Used Vincent Motorcycles for sale in Canada

Show search form Vincent motorcycles - a bit of history. People who, from a young age, have to earn every penny in the sweat of their brow, go to work and dream - what if they find on the road a wallet with a million dollars and for the rest of their lives they won't put a finger on their finger for the rest of their lives! Those lucky ones who, from the moment of birth, have been showered with all the blessings of the earth, just as passionately want to create something epochal. True, not all. But the results are surprising. Philip Conrad Vinsent was definitely one of those lucky ones. He was born in London, at the beginning of this century, in the family of a wealthy cattle dealer - his father owned huge farms in Argentina. But wherever the offspring spent their childhood, wealthy English fathers send them to study in their native England, to one of the privileged private schools. It is a wonderful custom - if Philip had stayed in Argentina, the world would have lost one of the most glorious motorcycle brands! He got his first "car" at the age of sixteen - it was a small 350 cc undervalve BSA. And soon a two-cylinder ABC fell into his hands. This inspired work of Granville Bradshaw deserves a separate story - there was so much original in it and so much ahead of its time, Vincent was conquered primarily by the soft suspension of the rear wheel - a very unusual feature for the twenties. At that time, it was believed that the less the displacement of the centers of the wheels relative to each other, the more accurate the controllability of the car, and if the public still recognized the front suspension (with a tiny 20 mm travel), then the suspension of the rear wheel was downright afraid. Vincent did not share these concerns. Moreover, in 1927, when he was already a student at Cambridge, he took up the construction of a motorcycle of his own design - of course, with a soft suspension of the rear wheel, but with an original scheme. The rear swingarm was a closed tubular structure - triangular in side view. The rear wheel was fixed at the apex of the triangle, the lower corner of the base was connected to the frame through rolling bearings, and the upper one through two spiral compression springs (open on prototypes, on serial machines they were covered with cylindrical casings). This suspension became the hallmark of all Vincent motorcycles - although die-hard adherents of rigid rear suspensions could order such an option until the mid-thirties. On his homemade product, Vincent wound 16 thousand kilometers in a year and was very pleased with its handling and comfort. A letter flew to Argentina - the young offspring decided to produce motorcycles of his own design and asked for parental permission and, of course, for funding. What Philip's father did after reading such a letter with those who fell under his hot hand is unknown, but he made a sound decision. Return letters were sent to England - one to Philip, the second to Frank Walker, an old family friend, an avid motorcyclist and an experienced engineer. For the birth of a new company, the father set two conditions: Frank must evaluate Vincent's design with the eyes of a connoisseur and give his "go-ahead", and in addition, become the director of the enterprise. Both requirements were met and a new company was born in 1928 - but the name "Vincent" on the gas tanks of its motorcycles had to be looked up! Obviously, the wise Walker convinced Vincent that the public might not accept motorcycles of an absolutely unknown brand, and even the original design of a twenty-year-old boy. Whether it is the name of a manufacturer who has already won fame and fame. And then HRD just went bankrupt, and all of its property - the brand, equipment, parts and designs of motorcycles - were auctioned for a ridiculous amount: 400 pounds sterling (at that time - the price of ten cheap motorcycles). So in our story - alas, only for a moment - the imposing figure of Howard Raymond Davis appears. In the early twenties, Davis headed the racing department of the famous English company AJS and was an excellent racer himself - in 1921 he won an unprecedented victory in the annals of the Tourist Trophy, coming in this most prestigious race in Europe first in the 500 cc class at 350- cube motorcycle. Since Howard had his own vision of motorcycle design, he eventually left AJS and in June 1924 founded his own company, calling it by his initials HRD. In 1925 he won the Tourist Trophy again on a new motorcycle, and another victory was brought to the HRD 8 in 1927 by Freddie Dixon. Alas, neither sporting success nor technical excellence (Davis was the first to switch from a gas tank inserted between the two upper parallel frame tubes to the familiar tank sitting "astride" on the frame) could save the company from collapse. This is how the name passed to Vincent (the motorcycles and the company were named "Vincent-HRD", although for brevity we will call them throughout hereinafter "Vincent"), equipment, blueprints and traditions of using "the best components and materials to build the best motorcycles."