Two Vincent sightings in the last week

I overtook one on the Aprilia a few days ago on the A14, and saw one
this morning in Black Bear HD's car park as I was taking T to nursery.
They may be shite old Brit iron but I do like seeing them.

Given their rarity, I imagine it was the same one.

 

I don't think they are rare , I know a bloke with 4.
Rarely used and rarely sold maybe.....

Steve

 

I saw one on the way to Chimay. It was just in front of an old boxer...
by the side of the motorway.

I stopped and they thought it had holed a piston. They were proposing
to ride it the two miles to the next junction. Madness.

 

It's for situations like that, that I usually carry a tow-rope of some
sort.

 

Hmm. I have ridden an XS750 frm London to Cambridge on two pots and a
Guzzi one mile on one pot to get home, but neither was a) spewing oil
out of the exhaust or b) churning bits of piston around the cases.

 

I didn't have anything with me and having been towed on a bike I'm not
sure I'd want to do towing (or be towed at speed).

Personally I'd have pushed it to the nearest bridge and waited for
recovery.

 

I once towed a mate's broken GT750 kettle back from the lake district
to Leicester, on my XT500.

We were young and foolish, of course, and I don't think I'd do it now,
but it wasn't _that_ bad.

 

<HEROIC FAILURE MODE>

I rode my KH250 from Falconwood station back to Gillingham
(A2/M2/A278 - including the long drag up from the Medway bridge)
after it had lunched its near-side piston rings.

It was everso untidy in there after I'd whipped the head off when I
got home.

In my defence, I was only 19, and it was only 29 miles.

 

Yebbut, it was only a ShiteOldBMW ;-)

 

I've done it. More or less what you say.

 

My experience... of being towed by a landrover was hateful, the bike was
being pulled 'straight' and I didn't feel that I had a lot of control
over the steering. Maybe it was the way it was tied (loop of rope
around the forks (faired BMW) and then a rope attached to the loop) or
the fact that the landrover tow hitch was lower than the bike 'point of
tow'.

In any case, not something I'd want to repeat; the being towed part. On
reflection it wouldn't be so bad doing the towing but I'd be worried
about towing someone I didn't know in case they dropped the fucking
bike...

 

Er... no. It was the vincent with the holed piston.

 

Can I claim a whoosh here?

 

Heh. I'll bet. My 250LC seize halfway along the Revett Straight at
Snetterton: unfortunately the other cylinder was still going strong.
It made the most dreadful clattering sound after a few seconds.

By cincidence I've actually got the pot of bits in front of me right
now: one piston crown (complete but looks like the surface of the
moon); one crushed needle roller cage; three bits of twisted conrod;
one gudgeon pin; various assorted needle rollers and bits of alloy.
Amazingly the cases survived but the barrel, crank & head were also
written off. I found the gudgeon pin plus various needle rollers in
the exhaust pipe.

 

In communiqué <1jm4vbo.x5ts18cna9tpN%>,

I've only done it once to get off the motorway after a petrol muppet
moment. Just a mile or so on the hard shoulder using the time honoured
method of the day[1] pressing in to service two linked Belstaff belts.

[1] This was very early 70's and the bikes were both AMC twins.

--
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Pete Fisher at Home: |
| Voxan Roadster Yamaha WR250Z/Supermoto "Old Gimmer's Hillclimber" |
| Gilera GFR * 2 Moto Morini 2C/375 Morini 350 "Forgotten Error" |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+

 

In the aforementioned Morecombe->Leicester tow, we didn't think of
that, so the rope was just tied round his steering yoke and somewhere
on the back seat tube of the XT. Most f the distance was on motorway,
which wasn't too bad, although he complained later that me going over
40mph was really that bit too fast (I went up to 60 at some point,
IIRC).

No, the really interesting bits were the contraflow sections, and then
the roundabaouts when we came off the M69 near his place. Thrupenny
bit turns were the way of it, as each time the rope went taut it would
jerk us both, sometimes upright, sometimes further over. "Interesting"
doesn't come close. He reckoned he had the worst of it, and was
comepletelt knackered at the end of it.
s\

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, Salad Dodger

My CB100N once ceased to function on the way to work from Knebworth to
Letchworth (eight or so miles?).

It started again after cooling down and got me there, then there and
back for the next two days (in small sections or a mile or two).

The I pulled the engine, and drained the oil. Which looked like silver
paint...

The camchain tensioner blade had snapped and was being machined away by
the chain.

A quick=and-dirty rebuild was followed by a swift trade-in against a
GS550.

Happy days...

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, Champ

Yeah, but did you get yer knee down on the way?

 

Under warrantee with good spares availability.

 

Back in 1978 I rode a Triumph Tiger 650 home about 3 miles after it had
seized an exhaust valve. Made a horrid noise with the now guideless valve
slapping about inside the head, and of course the head was in a bit of a mess
when I took it off. I was 22.