Bike of the day: HRD Vincent Rapide goes under the hammer at Coys auction

At this year’s show Coys Auction house is holding a huge 150-bike auction at 2.45pm on Saturday 17 February at the Carole Nash MCN London Motorcycle Show. 

Included amongst the machines is this HRH Vincent Rapide. 

Production records show the Rapide was actually manufactured in 1949  and first registered for the road on 12^th July 1949, 1949 /  1950 being the transition year for HRD Vincent, being the year in which HRD changed their trading name to purely Vincent, this was due to the fact that impending legal problems were mounting against the HRD company by HD (Harley Davidson) the giant American firm who eventually bullied Vincent into submission, hence the name HRD was completely dropped in 1950.

Evidence of the transition can be seen engine where the HRD, later models just had the Vincent name. With age patina that is a great asset when coming from a recent restoration. “ FPY 327   “ comes with  original owners manual and handbooks. Factory records show that in 1949 model were produced with engine numbers from 1401 to 4980, production numbers being very low as Vincent’s were a small factory with their main interest being road racing competitions. 

For more information and to buy tickets visit www.mcnmotorcycleshow.com