HOW YOU FIND THEM #16

A friend who is deeply and professionally involved with motorcycles has been looking for a good, unmolested Norton Manx for a couple of years now, and his search has yielded results beyond my imagining.

The machine is a matching numbers, barely used 1962 Manx 30M, the last year of full production at the factory, with the best equipment of this long-lived series. Double-overhead camshafts, rotating-magnet racing magneto, fabulous double-sided four-leading shoe magnesium front brake, long-range (Isle of Man) petrol tank, and the list goes on.. it even sits on the original triangular Dunlop racing tires.

As you can see from the photos, there is a hint of corrosion on the cadmium-plated (or is it satin chrome?) nuts and bolts, and the paint has oxidized a bit, but those are necessary clues to the bike's originality, strictly as per factory catalogue.

My friend says he'll replace the perished fuel lines, but that's about all - it's perfect as it sits.

HOW YOU FIND THEM #15

When you've been looking for a good Vincent Black Shadow for a while, you realize: 1. they're fairly common, 2. they're expensive, 3. most of them are lousy, 4. when you find the One You Want, grab on with your teeth and don't let go until you've done a deal.

So it was with this machine and its new owners... when ebay and various dealers failed to produce a machine which 'felt right', it took the Old Boy Network, and many months of persistence, softening up, and raising the ante, to view a '52 Black Shadow. It has matching #s, and had been sold originally as a Lightning in the US, spending almost all of its working life on dragstrips and salt flats - to no tremendous avail actually, but the modifications added to the charm of the beast, which had sat in boxes for 35 years.

Something about the history of the machine, its completeness and low mileage, and its charisma, convinced the heroes of our story that they absolutely wouldn't settle for another Vincent, this had to be the one. Thus the queries began, tenative at first ('would you consider selling?'), then more bold ('would you take x?'). Finally an audience was granted.

The story improves: on the appointed day, sitting discretely in another box was a second Shadow engine, and just about all the rest of the bike, which had been drag-raced in the 1960s, using an overstretched Egli-style backbone for a frame... and the humorous indignity of having its crankcases chromed. That's just not going to come off! But, perhaps it could be painted black....

It seemed natural to make a package deal for the entire lot, taking the former owner out of the Vincent business completely, and perhaps adding significantly to his retirement fund. A deal was struck, a handshake, a hug, a trip to the bank, the renting of a truck to haul it all home, and two Vincents will, within 12 month's time, be on the road and roaring again. The new owner is no slouch.