1950s Vincent Comet

[caziques]

Here is a picture of my Uncle on a Vincent Comet sometime in the 1950s. I've just come across it whilst looking at old family photographs



The bike, JER 179... is still showing as insured at Askmid.

Anybody perchance know anything?

[srob]

With touring mudguards! I'd suggest either getting in touch with the owners club as they're active and keen or seeing if there's a Vincent facebook page and posting it on there. There's a good chance if it's still about it's being used so someone will know it!

[tvrolet]

It wasn't until quite recently I realised the Comet wasn't a v-twin that had lost a cylinder, but the Comet came first and it was the v-twins that gained the cylinder.

...and I could never understand why Vincent mounted the rear of the seat on the 'swing arm' rather than the frame, so the rear of the seat was effectively unspring...OK by a percentage as the mount wasn't as far down as the axle. Although I did a run the other week with a guy on a Comet and he had some 'conversion' affair of tubes that mounted the rear of the seat to the frame.

[gareth_r]

tvrolet said:

It wasn't until quite recently I realised the Comet wasn't a v-twin that had lost a cylinder, but the Comet came first and it was the v-twins that gained the cylinder.

...and I could never understand why Vincent mounted the rear of the seat on the 'swing arm' rather than the frame, so the rear of the seat was effectively unsprung...OK by a percentage as the mount wasn't as far down as the axle. Although I did a run the other week with a guy on a Comet and he had some 'conversion' affair of tubes that mounted the rear of the seat to the frame.

It's true that he pre-war single preceded the Series A V-twin. However, IIRC, the post-war 500 was introduced after the twins.

The single was never made in Series D form, so always had the seat mounted on the swinging arm. The Series D twins had a subframe.

Edited by gareth_r on Tuesday 31st May 16:50

[srob]

Yeah they’re a slightly odd thing to ride as the seat moves at half speed as the rear wheel over bumps! They also have really narrow handlebars and with the girdraulic forks all makes it feel slightly different!

I was never that fussed about Vincent’s. My dad had a Comet when I was a kid and he swapped for the Velocette Venom I now have (plus a few quid) in about 1994. I much preferred the Venom then and he always said that working on a Velocette after working on a Vincent is like going from maintaining a tractor to making a watch

More recently my brother had a Series C Comet which I used a bit and really liked. And they look absolutely fabulous in single or twin form!

I do keep having thoughts about a Rapide now...

[Spydaman]

My Mum on the way to the TT some time in the 1950's on a pre-war Comet which is still in the family.

[srob]

Spydaman said:

My Mum on the way to the TT some time in the 1950's on a pre-war Comet which is still in the family.

Lovely pic!

Here’s my dad on his 1935 Series A Comet in 1966. The note on the pic says he bought it for £5 in 1964! Sadly he didn’t keep that one although he did keep the 1928 AJS K8 he paid £5 for in 1968

[Spydaman]

Tom Logan said:

Was it Brian Chapman who sprinte a much modified Comet with great sucess in the 70's ?

Yes it was. The bike was called Mighty Mouse a 500cc single supercharged running on nitro.

[RockBurner]

My father had a Comet during the 90s-00s, he had a small collection of British bikes, and I often rode the Comet.

It was a bit of a git to ride, steering was heavy, especially at low speeds; and it was a git to kick start thanks to the overly complex kick-lever.

You had to do a lot of kicking too, IIRC the carb was angled as a 'down-draught', which basically meant that if you tickled it AT ALL, the thing would flood. So the starting procedure was 'fuel on', then start kicking until it fired (sometimes 10-15 kicks)

Also - if it died when it was hot, you had to wait half and hour for it to cool down, it would NOT fire when hot (probably the wiring in the mag breaking a connection when hot.).

Dad always complained that the valve gear was massively over complex (the tappets do not push down on the 'end' of the valve - instead they're forked and push down on (iirc) collets on the valve stem - it was as if whoever designed the valve-gear was attempting to make desmodromic* valve gear without the 'pull up' bit.

We all hated it and it was the first of his collection to go when he stopped riding (thanks to a stroke ) and decided to reduce the collection a bit.



But.... it was fast, and powerful (for what it was), big heavy blokes could ride it just as fast as lighter men.

• In regular valve-gear the valve is pushed down against a spring by the tappet, the spring force is what pushes the valve back up; in desmodromic the valve is both pushed down AND pulled back up by the tappet, the springs are thus a lot lighter and just serve to ensure the valve moves easily with the tappet, and the tappet doesn't have to work against the spring pressure.

[Spydaman]

srob said:

Spydaman said:

My Mum on the way to the TT some time in the 1950's on a pre-war Comet which is still in the family.

Lovely pic!

Here’s my dad on his 1935 Series A Comet in 1966. The note on the pic says he bought it for £5 in 1964! Sadly he didn’t keep that one although he did keep the 1928 AJS K8 he paid £5 for in 1968

Nice! Looks like a TT replica as it has TT forks, brakes and a big oil tank. The story goes my Dad got one of his Series As for the price of a packet of fags in the late 60’s.

[Tango13]

RockBurner said:

My father had a Comet during the 90s-00s, he had a small collection of British bikes, and I often rode the Comet.

It was a bit of a git to ride, steering was heavy, especially at low speeds; and it was a git to kick start thanks to the overly complex kick-lever.

You had to do a lot of kicking too, IIRC the carb was angled as a 'down-draught', which basically meant that if you tickled it AT ALL, the thing would flood. So the starting procedure was 'fuel on', then start kicking until it fired (sometimes 10-15 kicks)

Also - if it died when it was hot, you had to wait half and hour for it to cool down, it would NOT fire when hot (probably the wiring in the mag breaking a connection when hot.).

Dad always complained that the valve gear was massively over complex (the tappets do not push down on the 'end' of the valve - instead they're forked and push down on (iirc) collets on the valve stem - it was as if whoever designed the valve-gear was attempting to make desmodromic* valve gear without the 'pull up' bit.

We all hated it and it was the first of his collection to go when he stopped riding (thanks to a stroke ) and decided to reduce the collection a bit.



But.... it was fast, and powerful (for what it was), big heavy blokes could ride it just as fast as lighter men.

• In regular valve-gear the valve is pushed down against a spring by the tappet, the spring force is what pushes the valve back up; in desmodromic the valve is both pushed down AND pulled back up by the tappet, the springs are thus a lot lighter and just serve to ensure the valve moves easily with the tappet, and the tappet doesn't have to work against the spring pressure.

Someone once described the Vincent engine as 'an engineering soloution in seach of a problem'

When Mercedes were racing in the 1950's their straight 8 engines had desmodromic valve trains a couple of years before Ducati buit their first 125cc racer but the Mercedes engine didn't use springs for the final closure of the valve and relied on the compression in the cylinder to do the job.