11-20-18 Update: It’s been nearly four years, but Tim Huber notes that this bike is back up for sale. Find it with a BIN of $65,000 or best offer (add $2,000 for shipping to the US)
In 1994, Bernard Li (founder of Eagle One car care products) started acquiring the trademarks of the Vincent motorcycle company. He felt that Vincents were “mythical motorcycles” and he wanted to bring them back to life. By 1998, he had sold Eagle One to Valvoline and turned the rebirth of Vincent into a full-time commitment. 4 years later, his new company (Vincent Motors USA) had revealed four prototypes to the world. Most were sports-oriented, but one was designed as a power-cruiser. That controversial ‘cruiser’ prototype was called the Vincent Black Eagle, and it can now be yours.
Li originally tried to power his bikes with an updated version of the original Vincent engine, but it didn’t work out. He was then able to convince 3 impressive partners to come on board. He got Honda to sell him the V-Twin engine used in their RC51 sportbike, James Parker (who designed the crazy front end on the Yamaha GTS1000, among many other things) to design the 4 prototypes, and Roush Industries to build them. Unfortunately, Li passed away in a motorcycle accident in 2008 after struggling to raise investment money to convert the prototypes into production models.
Dave’s Vincent has scanned pages from a brochure that Li created to announce his plans. Here’s the cover, but check out the bottom right corner of the link to see the remaining photos.
This specific Vincent Black Eagle was supposed to be the “power-cruiser” of the prototype lineup. Thanks to the RC51 engine, it was putting down 130 horsepower when nearly all cruisers were struggling to top 100. Cycle World called it “Maybe the best cruiser ever built…if it ever gets built.” Obviously it’s hard to guess the value of something like this, but this bike sold for $26,250 back in 2010 at a Bonhams auction. That buyer took it to Australia and is now offering it up for sale again. The high opening bid includes free shipping to the US.
Find this Vincent Black Eagle for sale in Sunnybank Hills, QLD, Australia, with an opening bid of $45,000
This bike-uriousity brought to you by John K!