Is the VOC Spares Company Ltd endangering customers by selling sub-standard and potentially dangerous parts to customers? There have been complaints in recent years about the quality of parts sold by various Vincent H.R.D. specialists, including the VOCSC. I myself had to return two replica Miller headlamp switches to one prominent dealer because they fell apart in use. I ended up having to improve the switch currently installed but it is only a matter of time before it disintegrates too. This falls into the category of Irritating although it might also be Expensive if an electrical short occurred and even Dangerous if the lights went out in a country lane at night. However, when an absence of quality control involves gearbox cogs and shafts, this is very definitely Dangerous.
From a recent discussion on the VOC forum:
The author of this post purchased the parts in question from the VOCSC. Anyone who has ever had a gearbox lock up and seize at speed will understand how very serious the consequences of fitting these parts could be if they failed in use. For the average home mechanic, a layshaft that could not be fitted into its bearings would usually be sent back but there are people who would apply it to a bench-grinder until it fitted, without realising the potential risks of such bodgery. The gears are another matter; as "ClevTrev" remarks, even if the gear were persuaded to fit, the inaccurately machined dogs are a disaster waiting to happen.
Peter B responds, confirming that the gears in question are mis-machined and pointing out that they were sourced from David Holder's company, Mr Holder being the son of Matt Holder, who acquired the factory drawings, tooling and trademarks from Phil Vincent after he ceased making motorcycles in 1955. Peter B also states that the drawings produced by the VOC's Drawing Committee are superior to the original factory drawings. Several other members contribute to the thread before ClevTrev makes a very valid point.
The VOCSC does not sell its wares cheaply so the least one might expect of the management is that they enforce some system of regular quality control checks. If the VOC's drawings are indeed superior to those of the original factory draftsmen, why are they not being used to prevent sub-standard and dangerous parts from being sold to customers?
The VOC produces these drawings because the owner of the original drawings, David Holder, will not make them available, which is perfectly understandable as he has a business to protect. Mr Holder recently revealed that he has filed opposition to some trademark applications made in the name of the Vincent H.R.D. Owners Club Ltd and that he is keeping an eye on another recently-formed company The Vincent H.R.D. Company Ltd, which was the name of Phil Vincent's first company in 1928. The current VOC management has an uneasy relationship with David Holder but as Mr Holder's company produces many of the parts sold by the VOCSC, they need him more than he needs them. A source close to Mr Holder's firm
mentioned nineteen Rear Frame Members ordered by the VOCSC in advance of plans to produce not one replica Black Shadow but a production run of at least a dozen, plans later denied by the VOC's management as some members questioned their woeful mismanagement of the project. These RFMs, never paid for, sit gathering dust in the supplier's stockroom. Wondering what other expensive parts might be lying around in stockrooms across the Midlands, one begins to understand why the VOCSC Ltd is in debt and losing money.
Elsewhere in this thread, minor VOC official Norman Walker alias "timetraveller" writes of the failure of other parts apparently sold by the VOCSC. Mr Walker then describes his experiences of having parts made using the dimensions from VOC drawings and casts doubt on the accuracy of these drawings, saying that he received a replica part from the VOCSC for the purposes of having it copied and gave it to a machinist reputed for his accuracy. Another trade member posting under the name "nortonpower" writes of eccentrically machined chainwheels and sprockets supplied by the VOCSC.
At this rate, with the VOCSC in debt and losing money, and selling dodgy parts to customers they appear to believe to be a captive market, one cannot help wondering if the management of the VOCSC plans to imitate history: most of the better postwar Vincents were made and sold whilst the company was run by Mr E C Baillie, who was the Official Receiver.
Toodle Pip
