Friday bike

1954/55 Vincent Black Prince/Black Knight

(Prince had more powerful engine)

From Wikipedia:

The Vincent Black Prince was a British motorcycle made between 1954 and 1955 by Vincent Motorcycles. A year before the factory closed in 1955, Vincent produced the enclosed range of Vincent Black Knight and Black Prince. Phil Vincent described it as a 'two-wheeled Bentley' and the enclosed Vincents got a lot of attention at the 1955 Earls Court show. Problems with production of the glass fibre mouldings eventually led to financial difficulties and the last Black Prince left the Vincent production line on Friday, 16 December 1955.[1]

Falling sales of the Series C Vincent motorcycles during 1952 and 1953 was partly attributed to dated styling, so Phil Vincent sought to update the range and development began what were to become the Series D machines. The main change was innovative full enclosure and weather protection, with glass fibre panels that included leg shields and a handlebar fairing. This was not about streamlining for speed, as the Vincent was already powerful enough for riders of the day - it was instead about the idea that the rider could travel to work in a suit rather than full motorcycle kit.[2] Care was taken to ensure that the engines were still easily accessible for general maintenance and the rear enclosure was hinged providing access to the rear wheel and drive chain.[1]

Vincent also tried to make it easier for the rider to get the motorcycle on to its stand by adding a huge lever on the left of the machine that could be operated from the saddle. The frame was also modified with a single tubular strut bolted to the steering head and a single damper replaced the twin rear shocks.[2]

 The Black Prince was launched at the 1954 Earls Court motorcycle show, together with the 998 cc Vincent Black Knight and the 500 cc Vincent Victor (which never went into production as only the prototype was ever built). There was a lot of interest but much of it was critical, and the Black Prince was termed the motorcycle you either love or hate. The Motor Cycle road tested a Black Prince and concluded that it handled as well as the Vincent Black Shadow with improved fuel consumption.[2]

Production of the Black Prince began in the spring of 1955. Lucas components replaced the less reliable Miller electrical system and ignition was upgraded to coil and distributor. The rear enclosure, which incorporated the oil tank, was hinged allowing access to the rear wheel and final drive chain.Amal Monobloc carburettors improved starting. The centre stand was operated by a lever accessible from the saddle and the lower front mudguard stay served as an emergency front stand to facilitate the removal of the front wheel. Delay in delivery of the fibre glass components from subcontractors held back the availability of the first production bikes until spring 1955. Approximately 200 of the enclosed models were built.[1]

 

Increasingly affluent customers may have encouraged Vincent to go for a 'high end' luxury touring model, but at the same time high volume and very affordable small cars were flooding the market. Vincent's accountants suddenly realised that they were losing money on every Black Prince sold, so the last example of both the model and the marque left the production line on Friday, 16 December 1955.[2]

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I was reminded of the Black Price and Black Knight by the renewed interest in George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four.  In 1956, the BBC broadcast a dramatisation of Nineteen Eighty-Four starring Peter Cushing, and featured Black Princes and Knights as the transport of the Thought Police.

Thanks to the wonder of the Internet, you can watch the original 1956 production:

  

You can read the book here: link 

Free Kindle download: link 

 

Stolen

 

Copied from  mr. combo's  blog. The Skorpion is fairly distinctive being modified to 'Trail' spec. Please keep your eyes open for the bikes or any parts. If you hear of anything, contact mr. combo or Musselburgh Police:  (0131) 665 9696

 

Stolen

I woke up this morning to find that someone had cut through the locks on my shed, jimmied the door open, and stolen both my working bikes, as well as some tools and a spare helmet and waterproofs which were lying around.

The police officer who came round to take the details didn't hold out much hope of getting them back as apparently there's a spate of this going on at the moment and nothing has been recovered to date. 

So, goodbye then to my MZ Skorpion Trail (1994) and Triumph Sprint ST 955i (2002). It was nice knowing you!

What is particularly galling is that I came home tonight after work to find some parcels waiting for me inside of which were a new sidestand for the Skorpion and a service kit for the Triumph which I'd ordered last week.

The good old days

Ever had that situation where you're looking at something on YouTube and the list of other videos at the side contains something that catches your eye because you don't quite believe it? This happened to me recently when a video clip from the early 80s television programme Pop Quiz appeared. Pop Quiz, as the name suggests, was a pop themed quiz show hosted by the unsufferingly smug Mike Read, where two teams of pop people answered questions. Most of the people apprearing on the show were pop stars of the time, but occasionally people like David Gilmour, Robert Plant,  and even John Martyn were on. Did the audience, which seemed to consist of screaming 14 years old girls, even know who they were? Strange to think that 'serious' musicians ever appeared on something as lightweight as this, but here's the evidence.

*** Warning - these videos contain scenes of 80s hairstyles and fashions that some viewers may find disturbing ***

Morrissey on Pop Quiz before he became 'a serious musician' (ie too stuck up and self important to appear on a show like this)

Lots more clips on YouTube, funny seeing so many pop people looking so young!!

