You may remember those shiny metal puzzles, the bent nails or the entangled rings, Perhaps the fiddle of getting the assembled gear cluster into a twin gearbox seems complex, well those tasks are small fry compared to fitting the gear selector ‘stirrup’ into the racing Albion gearbox.

The Racing Comet still has priority but I took time off as I tried to get a rough assembly of the major parts of the Flash crankcase and gearbox to try and get to the point where I could measure up the dimensions for the primary belt drive it seems that at my selected primary ratio ( 1:88)

The Comet racer has priority in the workshop, so after a quick struggle with a slide hammer and a poor heat source, I farmed out my Grey Flash oil pump sleeve and new cam spindle to Roger Forsyth who is just down the road from me.

This month I have holidays and time away from my workshop this is not all bad news as there are (or should be) a lot of considerations when building a replica like a Grey Flash.

As we discussed the finer points of how to 'knock up' a Scott crank shaft ,(You honestly don't want to know) my instructor said, “I am surprised you have not noticed the Vincent bits under the bench”. There reposing almost out of sight was a close ratio Albion box and all the Flash accoutrement's, Engine plates, bent links, and the much discussed special frame tie.