Grey Flash 2751

Whilst we are waiting for the exhaust pipe to be made I thought I’d post a bit about the seat we will be using.

Early Vincent HRD racers came fitted with a trimmed version of the standard road-going seat. I believe these were a Feridax product that featured a Dunlopillo foam with “cells” cast into it to provide adequate cushioning. Later on a special racing seat was designed; a lean and purposeful item that enabled the rider to assume a lower racing crouch with ease. When I acquired 2751 it came with an NOS one of the these racing seats.

I was initially elated though this turned to disappointment when I learned that 2751 would never have been fitted with such a seat. So I offered it to a friend who had a Black Lightning and he bought it from me for US$7,000 – this was a big help in recouping a bit of the initial purchase price of the bike (some US$90k).

Here are some period shots of the seat originally fitted to 2751:

The seat that came fitted to 2751 and was used in anger, by Peter Johnson when racing the bike, is actually not that far out shape-wise.

I had an original seat and cover complete with Feridax badge on stand-by to cut down. However, early Feridax seats did not feature a badge to the rear. Later a silkscreen printed logo was featured to be later replaced with the brass badge most Vincent owners are familiar with. So 2751’s original seat would not have had a badge.

Rather than try to recreate an exact copy of the original type we have decided to use the seat that the bike came with. It is not so far from the profile of the original and a little thinner – it actually looks better in our opinion. A newly made replica would be out-of-keeping so we will go with this. In addition, it has been actually used on the bike when raced and it is very well made.

We feel that this is an acceptable compromise. 😊

NB: Peter has been in touch with me and informed me that the seat was acquired from Ted Davis.