Back in the saddle again.

[ceemes]

Today I went to the Classic Bike Show in Tsawwassen and took a lot of pictures. Amazingly there were THREE, NOT ONE BUT THREE Vincents there. I was in heaven, I've been in love with the Vincents ever since I sat on a Black Prince years ago, wasn't allowed to ride it mind you, but I did get to sit on it.

The show was held at the local ice and curling rink just a block and a half from my home. So I walked down there and met up with my mate Jeremy.

The entry fee was only C$8 and to be honest, the best part of the show was outside, lots of interesting bikes rode in. As with the bike show two years ago, I had only planned on spending a couple of bucks on coffee and not buying anything. And like the bike show back then, that plan went out the window.

When I broke my arm back in December, I was wearing my riding jacket which of course was cut off me. I found a local gear tailor and cut a deal. I am getting a made for measure leather jacket with armour and spine protection along with reflective piping for C$399 plus tax. Put half down and will pick up the jacket on May 14th, my 49th birthday.

I was hoping to get a Triumph Sprint ST this year, but given the current economic climate, decided to wait and ride the Sabre for one more season, so this new jacket will be my birthday present to myself. For my 50th, I'll see about treating myself to the Sprint.

Anyways, enough of my rambling, its the bike pictures you want to see, so here we go.

First up my mate Jeremy, looking as dazed as usual.


And now him "waving" good bye to me as he buggers off home.


Here are the Vincents....be still my beating heart.
First up, a 1947 which was for sale....sigh, why couldn't of my lotto numbers come up this weekend?







Look at the plumbing on this motor, a work of art and no doubt a right dogs to work on. I am told that these engines were powerful enough to push these bikes up 150 MPH!!!!!!!



Final drive assembly. Not sure why, but there is an unused sprocket on the left side of the rear wheel and all three had them. Perhaps someone can tell me why.





Massive bloody headlamp eh?

Vincent number two, didn't catch which year it was.



Only thing I have against this one is the after market muffler, just looks so wrong.









The third Vincent.



Another nice shot of the plumbing.

Here is the show stealer, a 1936 Indian. When it rode in, there was a mass surge of hairy arsed bikers armed with cameras towards its. Had it been in the judging, I figure it would of walked away with top honours.






Love the gauges on this, really workman like.





Look at the front suspension, half a leaf spring, unreal.



Indians weren't just a utilitarian form of transportation, they were rolling works of classic art, and that is what I think really set them apart from Harley Davidson. Look at the detail of the grill on the horn, beautiful.



This Honda CX500 Turbo came in with the Indian, later a CX650 Turbo parked beside it, but sadly I didn't get any photos.





I think the guy's plate holder says it all don't you?



Something about the windscreen and fairing of this bike reminds me of the front of the cockpit of a WWII fighter for some reason.

The first bike that I ran across that interested me was this AJS





Note the gear indicator?? How do you read that at speed?



Look at the engine, so simple, everything easy to get at.....





A 1942 Harley Davidson. Owner said it an ex-Canadian Army bike and used during the Second World War. Not sure about that, I thought that the CEF used mainly Triumph and Nortons just like the BEF. Anyways, its a pretty good example of the bikes our Grandfathers went to war on.


Not sure why the guy felt he needed to put bullet hole decals on the bike, but he did.

A 1957 Ariel. A sweet looking bike, looks very clean and polished by the standard of its day.








Here's a rarity, a Bridgeston 350 GTO scrambler. Apparently these bikes were produced for a short while by the Bridgestone Tyre Company, personally I have never heard of them before.

They also produced the GTS or R model, identical to the GTO but with the pipes lower down.

A nice example of an old Velocette.








One for the scooter crowd.



A reproduction of a 1919 Excelsior. Gives us an idea of what our Great Grandfathers rode when they wanted to let their inner hooligan out.


And finally, arguably one of the most important if not THE most important and influencual bikes of the modern era, the 1969 Honda CB750 inline four. This is the bike that changed the face of motorcycling as we know it and was the bike that drove the final nail into the coffin of the British Biking industry, until the recent resurrection of the Triumph brand. And it was the bike that pretty much relegated Harley to its current niche market of lumbering cruisers.



