Vincent’s preferred engine was the 500cc Python OHV engine from the Rudge-Whitworth company of Coventry, though JAP engines from John Prestwich & Sons of Tottenham, London, were also used in both side- and overhead-valve forms. The rear suspension stayed, albeit with the spring boxes hidden under the seat. Vincent-HRD sales were disappointing.īy 1931, Phil Irving had joined Vincent-HRD, and his first tasks were to design a semi-sprung passenger pad (something he no doubt had an opinion on after the trip from Australia!), and to create a steel tube diamond frame to appeal to the conservative British buyer. And the straight-tube frame, whatever its merits, was also regarded with suspicion. Previous attempts at rear suspension by other makers had been unsatisfactory and simply added to the cost. Unfortunately, Nigel Motorbike-Buyer had a fixed idea of how a proper British motorcycle should be. The first Vincent-HRDs used bought-in, off-the-shelf engines housed in a cleverly triangulated frame using straight tubes and, of course, Vincent’s own rear suspension. in 1928, he set out to revolutionize motorcycle design. Having acquired, with the help of family money, the name and intellectual property of HRD Motors Ltd. Was Philip Vincent driven by a restless pursuit of something better, or just a need to do things differently? Whichever theory you subscribe to, he always swam against the tide.
HRD MOTORCYCLE SERIES
And the general layout of the Vincent twin-cylinder engine is certainly apparent if you superimpose one drawing of a Series A single over another and rotate it through 47 degrees. In 1930, Irving really did arrive in England from Australia on the back of a motorcycle (world-traveler John Gill’s 1929 HRD sidecar outfit). For instance, in 1927, Vincent did indeed file the patent application for his cantilevered motorcycle rear suspension system - before his 19th birthday, while still studying at the University of Cambridge.
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