The world’s only Vincent Museum

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Our British friend David Lancaster, journalist and great connoisseur of Vincent Motorcycles brought back from Germany this amazing report in exclusivity for Southsiders.
Merçi David



Hidden treasures in a small town in Germany
By David Lancaster

When British espionage writer John Le Carré entitled his 1968 novel A Small Town in Germany, he was describing Bonn, hometown of Konrad Adenauer, Chancellor of West Germany after World War II. Chosen by him to be the unlikely capital of the nation in 1949, Bonn became a byword for post-war conformity: ‘Even the flies are official,’ Le Carré writes, in this ‘waiting house for Berlin’.

Yet behind the ordered driveways, manicured lawns and flower boxes of Germany’s small towns, can lie hidden gems. In Niederwetz, near Wetzlar, lies the world’s only museum devoted to Vincents. There's a few Vincent collections - but this is a museum, open by appointment.



Schloss Vincent is the work of over 50 years of collecting, riding and restoring by owner Kurt Schupp, aided by his friend and associate Manfred Kinne. In addition to the major, and some of the ultra rare models to issue from Stevenage, it also boasts a beguiling section recreating the office Philip Vincent worked from at his Stevenage factory. Command and control of the small firm.



The genesis of the collection lies in Kurt’s sighting of two Vincents at a late 1950s Elephant Rally (a snow-bound festival, held in deepest winter, in deepest Germany). He was smitten, but Vincents were rare in Germany. Then in 1960, he heard of perhaps the rarest of them all, for sale, in Berlin: a Black Lightning, the stock 140mph race version of the Black Shadow. He recalls approaching his bank for a loan: ‘”For that money,” they told me, “you can buy a car.” But I didn’t want a car – I wanted a Vincent!’ And there began a 50-odd year love affair with the marque.



Across the engagingly cramped museum, there is a wealth of bikes, including a Grey Flash, the Black Lightning, Comets, Shadows, Rapides, and two very beautiful Egli-Vincents. One is the well-known twin engine model, now re-manufactured with Egli’s blessing by Frenchman Patrick Godet (www.godet-motorcycles.com); the other, a rare 500cc model.




Kurt and Manfred got a tip about a frame or two being ‘possibly for sale’ by Egli, and motored to Switzerland that week to make the purchase. A 500cc Egli-Vincent is the last Vincent to enter a FIM Grand Prix - practicing, and qualifying well for the 1971 Isle of Mann Senior TT, but not competing due to weather delays. Builder was UK Egli-Vincent importer, builder and tuner Roger Slater, rider was Ron Wittich.




A disassembled Rapide is wall mounted along the showrooms and corridors - nut, bolt, spark plug, bearing, engine case and cycle part. A smattering of ice-speedway machines are on show, too. There’s NSUs, another favoured marque of Kurt’s. Some of his first memories are of being driven in the family sidecar – his father ran a motorcycle shop - to major post-war German race meetings, at which the NSUs were dominant. By the 1950s he was riding a 250 NSU on the road, and smitten with fast motorcycles.



Kurt and Manfred Kinne met in the 70s - ‘He could speak better English than me, so I thought he’d be useful with British bikes’, says Kurt – and the collection continued to grow. Both were instrumental in creating a golden period (there’s always one, isn’t there?) for the museum. From the mid 70s to early 90s, Schloss Vincent played host to regular German Vincent Owners Club German rallies. This was before prices for Vincents rocketed out of many people’s reach, and perhaps a more eccentric, egalitarian ownership profile prevailed.

Key Vincent personnel such as Phil Vincent’s widow Elfreda, factory manager and author Paul Richardson, and chief designer Phil Irving, were not only alive and well – but often at the German rallies held in the grounds of Schloss Vincent. A thriving local motorcycle scene would mean British moto-tourists finding themselves sharing a beer with one or two of the above, joined by luminaries such as multi-world sidecar champions Klaus Enders and passenger Ralf Engelhard and eccentric bike builder Friedel Munch. In other words, the kind of scene you really only appreciate years after it’s past.







If the bikes are impressive, it is the ‘office’ in the museum that really beguiles. The typewriter, wall charts, pictures, drawing board, works drawings and a host of other paraphernalia are either original Stevenage stock or Vincent’s personal items. A map pin-points the company’s impressive roster of European agents. A 1928 sketch of the proposed ‘Southport’ model, shows Phillip Vincent’s V-twin plans pre-dating the 1930s. Most charming of all is the lovingly re-created snow-capped painting of the view of Stevenage High Street, as seen from Vincent’s office desk.



Le Carré said: ‘A desk is a dangerous place from which to view the world…’ Maybe. But for Philip Vincent, for a few years parallel with the Cold War Le Carré chronicles, his bikes were the fastest, most revered and most expensive on offer. And his desk must have been a rather fine place from which to view the world.