Many of the bike shown here actually rode into the show, it was a blast watching and listening to them depart, I only wish I had brought my camcorder with me instead of the digicam.

Till later,
Your friendly author,
Ceemes

[poet]

That Indian was so nice!
Great shots of all the bike thanks.

[jstark47]

Final drive assembly. Not sure why, but there is an unused sprocket on the left side of the rear wheel and all three had them. Perhaps someone can tell me why.

Fast final drive ratio change. The rear wheel is reversible. Take it off, flip it around..... presto.... different final drive ratio.

[sv-wolf]

Final drive assembly. Not sure why, but there is an unused sprocket on the left side of the rear wheel and all three had them. Perhaps someone can tell me why.

Hi Ceemes

It's not often I can answer this kind of question, but as I live only five miles from the old Vincent factory, and they are just such beautiful and characterful bikes I've taken the trouble to find out a bit about them.

As JS says the rear wheel is reversible. The spindle is the pull out variety and can be removed in under a minute without a spanner ('wrench' to you). That means you can alter the gear ratio in a matter of moments. The rear mudguard is hinged to make this easy. I found somewhere on the web that it was designed this way for trials riders. But I've also been told it was to make it easy for riders who had sidecars. Attach the sidecar - change the gear. I once saw a demonstration of a rear wheel change. Amazing. It is just one more crazily brilliant feature of these crazily brilliant bikes.

Edit. Just found the quote. It's from Phil Irving, Vincent's chief engineer.

"It must be mentioned that with the exception of the retired engineer who filled the post of managing director, we were all, from P. C. Vincent down, active motorcyclists, riding every day in all weathers to work, or in long distance trials, while racing men like George Brown and C. J. Williams were employed as development testers. The front and rear duo-brakes which we had pioneered in 1934 had been so satisfactory that they could be continued unchanged, except for widening the rear hub to move the chain out far enough to clear a 4 in. tyre. In these hubs, all four drums, the eight shoes, plus the minor bits and the taper roller bearings were identical, thus simplifying the spares situation, while the drums could be detached without disturbing the spokes; in fact, on either wheel you could use two drums, one drum or none at all, according to requirements. The rear wheel, which was reversible, could carry a second sprocket for easy changes of ratio - very handy in long-distance trials combining miles of main road, followed by mountain sections. With a tommy-bar pull-out axle and quickly-detachable torque arms, the wheel could be removed without using any spanners in under a minute, the operation being aided by a rear stand and a hinged section on the mudguard."

The full article is at:

http://www.vincent-hrd.co.uk/story.html

(Well worth reading)

Edit (again). I've just come back from a bike club meeting. While I was there I asked Tony Brown about the reversible wheel. He says it was originally designed that way for sidecar users. Tony was Vincent Motorcycle's last chief test rider, so I guess that just about clinches it. (He's the son of George Brown, mentioned in the quote above.)

Love the pics.

Cheers

Richard

[ceemes]

Again, its been awhile since I wrote in this blog, so I figure it time to do so again. Been a busy summer, lots of riding once my arm was healed. Made the Vancouver Ride For Dad along with the Vancouver Fire Fighters Burn Run in support of the Burn Fund. All good caused and all good if bum numbing fun. The old Sabre is still rattling along, although a coupling in its drive shaft did decide to do a grenade imitation and blow itself to pieces. So was down for about a week during that time.

Last Saturday, I joined the 3rd C.A.V. (Canadian Army Veterans) Moro Unit Motorcycle Group during their first annual fund raising run for the Canadian Military Education Centre (CMEC) Museum located at the former CFB Chilliwack. The CMCE and its associated museum receive no financial support from either the Canadian Federal Government nor the Provincial Government of British Columbia. Now if you wanted to put on an art show featuring crushing rats with cinder blocks covered in human feces, then you can get all the funding your could hope for....go figure.

Anyways, it was a great ride and a fairly high speed one for me. The start point was at the Trev Deeley Harley Davidson shop in Vancouver, then a fast run down Highway One to a rest stop where other riders joined us, then a short jaunt down the back lanes to the old base.

