Drop-forged components from W.H. Tildesley Limited (WHT), the Willenhall based forged components company, have been integral to keeping historic Vincent motorcycles on the road. In fact, without WHT’s specialist capabilities, the Vincent Owners Club (VOC) Spares Company would most likely have gone out of business.

The VOC Spares Company was founded in 1975 by the Vincent Owners Club to ensure a future supply of quality components for classic Vincent motorcycles. When David Meadowcroft took the company over in 2002, however, it was clear that the business was in severe decline and something drastic had to be done to reinvigorate interest.

To boost publicity for the club, David came up with the idea of building, displaying and running a completely new Black Shadow – the world’s fastest production bike in 1948 and one of Vincent’s most famous motorcycles of all time.

The idea was simple – build a completely new Black Shadow to highlight the availability and quality of spare parts. The problem was a tough one – there were a number of components no longer available. David explains:

“I conceived the new Black Shadow project following on from an initial project to build a new engine – I thought it would be the boost the Club and VOC Sares Company needed. It was not easy, as many key components were no longer available,” he said, adding: “Many patterns and forging dies had been lost and without the help and expertise of WHT, we certainly wouldn’t have completed the project in the timescale set.”

WHT used drawings and technical information provided by the Vincent HRD Owners Club Technical Committee to produce forging dies to produce the components required. In doing so, WHT could ensure that the current material equivalents met or exceeded the original specification, as well as the requirements for design, tolerances and finish.

The effect the project and availability of these components has had on the business is significant – after adjusting for inflation, company turnover has doubled between 2001 and 2009!