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 Speed Twin features such as the transmission and clutch were straight from the Triumph single. Originally with girder forks, the sprung saddle was the only rear suspension as the Speed Twin had a rigid frame - also from the single cylinder production line. On the night of 14 November 1940 the majority of the city-centre of Coventry was destroyed by German bombs and the Triumph factory (which was working on an order of thousands of military specification 5T's) was completely wiped out, and all of Triumph's technical records, drawings and designs were destroyed. After the war the recovery of Triumph at Meriden