Yet another Vindian

So now there are four in Victoria and the latest one is your presidents Mark Barthelmie, weirdly the first one I provided all the then known details to Pete Arundel and eventually it was fabricated by our ex Chairman Lindsay Urquart. The second one again fabricated by Lindsay for Pete Birthistle, I not only found the engine in S.Aust but then overhauled it, eventually sorting out the finalities like cables and magneto so it settled down to be a good reliable bike. The third one was and is the one I mostly ride that I completely ignored the two previous attempts and built it stronger than the factory based prototypes that Lindsay made. It’s done heaps of miles and is doggedly reliable, and now we have Mark’s I found the new motor for this in a JMR Norvin and Mark got the 1948 rolling chassis, I recommended Greg Brillus (Vincent guru) to fit it in with the help of my 30 page book I had written on this subject, plenty of phone calls from QLD and the engine was in! Mark has all the fiddly work to go, painting, wiring, exhaust etc but it’s nearly there so that’s another one done and I’m looking forward to seeing it on the road. There are 3 others in the world, Mike Thomas of Kiwi Indian it has a Terry Prince 1200 engine and 2 front heads with the Vincent dynamo drive system and huge carb’s and cams, I prefer the opposite for tractability each his own, the other one is a abortion again in America this one is dangerously made where the Indian frame rails are completely cut out and the engine is hung as in a standard Vincent frame, if it was in Australia it would be banned! Lastly the factory frame that was delivered back to Indian Sales at Springfield in 1949 sans the engine, they were agents for Vincent and fitted a Series D engine and a Vincent front wheel, it still exists apparently in the DuPont museum.