebuild and he has fitted them as part of his whole upgrading/rebuild program. I have ridden with these fellows a/lot and have noticed that they all have difficulty starting now and then.

Btw, all the Rapide, comet and Black Shadow heads were 1 and 1/8" port size. They just slapped 1/16" bigger carbs and Black paint on the bike to make a Black Shadow out of a Rapide. A few more changes and you have a Black Lightning.
Vincent really only had the one bike, but managed to parle it into many models. I suppose they had one and a half bikes if you count the Comet. At that, the bulk of the Comet including many engine parts is the same as the Rapide , Black Shadow and Lightning. My Oz Rapide is in a/complete Comet frame, no dif whatsoever.
Wonderful marketing coming up with the Black Shadow. It had an evocative name, an unusual paint scheme (at the time) and a premium price, which many were happy to pay, and still are, tho the premium is now about 100%!



Glen

Excellent read !! Seems to have been lots of bumps in bringing that beautiful bike back from the brink thanks for posting, Cj

worntorn said:

Eddie, with that bike all done up/fettled the way it is now, it will run and run. 40,000 miles and counting since a 2004 top end freshening on my Oz Rapide. Most of the mileage has been two up with full luggage, and much of it thru Mountains. I also borrowed the engine from this bike for an additional 5,000 mile test of my Special project bike.
The engine now runs better than ever, mainly due to replacing the knackered Concentrics with new Premiers.
In all those miles my only problem on the road has been a broken speedo drive.

How do you like the Mikunis? I have them on the other Rapide and I find starting is a bit difficult with it at times. The Concentric equipped bike is very easy to start.
Most of the serious riders here have fitted Mikunis to their Vincents, or rather they have taken their tired out bike to John Mcdougall for rebuild and he has fitted them as part of his whole upgrading/rebuild program. I have ridden with these fellows a/lot and have noticed that they all have difficulty starting now and then.

Btw, all the Rapide, comet and Black Shadow heads were 1 and 1/8" port size. They just slapped 1/16" bigger carbs and Black paint on the bike to make a Black Shadow out of a Rapide. A few more changes and you have a Black Lightning.
Vincent really only had the one bike, but managed to parle it into many models. I suppose they had one and a half bikes if you count the Comet. At that, the bulk of the Comet including many engine parts is the same as the Rapide , Black Shadow and Lightning. My Oz Rapide is in a/complete Comet frame, no dif whatsoever.
Wonderful marketing coming up with the Black Shadow. It had an evocative name, an unusual paint scheme (at the time) and a premium price, which many were happy to pay, and still are, tho the premium is now about 100%!



Glen

Click to expand...

Hi Glen, You're right of course, I meant the ports had been opened up 'from' 1 1/8. The Mik's are 30mm, and there's an almost unnoticeable taper in the manifolds to match the head.

I've only ridden with the Mik's a few times and it seemed to start fine, even though I've not yet learnt 'the drill' (how much to tweak the throttle, and when, etc, all that stuff that comes natural after a while). With the Shadow carbs on it was ALWAYS a 1 or 2 kick starter, hot, cold, or in between, well it was for me at least, I've got friends for whom it would never start! They obviously couldn't grasp 'the drill'. In fact, once I'd mastered correct use of the de-compressors, I was really surprised just how easy it was to kick over and start, far easier than my Commando for example.

One things for certain, if the Mik's cause me trouble starting they come off! I'd happily fit premiers if required, especially now they've been 'out' a while and get such good feedback. BTW, the Mik's were my idea, not Patricks, he favoured new carbs from the VOC, but 'once bitten - twice shy' as they say...

Its obviously nice, and honour in fact, to own such a nice bike. It can be a bit much sometimes though with the attention it gets. I'll often find myself surrounded by a small mob when it comes to starting up to leave somewhere. And of course, in these cases, one has to have confidence that the bike WILL start easily and quickly. There's not much more embarrassing than an idiot with a flash shiny bike that can't start it!!

I'll let you know how they work out as I get some miles on them. And I'll try not to look like that idiot!!

Eddie, I'm not a big fan of Vincents however your bike really does it for me. I'd love to own it, however I think it would drive me insane. I love Patrick Godet's Egli Vincents however a beautiful original looking one such as yours is something else. I think it is the nostalgia kick involved.