Hi Hopper,
In my view anyone who carried out a repaint/replate on a bike like my LMC should be publicly castrated to serve as a warning to others and to stop them from breeding. I think the old vehicle movement is at odds with the antique world in general, where patina is greatly valued and its removal causes a sharp drop in value.
In the case of the LMC it is genuine and very original BUT it has the wrong type of throttle lever fitted at some time in the past. This irritates me so I want to fit something which at least looks like the original, the extreme purists will just have to like it or lump it.
The photo was taken on our bi-annual National Veteran Rally which was in Tasmania in 2007. I got the bike from South Australia where it was certainly a long-term resident.
There are apparently lots of Lipscombes in Australia but none are related as far as I know, I came originally from London but the name is common in Hampshire.
Note for the purists: All mechanical devices that are used will suffer wear. One can rectify this wear and bring the vehicle to a useable state or leave it broken down and unloved in a shed somewhere awaiting its probable journey to the scrap heap. It is all about balance, there are no hard-and-fast rules – would you fail to restore a 1910 whatever because it needs new sparking plugs and you can't get the original type? On the other hand, most would baulk at a completely new engine made from scratch and incorporating modern features for performance. There is no answer to this matter, the correspondence could go on for ever without achieving anything.
Regards, Chas