George Brown (motorcyclist)
For a time he worked at Vincent, where he headed up their Experimental department and raced the factory-backed single and V-twin bikes.
Brown left Vincent to establish his own motorcycle shop and as a sideline built high-performance sprint bikes that he rode to several national and international records.
[2]: 23, 24 Brown's father eventually bought a cycle shop in Harrow, where George spent time repairing a wide variety of motorcycles.
At the beginning of the 1930s Brown drove a lorry and worked for Raleigh, where his father had earlier been in the Experimental Department.
[1] Due to Brown's not being a member of the British Motorcycle Racing Club (BMCRC), he was denied the usual Gold Star for the feat.
The bike involved may have been the first Vincent 1000 cc twin, believed to be DUR 142, at speeds of 113 mph (181.9 km/h) in wet conditions.
[2]: 36 At the outbreak of World War II Vincent shut down motorcycle manufacturing and converted to wartime production.
After the war Brown was racing privately when he was approached by Joe Craig to ride a Norton at the Isle of Man TT.
Vincent opened a showroom in Chesterfield in the north, and Brown worked there as sales manager for a time before returning to Stevenage.
Later that same year Brown crashed badly at Eppynt trying to avoid a young girl who had fallen off the banking onto the track.
Returning in 1952 he placed sixth on an AJS in the Junior event and seventh on a Norton in the Senior race.
At this time Brown expanded his business, taking over a shop across the road from the old Vincent works in the High Street in the old town in Stevenage.
In 1953 Brown was seriously injured at the Junior TT when he collided with the wreckage of Leslie Graham's MV Agusta.
[4]: 72 [2]: 66 After this Brown essentially retired from road racing, but continued to appear in hill climbs and sprints.
[1] Brown was involved in another crash at Jersey, running into a barrier at 100 mph (161 km/h) and ending up underneath a car.
Over two days, 19 and 20 August, Brown ran both his Nero bike and an Ariel Arrow at Thurleigh field.
[6] Brown continued to race sprints into the mid-1960s, but the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM) would only grant licenses to riders up to 54 years of age.
[2]: 94 The George Brown Memorial Vintage Run is an event that started in 1979 and is organised by the Stevenage and District Motorcycle Club.
In the winter of 1946/47 Brown and Vincent service foreman Norman Brewster approached PCV and proposed building a Series A Comet Special for short circuit racing until a new 500 cc model was ready.
[2]: 69 He located a Rapide in Mill Hill, North London that had been damaged in a crash and subsequent fire and bought it for £5.
Brown and his brother Cliff rebuilt the wreck, and as they were no longer working for Vincent, were able to make any changes to the bike they wanted.
[2]: 74 This caused the front wheel to lift under hard acceleration, so Brown lengthened the wheelbase by 2 in (51 mm).
The bike retained the box-section backbone chassis of the donor Rapide, and the 998 cc 47° Vee-twin cylinder layout.
[4]: 72 The bike received an AJS 7R telescopic fork and conical brake in front, and a Velocette-based swing arm with Woodhead Munroe shocks in the rear.
The Vincent backbone was replaced by a custom large-diameter tube and the steering head with a unit of solid billet.
Brown's next bike was built with the goal of taking the World motorcycle land speed record.
The engine was a Vincent 998 cc V-twin, built to Nero specs with Picador-type ground flywheels, high-lift rocker arms and Stellite cam followers.
In early races it was determined that boost was too low, so sprocket ratios were changed on the blower drive to increase it.
In 1965 Brown's brother Cliff built an experimental engine by boring out the mouth of the crankcase and having custom liners made for the barrel mouths so that the engine could be converted from 1000 cc to 1148 cc by inserting or removing the liners and installing the appropriate barrels and pistons.
At this time they also discovered that the cause of their chronic misfiring was due to the batteries' plates being vibrated to destruction during the high-speed runs.
