During a visit to Carrot Cycles of Lincoln, Dave Manning is amazed by the sheer range of motorcycle components the team is able to produce, replicate or improve for the classic or vintage enthusiast.
If you’re a regular show attendee, you might remember seeing the Carrot Cycles stand at places like the Stafford Show, complete with its expansive range of cables, hoses, HT leads, plug caps etc.
If you’re wondering why Pete and Phil and the other members of the Carrot team haven’t been to shows of late, it’s because demand for these parts at such venues seemed to be waning – so after a lot of thought they decided to put the show stand into storage and focus on the making of control cables, which has proved to be the strongest element of the business, with a side order of Shorai batteries and Ariete rubber parts as an appetiser.
Carrot can produce brake, clutch, speedo and tacho cables for just about anything, either making entirely new components or, if adaptors, connectors or adjusters have been made of unobtanium (perfectly possible with a classic or rare motorcycle) by using the original parts with new cable sheathing and core, or even make brand new components from scratch. Cables can be made to a pattern, a drawing, or to fit your bike (or if you prefer hands-on, they can supply the
component parts).
Enjoy more Old Bike Mart reading every month.
Click here to subscribe & save.
With a room set aside solely for cable construction, and a parts inventory too expansive for my trusty Canon to replicate, Carrot are a must-add name to the list of parts suppliers and vendors in any classic buff’s little black book.
Being the UK’s longest serving supplier of Shorai LiFEPo (lithium iron phosphate) batteries, they also know the score with modern batteries, and can advise on the use of the ultra-lightweight (often as little as one-fifth of the weight of traditional lead acid batteries), high-performance powerpacks. They can supply vintage battery cases so that the improved performance of a Shorai battery can be used in a case that looks like an original battery, and Shorai batteries come in 6v and 12v versions, so you can improve the performance and reliability, whatever your classic!
Read more in the April 2018 issue of OBM – on sale now!
