Vincent Motorcycle Gunga Din scratch build

[albergman]

Been a while since I did an update and not a lot to show for it.   I tend to spend only a couple of hours each afternoon on it and ... it's a slow process making everything by hand.   Not to mention how many pieces I make, discard and re-make.   OK so there's the excuses.

I've pretty much finished all the details of the front end with the exception of all the fiddly stuff on the handlebars ... levers, tach and grips.

 

 

Likewise the back end is pretty much all fabricated and I keep assembling it just to make sure everything is going to fit together.

 

Here's the rear end as of today.   Has a black "paint" coating which is actually from a large felt marker pen.   Not a durable finish by any means but good enough to let me see how it will look eventually.   

 

 

Speaking of re-making parts I decided a while back that the rear fender I'd made was too 'shallow" when viewed from the side.  Rummaged around in my scrap bins and found this ...

 

 

It's the aluminium body of a flahlight that I discarded years ago but kept the tube because ... well, it might come in handy some day   Band-sawed it down the middle and that gave me a piece of material large enough to create a bigger fender (2 actually).

 

 

I then bent it slowly in the vice to fit around my rear wheel then lots of filing to whip it into a finished fender.

 

 

Didn't take any pictures making the rear wheel as it was a repeat of the front ... without the obvious spoking error.  Again I had a heat sink that had a thick aluminium base from which I hacked off all the cooling fins, band-sawed it into a rough circular shape and machined it on my little lathe into a finished rim ... heck of a lot of work with no room for error.   Spoked it using the same jig I fabricated for the front.   The tire is made from Renshape on the lathe too.

 

Now I had to address the chain ... what to do?   I used to be pretty handy with Fusion 360 back when I had a 3D printer but I gave that to my son so ... I asked him to design and print a chain to my specifications.   No problemo Dad.   So here it is with the circle of aluminium that will become the sprocket.

 

 

He was able to "print" a couple of tiny tiny holes in each link where the roller will be and I found some tiny pins in my wife's sewing room that were a lovely fit into these holes.    You'll notice that the pins haven't been trimmed off yet.    As much as I didn't want a 3D printed part on this model the chain was going to be impossible to  hand-make.

 

That's about it.   There's lots of fiddly stuff that I didn't document ... a pair of little air scoops on each of the front brakes, etc etc.

 

Here's a couple of shots of how it's looking when I hang it all together.   Hope it looks like a Vincent!

 

 

 

Thanks for looking in.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 7, 2022 by albergman
typo

[Stickframe]

Thank you for posting so much of your process - this is very interesting to see, and it is certainly coming together nicely.

 

Cheers

Nick 

[Brandy]

Great to see more progress on this. It's been worth the wait!

 

Ian

[Noel Smith]

Very interesting build to follow the modifications plus scratchbuilt parts and really taking shape well.

 

Incidentally there is a UK company called Motobitz who make a pair of tyres to fit the Vincent Black Shadow Kit.

It was originally made by Matcbox but re released by Revell who now have the moulds.

 

[penfold]

On 7/11/2022 at 4:10 PM, albergman said:

I believe you are right Brandy.   I'd been ignoring that other pivot point in the adjuster.   That apparatus allows the rod/seat to rotate around that offset bolt.   Good spotting!  And I agree with you that the seat will indeed rise/fall with the suspension because it definitely all pivots around that forward point.

 

 

They are dampers; frictional suspension dampers. As the rear wheel assembly pivots like an unbraced square from the saddle nose and behind the engine, it rotates at this point as the suspension acts; the knurled wheel adjusts the friction so adjusting the suspension dampening. There was a similar knurled steering damper on the top yoke of the front forks (at least on standard Vincents).

[penfold]

Sad to see that the thread has not been updated for a while; I hope nothing untoward has happened and that this fantastic work is continuing........I saw Gunga Din (and a more outre supercharged Vincent whose name escapes me) at a Bike Festival at Brands Hatch in the eighties, ridden by their creator George Brown's son.

 

Edited April 30, 2023 by penfold

[albergman]

On 4/30/2023 at 4:47 PM, penfold said:

Sad to see that the thread has not been updated for a while; I hope nothing untoward has happened and that this fantastic work is continuing........I saw Gunga Din (and a more outre supercharged Vincent whose name escapes me) at a Bike Festival at Brands Hatch in the eighties, ridden by their creator George Brown's son.

 

Thanks for your interest in my project.   It hasn't been abandoned.   I did get a bit tired of looking at it about 6 months ago and put it aside to start something else.  That project is now nearing completion and the bike is very much still on the "to do" list although, it might not be in the number one position. 

 

I'm dealing with some health issues at the moment (don't get old if you can avoid it) and that's having a big impact on what I can do.

 

How lucky you were to see Gunga Din!    It probably is in Toronto somewhere and only 60 miles from me.

 

Frank

[penfold]

On 5/8/2023 at 4:29 PM, albergman said:

Thanks for your interest in my project.   It hasn't been abandoned.   I did get a bit tired of looking at it about 6 months ago and put it aside to start something else.  That project is now nearing completion and the bike is very much still on the "to do" list although, it might not be in the number one position. 

 

I'm dealing with some health issues at the moment (don't get old if you can avoid it) and that's having a big impact on what I can do.

 

How lucky you were to see Gunga Din!    It probably is in Toronto somewhere and only 60 miles from me.

 

Frank

Sorry to hear that you've been unwell, but glad that you're still working through it; with further thought, it might have been his later machines, Nero and Super Nero that I saw forty years ago, but still......

re. Growing Old; it beats the alternative. Take care of yourself !!