Don’t we all love it?
At the moment there seems to be a slight hiccup with the post, due to Easter, this time…
Nevertheless, I can expect delivery sometime within a week, and then I can get on with the packing! The artwork is all finished for the packing slip, just have to print those out (takes a few hours advance notice and then I get those all nicely cut and ready to put in with the star. The header for the packaging is also done, and I have the poly-bags here, too!
The picture above is, by the way, an original star on the Indian light , with the the broken lens – hence the Sellotape® on the lens, if you look closely!). All other bits are being evaluated and tested by my tool-makers, so had nothing else left here…
Here are some of them just before despatch: Looking Goood!The reason for them being sent away is, that I shall not stop at the star, as I think I might have mentioned already!
Next item is probably the lens itself, as most originals are now in a sorry state and hardly fit for use.
ALL the original lenses that I have seen have, by now, ‘conformed’ to the shape of the star fencing them in, and they all have also shrunk due also to heat and age to an alarmingly small size.
The colour has not paled, but darkened, so the scratched and deformed lens is now a deep bloot-clot red, where the metal of the star wasn’t protecting it from the rays of the sun.
Shrunk so small that it is now falling into the body, bringing it even closer to the source of heat, which now has to be on all the time in most countries, making it also hotter for longer, which makes is deform and shrink even more and so the spiral goes on…
If it weren’t for the star, mine is so small, the clip doesn’t even try to keep it from falling out!
I am looking for (and think that I have found) someone who can do borosilicate glass for me, which would have the appropriate deep red, one that doesn’t go pink when the brake-light is on.
OK, something else I have been looking into. The pattern rear lights made for Vincents are identical to the version originally made by Miller. Dividing wall and all! I never took any notice of this when I was riding them and went past my memory like a ship in the fog/night.
This still does not explain away the reasoning behind this non-sensical construction. The wall, though very convenient for mounting those bulbs on, gets in the way of the available area of the light that projects rearwards. A small that that didn’t produce enough light to be seen at a safe distance in ideal conditions, just lost half of the area, and that for over 90% of the time it is on!
Modern twin-filament bulbs and those ghastly-looking LEDs just don’t fit, so the most compelling argument is for the torpedo- shaped bulbs, which can also be conveniently mounted with enough distance from the lens to reduce heating AND doesn’t need a division to cut the lit area in half!
WIN-WIN!
AAAAND, the original Vincent items didn’t have the Miller ‘lighthouse’ button on all of them, either! My research has not been able to find out when the cut-off point was, but I have definitely seen absolutely original ones without.
The drawings are done for the body (and the clip and lens), along with the appropriate CAD/CAM files, so only a matter of timing, when those are turned into real-live articles, available probably both with or without lighthouse.
The brass lighthouse can be used on other items like horn-buttons and stop-switch housings, too, but I shan’t be making bulb-horns, cycle-bells and Tax-Disc-holders!
Perusal through the part-lists and instruction-books has drawn my attention to another little item that I have never actually seen in the flesh… only on contemporary photographs.
Any idea what I might be talking about? The first person to guess, will get one free! (hint:it is a part attached to the front end of the bike, and has something to do with a ‘control’ item…)
Enjoy!
©peter gouws 2013
