In fact, the subject of this thread has been lurking in many pieces in my sheds/garages for the best part of 10 years or so, and I’m embarrassed to admit that I’ve done absolutely bugger all with it in all that time.
It’s moved house with me during that time and always been in my queue of projects to do , but somehow other stuff has got ahead of it.
To be honest, the size of the task has been a big part of why, as a 100% restoration is required, so I’ve not yet got around to even making a start on it.
I have, however recently decided that my procrastination on it has gone on far too long, so I’ve now dedicated a bench to it, and set myself a target of completion by next summer...
So, what exactly is it and how did I come by it?
It’s a 1951 Series C Vincent Comet, which, for anyone who doesn’t know, is a 500cc four-stroke single, that shares just about every cycle part and most engine parts with its 1000cc V-twin big brothers- it’s basically a Rapide (the cooking version of the Black Shadow) with the rear cylinder chopped off, and a different (Burman) gearbox and clutch- whilst the twins had their own in-house designed and manufactured gearbox and clutches, the two Phils chose to use a Burman transmission on the singles.
As for how I came by it, it was my Dad’s- he’s been dead a couple of years now, but was very much what you could call a bike fanatic, in fact, he was obsessed, and motorbikes absolutely dominated his life almost to the exclusion of everything else, prided himself on being an AWB and never traveling in a car unless he had absolutely no choice, hence I and my siblings grew up around bikes.
This is me with the Rapide he bought in the early 60s to replace a Sunbeam S7-based sidecar outfit as the main family transport before he’d transferred the sidecar over onto it- he wouldn’t drive a car
And the same bike approx 7-8 years later, with, by then, super-cool "don't touch my hair" me on it
Dad was born and lived in Northern Ireland until he joined the RAF in his late teens, and got posted straight out to Rhodesia.
When he returned after that posting in the 1950s, he was posted to a base on mainland UK, and ended up marrying and settling here.
Ever since I was born we used to spend three weeks every summer at my grandparent's place in County Down, and this outfit would transport him, Mum, me, and my two brothers and sister ( ie 6 of us
) with luggage from Berkshire to Ireland every year until I was 13 or 14 years old.It was also our family transport all the time we were over there, and going anywhere as a complete family when back on the UK mainland.
But I'm woffling, and this thread isn’t about that Vincent, it’s this one below, pictured in the early 1970s with my younger brother Mart alongside it in a jaunty pose
Dad bought it in 1970 as his “hack” ( his word for I guess what we’d now call a daily driver/ride) , I’ve got a stack of docs for it including the old buff and green log books and this, from Dad’s supplying dealer
And these- the receipts for the engine work that the previous owner had done by what effectively remained of the old Vincent factory (Harper Engines) a couple of years before Dad bought it
I’ve also got full parts lists, stacks of articles and tech tips etc from the owners club, and this- well-thumbed and invaluable source of info
Out of the four Vincents that Dad then owned, EWH (the subject of this thread ) was always his favourite, and was in daily use by him for many years.
He said it was the punchiest motor by far (he had two other Comets), and that he suspected that it had a high-compression piston in it and/or possibly a different cam, and although it was undoubtedly the one he covered most miles on, it was also the only one that he never had had the motor fully apart on for all those (15 or so) years he was riding it, which is some going for this sort of age bike or car engine, and something no BSA, Norton, or Meridan Triumph owner could ever truthfully claim
Having said that, we pretty frequently used to have to rebuild the clutch, and it had a fair few dynamo and magneto rewinds/ replacements over the years, and of course regular servicing from him, but he used to be very proud of the fact that he’d never had to lift the head on it, or in fact do any serious engine work, which he seemed to fairly frequently have to on all the others.
I have very fond memories of it too- I and both my brothers had already been riding bikes ( well, specifically mainly a 1964 Honda C114 that Dad had got for us) from a very early age.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t physically big enough to ride the Comet back then but I took absolutely every opportunity I could to go on the back, and Dad would always let me start it when we went out on it together which I was well accomplished at and proud of- quite a feat for a 9 or 10-year-old, if I do say so myself
I left home at 18 but as I remember, it eventually got parked up and left on the hard-standing outside the front of my parent's house sometime in the 1980s I think due to a wet-sumping issue, which is basically a scenario where due to oil-pump and/or crankcase wear oil can seep back down into the crankcases when the engine stops.
As all Vincents operate a dry sump ( ie they have an oil tank rather than an engine sump to contain the oil) this is a big no-no- there isn't room for oil to sit in the bottom of the engine.
I also remember him saying it was oiling the plug, which may be related to the wet-sumping, or may not- considering the amount of time the motor had done since it was last rebuilt, the cause of that is equally likely to be bore and/or valve guide wear.
As he had quite a few other bikes, including some more modern stuff (most notably a BMW R100CS which by then had become the daily "hack") and was doing longer runs a lot of the time, that was where the poor old Comet stayed for another 20 years or so until it was eventually dismantled into manageable lumps and chucked in the back of his garage, and then subsequently donated to me 10 years or so ago, for me to hopefully one day bring back to life.
And that’s pretty much where we are now- I’ve done nothing at all to any of it since it came into my possession apart from changing the name on the V5 , so the engine has still not been apart and it hasn’t been started for 40+ years , but as of today, it still turns over nice and freely and has seemingly good compression.
