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MotorCycling Gift Guide: Priceless and Timeless
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Harris Vincent Gallery
Ray Thursby
12/01/2006
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Photograph by Basem Wasef
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Photograph by Basem Wasef
The conventional excuse for fobbing off the Vincent connoisseur on your gift
list—”The last real Vincent was built in 1955”—are obviated by the Harris Vincent Gallery. Company principal Herb Harris offers what he calls pur sang
Vincents. Each bike that leaves the Gallery’s premises has been returned to
showroom condition using either original, reconditioned original or carefully
replicated components. Experts in America and Europe collaborate to ensure that
the finished product looks, sounds and rides exactly like what it is a
historically correct Vincent.
 Aerostich is offering framed prints of Rollie Free on a Vincent HRD Black
Lightning at the Bonneville Salt Flats for $45. www.aerostich.com | 800.222.1994 (Click image to enlarge)
The Gallery offers personalized service of an
unusual kind. Not only is each Vincent supplied with a full tool kit and rider’s
manual, but Harris takes pains to educate the new owner in proper operation and
care of his machine. If the purchaser wishes to personally collect the bike
from Harris, controls, pegs and the like will be adjusted for a custom
fit.
Clearly, the amount of effort put into perfecting each Vincent is not
inexpensive. For example, a Black Shadow currently nearing completion will be
priced at $90,000. Considering the skill of the artisans involved, the cost of
parts—authentic carburetors for a Black Shadow command $2,500 or more apiece,
when found—and the sheer number of hours spent bringing each detail up to
standards set by Harris, who is himself a noted collector of Vincents, such a
sum proves itself reasonable.
 Photograph by Basem Wasef. (Click image to enlarge)
Certainly, the joy of riding a classic Vincent
Black Shadow, Rapide or Black Lightning is as priceless as it is timeless. When
combined with the comfort of knowing that an almost fanatical attention to
detail has made such a machine reliable, and that if parts or service are
required the Gallery is ready and more than capable of meeting the need, the
experience is almost magical. (Click image to enlarge)
www.harrisvincentgallery.com
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