Vincent Black Knight Vincent Black Knight The Vincent Black Knight is a British motorcycle made between 1954 and 1955 by Vincent Motorcycles. A year before the factory closed in 1955, Vincent produced the enclosed range of "Black Knight" and "Black Prince". Known as the 'Series D', the Black Knight was an upgraded Vincent Rapide which was fully enclosed to keep the rain and dirt from the rider. As well as allowing Vincent to reduce production costs, the enclosure actually improved performance by directing more air to the rear cylinder. Phil Vincent described it as a 'two-wheeled Bentley' and the enclosed Vincents got a
Vincent Black Shadow use Ferodo's MR41 linings, which was new on the Shadows. The primary instrumentation on Series B and Series C Black Shadows is a Smiths chronometric speedometer that from 1949 on was a large unit mounted almost vertically. Speedometers on domestic models are calibrated up to 150 mph, while export models are fitted with a 240 kph equivalent. Series D Black Shadows do not use the 5 inch speedometer but rather a 150 mph version of the ordinary S576/L instrument. While the Series B Rapide was not designed to be a racer, PCV felt that steady improvement was necessary and drew