PUB TALK

The theme for the VMCC Taverners’ Stanford Hall meeting this year was ‘overhead camshafts’. The venue is close to home for PUB, but she has missed recent years due to clashes with other events. It clashed again, but for unconnected reasons it was the other event that lost out this year, so she went along. She took (trailered of necessity) a suitably themed racebike, obviously not from the House of Vincent – although it may surprise readers to know that they did make one. Just one. It was an Earl’s Court show model NSU-Vincent Max, but costings showed that this Anglicised model – to reduce import duties – would not be profitable although the 98cc ohv and 123cc 2-stroke Foxes were marketed.

It is popularly supposed that the British industry was always conservative, and made worthy plodding go-to-work bikes at best, unlike the Japanese with their exotic and well equipped bikes that brought electric starters, indicators, etc to our market. But it ain’t necessarily so. Overhead camshafts are a case in point, and overhead camshafts were the theme at Stanford Hall. For that reason PUB took along her Grand Prix dohc Mondial, accompanied by B44accommodate, but nowhere near as ‘high’ as the beautiful Italian Parilla.