Posted by Mountainman on May 10, 2000 at 15:28:43:
Hi, all:
If ya love bikes ya gotta love Vincents, right? Original bad-ass bike from long ago that can still amaze with its performance. "Big Sid" Biberman is a legend among Vincent people, and he recently wrote a book about them called "Vincents With Big Sid." Not a dry history book, at all. Couldn't help myself, so I wrote a review of the book, which follows. An amazing book by an amazing man I'm happy to call a friend. Sorry for taking up so much bandwidth, but here it is...
Vincents With Big Sid
By S. M. Biberman
Reviewed by John Morgan (AKA Mountainman)
5/9/00
Who should read this book? Anyone who loves motorcycles, that’s who! This is not your usual “facts and figures” bike book specific to one marque, but rather a very personal, very well-written recollection by a living legend of the sport: “Big Sid” Biberman. Big Sid is a preeminent builder/restorer of the legendary Vincent line of motorcycles. Jan Leno wrote the introduction to the book, and Sid built the motor on his “Norvin,” a Norton frame containing a Vincent 1000cc engine. With this book, Sid also becomes the poet/historian of the line, as well.
The photos alone are worth the price of the book. If you aren’t absolutely drooling over them by the end of the book, you have no soul. Certainly today’s bikes are more advanced than the old Vincents, but no other bike, before or since, has had such a sculpted, machined look about them. The photos capture this ineffable correctness of form quite wonderfully.
The prose is certainly the equal of the photos, as well. Reading this book brought back some powerful memories of the earlier days of our sport for me. Reading about the “old style” bike shops, the early speed record attempts, the road races, the early days of drag racing in America; it took me back to those glorious days in a powerful, wonderful way. Reading, I could actually recapture the sounds and smells of those days: the sound of open megaphone exhausts, the pungent aroma of hot castor oil, methanol and nitro fuel. Good stuff!
Sid has done a great job tracing out the history of the Vincent, also. His accounts of the origins of the line make for great reading. How “PCV” (Philip C. Vincent) built his first bike, his meeting with Philip E. Irving and the incredible result of the partnership they formed, the steady evolution of the line into the legend it became; this is history at its most readable best. Nothing dry about it, the characters become real, flesh-and-blood people on the page.
Those who already love Vincents will devour every page of the book. Those unfamiliar with them will love them by the end. What’s not to love about a bike (the Black Shadow) that debuted in 1948 with a showroom-stock top speed in excess of 125mph? And with the reliability and handling to properly harness what was then unheard-of power. Any yes, the photo section contains the famous picture of Rollie Free in swim trunks, slippers and swim cap flat-out on his stomach on the rear fender with his legs out behind him, setting the land speed record of 150.3mph that same year!
I had the pleasure of riding a Black Shadow way back in 1963. To this day, the memory of that loping engine generating volcanic torque remains sharp and fresh in my mind. Big Sid’s book reinforces that memory most wonderfully. To get your own copy, just visit Sid’s website and order it online. The URL is:
http://www.mindspring.com/~bigsid. Go get one, you’ll thank yourself for it!