Bike video

I'd bought a cheap 'sports camera' a few years ago, a Medion Life S4 7000, I think it was about £40 from Lidl. I'd shot some reasonable quality video at a couple of bike events, but I'd been meaning to try 'on bike' filming. I quickly worked out that mounting the camera on the bike wouldn't work (Skorpions vibrate too much) and helmet mounted cameras tend to have too much movement. Stuart had experimented with mounting the camera on his body, so this seemed to be the best way to go.
He had mounted the camera in the middle of his chest, but that wouldn't work on the Skorpion as the screen would get in the way. I bought a harness designed for Police and security officers to hold their radios next to their shoulder.

Misty is trying to 'help'!

It has adjustable straps that go over your shoulder and fasten around your chest, and an elasticated pocket for a radio.

I cut the pocket off then stiffened the harness by glueing and screwing an alloy plate to the back. I then screwed a bracket I'd made from Ram Mounts to hold the camera and adjust its angle.

I fastened the harness around my chest and adjusted the straps to as tight as possible to mimimise movement of the camera in use.

You won't believe how hard it is to photograph your own chest!

I sat on the bike and adjusted the angle of the camera to what looked about right then went for a run.

It was a dull, overcast evening and it had been raining for most of the day (hence the wet roads), but I wanted to get out and try the camera. Hopefully it'll look better when it's sunnier. (The original video looked better, I think YouTube compresses it a bit - try setting 'quality' to 480p.) The microphone on the camera gets overwhelmed by wind noise, I might try sticking a bit of foam over it or I'll just remove the sound from the video.
Not bad for a first attempt, and I'll try some more videoing when we get better weather. If anyone's interested, this is just round the corner from my house, one of the advantages of living in a small village - you're never far from countryside.

More time in the garage

Got some more work done on the CL 350. I stripped more parts off of the frame to prepare them for painting. Everything came apart easily with no seized bolts or rounded heads.

Everything was going well (too well?) when I discovered a problem.

One of the clamps had been overtightened, cracking the top yoke (triple tree). Hmmmm. On a 41 year old bike not sold in Europe, this could be a problem....
Luckily, the same part was used on the CB 350 K4 sold here and I found one on Ebay with a 'Buy it now', so I did.
I cleaned up a lot of bits then gave them a coat of  Satin Black Hammerite. The bike is going to be a 'working restoration', i.e. - it might not be perfect, but it's going to be a usable bike rather than a show piece.
The footrest bar, propstand, and the inside of the rear mudguard were given a couple of coats of brush on:

And the rear light mount (in picture above), headlight shell, toolbox and chainguard got a coat of spray on as they will be more visible.

Later this week I'll strip the rest of the frame and give it a coat of Hammerite as well. Once it's dry I can start reassembling and that's when the project really starts to move forward.

Talking of CL 350s, when I was looking for articles about them on the Web when I found reference to one appearing in the 1971 film 'Vanishing Point'. I found a clip from the film which shows that CL 350s are so cool, naked women want to ride them! (View at your own discretion, but you don't really see much!)

mr combo had posted on Facebook that, due to the good weather, he had dug out his groovy 70s blue metalflake open face helmet. Never wanting to do outdone, I dug out my, ahem, 'special helmet'.
I'd bought this with a mind to wearing it at the Distinguished Gentleman's Ride and it's an ivory coloured open face with blue metalflake stars and lightning flashes, and a cerise leopard print lining. Mmmm, nice!

However, that's not the best bit - it's luminous, so if you've been out in the sun then go somewhere dark, it looks like this.

Needless to say, it's made in China, has no safety standard stickers, and probably gives off lots of radiation, but what price style?

Friday bike

Barcelona is famous for many things - stunning architecture, a successful football team, and.......

The Ossa Urbe 250! I'm not going to write 'interestingly styled' or 'distinctive', I'll just be honest and say 'pot ugly'! Based on an existing 250cc 2 stroke single design, the Urbe (Google translates this as 'city') seems like an attempt to build a Ariel Leader type town bike with fairing, legshield, fully enclosed bodywork, and what appears to be a storage compartment behind the rear wheel!

It won't surprise you to learn that soon after, Barcelona based Ossa was no more - shame as they had also built the sporty looking Forumla 3 with the same engine.

That's much better!

I'm not even sure if the Urbe was even sold to the public as some article refer to it as a 'prototype'. If I go to Spain later this year on the Honda, I'll keep my eyes peeled for one.

Technical stuff.

Friday bike

A bit of a cheat here. I hadn't actually thought about this week's bike, but I saw a post on the Sometimes Nothing...  blog (over there --->) about this bike.

It's an 1929 Indian 101 Scout owned by Josh Wilson of Norfolk, Virginia, USA. What's unusual about this bike is that Josh bought it on Craigslist (a US based advert website), rebuilt it, then took part in the 2012 Motorcycle Cannonball. All in a period of 6 weeks!
I've mentioned the Cannonball before, it's a 4,000 mile (c. 6,000 km) ride across the US for pre 1930 motorcycles.

It would be a difficult enough trip on a modern bike, but on one built before 1930, that you'd just bought and rebuilt - that takes a certain daring!
We in Europe don't always realise just how big the US is. I plotted the route from my house to Tehran, Iran and that's about 200 miles (320 km) shorter than the Cannonball!
Found a video of Josh on the Run - what a cool guy!

******* UPDATE ***********

Found a forum with details of the rebuild.