Spot the difference
Dan Smith’s recreationis a marvellous piece
of work which is ridden regularly, but it incorpo-
rates sensible mods to make it more practical for
everyday use (at least in Canadian summers). A
completely original Series A Rapide is a rare item
indeed, and eye-wateringly expensive, but Franc
Trento from Eurobrit in Melbourne, acquired the
one shown here from the USA some years back.
Comparing this with Dan Smith’s recreation it is
easy to spot the differences, including the hubs and
brakes, mudguards and stays, seat and the afore-
mentioned oil tank and toolbox. Being in regular
use, Dan’s bike also has concessions such as larger
later model twin speedometer and tachometer plus
a clock, the post war dual seat, air filters and the
mandatory luggage rack for touring. But essentially,
they’re from the same mould that made its public
debut at London’s Olympia in November 1936.Original Series A Rapide
BELOW LEFT All steel front brake with no cooling fins.
BOTTOM LEFT Original tool box.
BELOW CENTRE Rear wheel carries auxiliary sprocket.40 :OLD BIKE AUSTRALASIA
one day he wouldn’t mind having an A twin to go
with his post-war Vincents, so I knew of one in
Toronto and through the system we arranged to look
at it and Robert bought it. It was stripped, disman-
tled. So we flew down (from Vancouver), bought a
van, and bought it back (a distance of nearly 4,500
kilometres). Before we put it together I made lots of
measurements and drawings, then made the appro-
priate patterns and all the pieces to copy it before we
put it together, including the frame dimensions, so it
was easier (than building the AJS V4) but it was still a
good exercise. I made the frame, but the brakes arepost war stuff that I got from Neal Videan. They did
have dual front brakes on the early Rapides but they
were not finned. These brakes stop pretty good
because the normal shoe is 7/8” wide and these are
1 1/8” wide. I had them on my Shadow and they are
quite respectable. I do it all myself, I don’t have
employees. Neal Videan and Rodney Brown, they
farm it all out. There are places I thought, ‘we can
improve on this’, because I like to ride it. The tank –
I call it a wartime tank because it looked like it had
been through the first and second world wars. It’s a
post-war tank and I’ve just made it look similar with
the ribbing on top – that’s just metal bonded on – and
the badges are silver. I made those, I knew a jeweller
and he carved the side badges out but he died before
he finished them so I had to finish them off. There’s 9
troy in each of those tank badges!”
“I made the carburettors (not the floats) inch and
a quarter. The biggest Amal made in that series (29
Type) was inch and an eighth. I’m a great one for
keeping it stock so I used a standard Lucas
mag/dyno. They’re Vincent cams in it, same profileVINCENT SERIES A RAPIDE
The Series A Rapide formerly owned by Tasmanian Bill Wiggins that
was completely rebuilt following a disastrous fire and now owned
by Ian Boyd in WA.