Garnet wrote:Very nice Ken,
I'm jealous.
Ever heard of a Vindian?
Indian shipped a 1948 Chief rolling chassis over to England and Phil Irving stuffed a Series B engine into it.
The blue one is a replica built by a crazy Aussie, the original vanished after testing. Everyone wonders if that bike could have kept Indian and Vincent alive a few more years.
No, Garnet. That's a new one to me. At first blush it sounds like an un-holy marriage. I have to admit after giving the notion a fair chance, and after imagining what each partner to the marriage might contribute to the union--I had to go with my initial impression.
Of course if I had a Vindian back in the dank recesses of my shop--I'm probably be singing a much different tune.
As you saw from Dwerbil's pics Duane Ausherman was there as I was extracting my old bikes to get at the two I wanted to take with me. We sat together a bit and he challenged me to tell him what was so good about British bikes. They were inferior in every way to the BMWs he sold and rode back then. (S'cuse me Duane if I'm not getting your part of the conversation right.)
We were sitting alongside my Triumph Thunderbird.
I said (as I recall) there were two big reasons for enjoying Brit bikes, or at least Triumphs. One was that the Triumph was just right. It looked right, it felt right, it sounded right. It was, in the day, the quintessential motorcycle. Secondly, and perhaps most importantly, the cool factor was about as high as it could get. (At my age, back when I was first riding the Triumph, cool was what it was all about. With enough cool life would be so very much better.)
And by degrees it worked, though I was totally unaware of it at the time. (Warning: reminiscence dead ahead!)
My sister and her husband were having a get together at her place. Her good friend, Joyce, with whom she has been friends all these years was there, along with her younger brother (whose name I can't quite recall). Us guys were gathered in the garage and he approached me and said that he thought I was the coolest kid in high school.
I said huh?
He said yeah, he would see me riding in to school on the old Triumph and I looked like the coolest guy in high school to him.
Well, I was a lucky kid for sure. I was able to ride my Dad's Triumph Thunderbird whenever I wanted. And if the mood took me I could ride his '52 Harley FLH, and if I was in a different mood entirely I could ride the bobbed '42 WLA ex Army bike that I had half interest in and which we had bobbed together (with him supplying all the ideas). What I did know at the time was that I was the luckiest kid in school. The only other guys riding bikes at all were two underclassmen friends and each were riding 250cc two stroke Maico road bikes.
That was the cool factor I couldn't get across to Duane. If he thought anything I'm sure he thought the same vintage BMWs would have been a lot cooler.
Sigh!
Ken
