The Irving Vincent 1300
(Page 4 of 5)
March/April 2008
By Alan Cathcart
Rear suspension comes courtesy of a fully-adjustable Ohlins monoshock fitted to a traditional Vincent cantilever swingarm that’s a replica of the one fitted to a D-series Rapide, while for the time being (as Period 4-class eligibility issues are thrashed out) there are cast iron disc brakes all around, with twin 12.6-inch front rotors and an 11-inch rear, all gripped by twin-piston Grimeca calipers. Finally, 18-inch Akront alloy rims laced to a Honda hub up front and a Norton at the rear are shod with Avon racing tires.
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On track
With the bike literally finished the night before our shakedown test on the bumpy, switchback track of Broadford, north of Melbourne, I was prepared to have to spend the first part of our sunny summer session dialing-in the freshly-minted bike. It didn’t need it.
The engine was actually Barry Horner’s well-proven spare engine from his sidecar outfit, but after watching the brothers fire it up using a remote starter, I took to the track and
discovered that the bike was ready to roll, straight from the womb. But not to rock, for the Horner-built motor is incredibly smooth for a 50-degree V-twin with such big pistons and no balance shaft. There’s no vibration at all even through the footrests, let alone the seat or bars, indicating that the brothers know a thing or two about getting the balance factor right. The lumpy 1,300rpm idle it settles to after firing up soon smooths out as you rev it off the mark. From 3,000rpm upward the engine makes serious power by classic racing standards, sending the Irving Vincent rocketing out of the final turn at Broadford to the staccato accompaniment of that lazy-sounding exhaust that belies the speed at which it’s traveling, before thundering down the straight like a jet-propelled cannonball.
Acceleration is so emphatic that you’re best getting the bike upright as soon as possible, and pulling the trigger to max out drive from the meaty engine.
You must be careful using the rear brake too hard with the massive inertia under engine braking of such a big twin. I got the rear wheel chattering a couple of times when too eager to hit a lower gear at the end of each of the Broadford straights. You must learn to ride such a mega-motorcycle in a very measured manner — do so, and it’ll pay off in lap times.
The only negatives were poor front brake performance and a very stiff throttle, perhaps a spin-off from the heavy springs needed to combat the suction effect of such a deep-breathing big-bore engine. But that aside, the Irving Vincent fully lived up to its promise on paper, with an impressive dyno sheet reading born out by the V-twin engine’s real-world performance.
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