It has suffered a bit from all those years exposed to the elements, but all considered, it really isn’t too bad externally at least, has fared much better than the cycle parts, as may be seen in the pics below.
And for balance, this is exactly how I intend it to end up looking-
I think that almost all genres of Vincents (Series D excepted
) are really beautiful things, both to look at, and from an engineering point of view.It’s a shame in a way that Iccy flounced again as if he were still here, it would be at this point that I’d expect him to interject and try and convince me they’re crap, ugly, badly or over-engineered and ancient old Rudges are much better, or something like that
Anyway, restoring it back to that condition, or fairly close to it, is a fairly daunting task, as although they are beautifully simple compared to more recent bikes, and (IMO) have some fabulous and innovative engineering aspects to them that other British bikes of that era never had, absolutely everything needs attention;- so that means blasting and painting /stove-enameling or chroming every single cycle part, then rebuilding it all with new bearings, bushes, spokes, rims, new wiring loom, control cables, nuts, bolts, spindles etc, etc, etc
As for the engine and gearbox, that needs completely stripping, inspecting, blasting, and re-assembling with new parts where required, and quite likely a fair bit more- by that I mean machining and re-bushing /sleeving certain parts, and hence I’m currently mulling over whether to send it to a very long established Vincent specialist for them to refurbish lock, stock, and barrel, or tackle it myself.
I have a lot of my Dad’s old imperial spanners and sockets etc, and Vincent special tools so am sorted to a degree, but as anyone who has ever built a similar age engine to this one will appreciate, unlike current stuff, it’s typically not just a case of simply replacing parts, there is often machining and shimming etc required.
I’m almost certain that it will be the case here in the area of the crankcases where the oil pump lives, and possibly main bearing housings too as that is a known weak point after big mileages, albeit mainly on the twins as far as I can gather- there are modifications these days that solve both of these issues, but they involve machining of crankcases and crankshaft, something that I neither have the tools or expertise to do.
And someone who is building these every day will very likely spot things that I won’t, and arguably do a quicker / more complete and far better job than I would, but by not building it myself I would sort of feel that I was copping out, and also missing some of the pleasure, so we will see….
As it has been scattered here there and everywhere in lumps for a considerable amount of time, there will undoubtedly be bits missing, but the good thing is that there is a very well-established owners club that purchased all the spare parts drawings and tooling from the company when it went pop decades ago, meaning that every spare part you could ever need is still available, albeit at a cost of course.
Although I may have a few bits missing, I definitely also have multiple units of quite a few bits, so there are possibly deals to be done to offset costs on parts and/or services that I need to buy too.
Dad did actually also make a start many years ago by getting a tank and most of the bits of another set of Girdraulics (front forks) stove-enameled, so that’s a help too.
So, what’s my plan then?
Well, first off, I’m going for a, err, loose and dry assembly of the complete bike with what I have, in the condition it is currently in, as far as I can, with the sole objective of being able to make lists of:
1. Missing parts (right down to every correct nut, bolt, and washer) that I don’t currently have and need to obtain
2. Parts that I have but which aren’t serviceable and need to be replaced.
3. Parts that I have that are serviceable but need blasting and painting or plating
4. Engine & gearbox plan- hmmm, still to be decided
Once that’s done, it’ll all come apart again and I’ll start working through things from my lists.
Although the plan is for a completely original and sympathetic restoration, I am currently also considering a few possible sensible mods from standard- I’m not talking about anything that can’t be easily reversed if desired or will detract from it’s originality here, but things to address what are undoubtedly weak points of the original 1950s build, and make it a more usable bike.
Specifically, changes to the charging and ignition systems , which in common with all British bikes of the same age, were really very poor, and costs aside I don’t see any reason to persist with items that can fairly easily be massively improved by throwing some ££ at them– I want this to be reliable.
Technology has very significantly moved on since the 1950s, so it’s likely that the woeful Miller 6v dynamo will get replaced by a 12v Alton AC generator, and the Lucas BTH magneto by a massively more powerful and consistent self-generating solid state unit.
Both of these mimic the originals externally, not that it matters too much for the magneto as it’s hidden behind an aluminum cover, and you can also get a dummy 1950s 6V Exide battery case in which you can hide a modern 12v battery, meaning that these mods are all but indistinguishable from OE at kerbside, and they greatly improve both performance/reliability and would allow me to actually see where I’m going if I ever venture out on it in the dark too
Who knows, I might even junk the 1950s Amal 276 carb for a nice new Mikuni/ Keihin/DelOrto too, which could undoubtedly upset some purists, but I’m probably getting ahead of myself here- there are a lot of bridges to cross, and a huge amount of things to sort before I get to that one!
As I mentioned right at the top, this project and hence thread is very likely to be a slow burner, but I’ve made a start and committed by putting some words up here and pinning a copy of that pic of the pristine one up in my garage, it’s my inspiration and what I want it to look like
Anyway, I know I’ve rattled on, and this thread will be of zero interest to some people, I’ve mainly started it as a sort of kick up the arse and incentive for myself, but hopefully at least one or two of my fellow old feckers on here will also find some of it of interest
- More to follow, hopefully in the not too distant!
