Grey Flash 2751

The Grey Flash features an extensively drilled and lightened headstock casting.

The Works must have deemed this appearance a little unsightly so an alloy cover plate was devised to cover up the holes and provide a place for the mercury crest transfer.

I’m convinced this is original to the bike; accurately constructing a similar part wouldn’t be hard but correctly replicating the dimensions would require more diligence and it’s very unlikely anyone would have bothered with such a trifling task in decades past.

The question here is what might the original finish of this component have been? Usually they were polished. I feel certain that it wouldn’t have been blasted – some of the visible dings have also been subjected to this treatment indicating that the blasting was undertaken later on in the bike’s life. As the finish/presentation was a very important aspect of this early Grey Flash I suspect this plate would have been anodised along with many other of the aluminium parts. Re-anodising might be one answer or perhaps carefully removing the blasted finish with a suitable grade of wire wool. We need to have a careful think about this before coming to a decision.

Drilling Patterns

One thing we’ve noticed about the drilling on the headstock casting is that it differs from that of later examples. David Dunfey has kindly sent me some images that show a different pattern of 5/16″ holes.