Vincent Black Eagle
VINCENT BLACK EAGLE
Maybe the best cruiser ever built-if it ever gets built...
DAVID EDWARDS
BARNEY LI IS A MAN ON A MISSION, WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT. STARTING IN 1994, it’s been Li’s quest-make that crusade-to bring the mighty Vincent V-Twin back to rortin’ snortin’ life, and if he just happens to trample on what your idea of a proper Vincent should be.. .well, too bad. So far, Li has locked up trade rights to the famed Vincent name and logo, convinced Honda to supply motors, spent about $2 million to build four “proof of concept” prototypes, raised enough investment dollars to fund the next stage of development, and is scouring the country for institutional fat cats who’ll bankroll the company into production sometime in 2005. None of this was a slam-dunk.
“There’s a fine line between passion and obsession,” Li says. “So far, we haven’t crossed that line.. .1 think.”
That unshakable passion has come in handy several times in the last 12 months. Li unwittingly timed his search for investment capital to coincide with an economy turned sour and the U.S. Army’s Third Infantry Division invading Iraq. Bye-bye moneybags. Then, nine months later, just as things were looking up, the new Indian Motorcycle Corporation went down in flames (see “Anatomy of an Implosion,” page 56), sending money managers into a hand-wringing tizzy.
“Just what I needed,” sighs Li. “Now, the second question out of an investor’s mouth is, ‘Yeah, but what about Indian?’ It’s made things immensely more difficult. If there’s big money out there right now, I can’t find it.”
Deep-pocket investment groups may have shied away, but private individuals stepped forward. “We’ve raised a substantial portion of what we need to finish development of the bikes,” says Li. “I’m optimistic the plan we’re on will work to conclusion.”
The bikes. There are four, all handbuilt by Roush Industries, the sporty Black Lightning S with
carbon-fiber bodywork (seen on CW's December, 2002, cover), the standard-issue Black Shadow, the Black Lightning ST sport-tourer and the model you see here, bound to hack off classic-bike aficionados everywhere, the Black Eagle power-cruiser.
Yes, a cruiser. See, while Li is respectful of the Vincent mystique, he’s not interested in simply burnishing the legend. Gone since 1955, the original Vincent was the meanest motorscooter of its era, capable in modified form of worldrecord speeds, as proven by crazy Rollie Free who went a buck fifty across the Bonneville Salt Flats wearing not much more than when he stepped out of the shower that morning. Li actually built a prototype using a slightly updated version of the ancient air-cooled Vincent V-Twin, done by an Australian outfit called RTV. But what was acceptable a half-century ago turned out to be oily, unreliable and impractical to mass-produce. Anyway, that engine option closed when RTV went into receivership in 1995.
Next stop, the Honda Motor Company, which despite its name, does not sell motors. But Li is nothing if not persuasive, and sometimes serendipity is a wonderful thing. After several years of on-again, off-again negotiations inquiring into the possibility of purchasing VTR1000 Super Hawk V-Twins, out of the blue Li was asked if perhaps he’d want RC51 motors instead?
Oh, yes please. Seems the 999cc limited-edition Superbike homologation Vee had friends in high places. Race-bred engines almost by definition have short product lives, often doomed by rules changes. Such is now the case with the RC51 motor, no longer raced in World Superbike and surpassed by the new CBR1000RR in AMA Superbike But someone well-placed on the Honda totem decreed that the motor would live on beyond the lame-duck RC51 streetbike, and arrangements were made to supply engines to both Vincent and Mondial, the latter another historic marque re-entering the market with its Piega repli-racer. Not a bad legacy.
Li now had a modem 120-horsepower motor for his neoVincent, sidestepping the need to shell out tens of millions of dollars in R&D costs for a clean-sheet engine design.
Of course, it’s that same liquid-cooled, 90-degree, Japanese-built motor that knocked vintage noses out of joint and lit up chatrooms all across the Internet. So noted, but again, Li is not trying to resurrect your Uncle Albert’s Black Shadow. If that’s your cuppa, grab a Walneck’s, a magic marker and be prepared to part with $30-35 large. The new Vincent (www.vincentmotors.com), packing double the horsepower, with top-notch suspension and brakes and jewel-like build-quality, will set you back between $20-25K. Penned by designer James Parker of RADD front suspension and Yamaha GTS 1000 fame, the Black Eagle was intended to be, “stiletto-like, very thin, almost spidery, with a certain lightness to it that cruisers generally don’t have.”
Besides, one ride on the bike tends to make you forget about the history books. Considerably lighter and way more powerful than anything in the class, this is a power-cruiser with a Superbike soundtrack. It rolls easily into comers, takes a set and then slingshots out with uncommon authority.
Speed racer Don Canet, no great fan of the genre, came back from photo duty aboard the Black Eagle positively giddy. “That,” he bubbled, “is one fun cmiser. I’d like a few more degrees of lean angle (Canet says that about everything), but it steers great and the brakes are awesome.” Sadly, ride time aboard the Vincent was cut short due to overheating. Built as half-million-dollar showpieces to be trotted out for investors and shown to the press, the prototypes were never intended as test mules to be flogged by magazine guys without a nickel in ’em. So, those jutting radiators, bifurcated by the front header mnning at 600-plus degrees, are without unsightly cooling fans. Not good in stop-n-go slogging-or photo-pass turnarounds.
No worries, says Li, a mere detail, already being worked on. Problem-solving is second nature to the man, who in a previous career grew his Eagle One car-care products into a multimillion dollar firm that was eventually purchased by oil-giant Valvoline for some serious buckage. Today, Mr.
Li is, as they say, "comfortable."
But he won’t be happy until Vincent is back in business. □
