Vincent Déjàvu

Vincent DéjàVu

What was becomes what is

THE MUSCULAR BLACK MOTORCYCLE YOU SEE here with Honda’s Pacific Coast, bearing an uncanny family resemblance to it, was the end of one venerated line of motorcycles and is, it can be argued, the genesis of today’s fully enclosed motorcycles.

What you see is an example of the Vincent Black Knight, the fully enclosed version of the lOOOcc, touring-spec Vincent Rapide. The Vincent manufactory in Stevenage, England, built about 100 of these, and about 150 Black Shadow-powered Black Princes, using this same bodywork, during 1955, the final year of Vincent production. They are expensive now, with some examples selling for upwards of $25,000, and they were expensive then, selling for more than triple the price of a new Triumph. Because of the price and because of the appearance, Vincent couldn't sell all of them it built, the lore has it; so from those that remained, the heavy fiberglass bodywork was stripped and those bikes were sold as standard Rapides or Black Shadows.

This Black Knight, owned by comedian Jay Leno, who restored it after buying it in a box, is a runner with 29,500 miles on its clock.

And though the resemblance between it and the Pacific Coast is uncanny, right down to the pair’s VTwin engines and tip-up tail sections, the bikes otherwise couldn't be more different. The Vincent offers a sporting riding position and delivers a powerful bark of an exhaust note, while the PC is as refined and as sanitized of personality as an appliance. All of the Vincent’s components are easily accessible, while the Honda's innards will likely remain hidden behind the bike’s plastic panels from all but the most persistent.

But the greatest difference of all between the two? That's easy: It’s what each will be worth in another 10 years. —Jon F. Thompson