Words and Pictures © David Lancaster, 2012

Open by appointment
Lindenbachstraße 13
Schöffengrund-Niederwetz 35641
Germany
Phone: +49 6445 5402
Fax: +49 6445 7890


Alan Lancaster on his Black Prince, about to leave a German VOC rally, late 1970s




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Simon Mills: A V-Twin obsession "Part Three"

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So Nemo came home two years ago , many hours of trawling the net, Images of Marty Dickerson and Rollie Free, Patrick Godet and his beautiful racer, it came back to me that I had photos of him racing at Brands hatch in 1983, these bikes where the inspiration now.

Nemo arrived promptly the Kickstart broke due to my physique akin to Gerard Depardieu, then I broke down on the road, who knows why, next time it stopped 7 miles away up by the lighthouse, I pushed it up hills and freewheeled down trying to bump, I must have lost 5Kg in sweat pushing up all them damn hills, completely dead, the Mag had died, no more magnetism, I bought a BTH electronic item, it is faultless (fingers crossed) starts with a gentle press of the foot starter, the bike runs through MK2 amals, desperately need jetting properly, it has higher compression pistons as of a black shadow, the clutch is lightened, it has genuine black lightning wheels and magnesium drums, it now has ducati scrambler mudguards front and rear, Koni race dampers, 1" 7/8 race pipes, I did experiment with trying to make some Lightning pipes from a comet system and a rapide 2:1 but it got too complex, the twin pipes are from JMC in UK and a copy of the Godet system, they were vey very loud so now have temporarily fitted VW beetle tailpipes, I have had much grief trying to get a good set up with rearsets which are good for Gear Change and brake control but do not foul the kickstarter, this adventure continues today, early on last year or so I spent much time messing about with the Seats and style, opted for the more period style of the 1930's with small seat and pillion pad, I think it has a nice sense of vintage, yet almost bobber 50's...No doubt the purist will be upset, I wonder if Phil Vincent would approve , I did read that he was upset by people who changed the machines and particularly the chassis by putting the engine in different frames as Egli or Norvin?

Furthermore I am always in awe of the Britten Race Bike as I feel his design principle echoed Vincent by utilising the engine completely, bolting the oil tank on top, headstock onto front and rear suspension swinging fork onto rear of engine and shock absorber onto back of oil tank, truly futuristic and minimalist.
Nemo though runs great, goes like stink, handles really nicely, a bit too well as its too easy to go too fast and ground out on some weird bit, feels very light - in reality its weight is very very low I guess, its a lot of fun and always brings a smile, in time I think we'll start getting up to decent speeds, 70-80 mph so far and quite fast enough, must sort the carbs, more plans, I did nearly buy a race tank similar to Godet, I wondered about fitting 19"and 21"enduro wheels and discs with knobblies just to really upset the purist......
I really like the Jeff Decker bike, seems he wizzed that one out of his shed quick style before the magnificent Falcon Partners produced their BLACK bike, can't wait to see that one as their Kestrel and Bullet are truly spectacular, those three bikes my current top three machines, although I am always impressed by the endless stream of Wrench Monkees and the Spanish Radical Ducatis who make some beautiful modern based cafe racer.

The inspiration of recent Vincent

Marty Dickerson

Photos © Marty Dickerson

Patrick Godet Vincent

The early days

wide chopper seat

experimental 2:1 straight through pipe

seats and guards on trial

Aermacchi seat

ex-Sideburn fat track seat

La Pera seat and pad

Nemo and his new friend Rickman Nourish Metisse

Godet style twin race pipes being fitted-standard footrests

And Finally as we speak the current incarnation-just need to sort the footworks

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Simon Mills: A V-Twin obsession "Part Two"

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-The Beach Racers


As i got older I discovered the old beach racers of the world, land speed records etc, Pendine in Wales and many other Southport Liverpool, those amazing big V twins, raced to hell on the beach, I dreamt of Broughs SS100, of course the longer I dreamt the more expensive they became, SS80's were just about affordable but not hugely inspiring although practical motorcycles for me, even there conflict arose as for much less money a similar performance machine such as an Indian or Harley WLA was available and up for stripping and racerising.

My old Mate Fiddy from Davida who I've been close to for years turned up at our house by the sea so that we could take some photos of Archeys beautiful Brough SS100, I was blown away, what a machine, totally unaffordable, many options where looked at, replicas, Sportster specials etc, then a friend told me of a gentleman rebuilding a Rapide from an old bike in pieces which had been gathered from many places, we spoke and I mentioned I wanted to build a stripped down racer style lightweight bike, he agreed to re-direct the project and focus more on less and function rather than pure originality.....

Archeys Brough in the Garden

Fiddy and Archeys Brough

The

Vincent C'est plus rapide, called NEMO at his builder, slightly stripped down from standard, black shadow spec, no electrics, maybe 25kg lighter than standard




Thanks to Gary Inman

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