Peter, Please keep us posted with any developments! The meeting of former employe es sounds like a GREAT idea and I am sure I am not alone in my interest in what this rendezvous might uncover. "Connecting the dots" is a big part of what makes this hobby so much fun for me...Looking forward to hearing more about the roots of this special machine!
Matthew Bowne
Brooklyn, New York
> From: peterg.brown@ntlworld.com
> To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
> Date: Wed, 10 Sep 2008 15:03:05 +0100
> Subject: [CR]Eddie's Convincible
>
> Since Eddie first contacted me almost a month ago to ask about the
> Convincible I have followed his quest to buy it with great interest.
> When
> the restoration of mine (the one on Classic Lightweights UK) was
> complete I
> took it back to where it was built at Barton to show it to two gentlemen
> who
> previously worked at the Hopper factory, one as a frame erector as they
> were
> called then, and the other in the toolroom where all the bottom bracket
> parts were made; apparently they never managed to put them into mass
> production. It was those gentlemen who told us that they thought that
> no
> more than six were made, and until Eddie's find we all believed that to
> be
> the case. However, there was other evidence which seemed to contradict
> that
> which now seems relevant. In the Hopper Company account ledgers lodged
> in
> the North East Lincolnshire Council Archives there is reference to the
> purchase of 2,000 convincible transfers at a total cost of five pounds
> ten
> shillings. In the 1956 stock take, made after Convincible production
> ceased, there were 1,900 still in stock, which seems to indicate th
at up
> to
> 50 were made. The frame number of mine was 002, but we know the histor
y
> of
> that one and it was given to a track rider contracted to Hoppers to
> test.
> He didn't like it but never returned it. The frame number of Eddie's
> machine is C41. That number does not follow Hoppers normal numbering
> sequence, and I suspect that refers to Convincible No. 41. While the
> bottom
> bracket of Eddie's has the same purpose of keeping perfect chain
> alignment
> the method of achieving the movement was obviously developed from my
> early
> machine by making use of a Cyclo type return spring rather than the
> early
> twin cable arrangement.
>
>
>
> Two more former toolmakers have now been contacted in Barton and we plan
> to
> get all four of the former employees together at the museum where mine
> is
> now displayed, and armed with the photographs of Eddie's machine we
> shall
> see if there are more memories to be prompted.
>
>
>
> The speculation about how the name Elswick Vampire Convincible came
> about
> can only be added to by the name of the other badged version, the Hoppe
r
> Avenger Convincible. There is obviously more to be learned in the
> coming
> weeks.
>
>
>
> Peter Brown, Lincolnshire, England
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
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