I was in the middle of the pack and since we had no police escort, got caught at a long red light, luckily I was now in front of the pack. Once on the highway, I quickly got bored leading a bunch of geezer glides and cranked open the throttle, figuring others would follow suit. A quick look in my mirror and I saw I was all a lone. No matter, now I could give chase to the main body of the pack which I figured must be about 10 minutes ahead of me. Took me around 40 minutes at 140 KPH to finally catch up with them, at least they were doing a fairly respectable 120 KPH. I settled back at tail and basically played blocker and waving off on-coming cagers.

After our time at the museum, we head to Duke's Pub which put on a Roast Beef dinner for us which was washed down with a couple of nice pints of Okanagan Pale Ale and then it was time to head home. Decided to ride back with a couple of lads I met, but again, me poor old Sabre quickly got tired at puttering down highway at geezer glide speed, and it was time to twist the throttle and goooo.....so with a wave as I passed them, I sped off home at a leisurely 140 KPH.

Here are some photo's of the ride.



The 3rd C.A.V. patch, not to be confused with colours. The only colours the C.A.V. have is the Maple Leaf, ie the Canadian Flag. The C.A.V. is a group of motorcycle enthusiast made of either ex-Canadian Military Veterans, be they Regular or Reservist, or current members of the CF. They are more of social and service group, offering support to Canadian Troops and their families and the like. They do tend to be a bit more right wing for my liking and favour Harley Tractors or Metric cruisers, but seem to be a good lot as a whole. I will be attending their next meeting with an eye to joining.



My trusty Sabre, sticking out like a sore thumb, a lone Sport Standard in a sea of geezer glides, aka Harleys and Metric Cruisers.



The pack gathers.



Pre-ride briefing, does anyone really pay attention to these?



Arrived at CFB Chilliwack. Note the new look, the beard is gone.



The lad on the Triumph beside me is Guy. I noticed on his vest that he was sporting a number of ship badges from ship I served on. Turns out he and I were in the same Pig Boat Squadron at the same time and were both Boatswains, aka Deck Apes but we don't think we served together.



Me again in front of a Soviet era T-50 or T-55. It is privately owned and is used in the movies. You can see it in action in the new Wolverine movie.



A duce and a half or simple a duce. Spent waaay too much time traveling in the back of those beast, even drove them a bit.



A WWII Firefly variant of the Sherman Tank done up in the British Columbia Regiment (BCR's) colours. The Firefly variant sported a British 7 pounder gun instead of the pea shooter the Americans used. The Yanks refused to adopt the British gun and their tank crews paid a heavy price after Normandy when they ran into heavier armed and amoured German Panzers. The Sherman was called the "Tommy Cooker" by the Germans because of its nasty habit of going up in flame after being hit just once.



A 1957 Triumph, used by Canadian Army dispatch riders during the late 50's and early 60's. Loved to have a chance to take it for a spin.



A WWII era Harley, don't fancy riding it for to long or too far.



A Ferret Scout Car. The Canadian Army used these right up to 1979, go figure.







The Canadian Armed Forces Ensign. That brings back memories.



The museum staff made a cake to thank the 3rd C.A.V. for its support and donation. Very tasty, but I limited myself to one slice only.



An old 3/4 Ton truck, fortunately phased out of service by the time I got in.

And that's all folks.

[ceemes]

After the heavy downpour yesterday, today was brilliant. Bright, sunny and fairly warm for this time of year. And best yet, almost zero traffic on the way to work. And the trip home, even better. For some reason there was barely any traffic on Steveston Highway and the Highway 99 on-ramp was wide open. The usual congestion at the tunnel was nowhere to be seen. Highway 17 from the 99 all the way to Tsawwassen and home was clear. All in all, the perfect high speed, no cager commute to and from work...........










.....or at least it would of been had some dumbazz thought to check to see that he actually turned his ignition key to the lock position instead of the parked position the night before.

Jump on the bike, go to insert the key and get that soul deflating feeling as the knowledge that I had completely drained my battery and that the poor old Sabre does not take to bump starting. Back up to the apartment, off came the gear, quick call to the boss and then the long slow walk of dishonour to the bus stop.....Battery is now on the charger.

Oh and tomorrow's forecast....rain, rain, and more rain.......

You somewhat disgruntled author,
ceemes.