Vincent Motorcycles Rolland "Rollie" Free (18 November 1900 – 11 October 1984) was a motorcycle racer best known for breaking the US motorcycle land speed record in 1948 on the Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah on a Vincent Black Lightning. The picture of Free, prone and wearing a bathing suit, has been described as the most famous picture in motorcycling, and Russell Wright won another World Land Speed Record at Swannanoa with a Vincent HRD motorcycle in 1955 at . The 500 cc Meteor and Comet singles were introduced, along with a 500 cc racer, the Vincent Grey Flash. The Grey Flash racer
Triumph Model H Model H was fitted with a 499 cc air-cooled four-stroke single-cylinder engine. It was also the first Triumph not to be fitted with pedals, so was a true motorcycle. Engine differences from the previous Model A included a single cam wheel with two cams replacing separate cam wheels for the inlet and exhaust valve, and new design of cylinder casting. Valve head diameter was enlarged and the valves were spaced further apart. The Model H was fitted with a Sturmey-Archer three-speed countershaft gearbox operated by a hand gear change lever. More than 30,000 Triumph Model H motorcycles had been produced