This isn’t about Tom Cotter’s story of motorcycle archeology
nor is it about a Vincent found…this
Vincent in the barn is the love child of a friend of mine: A basket (or as he
describes it, several baskets) full of Vincent parts, now nearly reconstructed
after 31 years in the barn.
A Vincent's Humble Beginnings.
The project started in 1982. Back then my friend was racing on
the vintage circuit when he picked up several parts cases and a project idea. A serious accident ended his racing career and,
as he puts it, the project “languished for 30 years while life got in the way.”
The baskets full of ’52 and’53 Vincent parts sat in the barn until 2010 when he
succumbed to the “exorbitant pressure” and “unrelenting nagging” of his wife
and best friend. Parts were traded across the ocean, parts were machined ... the story was nearly as rich as the history of the Vincent motorcycle itself.
I got to listen to him and his friend banter about the
project tonight. They talked parts and old times and went over a few details of
Vincent mechanics, always trying to improve my understanding of engines and cylinders and front ends. They discussed the difference between restoring and recreating and let me peek
into the craftsman's machine filled barn cellar. “What was the hardest part? I asked. “All of it,” was
the answer. “Lots of parts don’t fit because the originals were all hand
built.” A mechanical technologist by
trade he made the parts fit and slowly the Vincent began to rise from the dust.
“Spring, next spring,” there’ll be a complete, 1953(ish)
Black Shadow in the barn (it'll have the wrong cylinder heads, but they're temporary) – he promised!
And then ... he might just start again.
