If your eyes stop and focus on the flaws and don’t keep moving over the entire motorcycle, then I think you’ve got to consider restoration. We want to pay tribute to great machines, and tribute is not paid to them if they’re absolutely terrible. Tribute is paid to them if they look 50 years old because they are 50 years old. If they look 300 years old and they’re only 50 years old, perhaps they deserve a little better treatment, but we’ll consider a restoration only if there is just no other way. You can scrape off the original paint only once.

What drew you to the Vincent marque in particular?

Vincent had the legend, the records. While a lot of motorcycles have set records, Vincents have set more than most. But what really turns me on is that their engineering solutions are not copies of anybody else’s. They’ve never used a telescopic fork, and practically every motorcycle built today has one. They found their own rear suspension, and they found their own valve control. They look like they were built in a complete vacuum.

Do aesthetics play a role as well?

The bikes have beautiful lines, and many British bikes don’t. I remember when I first saw a Vincent I was in Midland, Texas, and I was in high school or early college. I looked at it for maybe an hour and, man, I just couldn’t believe it. Just couldn’t believe how big it was, the push rod tubes—it looked like part of an aircraft engine. It was just incredible. And I guess it made a huge impression on me because I never forgot it.